Predictive analytics could change online marketing for good

Back in 2013, Martin Zwilling announced that predictive analytics was a goldmine for startups, referring to a wide variety of applications such technologies may have. Indeed, as big data gets bigger and as processing technologies advance, the potential of using predictive analytics in different industries keeps growing. Correspondingly, the market expands too and, as suggested in a report by MarketsandMarkets, is estimated to grow at 25.2% CAGR to reach US$5.24-billion in 2018.

This digit only implies that the pace at which the number of companies competing to offer this form of data intelligence grows, with Framed Data being one of the most recent examples of the development in the field. Namely, few months ago they raised US$2-million in seed funding to continue developing a platform intended to help developers better understand users’ behavior and improve their digital experience. Here, the use of predictive analytics can potentially revolutionize application development, but its potential expands well beyond that.

Predictive analytics and online marketing
As noted above, Framed Data example covers only one of the possibilities of applying predictive analytics given that the use of such data is increasingly becoming an imperative in a variety of other industries. Some of these are investment risk management, education and entertainment (in form of personalized movie recommendations, for example), while online marketing certainly remains one of the most lucrative ones. Here, these technologies are increasingly used for activities such as targeted direct marketing and targeted advertising, which are some of the most popular content personalization techniques that are being adopted by a growing number of websites.

Obviously, this trend creates a set of new opportunities for startups that aim to redefine online economies, especially in relation to targeted content placement, which has seen an immense growth over the last few years. As users increasingly require personalized content in form of ads, product recommendations and customer service, startups that provide these types of services to retail businesses or otherwise commercial websites are likely to succeed in the competitive field of web marketing.

This is the case with Bellmetric, for example, a customer engagement and onsite targeting platform that earlier received six digit euro investment from SEED Capital to expand globally. Similarly, Sailthru, a startup that uses smart data to provide intelligence for email marketers and publishers raised US$20-million in December 2013 to keep improving its innovative platform. Both of these companies are yet to conquer the wider market, but they are still great examples of the development of predictive analytics.

What’s next?
Considering the correlation between predictive analytics and personalized web marketing, we can expect to see a parallel growth in these two fields. This means a greater number of intelligent tools web marketers will be able to use to offer more appealing content to online audience – right when they need it. Judging from the success of the companies mentioned above, predictive analytics is only further to grow as more websites recognize the potential of adopting the technology and applying it to the needs of contemporary online consumers.