Analytics are fundamental to marketing initiatives in that they are supposed to provide insights into decisions. These “decisions” are broad in their definition. Ideally, a marketer will use analytics to shape their entire world i.e. decisions made regarding channels, strategies, goals and tactics.
Actionable Data Insights simply means that data drives, or heavily influences, the decision.
From a marketing perspective, the importance of an actionable insight can be focused around acquire, grow and retain strategies. For the marketer, the question is how do you do it better? Acquire, grow and retain more and more.
In our big data world designing, creating and leveraging actionable data insights can be extremely challenging. To do it well you need someone that understands your data, your tools and your channels in the context of customer lifecycle marketing.
Analytic capabilities should be considered a strategic infrastructure cost that exists even before you have a marketing database. Whether you chose to hire an analyst in house or leverage a vendor, utilize analytics to drive decisions as you design, create and deploy marketing infrastructure and programs.
– Josh Smith –