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Using Big Data, Bourbon and Beamers to Grow Your Marketing

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with The Silent Partner Marketing

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine stopped by the office to chat business.  He's owned his own company for the past four years or so and works specifically in the automotive world.  His plan is to sell his company in the next couple of years and retire in Florida.

While enjoying a drink together, he vented about the frustration working in the world of automotive.  And he made a spectacular analogy that can be applied to any business.

"Kyle," he said.  "Giving big data to car dealership owners is like giving a bottle of bourbon and keys to a Beamer to a 16-year-old.  There's absolutely nothing good that can come of it."

While I work with plenty of dealership owners who this statement would NOT apply to, his point wasn't lost on me.  I'd seen it recently in a number of different industries.

Here's sort of how it works.  A business owner, in his or her rush to crunch data and determine the almighty R.O.I. (return on investment), can make rash decisions without understanding the implication of what they are doing.

Let's think about it like this.

Most of the best restaurants in the world have bussers.  These silent assistants refill water glasses of diners, whisky away dirty dishes, replace dropped utensils, and pick up on countless other details that lead to the overall spectacular experience of a customer.

These men and woman don't sell anything.  They usually don't result in more wine being ordered or the 50 day aged steak being served.  But their contribution to the overall experience is invaluable.

Think about the social media for your business.  Let's say that you are monitoring your social components and catch a couple of customers who are ticked off.  You're able to do damage control to save your reputation.  What's the ROI here?  How can you measure it?

So here are a few things that you SHOULD do with "big data" - and I'm NOT talking about using it to fire all of your vendors.

1.  Identify the opportunity.

Let's go back to the basics for starts.  Your Google analytics gives you a treasure trove of data.  It will teach you where customers are coming from - town by town.  It will show you what types of mobile devices they are using and how they are engaging your website.  It will show you where they came from...where they are going...and what they didn't like about your site.  There are tremendous opportunities to be found in terms of analytics, but you need to make sure to properly tie it into your marketing and advertising strategy for your business.

2.  Understand your customers through social eavesdropping.

Your customers are voluntarily sharing a terrifying amount of data on social media.  From their car breaking down to their engagement... from the rash their kid has to how they need a water filter.  They are talking about you and they are talking about your competition.  Do you know it...and do you know what they are saying?  

3.  Sniper your marketing.

You know when they last bought from you.  You know what their online buying habits are.  You know what other sites they looked at before yours...and what sites they looked at after yours.  You can send targeted advertising to 35-year-old women who live within four different zip codes, who are married, have children, have an average household income of $100K plus, who drive a pickup truck but are in the market to buy a car in the next 3 months and who have made charitable donations to religious organizations in the past two months.  Why would you NOT want to use all of this data?  Think you have to pay for lists for it?  Think again.  It's all on social media.

My friend is right.  Too much of anything can be a bad thing.  Isn't that how the movie The Lord of the Rings made it big?  The right tool in the right hands can be incredibly dangerous...or incredibly powerful.  It all depends on what you do with it.

We want to know what YOU think.  In the comments below, let us know how you've seen big data help or hurt companies.

Posted by
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Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology.
 
Reyes is an acclaimed Keynote Speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media.
 
The CEO is a former Producer of News and Special Projects, having worked in broadcast journalism for nearly a decade.  His team offers a marketing one-stop-shop, filling the role of a Chief Marketing Officer and support staff at a fraction of the cost of having to worry about the payroll, taxes, benefits, etc.
 
Reyes has appeared in multiple media outlets including Aol.Com, Yahoo and Bloomberg Business. 
 
You can find him on FacebookTwitter, Instagram and SnapChat (@dasilentpartner).  And he wants to connect with you on LinkedIn, so send him a request!
 

Comments (9)

Nicole Doty - Gilbert Real Estate Expert
Zion Realty - Gilbert, AZ
Broker/Owner of Zion Realty ZionRealtyAZ.com

When you're a broker who own's a real estate company it's a little harder to determine what your clients are in to when it comes to housing. You just have to keep up on housing trends and hot market areas and advertise to those areas and to the types of people that are looking to move in to those markets. 

Jan 27, 2015 12:01 AM
Raymond E. Camp
Ontario, NY

Good morning Kyle,

You have made valid points of monitoring where clients are coming from but as to monitoring all the social media sites for bad reviews will only take care of a small percentage. Most people will verbally tell ten people of a bad experience. 

Make yourself a great day.

Jan 27, 2015 12:06 AM
Kyle Reyes
The Silent Partner Marketing - Manchester, CT

Nicole Doty - Gilbert Real Estate Expert and Raymond E. Camp don't forget - makine sure to have analytics properly set up on your website can go a very long way in helping you!

Jan 27, 2015 12:29 AM
Nicole Doty - Gilbert Real Estate Expert
Zion Realty - Gilbert, AZ
Broker/Owner of Zion Realty ZionRealtyAZ.com

Squarespace has a great metrics tab already set up that tells me how, where, and when people are looking for me. It tells me what keyword searches they are using and the difference between mobile and desktop searches. It's a great website provider. 

Jan 27, 2015 12:32 AM
Kyle Reyes
The Silent Partner Marketing - Manchester, CT

Nicole Doty - Gilbert Real Estate Expert you should also add Google analytics for that data on steroids... and look at Crazy Egg for further enhanced analytics!

Jan 27, 2015 01:01 AM
Grant Schneider
Performance Development Strategies - Armonk, NY
Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes

Kyle -  more great information on targeting your customer with social media engagement.

Jan 27, 2015 01:23 AM
Kyle Reyes
The Silent Partner Marketing - Manchester, CT

Hope it helps, Grant Schneider !

Jan 27, 2015 01:27 AM
Joe Petrowsky
Mortgage Consultant, Right Trac Financial Group, Inc. NMLS # 2709 - Manchester, CT
Your Mortgage Consultant for Life

Good morning Kyle. Outstanding post and a very important topic. It seem many business people don't use the information to improve their businesses, to many it is just information.

Jan 27, 2015 07:55 PM
Kyle Reyes
The Silent Partner Marketing - Manchester, CT

Agreed, Joe Petrowsky !

Jan 28, 2015 01:16 AM