Analytics

Marketing is a powerful force for any company. Understanding the power of marketing analytics and how to use them correctly can give you an edge in your business.

Gartner’s 2020 Marketing Data and Analytics Survey shows that many marketing executives don’t think the data is helpful. Fifty-four percent of senior marketing respondents in this survey indicate that marketing analytics has not influenced their organizations that they expected. This comes when marketing executives prioritize marketing analytics as a key enabler in supporting their strategies.

Source: Marketing Data and Analytics Survey

This blog post will cover the five impactful marketing analytics processes that every marketer should know and maximize opportunities.

Align with your marketing objective

A company’s investment in online marketing should have tangible results, such as increased revenue or new sales.

Online marketing is an excellent way to drive business results. You can increase revenue, market share, and sales by implementing the right strategies in your company’s website design and through social media campaigns that target potential clients on sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

For these investments to produce tangible benefits, they must be strategically implemented at every level of operation, from top management down, so each department knows what steps need to be taken next!

A good place to start when developing an analytics strategy would include defining macro-level objectives (i e., “macro” goals) paired with micro result rate indicators – aka KPIs – specific towards achieving those higher priority targets. Thus, at the core, identifies objectives and KPIs during the strategic planning phase.

To start this process, you need to think about what you want to find out. So, first, think about the questions that you are trying to answer. Then, keep going past the easy stuff and try to think a little deeper.

Map out measures and data sources

Once you have clear objectives and goals, you need to map out the data that will help you measure your progress. This process can get complicated, especially if your existing systems are not set up for marketing analytics.

Based on your objective, figure out what data you need to answer your initial questions. You will need to find tangible information. Where is your data stored? Who gets access? What tool am I using for my analysis? There are a lot more questions you may have to explore to understand your marketing data sources.

The important thing is to figure out what kind of data you are collecting and if it’s useful to answer some of your business questions.

If you are using data that is not useful, such as having too much data or bad data, it’s time to go back and look at what you need for marketing analytics. Start with the type of data, formats, and sources.

Most marketers already have data in their marketing technology tools like Google Analytics, email service provider, CRM, ad platforms, etc.

Gather data

If you have not yet given data gathering much thought, it is critical to do so.

How are you going to get the data that will help you answer your questions? For marketing analytics, you need to consider how you will extract the data from your current systems and store it.

Once this is done, you can pull together the information that will help answer many of your questions and monitor your success over time.

Many ETL tools in the marketer could help you bring your marketing data into a data lake. Take a look at each of the different parts of your marketing analytics process and see where there are opportunities for you to gather the right data. The data model and the schema will determine how you will be able to answer your questions.

After all necessary data has been gathered, it’s time to look at how well you are doing against key business goals.

Analyze and create reports

Using the tools you have identified from your best marketing data sources, go through and generate reports that will help you understand how well you are doing against your marketing objectives.

Start by looking at top-level KPIs relevant to your marketing objective. Then, identify which key performance indicators are doing well or not.

Then drill down into each of these KPIs and look at the data differently to determine if positive or negative trends are emerging. You can start looking for patterns, outliers, correlations between various factors.

Many marketers will use tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Data Studio to review the KPIs in a dashboard. However, deep-diving into the data and gathering insights requires much knowledge and expertise to analyze the performance.

In many cases, advanced marketing analysts are required to run SQL to get the right data marketers to need to analyze. However, the job description for many marketers does not require SQL or data visualization experience. There aren’t many marketers with data skills, so marketers with data skills are in high demand.

Take action and repeat

Once you have the insights from your marketing analytics, it’s time to test out some of these ideas and see what works for your business.

Try different campaigns with different messages, targets, channels, etc. Then, you can start conducting tests on smaller audiences or select groups of users so that it will be easier to measure their behavior without changes.

A lot of the successful companies I’ve worked with are always testing and trying new things. One of the key behaviors shared amongst such marketing leaders is data-driven and always testing their hypothesis.

On the contrary, marketers who struggle to help move the business forward are always working on setting priorities and cannot execute the marketing strategies. A marketing team that is struggling to perform is always trying to address urgent and important matters. Most marketers want to focus on quadrant 2, or the not so critical but important thing.

Final Thoughts

Marketing is a complicated beast, and marketing analytics are just one of the many aspects that can help you reach your goals. 

To get started, we recommend following these steps to align with your marketing objective. Then map out measures and data sources, gather data through various channels like web traffic or social media interactions, analyze and create reports for insights on what’s working and what isn’t to make informed decisions about moving forward with your campaign. 

The last step involves taking action based on the information you have gathered from all five points above by repeating the process when necessary. Now go forth (and apply this advice) into your work!

I’ve had the opportunity of working with many marketers from various industries and enterprises. I can tell you that all marketers are aware that data is an integral part of data-driven marketing in the current day in age. However, I’ve learned that many marketers fall into at least one of three traps when it comes to data.

1. Expecting analytics tool to be a magic fix
2. Distrust in data – not tracking good data
3. Not working with data outside of marketing

This article discusses how these three common mistakes can hurt your business and potentially your marketing career.

Expecting analytics tool to be a magic fix

Marketers are often guilty of starting the wrong approach. They usually begin with the tools of the trade rather than determining what they want to accomplish and then finding ways to measure these outcomes. This approach is a grave mistake that can lead you down a path that is less than effective.

Marketers have many options for tracking data, but the trick is being smart about which data you track and how. Begin by asking yourself what your goals are as a marketer. These goals should be measurable and specific to your business goals as well as marketing goals. Once you have those nailed down, it will be easier to figure out.

Many marketers struggle to identify and integrate the right mix of technologies for their marketing teams. One common mistake is over-reliance on new tools, which may not solve the core problems at all.

Marketing technologies are interdependent. No single platform does it all, and the success of a technology you use to measure ROI hinges on whether or not they can make integrations with other marketing systems to be fully effective.

Example marketing technologies include BI solutions, attribution software, marketing automation tools that enhance your brand’s digital presence across multiple channels based upon customer behavior patterns. Any one of these is great when used alone but difficult if there aren’t good integration points between each system.

While it’s natural to want to improve your programs with technology, we’ve seen that it can lead down a slippery slope as you seek out additional tools because they might be “the answer” or just another option in an already full toolbox. So instead, keep working away at progress by staying focused on listening closely and communicating clearly within your team about what works best for them to do their jobs.

Distrust in data – not tracking good data

A new study by Vanson Bourne found that most IT Decision Makers distrust data because the data analytics process is not effective or flawed. 82% of organizations think that data analytics are important, but in 84% of cases, data projects are delayed because the data is in the wrong format. And in 82% of cases, poor quality data makes it difficult to do any work with it.

Because of these data issues, 76% of people said that they missed revenue opportunities. There are also 72% of people who believe this distrust has impacted that customer engagement and satisfaction. In addition, 68% think that the organization is slower than competitors to react to market changes because of this distrust.

Improving data quality for analysis can be done by making it easier to access, cleaning and standardizing the data, modernizing infrastructure that stores the information, and integrating all of these siloes.

According to the study, when asked “what was needed to improve data quality for analysis,” respondents noted some key areas that need better data cleaning and standardization. However, they also added on even more important things such as modernization of infrastructures or integration with other sources, which are called out in particular because over half (53%) call them outgrowing problems behind their lack of trust.

The distrust in data will continue to grow as changes in iOS, and third-party cookie blockers continue to impact data and measurement. As a result, marketers will need to find best practices and use the tools to work with these emerging technical challenges.

Marketers will need to know what works best for your company to obtain your desired results. Therefore, it may be a great idea for you to learn how marketing data collection technologies work.

Not working with data outside of marketing.

In some businesses, they only measure the ROI of a marketing campaign. But this can be a mistake. You can focus on one side of the equation and forget to deal with the other part. They may not know how much their investments are costing them or if their marketing is working well. If you do not know your investments, there is no way to tell if your campaign is going well.

Marketers need to have a good relationship with Finance. Marketing needs to work closely with people who are in charge of the money. Relationship with Finance is important because they need to ensure that their data is accurate, has all the information it needs and is structured to use it. If you want to measure ROI, do this early on and make sure Finance agrees with your plan every step of the way.

Sales also have many data that are in the best interest of marketers. Often, marketers are trying to drive leads or engage prospects, and it ends there. But sales can tell you more. 

For example, most sales organizations are working with warm leads and have experiences sharing what opportunities or client profiles are great. You can then use this feedback to do better marketing, and it will help you build great campaigns overall.

Data siloes are very common as companies grow. So it is not surprising that marketing and other teams do not see things eye to eye. Great marketing integration with other departments prevents bad decisions that can cause lost revenue or opportunities. Marketers need to build good relationships with Finance or sales to know what works and the reasoning behind certain numbers, which will help them get actionable insights.

In Summary

Marketing with data is a process that requires patience and dedication. Too often, marketers fall into the trap of expecting analytics tools to be a magic fix for their marketing woes or not trusting in their own company’s data because it feels like they don’t have enough time to track everything.

But suppose you work hard with your team to identify what good data looks like, analyze this information together, and partner up outside of marketing teams with other departments. In that case, you can start seeing success.

The truth is, data can be a valuable tool for your business. But it requires much work to get the results you want, and this starts by knowing what kind of information you need and what tools will work best for you.

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What is digital analytics for marketing

The digital world has come a long way in the last decade. However, today’s businesses have to be digitally savvy if they want any chance of success. For many companies, this can seem like an uphill battle. With so much going on, it can be hard to keep your head above water. That’s where digital analytics comes in!

Digital analytics is all about analyzing data from various sources – everything from social media posts to website clicks – to learn more about your customers and how you can better serve them through your marketing efforts. This post will explore just what digital analytics is and why it is so important for your marketing efforts.

Digital analytics provide you with information on how people are engaging with your content and visiting your website, their interests, where they come from, and much more. Although no two businesses will use the same data practice to learn about their customers, there are a few important things that you should know.

Digital Analytics focuses on connecting points between customer and business properties. It includes traffic metrics, campaign performance to assess a company’s marketing effectiveness. 

Business analytics helps companies improve their decision-making processes by focusing on operational metrics (processes) and stakeholder interactions while optimizing business functionality using web & mobile user behavior data.

Why is Digital Analytics Important?

Digital analytics is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy. However, it shouldn’t even be considered separate from your overall marketing strategy. You are missing out on a huge opportunity to put data to work for your business if you do!

Digital Analytics is important to help businesses solve some of their problems. For example, they allow companies to improve efficiency and optimize customer experiences by providing accurate website/mobile app performance and user behavior analysis.

Let’s look at some of the specifics.

Digital Analytics helps with decision-making.

By using Digital Analytics to track key metrics, you can get an accurate picture of the effectiveness of your efforts and campaigns.

Digital Analytics is important for making website improvements. Whether digging deep into user behavior or taking a more basic approach by tracking website traffic flows, site metrics are essential in understanding what’s working and what’s not on your website.

Digital Analytics is essential for cost-cutting efforts. It helps you identify areas you need to cut costs, whether by eliminating low-performing marketing campaigns or optimizing your website and online resources, which is the first step in improving your bottom line.

Digital Analytics helps answer what customers want.

It can be a challenge to determine how your customers are interacting with your brand with all the available data. Conducting market research and tracking metrics can help you get ahead of the competition by knowing what your customers need before they do.

By creating a tailored experience for your customers, you can not only drive sales but stay ahead of the competition as well. Marketers are well aware of the importance of optimizing customer experiences to gain market share in today’s competitive online environment. In fact, according to a recent study by Forrester Research, “marketing leaders say that they need more insight into customers and channel partners to optimize experience.”

Growing and optimizing your business by supporting data-driven marketing.

Today, marketing is all about reaching potential customers at the right time and in the right place. Digital analytics enables marketers to engage with prospects on their terms throughout the customer lifecycle — from initial contact through brand awareness, interest, purchase, advocacy, and beyond.

The data you collect could be integrated with another marketing platform for more in-depth analysis and help marketing tools execute and optimize better. A good example of this is integrating user behavior data through a web analytics tool with customer profile data in CRM. Knowing who is doing what and how engaged with your brand is key to digital analytics and data-driven marketing.

For many years, personalization has been talked about by creating relevant, timely customer experiences that match both user behavior and business goals. Marketers want to understand their customers and deliver personalized and rich experiences in an omnichannel world. 

Personalization would be supported by data and the capabilities within the digital analytics domain.

Common Digital Analytics related services

Web analytics

Tools like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics are used to carry out digital analytics, which comes under web analytics. Web analytics provides data on how many visitors visited your website, the pages they liked or visited, where they come from, and more information.

Tag Management service

A tag management service is used to monitor the usage of all types of tags on your website. Tags are snippets of code used by marketers for various purposes like remarking, measuring conversions, and more. Google Tag Manager or Tealium is a tool that helps you implement these tags effectively on your website.

The skill sets required for tag management are different from analytics skills. Managing tags is a challenge for marketers, from effectively defining tags to deploying across the web properties. 

With the help of tag management tools, marketers can easily manage and deploy tags efficiently. However, an advanced deployment of the tags will require skills to understand HTML, javascript, API, etc.

Business Intelligence

BI is important for marketers to make informed decisions on various elements like different digital campaigns and traffic sources. An analyst can share the marketing performance data collected by digital analytics with the marketing team through a business intelligence tool in visualizations or dashboards. 

In addition, the information can be presented in the form of tables, charts, graphs, etc. These tools will help marketers to monitor and optimize their digital campaigns regularly.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

Using marketing data and analytics, marketers could practice CRO to improve conversion rates for their digital campaigns. CRO requires integrating various skills; marketers might need data analysis skills to identify the buying process’s pain points and optimize those areas. 

It requires knowledge about different tools like Google Analytics, heat map tracking, usability testing, etc. The conversion rate optimization is time-consuming compared to other processes, but it brings better results for the company.

Commonly known as A/B testing, a CRO practice requires individual assumptions to be tested against each other for determining which variation performs better than the other. As a result, CRO helps marketers learn more about what makes people buy their products and what doesn’t. In addition, data from A/B testing allows marketers to drive their digital initiatives towards better results.

PPC Optimization for Paid Search, Social, and Display

Performing digital analytics for paid search, social, and display networks helps understand the high cost-per-click and what drives more traffic to the website. Using this data, marketers could tweak their budgets to spend more on areas, driving traffic and leads.

Running multiple campaigns at once might lead to a proper comparison of PPC. Campaign optimizations help marketers to optimize their budget and spend more on areas where it is required. Digital marketers approach vendors who offer technology, tools, and expertise to optimize their ads and have the best-performing campaigns.

One of the most important digital analytics tools for PPC campaign optimization is Google Analytics. Google Analytics gives marketers an idea about the source of traffic, mediums, keywords, and more that help them continuously implement a strategy to improve results.

Who owns the Digital Analytics discipline and resources?

Identifying the Digital Analytics discipline owner is an important question because depending on the answer, you could end up with a wide spectrum of needs and capabilities. 

There may be a centralized Digital Analytics team in some organizations that owns the discipline for all marketing efforts, including website, mobile app, social media, paid search, email, and more. On the other hand, some companies may find fragmented strategies across different departments with limited resources.

The Digital Analytics team should own the discipline, covering all digital touchpoints across all marketing efforts. While Marketing may contribute expertise on customer insights and SEO best practices, they don’t necessarily need ownership over operational execution and system management.

Every organization has different reasons why such a digital analytics role would be funded and reside under which department. The common case where digital analytics would be within an organization would be:

• Marketing department under CMO budget
• Under BI team under IT or CTO office
• Decentralized analytics roles across departments

What should a business expect from Digital Analytics capabilities or services?

Digital Analytics is a key part of the digital marketing strategy for any company. To give your business an edge over competitors, you’ll want to make sure that you have the right data and insights available at all times. 

Analytics help marketers understand how customers behave online and knowing what they find valuable about your product or service offerings, which social media channels drive the most traffic to your website, and much more.