Top 5 Data Trends

Last year saw Data become increasingly entwined into marketers’ vocabulary. Now that the hype is becoming the norm, and the value of data is recognised, smart businesses are keen to keep up. Here we look at 5 data trends and what’s in store for the data and analytics of tomorrow.

1, Using insight to form marketing strategy

Big Data is a buzzword that is everywhere but data on its own is useless. Whilst our data and knowledge are swiftly expanding, it could be said that our insight is lagging behind. Generating insight is not an easy thing to do. How do you go about doing it effectively? If you manage to gain insights then how best do you exploit what you’ve learnt? This is an area that will surely expand as business learns to unlock the potential from the reams of data now available

2, Facing an omni-channel world

With the rapid growth of social media, mobile devices, always-on communications and the Internet of Things, multi-channel marketing has led to the phrase omni-channel infiltrating the marketing world. What is the distinction between multi-channel and omni-channel? A multi-channel approach could be viewed as each channel being maximised separately which can lead to a misalignment of incentives. Whereas an omni-channel approach focuses on the customer. It acknowledges that customers switch between channels quickly and even use different channels simultaneously. Are traditional approaches still effective?

3, Increasing impetus of machine learning

Machine learning is the creation of algorithms that provide computers with the ability to learn through experience and exposure to new data without being explicitly programmed. It’s being used more and more by companies to automate tasks that would have previously been carried out by humans. All the big players have and are developing AI personal assistants. Future uses could include data preparation and predictive analytics. This is a quickly evolving area and the winners will be organisations that can gain competitive advantage from these technologies.

4, The Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of things (IoT) is the concept of connecting real-world objects or devices (things) to the Internet or to each other through the internet. These items that contain technology – your smartphone, your smart TV, your smartwatch and even your fridge – are able to collect and exchange data. This additional layer of data will provide valuable insights into more behaviours allowing marketer to further understand their audience. This is an exciting prospect and something that is on the horizon. As the tools and techniques for gaining insights get bigger, better and faster the full potential for data-driven marketing gets ever-closer.

5, Real-Time Insights (Stream-analytics)

Stream-analytics technology allows for data that streams from applications, devices and systems to be processed in real time. It equates to a fundamental enhancement of a combination of traditional analytic techniques with a high performance technical architecture, and will give marketers access to broader, richer insights from a wider range of devices.

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