From Data to Marketing Decisions

GREGORY: 0:00

When we are interacting, or when clients are interacting with a company. When they purchase something from the website, they leave some information behind them. So it's really important to make the right use of it and try to use it to really help the company to operate better and to provide a better services and better offer to the client base.

CHARLINE: 0:18

You want to know how many people have clicked on a link in your email, how many people have opened your email, or how many people have purchased a product on your website, and so on.

GREGORY: 0:28

That's also one of the challenge to get, I would say, good quality data, because if we collect like bad data, then the decision will make based on that will not be the right one or will not be perfect.

CHARLINE: 0:38

For our customer, while also advising them to use what we call a lead magnet strategy. So on your homepage, when you put the newsletter block in order to get the emails, you can offer a free item like a marketing guide or whatever in exchange of the email address. And that's what we call a lead magnet strategy.

GREGORY: 0:56

In Odoo, we have several tools to help you to maintain and to correct or to fix the data, or to fill the blank when you miss some information.

AMY CAROLINE: 1:05

Hey there listeners, today we've got an interesting subject for you on planet Odoo we're introducing two awesome Odoo experts, Charline and Gregory. Joining us for the first time. Today, we're diving into the world of data driven marketing. And did you know that data driven marketing strategies can increase sales by 15% and double down on their return on advertising spend? Think about it. Data is everywhere part of our daily lives, yet we often don't give it a second thought. It helps marketers improve their ads by targeting the right people, understanding customer behaviour and spotting trends. But here's the kicker it's not a one time thing. With data, marketers keep getting better, fine tuning their strategies and creating personalized experiences. And guess what? Customers love it. They get exactly what they need, when and where they need it. So grab your favorite drink, kick back, and let's make understanding data driven marketing a breeze. Welcome to a laid back but insightful session where we unravel the magic behind the data that shapes our world. Let's make learning about data as easy as enjoying your favorite podcast. Ready to embark on this datamazing journey with us? Let's roll! Okay, so today we have two special guests who are here to talk to us about data driven marketing. So will you please introduce yourselves? Uh, Charline, you can begin.

CHARLINE: 2:19

Okay. I'm Charline. I'm a business analyst and expert in the marketing apps, and I've been working at Odoo for more than two years now.

GREGORY: 2:26

And I'm Greg. So managing the team, uh, implementing the large projects at Odoo and working for now, 12 years, uh, in this case, uh, and the famous Odoonosaur.

AMY CAROLINE: 2:36

So you're the two right people to be talking to for for this topic. Um, let's give our listeners, before we begin, just kind of a basis of what it is we're talking about when we refer to data.

CHARLINE: 2:49

Okay. So, um, data and more about data driven marketing, it's like, uh, the data you need to drive your marketing strategy so it can be like a guide for your marketing strategy and your marketing efforts. Uh, so instead of guessing what might work for your marketing strategy, you will make your decision based on data and will fact that you will find in all your marketing strategies.

AMY CAROLINE: 3:13

And what kind of information will we find in this data that can help lead the marketing startegies?

CHARLINE: 3:19

If you want to build a marketing strategy related to emails, you want to know how many people have clicked on a link in your email, how many people have opened your email, or how many people have purchased a product on your website, and so on. So this is the kind of data that you can collect and that can be useful for your marketing strategy.

AMY CAROLINE: 3:37

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess it's it's pretty self-explanatory. Uh, the title data driven marketing, of course. But if we go a bit more in depth into that, what are the key advantages apart from just knowing your consumer a bit better? But what kind of advantages can we see when thinking about our marketing strategy?

GREGORY: 3:59

Yeah data-driven marketing can help you not only to understand how the customer are interacting with your company, but also to better understand how the market is going here and try to perceive new trends and decide a bit on what product we should put the focus on and what are to put, maybe more under the spotlight to really push and try to increase a bit our, uh, presence on the market and also increase our way to interact with the the client base and see how we can increase and grow, uh, with this kind of information, we can collect from any source, um, of data, I would say.

AMY CAROLINE: 4:36

Absolutely. So that's a huge advantage for any business, really. Um, so this is kind of the general concept and of course, a good argument for why people should put some focus on this. But, uh, I think it can be kind of overwhelming when a new business is starting off and they want to break into this. So to begin, when should a business really consider to invest in collecting data? How do they get started and what do they decide to focus on?

GREGORY: 5:03

For me to start the business, there is no even no investment to make because we already collect a lot of data when we are interacting or when clients are interacting with, uh, with a company. When they purchase something from the website, they leave some information behind the, behind them. And so the data are already present inside the system or inside the company. So it's really important to make the right use of it to really benefit from all this mass of information or data we have collected, and try to use it to really help the company to operate better and to provide a better services and better offer to the client base.

AMY CAROLINE: 5:38

And how does the customer even begin to start filtering through all of that data? Because, as you said, a lot is being recorded. Where can they know how to start?

GREGORY: 5:46

Yeah, that's one of the main challenges, I would say, because we collect a lot of, uh, of information, a lot of data. And the challenge is to redefine what could be useful for the company to make, to move forward and try to understand their customer base. Who is, uh, interacting with the company, what are looking for? What are they? I can say the their behavior when browsing the website. So it's important to see what would be the next step for the company where they want to grow, if they want to grow online, if they want to push for, I would say, more sales or increase their online presence and decide a bit what are the next challenge to to to face and see what data they would need to understand better how to reach, uh, this next level?

AMY CAROLINE: 6:29

Of course. Um, it also depends on the use case, as you just said, and really the focus of the business. But from both of your experiences, do you see that users or businesses tend to lean toward one direction before getting started with other ways, such as email marketing or perhaps the interaction with their website? What do businesses tend to focus on first?

CHARLINE: 6:52

Um, in my opinion, they are using first email marketing and they really want to put some, uh, URL, some Twitter link and see, okay, who has clicked on which, uh, which link on the email? Okay. If they click on it, uh, as the, as the customer purchase the product and so on. And then maybe after more about the marketing automation, uh, linked with the website in order to trigger, uh, some emails or some sevral actions according to the customer behavior.

AMY CAROLINE: 7:24

So there are some steps with that data that they can automate to kind of get this process smoothly flowing from the start. Yeah. And we'll talk more about how that applies to Odoo in a minute. But before we dig into that, um, with all of this data that we have, a lot of it can be used in a great way, but how can we be sure that it's of good quality?

GREGORY: 7:46

That's also one of the challenges to get, I would say, good quality data, because if we collect like bad data, then the decision will make based on that will not be the right one or will not be perfect.

AMY CAROLINE: 7:56

And what do you consider a bad data?

GREGORY: 7:58

Uh, incomplete data, for example, or you just not track the right information? It always depends on the use case you want to to tackle. But basically if you try to collect non complete data or not, the right one, uh, to, to challenge and to grow in uh, in the company, then all your marketing strategy will be not optimal.

AMY CAROLINE: 8:17

Okay. I see what you mean. So that's the difference between raw and processed data, which is an essential difference to distinguish. To be sure, we're using the information efficiently. And we'll probably need to clean about half the data we receive.

GREGORY: 8:31

It's really important to to collect the right one to see if we have all the data we need. Like for example, if you want to launch new, uh, email marketing just to get an up to date email, uh, email list, for example, if you, uh, outdated emails or non-existing emails receiving a lot of bounce, uh, or error when sending the emails, then your online reputation will be bad and you will be flagged as spam. And so your, uh, target will be missed and you will not, I can say impact the right audience or not, the impact the audience you want in the way you want it.

AMY CAROLINE: 9:03

Absolutely. And actually you bring up something really interesting here as well, because obviously having quality data means maintaining and being sure all this information is up to date, as you just said. Can you give some tips on how someone can maintain their data?

GREGORY: 9:18

Yeah. So here. So it's really important to get an up to date and a correct list of, of data to not spam people of course, because here you will be negatively impacted, uh, by that. And so we in Odoo, we have several tools to help you to maintain and to correct or to fix the data or to fill the blank when you, uh, you miss some information. So we have some data cleaning tools. We have, uh, some filtering capabilities to update or to delete some information that are outdated. We have also the ability to opt out, uh, people from some mailings to take that into account and not to abuse from the data we collected and not to use it. I can say, you know, not a correct way.

AMY CAROLINE: 10:01

So Odoo was already thinking about this. They're trying to make it easier for the customer. Um, can you tell us more about some other ways that a user can use Odoo to collect this data?

CHARLINE: 10:11

Um, yeah. And although there are several tools related to applications, if I can say so. For example, we have the CRM application which is used to collect and uh, get more leads and opportunities. So for example, on the website you can use the contact form if you want to get more leads. And then you can track all the data you want according to those leads. And uh, yeah, keep an eye on those potential opportunities. Uh, for the website and e-commerce. We can also keep an eye on the customer behavior on the website and see, uh, the product that is added to the cart, the product that he has purchased, the page that he has, uh, uh, checked and so on. And yeah, for the email marketing, also, we can increase the mailing list also thanks to the website or newsletter blog. And then thanks to it, you can collect more data, get more email address. Um, thanks to this blog and your mailing list in the email marketing application. So there are several ways to to do it in Odoo.

AMY CAROLINE: 11:12

Yeah. And from your personal experience now this is completely subjective and just your personal opinion. What do you think um, is the easiest to get started with? Step one, you're focusing on on one of these outlets. Which one do you focus on?

GREGORY: 11:27

To me, the easiest way is to target like to send mailings because here the emails, many people, uh, leave their email, uh, when they are on a browsing website creating an account on the, on the platform. So we have a lot of emails. So it's an easy way to already connect with the the client base and try to push our services product and just talk about our business, our company and get in touch with the our client or potential client.

AMY CAROLINE: 11:56

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good tip. Do you have a preference as well? Charline.

CHARLINE: 12:01

Yeah, I would also say email. And um, with our customer, we're also advising them to use what we call uh, lead magnet strategy. So on your on page, when you put the newsletter block in order to get the emails, you can offer a free item like a marketing guide or whatever in exchange of the email address. And that's what we call a lead magnet strategy in in marketing.

AMY CAROLINE: 12:22

Oh very nice. Now, um, a lot of these strategies as well. Um, obviously the customer is very involved and we target them based on some of their data. Um, I think there's a fine line between what customers appreciate and what's a bit too intrusive. Um, and obviously there's it's a bit taboo to collect customer data. It can make people feel a bit uncomfortable. Uh, what is your advice to best approach this?

GREGORY: 12:51

For me the company should, I can say, be transparent with the customer on the data they collect and what, uh, and how they want to you to use those data. Because here, if the client that is a bit intrusive or that we're going to overuse their data or to send them like many emails or to push them many product or many offers, they will just opt out and you will lose one potential, uh, way to connect with, uh, with that person. So it's really important to be transparent with the, our customer base or our email, uh, audience just to avoid, like to lose people and just to be able to let them also opt in and opt out from the those mailings to not to contact, to not contact them. Uh, too many times. Right.

AMY CAROLINE: 13:34

And that makes it much more user friendly as well. Um, when considering the strategy though, do you advise people to start slowly or do you still take a more aggressive approach and then back up? If you notice that you're losing some interaction.

CHARLINE: 13:49

I would say start slowly. Get one objective. Know the data that you want to get. Be sure that we can get all the data in Odoo, uh, for example, the contact form or whatever. But really I would say start slowly and keep one objective.

AMY CAROLINE: 14:06

Okay, that's good advice. Um, do you guys have any, uh, user stories or experiences that were really, uh, marketing focused that you saw a huge impact in their business?

CHARLINE: 14:19

Uh, I had one, uh, with my first customer because she at first she didn't want to use the marketing application because she thought that it will not be so useful. And then she started to send a lot of newsletter because she was selling products and events for children. And then she saw that it has a huge impact on the on her sales. And then when we advised her to use the lead magnet, for example, and so on, and to really put the newsletter blog on the website and ask people to, uh, put their email address in exchange of a promo code and so on. She saw that it was, uh, it was useful for, for sales.

AMY CAROLINE: 14:57

That's one of the beautiful things about data driven marketing is that you see the quantitative impact immediately, and you have all of that information, um, directly, um, received from the user. So that's really interesting. Um, as well. Um, now let's imagine that the user, they're working with other software or they're even they're migrating from another software. Um, how can they ensure that all of the data that they may have been previously collecting is transferred to Odoo smoothly?

GREGORY: 15:27

So first years are Odoo already offers a lot of tools to to store those data and to use it, uh, afterwards and to, to perform this kind of marketing strategies. But of course, if they already using some tools, we can integrate Odoo with those kind of application. We can try to find the best way to interact with this platform, or to simply import the data and move from this, uh, existing platform to the tool, use, uh, made inside Odoo to ease and more integrate the entire marketing strategy and the entire, I would say, digital strategy for the company. So Odoo offers a lot of possibilities. And so here like direct connection with the other application, but also manual import of data to be able to start from Odoo and from the data we collect in the past. So nothing is lost. And the plan not to restart from the beginning, but to continue and to move forward. Uh, right.

AMY CAROLINE: 16:20

Don't fear, we won't make anyone start from scratch. And so you mentioned that we can integrate with some third parties. Can you mentioned some that, uh, users may be, may take advantage of with Odoo.

GREGORY: 16:34

Yeah. So here we already have an app store where we already have a lot of, uh, application available, uh, to be able to connect Odoo with other external suppliers or external, uh, application. But we can also develop a lot of them if they are not, I can say existing or not operating the way we want here to really find the best approach for the client and to cover his use case is specific use case.

AMY CAROLINE: 16:59

Okay. Um, and can you tell me as well, what are some of the best practices that you notice? Of course, as you just said, it really depends on the use case, but is there a checklist that you have or some tips that you have that which can apply to every business, no matter which area they're in?

GREGORY: 17:19

We don't have such a checklist because it really depends on the use case. But what we try to find is what would be the best for the client, and to try to really make him fit into Odoo the best way possible and see what tools is the most efficient for him, and try to find if Odoo can answer his needs. Of course we're going to push for Odoo, but if we see something that Odoo does not cover, I can say the most efficiently. We'll try to find some work around and see how we can really find the the best value and the most value. Uh, from the from this with a collaboration of Odoo. Uh, of course.

AMY CAROLINE: 17:54

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's so many possibilities out of the box, but it's really nice as well. Um, really comforting for some businesses to know that they can also customize Odoo a bit to their needs, even though that's not, uh, the first recommendation. It's always possible, um, going in that direction. We do have the studio application where users can add fields and, and things like that. How can they use those tools, um, to also collect some user data or improve that aspect? Do you have any specific examples of users who might have done that in the past?

CHARLINE: 18:28

Uh, but for example, in the contact form, for the leads and opportunities in the CRM, you can add with studio some fields on the, on the lead itself that you need, and then you can use those fields on the contact form in the website in order to collect this data. And then you can be sure that all the data you need are there in Odoo.

AMY CAROLINE: 18:48

Yeah, that's that's really flexible, really nice, and that customers can use it. Um, have you had a user come to you before? They know that they really want to develop their marketing strategies with the data that's provided, but they don't know where to begin. So they have all this information from the user. Um, I'm going to talk specifically. Let's start with e-commerce. So they have all of the customer's contact information, their location. Um, have you ever had a user who comes to you and they say, okay, I have this information. It's great. Uh, but I don't know what would be the most important piece of information to focus on for my email strategy or whichever strategy they decide to pursue. What would you recommend?

CHARLINE: 19:31

But first they have to know which data they need, of course. And yeah, they need to know upfront which data they need. And then according to the CRM or whatever, uh, they need to check the customer behavior, maybe, uh, send them, um, ask them a feedback in order to know what they like, dislike and so on. And then according to it, uh, check what was the last purchase in order to know, okay, what's the trend for your customer according to the to the product that you are selling? And then when you know, okay, what's your customer like or dislike when you know which product they really want to purchase on your on your website, send them a personalized message or send them a promotion and so on. So we know from the beginning, okay, what I want to know what I want to focus on. Okay? I want to focus on this product. I want to focus on the fact that I want to know which product they are going to buy and then, uh, personalize your message according to it.

AMY CAROLINE: 20:28

So we can really personalize that information for the individual. We don't necessarily have to look at a group, just our customers from Belgium or just our customers from the US. Uh, do you recommend still, um, taking both of those aspects, the individual and the group data and finding different strategies accordingly, or to focus on one or the other?

GREGORY: 20:51

Now we're going to try to, I would say, segment a bit our, uh, customer base to try to push or to try some strategies and see what are the results and to adapt them, uh, later on to see how we can, I would say, improve our way and have better outcomes from our strategy. We're going to start with small groups and try maybe to push, uh, some, some product, for example, based on, uh, other purchases that they have done just to see, okay, if the customer are interested in this kind of, uh, communication or if it does not have any impact, then we're going to try something else and we're going to discuss with the client to see what are the challenges. Or I can say aiming and see how we can help them with the tools already available in, uh, in Odoo.

AMY CAROLINE: 21:39

Okay. I see and so what are some of the strategies that you recommend to, uh, uh, not strategies, but the ways of testing the strategies actually to see which one has the best impact?

CHARLINE: 21:52

Uh, for example, in marketing automation application, you can build several campaigns in order to check what was working well or not. Uh, so if you are I don't know if you are selling bikes and then, uh, you want, uh, to promote a new helmet, you have two new helmets and you want to promote them, then you can build two several marketing automation campaigns in the application and target people with both your bike and then send an email with a promo code, uh, with your new template as a promotion, and then check if your customers open it or not. And then you create a second campaign marketing automation campaign with another email template with no promo code, for example. But here it's easy. I think people will go for the promotion, but you can really, uh, use, uh, different campaigns and see the results on it and see, okay, how many people have opened the email or not, and if they didn't open the email. Also, thanks to marketing automation application, you can send another email with, uh, reminder email or another promotion and so on. So.

AMY CAROLINE: 22:54

So very, very easy to manage. Yeah, I agree that I think people will go for the one with the promo. I'm such a sucker for targeted advertising. Uh, and yeah, having that 10% off, even though in the grand scheme it's not that huge. It's you know, as a consumer it makes a difference. Um, well, I think that we're getting close to our time here. Um, so as a last question, do you guys have any, um, last bits of advice or tips that you want to share that people should consider when taking use of their data efficiently?

GREGORY: 23:28

Yeah. What, uh, what I would say is not to limit, I would say the marketing, the data driven marketing to only mailings because it's not only that, it's also how to adapt your website to better target your audience and to maybe push some product without, I can say, sending emails or sending direct communication to the client. So do not only limit this marketing strategy to mailing, but also take it as a take the big picture into consideration to really think this really as a whole for the company and see how we can better interact with, uh, the customer base and see how we can better offer services and product to the customer base.

AMY CAROLINE: 24:01

Great. Thank you.

CHARLINE: 24:03

Yeah. me I would say to always keep an eye on your data and be ready to adapt your marketing strategy as needed. And keep your data accurate, because it's really powerful when when it's, uh, keep a, uh, accurate.

AMY CAROLINE: 24:17

Definitely worth taking the time to ensure that you keep that high level of quality and take advantage of all the information you have. Well, thank you both for joining me today. This has been a very interesting conversation and I wish you all the best.

GREGORY: 24:30

Thank you.

AMY CAROLINE: 24:32

Thanks for joining us. And before letting you go, I'll quickly recap a few key points that we discussed together. When getting started, you'll need to be sure that you identify the need for the data in order to target and optimize the data collection. Consider how you will capture this data and analyze it for actionable outcomes. And finally, test and learn to be constantly optimizing and making informed strategic decisions. We hope you found our discussion both enlightening and entertaining. If you would like to learn more about Odoo marketing tools, don't hesitate to check out our documentation or e-learning videos on our website or other useful talks and webinars on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on the latest from Planet Odoo. And hey, if there's a specific topic you'd love us to explore in the future, or if you just want to say hello, feel free to click on our pad link in the description. Good afternoon, good evening and good night.