Working With Data

Actionable data used to be in demand during the traditional media era when working with data. However, this commodity was also very limited. It was difficult to check what was happening despite the ability to understand the responses of consumers to marketing messages. 

Thankfully, the age of digital media allows us to access wherever we are! Any action performed online is recorded and tracked. Rich amounts of data can be capitalized on by marketers so they may know how people react to their campaigns. 

This implies that marketers have a responsibility to generate decisions that are backed by a wealth of data. In this age, assumptions and gut are inadequate. They should be driven by facts and clear results.

You might be worrying your marketing campaign won’t be a success because you are not good with numbers. However, it’s not purely about computing and counting. It’s more about testing strategies, analyzing, experimenting, making questions, and more! Be inquisitive and understand some key principles and tools, and you’re halfway there.

Working With Data by Tracking Performance and Trends

When working with data, you have to be consistent with monitoring user behavior and the campaign’s performance. The latter is more critical since you have to look at multiple aspects of data. There is no sense in focusing on just one piece of information. You need to analyze trends and the transformations over time. 

As an example, there is no point in just finding out that 10% of the web traffic this week is converted. How will you determine if this is good or not? To know if there is progress or none, you need to know if there are 10% more people this week than last week. That is what presents a trend or a change. That is how you ought to be working with data. Sure, you have 5000 Facebook likes, but that doesn’t give a full view of your brand’s improvement. 

Big Data

Massive data sets refer to big data. These are the ones that are so huge that they need specialized software and big computers. Companies like Google and YouTube are working with data by generating and collecting a lot of data. Warehouses with hard drives are required here to store data.

When marketers comprehend how big data works, they can be working with data more meaningful. For example, they understand not to measure absolute figures, but the trends themselves. The more data, the more valuable it is to look at how the figures in every variable change over time. The patterns also become more apparent when there is adequate data. Marketers can look at weekly to seasonal flows. Lastly, sudden changes in patterns can be recognized right away. When this happens, the marketer can investigate more thoroughly and examine why the unexpected transformation. This snippet of data will be utilized to inform decisions.

Data Mining

Now that you learned a few things about big data, what is data mining? Data mining refers to finding hidden patterns in big databases and numbers. That means looking for small pieces of information in big data. The marketer doesn’t need a human analyst for this. Instead, they need a computer program that can deconstruct the data and match it with known patterns. The insights delivered can be surprising sometimes. They break assumptions and make you realize the importance of data analysis over gut feelings.

Sources to Consider when Working with Data

Remember that you can find and gather from multiple sources when working with data, Do not limit yourself to website-based analytics that does not always contain a wealth of information. You can look at these places to get a view of your audience insights:

• Online data
• Databases
• Software data
• App store data
• Offline data

Along with these sources come the need to design your campaign with clear objectives in mind. This will make the success more measurable and clear. 

Data Tracking and Collection

The two principal ways to collect web analytics are server-based tracking and cookie-based. But there has been a third approach to collecting web analytics data known as universal analytics. This has changed the whole game of collecting and analyzing data. Surprisingly, this server tracking is also non-cookie-based. 

How Information is Captured

When working with data, it is vital to know how information is captured.

Cookie-Based Tracking

This is the most popular way to gather web analytics. It works by adding a page tag to every page of the site. Then, the user accesses the page and the tag code is run. Huge pieces of information are sent by the tag to a third-party server that stores the data. Google Analytics is one prime example. Lastly, the analyst accesses the data by logging into the third-party server. 

Server-Based Tracking

Websites are stored on computers called web servers so people can access them online. This type of tracking typically entails looking at log files while working with data. Log files are the documents automatically generated by servers that record the clicks on the server. Every time a request is made, the log file creates a new line. For example, one may either click on the link or submit a form.

This is helpful for monitoring visitors on mobile because various mobile devices cannot work with Javascript tags, which are cookie-based. It is also useful for universal analytics.

Universal Data

Google recently launched universal analytics which can solve the biggest problems that many web analysts encounter. Marketers cannot track individual people, just individual browsers with the help of cookies. For example, when you visit a website from your phone and your laptop, the site will recognize it as two users. Cookies are also declining as modern browsers let people block them. That means mobile devices cannot access or execute them anymore. New policies such as the EU Privacy Directive also support this.

Thankfully, universal analytics will let you track site visitors than just the sessions. An identifier for every visitor can be created. Moreover, you can monitor their full journey with the company. Sites can track you on your laptop and mobile phone. That is as long as there is authentication on the site across devices. This implies that you have to be logged in using your different devices.

© Image credits to Nick Collins