Six tips to unlock the business value of your data

When businesses and organisations embark on technology-enabled growth, through system integration and data management, they are able to improve the bottom line by identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies and making changes accordingly. But what about actually using data to generate revenues, increase profits, even, through increased sales or by enlarging the customer base?

As Gartner points out, it is not enough to simply have data. The value of data comes from the insights it creates, the processes it optimises and its ability to enable better decision making.

That said, the market analyst also acknowledges that despite data and analytics “hype and expectations”, most organisations are not successfully monetise their data.

Data monetisation can be thought of as the additional revenue that an organisation is able to generate from the information that it holds about its customers. The potential for acquiring insights from data sources to generate new sources of revenue has led some to forecast that data monetisation is expected to grow 24% by 2027.

Here are some thoughts I am sharing that show how companies can leverage customer data to their advantage and tap new revenue streams and grow profits.

But first, as obvious as it may sound, the following can only be achieved once you have in place the protocols and the organisational discipline required to treat customer data like an asset. Whether a new customer or latest interaction or additional information about an existing customer, data must be consistently cultivated, maintained and protected. It is the fuel that feeds any analytics activity or insights modelling.

Identify clear goals to increase revenues
Keep it simple with one or two clear objectives rather than a long list of half-formed
aspirations. For instance, many businesses know that by reducing customer churn, or
improving customer retention leads to better profits. So how about setting a target of
reducing customer churn by 5% within six months. Setting clear targets gives you something
to measure in relation to.

Improve customer experience with analytics
Personalisation is achievable simply by adding a customer name to a standard email, but
using data analytics to identify return customers, customer individual spend, last items
customers bought can all be used to provide a more customised experience for customers,
ensuring they are more likely to come back and spend with you again. As you accumulate
more data and analyse it, it is possible to see what your customers respond positively to, to
further refine how you sell to them.

Empower sales teams
Data insights can help teams responsible for sales and lead generation to maximise sales. By
providing sales team members with quality data sets on customers they can improve
customer service and enhance their sales dialogue so it is more suited to needs and
requirements of individual customers.

Identify niches
In most industries today companies operate in markets saturated in competition. Data
analytics can ultimately help businesses predict and respond to changes in their marketplace through having a better handle on the needs and expectations of their customers. Companies that anticipate trends rather than react to them are more successful in the long-term.

Sell or share data to tap new revenue streams
Many businesses begin by using their data insights internally to improve product and service
offerings, with the aim of generating greater revenues. But further sales, revenue streams,
marketing opportunities can be tapped when the data is made available outside of the
organisation. There are different approaches to take here, such as selling, licensing or
sharing data with companies upstream and downstream in your industry or value chain.

Leverage third-party platforms
Marketplaces and intermediary platforms are becoming more prolific and can help
companies maximise opportunities to reach new customers and audiences. Because they
can also serve to enable more customised or experience-led transactions, third party
platforms mean companies do not have to invest so heavily in trying to create unique
customer experiences.