For many small business owners, marketing is all about getting the word out as much as possible through social media, paid advertisements, and being found in organic search using SEO. But hidden inside all those routine marketing efforts is a treasure trove of data. Business owners can use this data to find out what’s working in their marketing strategy and what’s not. Yet, so many business owners simply ignore these powerful analytics instead of letting them inform their business decisions. As overwhelming as data analytics can seem, it’s just about assembling the right tools and data points and making sense of all the facts and figures. According to Harvard Business Review, marketers spend around 11% of their overall budget on analytics.
With so much data at their disposal, businesses can waste their precious marketing dollars on inept strategies by not using this data to their advantage. Here’s what every small business owner needs to understand about building a data driven marketing program.
Collecting and Maintaining Large Swaths of Data
Most small businesses have lots of marketing platforms up and running, including social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, paid ads, SEO efforts, email newsletters, and even guest posts. Most of these platforms come with built-in analytics such as Google Analytics, Facebook’s business page analytics, and even web hosting data analytics like the one offered by Squarespace. With so many balls in the air, juggling all this data can seem next to impossible, especially if the business is working with a limited marketing budget. Shockingly enough, an estimated 84% of marketers don’t have a way to measure their contributions to the company.
That’s why it’s important to have one central data center, so the company can manage and make sense of all this data without jumping from platform to platform. There are lots of data analytics software tools out there. However, if your budget doesn’t allow for a massive enterprise infrastructure, consider a SAAS platform like HubSpot. HubSpot allows companies to quickly sort and organize all their data without having to cross-check multiple platforms. They even utilize Big Data techniques to help you figure out all sorts of cool stuff about your website visitors.
Focusing on the Right Data
Every company will have different priorities when it comes to combing through the data. If a company is just getting off the ground, they might want to increase their reach as much as possible by getting their name in front of potential new customers. This likely involves watching conversion rates, SEO performance metrics, and paid ads. Yet if a company is trying to convert more of its visitors into paying customers, they might want to watch things like bounce rates, page views, and other engagement data points. A company should come up with a goal before trying to act on its data analytics. Making sense of the data all comes down to what the company wants to achieve.
Get Access to Data Reports You Can Actually Make Sense Of
Even if the company can collect and manage all its data, it still needs to make sense of it in a way that leads to meaningful, informed decisions and long-term success. That means producing easy-to-read data reports with clearly-drawn conclusions. When a business owner is sitting around the table with their business partners, investors, or their marketing team, they need to be able to quickly share and talk about this data. That’s why working with a company that can turn a vat of data into a series of condensed reports can be so beneficial. A simple one or multipage document can quickly illustrate what the company needs to focus on to improve its metrics. This takes the technical aspect out of the data analytics process and makes it available to every member of the team.
Business owners need to incorporate data analytics into their marketing strategies on a regular basis. It saves money because the company won’t be wasting its money on ineffective marketing efforts.
Get help making sense of your data and contact the analytics professionals at Revv Partners today for a complimentary consultation.
