We have seen how other consultancies approach developing datadriven digital marketing systems. The process is expensive,intimidating, and takes years to complete. Most companies can’t afford to wait that long.

To enact change quickly, Said Differently developed a system for building data-driven marketing strategies inspired by agile software development processes. Our collaborative, flexible approach focuses on the clean delivery of individual parts of the processes, rather than the complete delivery of an entire organization or system. Our marketing and data experts begin by assessing where an organization is today. Then, we identify the best high-impact first step towards becoming more data-driven, such as agreeing upon a useful existing data signal to optimize against immediately. In tandem, we organize a data marketing wishlist – a backlog of tasks and goals. Then, we apply a scoring framework to prioritize tasks based on a number of criteria, including ease of execution and potential impact on the organization.

Our approach has allowed consumer brands and B2B enterprises to realize the benefits of data-driven strategies quickly, without negatively disrupting their organization. One example is our partnership with UScellular. When the telecom leader shared its goal of becoming more data-driven in its digital marketing, we curated a team of data scientists, analysts, and creatives with experience working in highlyregulated industries. This team proposed an organized approach to leveraging existing data signals to make smarter decisions. That way, UScellular wouldn’t have to wait for the completion of a perfect, omniscient data system to see key performance indicators (KPIs)
improve.

In one year, UScellular was able to reduce digital marketing costs by 30%, while increasing performance, content creation, and speed to market.

Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is a display ad technology that optimizes ad creative in real time based on data to serve the most relevant ad possible to each user. Part of our work for UScellular was designing and building a dynamic creative optimization system based on agreed upon data signals and messaging needs. The system we built reduced time to market by 40% and increased user engagement by 10%.

Our work also made AI-powered testing and hyper-local marketing a reality for the brand. One example is a digital campaign (display & paid social) we launched across nine states. The campaign relied on 600 digital assets to deploy localized messaging and used AI and machine learning to continually update creative based on new data insights.

For every project we take on, we draw from our global talent network of 3,500 experts to assemble a precise team. By casting the right people to execute each project component, we ensure work is done effectively, and as efficiently as possible.

One example is a performance marketing success story that proved to be one of our client’s best-performing campaigns of 2022. For this initiative, we called on one of our award-winning creative talent partners to conceptualize the campaign.

Our work also made AI-powered testing and hyper-local marketing a reality for the brand. One example is a digital campaign (display & paid social) we launched across nine states. The campaign relied on 600 digital assets to deploy localized messaging and used AI and machine learning to continually update creative based on new data insights.

Obviously, performance marketing is not the only use case for data. Said Differently has supported enterprises, luxury retailers, and direct-to-consumer brands in harnessing data to improve decision-making across the organization. For every engagement, we use test planning to outline project objectives, strategies, timelines, and deliverables, whether we are designing and developing a commerce app based on new consumer insights, or restructuring a brand’s call centers to improve customer service. When a leading direct-to-consumer brand called on us to map its customer journey, find ways to increase customer acquisition and customer loyalty, and redesign its app and landing pages accordingly, we mapped every single decision our teams made to brand objectives & key results (OKR). The process ensured we made data-led decisions that aligned with company strategies.

Along the way, we coached the brand on how it could leverage data to improve processes and results. Additionally, we encouraged the client to democratize data and share information between systems, departments, and partner agencies. This can set off a cultural shift with far-reaching benefits for the organization. We are currently partnering with an enterprise company’s marketing team to build processes and technology for sharing insights across departments, so product teams can benefit from marketing findings.