Marketers and communications teams live in a time of abundance.
Over the last 15+ years, the incredible growth of digital channels has helped us learn more than ever before about target audiences, track website visitors’ behavior and monitor customers’ activity.
There is such a wealth of data being generated, logged, analyzed and packaged that we coined the term “big data” to underscore just how much stuff is going on.
An outgrowth of this has been the explosion of analytics and intelligence tools to help wade through and understand these oceans of information. Between free tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Page Insights and the plethora of paid tools at the modern marketer’s fingertips, it’s understandable that we can fall into the trap of simply reading out the information that is provided rather than first asking ourselves what we’re trying to learn.
How’d that Facebook campaign do? Here’s the CTR. What’s happening on the website? Page views are up.
The problem is that we’re responding to an inquiry, but we aren’t answering the question in a useful way. Here’s how you can adjust your mindset to successfully gather and use data:
What do you want to know?
The most important part of a measurement plan isn’t how many data points, segments or slices of data can be presented (the answer will be: lots), but rather the ability togive you meaningful, actionable information and insight . The key is having a good sense of what your program is trying to accomplish and spending time to develop and align your measurement model to those objectives.
Depending on your role and needs, the focus of your plan will vary: it could be about performance (does the page/campaign/ad unit achieve its goal?), conversion (making a sale, capturing a lead, encouraging a download), operations (are the pages loading fast enough/are users finding the most important content) or some other priority.
A measurement framework should provide feedback that helps you evaluate your effort and make adjustments that can improve performance and help you reach your objectives.
What will you do when you know it?
A second crucial factor when you look at your data and measurement plan is knowing what you will do/recommend based on the information you’ve collected.
Thinking in advance about what action you will take in response to data forces you to elevate the information that you need to support decision making and leave behind some potentially interesting but not usable information that would simply add noise to your analysis.
For executive reports in particular, this rule should be ruthlessly applied. Observational curiosities test the patience of team leaders, who are generally keen to get past “What happened?” to get to “So what?” and “What do you recommend?”
[RELATED: Refresh your social media strategy so you can react on the fly.]
Depending on your role and objectives, the metrics that matter might be very different, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The DevOps team, for instance, will be concerned with things like page-load speed and error pages that have no relevance for the sales leadership (until it affects their conversion rates). The content team might be focused on pages that aren’t getting enough visibility. The marketing team could be primarily interested in conversions by channel. Each of these may be the “right” metric for the case.
Thinking about your measurement plan as a performance gauge can help focus your reporting on what is most important and drive progress toward your goals.
Know when enough is enough
Once you’ve selected your metrics and confirmed they are actionable, insight can (and should) be produced on an ongoing basis. Your data shouldn’t be looked at exclusively at the conclusion of the campaign or in a quarterly review meeting.
The trap to avoid at this stage is over-analysis. We all know it can be tempting to dive into the countless facets of information that can be accessed in a tool like Google Analytics. Resist that temptation.
It’s OK (and fun) to explore from time to time, but work to make sure your measurement stays focused and avoid paralysis by analysis. When you have enough information to make a decision based on your data, stop and implement.
If your data expands your knowledge and helps you understand what is happening in your digital world, great. If it becomes a compulsion, less great. Keep your head above water, and focus on information that helps you make better decisions and adds value.
For measurement to produce value, it has to start and end with goals.
If you don’t have a solid answer to why the website/communications program/promotional campaign exists, it will be difficult to define success. On the flip side, if you can’t explain why the measurement you’re looking at supports/influences that success, it will be difficult to act on the information.
As you expand your measurement program, ask yourself:
1. What am I trying to accomplish? ← Focus on your goal.
2. What do I need to know from the data to help me reach my goal? ←Align measurement to your objectives.
3. What will I do differently based on the information I’m getting? ← Ensure your measurement plan is actionable.
4. What aren’t the data I’m looking at telling me what I need to know (and how can I gain those insights)? ← Identify/address gaps in your plan.
If you can answer all those questions, you’re on your way to an effective measurement program and getting the most out of your digital data.
Travis Austin is a senior partner at Stratacomm. A version of this article was originally published on the agency’s blog.
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