Download the PDF: https://www.demandmetric.com/content/value-using-big-data Traditionally, marketers connected with individuals through surveys, focus groups or mall intercept surveys. Today, we have come quite far from tradition, finding ways to accumulate much more information about the intimate behaviors of our consumers. Think of yourself as a consumer, going about your regular day. You communicate using your cell phone, post to Facebook, send out a Tweet, browse the internet, make purchases, share music, search for something of interest online. As a consumer, you wouldn’t think twice about those daily activities. However, as a marketer, we realize that through these actions, customers are creating their own enormous trails of data. The data represent a current hot topic for marketers: Big Data. By definition, Big Data is a large dataset so complex it defies processing and analysis using existing database-management tools. Big Data comes in many forms, both structured and unstructured, such as web-based digital images, online videos, blogs, chats, forums, internal data, GPS signals and purchase transaction records, to name a few. An overwhelming amount of data exists – how can marketers manage this data and use it to their advantage?

1. VALUE OF
USING BIG
DATA
HOW-TO GUIDE

2. 2 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
Traditionally, marketers connected with individuals through surveys, focus groups or mall inter-
cept surveys. Today, we have come quite far from tradition, finding ways to accumulate much
more information about the intimate behaviors of our consumers.
Think of yourself as a consumer, going about your regular day. You communicate using your cell
phone, post to Facebook, send out a Tweet, browse the internet, make purchases, share music,
search for something of interest online. As a consumer, you wouldn’t think twice about those daily
activities. However, as a marketer, we realize that through these actions, customers are creating
their own enormous trails of data. The data represent a current hot topic for marketers: Big Data.
By definition, Big Data is a large dataset so complex it defies processing and analysis using existing
database-management tools. Big Data comes in many forms, both structured and unstructured,
such as web-based digital images, online videos, blogs, chats, forums, internal data, GPS signals
and purchase transaction records, to name a few. An overwhelming amount of data exists – how
can marketers manage this data and use it to their advantage?
This How-To Guide will outline the following:
Big Data refers to having a dataset so large and complex that you cannot process it using the
regular database management tools. The definition of Big Data, however, is a moving target.
There is no specific limit on data size to qualify as “big,” and it can depend on the organization
managing the data set’s capabilities.
Big Data can come from many different sources, both internal and external, including but not
limited to sensors, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction
records, MP3’s, online sharing, cell phone records, etc. Companies are creating a vast amount of
data as it becomes more accessible through these sources.
HOW-TO GUIDE
What is Big Data?
How to manage the overwhelming amounts of data using the 3 V’s
How marketers can benefit from Big Data
Challenges that marketers may face
Action plan for getting started with Big Data
Value of Using Big Data
What Is Big Data?

3. 3 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
The three common factors for describing Big Data are the 3 V’s: high volume, high velocity and
high variety. Big Data is essentially information that requires new forms of processing to inte-
grate with decision-making, discovering new opportunities and optimizing the process. Here is
the description of the 3 V’s:
HOW-TO GUIDE
Velocity (Speed) – Velocity increases as the rate at which data flows into the organization grows.
The rate at which the data is coming or changing, and how quickly it’s used to create real value.
With so many sources of information, data is available at increasingly rapid speeds.
Volume (Large amounts of data) – A very large amount of data is becoming accessible to marketers.
This volume of data provides opportunity for those who develop the capacity to process it.
Variety (Types) – Diverse data types are both structured; examples include movie files, images,
documents, text, call center notes, geo-location data and others in an increasingly wide variety.
Value of Using Big Data
Describing Big Data
Three Key Advantages for Marketers
Advantage #1: ROI
Marketing has always been a difficult discipline to demonstrate ROI and it’s under
constant pressure to demonstrate true business value. Big Data analysis is proving
invaluable at helping drive business decisions across various organizations and having
a role in improving ROI.
Big Data allows marketers to capitalize on unmet needs in key market segments
and can facilitate real-time ROI measurement. For example, spending on digital
marketing, projected to significantly increase, is being fueled by the ability to demon-
strate marketing ROI using Big Data. This increase also provides us with more data to
analyze, placing more beneficial research at our disposal.

4. 4 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
HOW-TO GUIDE
Advantage #2: Creates Value & New Opportunities
Advantage #3: Improving Analysis
Marketers create value using Big Data in many ways by allowing greater informa-
tion transparency, making insights from that data more accessible and usable for
marketers.
Big Data analytics can expose variability by collecting more accurate and detailed
performance information. Using Big Data, you can achieve more precise segmenta-
tion of customers that in turn lets you tailor your products and services to better meet
their needs. Big Data analytics creates value by enabling data-driven decision-making
on a level and scale previously not possible because of the sophisticated analytics
involved.
One of the greatest advantages of Big Data is the ability to create an optimized and
personalized marketing strategy. The analysis of Big Data allows marketers to create
highly personalized marketing approaches based on what you can understand about
individual customers and their buying patterns. Furthermore, this level of analysis
can provide insights that allow marketers to more effectively allocate their marketing
budgets and achieve a higher ROI. Predictive analytics using Big Data can even help
organizations understand how customers will respond to a proposed price change.
The exploitation of Big Data provides organizations with tremendous opportunities to
gain competitive advantages.
Incorporating data from many different sources can help improve the process and
detect problems more quickly. Adding an analysis of social media to the mix, you can
understand how their customers feel about your product or service, which is remark-
ably valuable.
Analyzing Big Data trends can help develop strategies with the messages you can
deliver and when. For example if you analyze the data from coupons sent out and
merge that information with regional data, demographic data and average spend
data, you can start to paint a picture of who your best customers are and how best to
connect with them in the future.
Value of Using Big Data

5. 5 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
HOW-TO GUIDE
Value of Using Big Data
Challenges
Although there are many opportunities for marketers to take advantage of big data, there are also
a number of challenges presented. The main challenges include
Although there are risks and challenges involved with analyzing Big Data, when managed properly,
the insights marketers can obtain from this data provide marketers with a significant advantage.
Importance – Another challenge is capturing which data is most important, finding the most
important data as it happens and delivering it to the right people. Once it is discovered, marketers
may find it challenging to find the meaning of the important data and make use of it.
Volume – The sheer volume of data presents a challenge in how to properly manage all the data
and ensure the amount of storage space is available. The proper management and analytics soft-
ware is required to analyze all the data. In addition, the right analytics skills are needed to perform
the analysis and deliver results.
Harmonization – Data harmonization is often a challenge. Organizations typically have volumes
of data in different formats, structures and databases, making it difficult if not impossible to have a
single, harmonized view of it all. Harmonizing data from disparate data sources is often a barrier to
Big Data analytics success.
Security – Issues with security, privacy, cloud storage and information theft are all issues that have
been linked to the age of big data.
Bottom Line
By using Big Data, organizations can seize the opportunity to improve marketing ROI, develop
new opportunities, tailor promotions to specific target markets and help optimize marketing
strategy. Big Data is a game-changer with the capability to drive better decisions while disrupting
many industries. It is a real and growing discipline, often housed with the Business Intelligence unit
of a company. Successful companies are using Big Data and analytics to compete more effectively,
because it provides one of the best ways to deeply understand and engage customers in a way
that inspires greater loyalty.

6. 6 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Vision
Skills
Architecture &
Systems
Pilot
Business Case
Action Plan
STEP 1 - Vision
Success with Big Data begins with articulating
a vision for leveraging it. For most organiz-
ations, this means harnessing relevant data
and using it to make the better decisions.
Align Goals with the B2B
Data Management Guide
B2B Data Management How-To Guide
Your vision should lead to
aligning any Big Data initiative
with specific business goals.
V I E W R E S O U R C E

7. 7 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Vision
Skills
Action Plan
STEP 2 - Skills
Most organizations don’t have the skills
in-house to pursue Big Data initiatives. Iden-
tify your skills deficiencies and put a plan in
place to acquire them.
Architecture &
Systems
Pilot
Business Case
Hire Help for Big Data with
this Skills Assessment
Marketing Technologist Skills Assessment
V I E W R E S O U R C E
Skills are necessary to design
and implement Big Data archi-
tecture and also perform the
analytics work.
Consider using a third party
company to provide consulting
services to help establish an
Analytics Center of Excellence
within your company.

8. 8 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Architecture &
Systems
Action Plan
STEP 3 - Architecture & Systems
Design your Big Data architecture: this is the
System design, data flows, timing, and data
models required to support a Big Data initia-
tive.
Consider the alternatives for a platform
and tool set you will use and make recom-
mendations for them.
Vision
Skills
Pilot
Business Case
Designing Your Data
Architecture for Flow and
Clarity

9. 9 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Pilot
Action Plan
STEP 4 - Pilot
Identify a pilot project to prove the value of
Big Data that uses your data to solve a real
problem.
Vision
Skills
Architecture &
Systems
Business Case
Build and Test Big Data
with this Project Plan
Template
V I E W R E S O U R C E
Project Plan Template
Your pilot project will provide
the basis for a business case to
make a long-term investment
in Big Data analytics, and also
create the necessary internal
support.
Use the results of your Big
Data pilot to help define the
right metrics for measuring
future success.

10. 10 Value of Using Big Data How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5 Business
Case
Combine the results of your pilot with the
recommendationsforarchitectureandsystems
to develop and present a business case for
investing in Big Data.
Action Plan
STEP 5 - Business Case
Vision
Skills
Architecture &
Systems
Pilot
Make the Case for Business
Investment
V I E W R E S O U R C E
Business Case Template

11. Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community
of over 100,000 marketing professionals and consultants in 75 countries.
Offering consulting playbooks, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and
templates, Demand Metric resources and expertise help the marketing community plan
more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about their work with authority
and conviction, and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence
— thus boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources
the team needs to succeed.
To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit www.demandmetric.com
About Demand Metric
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Join Linkedin Group
© Demand Metric Research Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.