Big Data in B2B was the talk of last year & every single organization that has heard about it at least once, might have thought of implementing it. For those who argue that big data is not for all businesses, that isn’t true. With few tweaks it can be modeled to any kind of industry & organizations can be benefited from the actionable insights derived from Raw Data accumulated.
In the world of B2B industry, today’s marketers have no doubt that big data has a big role to play, even though it has actually been around for years. It has a long history even before the computers, as the idea of creating an ever expanding body of knowledge ripe for analysis was popular even from ancient times.The earliest example of humans storing & analyzing data are the tally sticks. The Ishango Bone discovered in 1960 in Uganda is considered to be one of the earliest pieces of evidence of prehistoric data storage. Things have taken a huge turn from there over time. Today in the world of internet, Data is essential in all walks of life & business. But big data & actionable insights are still confusing for many marketers.Big data is nothing but a more straightforward word for “tons of information”. In technical terms, it’s extremely large data sets that can be computationally analyzed to uncover actionable insights. Now majority marketers make the mistake of considering data, information & insights as synonyms.Data are the raw facts that are usually in the form of texts & numbers. It can either be in qualitative (observed) or quantitative (measured) form. The problem with data is that it mostly exists in computer friendly formats in databases & spreadsheets.Information is the data that has been processed, aggregated & organized to more of a human friendly format. Information will be mostly presented in the form of data visualizations, reports & dashboards.And finally actionable insights are created by studying information & arriving at conclusions. Both data & information form the base for discovery of actionable insights which can then influence decisions & drive change. Actionable insights are considered as the missing link between data & business value. The idea of actionable sight is that an insight that drives action is more valuable than one that simply answers a question. But to identify true actionable insights, marketer should consider the following attributes:
Alignment
Context
Relevance
Specificity
Novelty
Clarity
Focus on the right problem to solve
Ensure that the sample size is adequate
Ensure enough timeframe to maximize participation
Target decision makers
Craft specific stakeholder reports
Bonus:
Now, we may not be able to help you with all the practices but targeting decision makers can be will never be tough for you. The best way is to identify all stakeholder groups before getting on with the market research project & understand what actionable information is needed to generate actionable insights.
End Game
Gathering as much as actionable insights from your marketing data can generate huge returns for the company. But increased actionablility of insights alone doesn’t guarantee its adoption or application. It should motivate employees to think more deeply about data & motivate them to act on a more consistent basis.Also read on: HOW SEGMENTED COMPANY DATA TYPE CAN SOLVE YOUR BIG DATA ISSUES