Four Advantages of Data Activation
The modern data stack is a crucial part of any business looking to get the most out of their data and stay connected with their consumer base. Businesses invest thousands of dollars every year into data management tools, data warehouses, and data resources in an effort to gain actionable insights. With a multitude of data options available, this process can become overwhelming even for the most seasoned of data teams. Still, businesses do everything in their power to leverage their data and unlock the hidden knowledge stored in these data points. This is where data activation comes into play.
Data activation is the process of taking your data sets to help your business gain real-time insight into your customers and making these same insights actionable. Most marketers believe data that remains stored in data warehouses is virtually useless without actionable steps. Data activation pulls your data into one area where it can be used to come up with better marketing plans, improve your customer’s overall experience, and better target certain demographics. Data activation is most easily accomplished through a process called Reverse Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL). Reverse ETL is the process of moving data from a data warehouse to an operational system of record such as a Software as a Service (SaaS). Either way, data activation is becoming an essential part of any business that wishes to connect with their customers on the deepest levels. If you’re new to data activation, continue reading below to discover four key advantages of data activation.
Better Decisions
One of the best advantages of data activation is the ability to make better decisions on a frequent basis. With the help of Reverse ETL, data activation consolidates your data inside a central location, where you can get a complete picture of your customers. You can look at multiple accurate profiles of customers to better target them with relevant marketing. Your teams can make immediate decisions that are more likely to result in a positive outcome with the help of data activation. You don’t have to hop around several different data platforms such as Oracle or Tableau, now you can make more informed decisions with confidence in your data. Plus, you can invest your money and time into business practices that are consistently reaping concrete results.
Customer Experience
Cultivating a pleasant customer experience is paramount for most businesses around the globe. You can analyze customer insights with many data platforms, but to get the most useful insight you should look into data activation. This gives you a leg up on the competition by giving your team the ability to focus on developing activities that add value for your customers. Thanks to Reverse ETL and data activation, this powerful combination can help improve customer satisfaction with a steady stream of real-time insights. Your data team can be notified instantly of a user missing a valuable step when signing up for a plan on your website. A team member can swiftly hop on the problem and help the customer with the issue.
Productivity
Many businesses spend a good amount of time helping customers, researching demographics, and trying their best to fulfill customer needs. Data activation streamlines productivity across the board by helping power your workflows. Many data teams spend countless hours sifting through piles of data to figure out the best action to take when helping customers. Activated data can help enhance your everyday business tools such as customer support or recommending products, which saves time and makes your business become more efficient. Team members can allocate their time towards other worthwhile tasks such as building data models. This also makes everyone more productive, customers become happier, and this leads to a higher impact on your business’s bottom line.
Data Silos
A lot of data simply sits inside data warehouses and data lakes, which slowly become stagnant. Many times, data isn’t synced between platforms and becomes unusable, which could lead to hundreds of potential customers becoming lost. Every team within your organization can’t access the data, which results in a lack of cohesiveness across the board. Reverse ETL helps you activate your data and share a single point of view, which unifies your teams and organizations. All of your teams become unified and have the ability to run like a well-oiled machine with the power of these metrics in one place. With your teams on the same page, you can expect improved customer engagement, return on investment, and a rise in data-driven solutions.
Conclusion
According to a study by Forrester, B2B marketers and sellers make 48% of their decisions based on intuition or personal/company experience rather than quantitative data and analysis. You no longer have to rely on hunches to make important decisions, especially when you have data activation tools at your disposal. Using Reverse ETL to activate your data gives you several advantages in the business world. These key advantages include better decision-making, improved customer experiences, a significant uptick in productivity within your organization, and the eradication of data silos. Data activation is the wave of the future, and a worthwhile investment for business leaders looking to connect with their customers in beneficial ways.
