What is Data Activation? Turn First-Party Data Into Results

You’re probably here to find out what  data activation is, so let me define it.  
Data activation is where you use your captured  data to gather new insights into your customers,  
marketing efforts, and sales; and then use those  insights to improve your business practices. 
There you go — that’s the definition. But  don’t leave yet — you’ll wanna stick around,  
because in this video, we’re gonna go over some  of the ways data activation can help you. Plus,  
I’d be a little offended if you left already. And really quick, if you want to learn more  
helpful marketing info, make sure you subscribe  to our YouTube channel! Now back to your regularly  
scheduled programming. [cta 56]
First off, what is data activation? Well, like I  mentioned a minute ago, it’s where you actually  
use your data to improve your business practices. Basically, when you run marketing campaigns,  
you naturally gather data about those  campaigns and about your customers. But  
if that data just sits there, it’s not helping  you. To get any benefit from it, you’ll need  
to activate it- which involves analyzing it,  connecting it to different business tools,  
and using it to improve your marketing. Data activation is just one part of  
the larger process of data management. You might be wondering what exactly you gain  
when you activate data. How does it help you? Well, there are lots of ways data activation  
can be useful for optimizing your marketing. 1. Activating data helps you learn whom to target 
By analyzing your customer data, you can figure  out what kinds of people usually buy from you and  
what they actually want. You can also segment them  into smaller and more specific groups to help make  
your marketing more personalized to each one. Then you can use that info to help you improve  
your audience targeting. By targeting your  marketing to people who match the traits  
you find in your data, you can reach a more  relevant audience and drive more conversions. 
2. Activating data helps you  increase your marketing effectiveness 
Another benefit of data activation is that it  helps you find the most effective strategies for  
your marketing. After all, targeting the right  audience isn’t enough. You also have to target  
that audience with effective marketing campaigns. By activating your marketing data, you can see  
which methods and strategies are working  really well for you — and which ones aren’t  
doing so well. Then you can try to do more  of what’s working, and either stop using the  
ineffective methods or try to improve them. 3. Activating data helps you be more efficient 
Finally, when you activate data, it can  help you make your business processes way  
more efficient. In terms of your marketing and  sales, you can see where you’re wasting money  
on things that aren’t helping you, and you can  reallocate that money to something more useful. 
The same thing goes for other areas of  your business, like product inventory.  
Any data you can gather will help you figure  out what you can do to avoid wasting money,  
time, and resources on unhelpful processes. Now you know what’s so useful about data  
activation. But you might be asking, “Jackie,  how does data management actually work,  
and where does data activation fit into it?”  Great question. Let’s briefly run through the  
basic steps for managing your data. 1. Gather your data 
The first thing you wanna do is gather  your data. It kinda goes without saying,  
but you can’t really activate data if  you don’t have any data to begin with. 
There are lots of different ways  to gather data, but usually,  
you do it by using different marketing tools. So, let’s say you want to gather data about  
the way users behave on your website. You could  use Google Analytics to track site activity. Or,  
maybe you want to get feedback about what your  customers often need help with. In that case,  
you could use a chatbot on your  website to help with customer service. 
Of course, obtaining and setting up these  tools can sometimes be time-consuming,  
complicated, and expensive if you don’t  have experience doing it — which means it  
can be helpful to partner with an expert. 2. Centralize and categorize your data 
Once you’ve gathered your data, the next step is  to centralize that data in one place. You don’t  
wanna be stuck jumping between 10 different  platforms trying to view all of the data. 
To do that, you’ll want to use a data platform.  There are different types of data platforms,  
including data management platforms  (DMPs) and customer data platforms (CDPs). 
Once you’ve moved all your  data into one of these tools,  
you can use the tool to organize  it so it’s easier to navigate. 
3. Analyze your data Once your data is gathered, centralized, and  
organized, you can finally start to analyze it.  This is where data activation really gets started. 
With a CRM like Nutshell, you can put together  reports, charts, and graphs that show patterns  
in your data. Those patterns can help you  learn about your audience and your marketing. 
Maybe through connecting your tools,  you see that a particular type of page  
on your website is getting way more  traffic than any of your other pages. 
More importantly, though, your connected customer  data can help you build a full profile of your  
audience based on the common traits that most of  them share. That helps you hone your targeting and  
optimize your marketing even more. 4. Apply your data 
The last step is to apply the insights  you get from your data. So, let’s say you  
learned from your data that a common pain  point among your users is that they have  
trouble navigating the software you sell. Based  on that info, you’ll probably want to optimize  
your software and make it easier to navigate. From there, it’s rinse-and-repeat. After you  
improve your marketing, you’ll generate new data,  which you can then use to improve your marketing  
even more, and so on. Eventually, your business  will become an unstoppable marketing machine! 
Well, that’s it. That’s an overview of data  activation. I know, I know — you enjoyed this  
video so much, you wanna keep hanging out with  me even longer. But I’m sorry, I gotta get back  
to work driving killer marketing results. Don’t worry, though — there are tons of  
other awesome videos you can check out  on our channel. If you find them helpful,  
be sure to subscribe. You can also subscribe  to our email newsletter, Revenue Weekly. 
Thanks so much for watching,  and I’ll see ya in the next one!