Today, there is an increasing reliance on data due to the abundance of software-, web- and technology-based products and services. Rather than relying on foot traffic to a storefront to determine the return on a marketing ploy, marketers and analysts need to understand what influenced a buyer from intent to buy to purchase.That is why technologies have been created that allow marketers to extract all the data they need. The only issue is many marketers don’t know how to initiate action from the data.
In fact—according to the above-linked survey results from dannybrown.me—while 83 percent of marketers plan to consider using real-time data, 45 percent of them said analysis and application of data is their biggest challenge, and 39 percent aren’t using demographic information or customer-behavior patterns to create their marketing strategies.
To make the most of the data you’re gathering on your visitors, leads and customers, you have to keep in mind this simple rule of marketing: Figure out what’s working and do more of it. In today’s post we’ll help you undercover insight from your data in three easy ways.
Ready to boost conversions with a data-driven marketing methodology?
1. Identify opportunities
Data is an incredible tool for uncovering unseen opportunities in your marketing strategy. If you want people to take a certain action (or perform a particular conversion) you need to focus your attention on conversion rates and optimizing for them.
For example, your data may reveal that traffic dropped over the last couple of weeks, but free-trial signups continued to accrue. From there you should dig deeper into which channels are converting at the highest rate (email, social media, blog, site-page CTA, etc.)
Focus your marketing efforts on the highest-converting channels, while A/B testing the channels that are converting poorly. Create two variants of the same asset and test them with small percentages of the total audience for whom the asset is intended. The one that converts the best becomes the published version.
2. Uncover the "why"
Want to know why leads and customers are taking the actions they’re taking on your site? Ask them. Your main goal is to solve for customers by identifying their pain points and digging for solutions, so why not just ask them.
Software-based companies often deal with cancellations, and when their data reflects a high amount of subscription cancellations, they need to find out why. One way to do this is to intercept customers with a few survey questions about their experiences just after they have interacted with your product. Here are five ways from Inc.
- Ask users why they came to your website and if they were successful in their intended tasks.
- Include several open-ended questions to find out why users failed their tasks.
- Pose a few key business questions about such matters as how they rate your brand and how likely they are to purchase from you.
- Run your intercept survey continuously to measure the impact of changes you have made over time.
- Invite users to be included in a community of customers for follow-up discussion.
3. Test, test and test some more
Data gives you a starting point but in order to garner value from it, you need to spend time manipulating and testing your marketing efforts.
The most effective way to test your marketing is to create small experiments that can be achieved in a day. You want to be able to quickly and efficiently gather valuable data so you can continue to draw conclusions and build out new experiments. The faster you learn what works, where it works and when it works, the faster you can build your business.
Follow the scientific method:
- Start with the data.
- Ask a question of what information you have available to you.
- Construct a hypothesis.
- Test with an experiment.
- Confirm the test/procedure worked as planned.
- Analyze the data and draw conclusions
- Present results and determine the next steps
There are many ways to gain insight from your data, but in order to do so you need to take the time to sit down and analyze what you’re seeing. By taking the time to understand how and why leads and customers react to your marketing, you can find scalable ways to grow your business. And the beauty of this process, the more quickly you test and improve, the faster your business will grow.
How do you garner insight from your data? Let us know below!
