Thanks to modern technology, collecting and analyzing data has never been easier. With the seemingly unending access to data sources at companies’ fingertips, business owners can see what is working for them and what they can improve on in the blink of an eye — but that doesn’t mean everyone is taking advantage of the tools at their disposal.
As a business owner, you’re constantly thinking about how you can implement new ideas into your strategy to boost your company’s success. Data analytics helps to paint a clear picture of where you stand and where you should make changes. Keep reading to learn 10 tips to unlock business success with advanced data analytic strategies.
What Are Data Analytics?
Just as there’s been a push for more data collection, there has been a rise in analytic technology. Data analytics takes data that you have collected, whether by hand or through online tools, and analyzes it to make conclusions.
“If you’re starting a business and want to understand where your success or failures are stemming from, you should start with data analytics,” said Brianna Bitton, Co-Founder of O Positiv, a company that specializes in women’s vitamins. “Analyzing data gives you the ability to see between the lines and understand how you should move forward.”
Data analytics is a system that can provide a variety of outcomes. It is wired to comb through data collection points and can be programmed to look for specific intersections and trends. Data analytics is what all businesses need to reach the next level.
What Can Advanced Data Analytics Do for Your Business?
Data analytics help unearth important truths about your business and its potential. Access to advanced technology has helped businesses to make better decisions when it comes to how they interact with their customers, how they manage their inventory, and how they decide what comes next.
“The ability to bring data-driven insights into decision-making is extremely powerful, all the more so given all the companies that can’t hire enough people who have these capabilities. It’s the way the world is going,” shared Jan Hammond, Professor of Manufacturing and Senior Associate Dean of Culture and Community at Harvard Business School.
Whenever you’re making a decision for your business, it can be extremely helpful to use data as the driving force. Data backs up your decision-making and gives you an idea of what is and isn’t working.
10 Data Analytic Tips To Help Your Business Succeed
Implementing data analytics into your business might seem like a foreign concept, especially if you are not a tech wizard. Luckily, you don’t need to be a data analyst to bring data analytics into your business.
1. Turn Data Into Insights
If you want your business to succeed, you need to learn how to turn your data collection into actionable insights. Making your data readable and accessible can help people throughout your business understand how to interpret the figures.
“Data is a collection of information that you organize. Without reading and sorting your data, you’re left looking at a mess of numbers. You have to figure out why the data you’ve collected looks the way it does to understand how you can use it,” explained Titania Jordan, CMO of Bark Technologies, a company that provides phones for kids with built-in safety features.
The insights you gather from your data are what your business will use to plan for its future. They help guide your business to what’s next by offering connections and evidence.
2. Find Data You May Have Missed
The more data that you collect, the more information you’re able to understand. As you dive deeper into your data collection, you find different patterns and interactions. These patterns have always been there, but not to the naked eye.
“It sometimes takes sifting through hundreds and thousands of data points to find what you’re looking for. Half the time, you may not even be sure what you want to find, and that’s okay. The data will spell it out for you in time,” said Shaunak Amin, CEO and Co-Founder of ByStadium.
Data analytics help to simultaneously narrow and expand the information that you’ve collected. You may find hidden details that are useful to decision-making in your business while also seeing a broader picture that can open you up to new opportunities.
3. Keep Your Data Current
You never know when the data that you’ve collected is going to become useful. It could take years before your data finally makes sense. Because of this possibility, you should be maintaining your data collection and keeping it organized year over year (YoY).
“Every piece of data that you collect is going to be worthwhile. Your business will change throughout the years, but the variables that you track each year can stay the same. Choosing variables with longevity in mind will help you to see patterns and trends for years to come,” advised Scott Chaverri, CEO of Mito Red Light, a company known for their red light therapy devices.
You want to be able to find data when you need it. By storing it correctly and safely, you can ensure access to it when the time comes. Some data will even be helpful in a multitude of situations.
4. Improve Your Data Collection
As your business grows, you might find you have the ability to collect data from different sources. This is essential for your business’s growth and development. Your understanding of the data you’ve collected will only grow as you use more diverse sources.
“Every department under your business could benefit from dedicated data collection sources. Your marketing sources will look different from your inventory sources. All of this data is useful, just in its own way,” explained Andrew Meyer, CEO of Arbor.
Over time, the data that you’ve collected will make more sense to your business. While you might not understand why certain sources are useful now, you can’t predict what you’ll be looking for in the future. Of course, the data might be able to!
5. Create Analytic Products
Analytics projects help us complete tasks and often have a finite use. This can be helpful for businesses in the process of data collection who need to execute a specific plan. However, analytic products work to maximize user value. As a result, an analytic product is adaptable and ever-changing. It works to continue to improve how you view data rather than just bring specific data in.
“There is more collaboration from a team when an analytic product mindset is involved. You can keep working to fine-tune and expand with an analytical product mindset so that you can improve your customer’s experience with your business,” shared Bob Craycraft, CEO of Cadence Petroleum.
Try adopting an analytic product mindset for your business to keep the focus on the bigger picture: making your business more useful to your customers.
6. Build Up Your Analytics Team
There are professionals who can make data analytics more accessible to your business, and they should be some of the first people you hire. Data collection should start as soon as you launch a business, but it can be difficult to try to maintain this work without a dedicated team.
“Data analysts exist for a reason. They can use and understand the programs being used to collect and sort data, searching for key trends and figuring out ways to implement changes to your business from what the data tells them,” said Amanda Howland, Co-Founder of ElleVet Sciences, a company that specializes in dog CBD.
Once you find a core team of data analysts, you might begin to feel more at ease about data. You don’t have to be a tech genius to start the data collection and analyzing process — you just need to find one.
7. Use Key Performance Indicators
While you can’t control where the data will take you, you should still implement quantifiable measures called key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you evaluate your collection. Giving your data structure can help you extract valuable information from it.
“When you start asking the right questions, patterns begin to fall into place. You can look at your data and ask a variety of questions, and the data will give you answers,” explained Bryan Welker, VP of Growth Marketing at L-Nutra, a company known for their proprietary Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD), Prolon.
Even just one group of data can tell you multiple different outcomes. You can sort through your data using KPIs to better understand these outcomes.
8. Refine Your Analytics Models
As with everything in the business world, data analytics is constantly evolving. How you collect, view, and interpret data — and how you use these interpretations — will change from situation to situation.
“When things are changing, your data also changes, and when your data changes, your models change. Analytics models are not a constant entity,” said Prashanth Southekal, head of DBP-Institute.
You can’t assume that the analytic models that you’re currently using for one data set will work in another data set. Similarly, you can’t assume how you analyzed data five years ago will be the same today. Be prepared to refine your models and let them lead to how you consume data.
9. Practice Data Storytelling
Once you’ve gotten your data and turned it into insights, you need to know how to share those insights with your team. Practicing data storytelling helps to educate your employees and stakeholders on what the data in front of them means.
“The more you can explain about your data, the easier it is for people to read it. Showing how two points connect or how one collection informs the next will help to weave a narrative that then can be used to help implement new strategies into your business,” explained Jim Mitchell, Chief Growth Officer of Awesome CX by Transcom, a company that specializes in customer experience solutions.
Storytelling helps to educate in a way that actually reaches your audience. How you explain your data to your marketing strategist might be different than how you might explain it to your business development manager. The key is to have a strong enough understanding of the information in question to tailor your explanations to your audience.
10. Embrace the Data Revolution
You can’t avoid data. Even if you think you’re not actively involved in data collection and analysis, data is constantly being collected in every department of your business.
“The longer you wait to take data seriously, the more you hurt your business. Once you’ve accepted that data analytics are here to stay, you can come up with ways to help push your business to success with its help,” said Sam Emara, CEO of Foxy AI.
The first step might be hiring a data analyst to help you get the job done right. Then, once you’ve identified your KPIs and envision the future you want for your business, the data collection will come naturally.
Take Every Opportunity for Success
No matter what kind of business model you’ve adopted for yourself, data can help to better understand how your business is holding up. If you want concrete measures to see your successes or failures, data can provide that for you. Don’t shy away from it now — embrace data analytics and all that it can do for your business or risk being left in the past.
