Key takeaways

• Importance of data-driven insights: data-driven insights allow businesses to make informed decisions by understanding customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, leading to more effective marketing strategies and increased customer conversion.
• Effective data collection methods: collecting data through direct user engagement, social media listening, and website analytics is crucial for gathering actionable insights that can improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
• Strategic use of data: it is important to set clear objectives for data use, avoid data hoarding, and ensure compliance with data laws to maximise the value of data-driven insights in driving business success.

What are data-driven insights?

Data-driven insights is the term used when collated customer information allows businesses to get to know their customer base better – and to therefore better tailor their marketing toward this audience.

Each and every one of your customers and potential customers has a unique set of consumer DNA in terms of what they’re looking for, what their pain points are and what kind of lifestyle they have – and this information is solid gold for marketers.

By getting to know your audience and what makes them tick you have a significantly higher chance of converting them into customers. A lot of business operations are about making decisions – and data-driven insights allow you to make decisions which are based in fact, and which are not vulnerable to emotion or bias.

This is, of course, extremely important as fact-based decision making is the only way in which you can move your business forward successfully.

Today, there really is no better way of making sure that your messaging is reaching the right people at the right time. 

Find out where data can be used successfully to generate better results:

• Data-driven leadership: empowering managers to make informed decisions
• Data-driven design: how can it help grow your business?
• Driving innovation and growth with data: how to foster a culture of experimentation

What types of data are typically used to generate insights?

Before beginning on your data-driven insights journey, it’s important to figure out what it is you expect or hope to achieve from your efforts and how you will collect data from various sources. This will help you to drill down and focus.

The type of information that can be gleaned from data-driven insights includes:

• Consumer pain points
• Customer preferences
• Consumer buying patterns
• Collaboration opportunities
• Operational efficiency

For example; do you want to keep people on your website for longer? Or do you want to increase the number of enquiries you receive or, do you simply want to learn more about the user experience for your business?

Getting this straight up front is key to making sure that your data-driven insights work for you. There are a number of ways in which you can get your hands on data and, in this section, we’ll be zooming in on some of these.

Direct contact with users and customers

One great way to collect the information that you’re after is by collecting data directly from your audience.

By conducting surveys and interviews through online polls, email and other resources you can gain insights directly from your customers.

This, however, can be time consuming and you will have to understand that not all users will respond.

Social media listening

For those who are new to this, social media listening involves using specialist software to find out what people are saying about your business online.

These tools collate lots of useful information and sort it into “good”, “neutral”, and “poor” to give you a snapshot about how your users feel about you.

In some cases, these tools will also allow you to see actual posts and comments for added insights. 

Website analytics

In most cases, it’s possible to pull analytics directly from your website and you can use a web analytics software to get even more insights from this valuable data that is right there at your fingertips.

Utilising data analytics tools can further enhance your ability to examine large datasets, uncover patterns, relationships, and trends, and support data-driven decision-making.

Perform data analysis

Finally, it’s time to start analysing data that you’ve collated and then to put it to good use by making changes based on the results of the analysis.

How to use data-driven insights?

I know what you’re thinking – all of this sounds great, but exactly how do I make data-driven insights work for me and my company?

Data-driven insights are probably the most valuable tool that your business has at its disposal – but it’s important to use it properly.

In this section, we’re shining a light on some dos and don’ts of using data:

The dos:

• Set targets and objectives – data-driven insights don’t work on a scattergun approach,
• Plan and prepare – using data-driven insights to get ahead of your competition is a marathon not a sprint so don’t be tempted to rush it. Prepare your project properly with realistic goals and objectives,
• Call on the professionals – if you’re determined to make data-driven insights work for you, it’s always worth hiring a professional person or organisation.

The don’ts:

• Data laws –  Breaching data laws is no joke, so always make sure that you know what the rules and guidelines are,
• Data hoarding – not all data is valuable or even useful so try to avoid keeping every scrap of data that you collect in the hope that it will ‘come in handy’ one day,
• Writing The End – while collating and using data-driven insights is something that can be done on a project by project basis, it’s not a one time deal. For this to work for your business, you need to make it an integral part of your operations.

If you want data to add value to your business you need to treat it as an asset – just like your equipment and your employees. This means respecting your data, nurturing it and, above all, working with it to get the best possible results for your company.

How to outperform competitors through data-driven insights?

So, we’ve explained why data-driven insights could be the key to your success, but how is it done?

In this section, we’ll be digging into the ways in which you can leverage customer data to get your business ahead of the competition and build a solid base for growth.

Understanding the journey

For many businesses, getting people to visit their website is the holy grail – but this won’t do you much good if they then leave without making a purchase or enquiry.

Data-driven insights can be used to help you analyse and understand your customers’ behaviour once they reach your website – for example; how long are they staying, which pages are they visiting and, most importantly, at which point are they abandoning their visit. Tracking user behavior with tools like Google Analytics and Salesforce provides businesses with actionable insights that inform their marketing campaigns and customer interactions.

This will allow you to tweak the customer experience in order to keep visitors on your site – and away from your competitors’.

Check out more tips that will improve your website:

• What really matters in modern customer-centric design?
• Prioritising your customers during your business transformation
• How to improve User Experience (UX) on your website?

Bringing customers back from the brink

Realistically, you can always expect some users to visit your site without following through with a purchase or enquiry but data insights can help you to make sure that it’s “bye for now” rather than “gone forever”.

As we’ve mentioned, data insights can allow you to follow users around your website (but not in a creepy way) to let you know the point at which they bail out. 

This is important because you can then create tailored follow up emails to those people in a bid to coax them back. This can be done in a number of ways including offering a discount or incentive which may help you to seal the deal. 

The do’s and don’ts of follow-up emails

Follow up emails can be a really powerful tool when used correctly and, in this section, we’ll look at some of the do’s and don’ts of this kind of communication: 

The do’s:

• Always personalise your emails to avoid them coming across as spam
• Empathise with the possible reasons for the user leaving your site
• Offer a good reason or incentive for the user to come back
• Reiterate the value of your product or service
• Include customer testimonials

The don’ts:

• Always avoid aggressive marketing tactics as these will almost always be off-putting to your customer
• Never make false or misleading claims about your product or service
• Avoid unrealistic time limits for any offers as this will often backfire on you

Any emails to customers or potential customers should maintain a consistent tone and should seek to build a rapport between your business and your audience.

Data-driven insights in action: the InboxArmy data driven insights example

Studies show that using data driven insights can increase a business’s profits by around 8%. This is done by using analysis of customer behaviour and understanding the triggers that send them away from your site.

Data scientists play a very important role in employing sophisticated data analytics tools for various types of analysis, including descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics, to uncover actionable insights.

InboxArmy, for example, worked with Boie on a holiday-targeted email campaign – a campaign which netted some pretty impressive results including:

• Generating an increase of 650% in holiday sales for 2019
• Generating an 120% increase in holiday sales from 2019 to 2020
• Growing their email list by 500% in the space of two and a half years

Of the campaign, Boie’s CEO said, “We’ve grown our newsletter from a few thousand subscribers to over 130K since we’ve been working with them!” InboxArmy created an email marketing strategy which was designed to increase sales for Boie as well as boosting customer retention and, more importantly, customer loyalty.

This was done by:

• Creating attention-grabbing popups
• Implementing sign up forms on Boie’s website
• Offering email customers a 10% discount

Simple but effective, InboxArmy then decided to focus on holidays; particularly Thanksgiving – which netted Boie a significant boost in sales due to the offer of a holiday discount for email customers. The entire campaign consisted of a two-pronged attack – increasing Boie’s email lists and then encouraging those new email recipients to visit the website and make a purchase.

Is there such a thing as bad data?

Yes and no – while most data that you can collect about your customers is useful, there are degrees of value; and it’s your job to figure out what relevant data to use and what to discard.

Not gonna lie, this can be tricky for absolute beginners – which is why you need to consider:

1. Doing lots of research and maybe even an online course to help you understand more about data analytics and how to use them. While this may involve time and money, it’s usually a worthwhile investment.
2. Hiring the services of a professional data analysis person or agency who will be able to take this task off your hands while keeping you fully informed about the progress of your data-driven insights as well as your options on using them.

Although getting started with data can sometimes seem a little scary, your time and hard work will usually pay dividends in a fairly short amount of time.

How do you measure the impact and ROI of data-driven insights?

Most businesses have one eye on scalability and growth at all times and statistics reveal that those companies who fully embrace these insights can expect up to 30% growth per year – which is an excellent foundation from which to get ahead of the competition while focusing on your own growth.

Measuring the impact and ROI of data-driven insights involves a comprehensive approach that combines quantitative and qualitative assessments to make informed decisions. The process typically begins by establishing clear, measurable objectives for the data-driven initiatives before implementation. These objectives should align with key business goals and be specific enough to allow for concrete measurement.

One common method is to compare business performance before and after the implementation of data-driven insights. This can involve tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as revenue growth, cost reduction, customer satisfaction scores, or operational efficiency metrics. It’s important to isolate the impact of data-driven decisions from other factors that might influence these metrics.

Financial metrics play a crucial role in ROI calculation. This involves comparing the costs of implementing and maintaining data analytics systems (including software, hardware, personnel, and training) against the financial benefits derived from the insights. These benefits could include increased revenue, cost savings, or improved resource allocation:

• ROI in IT projects – significant contributing factors
• A simple guide to the ROI of UX

Another approach is to use A/B testing or controlled experiments, where one group uses data-driven insights to make decisions while a control group uses traditional methods.

Information is power for the modern business strategy

Whatever kind of business you’re running, nowadays, it’s all about the data and solutions based on data.

These days, consumers are more demanding than ever before – and they know that they have options.

Because of this, your main task if you want to succeed is to make sure that your customers are getting the best service possible – something you can’t do if you don’t actually know what it is that they want.

To achieve this, you must gather data to understand customer preferences and behaviors. Data-driven insights are your business’s secret weapon when it comes to getting customers onboard – and therefore well worth the investment.