Xchange Analytics Conference: 7 powerful takeaways for marketers

How can marketers identify and act on customer sentiment, what’s the number one danger with having too much unstructured data, and how can you react to change faster than competitors? The Xchange Analytics Conference delivered valuable insights that will help to shape marketing strategies for brands across the UK.

Packed with thought-provoking ideas, Mediahawk’s live online event focused on new technology and future opportunities in the world of marketing analytics and call tracking. Taking part were senior marketers from across various industries including, healthcare, automotive, and technology, as well as marketing agencies.

Tech journalist and podcaster Guy Clapperton used his keynote presentation to show marketers how they could become ‘near futurists’ – by spotting upcoming trends and opportunities, based on observation.

Murray Picton, Mediahawk’s Head of Development, then revealed some of the leading-edge tools now changing the face of marketing analytics and call tracking.

Here are seven takeaways from the event for marketers:

1. Massive change is closer than you might think

In a volatile world, it’s tempting to yearn for the comfort of the familiar. But companies run the risk of being a Pierce Brosnan business in a Daniel Craig world, to use a James Bond analogy. They haven’t moved on – when everything else has.

To be ready for the near future, enterprises must adopt an open mindset where they’re always observing the changes around them, evaluating the possibilities and then acting with trusted tech partners, before competitors see what’s happening.

2. Speech recognition is the key to revealing sentiment

Speech recognition has progressed dramatically — and gone from being a nice-to-have feature to a necessity. This is because customers expect brands to understand their needs and interact with them in a relevant, personal way. Artificial intelligence (AI) can detect what the customer is really saying. Today, you don’t need to train the artificial intelligence, it just understands you automatically.

Mediahawk is now combining advanced natural language processing with marketing analytics. This will reveal the sentiment of customers, alongside their behaviours. We’ll start to read their emotions intuitively, identify their happiness levels and interpret buying signals. Sentiment will become a powerful force in shaping marketing strategy.

3. Data lakes hold valuable secrets – but they can be deadly

By 2025, worldwide data is expected to hit a jaw-dropping 175 zettabytes. Companies have learned how to capture information but most of it is unstructured. Many firms are storing it all in one place – forming giant ‘data lakes’.

However, the danger is that they actually create vast data graveyards, as firms send their data somewhere and forget about it. This will be a huge issue, as data continues to grow exponentially. We must use data effectively.

4. AI is spotting new patterns in our data

Artificial intelligence will give us a way to dive into our deep pools of data. Already, Mediahawk is showing how AI can see beyond what’s humanly possible. It can take your calls and identify historic patterns, spot the anomalies and deliver game-changing insights.

Mediahawk’s Looker Studio integration will allow companies to join the dots and see things that their competitors can’t possibly imagine. Today, we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg. It’s an exciting moment.

5. The phone remains critical to marketing

In Quarter 4 of 2020, 50 billion minutes of phone calls were made in the UK. Companies that neglect the phone as a channel will be losing customers – and marketers will only be using 50% of their stack’s full capability.

Voice will become even more important as natural language processing and artificial intelligence accelerate the transformation of marketing analytics.

6. Outbound call tracking and reporting just got super-easy

It’s now possible to fully understand the effect of outbound calls on your lead generation and sales conversions – thanks to a tech breakthrough. When combined with your inbound data, you can get the full picture of your customer. It’s quick and easy for salespeople to make trackable calls with just a click. They can use mobiles or desk phones and work from home too, because the tech can operate over a standard phone network and their own numbers can be hidden. Logging happens automatically, while reports are easy to run with the ability to filter exactly the data you need.

7. You can now unlock the full customer journey beyond sales

State-of-the-art reporting tools now enable you to understand the customer journey from first contact to sale – and after-sales. From this, you can spot which marketing channels provide the most sales, higher value sales and sales of specific products.

Using cutting-edge sales reporting tools, you can understand individual behaviour as well as identifying patterns across departments, campaigns and customer groups, such as premium sales versus normal sales. Teams can import sales data from any system they want, just using CSV or XLS files from their CRM or sales system.