The marketing and advertising industry has changed considerably over the past few years; it’s now easier than ever to collect information on how well your business is performing. Unfortunately, applying this data isn’t always as simple. Many companies are now talking about data-driven strategies and using software like Sureshot Activate to help improve their marketing, but how do these improve your business?

Collecting and analyzing data in your sales and marketing practices can help take the guesswork out of the process. Instead of trying to guess how users are behaving, you can look at past trends and behavior and change your strategy to suit. You can include different metrics in order to get a better understanding of how well your website is performing.

What are the Benefits of Data Analytics?

It’s more important than ever that businesses collect and analyze data. The information collected will be able to tell you what’s working well and what needs changing.  If your business is not connecting well with consumers, then you need to make alterations to the way you market and advertise it. Click here to learn more about why data analytics is important in marketing.

You may be under the impression that it costs a lot of money to collect and analyze data, but this isn’t the case. Data can be obtained for free from Google Analytics. In order to obtain this data, you will need to sign up for an account. A tracking code will then be sent to you which will need to be downloaded and installed on your website. Then you’ll be able to see how well your website is performing and think of ways to improve it.

The Types of Data You Can Track

Some of the main types of data you can track include:

• Individual page traffic
• Traffic levels
• Site referrals
• Bounce rate
• Conversions
• Exit percentage
• Search queries

As well as the above, you will be able to look at specific metrics which will give you a deeper insight into your customers. For example, you could choose to combine conversion rates with site referrals to see which sites give you the best leads.

Marketing and Data Analytics

Analytics is the software that is available to turn the data you collect into insights. Over the last 10 years, the advertising and marketing industry has been revolutionized by this software. Here are some of the top ways you can use this information to market your creative business:

1. Personalize your interactions with your customers – We are now able to gain more information on our customers than we’ve ever been able to before, including consumer preferences and behavior. Customers are often keen on sharing their information in order to receive marketing that is personalized to them. Businesses need to personalize their marketing efforts and target their customers. If you do this well in your creative business, then you will make your customers feel valued and they will likely repeat their custom.
   
2. What works well – One of the main benefits of data-driven marketing is greater visibility. Before digital marketing became so popular, it was hard to determine which marketing efforts worked well and which didn’t. You can use data in your business to track your customers from their initial interest to the final purchase. Insights can be obtained by looking at website cookies and click-through rates.
   
3. Be seen worldwide – Customers no longer need to walk into a shop in order to interact with a brand. Website visits, email communications and social media engagements all help to create a complex picture. Many people find it hard to keep track of all these interactions and using data analytics is usually the only way to turn these touchpoints into a customer profile. Brands who achieve this will usually provide their customers with a uniform, quality experience, regardless of the way they chose to interact with the business.
   
4. Full funnel marketing – This is a well-known strategy, but it might need some alterations in the digital era. Consumers no longer follow the straight line of finding out about a product to buying it. Instead, customers often conduct most of their research independently on a variety of websites or social media sites. If you are wanting to market your creative business, you will need to target and nurture any potential customers across a number of different platforms.
   
5. Data scientists are useful – Data alone can be confusing. It’s only by looking at the data and turning it into insights that we can use it to improve a business. There are a number of packages which will help analyze data, but highly qualified data scientists will be able to help you develop marketing strategies and objectives from the data that’s been collected.

We now produce more data than we’ve ever produced before. Every GPS pinpoint taken by our smartphones, every card transaction we make, and each click of the mouse we make online contributes to a varied and huge dataset. Data analytics will help turn all of this information into valuable insights for your business. You can use this information to help successfully market your business.

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