We’re constantly generating data. Consider these facts:
Each grain of information is one piece of context in a much bigger story. With so much information available, how do marketers filter out what’s valuable to paint a meaningful picture and make data-driven decisions? To help you assess the information at your disposal, we’ve broken data analysis into four key steps.
PREPARE
Before you attempt to collect and analyze data, make sure you have set marketing goals that align with your business goals so you can focus on the right actions. Are you trying to increase awareness of your brand to a new audience? Do you want to drive more email-sign ups? Do you want to drive new leads? Working through the goal-setting process internally allows you to pinpoint data to track against your goals and turn it into actionable steps.
Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound. It’s important to list primary and secondary key performance indicators (KPIs) for each marketing goal that will help you measure data in relation to your business goals. If you're unsure of how to set KPIs, don't worry, we've got you covered! Download our 5 tips to ensure that your goals are relevant, measurable, and aligned with your business objectives. Once you’ve set goals and determined how you’ll measure them you’ll be ready to dive into data collection.
IMPLEMENT
The first step to utilizing data-driven marketing is to know what data you are looking for and to ensure you are properly collecting it.
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There are both internal and external sources of data you can use and rely on to fuel your marketing strategy. Determine who owns the information and how you are going to access it. This can include setting up your Google Analytics account properly and pixeling a website.
UNDERSTAND
Once you’ve collected the data, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin to analyze it. To find the story behind the analytics, you’ll need to organize the data and revisit your focus. Rather than looking at every metric, choose the ones that directly correlate with your specific goals.
For example, if your goal is to raise awareness among a new audience, you can focus on site visits from new users and then break that down further by seeing where those site visits originated. Were they from a search engine? A paid ad? Or from organic social? Once those users entered the site, did they engage with any specific content on the website? This helps you to understand your audience and their behavior.
IMPROVE
After analyzing your data, you’ll have learnings that will guide you toward the next steps that will enhance your marketing efforts. For example, you may be getting stronger results from one media channel over another. This helps you understand the best media channels to use to support your goals, which can ultimately lead to stronger ROI. Use the data you’ve collected to identify what parts of your current marketing strategy are working and which may need a different approach.
Don’t forget that this optimization process is continuous. Check your data reporting at a regular cadence and make notes of the optimizations and changes you make so that you can better understand how data improved or changed after those changes were implemented.
We're not just here to help you use data effectively. We want to help you meet your business goals. We offer, a Discovery Map to help you gain insight and unlock crucial information to create a marketing strategy that crushes goals Download it here: Discovery Map.
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