Marketing is a competitive field in which you have to be versatile and quick on your feet. It can be tough to keep up with the competition if you aren't playing smart, though. The top marketers utilize tons of data in every campaign to make sure they're effectively targeting the right groups and making the most of their advertising dollars. But diving into the deep end of data-driven marketing can be overwhelming if you aren't sure what strategies to use or how to gather data. Let's look at a few examples of how you can leverage data to boost your sales.

Demographic Data

Demographic data is a great resource when you need to see who your campaigns are targeting. You can survey data analysis, data mining from apps and websites, or even website cookies to figure out who's viewing your material and what they like about it.

This information can be particularly useful in your campaign planning. Say you're looking to promote your newest product, but you aren't quite sure who the best target audience is. You can look over your demographic data and see what sections of your users are interested in which products. This can help you to narrow down the group most likely to engage with your new offer and then target your marketing tactics specifically to them.

Channel Trends

Another way to see where your campaigns are truly hitting home is to look at the user trends across your different marketing channels. Each marketing channel—email, social media, website, online ads—has unique strengths and can engage different audiences. If you know how these work, then it makes it easier to branch into other channels.

Trying a new marketing channel can feel risky because you aren't quite sure what you'll get out of it. To create a reasonable forecast, try looking at similar channels you're already using. For example, if you're looking to branch into LinkedIn posts, consider how your Facebook marketing performs and what audiences you see most. These will likely cross over as many mid-level professionals frequent both platforms.

Measure Every Step

Measuring success can be fun when you've made significant gains or had a big win. But when growth is incremental or a marketing campaign isn't an obvious blowout, it can be easy to think it wasn't successful. That's why measuring every step of the process is so important.

When you keep track of the success of each step of a marketing campaign, you can get a better idea of it the campaign is successful as a whole. Maybe you didn't make the record sales you were hoping for, but with each portion outlined, you can see that you captured more leads than with any other tactic. Analyzing each step can show you where you're doing great or where you need to adjust your strategy to reach the overall goal you're striving for.

Cross-Channel Engagement

Combining different lead generation tactics can be the best way to reach the widest audience and actually gain some conversions. One example of this is using pay-per-click ads in conjunction with your email marketing. You can easily tie your paid clicks to an automated marketing email campaign, so users are directly contacted after engaging with an ad. This keeps your brand in their mind and gives you the opportunity to provide more value that might move them along the sales funnel.

Keep an Eye on the Industry 

Part of the reason marketing is so competitive is because it's an incredibly fast-paced industry. It seems like there's a new tactic or standard every day and brands have to keep up to stay alive. Keeping a pulse on the trends of the industry as a whole can help you to know when to be more aggressive in your campaigns and when to pull back. It can give you a good idea of how people are currently responding to marketing efforts and inform your next moves so you can ensure the best results.