How can a company best serve its customers? Isn’t this one of the biggest questions every business owner needs to answer. After all, no amount of promotion or advertising can help if your customers don’t trust you. How about following what the best companies do to ensure customer satisfaction? Unfortunately, there is no blueprint for success in achieving customer satisfaction! But there is a way to know your customer better! We are talking about marketing information management.
After all, your company is not the only one in the market. Why won’t a customer choose your competitor over you?
Every business owner thinks that their product is enough to beat the competition. But is it not an oversimplification of how markets work? And today’s business world is constantly changing. You have to stay informed and ready to adapt as a business owner!
Marketing Information Management helps you in staying informed. It helps businesses understand their customer better, and it helps them know their customer better than the competitor. Which, in turn, helps them serve their customers better.
But how does it help companies understand their customers? And how can it help your business succeed? We will find out here!
What Is Marketing Information Management?
You can divide marketing information management into three phases. It refers to companies gathering, analyzing, and evaluating market data. It involves a group of activities that turn market data into a crucial tool for success. And it emphasizes the importance of data in today’s business world.
Both internal and external sources provide the market data to companies. Companies collect information about competitors, market size, consumer preference, and more. They organize this information before analyzing it.
Internal sources include the vendors, who give first-hand data from the marketplace. External sources include consulting companies that put out market surveys or static data, surveys, or external research.
Marketing information management is all about tracking certain vital variables in the market. It is a continuous process of gathering new market data. Companies are in a constant race to outdo one another in this race.
You have a significant advantage if you can get your hands on relevant market info first. And in today’s business world, it is all about outdoing your competition.
But what practical purpose does marketing information serve? How is it beneficial? What about its function in a company’s growth? Let’s find out!
What Is the Purpose of Marketing Information Management?
How can a company understand the marketing landscape? Is it possible without relevant data? The answer is a resounding NO!
Without relevant market data, you cannot defeat your competitors. After all, it is this data that helps business owners to make new strategies. And this is the function or purpose that marketing information management serves. Let us elaborate and list these functions:
- Marketing information management lets marketing teams gauge the success of marketing campaigns. They build reports on both failed and successful marketing efforts.
- It also helps them collect marketing data across channels and store it in one place. Having all the market data in one place makes it easier to analyze and distribute.
- It plays a vital role in the communication between marketing teams. Gathering, organizing, and distributing data is done with much more efficiency, and this smooth distribution of data helps teams develop cohesive marketing strategies.
- Managing the marketing budget also becomes easier. After all, it lets you organize and evaluate internal data. With the correct marketing information management, your business strategies become more efficient.
- Marketing information management helps a company use its marketing resources. It allows companies to gather relevant data and use it with much more sharpness. Companies can then spend more time on using the information than collecting it. Hence, making a company’s marketing efforts get better results.
MIM involves various activities towards the same goal. The primary function is to use market information to fuel the company’s success. And if you are a business owner, you should up your MIM game. Why? Let’s explore the benefits here:
Not Only for Marketing Teams
Marketing information management is not only for a company’s marketing teams. The data gathered can give valuable insights to various departments within the company. And multiple departments can benefit from knowing the company’s consumer base better. After all, market information helps a company better understand the consumer.
Sales teams can also use the market information to convert leads. Sales representatives armed with customer preference data are sure to perform better.
Customer service teams will also improve if they provide relevant customer data. Product teams will also be able to make products that the consumer base wants. If used effectively, market info can help your company grow. And MIM is crucial to that!
How Can Marketing Information Management Help Your Business Grow?
Marketing information management helps various teams in your company. But it is not just about some data about potential customers.
Marketing information ranges from competitor analysis to the forthcoming market trends. And the benefits of marketing information management are also varied and numerous.
- Marketing information management lets you collect crucial data about potential customers. This information can sometimes be instrumental in closing a deal since sales representatives can benefit from the data analysis. Therefore, the company will be able to find and convert leads.
- Competitor analysis is a significant component of MIM. And it helps you in staying informed about what your competitor’s strategies are. This, in turn, allows you to outplay them and win over prospective customers.
- Market research has gradually become a vital part of today’s business world. Marketing information management lets you gather and analyze all the crucial market data. Imagine what your company can do with that data! How easy would it be to plan when you are aware of the market trends!
Know Where You Stand In the Market
Marketing information management also gives you an idea of where you stand in the market. As they say, you get to know how deep in the water you are. Also, it allows you to learn from your mistakes and grow as a company.
Understanding your consumer demographics is a significant part of any business. And marketing information management gives you valuable insight into your buying circles. This way, you know who to sell to and increase your conversions.
Handling customer data can also be a tricky task. Some companies have mismanaged customer data in the past. Make sure you do not end up on the wrong side of the regulations.
An organized marketing information management system is essential for your company. It will help you gain your consumer’s trust. And gaining your customer’s trust is key to your business’s success!
Good Marketing Information Management Examples
As we mentioned, excellent marketing information management integrates data from diverse sources. Some good examples of these data are:
- For example, market share information is grabbed from industry associations or research institutes, such as GFK or NPD.
- Consumer Research information: focus group, in-depth interviews, quantitative analysis, observational studies, among others. These are, in general, serving various purposes, like testing a new prototype during product development or a marketing campaign.
- Economic Data: GDP growth, industry growth, seasonality, and industry revenue.
- Social Data: Data from social networks, such as complaints, suggestions, surveys, demographics, can be used for many purposes, like improving services and products or just targeting new campaigns to the right audience.
- Demographics: How the population in different countries and states evolve according to age, income, education, or other demographic indexes.
- Competitor’s information: New product launches, new hirings, sales, and profitability.
- Internal sales and company’s profitability: Internal KPI are critical to evaluate and compare the company’s performance with benchmarks in the industry to determine where to improve, opportunities and threats.
Nike’s example of Marketing Information Management
The biggest brands in the world are always looking for new market info, and they utilize that market information to provide the best service to their customers. It only proves how vital marketing information management is for companies to succeed.
It is always handy to learn from the companies above you on the spectrum if you are a business owner.
Nike, for example, puts market information to perfect use. And as we all know, Nike is one of the biggest brands globally! Nike practices marketing information management by paying close attention to customer dissatisfaction. Their customer service representatives are quick to provide solutions. And they inform the senior management about the most prevalent complaints.
They also monitor data in real-time from the website since they sell a lot from their eCommerce.
Also, Nike’s well-known brand’s name has an advantage over any competitors as their emails and communication are better accepted by consumers.
The above example is as simple as it is vital. If the senior management at Nike is aware of the widespread complaints, they can eliminate those. After all, a company cannot provide customer satisfaction without acknowledging customer dissatisfaction. Problems and needs can also generate ideas for new product developments.
Other big brands also collect behavioral and attitudinal data to improve customer service. It is high time you take a cue from these examples and start doing it at your company.
Marketing information management can do great things for your company’s growth!
The Correct Market Information for the Perfect Strategies
As a business owner, you have to know your customers well. Their preferences, demands, and grievances keep changing, and you have to stay updated.
Marketing information management helps you do all that involving consumer preferences, competitor analysis, and more. It is the backbone of today’s business environment.
You can also rise above the most challenging competition with the help of marketing information management. And you get to reach the potential customers first!
The biggest brands in the world use the market information to significant effect. They solve their customer’s problems and prepare for future grievances. For this reason, they are the top brands in the world. And what makes it possible? It is marketing information management that provides them with invaluable insight.
So, marketing information management is sure to help your business succeed. If you haven’t set up an organized MIM system, you should do it now. After all, it will help your company understand the market and consumers properly!
Christian has over ten years of experience in marketing agencies. Currently, he has been dedicating his time to a tech startup and also writing for major publications. He loves podcasts and reading to keep up with the latest trends in marketing.