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Ever been on the receiving end of a business inquiry, or a survey, or simply just clicking “accept” on their privacy terms and conditions? Your personal data is not at the hand of the business. Your name, your age, location, interests, habits, purchasing habits, and the list goes on. 

Technology has made it thousand times easier to collect data and as we became aware of the data collection and exploitation, the more used to it we became. We live on several platforms where they track our behavior as consumers. For instance Facebook. Facebook knows more about us than our housemates, roommates and spouses do. They know what we search for and why.

But how do businesses and social media platforms use this data? Is it really necessary to obtain data and have them backed up in a data backup software? They don’t limit themselves to just our personal data. They obtain behavioral data, engagement data, personal data and even data on our attitude towards the business. 

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So why do businesses collect all of these different types of data on you? Even if you are just a consumer? 

Data Is Knowledge

Data is knowledge. And Knowledge can be used to boost our revenue. But how do businesses change the massive amount of random data into actual knowledge?

For example, your customer profile includes your age, date of birth, location, your satisfaction levels, previous reviews, how many times you abandoned the shopping cart on the e-commerce platform, what you browse through their platform, what you said to customer service, and even your engagement with the company’s social media.

This list of data on you easily becomes valuable knowledge to the business in matters of seconds, of course after proper analysis. Data analysts and digital marketers get paid to understand your behavior online and use them to refine our business. 

Data Can Be Used For Research And Product Development

As we understood before data shows what customer’s demand and what they are missing from your business. You also have a clear view of what satisfies them and what they need more of. Depending on the demand and needs of customers, you can use this data to innovate more and more products. It is according to customer demands, so you know the business will have traction with their new product developments. 

Data Is Used In Marketing 

Our marketing is done for the sake of customers. It is to attract them towards you. How do we attract them if we don’t know anything about them? Data helps us understand what sort of marketing techniques work on your target market. Data can also help you segment your customers into profitable customers and non-profitable ones. You can focus on either segment depending on your needs. 

Data is crucial in the business world. Especially since the entire shift to the digital landscape. We cannot improve our customer’s perception or our products and service without the aid of data. It is also important to use it ethically since your customers are a lot more tech-savvy and knowledgeable.