More Data, More Profit

Six Big Business Intelligence Mistakes

Given the high profile of Big Data, mobile and data analytics, marketing should be a huge fan of data integration. “More data, more profit,” should be marketing’s motto.

However, if you happen to be working with the most backward marketing division in the world, you might want to send them this recent post, “How Data Integration Tools can Turbocharge Your Marketing.”

The post, by a freelance writer who boasts some programming experience, makes an excellent case for the value of data integration. The post casts a wide net, touting data integration’s ability to:

• “Reduce friction” in sales cycles.
• Develop a “customer-centric approach to data.”
• Improve relationships with customers by maximizing demographic information.
• Combine basic demographic data with sentiment data to help create calls-to-action.
• Break down data silos, so you know more about life-long customers.

I found myself thinking, “Hmmm…after all these years, I didn’t know data integration could do that.”

That’s probably because alone, it can’t. Data integration is an important tool—but to me, it’s more like a wrench than a hammer. My impression is this piece presents it as a Swiss army knife and skips a lot of key details in doing so. While all of the benefits mentioned in this piece require data integration, achieving them will require much more, including process integration, Big Data analytics, business intelligence and marketing automation. 

Then again, this is essentially a marketing piece written for data integration vendor Syncsort’s blog. I think it fulfills its role nicely: It outlines the marketing business benefits of investing in data integration technology. I particularly like the examples that highlight data integration’s role in monitoring the lifecycle of links and mobile coupons delivered via text messages.

It’s also an excellent piece for CIOs and IT leaders who need to explain to the CMO why marketing needs to invest in data integration in addition to other analytics.

Marketers today are more tech savvy than ever. They have to be, thanks to social media and Big Data. Hopefully, as they read this piece, they will understand that data integration is a key component, not the ultimate solution for solving this problem.