Turning Data into Insights

Last week we focused on what to do to make our briefcases heavy - now we're going to transform that data into riches.

It can be a journey - a long one - to make the transition from relying on our gut instincts to moving into a data centered mindset. But, I am here to tell you that your business will be better in the end.

Let's review the data in question - we need to examine the following:

1. What's happening on your site right now? - Realtime Report
2. Where your visitors are coming from? - Acquisition Report
3. How are your visitors interacting and engaging with your content? - Engagement Report
4. What are visitors buying? - Monetization Report
5. How frequently are they engaged? - Retention Report
6. Who are these visitors? - Demographic Report

If you've set up your Google Analytics properly, you're going to see these reports (and the data they've captured) in your reports hub.

But - where does the insight come from?

It comes from analysis. Yes - the only thing scarier than collecting data is analyzing it.

Fortunately, I have a few ways for you to start analyzing your own data, without having to become a stats expert.

First, focus on trends - not just raw numbers.

When you're looking at your reports, you can compare time frames. So, instead of looking at how your website or landing page is performing right now - look at how it's been performing month over month? Are there any trends you can see? Are there weeks (or days of the week) when your users are more engaged or when you're getting more clicks from a specific referral sight?

Can you see a pattern or trend on the keywords that are leading people to your site? Are certain keywords more popular at certain times of the year?

All of these time based comparisons are a great way for you to start gaining insights - without having to do math.

Second, don't look at all the data - filter, sort, segment, group.

At this point, it's all about curiosity. Filtering, sorting, segmenting and grouping has just become a ton easier in Google Analytics 4 - you can use the Explore tab to build custom explorations without having to "know" what you're doing - you just need to be curious.

For example, I just did a "cohort based exploration" of my website to see the retention of active users on my website over the course of 4 weeks. And, I looked specifically at people who visited the website via the website and who typed our web address directly into the search bar.

This little exploration I did showed me that although I'm getting a decent number of initial visits (and even returning visitors) - I'm not providing enough of a reason for people to come back to my website week after week - continuously.

Depending on what you're selling - you can use that information in a lot of ways. What it's telling me is that I am developing trust with my website visitors, but my site doesn't have enough dynamic content to keep them coming back for more.

Third, configure and customize - create custom events, audiences and definitions

Each of our businesses is different and you shouldn't just let the unfiltered data sit there collecting dust - or just stop at the initial phases of trend hunting & filtering. Instead, try determining exactly what you want to happen on each page of your site and then setting up a custom event in Analytics to track it.

Maybe you have the goal of getting more people to make purchases over $100 on your website. You can set up a custom event to track only when someone makes a purchase larger than $99.

If you're in the B2B space, you might want to track all of the "thank you" pages you've built using HubSpot, as a single event. You could create a custom event to track every page that has /thank-you in the url on your site.

These types of customizations make it easy to gain insights because you already know what you're looking for - you don't have to hunt for it.

Bring your data to life

Data doesn't have to be a drag - you can bring it to life with a little forethought and some clear business goals, you can use your data to see whether you're on the right track or need to course correct.

It's just a matter of perspective. Literally. With data, how you look at it determines what you see. So, my challenge to you is to bring your data to life for yourself.

I want us to all start using data - not just the big companies.

If you're ready to go on that journey with me - where we start unloading that briefcase of data and transforming it into treasure - come to my workshop tonight.

At 6pm [Tuesday, January 24, 2022] I'm hosting a workshop were I'm going to show you how to use Google Analytics to gain insights from your business. We'll dive into the platform and you'll see one of my favorite new features of the NEW Google Analytics - automatic insights.

This workshop is free and brought to you by the Grow with Google Digital Coach program - click here to join us tonight: https://prm.rslts.co/78IL

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