Use your data for better content

It is estimated that as much as 90 per cent of the world’s data has been created in the past four years. The challenge is not data acquisition but what to do with it.

So it is with B2B content marketing. Many companies are failing to pass data to the content producers or, as is more common, there are problems interpreting it. Sometimes companies are just inundated with the stuff.

One example of how to do it comes from Dell’s Nurture campaign, which analysed how potential customers viewed its marketing material. Yet beyond website analytics, there is potentially reams of data outlining buying habits and trends that should be used.

The fact was pointed out in this piece in The Drum. It estimates that only around 12 per cent of available data is used by B2B marketers.

Yet many marketing commentators say this is all about to change. One of them is the Harvard Business Review, which claims data-driven content will be the biggest thing since fluorescent-coloured socks.

Everyone knows data is valuable. The tricky thing is building systems to find the gold in a crate-sized pan.

Use your data for better content is part of Content24, the blog for London content marketing agency FirstWord.