Data analytics is a buzzword in today’s digital age. Business analysts rate it as an essential tool that helps in making data-driven business decisions. One can decide and optimize business strategies based on the input received by that.
What is Data analytics?
It is a systematic analysis of data obtained from different sources. It uncovers trends and patterns and gives insights that can help in driving business growth.
By valuable information received about the psyche and behavior of customers, market trends, and performance metrics, it becomes possible for the organization to achieve well-informed business decisions and to stay ahead of the competition.
Experts rate business analytics high in terms of arriving at data-driven business decisions. But before going deeper into that, let’s first understand the basics of analytics.
Analytics
Analytics play a big role in empowering businesses so that they can harness the power of data and transform the same into insights that are actionable and useful.
When data is analyzed to understand aspects like engagement rates, reach, and conversions, one can get a deeper understanding of the audience. It becomes easy to know its preferences, interests, and behaviors.
For example, when you track the click-through rate of various posts on social media, you can identify the type of content that resonates with the majority of your customers. Based on that, you can adjust your strategy manually.
Analytics can provide you with relevant and accurate information. There is no scope for guesswork. You can identify clearly what works and what does not.
Once you know that a specific campaign is not bringing desired results, analytics can precisely tell you where the issue is.
Armed with this information, you can make relevant data-driven changes and optimize your social media strategy.
How do analytics help in establishing data-driven insights?
The market is highly competitive today and to have a competitive edge, one has to be ahead of the curve. When it is so crucial to remain a market leader, it is important to leverage tools and technology.
One such powerful and important tool that can help achieve this is data-driven competitive analysis.
It can help a business to gain a deeper understanding of the competitor and identify trends so that decisions can be taken.
Competitive analysis can supercharge your marketing efforts and provide actionable tips on how to effectively utilize the data-driven insights thrown by analytics.
Find out benchmark performance and understand your competition
The first benefit of data-driven analytics is to identify who are your key competitors. What businesses are similar to your business in terms of size and target audience?
Once you know that, you need to benchmark the marketing performance of competitors against yours. Some important metrics that help in this are follower count, content strategy, and engagement rate.
Let’s take an example. Suppose you own a fashion brand that talks about sustainable fashion. You need to find out other sustainable brands and compare their presence to your presence.
Does the competitor (or competitors) have a higher engagement rate than yours? If yes, then you need to analyze their content strategy. See what is the factor that is resonating more with the audience? You need to change the approach accordingly.
Analysis of content strategy and finding trends
It is important to analyze the content strategy of your competitors. You can get valuable insights into what works and what does not.
To get a deeper knowledge, you will have to go through the patterns of the content shared by your competitor. See what is their frequency of sharing. What platforms are being prioritized by them?
For example, you realize that the competitors rely more on user-generated content to engage their audience. Then, you also need to launch the same. Thus, you will get higher engagement and foster a sense of authenticity around your product or company.
Keep a close watch on audience engagement and sentiments
How is the audience of your competitor interacting with the content? Once you know that, you can know better about consumer sentiment and choices.
Always monitor comments, likes, and shares. You can gauge audience engagement and sentiment towards your competition.
See what resonates with their audience and use similar insights to alter your strategy.
Suppose your competitor company received appreciation and praise for the environmental practices being followed by them, you also have to highlight your initiatives in the same area. Thus, customers who give preference to GREEN practices will be attracted to you.
Stay aware of industry trends and innovations
It is not sufficient to understand your competition only, you also have to stay updated on industry trends and innovations. When you monitor that, you have a competitive edge.
Suppose the trend is to leverage Vlogs (Video Blogs), you also have to incorporate Vlogs into your strategy. And try to make your Vlogs different and special so that they can stand out uniquely.
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