Four or five years ago, before Covid, I read a book called Man v Big Data. It wasn’t clear who won. The thought that went through my mind was ‘If only I had their problems’. SMEs depending on email marketing, and having to compete with big data held by big companies, would appear to be at a distinct disadvantage. How unfair.

All is not lost. In fact, little if anything is. Being small has distinct advantages, and these can be worked on to the extent that big companies cannot compete with us. We’ll come to that later. First, how to use big data’s advantages against them. 

With all things email marketing, we can decide if their ideas will be useful for us, if our supply line is worth expanding, or if they are going somewhere we want or need to follow. Further, once they’ve started investing on new lines, or new details, they are there for the duration. We know what they will be doing for some time. 

Any large concern has a certain inertia. They take time to get up to speed, especially if they are using multi-channels, and they probably will, for their campaign. They are unlikely to be able synchronise all media at the same time and so will give you a clue as to any new direction they have planned. Any change will be as a result of their big data; what their customers have been viewing recently, what they’ve started buying and what they think the trend will be. 

Now is the time for you to test. If companies with big data believe their customers will go one way, it does not necessarily follow that the subscribers to your email marketing lists will be of the same mind. The first thing to do is have a campaign where you can discover what they want.

Big data, when used by big companies, gives rise to weaknesses, particularly in security. You don’t have to break into offices and steal hard drives to be able to discover their conclusions, unless you crave excitement. All we have to do is exploit email marketing’s strengths.