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3 Ways Data Analytics Helps Small Business Owners and How to get Started

By Jenna Bruce on Fri, Jul 10, 2020 @ 02:42 PM |

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Do a Google search on the topic of “big data” case studies and you’ll uncover a goldmine of examples. For instance, here’s an article that highlights 37 case studies in which companies got big results when using the data at their disposal.

Now the companies in the article are all big. But that doesn’t mean smaller companies can’t also benefit from leveraging the data at their disposal. In fact, small businesses can benefit just as much, if not more so, than their larger counterparts.

For starters, small businesses are usually operating on shoestring budgets, which means CMOs must ensure every dollar sees a significant ROI. Data analysis helps small business owners and their marketing teams better target customers and prospects. This can often make the difference between a profit and a loss.

There are some other reasons why leveraging the data at their disposal is incredibly beneficial to smaller businesses.

  1. Proactive VS Reactive Approaches

It’s easy for small business owners to be reactive. But taking a proactive approach to marketing and operations is always more powerful and effective. By analyzing data, you can put yourself in a position of anticipating your customer’s needs instead of reacting to them. A proactive approach ultimately decreases marketing costs, builds brands and grows profits year after year.

  1. Easily Cut Through the Clutter and Noise

These days even small local business owners need to have a solid online presence. But it’s not always easy for these business owners to allocate their online resources to build their online brand. And many small business owners also find it challenging to cut through the noise and clutter of the digital landscape to reach their intended audience.

Data analytics allows small business owners to gain insight into things like which products are the hottest sellers, where their best prospects consume online content and which keywords are bringing in people most likely to convert. Since analyzing data can make your online marketing more effective, it can lower costs, boost profits and enhance customer loyalty all at the same time.

  1. Improve Future Offerings

No business can ever really rest. To rely on past successes to bring in future sales is a recipe for disaster. Even those behemoth companies that have had blockbuster products in the past must always look forward and offer something even greater.

Data analytics can help you to not only make your current offerings even stronger, but also help you design additional products with your customer’s needs and pain points in mind.

If you are a small business owner who is not currently leveraging the data at your disposal, you are definitely missing out on opportunities to meet your customer’s needs and improve your bottom line.

If you’re ready to take a more proactive approach to your marketing by using data analytics, here are a few key ideas to keep in mind:

Where to Find Your Data

Look for both internal and external sources of data. Internal sources may include things like transaction or machine log data. You can also speak with your own sales department. As far as external sources of data, look to your social media platforms and business aps that offer real time analytics.

Collect and Organize

Once you’ve started to collect data from these two sources, you’ll want to organize it into different types. One type of data would be “demographic,” and the other type would be “customer behavior.” These types of data will give you equally important, though different, actionable insights.

Get Specific with Your Goals

Now that you have collected your data and organized it into specific types, it’s time you got specific with your end goals. What exactly is it you want your ad campaign to do? Increase brand recognition? Build your email subscriber list? Something else entirely?

Depending on your goals, you’ll want to dig a little further to pull out the data that can help you determine which advertising channels and which times of day will work best for your audience.

Keep Analyzing and Adjusting as Necessary

Nothing in marketing is ever infallible. As you continue to leverage data and launch new campaigns, keep good track of your metrics to see if you hit your goals. If not, adjust your goals, channels and creatives as necessary, making sure to keep your data front and center.

Without question, those businesses large and small that are using data are outperforming their competition who is still going at things blindly. If you haven’t begun to leverage the data at your disposal, what are you waiting for?

If you feel overwhelmed at the idea of gathering and analyzing data, that’s where a media buyer can come in hand. We eat sleep and breathe data and are able to help our clients make the most sense out of it so they can boost their ROI.

If you need some help, just reach out to us.

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