Article

#CONNECTsummit14: Get big results from Big Data

Marketers are increasingly using and tracking mobile campaigns to measure success and the data gleaned from user preferences is the end product.

September 4, 2014

By Valerie Killifer

If restaurant operators are still trying to make a case for the implementation of a mobile strategy, just look at the numbers.

According to data presented by Matthew Cava of digital marketing agency Razorfish, consumers now spend 55 percent of their online time on a mobile device. Additionally, 65 percent of the time spent on social media happens through a mobile device.

Mobile commerce via smartphones and tablets will grow 80 percent in 2014 to $83.78 billion and will account for 21 percent of total web sales, according to the study Internet Retailer 2015 Mobile 500.

"Mobile impacts everything," Cava said. "Time spent on mobile devices is now the majority of how people are accessing the Internet."

This is where Big Data comes in

Big data – information about customers, potential customers, their preferences, their behavior and more – is gleaned from across different sources and analyzed for patterns. The analysis yields insights into customers that can translate into well-focused messaging.

Marketers are increasingly using and tracking mobile campaigns to measure success and the data gleaned from user preferences is the end product.

"Mixing mobile marketing efforts with big data can create the perfect personalization," said Hari Nidamanuri with Sears Holdings Corporation. "Identify your audience first and then develop your content around your audience."

Nidamanuri and Cava were panelists on the summit session, "Mobile Analytics: Harnessing Big Data to Give Customers What They Want," held Aug. 19 in Chicago.

From that content, restaurant operators can collect valuable information about their customers, find micro segments from within their customer base, create predictive analytics, and then pass that value onto customers.

"Each customer goes through buying cycles and there are cellular and physical touchpoints throughout the experience. And at each of the touchpoints we have data," Nidamanuri said. "Once you bring all of your data together, clean it, mine it and discover which customers are your real customers. Then personalize the data that customers want."

While it may seem that easy, harnessing big data to give customers what they want can create challenges. However, those challenges can be overcome. He recommended these five best practices for future success:

• Centralize your data
• Start with small data for big insights
• Drive consistent content
• Test, Target, Measure, Learn and Iterate
• Build a personalization strategy