Big data: The success ingredient for small businesses
I work for a big company that prides on leverages big data to make informed customer decisions. Infact, data analysts are some of the most revered colleagues we have, due to their ability to collect consumer data on our digital platforms and provide it to the relevant departments for analysis and trends making. That's one of our secret recipes for business success even during these volatile and unpredictable context.
I always thought big data was the purview of only big enterprises. It is only now that I have the opportunity to think about big data in small businesses after we were prompted to think about its relevance in SMEs.
Big data has been around for at least the past two decades. It entails all the information we create on various digital platforms. The data is used to analyze consumer behaviors to measure business impact, curate the right messages and products and to make relevant decisions that meet the needs both customers and strategic business decisions.
Practically speaking, imagine if as a small business owner, you knew who your customers are, where they live, their purchasing trends and preferences? All this data collected from your website, e-commerce platforms and social media pages, stored on cloud and providing you easy access to information you can use to customize and deliver value to your customers while also improving efficiency and revenue by focusing on what really matters?
So while small business may have ignored big data until now, the pandemic and increased access to technology and digitization warrants small businesses to catch up if they want to remain relevant and competitive in our current marketing milieu. Adoption of big data, managed ethically, is a pathway for SMEs to catch up and thrive. Will you get on the bandwagon?
References
Fuggle, L. (nd). Big data: small businesses can leverage its benefits. Hubspot. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/big-data-for-small-businesses
Polakoff, S. (2020). Why small businesses can no longer ignore big data. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/05/20/why-small-business-can-no-longer-ignore-big-data/?sh=188d1e727639 Forbes.