By Amber Ramsey
Data analysis tells us a lot about our customers and clients — our existing customers and target market included. The data we collect and analyze can be used to acquire and retain customers and clients, market our products and services to our target audience, and develop new products and services in the future. It also helps to mitigate risks and protect businesses from security threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Below, Polite On Society discusses the importance of data analytics in business, and highlights a few of the different tools that can be used to gather data and make smarter business decisions.
Acquiring and Retaining Customers
Customer acquisition and retention is how businesses succeed, and data analytics tools help to improve how you market your products and services to your target customers and clients. With the right data analytics tools, you’ll obtain a better understanding of your target audience: What they’re looking for in a product or service, how and where they shop or do business, and which marketing campaigns they want to see and interact with. The data you collect can then be used to build your marketing strategy.
That being said, branding is just one part of your company’s marketing strategy. A few steps that go into branding your small business include: Developing a name, tagline, and logo; designing a website; and creating your marketing materials. Different types of marketing materials include business cards, social media channels, billboards, and newspaper ads.
When building your brand, free online tools can be used to create business cards, advertisements, flyers, and logos — all without having to pay for professional branding services.
With these tools, designing a logo and other marketing materials is as easy as choosing a style, icon, and the text you’d like displayed. You’ll then be able to customize your documents to fit your brand and attract your target audience.
Mitigating Risks and Security Threats
In addition to using data to acquire and retain customers, data analytics helps businesses to mitigate risks and security threats. A few of these risks include:
- Customer and employee churn rates.
- Potential sources of fraud and identity theft.
- Changing market conditions.
- The opening of new business locations.
- Credit, compliance, and operational risk.
Businesses can use data analytics to identify, assess, and prioritize these types of risks more easily — and effectively respond to them. ERM Insights by Carol shares a few risk response strategies small businesses may consider.
Developing New Products and Services
You can probably tell by now that data analytics helps businesses to make better decisions overall, whether it’s planning their marketing campaigns, reducing costs, or improving the customer experience. And as businesses grow, the data they collect can also be used to improve their existing products and services — and develop new ones. Anastasia Belyh of Cleverism offers an in-depth explanation of the role data analytics plays in new product development.
Choosing the Right Data Analytics Tools
There are many data analysis tools available, and choosing the right ones for your business can be overwhelming. However, the right data analytics tools for you will depend on your goals, industry, and end-users.
A few different options include customer data platforms (CDPs), business intelligence (BI) tools, customer analytic tools, and digital experience platforms (DXPs). Datapine, for instance, is a type of BI tool — while Segment, Bloomreach, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights are different types of CDPs.
Your Business Needs Data Analytics
If you’re not already using data analytics to improve your products and services and better understand your target market, now is the time to get started. Focus on the data you can truly use to improve your business — like customer retention rates and acquisition costs — and select data analytics tools you find easiest to use and understand.
Data is a major key to long-lasting business success, but it’s important to start by collecting only the information that will be most useful to your company. As your data analytical skills improve, you can focus on additional areas further down the road.
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