Small Business Analytics Essentials
“We have two ears and one mouth.”
This is one of my favorite expressions. To effectively communicate, you should be listening more than speaking. But think about how a brand listens? You can listen to individual customers, yes, but the juicy stuff - the answers to those big, money-driving questions - that’s in your data.
However, the listening part of this equation goes beyond taking a quick peek at your numbers.
Like in a productive personal conversation, we’re listening to understand. When reviewing data, you want to pull insights, which advise rather than inform. Interpreting allows you to drive decisions, which is what makes data so powerful.
Why Bother With Data?
I know as busy entrepreneurs, it’s tempting to take the quick approach - get your content out the door ASAP, and skip inventory. But similar to a personal relationship, people get tired of one way conversations.
Seth Godin has a great comparison he makes between responding and reacting. If a doctor says you’re responding to treatment, that’s a good thing. Conversely, if you’re reacting to medication, you’re in trouble.
Then there’s initiation.
While responding is what’s expected of you and reacting should be avoided, as a brand, your goal is to initiate. Being able to initiate and manage comes from truly understanding your audience and space, which is largely a data driven initiative.
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Data Analysis: Easier Said Than Done
There’s SO much data, I know. And it’s easy to get distracted by things that aren’t relevant to your conversation. So how do you identify the good stuff?
It’s in the, “so what.” What question are you trying to answer? Start with your website, for example. Are you trying to increase website sales? If so, you may ask: Who’s currently buying from me? Who’s buying my highest dollar products? Who’s buying most frequently? Are they different customers? What do I know about these people demographically? Do I have any lifestyle information? Start here and dig in.
I find that many of my clients use Google Analytics, but still aren’t tracking a lot of the really juicy stuff. If you feel like that’s you, here are some starting points:
If you’re not using Google Analytics, or another advanced tracking tool, go ahead and start there.
If you use Google Analytics already, but haven’t heard of Google Tag Manager, you may want to start with a detailed walk through. GTM allows you bypass using a developer when you need to update your tracking configurations. This can feel a little complicated when you first jump in, but I promise it’ll save you a headache as your business gets more complex, as you’ll likely need to implement more than one tracking code simultaneously. Google Tag Manager makes this a piece of cake.
If you’re using Google Analytics, but don’t know how to find some of the information I mentioned above, make sure you’ve enabled Google Analytics’s Demographic & Interests tool. You may also want to activate Google Signals.which can unlock cross device tracking. It’s a pretty simple set up and detailed instructions are listed here.
You may also find segmenting your data and creating Goals incredibly useful. Again, start with your question, or why, then decide what type of segmenting and goals makes sense for your business.
If you aren’t utilizing a the Facebook and Adwords conversion pixels, I would highly recommend implementing both of these. Even if you are not running paid ads, they are FREE to add to your site and you can later use that data to initiate relevant ads and conversations.
Get familiar with your analytics. Remember, the goal is a two way conversation. You should be checking in every week or two at first, but make sure you’re also looking at reporting with questions or goals in mind so you don’t get lost in the data.
Have specific questions about data interpretation or set up of your analytics? Leave a comment or shoot me a note.