Big Data and Smart Data: growth drivers for marketing strategies

Literally, Big Data means "mega data". It refers to a very large amount of data that cannot be processed by traditional database management tools.
Based on new technologies, Big Data makes it possible to make information from all available data available in a very short time.

The arrival of Big Data has therefore marked the beginning of a new era for many data-intensive companies and has had a major impact on marketing strategies.

How can the full potential of this raw material be exploited?

Smart Data is an extension of Big Data to meet the need to process this exponential volume of data. It consists in extracting the most relevant information for marketing operations. Thanks to Smart Data, data has become actionable.

Today, companies are seeking to collect and store as much data as possible, because logically, the more data there is, the more accurate the information that can be deduced from it, and this information is key to corporate decision-making. And the field of possibilities is infinite because the sources are multiple and constantly increasing (digital data, connected objects, etc.).

However, it is becoming increasingly urgent to think about the purpose of data collection and the relevance of their use so as not to embark on overly complex projects that would end in failure. It is important to take into account the impact on costs, particularly storage costs, and on the capacity of organisations to conduct new experiments and implement new strategies.

Focus on quality rather than quantity

In addition to the technical and budgetary constraints intrinsic to the company, there are legal (RGPD for example), ethical and now environmental (data storage is a major CO2 producer) limits to the collection and use of data.

Even if companies are always looking for more exhaustiveness through the collection of as much data as possible, they must accept to focus on the most important ones to meet specific needs and be able to work in greater depth to create value.

The loss ofanalysis and prediction will be minimal compared to the social and environmental responsibility that companies have.

The challenge therefore lies in the quality and proper use of the data and not necessarily in the quantities collected. The company must be able to extract all the necessary information to feed the tools dedicated to its marketing operations.

In conclusion, for a company to become truly data-driven and strategic marketing decisions to be data-driven, it must be able to sort, transform and interpret it.