Marketing Analytics

What is Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics is thorough analysis of data to show you the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics is a term that refers to a collection of technologies and methods that allow marketers to measure their success (or lack thereof). These analytics can include a wide range of things, from performance comparisons to A/B testing, ROI and everything in between. By utilizing marketing analytics, companies can determine what is working, what is not, and make adjustments to ensure they’re reaching their target audience and driving attention where it is most needed.

Why You Should Care about Marketing Analytics

It’s no secret that measuring marketing success can be an incredibly daunting task. In some cases, it can be nearly impossible. This is largely due to the increasing number of platforms and marketing methods that are being used. Because most of these methods are unconnected, it is up to the company in question to collect data and “connect the dots”.

Marketing analytics allow marketers and decision makers to monitor progress, but also provide significant insight into some critical areas. These include the following:

  • Marketing Trends: What is happening in your industry in terms of big-picture marketing trends? How are consumers or other audience members reacting? How is that affecting the overall conversation?
  • What Worked: It can be difficult to determine what’s working if you’re not measuring the right metrics. More importantly, it can be difficult to determine WHY it’s working, which is just as important to understand.
  • Trends Over Time: Trends change over time, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. In all situations, you need to be ahead of the curve, and marketing analytics can help with that.
  • ROI: What’s your return on investment or each channel? How do those channels compare to one another? Is one channel consistently underperforming? Can the ROI there be improved, or should you eliminate that channel?
  • Results: What can you expect in the future? That can be virtually impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy, but marketing analytics will give you the insights necessary to make informed predictions and take action now, rather than later.

Gaining Access to the Data You Need

Marketing analytics can be powerful tools for business growth, but you need to ensure that you have access to the information you need, when you need it. Past reporting, analysis of present efforts and results, and future predictions are all important elements. You’ll need a balanced collection of analytic techniques coupled with the right analytic capabilities to drill down into marketing performance on all channels.

By using the right techniques, technologies and analytics platforms, you can start to identify the following:

  • Which channels consistently perform well
  • Which channels consistently underperform
  • Text, graphics and other elements that resonate with different audience members
  • Strategies and tactics that are appropriate for your audience(s)
  • What needs to be done to optimize processes

Marketing analytics might be a complex, sometimes confusing topic, but it is an area that marketers and organizations as a whole need to come to grips with. Failure to do so could result in dramatic losses of market share and profitability.