Top 3 trends in Data for 2021

2020 has potentially thrown more curveballs to businesses than any other year in the digital age; and as a result, many are looking to data and analytics for guidance and efficiency. With so many topics and things to stay on top of it’s easy to get bogged down so here are my top 3 trends in data and analytics to keep on your radar for the tail end of 2020 and into 2021.

1. Data Privacy Regulations

It’s no one’s favourite topic, but it is one of, if not THE most important one as we see more and more power put back into the hands of consumers. If your region does not currently have a data protection and privacy policy you will still no doubt be impacted by GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CCPA (The California Consumer Privacy Act) or another such regulation.

It is only a matter of time until more countries announce their privacy and data policies, and so getting on the front foot and setting up mechanisms for your site, app, and other digital properties is important. Allow users to opt out of tracking or create the steps to process requests to be forgotten. It will mean that you aren’t scrambling to comply when the inevitable comes.

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2. Data Democratisation and Data Culture

Data Democratisation means distilling access to lots of data for everyone in a company, including non-technical employees.

Removing the silos between the Data and Analytics team and the rest of the business can and will pay dividends in a number of ways. Most importantly, doing this will begin to instil a data driven culture within the organisation, and you will soon find that many business decisions become hypotheses and test plans rather than activities based on the opinion of a few key stakeholders. Companies such as AirBnb, Facebook, and eBay have all taken huge steps in this direction, and the results speak for themselves.

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3. Real-Time Personalisation and Suppression

In 2020 your customers expect you to know what they want and, maybe more importantly, what they DON’T want. I am never more annoyed than when a company I have recently purchased from continues to target me with adverts for the exact product I just purchased. A solution to this is implementing a data orchestration tool like Tealium AudienceStream, and building up visitor profiles that you can action in real time in any website, app, or 3rd party marketing system, such as Facebook or Google Ads. The money saved in advertising to people who recently converted will almost immediately pay off the first year of the license. Thank me later.

 

Jack Hobbs - Digital Analytics and Data Insights Lead, Elephants Can Dance

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