The digital marketing world grows increasingly competitive each day, making it incredibly important for brands to stay top-of-mind for their valued customers. One of the key ways to advance your digital footprint is by allowing data to inform how you develop content, optimize for search engines, and focus on marketing tactics that improve your metrics. The challenges become compounded when quality players seem to come out of the woodwork on a daily basis.

Big brands have access to more information than most marketers, so you can imagine how sifting through it to surface business insights can be a nightmare. That said, the information that they’re working with is an absolute DREAM in terms of maximizing profits and driving copious amounts of traffic to their business, IF they have the right people looking at the data.

If you are looking to take your business to the next level, it’s time to put yourself in the shoes of your idols and start operating your business like one of them. You have the data, but what can you do with it? How can you use it to drive more sales, gain more customers, and gain more traffic to your website?

Here are 5 ways successful brands like Nike use data to increase traffic:

1. Enhanced User Experience

Companies use data-driven marketing to increase traffic by creating an engaging user experience that keeps their buyers coming back for more. It’s no longer limited to focus groups or trial and error; it’s about understanding what your consumers need and then reacting with your content.

It’s a process of give and take.

For example, on the Nike+ website, users can log their running data, interact with their peers, and get more information on their sport. Each day, recreational and avid athletes have a reason to log back in and interact with the website, because they themselves are also interested in looking at those numbers.

The customer gets a quality app/program to keep track of their physical fitness, while the company gets the traffic and customer insight to inform their marketing strategy for other customers. It’s a win-win.

The insight gathered through their website and app is also used toward product development. If a massive number of users express the desire for arch support in a certain model running shoe, you better believe that Nike is going to release a 2.0 with better arch support.

Additionally, the company offers the option for consumers to design their own sneakers. While this is certainly a fun and convenient way for the shoe connoisseur to create the sneaker of their desires, it’s also an intuitive way for Nike to learn the customers’ styles and preferences, while banking on the website traffic.

Big players will conduct surveys that help them understand where they can improve as a company and a product provider. This blatant method of data gathering will never grow old and is consistently effective in creating the best user experience possible.

2. Personalizing Campaigns

Industry leaders like Nike know their customers. No, really… they know their customers, and very well. They don’t just have an idea of who their buyers are, they have them memorized.

In fact, if you own a pair of Nike sneakers or some other branded product, there is a reason. You were targeted in some way, shape, or form.

Successful brands capture, measure, and analyze their consumers and then target them in personalized campaigns. This may be in the form of an email newsletter tailored to meet who you are as a buyer, a birthday gift (hello, Sephora!). It might look like a sponsored Instagram post planted directly in your feed (not everyone’s) based on your likes and dislikes, or it could be blatantly showing you where your individualized shopping sites are based off of your present location.

It is human nature to be drawn to experiences that are catered to our wants, needs, and interests, so it seems like a no brainer to make customers feel special and looked after, right? Personal touches make consumers feel a connection to a brand and keeps them looking forward to more.

3. Improved Search Engine Presence

Leaders in e-commerce also focus on increasing their organic search visibility by examining what keywords they are ranking for and further optimizing their content.

This type of traffic is free and for the long-term, which allows companies to put their marketing budget elsewhere. Can you imagine how far that budget goes when you don’t have to spend much on Google Ads!? 

Not only are big brands getting traffic for free, but it is coming in large volumes.

While this may seem like it’s for obvious reasons, ‘cause hello, they ARE Nike after all, it doesn’t happen by accident.

You can be a big brand but struggle with your digital identity. You can sell a lot of products in-store but be outranked by smaller e-commerce stores that have their SEO game on point. Big brands that are killing the traffic game have mastered where they stand in the search engines and continuously evolve with the trends as they come.

They are there, and you know it. SEO data-gathering and analysis is incredibly powerful in increasing traffic.

4. Utilize Multiple Marketing Channels

Every customer is different, and while big companies know where their audience predominantly resides, they still take the time to optimize their presence on multiple channels with the goal of reaching new customers. 

While one demographic may be heavily present on Instagram, another may not even use the app but still be interested in the same products. Maintaining a presence in several areas allows big brands to analyze where their leads and conversions are coming from so they can further optimize their strategies to reach the maximum number of consumers.

This way, they can make data-driven decisions about where to put their marketing budget. 

5. Retargeting

Several tools allow website owners to track their visitors’ behavior, from exploring a website to what products they express interest in. These days, when you scroll around a page and click to related content, digital marketers know. When you add a product to a cart and then abandon it, they know. When you simply research a potential purchase, they know.

Have you ever browsed say, new backpacks from a very specific brand, only to exit and see display advertisements from that very brand on a completely unrelated website? Welcome to retargeting!

Big businesses want to stay in your head. They want to remind you of the interest you expressed, so much that you finally bite the bullet and buy the damn backpack already… because you NEED IT. They told you that you did. That all happened because of smart use of data.

No matter how big or small your company is, a huge part of being “in the business” means knowing what your customers want. And knowing what your customers want means putting on your analytical hat and digging through your data to make educated decisions.

If you want to compete with the big dogs in your industry, you must master the art of user experience… and that starts with your analytics.