by Zorian Rotenberg,VP of Marketing, InsightSquared
“Big Data” is the latest example of how a shiny new concept can become the toast of the town. Big Data has been heralded by many as the new competitive advantage for smart companies. Like many buzz-generating concepts that seem to pop up overnight, Big Data is commonly misunderstood and interpretation varies from marketer to marketer.
by Zorian Rotenberg,VP of Marketing, InsightSquared
“Big Data” is the latest example of how a shiny new concept can become the toast of the town. Big Data has been heralded by many as the new competitive advantage for smart companies. Like many buzz-generating concepts that seem to pop up overnight, Big Data is commonly misunderstood and interpretation varies from marketer to marketer.
Some use the term in reference to the latest database technologies and others define it as large and complex datasets — this is precisely what I mean. Now, many CEOs are all about data for marketing because they are convinced that Big Data will solve their business problems. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. In fact, ZDNet recently cited reports from Gartner showing that large amounts of data are actually creating confusion for many companies instead of adding clarity.
This isn’t to say that Big Data is valueless. In the right circumstances, it can be incredibly useful. It’s just that business leaders, especially those at small to mid-sized companies, need a more realistic view of how it can help them. In fact, even as Big Data grabs the headlines, it actually may be its much smaller and less-heralded cousin — Small Data — that can truly revolutionize the way you do business.
Why Small Data Rather Than Big Data
The idea that Big Data can improve your marketing efforts rests on the belief that data in general is essential for making the right decisions, and this cannot be denied. However, the unending quest for more information and more tools may be preventing your marketing teams from understanding the true value of using some of the small data. It’s not about having a lot of data. Rather, it’s about having the right kind of data, and more importantly, it’s about the ability to extract actionable insights for effective marketing.
The idea that Big Data can improve your marketing efforts rests on the belief that data in general is essential for making the right decisions, and this cannot be denied. However, the unending quest for more information and more tools may be preventing your marketing teams from understanding the true value of using some of the small data. It’s not about having a lot of data. Rather, it’s about having the right kind of data, and more importantly, it’s about the ability to extract actionable insights for effective marketing.
For most companies, this means having marketing leaders in place who know how to analyze the data. The ability to transform it from a big pile of unfiltered information into smaller, more focused metrics and KPIs is essential.
A mountain of data about a company’s overall leads or marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline could be more useful than having tons of reports about hundreds of lead sources and campaigns. Marketing leaders need smaller data or just a few key metrics and KPIs to prevent getting lost in too much Big Data. This allows marketing execs to prioritize their efforts quickly and focus on campaigns that have the best ROI. In the long run, focusing on activities that carry the most impact on growing sales is a better strategy than just producing more leads that may not convert well.
In the modern world of Big Data, it may seem attractive to gather as much as you can, but the reality is that less is often more. Big Data may be stealing the limelight for its novelty and sheer size, but small data with a few key insights is much more likely to help your marketing become more effective.
Zorian Rotenberg is VP of Marketing for InsightSquared, a provider of a Salesforce analytics tools for small and midsize businesses. Prior to InsightSquared, Zorian was an executive on the management teams of several global software companies.
