Marketing Intelligence: Learn what it is, its benefits and how to apply it

[shammis606]

The market demands that companies become smarter. But do you know what that means? Organizations that use intelligence are those that know how to use their resources better and gain competitiveness based on one of the most important assets today: data.

In marketing , data is essential to create more efficient strategies, improve the consumer experience and build competitive advantages in the market.

However, we are now talking about Marketing Intelligence, one of the most important areas of facebook database business intelligence , which covers all the strategies to transform data into business intelligence.

In this article, we will cover what Marketing Intelligence is and how you can adopt it in your company to get more results from your strategies. Keep reading to the end and learn!

What is Marketing Intelligence?
What are the areas of Marketing Intelligence?
What is the importance of Marketing Intelligence?
What are the benefits of implementing Marketing Intelligence?
Tools for Marketing Intelligence
How to apply Marketing Intelligence?
What is Marketing Intelligence?
Marketing Intelligence is the set of processes and techniques for using data to optimize strategies and obtain better results in the marketing area.

The main intention is to structure information to support marketing decisions, so that the company faces fewer risks, takes advantage of market opportunities, understands the consumer better and, therefore, is more competitive.

To achieve this, companies need a marketing intelligence system that has tools and strategies for collecting, processing and analyzing data .

Likewise, it is also necessary to have a team trained in data intelligence, which can extract information and knowledge, since they need to be processed and interpreted to be useful.

While intelligence is the responsibility of a marketing department, with dedicated professionals and specific tools, the success of its implementation depends on the adherence of the entire team.

What are the areas of Marketing Intelligence?
To help you understand how Marketing Intelligence works, we will now present the main areas that can be part of this system.

It's important to note that these areas can and should work together to generate more intelligence for marketing, rather than operating in silos.

Furthermore, you are not limited to these areas that we are going to present. You can apply intelligence to a variety of marketing strategies.

Find out what they are:

Competitive intelligence
Competitive intelligence is the set of data collection and analysis processes focused on competitors, in order to differentiate and highlight the business in the market.

To do this, the organization must look at its internal processes to understand its situation, and at the external forces that act in the macroenvironment and the microenvironment (in your business) to identify market movements and prepare for them.

The main methods used in the competitive intelligence system are the SWOT analysis and Porter's 5 forces , which allow a complete sector analysis to be carried out.

marketing intelligence
Product Intelligence
Product intelligence focuses on product marketing . The intention is to understand how consumers are using the product, what needs need to be met, how to improve market penetration, how to differentiate from the competition, among other strategies.

Data can be used to improve product development to provide a better customer experience or strategies around the product, such as pricing, distribution and promotion.

According to the 2020 Product Intelligence Report , companies that use product intelligence tools are 5.5 times more likely to see revenue growth above 25% annually than those that don’t.

marketing intelligence
Price intelligence
Price intelligence, in turn, focuses on the pricing of the company's products. Pricing is a strategic decision, which should also be based on internal and external data.

The objective is to strategically position oneself against competitors, but also to define prices that generate profitability and sustainability for the business.

Consumer behavior studies
Consumer behavior studies also integrate Marketing Intelligence. After all, you need to know your target audience in depth in order for them to be attracted and engaged with marketing.

Various market research methodologies can be used for this, such as questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, as well as collecting data in analysis tools.

From this data, information can be extracted about culture, habits, lifestyles, principles and beliefs, personality profiles, demographic profiles and much more.

Social media intelligence
Social media intelligence focuses on data and strategies of social media platforms . This intelligence is mainly based on collecting and analyzing data on user interactions with the brand and on social conversations ( Social Listening ).

The insights generated by data can be used to optimize your own social media and digital marketing strategies, but also generate intelligence for other business areas, such as products and sales.

On social media, you can understand consumer perceptions about the brand as a whole, which adds value to company-wide strategies.

Content Intelligence
Content Intelligence is another area of ​​Marketing Intelligence that focuses on using data to inform Content Marketing decisions and strategies .

It allows you to capture data on users' consumption of branded content to understand which works best, as well as identify personal interests, questions and needs throughout the journey.

In this way, it is possible to optimize the production and distribution of materials to better connect with consumers.

What is the importance of Marketing Intelligence?
For a long time, marketing was an area of ​​guesswork. Decisions were made by managers based on personal perceptions or insufficient data.

For example, when advertising on television, advertisers defined the media based on generic audience data, without any precision about how many people would actually see the ad.

The Internet, especially since Web 2.0, has drastically changed this scenario. Through monitoring tools, companies have been able to keep track of the movements of consumers and competitors on the web.

In the digital age, data has grown so much in volume that the concept of Big Data has emerged , which is about managing the enormous amount of data that is currently generated and collected and the challenges for companies that want to use it in business intelligence.

This is where we come to Marketing Intelligence. After all, Big Data processing can be used in marketing to improve marketing strategies.

Decisions that were based on assumptions are now accurate, as data reveals information about reality that would be imperceptible without its collection.

The importance of Marketing Intelligence, therefore, is to collect and analyse this data so that professionals have a basis for their decision-making . In this way, data becomes a strategic asset for marketing teams.

What are the benefits of implementing Marketing Intelligence?
Now you can better understand what the main benefits of implementing Marketing Intelligence in your business are. You will see that this extends to various areas.

Knowing your consumer better
Marketing Intelligence allows you to better understand your consumer. By monitoring users on the web and conducting market research, it is possible to understand your target audience and better direct your marketing and communication strategies.

Anticipate market opportunities and threats
Macro and microenvironmental analysis allows you to understand the reality surrounding the business . It is possible not only to understand the context, but also to have some clues about trends for the future, through predictive analysis.

In this way, marketing can plan strategies that take advantage of opportunities and protect against threats that arise.

Differentiate yourself from the competition
By analyzing your business, you can understand the dynamics of the market . You will see the strategies of competitors and be able to identify if there is a potential threat from new market entrants or substitute products.

Improve your strategy results
The main objective of Marketing Intelligence is to improve strategies so that they better communicate with the interests and needs of consumers.

In this way, strategies can achieve business and marketing goals across your business as a whole.

Improve your consumer experience
If you can better understand your consumer and improve your strategies, it is a sign that it is also possible to improve the consumer experience with your brand.

You can create better solutions for your customers' needs and communicate better with them, which improves the public's perception of your brand.

Optimizing return on investment
By optimizing your strategies, marketing tends to achieve more results with the same investments .

This means that it is possible to increase ROI, that is, the return on investment. Furthermore, the benefits of Marketing Intelligence are noticeable in the financial impact.


Tools for Marketing Intelligence
Tools are essential to work with data faster and more efficiently. If you only rely on manual actions, you would not be able to handle big data.

Below we present the main types of tools that you should have in your Marketing Intelligence system.

Discover them!

CRM
CRM tools collect all the data about customers, including their profile, browsing history, and interactions with the company.

With this data, you can track leads through the funnel and build better strategies with Marketing Intelligence.

ERP
ERP systems aggregate data across the entire company, across its various business areas. This way, you can integrate it with Marketing Intelligence to gather more information and generate more valuable insights.

Web analytics
Web analytics tools, primarily Google Analytics , are responsible for tracking users on the web . They allow you to see how people interact with your site and how they react to your marketing strategies.

Social analytics
Social analytics tools provide data on user interactions with your brand on social media . They allow you to know how your followers react to your posts, but also what they are saying about your brand on social media, through Social Listening.

Marketing Automation
Marketing automation software, such as HubSpot and RD Station, is used to automate marketing tasks , such as sending emails and nurturing leads.

To do this, they centralize and use a range of user data, which feeds automation actions. So you also get intelligence from these tools.

SEO
SEO tools like Semrush and Moz allow you to perform an in-depth analysis of your website's users and competitors.

They also provide user interaction data so you can establish better SEO strategies and attract more organic traffic.

seo guide
How to apply Marketing Intelligence?
Yes, it's all very entertaining, but how can you apply Marketing Intelligence in practice? Discover some tips to implement this system in your business.

Adopt a data-driven culture
Applying Marketing Intelligence does not simply mean incorporating a set of tools. It also depends on adopting a new mentality in the company , in which data is at the center of all decisions in the area.

This is what we call a data-driven culture , which should be part of your organizational culture and encouraged among the company's employees.

Establish a data strategy
Data intelligence requires a strategy to manage it. Again, acquiring tools is not enough: for them to be useful, you need to know how to work with data and how it will help you meet your marketing goals .

To do this, it is important to work with primary and secondary data , quantitative and qualitative, in addition to all the possibilities of means of collection and analysis, in order to obtain more and better information about the reality of your company and the market.

Please note restrictions on third-party cookies
When collecting data, you are likely to use tools that use third-party cookies, such as Google Analytics. These refer to data recorded by browsers about users' browsing history.

However, major browsers such as Chrome and Safari have already announced that they will no longer support this type of cookies .

One of the solutions to avoid depending on third-party cookies is to invest in collecting data directly from your consumers. Some alternatives include surveys, questionnaires, interviews and interactive content.

Ion helps you create more engaging interactive content. Discover now the solutions to engage your users and generate more data for marketing.

Consolidates the Marketing Information System
The marketing information system collects and organizes data about the market, competitors, consumers, and your own company. It is all internal and external data that is relevant to marketing.

The systematization of this data allows you to analyze and integrate the information , so that you can generate Marketing Intelligence.

Explore marketing surveys
Marketing surveys are essential in obtaining data for Marketing Intelligence, although they are not the only means to do so.

Market research involves different data collection techniques , such as questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, ethnography, participant observation, among others.

All of these techniques can be developed in person, but also over the Internet.

In addition, you can also collect secondary data that complements marketing surveys. Reports from research institutes (such as Opinion Box and eMarketer) and professional associations (such as IAB and DIEESE) are good sources.

Integrate with other business areas
Marketing Intelligence does not work alone. It is part of a larger system: business intelligence, which integrates data and knowledge from different areas to generate intelligence for the business as a whole.

Marketing Intelligence must therefore be integrated with other areas of the business, such as sales and finance.

The intention is to contribute to the growth of other sectors, but also to obtain valuable data for marketing .

Learn to turn data into intelligence
Finally, we emphasize that data does not become intelligence on its own. It needs to be processed to become information, which in turn needs to be interpreted to become knowledge. This is how we get to the point of generating Marketing Intelligence.

So you need the strategy, team, tools, and processes to make data useful to marketing and position it on the path to strategic business objectives.

Take advantage of the opportunity now to learn everything it takes to be a successful data scientist in this blog post

Share