Do you know what data monetization is all about? If the answer is no, it is very likely that you have not yet discovered the full potential that your company could have through this strategy. But don’t worry, because in this post we will tell you everything you need to know about data monetization and how to make it possible.
What is data monetization?
Monetizing data means discovering and harnessing the potential of a company’s data for extra opportunities, benefits, and revenue. Basically, it is about building a strategy and a suitable business model for selling the data to other companies.
In this way, corporate information is monetized, which means not staying in the promotion of value-laden customer interactions but going much further. At present, this type of strategy takes on great value given the growth, volume, variety and speed of data. It is also totally viable thanks to the new technologies that allow its optimal management.
However, while many companies are aware of the opportunities behind their data, few have developed strategies to successfully monetize. Regardless, the data market is not yet a mass market, so your business can still find its opportunity and establish itself in a niche.
How to monetize your company data?
As we have already mentioned, an adequate strategy is key to taking advantage of the full potential that your corporate data has to offer you. To start monetizing your data, it is necessary to evaluate some important aspects such as:
• High Frequency Information: High frequency transaction data is the most valuable in terms of monetization. Credit or debit card movements, mobile web search, or any transaction carried out frequently can be interesting for the strategy.
• Knowledge of consumer trends: it is necessary to have enough information on customer behavior, and thus, to be able to identify their preferences in order to expand their range of services. They can be known through data analysis, geolocation,
financial transactions, etc.
• Identification of consumers: the data gains value if you have the consumer’s profile. It is necessary to have personal information regarding name, number, address, etc. Of course, it is necessary to guarantee compliance with the rules regarding privacy and data protection.
Data types and where to get them from
The data can come from very different sources, but this does not diminish their usefulness and, much less, their profitability. These are the sources from which to extract more data:
• Social media: The analytics of the social channels in which the company has a presence will give us a useful idea about what our potential customer is like and how the one who has already made the conversion behaves.
• IoT: Devices connected to the network capture a large amount of data that we can
reuse.
• Open data: Many institutions have decided to share their data and allow its free use.
• Internal data: These can be stored on the company's own servers, for example in the company’s ERP and CRM.
Five opportunities when monetizing data
To achieve monetization of the data, it is necessary to discern between the data that we will use and what will not contribute anything, as well as identify clearly exposed patterns. It will be necessary to unify them in a single system, since as we have seen
they come from different routes.
• Savings in maintenance costs: Operational information allows us to better manage resources and eliminate cost overruns. Being able to access the data in real time allows us to anticipate incidents and act accordingly, to avoid the economic losses that this may entail. Likewise, the data also gives us an overview of our resources and what we
are spending them on, which helps to make better forecasts and optimize these resources.
• Improve the way of selling products and services: The Marketing, Commercial and Sales departments will be responsible for taking advantage of the data collected and its analysis, creating personalized offers or redirecting strategies or campaigns towards a more segmented and clear audience.
• Change and improve the customer experience: We can learn more about customer behavior through Big Data, to offer more personalized content and more in line with their expectations. This applies both to those who are not yet customers and those who already are, since the data allows us to identify patterns of behavior in some and in others.
• Make changes in the business: Data analysis allows us to have a competitive advantage and anticipate market needs. With this we can propose new business lines or change existing ones to make them more profitable.
• Obtain a more strategic vision of the business: Data helps make decisions that will influence the future of the organization.
Beyond monetizing the data, it helps to make the organization stronger, since in the process we not only know more about the customer and the product, but about the entire operation of the company. For this, it is essential to have a business intelligence
system that has a unified panel of the entire digital business on a single platform for a more agile analysis.
