It’s hard to escape all this talk about big data. Sure, you may realize the endless potential it will bring your business and how valuable it is in the long run.
But as a small business, how can you work with big data?
Our advice? Start small. Below are 3 actionable ways you can start harnessing big data in your business today.
1. Find a platform that’s right for you
The first step in finding the value in big data starts with how you gather the data. Here is where you’ll need to identify a platform that suits your business best. Some of the most well-known include IBM’s Watson Analytics and Oracle Big Data SQL.
For businesses operating on a much smaller scale, business intelligence tools like Performance Plus by Blackbox are dedicated to help SMEs gain a better understanding of their business and glean insights to help drive better decision-making.
2. Get rid of dated processes
It’s often said that efficiency isn’t a KPI. While that’s true, efficiency will no doubt affect your KPIs.
Big data is well-known to help identify golden nuggets of opportunity, wealth and growth in the business. But before you can even begin to implement any shiny new changes, you’d be better off doing some spring cleaning first.
With clearer operational transparency, it becomes easier to identify pockets of inefficiencies within your organisation. To put this into perspective, some insights you might find include:
● Underperforming products and services
● Ineffective marketing campaigns
● Areas of lost revenue
3. Switch up your marketing efforts
Big data has a pivotal role in every aspect of your business. In terms of marketing, it can provide insight on unique customer behaviors and help refine how you approach your audience. Below are some ways marketers are reaping the benefits of big data.
● Establish the right price point for products or services
With so many variables, managing the complexities of getting the price right is never easy. Big data can help to highlight patterns at the customer-product level to help optimise pricing.
● Greater customer engagement and loyalty
A study by Forbes Insights found that big data expertise and department-specific analytics was successful in helping market leaders gain greater customer engagement and loyalty. Data analytics was also instrumental in increasing the ROI of marketing campaigns (61%) and freeing up strategic employees from administrative tasks (45%).
● SEO / SEM / email marketing
When asked where big data was having the biggest impact, 58% of CMOs said Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and email marketing. Customer segmentation followed at 49%.
Putting data at the heart of your business
Even small businesses can get big impact from big data. Learn more about our Business Intelligence solutions for small businesses, or request a demo today at demo@blackbox.my.
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