Do you own a business that is trying to increase its web presence? If so, you are not alone. Thousands of business owners just like you want to be able to not only find new customers online but retain those same customers for the long term. In order to do this you need more than just a social media marketing campaign; you need to truly understand what your potential customers are talking about, searching for, and clicking on. The good news for you is that there are several techniques you can employ to do just that. Below are three of the top techniques used by major companies today:
Text Analytics – Did you know that the value of the current text analytic market is approximately $3 billion? That number is expected to reach $6 billion by the year 2020, which is an incredible increase. One of the most interesting parts about those numbers is that the text being analyzed is such a small portion of what actually exists. In fact, research from The International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that less than 1% of data and text is ever analyzed. If your business could benefit by understanding customer opinions, product reviews, or feedback then text analytics tools can work for you.
Entity Matching and Resolution – Entity matching software enables you to find and link mentions of the same entity across and within large data sets. Typically you will find three main subtasks involved in entity matching: deduplication, record linkage, and canonicalization. If your business currently digs through big data sets with inefficient processes and you know that you need to increase your speed and reduce the amount of redundancies, then entity matching software may be a huge benefit to you.
Sentiment Analysis – Sentiment analysis is a technique that analyzes text to find positive or negative attitudes. For instance, you may use sentiment analysis to scan the social media posts of your customers to see their reaction to a new product launch or sale campaign. With data like this you can then adjust the product or marketing strategy to reach those customers who you aren’t connecting with if it is a number large enough to make a difference.
Text analytics, entity matching, and sentiment analysis are just three of the ways that you can be using technology to increase your customer retention, process efficiency and marketing success. Whether you use one or all three of the techniques, you can rest assured that your decision would benefit your business. The next time you are sitting in a strategy meeting with your executive team, consider putting one of the above techniques forward to see what sort of response it gets. You may be surprised at the response!