Data has been a boon to marketers, but the recent rise of big data and analytics has also led to a lack of transparency.
This has now become a big problem in the marketing sector. In fact, 64% of marketers say they’re not clear about the origins of their data. Close to 25% of brand managers and agency buyers also admit they’re unsure how frequently their data sources are refreshed.
At Travel Tripper, we think the lack of transparency is one of the biggest barriers for hotels’ success. A lot of hospitality marketing agencies simply aren’t transparent about their marketing metrics, and they don’t allow hotels to see the raw data.
But why does owning your data matter so much?
In the following article, we’ll dive into that very question. We’ll also explain how and why some less scrupulous agencies may misrepresent your data, and equip you with a series of questions to help you uncover if this is happening.
Why owning your data matters
Broadly speaking, owning your data means having more control over your business. Without ownership, you don’t have access to the kind of information that can directly impact both your day-to-day and long-term success. In specific terms, here are three big reasons why it matters:
1) Ability to analyze trends over time
A monthly report from your marketing agency is naturally going to overplay the good statistics and downplay the bad ones. If you want to have the best understanding of what’s going on, you’ll need direct access to the raw data, whether that comes from Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, you name it.
Lack of visibility into these dashboards prevents you from making meaningful analysis with the data, especially when it comes to tracking trends over time. Can you compare year-over-year statistics not just as a whole, but on individual marketing channels? Is there a natural seasonality to your bookings?
Hotels need to set the metrics that matter most to them. Owning your data allows you to dictate these metrics, while also giving you full access to the big picture or major changes and trends.
