DATA DRIVEN MARKETING IN THE B2B SECTOR
Are you wondering how you can make your B2B marketing even more efficient? We have a good tip for you: The implementation of data-driven marketing allows you to get to know your target groups better and not only increase sales and customer loyalty, but also boost the profitability of your marketing measures.
In our new case study, you can find out how an international consulting company saves time with automated dashboards and creates transparency across departments. This blog post gives you an overview of the most important elements of the case study, which describes the project approach in detail.
Case study: Data-driven marketing in the B2B sector
Goals of the project
The focus of the project was the requirement to make customer-centric data visible to relevant stakeholders in the company through data-driven marketing. To achieve this, the existing data analysis processes had to be rethought and modernized. Historically, all marketing data was stored in isolated systems, which limited the ability to analyze it and forced marketing employees to use mostly manual processes. The following sub-goals were derived from this:
Before the start of the project, the objectives were discussed in detail with the customer. The better our Hopmann data experts are informed about the specific objectives, the needs of all stakeholders and the overarching corporate goals, the better the result will be. This provides a comprehensive picture for the insights, and data silos can be prevented in reports and dashboards.
Approach
The objectives resulted in various work packages that were collectively prioritized and iteratively implemented:
Using Data Virtuality to collect and manage data from various sources (e.g. Hubspot, LinkedIn, Google Analytics, Meltwater, Excel). Some data was existing, some had to be newly collected by the marketing team. All data was cleanly tagged according to specifications to ensure data quality.
Definition of objectives, metrics and their presentation in a central framework. This framework answers questions such as “What is the objective of my marketing activities?”, “Which metrics do I use to measure the degree of target achievement?” or “How do I summarize this data comprehensively?”.
Creating meaningful dashboards with Tableau, adapted to the needs of different stakeholders (e.g. management, marketing team). All data from Data Virtuality flows automatically into the dashboards and can be visualized in the degree of the detail required. Tableau has become a practical standard analysis tool for evaluating campaigns, measuring the success of awareness and lead generation activities and other initiatives.
Implementation of data competence and tool trainings to promote data understanding throughout the team and the use of data. The main task here was to support the project managers in communicating the newly gained transparency within the company and its benefits to all relevant stakeholders.
Before the dashboards were created by our data viz experts, detailed mock-ups were drafted. These sketches contained the most important metrics for the consulting firm’s various questions and served as a basis for jointly discussing whether the planned dashboard structure would make all insights visible and whether the information was arranged correctly.
Example sketch in the concept development phase for the dashboards
Challenges and solutions
When setting up an integrated data infrastructure and a pioneering analytics framework, there are usually a few challenges to overcome due to the complexity. The very close cooperation between the client and us helped to identify roadblocks at an early stage and remove them directly.
The main challenges that we solved together with the consulting company:
- Missing data and different structures
Solution: Clear specifications and time investment in advance for data connection and clean tagging of data. Development of new processes for collecting and integrating missing data. - Enable long-term maintenance of data
Solution: Develop a harmonized data structure that enables efficient analysis and better data integration. - Promote acceptance of new insights
Solution: Intuitive and user-friendly design of the new Tableau Marketing Reports. Tailoring the reports to the needs of different stakeholders and regular Tableau training sessions. - Handling the “new transparency”
Solution: Targeted introductory meetings, training and discussions with various departments to emphasize the benefits of transparency through data and support the shift to an even more forward-thinking mindset.
Results: Significant improvements
The results of the project are impressive: Increased visibility of marketing data throughout the company has raised awareness of marketing and customer data company-wide. Even departments that were initially critical of the transformation now log in regularly and draw valuable insights from the data for their daily work.
The new data management and data analytics framework has brought the following improvements for the consulting firm in particular:
“We save so much time thanks to the automatic dashboards, which we can now use for the actual evaluation of the campaigns. The central dashboard has become a marketing tool in its own right and an important part of our daily team meetings.”
Take your marketing to a new level too!
According to a recent study, 49% of marketing managers believe that the main benefit of marketing automation is time savings, followed by increased customer loyalty (39%) and timely communication (37%). Take advantage of these benefits too – with Data Driven Marketing! With almost 20 years of experience with data analytics and Tableau, we are happy to support you.