{"id":653,"date":"2019-06-26T22:39:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T22:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/?p=653"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:43:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:43:43","slug":"how-to-start-mining-your-marketing-data-for-new-business-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/how-to-start-mining-your-marketing-data-for-new-business-opportunities","title":{"rendered":"How To Mine Your Marketing Data for New Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your websites and online ads are a treasure trove of data that can be mined for new business value. If you\u2019ve never dipped your toe into analytics or data mining marketing, you should make it a point to try!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I\u2019m going to introduce you to a few of my personal methods and techniques for mining a business\u2019 online data for new marketing ideas. I find that the deeper your understanding of your business\u2019 metrics, the more likely that you\u2019ll make decisions based on hard facts instead of speculation. My focus is going to be on your website, but you can apply the same data mining and marketing principles to direct mail<\/a> and offline sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Get<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step\n1 \u2013 Start creating your data streams<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Data mining for small business starts with creating various streams of metrics that you can look into. My first and best recommendation for an analytics tool is Google Analytics<\/a>. This amazing tool tracks an incredible variety of data sets, including user behavior and sales on your website. It\u2019s easy to set up, and very comprehensive. Plus, it gives you a big picture view of your website so that you can better evaluate its performance as a data mining and marketing tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nyou start using Google Analytics, ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Which online channels is my web traffic mostly coming from?
\u2013 Which are my top performing web pages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also recommend mining data for revenue and financial information. This is an oft-forgotten set of data that is hiding some good nuggets of insight. When reviewing your financial data, ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Who are my biggest customers?
\u2013 What is the lifetime value of my customers?
\u2013 What are my top performing products?
\u2013 Have any major customers stopped ordering (and can I win them back)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many powerful data mining and marketing tools that can audit your website and give you more data to work on. Some are free, some are fee-based. Some are fairly basic, some are more sophisticated than others. When first starting out, the key is to find the right tool that fits your level of experience conducting data analytics. If you\u2019re a rookie, start with the simpler, more basic tools. As you gain more experience and understanding of analytics, you can move to more sophisticated systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free\nanalytic tools include Open Site Explorer<\/a>, Follower\nWonk<\/a>, Woo\nRank<\/a>, Yext<\/a>,\nyour Yelp<\/a> analytics, and Facebook Pages\u2019 Insights<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paid analytic tools include Moz<\/a>, Mixpanel<\/a>, KISSmetrics<\/a>, Crazy Egg<\/a>, and Optimizely<\/a>. If you\u2019re not sure whether you can use a particular application, get a free trial and familiarize yourself with it. When it comes to web marketing, the value of analytics can\u2019t be overstated. The more data patterns you have access to, the more valuable nuggets you will find that can help improve your marketing and grow your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step\n2 \u2013 Build familiarity (with your tools and your materials)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This\nis a step that most people skip. It\u2019s also one\nI find very valuable. Keep in mind that most\nof the data you\u2019re going to look at is boring and\/or useless. In fact, when you first start analyzing your data\nstreams, you may wonder what value any of it has. But you have to \u201cwalk\nthe entire landscape\u201d before you know what\u2019s interesting to look at. As you become more familiar with the tools and the data,\nyou\u2019ll start to pick out the gems that can make a difference in your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To really get to know the features of your data mining and marketing tools, spend a few hours clicking through EVERY page, menu option, axes in the graphs, and columns in the tables. Once you\u2019ve walked through every nook and cranny of the tool, and given them careful consideration, then you will understand which graphs offer real value and why you need to use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, don\u2019t make the mistake of getting stuck using only one analytic tool. Instead, take the time to identify and understand the limitations of each analytic tool you use. When novice data analysts gain access to an incredibly comprehensive tool like Google Analytics, they begin to consider it to be omniscient. These novices become close minded, which leads to a mindset of, \u201cIf it\u2019s not in Google Analytics, I can\u2019t answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nis an example I witnessed recently. Google Analytics doesn\u2019t track profits on\nyour orders; it only tracks revenue. However,\nprofitability \u2013 by product, product line and overall \u2013 is one of the most\nimportant financial metrics of all. Otherwise, how do you know if you\u2019re\nactually making money? The sales and revenue numbers might look good. But if\nthe cost of making and selling the product exceeds the amount of revenue it\nbrings in, your business is in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause\nthe profitability of the product segment in this\nexample was so valuable, the business owner\ntook the time to compute the information by hand. He literally wrote down every order number that\nmade it into Google Analytics\u2019 report, computed the profit manually, and\ngenerated the new report via Excel. The moral of\nthe story is two-fold. One, Google Analytics doesn\u2019t do everything. Two, just\nbecause Google Analytics can\u2019t do something doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t important to\nyour business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step\n3 \u2013 Focus your analysis (know what you\u2019re analyzing)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once you start analyzing your metrics, you\u2019ll be amazed at how\nmuch there is to delve into. To keep from getting overwhelmed with too much\ndata, I recommend starting with\nthree things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze your web pages.<\/strong> Look at the pages people land on when first coming to your site, then track where they go from there. Gather data on how long (or short) they stay on each page, and how much time they spend on your site altogether. This will give you a good idea of what people are looking for and how they use your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze your acquisition\nchannels.<\/strong> Potential customers can come to your site through many\nchannels. These include search (paid and organic), clicking on banner ads,\nresponding to an email campaign, and more. It\u2019s important to know which\nchannels bring in the most site visitors so you can concentrate your resources\nin those areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze your product transactions.<\/strong> Once people come to your site, what are they buying (or not buying)? A certain product page may get a lot of hits. But if people don\u2019t follow through and complete the purchase, that tells you there is something wrong with the product, the price, or the transaction process on your web site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most analytics tools provide so many pages, graphs, and charts\nthat it\u2019s easy to get lost.\nStaying focused on these three areas will keep you\ntuned in to some of the most important marketing metrics you need to manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step\n4 \u2013 Try out my favorite metrics (know where to look)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once tracking the three metrics in step 3 becomes second nature,\nit\u2019s time to branch out. As you explore other metrics, you\u2019ll start to develop\npersonal favorites that you track on a regular basis. Mine include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Sessions (traffic volume)
\u2013 Conversion Rate
\u2013 Revenue <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nfocusing on these three metrics, (and a solid understanding of your sales funnel<\/a>) you can quickly generate a basic\nunderstanding of your business. Of course, you have to bring in all the other\nmetrics to tell a more complete story. As you become more experienced, you\u2019ll\nfind more and more insights by considering the other metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step\n5 \u2013 Reading between the lines (know what to do)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In and of itself, analyzing a bunch of charts and graphics\ndoesn\u2019t add up to much. It\u2019s what you do with the data that counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe last section, I highlighted a few metrics I recommend focusing on. But what should\nyou do with the information gained from analyzing those metrics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nare a few general ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invest\nmore into your top performers. That is, take your\ntop-selling products and best-performing ads, advertising channels, and web pages\nand find ways to make them better. Or, create similar variations with other\nproducts or services. Perhaps you can replicate your strategy in a way that creates a new revenue stream for your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an old adage that says the best way to grow a business is to focus your time and resources on your best employees. The same is true with marketing tools and software. If something\u2019s making money, pour more time, effort and resources into it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shore\nup (or cut!) your worst performers. Remember: not all business ideas are\nprofitable. Try to improve things, but don\u2019t keep\npouring money down the drain hoping an unprofitable product will turn around.\nWhen it becomes clear that a product is a lost cause, stop selling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep\nan eye out for stragglers or outliers that may be the start of a new\nidea. I often find that as I generate more data, I\u2019ll come across some\nfree radical that sparks a new idea or a new line of questioning. It could be a\nlone visitor from a website that I hadn\u2019t seen before; this could spark a new\nline of thought about new web channels. I\u2019ve also investigated web pages that were getting a lot more traffic than they should, only to find traffic sources I had\nnever considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step\n6 \u2013 Slicing and dicing (segmentation)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst five sections are good for the basics of data mining. Now we come to segmentation \u2013 a deeper level of analytics\nwhereby you cut and reassemble your data to\nview it from new perspectives and uncover new insights. Segmentation allows you to \u201czoom in\u201d to specific data subsets and \u201czoom out\u201d to see the summary\nview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is market segmentation so important? Because people buy the\nsame product for different reasons, and marketing is most effective when you\nmarket to the unique needs of each segment. This requires dividing your larger\nmarket into similar and identifiable segments, so you can precisely address\ntheir unique buying motivations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep asking questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll\nfinish with one final thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve\nfound that the best way to look for insights is to constantly ask questions\nabout your business. Ask yourself broad questions like, \u201cI wonder how effective\nmy email campaign is doing?\u201d, or \u201cHow much money is coming in from being ranked\non Google\u201d? And also ask yourself specific questions like, \u201cWhat pages are\nperforming best on Google rankings?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The knowledge and insights needed to grow your business are out there. But they won\u2019t come up and knock on your door. You will only find them by mining data for insights, and you can only do that if you\u2019re asking the right questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n