Data-First Marketing

Supercharge your marketing strategy with data analytics

In Data-First Marketing: How to Compete & Win in the Age of Analytics, distinguished authors Miller and Lim demystify the application of data analytics to marketing in any size business.

Digital transformation has created a widening gap between what the CEO and business expect marketing to do and what the CMO and the marketing organization actually deliver. The key to unlocking the true value of marketing is data – from actual buyer behavior to targeting info on social media platforms to marketing’s own campaign metrics. Data is the next big battlefield for not just marketers, but also for the business because the judicious application of data analytics will create competitive advantage in the Age of Analytics.

Miller and Lim show marketers where to start by leveraging their decades of experience to lay out a step-by-step process to help businesses transform into data-first marketing organizations. The book includes a self-assessment which will help to place your organization on the Data-First Marketing Maturity Model and serve as a guide for which steps you might need to focus on to complete your own transformation.

Data-First Marketing: How to Compete & Win in the Age of Analytics should be used by CMOs and heads of marketing to institute a data-first approach throughout the marketing organization. Marketing staffers can pick up practical tips for incorporating data in their daily tasks using the Data-First Marketing Campaign Framework. And CEOs or anyone in the C-suite can use this book to see what is possible and then help their marketing teams to use data analytics to increase pipeline, revenue, customer loyalty – anything that drives business growth.

Foreword xiii

Preface xvii

Introduction 1

Uncertainty about the CMO Role as Marketing is Asked to Take on More 1

Reinventing Marketing Starts with Data and Analytics 3

Data-First Marketing Proves Marketing’s Value 4

Part I Data - Driven Marketing is Not Enough

1 Marketing in the Age of Analytics 9

Proving Marketing’s Value to the Business 9

Digital Transformation Leads to the Age of Analytics 12

Building a Martech Stack Multiplies the Data and Need for Analytics 23

The New Rules Now Include Marketing Data Analytics 24

2 Data Levels the Playing Field: Lessons from Moneyball 29

The Moneyball Data-First Philosophy 31

Lesson 1: Defy Convention, Using Data 33

Lesson 2: You May Not Win the World Series, but You Can Be a Contender 36

Lesson 3: Always Ask “Why?” 37

3 Data-First Marketing: Transforming Your Marketing Organization 41

What is Data-First Marketing? 42

Why Data-First Marketing? 43

Why Isn’t Marketing Already Doing This? 43

Beginning the Transformation 46

Part II Transforming Your Organization : Adopting Data – First Marketing

4 Assessing Your Organization’s Marketing Maturity Level 51

1. Aligning Marketing with the Business 52

2. Architecture and Technical Resources 54

3. Analyzing Data 56

4. Campaign Framework 57

5. Embracing Data-First 60

5 Step 1: Marketing-Business Alignment 67

Is Marketing a Cost Center or a Revenue Center? 67

Shifting the Perception of Marketing from Cost Center to Revenue Center 68

Getting Buy-in from Key Stakeholders 69

Get Started Today 87

6 Step 2: Data Integration, Architecture and Technical Resources 89

Develop a Strategy for Your Martech Stack 89

Six Questions to Ask When Evaluating Your Martech Stack 92

Get Started Today 106

7 Step 3: Data Analysis 109

Cognitive Biases: One More Lesson from Moneyball 110

Example of Beating Cognitive Biases: Rely on Data 112

Overcoming Biases and Beliefs 113

Analyzing Different Types of Marketing Data 121

Get Started Today 131

8 Step 4: The Data-First Marketing Campaign Framework 133

Development Phase 134

Execution Phase 149

Analysis Phase 162

Get Started Today 170

9 Step 5: Data-First Marketing Staffing and Culture 173

Starting at the Top: CMO and Marketing Leadership 174

Systemizing Data-First Marketing with the Marketing Team 190

Empower Your Marketing Team 192

Get Started Today 194

Conclusion 195

Afterword 201

Bibliography 203

Acknowledgments 209

About the Authors 213

Index 215

JANET DRISCOLL MILLER is Founder of Marketing Mojo and an award-winning speaker and writer on digital marketing. In her 25 years in the field, she has worked with many top-tier clients such as National Geographic, Mazda USA, LexisNexis, and Activision. Janet is the author of Getting Started with Google Analytics, and is a regular guest lecturer at the University of Virginia and James Madison University.

JULIA LIM is Vice President of Marketing for Marketing Mojo, an award-winning digital marketing agency. She has held executive positions in marketing and product marketing at several high-growth technology companies. Julia has extensive hands-on experience with building MarTech infrastructures that support sales, achieve business goals, and display key performance indicators in meaningful ways.

Do you have the data you need to target the best leads, continuously improve campaign ROI, and help grow your business? Are you using it? For too many marketers today, the answer to one or both questions is "no", "I don't know" or "only in a limited way".

In today's age of analytics, marketers and companies who don't have better answers to these questions will increasingly find themselves left behind. The marketers and the companies who win will do so by harnessing the power of data and analytics to do more, better, faster.

Data-First Marketing goes beyond traditional marketing data analytics books, presenting a comprehensive framework for developing a true data-first marketing culture. This state-of-the-art resource enables you to get the most out of the vast amount of data available in the digital age, from information provided by social media users to quantitative results from your sales and marketing operations. This real-world playbook teaches you how to implement a marketing strategy that combines data-driven marketing, business strategy, organizational goals, and the transformation of people, processes, and technology.

Drawing upon their decades of experience in digital marketing, Janet Driscoll Miller and Julia Lim provide clear guidance and actionable steps for embedding data and analytics into your daily work life. Divided into two parts, the book first presents an overview of data-first marketing principles, illustrates their value to businesses of all sizes, and offers expert advice for overcoming the challenges common to data-first marketing adoption. The second part of the text delves into the five steps to data-first transformation, featuring a self-assessment to locate your organization's place on the innovative Data-First Marketing Maturity Model.

Data-First Marketing will help you create a dynamic shift in your company and use marketing data analytics to help you compete and win in the digital marketplace.

PRAISE FOR DATA-FIRST MARKETING

"This is the book I wish I had back when I was trying to communicate with the sales VP. But more than that, this is the book that would have gotten me speaking the language of the CFO and the CEO and the board of directors. Data-First Marketing is a deep dive into how to understand modern marketing in our new age of analytics."
—David Meerman Scott, Bestselling Author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

"I love Data-First Marketing. Throughout my 35-year career as an executive of several technology companies, I always struggle to educate my marketing staff on the need to collect and analyze the right data in support of the company's investments and growth strategy. This book is THE ideal resource for it. I strongly recommend this book to any CEO trying to build a highly driven marketing approach to their strategy."
—John Hassoun, VT Group CEO

"Data-First Marketing is like personal training for you and your marketing team. Your programs will emerge brawny, strong, buff… and fit to defend themselves from any doubters, haters, or bullies who doubt marketing's true value."
—Ann Handley, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes and Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs

"As a CEO I oftentimes wonder what my marketing team actually does, whether they are worth what we pay them or whether or not they should have a seat at the table when setting company strategy? Data-First Marketing helped me answer many of my questions and helped me create a framework and a mindset that I can use to hold my team accountable."
—Rob Masri, Executive Chairman and CEO at Sport Life

"If the marketing department is going to have a seat at the executive table to influence business strategy, there must be a focus on data-driven techniques and correct attribution. In Data-First Marketing, Janet and Julia validate and reaffirm the importance of value metrics above vanity metrics and provide marketers with clear and actionable steps to incorporate and measure business metrics from the beginning and throughout their campaigns."
—Zenda Sims, Vice President of Marketing, GetWellNetwork