Smart Data: For Communications, Big Data Becomes Transformational

Marketing leaders today are inundated with talk of Big Data. While loaded with promise, the reality of Big Data is often overwhelming, complex, and stagnant. As Wikipedia tells us, the challenges of Big Data include capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization. And even as CMOs deploy increasingly layered and strategic technology-based programs to assist in exceeding their KPIs, they can’t avoid the fact that the mass of data they are being asked to extract value from grows with every passing day.
Some marketers think if they ignore the growing Big Data pile it will go away or (fingers crossed) fall within someone else’s remit. Others continue to think that selective monitoring and analysis is sufficient while there are others still that believe a whizzy dashboard alone equals insight and can lead to subsequent action.
Think again.
It’s not Big Data’s fault that it’s disorganized and not actionable by itself. In some respects, the chatter around the technology’s potential has done the actuality of its deliverables a disservice. Many looked at what it could do; others critiqued what it should do and very few companies actually committed to their Big Data strategy.
The relationship with one’s data, we believe, is in many ways like a professor to a student. They show up everyday, you watch them absorb your knowledge, fill in the blanks for them and as they become smarter some of them leave an indelible mark on your core teaching beliefs and practices. The same can be true of data’s impact on your business – sure, not every data point will change your bottom line, but by not missing insights and opportunities to tweak your habits as a brand you will, at the end of the day, not only see but tangibly feel how much better off you are.
To make Big Data truly transformational for marketers it takes three key differentiators: cross-channel analysis of massive data sets, personalization of the subsequent communications and automation of both the delivery and performance management of those consumer touch points. These three factors don’t change whether you’re recommending a piece of content to a reader, sending an email newsletter to a prospect or targeting a product at a shopper.
When these key factors fall into alignment, we call it Smart Data. Smart Data is actionable data that automatically generates informed, personalized communication with consumers across all channels. It allows a company to understand, predict and engage each consumer at an individual level. At its core it’s intelligent, sophisticated and, most importantly, simple. By being smart, your data can bridge the technological divide that still exists in organizations today. By enabling data to power decision making the playing field is leveled between those that are technically sophisticated and those that believe in the power of experience and intuition.
The scope of data today is outside human comprehension. This is undisputed. Everyone’s seen the stats about social stream speeds, hours of video uploaded, number of blog posts published, pages viewed, products purchased, unique readers, forms submitted, emails sent, etc. The smartest thing an executive can do with their Big Data hairball is enable its knowledge to compound so that it can automatically power the right decisions at the perfect moment to a specific person. By doing so businesses will increase engagement and drive long-term, meaningful relationships with their consumers.
A successful track record of working on large-scale, high-demand web systems led Neil Capel to develop Sailthru’s unique capabilities.

Original Source :http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/02/smart-data-for-communications-big-data-becomes-transformational/