fbpx

Innovation Blog

Using Data and Analytics to Create the Best Return on Marketing Investments

I don’t believe in ghosts, but my friend Jen does. She lives in a 100+ year old house deep within a wooded neighborhood, and she’s been convinced for years that Casper has been roaming her halls at night. The other day she told me a story about how she was startled awake in the dead of the night certain that a mysterious shadow walked by her bedroom. When I asked her if she was dreaming, she said, “I’ll look into it.”

“How are you going to do that?” I asked.

“I wear a Fitbit, so I can tell what kind of sleep I was in and if I was dreaming. I will look at my sleep data.” 

Ghost stories are fun, but Jen is pragmatic. A few minutes later, Jen walked back into my office and said that her sleep data indicated that she was not in a REM sleep state when most dreaming happens.  She was convinced she may need to call Ghostbusters. So now I had to ask myself: Could data prove the existence of ghosts and make me a believer? 

The next day Jen called to tell me her house was not haunted. 

“How did you figure?” I asked.

“Well,” she said with a disappointed sigh, “my daughter also wears a Fitbit, and I when I looked at her data it showed she took about 30 steps between 12:30 a.m. and 12:35 a.m. on Monday.  My little sleeping angel is probably my sleep-walking ghost.” 


As marketers, we shouldn’t need an exorcist or the Ghostbusters to help us uncover information about trends, habits or patterns related to our customers. When we have the opportunity to gather as much data as possible, analyze it and come to a solution, we increase our chances of creating the best return on our marketing investments. 

Usually, the data can be found by just asking the right questions or targeting the right audience.  BIG is working with a client on a telemarketing campaign in which we contact readers who clicked on a specific article in our e-newsletter and read the article to completion. We can even look to see if that same reader viewed other articles with a similar subject, which would indicate that the reader is more likely to be interested in this company and its products or services. Using these multiple data sets, we can help define the right buyer and send them additional content based upon their interests or target them with other ad messages to gauge where they are in the buying process. 


Don’t guess if your marketing dollars will work. Babcox offers data services using list segmentation, surveys and analytics to help target your message. Your Babcox sales representative can provide more information.   


Randy Loeser
Group Publisher

Randy Loeser joined Babcox Media in 2013 as publisher of Tire Review and was later given additional responsibilities as the Director of Digital Media and Group Publisher of Engine Builder. In 2018, Randy transitioned into the role of Group Publisher of Content Services to provide creative and custom content solutions to our clients. Randy has worked for several national business-to-business publishers in a variety of roles, including publisher, business development, marketing and internet products management. Randy is a 1995 graduate of John Carroll University.


Do you want our enewsletter, filled with marketing tips, blog articles and ‘quick reads’ to help marketers think differently, delivered to your inbox? Subscribe here >>

Share This Post

More To Explore