What Is Data Activation and Why Is It Important?

What is data activation?

Data activation is the process of utilizing collected information to strategically target and engage with specific audiences, ultimately driving successful marketing campaigns.

In this video, Jackie from our WebFX Marketing team will give an overview of data activation. Keep reading to find out more!

Transcript:

You’re probably here to find out what data activation is, so let me define it. Data activation is where you use your captured data to gather new insights into your customers, marketing efforts, and sales; and then use those insights to improve your business practices.

There you go — that’s the definition. But don’t leave yet — you’ll wanna stick around, because in this video, we’re gonna go over some of the ways data activation can help you. Plus, I’d be a little offended if you left already.

And really quick, if you want to learn more helpful marketing info, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel! Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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What is data activation?

First off, what is data activation? Well, like I mentioned a minute ago, it’s where you actually use your data to improve your business practices.

Basically, when you run marketing campaigns, you naturally gather data about those campaigns and about your customers. But if that data just sits there, it’s not helping you. To get any benefit from it, you’ll need to activate it- which involves analyzing it, connecting it to different business tools, and using it to improve your marketing.

Data activation is just one part of the larger process of data management. Data management is the overall process of gathering, storing, categorizing, and analyzing your data.

How can data activation benefit you?

You might be wondering what exactly you gain when you activate data. How does it help you?

Well, there are lots of ways data activation can be useful for optimizing your marketing.

1. Activating data helps you learn whom to target

One of the main things data activation helps you learn is who your customers are. By analyzing your customer data, you can figure out what kinds of people usually buy from you and what they want. You can also segment them into smaller and more specific groups to help make your marketing more personalized to each one.

Then you can use that info to help you improve your audience targeting. By targeting your marketing to people who match the traits you find in your data, you can reach a more relevant audience and drive more conversions.

2. Activating data helps you increase your marketing efficiency

Another benefit of data activation is that it helps you find the most effective strategies for your marketing. After all, targeting the right audience isn’t enough. You also have to target that audience with effective marketing campaigns.

By activating your marketing data, you can see which methods and strategies are working really well for you — and which ones aren’t doing so well. Then you can try to do more of what’s working, and either stop using the ineffective methods or try to improve them.

3. Activating data helps you be more efficient

Finally, when you activate data, it can help you make your business processes way more efficient. In terms of your marketing and sales, you can see where you’re wasting money on things that aren’t helping you, and you can reallocate that money to something more useful.

The same thing goes for other areas of your business, like product inventory. Any data you can gather will help you figure out what you can do to avoid wasting money, time, and resources on unhelpful processes.

How to manage and activate data

Now you know what’s so useful about data activation. But you might be asking, “Jackie, how does data management actually work, and where does data activation fit into it?” Great question. Let’s briefly run through the basic steps for managing your data.

1. Gather your data

The first thing you wanna do is gather your data. It kinda goes without saying, but you can’t really activate data if you don’t have any data to begin with.

There are lots of different ways to gather data, but usually, you do it by using different marketing tools.

So, let’s say you want to gather data about the way users behave on your website. You could use Google Analytics to track site activity. Or, maybe you want to get feedback about what your customers often need help with. In that case, you could use a chatbot on your website to help with customer service.

Of course, obtaining and setting up these tools can sometimes be time-consuming, complicated, and expensive if you don’t have experience doing it — which means it can be helpful to partner with an expert.

2. Centralize and categorize your data

Once you’ve gathered your data, the next step is to centralize that data in one place. You don’t wanna be stuck jumping between 10 different platforms trying to view all of it.

To do that, you’ll want to use a data platform. There are different types of data platforms, including data management platforms (DMPs) and customer data platforms (CDPs).

Once you’ve moved all your data into one of these tools, you can use the tool to organize it so it’s easier to navigate.

3. Analyze your data

Once your data is gathered, centralized, and organized, you can finally start to analyze it. This is where data activation really gets started.

With a CRM like Nutshell, you can put together reports, charts, and graphs that show patterns in your data. Those patterns can help you learn about your audience and your marketing.

Maybe through connecting your tools, you see that a particular type of page on your website is getting way more traffic than your other pages.

More importantly, though, your connected customer data can help you build a full profile of your audience based on the common traits that most of them share. That helps you hone your targeting and optimize your marketing even more.

4. Apply your data

The last step is to apply the insights you get from your data. So, let’s say you learned from your data that a common pain point among your users is that they have trouble navigating the software you sell. Based on that info, you’ll probably want to optimize your software and make it easier to navigate.

From there, it’s rinse-and-repeat. After you improve your marketing, you’ll generate new data, which you can then use to improve your marketing even more, and so on. Eventually, your business will become an unstoppable marketing machine!

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WebFX can give you a boost with activating data

Well, that’s it for our overview of data activation. I know, I know — you enjoyed this video so much, you wanna keep hanging out with me even longer. But I’m sorry, I gotta get back to work driving killer marketing results.

Don’t worry, though — there are tons of other awesome videos you can check out on our channel. If you find them helpful, be sure to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our email newsletter, Revenue Weekly.

Thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see ya in the next one!