The “What”s, “Why”s and “How”s of Digital Analytics

When was the last time that you actually measured and analysed all the data you possessed? I am talking about any data, which may not necessarily be connected to a business or your customers. It can be your tax returns, your monthly bills, the number of steps you walk or jog each day, or anything else for that matter.
The truth is, we have access to a huge bank of data today, each and every one of us. It makes it tough for us to prioritise and analyse the information in hand, which often proves to be extremely necessary for us.
Today, I am primarily discussing analysis of data related to businesses and their online and digital presence – which makes digital analytics my particular area of discussion.

What is digital analytics?
Digital analytics can be a lot of things. However, in short, it is an analysis of data related to:

• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of your business data
• Competitors’ data analysis
• Marketing and industry analysis
• Client and customer analysis
• Planning and strategizing based on the above analyses to grow a business or an effort

In short, digital analytics is what you do to gain and measure data on your business, your competitors, your clients, the industry your business relates to. Such data can then be used to leverage your business and strategies the plans and direction they need to grow above the competition, improve quality, strengthen your brand recall and see better returns on investments.
The life of an ideal digital analyst
As a digital analyst, you will have a good number of things on your plate, each and every day. Studying customers is something that you would probably have to start with. You would need to analyse customer behaviour, identify the trends, anticipate the reactions and literally plan to improve the number of conversions based on this data.
There are many factors that need a close analysis here. These are:

• Keyword data
• Location based traffic analysis
• Time based sales performance
• Performance of the various marketing channels
• Real time visitor behaviour on business websites
• Analysis of sales based on the device being used
• Analysis of change in behaviour based on changes in websites and online platforms
• A-B testing and other test result analysis
• Study of customer surveys, reviews, feedback and testimonials
• Technical analysis of web portals and business websites

It is sad that as analysts we often pay more attention towards collecting and collating the above data than actually measuring, understanding and implementing it to help businesses grow.
How is it done?
All analysis must have a larger goal driving the process. There must be a solid reason why you would even want to invest your time on such an analysis. Therefore, as an analyst, your first priority would be to identify the objectives and understand what the outcomes are likely to be. This would also give you a clear indication of what data you should be looking for here.

For example, the objective of your analysis may be to understand how you can grow the traffic to your website by 10% within 2 months.

Next, you need a strategy in place. How do plan to acquire and accumulate the information and data that needs to be analysed? What channels will you be targeting and what are the likely tools that you should be using?

For example,
· You may want to implement Google Analytics code on your online platforms
· You may even want to run a survey that your clients and customers would fill up to get a reward
· You may look into social media channels to acquire data on customer behaviour as well

The outcome
Well, depending on how well you are able to interpret the data, you need to come up with new plans or may have to think about modifying your existing campaigns. Once again, the strategies and the new action plans must relate directly to the original objectives you had in the first place.
It is very easy to come across other areas that require your attention too. But concentrating on those areas may actually dilute the actual purpose of the analysis. You should plan another campaign to focus on such information, only after you have taken care of the current requirements!