Data Science – What is Data Science?

We call Data Science the science that aims to study data. A data scientist is responsible for extracting valuable information from large amounts of data, in order to improve decision making. This discipline is especially useful in fields such as online marketing and politics.  

Data is everywhere: from smartphones to e-commerce, social networks and surveys. These clues that we leave in our wake are enormously useful for companies and governments.  

The data scientist uses various tools (statistics, computing, mathematics…) to interpret the data, providing it with a consistency and structure that allows companies to know their customers better.

 

What does Data Science encompass?

We will never be able to properly understand what Data Science is if we do not delimit it from other terms that are usually associated with it:

  • Data Mining :  is the process that is responsible for collecting and storing useful data.

  • Big Data :  is the discipline focused on managing the storage of large amounts of data.

  • Artificial Intelligence:  are algorithms used by machines that emulate the human brain.

  • Machine Learning:  a part of Artificial Intelligence that enables technology to self-correct its errors.

In reality, Big Data, Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are not synonyms with Data Science, but rather disciplines integrated into it. In fact, these are tasks performed by two different professional profiles: the data engineer (computing functions) and the data scientist (mathematical functions).

Data Science applied to email marketing

Within digital marketing, email marketing is one of the fields that benefits the most from Data Science, due to the large amount of data it handles. This is so to the point that newsletters that do without this discipline are condemned to end up in the users’ trash can.    

Here are some practical examples of how Data Science can help your email marketing campaigns:

  • Second chances:  if the purchase is not completed, an email is sent to the user reminding them of the status of their cart.

  • Similar purchases:  consists of recommending products similar to those already purchased to users via email.

  • Personalized gifts:  this involves sending discount codes on the occasion of special dates (for example, a birthday). It is a great strategy to enhance emotional marketing. 

Now that you know what Data Science is, you will better understand that this complex science is capable of considerably improving any email marketing strategy (just perform an A/B test to verify it). Thanks to it, we can offer our users a much more personalized and satisfactory experience. The increase in the conversion rate that we will obtain with this will not be long in coming.