Data Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Optimizing Your Business
UNIT 1
1. Mission & Vision
The Mission
The mission of data analysis is to obtain all the necessary information for decision-making in our business.
Three Axes:
- User acquisition.
- User behavior within our business.
- Customer loyalty.
The Vision
If we manage to recognize:
- what our visitors are like,
- what they are concerned about and enthusiastic about
- what decision point they are at before they buy
- what barriers they face.
Only in this way can we implement useful corrective actions and measures to achieve our business objectives.
2. History & Evolution of Data Analysis
Web Analytics 1.0
Interactions on the web were rather scarce and the analysis of customer behavior required the use of offline business information
The digital analyst → had mainly a technical profile. Data was obtained generally through traditional log systems
1993 – The first web analytics tool is born: WebTrends
Web Analytics 2.0
As the Internet matured, more and more users made use of this platform to carry out their transactions.
The social aspect → is also beginning to play a leading role
The digital analyst → is focused on representing all the information in a simple and visual way, which makes it accessible and understandable to all the company’s profiles.
1997 – Urchin, a web data analysis company, is born.
2000 – Urchin forgets about logs and starts tracking user interactions using JavaScript tags.
2005 – Google announces the acquisition of Urchin and launches Google Analytics
Web Analytics 3.0
The online business is fragmented, the channels and digital devices with which the user interacts multiply and an explosion of data is generated.
The concept of digital analytics→ web analytics, which deals with the analysis of user behavior across all channels and devices.
The digital analyst → has at his disposal technologies that allow him to integrate multiple data sources, serve to understand and improve the experience of our clients.
Web Analytics 4.0
The customer journey no longer begins on a website or an application, thanks to geolocation and offline tracking systems, we can now obtain data about our potential customer. We can analyze online shopping trends after visiting a physical store or what influence our online campaigns have on offline purchases.
3. The Digital Analyst
The management of a company’s media plan can vary and adapt to its needs, but it will always need data to know the performance of the business and improve it. In short, data to be able to assess whether what we are doing is working and how and how much it can be improved.
4. Fundamentals of the Data Analysis Plan
Some of the functions are:
- Plan the measurement needs of the online business.
- Implement and configure tools for data collection.
- Identify the key business KPIs.
- Analyze and present the data.
- Propose business improvements.
- Train and inform the rest of the team.
4.1 What is Web Analysis?
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data in order to understand and optimize the use of the web. However, web analytics can also be used as a tool for business and market research and to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of a website.
4.2 3 Pillars of Web Analytics
Clickstream
Clickstream is the sequence of hyperlinks that one or more website visitors follow to a given site, presented in the order they were viewed.
- A visitor’s click path can begin within the website or search engine results, and continues as a sequence of successive web pages visited by the user.
- Click paths take call data and can match it to ad sources, keywords, and / or referring domains to capture data.
- Click stream analysis is useful for web activity analysis,
- software testing, market research, and for analyzing employee productivity
Click Stream Data
Data collected from your website through your click stream tool (such as Webtrends, Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, etc., etc.). It helps you measure pages and campaigns to see what is happening on your site: visits, visitors, time on site, page views, bounce rate, sources, etc.
Multiple Outcomes Analysis
Connecting customer behavior to business outcomes:
- Increase revenue
- Lower costs
- Improve customer loyalty
Experimentation & Testing
Data collected from experiments and tests to tell you what works best – what the customer really wants (tools such as Google Website Optimizer or Omniture’s Test and Target, or Optimize.ly) as opposed to basing actions on opinions or “hunches”
Voice of the Customer
Data from qualitative surveys and usability tests giving you your customers’ direct feedback on their online experience (the reasons behind some of your metrics).
Competitive Intelligence
Data you can gather to tell you whether your results are good or bad or just average by comparing them with your competitors data
Platforms such as www.alexa.com can be used for this.
4.3 The Data Analysis Plan as the Road to Happiness
Digital analysts and using the data analysis plan, seek to identify each! Ing! At must be measured so that our actions are always designed to achieve our business objectives,
- The KPIs of an online business are the thermometer that informs us how close we are to reaching our goals and helps us make better decisions.
- A data analysis plan will allow us to identify these KPIs and help us make decisions based on their analysis, thus leaving out opinions.
4.4 The Data Analysis Plan as a Continuous Improvement Project
Initial audit in which we must analyze the analytical scenario from which we start. With this audit we intend to identify errors and shortcomings in the existing analytical implementation, and to preserve the historical data of the business
Measurement plan .A document that will include everything needs to be measured. The analyst, beginning of the strategic objectives of the business, begin to identify the objectives to be measured, the interactions to be known and the metrics to be heard
The implementation plan is a document indicating how the online .The ecosystem must be measured to obtain the dimensions and metrics we have identified in the measurement plan
Data visualization and monitoring plan where the reporting needs can be effectively presented.
The visualization plan includes the detail of each report:
- Objective and nature of the report
- Metrics and data to be hosted
- Type and format of graphics
- Target group • Periodicity
- Tools we will use
4.5 What are the Roles Impacted by Web Analytics?
Expert Knowledge
Analyst who is an expert user of analytics tools and with a thorough knowledge of the business so that they can shape, design and recommend the required reporting.
User Knowledge
Community which need to apply the insights on an operational level to optimize online campaigns and tactics.
Executive Knowledge
Incorporates analytics in planning phase of new initiative; Sets goals & values on digital KPIs; uses analytics processes and their output in day to day work; takes decisions, defines actions and takes