One of the biggest technological advancements and innovations around the world today is Big Data combined with predictive analysis. In the current Internet of Things (IoT) era, we are working with more interconnected systems than ever before which are constantly in the process of generating, gathering and transferring huge amounts of data that businesses can put to use to transform the way they operate. Predictive analysis is one of the biggest latest trends in the market, designed to point directed traffic to a company by predicting how consumers might behave based on past data.
Business intelligence and data analysis is beneficial for companies of all sizes. Not only is it crucial today for large organizations that collect huge amounts of data, but also for small businesses that might collect data which can be turned into actionable insights to boost growth and encourage success. Many small businesses today will experience challenges with data analysis and will benefit from being able to turn more data into actionable insights on their market, customer base, and potential future customer behavior to ensure that they are making the right future decisions for the company. Let’s take a look at some of the main ways in which data can be turned into actionable insights to help a company of any size become more successful.
Save Time on Running the Business
Many small business owners will find themselves in charge of pretty much everything, which does not put them in a great position for saving time. If you are currently responsible for a huge range of tasks and responsibilities as a business owner, you are certainly not on your own. However, smaller business owners that do not have access to the same type of resources that large organizations have might find it more difficult to delegate certain responsibilities or make the best decisions for the business. Using the data that your business gathers can provide you with useful insights that you can put to work for you in almost any situation to save time running your business and ensure that you are making informed decisions. Using data analysis tools to come up with insights that you can use in the future for your business will help you save a lot of time when it comes to trial and error and make it easier for you to determine where tasks can be delegated to get the best results.
Learn About Your Industry and Customers
Data analysis can provide you with a range of actionable insights and intelligence on your industry and customers. To achieve this, you will typically need to sift through the information that your company has gathered in the form of data from customers, social media, ad campaigns, your website, competitors and more. Examining the data will help you determine trends and patterns, which will make it easier to come to realistic conclusions regarding what you can expect for the future and what your customers are likely to respond best to. The right data analysis and business intelligence tools can make it possible for you to unlock and identify customer and industry insights that you may not have had access to in the past. For example, looking at historical data from your previous marketing campaigns can make it easier for you to determine which strategies to choose in future campaigns for the best results and which ones are best not repeated based on their previous performance. Learn more about how business intelligence and data analysis can benefit a business with Suffolk University’s Online MBA Degree Business Intelligence Concentration.
Reactive Interactions
In the past, companies were only able to take action and collect insights and opinions from their customers after the fact, which allowed them to take action. For example, companies may have had to wait until immediately after a new product or service was launched in order to find out more about how it has been received by customers and make any necessary changes to improve performance. However, this situation can be quite risky for companies, since there is no guarantee that the product or service will be received well, and making changes after the fact can often prove expensive, not to mention the need to rebuild trust and interest with customers afterwards.
On the other hand, using business intelligence and data analysis means that businesses are able to collect and use data in real-time, allowing them to deal with events in the moment and react to interactions with customers throughout the development process for a new product or service rather than waiting to see what the reaction from customers is once it is completed. As a result, companies now have the tools needed to make more accurate predictions regarding consumer reactions while minimizing the level of risk to the business.
Successful Marketing
Many small businesses will have to accept that when it comes to marketing, they will not usually have the large budgets that large organizations enjoy. However, data analysis and business intelligence has made it easier for small companies to make more successful and accurate marketing decisions and predictions without a lot of trial and error. Many smaller businesses will need to be more careful when it comes to how they spend their marketing budget, and making accurate predictions based on past marketing campaigns and the customer data that they have collected will ensure that they are able to take a more targeted approach to marketing and put their budget to better use. Using business intelligence with data analysis and interpretation allows small businesses to unlock a range of marketing insights that they can use for driving future campaigns that reach the right audience, get the right message across, and are overall more successful in attracting customers to the brand, building awareness, and increasing conversions.
Avoid Mistakes and Errors
Data analysis is hugely beneficial for small companies since it allows them to get more context and much clearer answers in terms of brand awareness, customer engagement, the customer journey, marketing results, and much more. For example, data analysis can help a small business determine which areas of their website tend to lead to more sales, along with any website areas that could benefit from improvement since they tend to see more visitors bouncing off the page. Data analysis can also make it easier for small businesses to become aware of past errors and inconsistencies that they might not have been aware of otherwise, making it easier to make corrections and avoid potentially costly future mistakes. Data analysis makes it possible for any business to easily notice and highlight errors in data input or management, for example, allowing companies to determine what’s going wrong if there’s a problem that continues reappearing.
Improve the Customer Experience
The use of business intelligence and data analysis when running a business allows brands to build stronger relationships with customers and get better results from customer engagement and word of mouth marketing. Today, research has shown that more than 30% of consumers prefer to experience shopping that feels personal to them, for example, by providing personalized recommendations of products that they might enjoy based on their past shopping and browsing habits.
One example of a company that does this particularly well is Amazon. If you are an Amazon customer, chances are that you might have seen lists of products that you might be interested in based on what you’ve looked at recently or purchased in the past from the site. Personalization is something that is becoming more and more important to today’s customers, and it is impossible to provide the level of personalization that today’s customers want without analyzing customer data.
Data analysis tools make it possible for businesses of any size to build interactions with customers based on their past behavior, providing a tailored and personal shopping experience for them and improving the customer experience overall. As a result, this will often lead to more repeat customers, better word of mouth marketing, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and better customer engagement with your brand.
Save Money
While many small businesses on a budget could be loath to invest in data analysis tools, the truth is that data analysis can make it easier for your business to save money over time by providing you with insights that you can use to make more informed decisions on behalf of the company. And, data analysis tools are not always a huge investment with several that are designed specifically for smaller companies on a budget and many free open-source tools that you can use to start collecting actionable data and generating insights for your business without paying a penny. Small businesses on a budget do not have to spend a lot of money on hiring data scientists to gather and make sense of data on their behalf, thanks to the huge range of easy-to-use, user-friendly data collection and analysis tools that are available today.
Retain Your Customers
One of the biggest advantages of using business intelligence and data to collect actionable insights on your customers is that it provides you with information that you can use to retain your existing customers and encourage them to return to your brand. Today, this is often achieved using a customer relationship management (CRM) system that gathers data on your customers throughout their journey from finding out about your brand to placing an order and receiving their purchase.
Collecting data on your customers as they go through the sales cycle allows you to learn about them, their preferences, habits and more on a much deeper level, providing you with excellent insights that you can put to use in the future to encourage your customers to return to your brand over and over again. For example, learning more about the type of products that your customers are buying allows you to provide customized discounts and offers that they are likely to take advantage of. In addition, you can look into customer actions, such as when they are more likely to spend money in your store, and use this information to send them marketing messages when it comes closer to the time that they usually buy.
Make Better Business Decisions
Overall, one of the main ways that business intelligence can benefit a company of any size is that is allows those in charge to make better and more informed business decisions. Whether you own your own company or are a decision-maker for a business, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the data that the company collects and the message that it is giving you. The main goal of implementing a business intelligence strategy in any company is to ensure that decision-makers are able to convert the data that the business collects into actionable and structured insights that can inform data-driven, strategic decision making in every area of the business. Having updated, actionable intelligence available to you regarding the business will make it easier to make the best company decisions, whether that’s in relation to hiring, marketing, online engagement, introducing a new product or service, rebranding and more. As a result, businesses that use the intelligence provided by data analysis often enjoy larger revenue, more profit, and an overall better performance.
One of the main benefits of business intelligence that allows you to make better business decisions is that it allows you to get to know your customers much better. Today, it has never been more important to have an in-depth knowledge of your customers and clearly understand what makes them tick if you want to run a business successfully. In today’s world where meaningful interaction and engagement with customers has never been more important, data is collected and analyzed to ensure that companies have as much information as possible on the people that are crucial to business growth and success – their customer base.
Turning data into actionable insights is more important than ever before for today’s businesses. By collecting data and analyzing it, your business can learn more about what works well and what doesn’t, as well as what your customers want, and this in turn can help you make better decisions for the future.