The global pandemic has turned the market landscape into what can seem like a dizzying labyrinth of new demands. In a matter of mere months, marketing teams have had to rethink their most basic assumptions about their capabilities, their customers, and more.
Accelerated change is the new normal, and businesses need increasing levels of insight and agility to identify and act on emerging product development opportunities that are informed by solid data. At Pivot International, we deploy sophisticated, data-driven market and consumer insights to guide new product development, and deliver supply chain solutions to ensure a successful launch. With expertise that spans twelve industries and 200,000 square feet of manufacturing capability, we assure market-savvy, strategically-driven, successfully executed product launch and business growth.
Despite burying themselves in data, marketing teams often aren’t able to generate a reliable picture of product performance, customer needs, consumer trends, and market landscape. Here are three strategies your marketing team can draw on to ensure your efforts drive revenue and deliver bottom-line results.
Overcome Analysis Paralysis
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and when marketing teams feel like they’re drowning in data with no meaningful metrics to tie it to, they run the risk of falling back on unvetted assumptions.
Overcome analysis paralysis with the simplest data set needed for achieving a concrete business objective. Then, create a detailed map reflecting the relationship between data, insight, and execution. By dialing your data back a bit, your team can start to get a clearer picture of the impact of specific marketing initiatives on particular business outcomes. This will also help your team better scale their ability to interpret larger data sets and learn to ask better questions for guiding ongoing R&D.
Expand Your Definition of “Digital”
It used to be that when marketing teams talked about “digital,” they thought primarily in terms of Google keywords and search results. This is still a hugely important aspect of digital marketing, but consumers (both B2B and B2C) increasingly rely on social media, email, automated chat, company web pages, and more to research products, vet brands, and make buying decisions.
All of these interactions generate a dynamic digital footprint. It’s critical to track and map this footprint to gain visibility into who your customers are, how they discover you, learn about you, connect with you, and buy from you. (Or, just as critically, buy from a competitor). Marketing teams can benefit enormously from the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms that provide visibility into this crucial information.
Identify and Optimize Effective Pathways for Catalyzing Conversion
The “Zero Moment of Truth,” a phrase that Google coined in 2011 that refers to a customer’s first step in researching a product or service, has now taken on a whole new significance. Compared to even five years ago, the purchase journey has become much less linear and complex. Now there are dozens (if not hundreds) of digital touchpoints involved in the path to purchase. This means that the series and sequence of touchpoint(s) that most effectively drive actual buying behavior are harder to predict.
For this reason, each touchpoint — and particularly the relationships between them — should be analyzed and A/B tested to definitively identify and optimize the most effective pathways for catalyzing conversion. In today’s climate of accelerated change, shifting consumer behavior, and unpredictable market demands, decisions informed by sound data are essential to bringing successful products to market and remaining relevant in the face of fierce competition.
Pivot International and its subsidiaries are behind some of the world’s most successful consumer, industrial, and medical products. Using advanced analytics and extensive business development experience, we can help your business gain the market and customer insights you need to identify and act on emerging opportunities to drive growth. Our business development services include strategic planning, market analysis, website advisement, advertising and marketing, external sales consulting, and more. Contact us today to learn more about the product development support and supply chain solutions we’re providing for businesses worldwide.
