Here at TBA Outdoors, of course, data is KING. Each and every day, our teams are analyzing reports and optimizing our clients’ go-to-market strategies based on the data we’ve collected. Further, we base nearly all of our major decisions and strategies on data, paired with a clear understanding of how our clients’ businesses are performing, what goals they’re trying to reach and how best to get there.
The importance of harnessing your brand’s data
Why is capturing and utilizing your outdoor brand’s data so important? It’s critical because your competition is gunning for you and wants lure away your customer — so you have to win your customers over and over again! And when collected and utilized correctly, data can help you do just that … plus find and win more customers just like them.
Are you investing your brand’s marketing dollars in the right channels and places? And are you targeting the right audience, at the right times? Additionally, are you creating content that is of interest to your audience? Do they care?
Data can help you determine the answers to all of these questions, and using data to make decisions can go a long way toward helping your brand keep its current customers — plus find and attract new ones like them.
3 steps to procuring and maximizing your brand’s data
To truly tap into the growth-boosting power that data can deliver for your outdoor brand, follow these three tried-and-true steps, all of which we employ regularly for our clients at TBA Outdoors:
1. Capture the most vital data
To reap the marketing-related rewards that data can deliver, you first have to capture it. And while brands can accomplish this in a range of ways, taking a deep dive into the following five brand assets and initiatives — all strong sources of data that can quickly deliver actionable insights — can be especially powerful for your brand:
- Google Analytics — Available at no charge to users, this web-based tool can deliver valuable information regarding a brand’s website traffic, including visitor demographics, time spent on various pages, pages where visitors most often leave and more.
- SEO tools — Leading SEO tools like SEMrush and Moz Pro can help brands determine the keywords that visitors use to find their sites via search engines, along with a range of other helpful search data that can help brands raise their rankings on search engine results pages.
- Social media platforms — By using tools like Hootsuite and Sprout to find and analyze their mentions on social media, brands can stay aware of what consumers are saying and feeling about them. Further, brands can also leverage social platforms to gain additional insights such as which brands (and competitors) their top customers engage with and follow.
- Customer research — By using tools such as consumer surveys, polls and focus groups, brands can gain insights directly from consumers on ways to improve their offerings and make them more attractive to buyers. Further, by leveraging market research examples and using market research for product development, brands can chart a course to a brighter future with offerings that are likely to draw high consumer interest upon release. (And the list of advantages of using market research goes on from there.)
- Customer profile analysis — By closely analyzing its customer base, your brand can uncover powerful demographic and economic insights about its best consumers. This can be helpful not only in retaining current customers, but also in helping you find more consumers like them … and grow your customer base.
2. Harness analytical insights
Once the right analytical tools are in place and up-to-date information is being gathered, your brand can start putting the resulting analytical details such as demographics and purchase history to work. The result: a better understanding of just who your best customers are, where they spend their time (on your website, on social media, watching videos on YouTube, etc.), what content is most interesting to them (and other prospective customers), and what makes them convert — whether the goal is for them to make a purchase, full out a lead form, join a mailing list or any other desired action.
Later, strategically employing all of this information can lead to bottom line-boosting outcomes such as increased ROI, higher ROAS, revenue growth and more profits. Further, your brand can leverage it to keep customers coming back and loyal to your brand, as well as to guide you when developing new products or services that meet your customers’ needs.
TBAO example: For longtime TBA Outdoors client Frogg Toggs, we utilized a range of analytical tools — including a consumer analysis, a market analysis and a product analysis — to drive big boosts in sales, along with significant increases in ROAS, sales margins and more.
3. Execute and optimize
Finally, once data-driven insights are being harnessed and employed, there’s always room for improvement via ongoing execution and optimization. For example, a few optimization opportunities include:
- Identifying and developing a full system of data-capture opportunities
- Making sure your data is “good data”
- Thoroughly analyzing data and using the resulting insights to further inform your marketing strategies
TBAO example: For TBA Outdoors clients Fish Hippie and Heybo, we divided our customer databases into separate segments based on certain demographics, primarily household income and purchasing habits, and used these audiences to send specific ads and emails. We suggested higher-value items for customers with higher household incomes, and presented lower-value items and sale ads to customers with lower household incomes. We also send emails to users we know have purchased certain products, such as polos or button-downs, since we know they are already interested in these products. The resulting open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates are much higher than when we send to the general master list.
Could your outdoor brand use the help of a group of experienced marketing professionals to harness your analytical data into and get a leg up on the competition? At TBA Outdoors, our fully integrated marketing firm boasts a team of seasoned specialists (and outdoors fanatics) who can cover all aspects of marketing — including email marketing, SEO, brand strategy, creative, social media, e-commerce, analytics, public relations and much more — all in one place. And as certified brand strategists, we can also help you with the big-picture adjustments sometimes needed put your outdoor brand on a course to long-term success.
To get started with professional guidance ranging from a simple website analysis to a comprehensive strategy tailored to boost your outdoor brand’s overall performance and identity, contact us today.
