Are You Asking Your Data The Right Questions?

Web analysts often spend a majority of their time answering questions about the basics of analytics. A report from Forrester showed that 57% of marketers thought it was challenging to give their stakeholders in varying functions access to their insights and data.

So how do we combat this? The answer is to actually ask the right questions when it comes to your data. After all, no amount of data will be helpful if you’re not looking for the right things. Here are some ways to make sure that you are getting the most out of your data analysis.

Have Established KPIs

Like many other facets of your business, if you don’t have your KPIs and objectives outlined before executing your plan, things are bound to go awry. Once you have your KPIs in place, you can ensure that you’re asking the right questions, since you know where you want to be heading.

Know What Everyone Is Up To

Those who are in charge often feel as though they are above the rest of the team, but in reality, this should be the total opposite. A good leader knows what all of their teams are up to, whether its the sales team, marketing team, product team, or anyone else. A good leader will also interact with all these teams, and that way can make sure the right questions are being asked based on their experience on the ground.

Automate Reporting

The answer to most problems is simple: automate whatever you can. Instead of wasting time with rote and repeated work, automate reporting so you can get the most out of your data. Automating dashboards, spreadsheets, and reports will help you use the time saved to ask the right questions and gather the important insights that can make all the difference.

Don’t Waste Time On Unanswerable Questions

Everyone’s guilty of this one, but it really is a huge waste of time. This is especially the case when the unanswerable questions are not even important. Why bother? If you’re seeing a one-time outlier, most of the time it’s not even worth wasting time and resources on figuring out, most likely it won’t happen again. Instead of going down the rabbit hole, spend your time on a recurring problem.

Give Your Marketers Tools

If your marketing team is armed with data sources, they’ll be able to help a whole lot. So it’s worth it to invest in educating the marketing team on the sources you have access to. Once the marketers are also looking at things from a data-driven perspective, you’ll have that many more people to come up with the right questions as well.