Using data for marketing analysis

Most companies do a great job of monitoring their own sites, traffic, etc. and do things to optimize their websites, etc. but are doing it with blinders on. They may be doing well for their own business, but are failing miserably as far as the overall business landscape goes. What do we mean? If your business is growing at a rate of 5% a year, this may be applauded, but if you look at an industry as a whole, and your industry is growing at a rate of 15% a year, your 5% does not seem all that admirable. One of the best uses of collecting data for marketing analysis is having a clear view of where your business stands, in respect to itself, as well as the industry as a whole.

The first set of data you want to collect is information about how your marketing efforts are affecting your growth versus the rest of the industry? In other words, if your growth was 30%, but the industry grew 100%, then your marketing isn't really that effective. So, what is working, and where could you use improvement? This is data that will help you determine what you can do to improve personally, and stay up with industry trends, or exceed them.

Next, you want to collect data to answer the question: How does your marketing affect your competitors? In other words, when you start a new ad campaign, are your competitors sales suffering as a result. Your sales might have increased, but what about your competition, how have your ads impacted theirs? The point of this, especially when it comes to a website is to determine why.When your SEO pays off and your traffic increases, is it because more people are searching your key words, or because you are stealing searchers from your competitors? You should be hoping for a combination of the two. You want to take a larger market share, and hope that the market as a whole increases as well.

Competitive intelligence or using data for marketing analysis is like having a secret weapon in your corner. It provides you with the needed insight to get ahead in your industry. It allows you to see which actions are effective, and which are not. It means being able to impact not just your sales but your competition's.

Never underestimate the value of having market data to analyze, just remember to be specific about what you want to learn, and avoid looking through tinted glass (look at the whole picture, industry, economy, and personal, rather than just a sliver of it). The more data you collect and analyze the more accurate a picture you will have of how effective your marketing efforts are. This information can help you tailor your efforts to the things that will get you the best results.