Data Analytics for the Digital Media World: What's Ahead for 2020?

by Frankie Wallace, Guest Contributor

The age of hyper-connectivity has brought along with it many incredible opportunities for businesses. These opportunities that previously never existed have revolutionized the way businesses function. This is especially true for the way in which analyzing data about your customers’ online activities can inform your marketing strategies. 

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Today, marketers can make data-driven decisions to help move an entire organization in the right direction. A business exists for its customers and only thrives when customers are happy, after all, which is precisely why it makes so much sense to put your customers in the driver’s seat, allowing them to guide, or at least influence your marketing campaigns. Data analysis makes it easy for businesses to subliminally give their customers this control, and in turn, guide marketing efforts. 

When implemented correctly, data analytics can do wonders for the digital media world. However, to succeed in this regard, it is integral to first fully understand how to interpret big data and use this information to make efficient and effective changes. In the coming year, data analytics is set to further transform the digital world. With this in mind, here are some things you should pay attention to when it comes to data analytics and digital marketing: 

Using Predictive Analytics to Glean Consumer Data
Humans are predictable, and despite the fact that the individualist within all of us hates to hear it, it is a really helpful truth when it comes to marketing. The fact that a business now has access to potential prospects, behaviors, and attributes of customers — through their digital devices and online tracking — is an absolute gold mine when it comes to digital marketing. The marketing teams of today and the future will have access to trackable, predictable metrics that can be used to create tailored marketing campaigns. Platforms like Facebook and Google Chrome have access to data such as a person’s demographics, web searches, affinities, psychographics, activity on social media platforms and more. 

This data can be used to predict the behaviors and preferences of the majority of clients. Predictive analysis is not only valuable for the marketing department to increase conversions and sales but can also help in analyzing the productivity, size, and scale of multiple departments within a streamlined or otherwise, these efforts can be maximized or minimized accordingly, helping the business move towards optimal efficiency. 

In 2020, big data is poised to move in the direction of being able to combine research from multiple platforms, with the potential to provide a clearer map for digital marketing teams to use to their advantage. 

Giving Insights More Importance 
When it comes to analyzing data, it is crucial to understand the difference between goals and insights. A goal is a single variable, which is measured against the desired quantity. As stated by Shane Freeman of Okapi, “to be meaningful, metrics must be aligned with objectives.” Goals are important markers to put in place when planning a marketing campaign or event in order to measure the scale of success. It is critical, however, to realize that goals are not everything. 

Even if a marketing campaign does not reach its quota in terms of the amount of Facebook likes or comment it initially set out to achieve, it can still offer a lot in terms of insights. Insights are multiple variables which, when studied in relation to each other, provide a deeper understanding as to why exactly a campaign worked or did not work. These insights are precisely what makes data analysis so valuable, as they are the key to the window of your customer’s mind. 

For instance, if a Facebook marketing campaign does not reach the number of likes your team set out to achieve, you have an opportunity to analyze the demographics of the respondent or the specifics about the time at which the campaign was released. In turn, you will gain a deeper understanding of why the campaign did not work out as planned. These insights can be used to tweak the next campaign, after which the results of both can be compared. Thus, analysis and comparisons of data across multiple events will provide you with meaningful insights, which will give you the power to change aspects of marketing and realize maximum success. Thus, in the coming year, it is prudent to not only focus on meeting goals but also pay heed to insights.  

Using Google Analytics Like a Data Scientist
Google Analytics is one of the best platforms in terms of data analytics, with limitless possibilities for those who know how to use it. To leverage Google Analytics data to your advantage, it is important to understand how to approach the data. It takes skill to know what to look for when it comes to analyzing data — only with the right analysis will you glean the most meaningful insights. 

Rather than approaching Google Analytics data like a marketer alone, consider approaching it as a data scientist would. To quote Christopher Smith, President of the American Graphics Institute, “A data scientist examines company data and turns it into actionable insight”. 

In this regard, a data scientist takes more than one data point from Google Analytics and compares these in order to gain information that can help businesses. For instance, a data scientist wouldn’t just look at the number of visitors on the website at one random point in time and say “that’s quite good.” Rather, they would compare site visits from one day to that of the previous year in order to see whether the website is on an upwards or downwards trajectory. Further, a data scientist might even look into the demographics and geographical locations of these visitors, in order to better understand the client base. The year 2020 promises an emphasis on analytics from a more scientific point of view, as opposed to simply a marketing tool.

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This year, jumping on the data analytics bandwagon is no longer an option, but a necessity. Choosing to ignore the potential of data analytics in the digital media world runs the risk of your business being left behind in the dust, with plenty of missed opportunities to make more insightful data-driven decisions. Thus, if you haven’t already, 2020 is the time to prioritize data analytics and reap the rewards for the same.
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About the author:

Frankie Wallace is a recent graduate from the University of Montana. Wallace currently resides in Boise, Idaho.

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