What does “data-driven” mean for you?

Wait, "data-driven," what? 🤨 Yes, regardless of how many definitions we see, and how many articles and theories we read about "data-driven," being "data-driven" can have different meanings for everyone. It’s very much a concept that gives rise to different interpretations. Whatever your interpretation is, it is something essential for everyone, so let's investigate this more, shall we?

65% of global enterprises increased their analytics spending in 2020 (MicroStrategy, 2020).

65% of global enterprises increased their analytics spending in 2020.

Being data-driven is becoming more and more relevant. In this post, we compiled and analyzed different interpretations and perspectives from the members of our Gretel team regarding what it means to them to be data-driven 🧐.

At Gretel, being data-driven is one of our company's most important values, and we are not the only ones. In fact, $57 million is the estimated total value of the business analytics software market in 2023 (Allied Market Research).

For being data-driven, we use business analytics software and also work with methodologies that help put our data to good use, such as OKRs (check here how we work with OKRs). Even with these data solutions integrated, each of us has a unique understanding of it.

Before we get started, let’s remember the official definition of data-driven marketing 📖:

"Data-driven marketing is the fusion of using data and statistical information to drive marketing decisions and efforts. This could be in the form of precisely deciding when it is best to send an email campaign or post on social media, or on what channel to focus your energy or investment to drive more traffic to your website. "

You can find this definition and more information about data-driven marketing in our article "Data-driven marketing and marketing data-insights explained via FAQs".

Regardless of this definition, let’s check what data-driven means for each of us:

"Data-driven means being able to justify your decisions and performance with facts."

- Martí Gou, Co-founder and CEO at Gretel.

One thing is clear: being data-driven entails using the data available in your company and taking action to transform it into something useful. 57% of enterprise organizations use data and analytics to drive strategy and change (MicroStrategy, 2020), and 32% of companies have altered longer-term strategies in response to changes brought about by data and analytics (McKinsey, 2018).

It’s essential to carry out an action, whatever it may be, as a result of the interpretation of our data. With this in mind, we want to emphasize the importance of acting on data; collecting information is not the same as using it!

"Being data-driven means understanding before doing."

- Inés Guerra, Go to Market Manager at Gretel.

Data allows us to understand our situation and make decisions based on what is going on. 52% of companies worldwide leverage advanced and predictive analytics (MicroStrategy, 2020).

Data allows us to correctly understand what has happened at any given time, rather than relying on sensations or impressions.

"Data-driven means asserting rather than assuming."

- Victor Barbera, Front-End Developer at Gretel.

60% of companies around the world use data and analytics to drive process and cost efficiency (MicroStrategy, 2020), and 78% of organizations have added existing offerings through data monetization (McKinsey, 2018).

With data, we are able to defend and understand the results of actions that have been taken.

"Data-driven means listening to your market and adapting to their needs."

- Jessica Thomas, Marketing Assistant at Gretel.

The focus of data-driven appears to be on objects or inanimate things, but data is nothing more than a reflection of people's actions, so being data-driven allows us to be more human! Data allows us to understand the behavior of the targets with which we interact and improve our communications in order to tailor the message to each situation. Customer analytics is expected to retain dominance in the market in 2023 (Allied Market Research), so we have to be prepared for it!

" Being data-driven means using data as insights to be able to improve with a clear path."

- Lucia Pons, Growth Marketing at Gretel.

Insights-driven businesses are 137% more likely to differentiate between data and analytics (LinkedIn, 2018) 💎. When we scale upward, the amount of data we generate is growing, and its growth is always exponential. For example, if you only do email marketing, you will most likely only have data related to email openings; however, when you do another campaign, such as ads, you will have not only new data from the ads but also the crossing of information between both campaigns. This leads to an increase in the amount of data. We have to rely on data and then transform this data into insights to get real benefits.

"Data-driven is being consistent with what's happening in your company."

- Darià, SEO and SEM expert at Gretel.

Understanding the aforementioned vital signs will allow us to focus our efforts on the actions that produce the best results. By aligning data and sharing it internally, through initiatives such as OKRs or similar, the entire company can look toward the same results and the same path 👯. Moreover, 78% of organizations believe that they are using data and analytics effectively (MicroStrategy, 2020). Even though we are far from using data to its maximum potential, we know how to interpret and apply it effectively.

As you can see, there are many interpretations, but one thing is clear: it is something we must consider for the success of our business or campaigns. If we are not all aligned with the data and integrate it through insights, we will never move forward, as each department will most likely end up taking different directions, causing the company to stagnate and not advance as much as it could. 86% of insight-driven businesses continually act on intelligence to optimize outcomes (Forrester, 2016), and we need to learn how to implement this data correctly because it’s the only way we can grow.

Here’s a final data-driven statistic: the growth rate of insights-driven businesses is 30% more than that of businesses that are not insights-driven (Forrester, 2018). Now it’s your time to grow!🙌