Analytics are a necessary part of running a business today. While understanding your business in numbers can get complicated, we are here to help you understand why analytics are necessary, and how to get the most out of their use. Keep in mind, each business will have a unique set of numbers and factors, so something that will help one business may hurt the next business. That’s why we’re helping you understand the world of analytics a little better.
The good news is you don’t need to be a math wiz to understand your business's analytics. Originally, analytics were number cruncher territory and that scared a lot of people away. Luckily, there are a number of sites, programs and platforms that you can work with to get a better understanding of the reports.
It’s just another thing to do. Yes, analytics do take a bit of time to go through, but so does reducing prices, or closing your doors for good. Analytics help you figure out what parts of your marketing are working, and will help you stop throwing good money after bad. Once you get a plan together on how you’ll check your numbers, you’ll see the initial investment in time was well worth it.
Know what you’re looking for. First off, you need to set your goals on what you want from analytics – is it what term was searched for that got a visitor to your website? Or, what platform — social media, email or referrals — did they come from? All of these, and many others, are great to know, but the two analytical numbers you want to know are visitor-to-lead conversion rates and lead-to-customer conversion rates. These are the true measures of your messages effectiveness. By using these numbers, you’ll be able to tell what messages are hitting on all cylinders, and which ones may need a tune-up.
Don’t comparison shop. It is good, and even recommended by some, to use different platforms when analyzing your analytics, but don’t attempt to compare the numbers. Different platforms, like HubSpot or Google Analytics, use different criteria to get your numbers, so it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison and may skew what your course of action should be. You’ll want to compare trends, and you should see the same patterns on however many platforms you use. If there is a large anomaly in those trends, you may want to revisit your numbers on platform that has such varying information, because there may be an issue with the way your reporting was handled.
Not a place for wallflowers. You’ve done all the work, so why not put your analytics into action? After careful review, you should see trends on what has been working, and what hasn’t. Have a plan of action with your information, and don’t be afraid to change your marketing efforts mid-stream. You’re going through the process of analytics for a reason, so never let this valuable information go to waste. Instead, use it to modify your current campaign or as the basis for your next one. If you opt not to use a marketing platform, like HubSpot or Google Analytics, to keep tabs on your trends over a set period of time, you may want to use a Google Spreadsheet or Excel to keep track of how your numbers perform. HubSpot offers a marketing reporting template that makes reporting easier and faster.
