Analytics Strategy To AVOID DATA OVERWHELM In Your Business
Does the thought or mention of data and analytics and KPIs and metrics completely overwhelm you despite knowing how important they are to the success of your business?
By the end of this video, you will have an analytic strategy and decision framework that will help you streamline the use of KPIs and metrics in your business for the best entrepreneurship strategy and systems advice.
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I've worked with hundreds of businesses to track measure and analyze their business data and analytics to accelerate their growth in easy and simple ways.
In fact, for over a decade, I've been taking my clients through this same exact analytic strategy to make data and metrics much more digestible for even the most numbers scared people. I show them how to own their data. It's in smart, strategic and efficient ways.
Why is this important? Because when you know where you are right now and where you want to go finding the quickest, most effective path is easy, but when you don't know where you are or where you're going, you're flying blind. And who knows where you'll end up.
Whether you like analytics, data, KPIs and metrics, or you hate them, having an analytics strategy is critical. Why? Because no matter how data savvy you are, it can be easy to get overwhelmed.
10 or 15 years ago, data was a currency. It was like gold to us online entrepreneurs. We wanted more than we had, and we couldn't get our hands on it fast enough. Now, fast forward to today and data is a commodity. We have so much data that sometimes we don't even know where to start.
Even for us to experience data professionals, it can at times get overwhelming. So how do I sort through the mountains of data available at my fingertips every single day.
In this video, I'll take you through my four step analytics strategy to avoid data overwhelm. But first I want to clue you into the number one truth.
When it comes to creating the best analytics strategy for your business, that truth, the quality of your analytics is determined by the quality of questions you are asking about your business.
Meaning that if you aren't asking good questions or any questions about your business and are just expecting a bunch of numbers in a report to tell you something, then you're going to start off on the wrong foot.
And guess what? I'm here to start you off on the right foot comment below. And let me know what questions is your data and current analytics strategy, helping you answer. Alright, let's dive into my four-step analytic strategy to avoid data overwhelm.
Step one, streamline your data sources.
As I mentioned before, data is now a commodity. Every platform has tons of data for you to use in your business, but the truth is the more data sources you have to manage and look through. The more overwhelming analytics can be. So make sure that you streamline your sources.
What does that mean? Well, it means trying to track as much as you can through one or two sources for me, I try to find ways to integrate everything I can with Google analytics and or my email and CRM system. Make sure you put your Google Analytics tracking code everywhere you can. And every platform using UTM parameters, cross domain tracking, everything.
Another trick I have for streamlining my data sources is to actually pull all of my data out of my chosen sources and put it into a spreadsheet to analyze I put different data and different tabs. And then I build charts from all the data next to each other, where everything kind of makes sense. And having everything in one place helps reduce that feeling of overwhelm.
Step Two is to benchmark against yourself.
Why is benchmarking important? Well, benchmarks give you a point of reference to help you understand the why behind what you're seeing in the data.
So where do you get benchmarks? There are many places you can find them by Googling or reading your industry publications, but the best place to get benchmarks is actually from your own business.
Why? Because benchmarks that you find outside your business, don't take into consideration the nuance of your exact business, the industry you're in the phase and stage that your business is at those benchmarks might give you direction as to where you should be headed, but they don't give you as many valuable answers as your own data benchmarks will about what is working and what needs to be fixed no matter where you are at in your data and analytics journey.
The number one goal is growth. And the only way to know that if your business is growing is to look at your own data. If you're just starting pick a handful of metrics that are the most important to you in your business and measure those consistently weekly or monthly, to see how they change over time.
If you're more advanced, you might have, or be able to find benchmarks for all the metrics that you measure. And now that is what I call a great foundation for some kick ass analytics in your business.
Step Three, when it comes to amazing analytics, as I mentioned earlier, always start with a question, do not start diving into your data until you know what question you're trying to answer.
If you don't start with a question you will get lost in a sea of numbers. Don't know what question to ask first, start with your KPIs.
Oh, and if you don't have KPIs yet you should check out my video about KPIs and how to select the best ones for your business.
So what's the difference between a bad, a good question and a great question. Great questions Get down into the root cause and effect of why a metric or KPI has shifted.
So for example, a bad question is what was my revenue last month? A better question is, did my revenue increase or decrease last month? And a great question is what drove the increase in my revenue last month. Great questions mean you might have to dig a little deeper to find the answer, but you know exactly what you're looking for, which is way less overwhelming comment below and let me know.
What's the great question that you're going to ask and answer with data. When you're done with this video, step four, start high level, then dig into the details.
The biggest mistake I see business owners or marketers make is that when they get new data in front of them, they just dive right into the most granular details and start pulling out random numbers and metrics. They get fixated on something deep in their data set and they lose sight of the big picture.
It is so easy to get overwhelmed if you and lost in the rabbit hole, if you lose sight on why you even started looking at that data in the first place. So what's the solution.
Step four, our final step start looking at the highest level.
And when you see things you want to explore, just go one level deeper.
So let's review the best analytics strategy to avoid data. Overwhelm has four steps and each one building on the one before it one streamline your data sources as much as possible to benchmark against yourself. Not anyone else.
For example, revenue in Q two of this year, compared to revenue in Q two of last year three, always start with a great question. Before you dive into your data, for example, what drove the 20% increase in revenue between Q2 of this year and Q two of last year, and for start high level, then dig into the details. Talking about your increased revenue. I would go one level deeper.
For example, what changes were there in each of your major sources of revenue? If one revenue stream stands out, then I would ask, why did this one revenue stream see such a huge increase and just go from there asking great questions.
So now, you know, my four step analytics strategy to avoid data overwhelm.
If you're ready to finally get a handle on your metrics so you can make data driven decisions and growing your business, check out my free Launch Metrics training & masterclass, linked below in the description.
If you liked this video, make sure you hit that like button and be sure to subscribe to this channel and share it with your friends and comment below. And let me know what was your biggest takeaway or aha from this video?
And don't forget to check out these related videos about systems and processes and metrics on my channel. I can't wait to hear what you think.
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