Everything is new at the beginning of a relationship. Quirky habits have yet to be discovered and preferences are unknown. As time wears on, we learn just about everything about our partner. Just like a romantic relationship, brands owe it to their consumers to know their preferences, habits, and behaviors.

Access to data and analytics play a role in equipping a brand with the necessary knowledge to cater messaging and predict trends. Predictive marketing is gathering previous consumer behaviors, using statistical algorithms, and machine learning to predict future outcomes and inform new strategies.

Predictive marketing improves the brand-consumer relationship. Since the digital age has sped up processes, consumers expect personalized products that are instantly delivered.  

How does predictive marketing help the marketer?

Improve Lead Generation

Predictive marketing fuses the sales-marketing relationship by supplying the sales team with high quality leads. Analytics determine interested prospects’ behavior and tendencies. Sales can then become more productive and focus their energy on capturing and nurturing these leads.

Segment Personas

A consumer wants to be the brand’s priority. The brand can show they care by using the collected data to segment each consumer into a specific group or demographic. After establishing detailed personas of the consumers, optimize each target audience by tailoring a personalized (but not creepy) marketing message.

Shape Future Products

Gathering and tying together all of the consumers’ data lets marketers anticipate buying behaviors and the popularity of certain trends. Future projects, marketing campaigns, and strategies can be altered depending on this newfound knowledge. After all, history tends to repeat itself.

Predictive marketing shows the brand’s investment in the “relationship” and increases consumer trust and loyalty. In fact, according to Salesforce, conversion rates increase about 22% with predictive marketing methods.

Using big data to predict consumer behaviors is not a new concept. Forward looking analytics - where artificial intelligence sends out an automated and personalized message at the right time in the consumer buying process - is where predictive marketing is headed.

Certain brands have already gotten a jump start advancing their human-machine marketing efforts. This Adweek article outlines Amazon’s current offerings - Prime shipping and automatic replenishment - and articulates the future roadmap. Soon enough, Google’s “push notifications” will become proactive (perhaps ordering you a Lyft or Uber at just the right time). Data analyzing the user’s tendencies will become proactive and predict what is best for the consumer before the consumer says anything.