Discussion with Don Alava: Integrating Digital and Traditional Marketing

I met with Don Alava, Digital Marketing expert and VP of Marketing Analytics & Technology at Universal Technical Institute. In this discussion Don shared his expertise on integrating digital and traditional marketing.

Originally posted at www.GreatTechPros.com.

Excerpt from the Interview:

Wylie Blanchard: So, let’s talk about analytics for a second. How has analytics changed how we market content to people?

Don Alava: It’s interesting. When I first started out – well the names have changed over time – there was a database marketing, there was targeted marketing, now it’s big data science. When you look at it, it’s going back to what is the objective of your marketing campaign and what’s the best way to measure it. What’s nice about analytics and technology is that you have more data available. When I was on the ad agency business I got into direct marketing and we were measuring things based on responses to numbers or how many mail coupons people submitted and returned to us. So we could count it that way but now with the internet, with mobile devices, you’re getting that data almost instantaneously. So whereas in a direct mail campaign you waited for a couple of weeks to measure the campaign. Now when you’re in the digital/mobile space you can get that information right away and that’s where analytics comes in… Humans – while we can do a lot of analytics – when you bring in data science and machine learning they can keep up with the pace of the data that’s coming in to give you an edge over your competitors. It all starts with what’s the goal of your business and how should you best measure that. Then use the data to help get you that information and get the competitive edge over your competition who may not have quite figured out how to use their data to inform their marketing campaigns, as well as, their follow-up campaigns to those who eventually become customers.

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