New Year, New Opportunities
January 2, 2013
It’s the start of a new year, and with the new year come new resolutions and new plans to make 2013 better than 2012. But as you stand resolutely prepared to charge into the new year with your benchmarks and bottom lines, pause a moment and look back at what got you to this point: Last Year’s Data.
In marketing, a business must pay attention to what works and what doesn’t work in order to carry out a successful strategy. You do this through your business data, your analytics and your insights. As important as it is to track all of your data, a bunch of numbers is useless if you don’t understand what it means and how it can grow your business. The next step is to understand how your data is related to your results, and that’s what we’ll be showing you today
Collect, Collect, Collect
How are you collecting data? There are various tools built into some social media platforms already, and Google analytics is great for tracking activity on your website or blog. But what about tracking emails, mobile messaging or promotional apps? Hopefully you have something in place to track, collect, and measure as much of your audience engagement as possible. This can be as simple as keeping an in-store count of who redeemed your email coupon, or as comprehensive as a program like eMerge that consolidates and collects from all of your channels. Just remember, the more you know, the more you can grow.
Look For What Worked
Far too often marketers or businesses will fall back onto what is easiest, not on what was successful. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to dig through the data, but what you find will absolutely help in the future. When your Facebook insights show a big spike on posts with images, keep it up. If your website gets a jump in unique visitors after an email with a certain promotion, start building a campaign around it. When your sales increased because of a mobile coupon, you know your customers are active on their mobile devices. It’s not hard to see what worked, just keep an open mind and follow the numbers.
Know What Numbers Mean
Unfortunately, seeing the numbers and understanding the numbers can be worlds apart for some, especially if you don’t have a reporting platform that can tell you specifically what is driving the engagement. Let’s say you sent a New Year’s greeting and promotion across all of your social channels, blog and email. It increased your sales, but which one of your channels was the cause? Your basic email reports said a good open rate, your Facebook insights showed some Likes and Shares, it was even Re-tweeted a few times! But which channel had the most impact? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a program that actually told you?
Use Your Email Data
Having some measure in place to look at who interacted with your email, and how, is crucial to continuing success in a campaign. Email is still king, and the content can be powerful. But in order to grow you must know what content is working, and what isn’t. Knowing what readers clicked on in your email will tell you what they are interested in when they receive your email, so keep hitting them with what they want. The more they get, the more they engage, and the more you grow.
Pay Attention To Social Data
As a social channel, Facebook has the easiest platform insights. Just take a look at your posts, which ones do a better job of engaging your fans? A safe bet would be they are images, questions or promotions. Continue putting out information and posts that drive engagement and add value to your page. Remember that social media is free, so fans have just as much ease sharing you as leaving you. Pay attention to what engages them so that they understand the value your page provides to them.
Prepare For The New Year
As you look to 2013 and all the opportunities it holds, don’t lose sight of how you got there. By keeping track and using the data you have collected up until this point, you can plan for upcoming campaigns, strategize your content, and boost your engagement with your audience. More engagement online can equal more money for your business, so take advantage of the resources provided for you.
The eMerge platform has some of the most comprehensive data collecting features on the market. You are given up-to-date reports on everything from your social channels and Google analytics, to who interacted with your emails and exactly what they clicked on. The best part is you can consolidate all of your channels into the platform and track everything in one place. No more running around trying to collect data, eMerge does all the collecting for you.
Conclusion
The most intimidating part of collecting, understanding, and applying data is the process; it can seem like a monumental task. There are resources built in to some channels, but chasing down all the information can take up valuable time. That’s why eMerge is here to help. As you begin your journey through 2013, take a look back at how you got here. Repeating success is smart, so be sure you have the data you need to continue, and improve upon, your business success.
For more information about how eMerge can help your business collect, and understand your data, visit us online at www.easyemerge.com or give us a call at 888.639.9323.
