Data Overload
If your business is anything like the businesses of our clients, your data lives everywhere and nowhere—your business bank account, your payment processor, your email marketing software, your site analytics, your landing page tool, your social media profiles, your ad campaign manager…
Every one of those platforms sells you the benefit of having a robust reporting capability. But how helpful are those colorful charts and neat rows of numbers really?
Not much. Mainly because every one of those sets of numbers lives in their own silos with different metrics that matter in different ways.
Siloed Data
So, wanting to see the 30,000 feet view of how well your marketing is working (or not) requires you not only to take the time from your already busy schedule and get yourself in the right frame of mind to look at the numbers. You also have to conquer the feelings of frustration and exasperation, because you know that after spending all that time looking for the answers like the needles in the data haystack you may not find anything conclusive.
If that’s the case, why bother? Throwing together an extra promotion to make the revenue goal becomes much more appealing than figuring out where your marketing is leaking money.
You know it’s not the long-term solution, but what’s the alternative?
Questions ARE the answer!
The alternative is to get super clear about what numbers actually tell you about how well your marketing works.
You figure that out by defining the questions you want to have answers to.
Did you ever notice how easy it is to get answers from your car dashboard? That’s because when you glance at it you always have a question in mind: Am I within the speed limit? How much gas do I have? What time will I get to the destination if I follow this route suggested by GPS?
Your marketing numbers might not be so clearly organized on a dashboard. However, when you know what questions you want the number to answer, finding the right numbers gets exponentially easier.
If you’d like to have a sounding board to figure out what questions you should be asking and what questions should come first, let’s have a chat. Click the link to find the time that works for you.
