Successful digital marketing campaigns are being driven largely by trending technologies, specifically the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and The Cloud. These may be used for a huge number of marketing applications, from optimizing the performance of sports teams to improving science and research, even helping to aid law enforcement.
Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) premier partner 2nd Watch, which focuses on shifting enterprise workloads into the public cloud, has released the results of a survey relating to 500 marketing and IT professionals that use big data. All those included in the survey are mid- to large-size companies that use trend-setting technology to drive their digital marketing initiatives and support digital marketing programs and plans. All source huge data volumes from machines, apps and websites, enabling the marketing specialists to develop highly targeted digital promotions and campaigns.
The result of the survey overall shows that there is a definite increase in confidence when it comes to using these trending technologies. The survey also indicates that companies have increasing success when it comes to using the technologies.
The overall message of the survey is that companies are intending to expand into big data, IoT, and cloud-based technologies to improve their digital marketing programs. For Instance:
However, those companies that are expanding into the trending technologies are not doing so very aggressively.
The 2nd Watch survey indicates that nearly a third (29 percent) of those companies using big data find that it helps them to understand customers better. Big data also helps them to improve supply chains. However less than half (47 percent) of the companies surveyed said that this form of digital marketing had been effective when it came to meeting their customer Demand Generation and engagement goals.
When it comes to IoT, 29 percent of respondents indicated that it helped them get a better understanding of the preferences of customers. Similarly, 24 percent found it was useful to power promotions and campaigns; and 14 percent said they used IoT to drive their mobile and customer-facing web apps. These stats might appear low, but the survey found that 70 percent had been successful in either exceeding or at least meeting their IoT-based digital marketing goals.
Perhaps not surprisingly, 41 percent of those participating in the survey said they would probably use a cloud-based data warehouse for their digital marketing efforts quite soon. Only 15 percent of respondents are already doing this. More (49 percent) said they would include internal IT resources and a third-party provider that has better (deeper) knowledge than them to manage a cloud-based data warehouse. Currently only 18 percent currently outsource all the management of their cloud-based data warehouse at the moment.
The 2nd Watch survey found that cost is a major factor when it comes to implementing IoT-based and big data marketing programs. A total of 40 percent said cost was the biggest consideration, while 21 percent said a lack of Executive support was their biggest challenge. A lack of technical skills was also identified as a huge disadvantage.
Ultimately, quite a high percentage – 39 percent – said that cost was the top benefit to use a cloud-based data warehouse to do their digital marketing. Of these, 35 percent said that flexibility was key, and 26 percent cited scalability.
By Penny Swift
