Becoming a data-driven organisation doesn’t just rely on the right technology, structure and processes. The human element is essential, and without the right skills, qualities and roles, any effort to be successful at data-driven marketing is destined to struggle.
And the kinds of skills that support a data-driven philosophy are rich and varied.
This is very true. The "art" and "science" that requires actionable data lean more to the art side in most marketing departments. The biggest change is to respect what data can bring to the equation. Many marketers don't respect data, they respect their gut and soft metrics like awareness. While data doesn't solve all problems, it helps inform direction. It helps decide what is happening with the customers you are trying to target, plus the ones that you aren't targeting and whether you should.
“The data-driven marketing team is knowledgeable enough to converse freely with technical and statistical resources while staying laser-focused on getting the right message to the right person at the right time. But the most important quality needed in a modern marketing team is curiosity. Without that, I may as well outsource all of my data related work to a third party. Curiosity stimulates creativity and conversation, and aids decision-making.”
I like the statement of staying laser-focused on getting the right message to the right customer at the right time. Too many times teams lose their focus and start drifting on to answers that are either easy or different from the most relevant topics. Understanding what data is saying is more valuable than having the person who can put the report together. Money is made by providing the insight to the data, that is what I look for in my team. But don't forget to have the guy that can put all the data together.
Quintero adds: “Building a data-driven culture is not an overnight process. It takes time. To me, a data-driven culture means building a safe environment where experimentation is encouraged and mistakes are tolerated. It’s less about having all the right tools in place – although that’s a critical part of the process – and definitely more about cultivating excitement around discovery and objectivity. Being data-driven is exciting and people should be encouraged to enjoy the process as much as making things happen.”
Changing a culture is a journey. Teaching the team about why decisions are made from looking at the data and what the thought process for coming to the conclusions is critical in building the data culture. No matter how smart a person is, if they don't understand the thought processes of decisions they will never be able to take leaps with the data. If they understand what to look for in data, they beginning asking the right questions and delivering recommendations along with their questions.