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Ditch the Guesswork, Embrace the Data: Why Your Marketing Needs a Makeover

Ditch the Guesswork, Embrace the Data: Why Your Marketing Needs a Makeover

Ever feel like you’re throwing your marketing budget into a black hole, crossing your fingers, and hoping something sticks? In today’s data-driven landscape, businesses need more thoughtful strategies to reach the right customers and maximize their marketing ROI. 

That’s where data-driven marketing comes in.

What is data-driven marketing?

So, what exactly is this data-driven marketing? It’s basically using real numbers and insights to guide your marketing decisions. 

Think of it like this: Instead of blindly throwing ads out there and hoping for the best, you’re analyzing data to understand what works, what doesn’t, and who you should target. 

The goal is to tailor your approach to resonate with exactly the right people at the right time and in the right way. When done right, this can lead to a significant increase in sales.

But how exactly do you transform data into marketing magic? 

From Numbers to Nuggets

You might be wondering… where does data come from? Well, it’s everywhere! Your website visits, social media clicks, email opens, and even those abandoned shopping carts can say a lot about your business. 

It lets you see exactly what your customers want, where they hang out online, and what makes them tick. 

Collecting and analyzing data might sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. There are tons of user-friendly tools and platforms out there, like Google Analytics and social media insights, that make it easy to gather valuable information about your audience and online presence.

And guess what? The benefits go beyond just sales and conversions. Data can help you build stronger relationships with your customers by showing you what they care about and how they interact with your brand. It’s like having a secret conversation with your audience, understanding their needs and desires on a deeper level.

Turning Insights into Action

Now, the fun part – transforming insights into action. Remember those people you’re trying to reach? Data can help you paint a vivid picture of who they are, what they like, and where they hang out online. 

Once you’ve got your data, you can use it to:

  • Target the right audience: No more throwing darts in the dark! Data helps you pinpoint your ideal customers with laser precision so your marketing efforts aren’t wasted on the wrong people.
  • Craft irresistible messages: Forget generic ads that nobody remembers. Data tells you what resonates with your audience so you can create personalized content that grabs their attention and keeps them engaged.
  • Boost your campaign performance: Data is your feedback loop, showing you what’s working and what’s not. You can tweak your strategies on the fly, optimize your campaigns, and watch your ROI soar.

Conquering Data-Driven Hurdles

While data-driven marketing might seem daunting, conquering the data peaks is achievable for any business. 

Here’s a quick guide to overcoming common hurdles:

  • Cost concerns: Free tools like Google Analytics and social media dashboards offer powerful insights without breaking the bank. Start small, track basic metrics, and watch those insights blossom.
  • Lack of data: Track basic metrics like social media engagement, website traffic, and email open rates to help you understand your audience.
  • Analysis paralysis: Focus on straightforward questions and basic data analysis techniques like charts and graphs. Remember, even small, actionable insights can make a big difference.

Equip yourself with the right tools, and watch your marketing efforts reach new heights!

Final thoughts

Think of data-driven marketing as your secret weapon, your roadmap to marketing success. It’s not about fancy algorithms or complex science – it’s about understanding your customers like never before and using that knowledge to create campaigns that resonate, convert, and leave them wanting more. 

So, say goodbye to guesswork and embrace the data. It’s time to cook up some marketing magic that turns your audience into loyal fans!

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Google Analytics: Top 3 Reports to Run

Do you know if writing your blogs and sharing them is actually leading to more traffic? Is it helping you reach your business goals?

Maybe not yet, but I wanted to share some help reports through Google Analytics that will help you to see the benefit of the blogs you are writing. We use Google Analytics on nearly all of our client websites because it is free, it is user friendly, and even though some of the data is hidden, it allows us to make clear, actionable changes based on how users are interacting with a website.

Which Google Analytics reports should you run?Top three reports to run on Google Analytics

Report 1: Audience >> Location/Technology/Mobile Reports

BIMS Presentation – Introduction to Google AnalyticsHere take a look at the Location, Technology, and Mobile reports which will tell you:

  • Where your site visitors are coming from. If you are targeting a very specific location, you will want to make sure visitors are actually coming from here. Or, if you run a specialized campaign on Google Adwords for a conference, for example, you’ll be better understanding if these folks actually came to the site.
  • The Technology and Mobile reports allow you to see if folks are using one browser or device over others. This could sway marketing decisions in the future.
    Audience reports google analytics Audience reports google analytics

Report 2: Acquisition >> Source/Medium Report

  • The Source/Medium report shows which sites drive traffic to your blog.
  • Within this report you can dive down to Keyword to see how your blogs are translating to organic traffic.

Acquisition reports google analytics Acquisition reports google analytics Acquisition reports google analytics

Report 3: Behavior >> All Pages

  • The All Pages report will show you which pages people are viewing the most frequently.
  • It can give insights into other topics you should be blogging about.

Behavior reports google analyticsBehavior reports google analytics

Each of these reports can be altered to provide more detail, but these will provide a good start to understanding how visitors get to and interact with your website and blog.

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Tips to Improve Your Facebook Ad Campaign

Facebook Ads is a very powerful tool. It is an excellent way to promote your business, increase brand awareness and can lead to increased conversion rate. Unless you have a big budget, achieving these goals can be difficult if you’re not an expert.

In this blog post, we’ll give you 4 tips on how to create an effective Facebook ad campaign. Use these tips and you’ll be on your way to a great Facebook campaign.

Identify your target audience

To make the most out of your Facebook ad campaign, you first need to identify your target audience and then create an ad that is targeted to them. Take a moment to decide who you want to see you are ads. Are you looking to reach new audience? Do you want to connect with your existing fans? Or do you want to focus on the people in your area?

Facebook allows you to target your audience by gender, age, location, education, relationship status, workplace etc. The more relevant the ad is to the people you’re targeting; the more likely are they to notice and act on your ad. If done correctly, this will lead to a higher success rate and will reduce your spending in the future.

Establish goals

Before launching your ad, you need to consider what you want to get out of it. Ask yourself, why are you creating an ad in the first place? Do you want to increase your followers? Do you want to increase your web traffic? Or do you want people to download your app? This is important as it will help you plan your strategies for the said campaign and help you assess whether or not it is a success later on.

Choose your bidding option

If this is your first time to create a Facebook ad, you may think that your only option is to optimize your ad on a CPM basis. But the truth is that you have the option to choose from a number of bid setups. You can opt for CPC pricing or opt for bidding based on your objective. Don’t let Facebook do your bidding.

Use eye-catching images

Posts with eye-catching photos get more likes, comments and shares than those without. The same principle also applies with Facebook ads. If you want your ads to perform better, then you need to invest in good quality photos. If you are a restaurant owner, make sure your photos look appetizing. If you own a salon, then feature women with gorgeous, shiny locks. Remember, your goal is to create an ad that gets noticed and create more clicks. Good quality photos will help you achieve that goal.

 

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New Webinar – Getting Started with Google Analytics

Google Analytics Webinar

Do you know how people interact with your website or even find your website?

If you have a business presence online, knowing how people find your website and what they do once they get there is incredibly important to convert leads and prospects into paying customers.

Join Caitlin McDonald, Co-founder of The BIMS Team, in our next webinar on April 26, 2016! In this webinar you will learn how to get started with Google Analytics!

In this webinar we will provide an overview of the key reports to:

  • Better understand the traffic to your website
  • Know what site visitors are doing once they get to your site
  • Implement changes to your website
When:
April 26th, 2016
Where:
Free Webinar – RSVP for Details

Click to View the Webinar!

Time:
3:30-4:15pm MST

Register Today

Anyone with a computer and internet connection has the ability to manage a social media account. When done right, businesses can see huge boosts in brand recognition and sales. If managed poorly, social media can be the downfall of your business.

The BIMS Team prides itself on keeping on top of the best practices of digital marketing and Caitlin is excited to empower you to feel confident in your own ability to understand how people are interacting with your website and how to be found online.

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Benefits of Social Media Marketing

There are a lot of blog posts and articles which stresses the importance of
integrating social media into your marketing strategies. Most people believe that
social media platforms provide a great impact on a business’ lead generation and
sales.
Listed below are some of the benefits of social media marketing. Keep in mind,
though, that these benefits may not be seen overnight. You have to put in a great
deal of effort and wait for a few months in order to see significant results.

Communication
Social media platforms are created in order to share information and interact with
other people. To maximize your marketing efforts, it is best to develop a social
media marketing strategy that would encourage your followers to interact with you.
This has to be a two-way communication.

Networking
Social media does not only help you extend your reach and build new relationships.
It’s also a great place where you can deepen and maintain the existing ones.

Build a reputation
As a business owner, you know that having a good reputation is one of the most
important ingredients to success. While your marketing efforts are focused on
maintaining what has been created, social media marketing makes these benefits
more pronounced.

Drive traffic
While driving traffic to your site is the main reason why you decided to create a
social media account, this comes as a great bonus. You can post a link to your
newest post and see people click the link and visit your site.

Promotion
Social media platforms are also a great avenue for promotion. Promote your brand
or your newest products, provide information about them and increase awareness
about your brand. You can also use social media to promote your events. Capture
people’s attention, create buzz and invite them to attend your event.

Extend reach

There are millions of users who access their social media accounts on a daily basis.
With this, it would be easier to reach as much people within a single post.
With over 150 million registered users, Twitter has been named as the 9th most
popular website on the Internet as of May 2011

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Tracking Pinterest With Google Analytics

 

 

 

 

Social media’s latest trending site, Pinterest, has grown exponentially this past year. The site quickly went from a lesser-known network, to a top 100 site.

But, does Pinterest really get referrals? Are visits on Pinterest valuable to companies? How engaged are consumers on the site?

Using Google Analytics, you can measure how Pinterest is working for you.

1. Customized Reports

You can use custom reports to get a good analysis of Pinterest. These reports allow you to view only the information you want to view. If you just want to see the “pins” on Pinterest that sent visits to your site, or whether visitors have been to your site before, etc. you can get a specific custom report. Furthermore, you can select “Landing Page” as your secondary dimension to figure out which pictures/products from your site are pulling visitors from Pinterest to your site.

2. Referral Reports

If you want a simple way to track the number of visits coming to your site from Pinterest, this is a great tool. In Analytics, go to “Traffic Sources” and click “Referrals Report.” Then, if pinterest.com does not show up in your top 10 referrals, search “pinterest” at the top of the table. Even simpler, you can make a more advanced segment that shows just the traffic from Pinterest. Then you can add to your report by selecting a “goal set” in Analytics. If you have goals set up in Analytics, this tells you how Pinterest visits compare to the site on average.

3. Multi-Channel Funnel Reports

To see if Pinterest visits are converting, it can be tricky. Standard Google Analytics reports use “last click attribution,” which means Pinterest will only show a conversion if it was the last source of the visit that converts. So, this means that if someone comes to your site after visiting Pinterest, then returns to your site after using an organic search for your product, then makes a purchase, that purchase will not be attributed to Pinterest. In order to get a better idea of exactly how many conversions come from Pinterest, use the Multi-Channel Funnels reports in Google Analytics. First look at the “Assisted Conversions” report, and choose “Source/Medium”, then filter for Pinterest.

4. Dashboards

Google Analytics Dashboards give great views of your site’s activities. By adding widgets to your dashboard, you can see whatever information you want to see regularly. In tracking Pinterest, monitor things like daily visits from Pinterest, how long users stay on the site, how many pages they look at, etc. Dashboards will also help show which products seem to be resonating with Pinterest users, so you can effectively strategize your future content.

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