The simplicity of ETL tools: Every Marketer’s Solace

In today’s data-driven marketing world, every organization is trying to make sense of the term “big data”. But that’s not it. The bigger challenge is that the data is scattered across multiple platforms and devices, and it’s chaotic.

Now, the question is how to get all the data from the different marketing sources into a usable format?

Well, the solution can be described in just three letters – ETL

ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) has become a vital aspect of business intelligence. With the best ETL tools, you can gather data from different sources in a single place to run analytics and dig out valuable & actionable insights.

Evaluating the best ETL tool for your business is another major challenge that you may face. But don’t worry, as this article will help you navigate through the importance of ETL and what factors you need to consider while getting an ETL tool for your business.

What is ETL?

In the world of digital competition, data plays a crucial part in thriving or stagnating any business. An overwhelming amount of data is available to every business, making it difficult for them to turn the complex data silos into useful information.

Fortunately, ETL helps businesses become a pro at data-driven analytics. Let’s take a look at what ETL ‍is and why it is important.

ETL stands for Extract, Transform and Load, and involves a three-step process.

• Extract: The process begins with the acquisition of data from multiple sources. To maintain the effectiveness of the process, the data is collected directly from its source and in its rawest form.
• Transform: In this step, the collected data is stripped down from its various formats and converted into a single preferred format.
• Load: The transformed data is now loaded in a target database, including database applications and business intelligence (BI) tools. At the end of this step, the data is ready for analytics.

ETL is the solution that helps you deal with the diverse and complex data silos daily. At present, ETL has become the foundation of data-driven marketing and has provided marketers with simplified solutions to format their data in a number of different ways.

To become a truly data-driven business, you can invest in a next-generation ETL tool. Without the right tool at your end, you will find yourself crushed under a pile of data that will take months to become analytics-ready.

Different types of ETL tools

ETL tools break down the complex data silos and simplify the task of marketers to access and analyze data and turn the same into useful business information, which is further used for analysis. They lay the foundation for an effective data warehousing process that helps you power decision-making and achieve better results in less time.

There are different categories of ETL tools that you can choose from. To make your task a bit easier, here we are explaining each one of the categories:

Batch-processing tools

The tools prepare and process data in batch files when the organization’s on-premise compute resources are in the least demand. Traditionally, this type of data processing is mainly used for workloads that are not urgent, like monthly reports or annual reports. Although the method went under evolution and can now process data at a rapid speed, helping you get your hands on the crucial information in the least time possible.

Open source tools

With open source ETL tools, you can integrate with a wide range of applications and operating systems. The tool is ideal for marketers that are dedicated to flexibility, accountability, and frequent updates. If your organization has limited IT resources, these tools can be your best investment.

Cloud-based tools

The cloud-based tools help you integrate data from any number of online sources and store the same into an online destination, making it easier for you to access data from anywhere and at any time. With these tools at your disposal, you don’t have to invest a single penny to build a physical data warehouse or any other hardware. The solution manages large amounts of data efficiently and gives marketers the freedom to create and monitor automated ETL data pipelines from a single interface.

Real-time tools

The only drawback with cloud-based and open-source ETL tools is that they process data in batches (although faster). The marketers still have to wait for some time to get access to crucial business information. That’s the reason why real-time ETL tools came into existence. They capture data and deliver it to data applications in real-time. This helps organizations to make the right decisions at the right time without wasting a second. Nevertheless, this real-time access to data often comes with a hefty price tag.

In recent times, the industry has witnessed a transition from ETL to a newer approach, i.e., ELT (Extract, Load & Transform). Compared to conventional ETL operations, ELT has advantages: Real-time analytics, scalability, cost effectiveness, and adaptability to various data sources. It makes use of the capabilities of modern data warehouses, enabling direct loading of raw data and on-demand modifications. 

‍ELT

Extract: ELT, like ETL, includes extracting data from various sources, but instead of transferring it to a staging area, the raw data is put directly into the target system.

Load: The extracted data is placed into a data warehouse, data lake, or other comparable storage environment during ELT.

Transform: The transformation occurs within the target system itself, utilizing the storage platform's processing power. SQL or other data manipulation languages are used directly on the raw data to execute transformations.

Followed by ELT, marketers also rely heavily on Reverse ETL, which is the process of transferring data from a data warehouse back into operational systems or other data repositories. Its main objective is to operationalize data analysis's insights and findings so that they can be used by an organization's business applications. Businesses can use the analyzed and enriched data by feeding it back into operational systems to improve real-time decision-making, personalize customer experiences, start automated actions, or streamline company processes.

Why Reverse ETL?

A few good reasons to convince you why you should be using reverse ETL

Access to real-time data: Reverse ETL tools play a vital role in empowering data teams to efficiently schedule and configure data syncs, ensuring faster and automated data retrieval. Therefore, it is essential for businesses to carefully select the appropriate Reverse ETL tool that serves their specific business use cases and can be seamlessly implemented across diverse organizational needs.

Self-serving: By automating data syncs for different teams, reverse ETL enables self-serving data across organizations. Users benefit from quick access to pertinent data, which promotes data democratization. Teams can explore and analyze data autonomously, establishing a data-driven decision-making culture. 

Increased data accessibility: Business users often leverage BI tools to discover valuable data and then work closely with the data team to migrate that data to their preferred platforms, where they spend the majority of their time. Users typically feel more at ease and confident when they can utilize familiar systems that enhance their productivity and contribute to their success.

Use Cases

To personalize customer experiences, enable prompt decision-making, maintain seamless data flow, and promote a data-driven culture, reverse ETL is the key. It enables organizations to glean value out of transformed data by bridging the gap between analytics and operations. 

Personalized Email Campaigns: Reverse ETL is critical in email customization, especially for B2C businesses. It permits the transfer of client data from the data warehouse to email marketing platforms such as ActiveCampaign, allowing for the distribution of highly personalized communications. Businesses, for example, can send personalized emails to customers who put items in their cart but did not finish the transaction. They can also utilize analytics (open-rate, click-rate, etc) to send follow-up emails to users who haven't opened the initial email within a certain window, usually 3 to 4 days. Companies can use reverse ETL to automate these personalized email flows, enhancing consumer engagement and conversion rates.

Supercharging Sales strategy: Gaining visibility into actual product usage is critical as SaaS companies adopt and become more and more self-serve. Reverse ETL makes it easier to integrate product usage data into Salesforce, providing a comprehensive perspective of customer behavior and interaction. This interface allows businesses to effectively monitor key events like sign-ups, and specific user actions, etc offering vital insights into how customers interact with their product. SaaS companies can increase their understanding of customer interaction and make data-driven decisions to drive growth and improve user experiences by employing reverse ETL.

Audience Segmentation: Businesses' key goal is to offer customized adverts to the proper audience while minimizing costs. Reverse ETL helps teams do this by allowing them to use customer data to create audiences in advertising platforms. These audiences can be used to target certain demographics or to create lookalike audiences. While ad platforms have sophisticated algorithms for finding lucrative audiences, adding custom data through reverse ETL can boost targeting efforts, allowing businesses to construct pertinent audiences and improve the success of their advertising campaigns.

ETL & Reverse ETL tools: Every Marketer’s Solace

With DataChannel’s integrated ELT and Reverse ETL capabilities, users can easily extract, load, and transform data into their data warehouse and seamlessly sync data from the warehouse to other tools and platforms by having both functions in a single platform. This interface improves productivity and decision-making by streamlining data workflows, increasing data accessibility, and simplifying data management. 

So, what are you waiting for? Set up a quick demo call to start your data journey with us.