3 steps to more effective data-backed campaigns

Data is the backbone of sales and marketing campaigns. Whether you’re proving the client impact of your value proposition, uncovering unseen market challenges or quantifying new opportunities, data is a powerful tool for building credibility and generating demand.

But conducting external research is often where campaigns lose speed and pick up cost. Designing questionnaires and economic models, conducting fieldwork and analysing results require specialist skills and trusted networks. 

Here are our tips on how to accelerate data gathering and maximise impact.

#1 Be specific

Often market research tries to boil the ocean, uncovering new macro trends across multiple sectors, geographies and audiences. The more markets and sectors you include, the more stakeholder engagement is required and the more you’ll spend on market research. Instead focus on a specific audience and target your research there. Ask where growth is going to come from and how you’ll reach that audience.

#2 Be selective

Successful evidence-based campaigns are not about cramming the most numbers into a white paper. Be selective about the data you gather and how you use it. Creating a clear and compelling narrative isn’t about showing off how much you know, but curating insights you think are most relevant to the audience. Ask whether one or two carefully selected stats are enough to make your case.

#3 Be sparing

It can be tempting to start from scratch with each new campaign. While it’s important to innovate and refresh data, we also believe in maximising the value of what you already have. Try to do something creative with data from elsewhere in the business. Aggregating internal data, mining previous campaigns through a new lens or adding single questions to regular surveys. Ask whether you really need to put a new survey into the field.