Data, data, data everywhere but not a bit to use. Well, that’s not true, but it’s partially correct. Businesses have plenty of data to understand their customer needs, but with so much data it’s hard to determine what is useful or not. Digesting and analyzing the data your business collects can be the difference between success or failure. Breaking the data into channels first can help simplify the process and allow your teams to draw better conclusions. Let’s take a look at the three most common channels.



Website Analytics

The best place to start looking at analytics is a company website. Whether it’s Google Analytics or another source, website data follows a customer’s journey through a website.

By looking at bounce rates and at what point a customer abandons their cart, companies will know where to make improvements on their website. For instance, a product page has a higher bounce rate than an informational page. Perhaps turning the two pages into one or moving information from one to the other will decrease the number of people leaving the page.

Another useful piece of website analytics is referrals. This data shows how a customer landed on the business’s website. By looking over this information, companies can determine if their advertising dollars are better spent on Facebook or banners on a newspaper website. This knowledge is also transferable into knowing what content is leading to website views.

Tracking a customer’s journey through a website also tells companies how they make a purchase or follow a call to action. Knowing what pages customers visit provides insight on what pages are the most popular, what products are currently their favorite, and what content is the most interesting to readers.



Social Media Analytics

The real-time information generated from social media channels is very valuable to businesses. In the instant response world of today’s Facebook and Twitter posts, social media managers are able to determine if the content they create is interesting to consumers.

The ability to tag and review companies allows customers to voice their immediate thoughts about a company. However, this feedback provides a learning opportunity for any sized business. Based on the input, companies can then address the problem right away to prevent further issues.

Response to content also shows whether customers are engaging with current messaging. Based on the number of likes, shares, and comments, businesses can switch messaging or copy around to meet consumer needs. If people continue to comment about the difficulty of a checkout process or website issue, organizations can use that information to generate new social posts or campaigns to solve the problem.



Consumer Analytics

There are instances in-store when customers generate useful data to analyze. Surveys or feedback given at the brick and mortar location is another type of analytic that is part of the comprehensive data.

This data is useful to the business as a whole, not just an individual location. Compiling all this information lets businesses see if consumers are happy with employee interactions, store layout or product offerings. It also gives businesses a chance to see if one location has a better way of handling situations over another. Sharing all of this information will improve customer experiences across the board.

Feedback from customers through any channel is useful information to discuss. Whether it’s from a social channel or a blog comment, this data is valuable for changing a business plan or promotion to meet consumers needs.

Overall, the various types of analytics, when pooled together, provides beneficial intel on meeting customers needs. From how consumers travel through the website to comments on a social post, these analytics are tools for companies to increase long-term business growth.

There are many ways to get to know your customers. Many of them intuitive. But we believe in enhancing intuitions about would-be customers with data and analyses. 

Author Bio: Amanda Peterson - contributor to Enlightened Digital and software engineer from the one, the only New York City. When she's not trying to find the best record store in the city, you can find her curling up to watch some Netflix with her Puggle, Hendrix.