4 Ways to Leverage Data to Increase Revenue

There is untapped capital hiding inside your data right now. Don’t believe me? According to research, 55% of enterprise data is dark, or unknown to the business. This is important because in today’s competitive marketplace, data is as good as gold. In fact, MIT research proves enterprises that are data-driven had 6% higher profits than the average. Finding innovative ways to capture and analyze business intelligence is the key to shedding light on dark data, making better decisions, and increasing revenue.  

Let’s take a deeper dive into four ways to leverage data to increase revenue. 

1. Use data to personalize services

The role of the sales department is to maximize sales while building trust and loyalty with customers. Sales teams that are data rich can create targeted customer communications and personalized services, which is important as 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.  

And with more personalized services, organizations will realize:  

• Increase customer retention: Within the financial services sector, a 5% increase in customer retention is responsible for more than a 25% increase in profit 
• Increase in repeat purchases from existing customers: Probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%; Probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% 

Companies providing accurate data to their sales teams enable them to identify customer problems and capitalize on potential leads. Creating personas is a great way to identify the needs, goals, desires, and challenges of a typical user. 

2. Increase success of new product and service launches

Catering to consumers’ needs in the present is great but predicting their needs in the future is even better. More than 25% of total revenue and profits across industries comes from the launch of new products. A data-driven approach to both competitive analysis and market analysis can give you an accurate read on the current landscape of your industry and how quickly those trends may evolve, respectively.  

After launching a new product or service, a real-time view into how it is being received by customers can help you make critical changes to increase its success. A few key metrics to monitor include:  

• How your product is performing compared to directly competing products 
• How your product is performing by market 
• How your product is performing compared to your past products 

3. Cut costs

Data is a great tool to cut costs. Data can illuminate functions within your organization that are time consuming and costly, making them great candidates for automation. Research suggests that companies using business automation see more than double revenue growth. 

Another way data can help cut costs is by revealing which initiatives are performing well and which need to be halted. In marketing, for example, multi-channel campaigns can be expensive. A study conducted by Forrester found that 37% of marketers waste money because of poor data. Marketing departments armed with high quality data from their campaigns’ performance can pause lower-performing campaigns and use that money on ones that are showing a positive conversion rate for higher ROI.  

4. Connecting disparate data sources

Data can often exist in silos, normally isolated from the rest of the organization. Silos develop naturally within different departments and desperate systems and applications. The volume of data, company/team culture, and legacy systems are some of the factors that contribute to the rise of data silos. As business groups continue to collect data to meet individualized goals, the lack of cohesion within the organization makes it difficult to address challenges. 

Connecting data across channels for an omni-channel experience can greatly contribute to increased revenue. For example, employees that have access to all enterprise intelligence are more informed, independent, and productive. These employees will in turn create augmented products and deliver improved services, benefiting bottom line. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that promote data sharing will outperform their peers on most business value metrics.  

These metrics include:  

• Increased cost savings 
• Net new revenue or non-monetary value creation 
• Improved risk mitigation decision making 

By prioritizing data sharing, businesses can enable substantial business advantages and achieve digital transformation.  

Monetizing Enterprise Data

The true value of data is not in the abundance collected, but rather how it is leveraged to capture meaningful insights. Data-driven organizations find value through data analytics, which is the process of analyzing data to acquire business insights. Prioritizing initiatives in which enterprise intelligence can be leveraged to yield maximum business outcomes is the first step in using data to increase revenue. A few of these initiatives include using data to 

• Personalized services 
• Increase success of new product and service launches 
• Cut costs 
• Connect disparate data sources 

Apexon helps market leaders and emerging startups harness the power of data to achieve your business goals. We enable better data understanding, improved decision-making, increased collaboration, and regulatory data compliance. To learn more, check out Apexon’s Data & Analytics services.