Few questions from your CEO can be more chilling: “So what, exactly, is our data strategy?”
The answer can often be, "Um?”
While almost every marketing, sales and IT executive will tell you that improving data strategy is top of the list for 2025-26, we estimate that fewer than 40% of U.S. commerce companies have a data plan they can action and manage.
Big dollars sit on the table in the form of expenditures on data tech and opportunity costs if you can’t effectively use those CDP, CRM and AI systems to drive new and repeat sales. With those high stakes, most companies need a playbook for a solid data strategy they can start with today and expand over time.
Here is OSF’s 5-step guide to creating a data strategy that works for your company:
1. Define your business goals
You need clear goals and KPIs in order to scope your data strategy. This can be harder to accomplish than it sounds. We recommend focusing on metrics that are “actionable,” meaning you can make changes in marketing, sales or operations programming based on the data you capture.
2. Set up data governance
Create policies and procedures for managing the quality, security and compliance of data. This step should involve close collaboration among marketing, sales, and operations stakeholders.
3. Create data management processes
Determine what data you want to compile and then create processes for collecting, storing and maintaining the data. Ensure that the data is “clean” and accessible, and that it can easily be shared with CRM systems and other tools used in the customer journey.
4. Build a data analytics program
Work with all stakeholders to understand how collected data will be used in B2C, B2B, or B2B2C programs. Ensure that the data is presented in user-friendly dashboards, and employ governance to create regular information sharing, including examples of how data is used to optimize sales and marketing programs.
5. Keep innovating
Now that you have a good answer for your CEO, it’s not time to rest on your laurels. Use data and analytics to help you get better and better at customer segmentation and loyalty, and to tackle thorny topics like discounting and returns. Data is a cornerstone of every AI tool you are likely to use, and it should become the first piece of intel you reach for when making a business decision.
Want to go deeper? Our consultants are here to help.
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