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Using data to solve business problems

Isla Mercer

Project Manager at Shaw

When people are faced with a problem, they often jump to a solution, implement that and move on. It might work for a bit, but it often just acts as a sticky plaster and the problem will come back in some way, meaning more time is spent trying to fix it. In order to find a solution that really works, you need to find the root cause. There are a number of ways you can gain insight into your business using both qualitative and quantitative data to pinpoint exactly what needs fixing, and how to fix it. Maybe there isn’t even anything necessarily broken, but by gathering and analysing your data, you could discover there are some quick and easy ways to really improve your marketing and sales channels.

Let’s look at some examples.

You run a website offering services to people, and the point of your website is to get customers to contact you to find out more, enquire about pricing etc. Your problem is that you aren’t getting any contacts through. There are all sorts of conclusions you could jump to, but the analytics of your site will be able to pinpoint where the problem is – not enough traffic coming to the site, no clear user journey and call to action for the customer or you might even be getting lots of enquiries but your contact form is broken! Using this information, you can then look at how you could fix the site, improve your user journey change your marketing strategy to increase your business enquiries.

Perhaps you make a product and are delighted to get your first big break in a supermarket chain. However, your sales aren’t as high as you’d hoped. Instead of immediately agreeing to price promotion to drive more sales (a very slippery slope!), conducting a focus group or customer survey is a great way to understand why people aren’t buying your product. From this you can gain all sorts of insights into what people think of your packaging, product taste, branding, pricing, and then how you can update your product to make it more appealing to a supermarket audience.

Even if you don’t currently have a particular pain point in your business, having a good look at your data can help you create a much more informed marketing and sales strategy and will ease your decision-making process. No matter how big or small your business is, gaining key insights will be invaluable to help you grow and expand.

If you’d like to get in touch to have a chat about how best to interpret the data you have, or need a hand getting hold of it, we’d be happy to help. Pop us an email at edinburgh@shaw-online.com