Data is Money…Treat it Accordingly

Data is a marketer’s most important asset. It can tell you what new products and services are needed, which new markets to enter — or help you create new markets for your business.

In a recent post on The Economist Group’s Lean Back website, SAS CMO Jim Davis talks about what happens when organizations treat data like an asset. “When they invested wisely into managing and analyzing that asset, they found ways to add revenue to the business with data.” says Davis.

Consider these examples:

• In the energy sector, smart meters are an obvious example. Combining usage data, weather forecasts and historical energy peaks, energy providers can offer new services for customers and businesses that want to better monitor and reduce their energy use.

• In the telecommunications sector, competing mobile service providers are partnering to share data and offer large-scale mobile commerce services to brands that want to increase the intelligence of their loyalty and marketing programs. Millions of consumers are opting in to these programs to receive targeted, context-rich offers based on their locations and their mobile activities.

• In the health care sector, insurance companies are using prescription data to gain better insight into medical compliance. By analyzing this data, the insurance company can offer reminders and support to customers and physicians to improve health outcomes, and reduce the billion-dollar problem of noncompliance.

• In the financial service sector, credit card providers are using transaction data not just to calculate risk and approve transactions – but also to offer merchants valuable information about consumers in their area.

• In the automotive sector, vehicle manufacturers are capturing data on vehicle use and driving patterns via telematics, and making that information available to insurers and consumers for reduced insurance rates.

These businesses stopped thinking of data simply as a byproduct of operational systems that could be used to fine-tune processes and cut expenses. Instead, they recognized data is an asset. When they invested wisely into managing and analyzing that asset, they found ways to add revenue to the business with data.

Remember the adage “It takes money to make money?” These days, we might say‚ “It takes data to make money.”

If you look at your data as money, how might you treat it differently? How can you start investing it back into the business to generate revenue, too?