Being plugged into the internet and relying on it to survive, every online business gets bombarded with data. Sifting through it to find valuable, actionable analysis data is important, especially if you’re in the entertainment industry where you’re at the whims of an audience’s changing desires.
Here’s a short overview of how online businesses that deal in non-physical products and services handle business intelligence to stay competitive.
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Business Intelligence Benefits Customers
When business intelligence is “used” it is more specifically referring to actionable data that has been parsed from a much larger data flow, typically for use in predicting industry trends or gaining insight into user behavior.
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Let’s take an online business that is wholly digital, like an online casino. They offer many games and earn from them, with datasets reflecting the most popular, highest earning, and many other metrics. The jackpots that they offer will be weighted in such a way that it’s appealing enough to draw users in, but it’s also achievable by matching the reward to user interest in the game. If more people are playing a game, it often makes sense to make the game’s jackpot larger to sustain and drive further interest, like how many lottery systems work.
The same goes for many digital product platforms that crunch data to strategize discounts and offers by dovetailing them with what users are interested in. That includes everything from streaming services to social media platforms, assuming both have tiered premium content. Without data-driven insights, businesses risk placing an offer on a service that isn’t used that much, in which case it is less useful for both the company and the customer.
Business Intelligence Makes Businesses Competitive
When doing business on the internet, data is one of the foremost competitive edges that a company can have. This is what makes big data management and the business intelligence derived from it so valuable. Many companies also sell data as a product, which is why users are notified of any site-side data intrusions online, which are regulated by policy like GDPR. All else being equal, data is what can put one company over the other when competing online.
A great example of this is ad targeting. Competing online business websites can use business intelligence and ethically sourced customer data to place ads more effectively. A site with data on its side will have more success with ads than a competitor shooting in the dark. This can help with the conversion rates of websites that run ads, including those businesses that are affiliated with larger brands and make their money through the CTR of ads hosted on their platform.
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Business Intelligence Personalizes Content
Having mentioned targeting, we are increasingly seeing the introduction of machine learning systems in business. Platforms like Netflix and its competitor streaming services use these for recommending content to customers. The news suggestions from Google and the YouTube recommended algorithm are two other ubiquitous examples that we brush up against in everyday life.
At the core of online entertainment and any entertainment industry, is giving the customers what they want. This is easier than ever when the business is hosted online, where we have advanced tech-like machine-learning algorithms to process big data for us. Consistently recommending content that is valuable and relevant to a user also enforces brand loyalty, as those users are less likely to ditch the platform or have an undesirable experience. Loyal customers generate repeat business and, if served well, form the core of a profitable and well-reputed company.
These are the three main ways that business intelligence benefits online entertainment businesses, often more than real-world companies. Online, it is very easy to track audience metrics and process the resulting data. Every online company, not least those that offer entertainment, should pursue the above principles to give their customers what they truly want.
