Note the numbers: 3 ways analytics tracking can create value for you and your business

One way to better understand your audience is to pay close attention to how they interact with your website, email campaigns and social content. With analytics tracking software, this isn’t just possible – it’s at your fingertips, waiting to be used. Analytics tracking makes it easy to study how clients engage with online content. Among its many benefits, tracking analytics gives us insight into how we’re reaching target audiences and how we can maximize our online presence and support larger business goals.

We use Google’s expansive suite of analytics software to track data for ourselves and our clients. Google Analytics 4 – the latest in analytics tracking – is our starting point for data reporting and allows us to dive deep. Plus, Google Data Studio makes it easy to create visually engaging reports that make information digestible for our clients. Below, I’m sharing three ways tracking analytics can create value. You may be surprised to know how much you can learn about improving strategies for your business’s online presence through analytics!

1. Set and track specific, attainable goals

Have you heard of a SMART goal? SMART goals are (S)pecific, (M)easurable, (A)ttainable, (R)elevant and (T)ime-based. Many of us may have studied this goal-setting technique in classes, as I did in college, coinciding with my first experience working with analytics as a Pierce PR intern. Developing analytics reports and visualizing numbers on a monthly basis makes it easier to understand progress and areas for improvement based on SMART goals. Setting broad goals, such as growing your company’s social media presence, is great – but it’s even better to use the power of analytics to track a specific, quantifiable goal, such as gaining 25 LinkedIn followers in one month. By regularly monitoring analytics, you’ll know whether your goal has been met – and see potential correlations between meeting goals and the strategies you use to reach them.

2. Spot patterns in user behavior

Working in an intuitive and user-friendly platform like Google Analytics makes it easy to draw conclusions about user behavior. The platform does the heavy lifting by pulling data and laying it out – meaning your primary job is to make sense of it. With information neatly presented in digestible charts, graphs and lists, it’s easy to identify the websites where users originated, demographic details about where users are located, which social media platforms are driving traffic and so much more. Armed with this information, analytics platforms allow you to note when the same websites, regions or social media platforms pop up repeatedly. Spotting patterns in user behavior might be the insight needed to pursue new social media strategies or expand marketing efforts in a specific geographic region.

3. Help win on the margins

While high-level analysis of thousands of data points may be the ultimate selling point of analytics software, sometimes it’s the simple ability to track data consistently and find the most important information that helps drive success. Our team regularly develops analytics reports for client newsletters, which includes lists of contacts who engaged with the email, shared it with colleagues or clicked high-priority links. Knowing who opened a particular link in an email might lead to a conversation with that person about the contents of the link they visited. As we know, sometimes all it takes is one small conversation to set new business opportunities in motion – and analytics tracking can be the first domino to fall. It’s a simple process to create the data sources in a spreadsheet to convey this information, but it often leads to important learnings, which in turn can strengthen connections and build networks. 

For a practice centered around measuring data, it’s ironic that the benefits of analytics tracking are immeasurable. The more businesses come to rely on technology, the more important it becomes to capitalize on advancements at every turn, and analytics are no exception. Whether you’d like to track goals, spot patterns or ensure you have the right information to gauge success, tracking data opens the door to a treasure trove of knowledge – one of which you should take full advantage.

Do you have questions about analytics, or are you interested in learning more about how data analysis can create value for your business? Contact us today!

Evan Dorian is an account coordinator and data analytics wizard at Pierce PR.