How to Use Analytics to Improve Your Business Marketing Efforts

When running a business, you are looking for every opportunity to try and improve those all-important sales figures. One essential way of doing that is to execute an effective marketing strategy.

Yet it’s easier said than done. Getting any form of promotional campaign off the ground requires a serious slice of dedication, creativity, and prior knowledge. Regarding the latter point, that’s where data analytics plays its part.

Plus, as far as parts go, it has a leading role. That’s how important data analytics is for any company. It supplies the information you require to optimize every area of the business – including your marketing efforts.

The importance of data analytics

In essence, data analytics delivers insights which can be massively beneficial in several different ways. As the name suggests, it takes data and uses it to understand the effectiveness of a company’s different components, such as sales and marketing.

By using this collected data, the decision-making process becomes much easier. You have a more informed viewpoint to go off, which means you are less likely to go in the wrong direction with a decision.

“Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the Web like deer on a freeway.”

– Geoffrey Moore, author of “Crossing the Chasm”

Due to its broad reach, the produced data can also be utilized in many different situations. Do you require new product ideas? Perhaps you desire a more targeted marketing strategy? Or maybe a way to improve the efficiency of customer service messages? Data analytics can help answer all these questions – and many others.

Due to how essential data analytics is for your business, it makes sense to further your education in the subject as much as possible. This is where an online masters in business analytics can be particularly beneficial. Along with gaining expert knowledge and hands-on experience with industry-standard analytical tools, the flexibility of studying online means you can continue to run your business as normal.

The analytics to analyze

Due to the sheer amount of analytics at your disposal, it can be difficult to know which ones to use and which ones to discard. Your website, email, and social media accounts are filled to the brim with metrics and numbers to analyze.

Because of this, you need to know the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each category. This way, you will understand which figures deserve your attention.

Website analytics

The starting point for any data analytics research should start with your website. By using the data powerhouse known as Google Analytics, this can be done in an effective manner complete with all the KPI’s you require.

As for what those KPI’s are, they include:

  • Page views

  • Unique visitors

  • Bounce rate

  • Average time on the website

  • Pages/Visit

  • Social media traffic referral

When studying this real-time data, you gain an insight into what content is – and isn’t – working on your site. This means you have the ability to quickly refine your marketing strategies, ensuring you can maximize your promotional potential.

Social media metrics

Due to the number of social media platforms, tracking the right data will differ slightly for each one. With that said, the ‘big two,’ also known as Facebook and Twitter, are pretty much identical as far as analytics are concerned.

Here are the KPI’s for social media:

  • Impressions per post

  • Engagements per post

  • Likes per post

  • Click-throughs per post

On both Twitter and Facebook, these stats are readily available to view. These KPIs are important to know, as it demonstrates if your social media campaigns are working or not.

Tips for using analytics to enhance your marketing strategy

It’s fair to say there are many, many different advantages to implementing analytics for your marketing strategy. There’s a reason why entire libraries are dedicated to the subject of analytics and how they can enhance business results!

Nearly two-thirds of leading marketers say that decisions made with data are superior to those based on gut instinct.”

While there isn’t enough bandwidth available to list them all, this section will spotlight a few helpful tips when using analytics to give your marketing strategy a boost.

Better understand your customers

Every business is searching for ways to obtain a better understanding of their customers. They are, ultimately, the lifeblood of any company, and it’s crucial to supply them with exactly what they want.

By using data, you have a greater chance of accurately predicting customer behavior. What type of products do they seek? What offers will work best? What type of content do they crave? When you’re able to answer these types of questions, you will be able to reach customers with the right message every time.

In certain regards, there’s information you already know that doesn’t require any data analysis. For instance, there are many statistics that point towards the popularity of coupons for consumers. However, you can combine customer behavior data with these proven marketing methods. Instead of sending out generic coupons, you can create customized ones based on the behavior of past customers.

Speaking of customized content…

Go with personalization

Based on research, did you know that nearly 80% of consumers will disregard an offer if it hasn’t been personalized by a business?

In this day and age, it is imperative that a brand avoids going the generic route. It might be easier to simply send out a mass email listing your latest offers, but very few will open their mail if it isn’t customized.

Thankfully, the level of individual personalization doesn’t have to go too far. It could be as simple as including a person’s name in the email title. The other good news is that, with the magic of analytics, you can acquire the data needed to deliver a personalized experience that will keep customers returning to your brand.

Improve your content and SEO

Due to the forensic-like insight that you can gain from your website statistics, it’s incredibly easy to observe the effectiveness of your content and on-page SEO.

As a result, you will know what steps are necessary to take when improvements are to be made. What pages are bringing in the biggest amount of clicks? Which are retaining the attention of visitors? How effective is the content in turning visitors into customers?

These are questions that require answers on a regular basis. If a webpage is struggling to gain any traction, look for ways in which you can boost its search visibility. This could be done by, say, targeting different keywords. Another method is to create pages that are rich in valuable content. You want content that is going to be engaging, informative, and useful to the readers. You could always ask your audience what it is they want to read, watch, or listen to, in order to produce the right type of rich content.

Know what marketing routes to take

Face it: there’s a large collection of marketing options available for your business. The amount of choice is advantageous for obvious reasons, yet there is one caveat: deciding on which promotional methods fit best with your business.

A certain company might find success through social media advertising. Another could find the bulk of their sales coming from email marketing campaigns. A different business might throw their budget at paid ads.

The point is there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to promoting a business. There are tools that have universal appeal – such as social media – but they might not be the focus of a specific campaign.

To assist with determining what marketing routes to take, analytics are ready to provide a helping hand. You can assess the data to see what tools are most effective for promoting your business and ultimately use this to refine your advertising ventures.

Continue to monitor the results

Data analytics is not something you only do once in a while. To maximize its effectiveness, it’s essential that it remains a constant part of your business strategy.

Ultimately, the world of business is one that shifts direction on a daily basis. While it might be an extreme example, the data you collected yesterday might not be applicable today. This is why you need to continually monitor and analyze your data analytics – otherwise, your marketing strategies might lose their overall effectiveness.

To do this in a productive manner, you should monitor your data results at different levels. For instance, a quick daily check should be made to ensure everything is going to plan, and no drastic changes have happened. Alongside this, monthly and quarterly reports are recommended. This way, you can gain a full picture of your marketing strategies, and figure out the best way to deploy your resources.

Conclusion

If you run a company, you need to use data analytics. That’s a fact. Yet simply having a quick glance at the compiled data isn’t enough. Dig deep, uncover the latest trends, and figure out methods to use this information to your advantage.

When it is implemented in a strategic and effective fashion, data analytics can help to significantly improve your approach to marketing – and many other business functions.