Marketing Analytics Challenge: Making Sense of Data

Leveraging Marketing Analytics

I think it’s safe to say the importance of Marketing Analytics is widely understood. A recent MarketingSherpa study, 2013 Marketing Analytics Benchmark Report, really drove this point home; but also pointed out the biggest marketing analytics challenge marketers face today; making sense of data. In the report they asked marketers, “What were your organization’s most frustrating challenges with marketing analytics in 2012?” The study showed that the top two challenges dealt with interpreting data, not data collection. So how do Marketers overcome this challenge?

Utilize Experienced Data Analytics Professionals

Most successful entrepreneurs/business owners have followed the old adage, “It’s better to hire people who are smarter than you, then to waste time/money figuring it out yourself” Depending on the size and complexity of your data, extracting insights can be quite the challenge. The good news is there are people in this world who enjoy working with incredibly complex data sets; and are rather good and finding patterns and relationships through advanced data mining techniques.

Understand Before You Expand (Start Small)

Making sense of your data may seem like a daunting task if you’re looking at the totality of your data. Instead of trying to move the mountain on your first attempt, try throwing a rock first and see what happens. For example, instead of trying to understand all of your data (without fully understanding how the process really works), try analyzing a single campaign. In other words, start small and then expand. Understand how the process works and then apply it to all your data systems.

Refine Data Analytics Systems

The biggest hurdle in making sense of your data is figuring out how separate data sets relate to each other. Once you’ve taken the steps to understand your data relationships and how they impact your goals, set up long-term insights systems. In other words, now that you know how “A” connects to “B”, develop a user-friendly analytics dashboard that allows you to see these insights in real-time.

With the value and amount of data growing rapidly, the challenge for marketers to make sense of their data becomes more imperative. How are you addressing this challenge in your company?