It’s estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day. As we’re about to enter 2020, research indicates that there will be 1.7MB of data created every second for every person on earth. We’re no data scientists, but we do know that’s an unprecedented amount of data, and it’s only expected to increase. But what does this have to do with content marketers?
We can no longer deny the inextricable link between big data and great content. In today’s marketing world, our content decisions are no longer guided solely by hypothesis and past success. Truly influential marketing content is now created from insights attained through consumer analytics and big data. Far from being a vacuum of numbers on a spreadsheet, by successfully utilising consumer data and predictive analytics, brands can not only create unique, personalised content but also generate better return on investment (ROI) with raw insights that have an overarching effect on brand strategies and decisions that have the potential to impact the business as a whole.
Some content marketers tend to see big data as a magical oracle that solves all of our marketing problems. And with today’s proliferation of touch points that connect customers to our brands, there are more opportunities than ever before to gather rich data insights through consumer purchasing behaviour. At Wordsmith, we believe a good content program should always be driven by strong, data-backed insight. Here, we take a look at 3 different companies that are hitting the mark when it comes to creating great data-driven content.
Starbucks – reaping the rewards from data
Today, 89% of companies believe that they compete primarily on the basis of who provides the better overall customer experience – a massive increase from just 36% in 2010. However, while 80% of companies believe their brands deliver “super experiences,” only 8% of customers agree. In other words, companies have a long way to go in order to close this experience gap in reality. Brands in 2020 have a tremendous opportunity to disrupt a competitor or gain market share in an industry just by monitoring customer data and applying it in practice. Customer experience should be integral to everything a brand does – the way it does its marketing, the way it collects the research, the way it promotes its advertising and more. All play a role in shaping the overall customer’s experience.
And no one understands customer experience quite like the coffeehouse giant, Starbucks. Sifting through mounds of coffee beans to satisfy its world fan base of Starbucks coffee aficionados, they are simultaneously turning their attention to sifting through mounds of data with the aim of extracting rich customer insights to improve their customer experience.
With 90 million transactions a week across 25,000 stores worldwide, the coffee giant is in many ways at the forefront when it comes to effectively using big data and artificial intelligence to push direct marketing, repeat sales and instil customer loyalty.
Since launching their Starbucks rewards program and mobile app, they have accumulated a total of 30 million active users combined. Grinding an overwhelming amount of data, Starbucks tracks what, where and when their users buy their coffee. Complementary products can then be overlaid according to other data they’ve collected including, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, weather, and special seasonal promotions.
In addition to this, based on previous ordering preferences, the Starbucks app even suggests new content-led messages promoting products and daily treats customers might be interested in trying. This rich intel is driven primarily by Starbucks’ digital flywheel program – an innovative cloud-based artificial intelligence engine that’s able to recommend food and drink items to customers, that thinks one step ahead of what the customer wants – before they even know it. The system even changes depending on what time of year it is, the weather you’re experiencing on that day and what’s available at the Starbucks location nearest to you, so that you’re not disappointed when your favourite whipped cream biscotti Frappuccino isn’t on the menu.
Apart from anticipating your next cup of coffee, the Starbucks app also allows you to gain points, earning two stars for every dollar spent. It rewards members with free in-store refills, special member offers/events, and even the ability to order ahead and pay via the app to bypass in-store queues. With perks like these, it’s no wonder that studies show 48% of Starbucks customers regularly use their loyalty rewards app.
This investment in digital engagement has paid tremendous dividends for the chain. At a JPMorgan forum in March 2019, Scott Maw, Starbucks CFO, commented that almost all of the company’s same-store sales growth has come from directly from customers that have digital relationships with the company – including those who signed up for the Starbucks Rewards program.
Author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey, urges business professionals to “begin with the end in mind”and the same goes when it comes to utilising customer data to create great content. To realise the full potential of customer analytics, brands should align content goals with a system to collect the necessary data to achieve those goals. Don’t just collect reams of data without knowing how you want to use the insights you find – it’s counterproductive and costly (and with the introduction of data protection laws like the EU’s GDPR, potentially illegal).
Coca Cola – staying one step ahead of the competition
When it comes to social media, Coca Cola is king. With 35 million Twitter followers and over 105 million Facebook fans, Coca Cola closely monitors how their products are represented using AI-driven image recognition technology. Back in 2015, the Coca Cola Company was able to calculate that their products were mentioned somewhere in the world on an average of once every two seconds. The company is trying to see if they can increase that frequency by producing more innovative content across all social media platforms, effectively coming full circle when it comes to consumer data.
The recognition technology helps them get unique insight into not only where their customers are, but when they’re drinking Coca Cola, and how they chose to interact with the brand – giving content marketers the perfect basis on what angles to take when it comes to creating socially-led content. The AI-driven technology can also track competitors and determine the best way to serve their audiences through targeted advertising copy. But that’s not all when it comes to AI and creating great content.
When speaking at this year’s Mobile World Congress, Mariano Bosaz, Coca Cola Global Senior Digital Director, said, “Content creation is something that we have been doing for a very long time – we brief creative agencies and then they come up with stories … what I want to do is start experimenting with is automated narratives.” Their next step is looking at how they can not only use AI to gain insight, but to use AI to create adverts from scratch.
Rethinking itself as a technology-driven company that interweaves AI into its strategy to deliver more personalised content and to track the competition is just one of the ways Coco Cola is staying ahead of the pack for the foreseeable future.
Amazon – Be everywhere
Amazon has thrived by adopting an “everything under one roof”model, but no one wants to suffer from the paradox of choicewhen making their way down the marketing funnel on the golden brick road to conversion. So, to counteract this feeling, they’ve decided to lead the way when it comes to analysing big data. By accumulating extensive insights on every moment of a customer’s journey on their online interface, they can tailor the copy and personalise prompts that send them subliminal nudges to purchase or sign up.
Through this process, Amazon has created a digital strategy so tangible and repeatable that it has allowed them to deliver original premium content through Amazon Prime.But AI isn’t just located at a single office at Amazon – it’s everywhere. The insight they receive through data mining is shared with every department, from product recommendations, to copy testing and product forecasts, ensuring that their whole business works like a well-oiled machine. And when it comes to their machine, AI powers three popular Amazon products: The Amazon Go Store, Alexa, and the Amazon recommendation engine.
Data learning taken from these three main pillars works together to ensure a seamless customer experience. For instance, any given customer could get the ingredients to make perfect dim sum on the Amazon Go Store, ask Alexa to find the best recipes, and then use the Amazon recommendation engine to find kitchen utensils they might want to buy in the future. All of these AI programmes work in unison to provide invaluable, personalised advice to help the customer throughout their journey.
Breaking away from the bureaucracy and silos, Amazon’s machine learning technology has become so advanced that the company now sells its technology through Amazon Web Services to clients including the NFL and NASA, to name just a few.
When it comes to making waves in the film market, Amazon has leveraged powerful algorithms to extract actionable insights from the data that create a competitive advantage. They know when their audiences pause a show, what types of shows they watch at particular times in the week, what they skip, and what type of genres of content are in high demand amongst different target audiences. At the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Conference, David Hastings, Netflix and Amazon Director of Product Analytics was quick to comment that, “We may start with data, but the final call is always gut. It’s an informed intuition.”
Alicia Hatch, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Deloitte, insightfully mentioned,“The thing I’ve noticed the most when I talk to CMOs is that they have all the technology to make this happen. They’ve got a shiny stack as tall as the sky. They’ve got all this data at their fingertips – they just need to learn how to use it effectively.”
When it comes to big data and AI learning, the increasing accessibility of these tools means that this type of technology isn’t just reserved for larger corporations with big pockets. As we move into 2020, both SMEs and corporate giants will have the power to disrupt industries using analytics.
However, you have to remember that in its simplest form, raw data is the key to your audiences’ habits—think audience demographics, persona research, and first-and-third party data about what content they like to consume or tends to drive sales, and this information should translate into actionable insights. These insights should inform creative ideas, from blog posts and targeted advertising campaigns to 90-second social video copy designed to entice the consumer.
Data itself is just one part of a larger machine. It may offer the raw material, but you need a team that turns this data into something that actually drives results. And that’s where creative content writers step in with their wordsmith wizardry, to build break-through brand stories that drive sales.
If you’re in need of a friendly copywriter, the gentle scribes at Wordsmith are more than happy to help!