Unlike the name Customer Data Platform suggests, it is not “just” about customer data

Marketing data is the lifeblood of modern marketing and marketers are hungry to work in a more data-driven way. This explains how a relatively new type of MarTech, the CDP, is becoming so popular. But unlike the name Customer Data Platform suggests, it is not “just” about customer data. The recent Data Culture Report from Lexer finds that only a fraction of brands feel they are capitalizing on the full potential of their data. Some 80% of companies are investing in specific customer data projects to fill that gap. High performers show it is important to do more in-house and have better access to data and insights. A Customer Data Platform lets you bring together and centralize data so you can use it for, for instance, analytics and real-time…

The 14 top rated digital marketing techniques for 2017 according to Smart Insights readers

[Editor's note: Dave Chaffey has now updated his predictions for 2018: Read Digital Marketing Trends to act on in 2018] In this article, I'll take an in-depth look at what I see as the most significant trends in digital marketing for the year ahead. But, it's not only my view, since I have 'crowdsourced' the importance of the different trends rated by the popularity of each trend. For all members of Smart Insights, we also have a more detailed free download of the marketing megatrends for 2017, which are 9 digital marketing and martech megatrends will help give you an edge in 2017. In the download we discuss machine learning and artificial intelligence, which for me is the biggest trend in marketing right now. Machine learning techniques apply across many of the techniques we discuss in this post including Big Data,…

Chart of the Day: Predictive Analytics Users Get Better Results

Predictive Analytics isn't a new marketing technique, but interest in it has increased with the hype around using Artificial Intelligence for Marketing. This typically involves using Machine Learning, a key AI technique for marketing, by analysis of historical results of campaigns to inform future targeting and creative. In this research, analysts Aberdeen Group review the impact of Predictive analytics on different ROI metrics as presented in the chart below. But, before we take a look at the results, what is predictive analytics? Aberdeen define  predictive analytics as: 'A technology allowing firms to analyze structured and unstructured data, be it captured in the past or in real time. Such analysis reveals key trends and correlations while also predicting the likelihood of things such as customer churn'. This is a broad definition since most marketing applications focus on analysis…

Predict what your email database will do to improve your click rate

The growth in Data Science techniques during the last few years has generated a vast interest in using analytical techniques to optimise engagement on email campaigns. Whether a company wishes to compare the performance of two email templates, compare the performance of multiple email templates or see the association between several characteristics of an email and a single metric, Predictive Analytical techniques allow them to acquire the answers they need. Below we are going to outline 3 techniques you can implement from ‘getting started’ lists of around 500 subscribers, to highly advanced models geared towards enterprise users.

Understanding Sample Size

For these techniques to make sense, it is important to have a basic understanding of statistical significance and what size of list may be required for your tests to be useful. Very basically, the larger the sample size, the more statistically significant…

Explaining how modelling of marketing outcomes can let you make smarter marketing decisions

As 2016 gets under way we're seeing more discussion of the applications of Predictive Intelligence. It’s a nascent field, but one that is gaining popularity fast and for some very good reasons, which we will discuss in a lot more detail in this article. We’re going to start this article off by explaining what precisely Predictive Intelligence is, we’re then going to provide some hard stats on its impact in the marketing world so far and are going to finish off by explaining how we feel it’s set to shape marketing in 2016 and beyond.

What Is Predictive Intelligence?

Despite the buzz surrounding Predictive Intelligence, many still don’t know what it actually is, so here is our definition. Predictive…