Here’s How to Dive Into Data (Without Drowning)

The age of digital marketing is upon us. Marketers are no longer left to rely solely on their Spidey Senses to gauge the market and develop relevant content. The good news is, it’s never been easier to obtain data on nearly everything from prospect preferences and behaviors, to campaign performance and ROI. The pool of information is so vast, in fact, that many quickly become overwhelmed, feeling as though they are “drowning in data”, and end up abandoning the process. Luckily, you can help prevent that “let’s throw in the towel” mindset by arming yourself with 2 key pieces of information: where to get the data you need and how to interpret and leverage it.

Dipping a Toe in the Data Pool

As Marketing Insider Group says, “We don’t need to guess what people want; we just need to know where to look.” So where should you start looking? That depends on how you intend to put the data you are seeking to work. Data should influence nearly all of your marketing decisions, but to keep it simple, we are going to assume you are starting out by using it to gain target audience insights.

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get audience data is through social media. Most social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) have built-in analytics tools that measure the demographics and behaviors of your fans, and sometimes the whole user database. The amount of information you have access to, however, depends on whether you conduct paid advertising through the platform. In the new pay-to-play economy of social media advertisers are rewarded with access to much more robust data. 

Google analytics is another powerful and free resource for audience insights. After installing a simple piece of code on your website, Google Analytics can help you gather all kinds of data on your website visitors, everything from their location and mobile behavior to the length of time they spend on your website and most importantly, what content they are engaging with. This data can help you understand what content is driving engagement to inform what you create next.

There are numerous additional tools available to help you gather marketing data, many of which are available for free. We will highlight some of these other tools in a future post, but for now, let’s dive a bit deeper and look at how to use that data.

Diving in Deep

So now that you know where to get basic data, how do you leverage it to get business? This is where it gets a bit trickier.

Let’s continue with our audience insights example. Say you learn through your social media and website research these insights about your audience:

• Your audience is primarily between the ages of 25-35

• Your audience is online mostly on Tuesday afternoons

• Your social media posts about free educational content perform 10x better than other posts

• 80% of people access your website on mobile devices

• Your webpages with educational content get more views and keep people on the site longer

From this handful of insights, you now have a better idea of what your audience looks like, and what they want. You can leverage this new-found knowledge in several ways:

• Since you know most people are on a mobile device, you know your website should be mobile friendly and your content should be web-based, this means no long-format PDF eBooks that are impossible to consume on a mobile device.

• Since your audience is primarily between the ages of 25-35, you can use imagery and writing-style that appeals to this age group

• Since your audience is mostly online on Tuesday afternoons, you know that is a good time to post on social media

• Since educational content performs well on both your website and social media, you should dedicate more time to creating that content and consider allocating budget to promoting it though social media

Keep in mind, that while the above resources are great tools to get you started, they leave some gaps when you’re trying to paint a full picture of your audience. For instance, you may be able to tell how many people are visiting your website, but you don’t know exactly who is visiting your website and what they’re doing when they arrive there. And you may know who liked your post on social media, but you probably don’t know whether they also visited your website and filled out a form to request additional information. So, to really leverage all the data that is available to you, you will need a tool like HubSpot, or another CRM + Marketing Automation tool combination that can connect all the pieces.

Tools like HubSpot, that have both CRM and marketing automation system components, can help you dive deeper into the data, to track the actions of prospects and customers across multiple digital channels. You can see when someone visits a specific web page, fills out an online form, interacts with a social media post, and/or opens an email. By seeing all the actions someone has taken, you can build a much more accurate profile and better understanding of what they are looking for. 

Once you know what your audience is looking for, you can then create content customized to their exact needs. This custom content creation, as well as the ability to send highly targeted messages with just a few clicks, are the keys to generating business.

Get Help Staying Afloat

If you’re ready to dive into data and create content that converts, but need some support to help keep you afloat, we are here to help. Using a foundational approach, Red Brick Partners helps provide you with the infrastructure needed to support long-term success. Whether you’re just getting started, or need to re-invigorate your current marketing strategy, we can work with you the get the results you want.

Schedule your free consultation here and find out what Red Brick Partners can do for you. 

References:

1.     Rivard, Johanna. “Why Your Marketing Needs to be Data-Driven.” Marketing Insider Group, April 25, 2019. https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/marketing-needs-data-driven/