You’ll find a multitude of definitions of Big Data with a quick Google search. Big Data analysis is a complicated science and a profitable industry. In this post, we here at Galileo Tech Media provide examples of how to use big data to create wise content for your audiences.

Big Data can be defined as large volumes of information, including both structured and unstructured data. Big Data represents data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate.

After lots of predictive analysis, data curation, and other advanced methods, Big Data can provide you with invaluable details about your audiences. Where they are located, how they spend their time online, what their preferences are. And most importantly – how you can deepen your relationship between the customer and your brand.

Here are 3 examples of big brands making Big Data work for them:

1. Red Roof Inn found an entirely new database of consumers to target when they utilized Big Data – stranded travelers at airports. Red Roof Inn used Big Data associated with weather and flight cancellation data, airport and hotel locations. They used this information to target travelers looking for a one-night stay with a geo-targeted mobile ad campaign. They saw their business by 10% from 2013-2014.

2. Morton’s The Steakhouse pulled off a legendary publicity stunt using Big Data. When Morton’s was tweeted by a weary business traveler requesting a dinner delivered to the Newark airport, Morton’s delivered. Literally. Big Data revealed to Morton’s that the traveler was a frequent customer and active on social media. They learned his meal preference, his location and flight number. And viola! His favorite steak dinner was served to him by a tuxedo-clad delivery person in Newark airport. Could your marketing team pull that off? Ours either.

3. Another story you may have heard – Target breaking the news of a teenage shopper’s pregnancy to her father. As the New York Times wrote, Target’s statistician was able to identify women who were pregnant even though those women hadn’t notified Target. They created a prediction model based on products women are likely to purchase during different stages of pregnancy. They then targeted those women with baby product promotions, and saw big results. Target was able to grow its revenue from $44 billion in 2002

[when the analysis began] to $67 billion just 8 years later.

What possibilities does Big Data hold for your brand? For starters, it gives you insight into your Buyer’s Personas. You’ll learn that the same message will not resonate equally with every member of your audience. While one buyer may be motivated by an expert opinion, another could be motivated by a partner’s buy-in, and yet another by emotion. By identifying your audiences’ Buyer Personas, you can reach them with a meaningful message – thus increasing your chance of conversions.

Perhaps you can even segment your social audience. Your Facebook audience may be more motivated by researching a purchase before adding the item to their shopping cart, with the aptitude to consume multiple pieces of content before pulling the trigger. But your Twitter followers could be closer to the purchasing funnel, and more likely to convert with a flash sale or customized coupon.

Your brand or agency may not have the resources yet to delve into Big Data associated with your audience. Galileo Tech Media has been getting to know Howard Moskowitz, and we recommend you take a look at some of his research to learn even more about the power and potential of Big Data. Of course, we’d love to talk to you about it too!