Modeling Can Turn 'Big Data' Into Actionable Data

"Don't try to boil the ocean" is the advice Wayne Townsend, CEO of ClickSquared, gives marketers overwhelmed by "big data" in a recent article for "Target Marketing" magazine. In other words, before you spend to manage a huge database and cook it with special tools, figure out what information you really need for your marketing and how you can make it work for you -- make it actionable. Before you pore over web analytics of every keystroke, figure out acquisition and retention rates and their drivers. But how do you start to develop that actionable data? By modeling, answers Townsend, and you don't have to be a data analysis guru to do it, he reassures. He suggests using embedded pre-built, industry-specific predictive models that are affordable and easy to use, as well as traditional descriptive models such as RFM (recency, frequency and monetary value), to help better target customers otherwise lost in the mass of "big data." For all his comments, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/big-data-vs-actionable-data-2-steps-get-information-marketers-need/1