Data Analytics 101

Ever since the digital age of business arrived, data analytics has come to the forefront of decision-makers’ minds everywhere. Companies of all sizes and industries are turning to analytics to make informed decisions not only for marketing but also for other areas of business such as operations, production, human resources, and others. If you want to get the most out of your hard-earned dollars, your strongest ally should be data.

Why?

Approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated daily, meaning there is plenty of information to help identify trends and patterns in any given market that drive modern business decisions. Data clarifies what the market desires and what direction it’s headed.

Let’s dive into data analytics for your business:

What are data analytics? 

Data analytics deals with the collection, organization, and interpretation of Big Data to extract insights that lead to action ultimately benefiting your business. 

Steps involved in data analytics

There are 4 main steps: collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation. 

• Data gets collected either through your CRM database, Google Analytics, or similar software, and/or a third-party provider.
• Data is collected in a raw form that can be unstructured, making it hard to understand. This data gets processed by cleaning any unstructured data, removing null values, and identifying outliers making it easy to analyze and group.
• After the data is cleaned, the analysis begins so the data is understood, and conclusions can be arrived at. This process requires analytical skills needed to create models on various software such as Microsoft Excel to arrive at conclusions.
• Lastly, data gets interpreted. This final process involves the review of the conclusions you came to at the end of the analysis stage in the form of reports to arrive at an informed decision about how to proceed.

Now let’s go over some benefits data offers:

Long-term decision making

The biggest benefit of utilizing data is better long-term decision-making when deciding what to put your money towards. Over time, the collection and analysis of data enable companies to create predictive models that are much more accurate than a simple knowledge hunch. If you want to reduce risk, following the numbers is your way of doing it.

Personalize the experience

Data gets collected from multiple channels including e-commerce, physical purchase sales, and marketing such as social media and email which allows companies to get to know their audiences better. More specifically, data gives companies valuable consumer behavior insights.

This consumer data gives you the ability to personalize your offerings with products and deals tailored toward what your audience is already interested in. Personalizing the consumer journey has worked wonders for many companies as consumers give high value to a personalized experience. Will you be next to reap the same rewards?

Delivery of relevant products and services

No matter how great your products or services are, there will inevitably be a change in consumer demands and needs you must adapt to over time. There are multiple large-scale examples of businesses that no longer exist because they could not adapt to a changing market. Consumer and market data can tell you the direction it’s headed, allowing you to change strategy and sell products and services that have higher demand in the future.