Marketing is as much an art as it is a science. You can spend hours poring over the data, getting all of the information on your audience, clicks, bounce rate, unique views, positive vs negative feedback, engagement… and you may still not have a clear idea of why your product isn’t (or maybe is) succeeding.
When it comes to doing marketing right, using data analytics is the only way you can reliably track your progress.
What To Track?
You can track all kinds of data. You can track who clicks, what they click on, and why they clicked on it. You can track what people say about your product online and how it affects the overall public perception of your business.
How do you turn all of that data into a cohesive marketing strategy?
That’s a question a lot of companies struggle to answer. If you’ve been beaten down by a lack of results from new marketing strategies, then perhaps the issue isn’t with your implementation of the strategy, maybe it’s with the strategy itself.
What Are the Tools?
Using analytics tools to track the effectiveness of your strategies can be confusing.
There are so many different tools out there, each bringing its own set of capabilities. And for every tool, there are debates about what’s important and how it should be used.
So, let’s start with the basics. There are two main types of analytics tools you’ll run into real-time and historical data analysis.
Real-timeAnalytics: These tools allow you to see things as they happen and react on a momentary basis to changes in your online marketing campaign or product performance.
For example, you can use real-time tools to analyze how users engage with your website and social media posts to see what’s working and what needs tweaking.
Historical Analytics: The other major type of analytics tool is the history-based approach. These tools allow you to trace changes in your online marketing and track long-term trends, such as how user engagement has changed over time. It allows you to see the big picture and understand how your actions affect your business.
For example, if users aren’t engaging with a particular campaign, take a closer look at what you’re doing (or not doing) before you take action.
The Set-Up
Now, let’s talk about how you actually set up the tools. There are some key considerations that you need to keep in mind;
First, do you want to use a tool that is custom-made for your business, or are you looking for something more generic? The answer will help you choose the right tool.
Also, consider whether any of your competitors use these same tools so that you can understand their game plan and what they’re doing better than you.
Your Products and Users
Before using real-time or historical data analytics on your business, it’s important to thoroughly understand what your products are and who is using them. You’ll want to make sure you’re analyzing the right data and target audience.
Let’s start with your products. It’s important to know exactly what type of product they are and what their exact function is.
For example, do people buy it in person or online? If you have a print product, do people actually own physical copies of it? If they don’t, then your print marketing strategy may be a waste of money.
This is similar to knowing how many people buy a particular piece of clothing or when an old-school CD becomes useless with modern digital music stores.
If you don’t understand the product, then you can’t figure out what will actually help it sell.
Once your products are sorted out, you should focus on figuring out who the users are. If you’re a startup, this will be easier to answer, but if not, then it’s worth taking a closer look at your customer base.
Focus on understanding how they use your product or service and what they expect from it.
If they want one thing from the product and you give them something else, users won’t be pleased and your product won’t succeed.
The Fun Stuff
Now that you have a better idea of what your product is and who is using it, you’re ready to dive into data analytics.
This is the easy part: using your tools to collect all of the data you can on how people use your website, store, or products.
When it comes to this step, start as broadas possible. You can always narrow it down later as you find issues with results.
Are there any obvious flaws? Do people buy a lot of one item but not another? Do women buy more than men? If so, focus on those two products and see what’s working and what isn’t about them.
Eventually, you’ll figure out the problems and need to make changes.
Get Specific
Once you’ve sorted through your data, it’s time to get specific about the areas that are causing problems.
Start by brainstorming various scenarios of what could happen and why. For example, if you notice that men buy more of one product, but women buy less of it, then don’t focus on that alone. You should also see what is different between men and women when it comes to a product.
For example, maybe men are more risk-averse while women are more open to trying new things.
After brainstorming, start by doing some easy correlations. Use your data to compare products and other pieces of information so you can get a clear idea of which areas need more attention.
For example, if you notice that the amount of women’s clothes being sold in your store is lower than that of men’s, then that should be a red flag for you because women may not be buying the product. Find out why this is happening and make changes if necessary.
Keep an Eye on it
Once you’ve done your initial data analysis, it’s time to start monitoring what’s going on. You need to be sure that you’re tracking changes and not just looking at trends.
By tracking changes, you can adjust (or make changes) as necessary to keep your customers happy and make sure your business doesn’t go under. This is called “active marketing.” It involves more heavy-duty data analysis and tracking down the issues that are causing the problems.
You’ll want to monitor trends, and trends aren’t always clear (especially when there are a lot of them). You may want to focus on some more than others.
Developing Your Marketing Analytics
To get the most out of analytics, you need to keep them updated and relevant.
First, be sure you’re tracking and monitoring your data in real-time, so you don’t miss any important changes when they happen. Use daily reports for this purpose. Also, it’s important to use multiple sources when collecting information because different data points can provide different insights.
If your data is coming from multiple sources such as Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, then take a closer look at how they compare to each other and make improvements if necessary.
Use the Analytics to Improve Your Marketing
Now that you’re collecting data, cleaning it up, comparing it against other data, and tracking it in real-time, you can use your marketing analytics to improve your marketing. Start with the most important areas first. If you notice certain product areas aren’t receiving any sales, then focus on them first so you can get them moving again.
Next, start with the trends that are most important for your business. These include information about market penetration (how much of an overall market you’re taking up), customer satisfaction (how happy your users are), and customer loyalty (how likely users are to recommend your products).
From there, you can combine them to create metrics that better reflect the overall health of your business. For example, you could create a marketing analytics score based on satisfaction and loyalty (how likely users are to recommend the product). This will make it easier for you to make changes in the future and will give you more insight into how certain parts of your business are affecting other aspects.
Growing Your Business With Marketing Analytics
If you want your business to grow, then it’s important that you take full advantage of marketing analytics. This will allow you to identify exactly what part of your operation needs attention and what isn’t working. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to make changes to make improvements. This will allow your business to grow and thrive.
The Take-Aways
To use marketing analytics, you need data. If you don’t know how people are using your products or services (and why), then that’s exactly what you’re left with: no solutions.
Data analytics is a great tool to help you grow your business, but it’s not the only one out there. Take some time to look at the big picture of your marketing strategy and consider whether data analytics can help. If so, you’ll want to start using it in your business.
Always listen to your users, take note of their preferences, and adjust your marketing strategies based on what they want. This will give you the edge when it comes to data analytics and long-term growth for your company!
