You should use Big Data before your competitors do

Enterprise businesses across the globe come to realize the necessity of using their vast data stores to gain yet another competitive edge over their less techy competition.

However, many startups and small-to-medium businesses still consider this move obligatory. In this article, we will explain why such approach is a dire mistake and why every business should use their Big Data to the max in order to remain competitive and deliver value to their customers.

What does a startup or a small business have to do to survive and sustain a stable flow of income? Yes, it should sell their products or services to a preferably large target audience, which is generally even unaware of the startup’s existence. To make it even harder, there is a competition for literally EVERY idea and business out there, be it delivery of lunches to the office, reusing household waste, or even finding the clothes that fit you.

Not frightened yet? Well, let’s add customer’s frustration of annoying ads. 11% of all Internet users use Adblock, 9 out of 10 prospects would close the annoying ad outright and only 1 out of 10 might give it a go if the timing is right and the ad hits the sweet spot. How do you make the advertisement provoke a positive reaction then? By using Big Data! However, simply gathering Big Data will not make any difference; it’s only when the business begins to leverage algorithms to provide Big Answers — this is when the opportunity to boost profits emerge, as Gartner’s report on the use of algorithms in modern business says.

Big Data analytics help your ads hit the sweet spot

There are multiple data vendors like Viant, a technology company with literally billions of records about the US household shopping routines and various other statistics. Viant gathers and provides an unidentifiable, aggregated data, which does not disclose any personal details, but rather shows the trends and helps predict the schedules. Yet another company, cClearly uses AI to form an integral picture of the customer’s habits, based on the information from publicly available databases. This information, combined with the data from various forensic browser history analysis tools used by businesses and government agencies worldwide, can provide invaluable help, like increasing returns on advertisements spending up to 16 times!

For example, companies like Procter&Gamble know when the majority of US households run out of detergent, dishwasher liquids and other household stocks. It allows them to adjust the schedule of ads ran on TV & radio, or provide one-day discounts for certain items. Thus said, when a housewife is just about to go shopping and makes a list, she receives an SMS with a promo coupon for buying Tide — and while she was actually going to buy Persil from Henkel, this coupon won her heart this time.

Marketing moves like this one ensure stable and lasting success and allow the businesses penetrate their markets, generate profits and accomplish their goals. This is all possible due to deploying Machine Learning algorithms and using various approaches to Big Data analytics to use the data available to your biggest avail.

This is why when you ask yourself why your competitor’s sales skyrocketed recently, the most probable answer would be: they are using their Big Data to the max.

Are you using yours?