Customer Insights: Does Your Brand Need a GPS?

4. Apply. Use what you learn about your customers' shopping behaviors on your site to not only drive your on-site merchandising strategy, but also to increase the relevancy of your digital advertising. If you know that certain products and brands are purchased more often from traffic that's driven to that page, consider featuring that brand or product in your paid search ad copy or display banners to increase the overall clickthrough rate.

5. Understand. Strive to understand the behavior of your customers by looking at their path of searches. For example, do they perform many similar searches indicating comparison shopping? If so, a site or search retargeting strategy with a compelling offer may be a good tactic to add to your program.

Creating a marketing strategy founded in data and customer insights will ensure it's relevant and effective for your audience. Remember, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. If you look to your customers for direction, you can't go wrong; they'll tell you where you need to go.

Erica Barth is vice president of products and partnerships for Resolution Media,Omnicom's search agency. Erica can be reached at ebarth@resolutionmedia.com.