As a business owner, you rely on hard numbers and data to evaluate what is working and what is not, and make important decisions. You may want to know how your website ranks against your competition, or how the advertising efforts are effecting your sales, how your prices are changing the demand for products or services, or perhaps you have an objective or a great idea that you have been trying to make it work but realize that there is a gap between having the idea on paper and turning it into a success story!
No matter what your final goal is, you need to work with data. Data that will give you insights, data that will address important questions, data that makes you feel confident in making short and long-term business predictions. The good news is, there is plenty of it, all around us, but what’s going to help you grow your business is how you decide to use the data and the insights you draw from it.
The success of your objective primarily depends on following a specific marketing process, broken down into four crucial steps:
- Planning,
- Gathering Data,
- Analyze, Learn and Improve, and
- Take Action and Tell a Story.
Let’s talk a bit about each step and they entail in the marketing analytics process
A thorough planning process is a key to accurate analysis
- Draft a thorough plan with your brand’s clear singular objective.
- Define key questions you want to get from data
- Determine the kind of data you are required to gather, sources and tools you will need.
Gather granular data that provides powerful insights
- Identify the right sources from where you will gather unbiased data
- Utilize data mining tools to collect the data
- Choose a data management system that is effective and powerful enough for your needs
Data analysis to deliver powerful insights
- Having well-structured data ensures efficiency in the process
- Check data quality. Remember things aren’t going to be 100% accurate, that’s just marketing. Some data sets may simply not provide all details you need, so as a business owner it is important to acknowledge that and use your market experience to make the right decisions
- Understand the level of depth you need to get from analysis and choose the right technique.
Tell a powerful story
- Keep it short and sweet! Tell a story drawn from data insights, that leads to business action