A guide through marketing analytics software

In our previous article, we explore some of the top digital marketing analytics tools that businesses can benefit from. Today, we look to expand further on this particular subject by looking at the fundamental questions about this particular software. What are the benefits and different features that marketing analytics software offers? Which businesses should use this software and what are the different types there are? In this article, we answer all these questions and more, to help you make the best decision for your company.

What is marketing analytics software for a modern business?

Unlike marketing KPIs that serve to measure the success of your digital marketing strategy, marketing analytics have a different role to play. However, that role is just as vital. After all, the goal of any marketer is to create a perfectly functional and sustainable marketing strategy that will:

• Increase website traffic
• Boost lead generation
• Optimize conversion rates
• Take customer care to the next level
• Help create a strong and long-lasting brand

And none of this would be possible without the necessary data to help marketers learn how to achieve that. The purpose of digital marketing analytics is to provide context for the metrics marketers use to measure success. And that context is then transformed into plans of action on how to create more opportunities for a business.

• Marketing analytics software serves to gather data about the effectiveness of ones marketing efforts from multiple sources and channels. Marketers then use that data to improve their past strategies and campaigns, helping the brand grow its online success as a result.

From calculating ROI to boosting performance and reducing time wasted on irrelevant everyday tasks, this tech solution can make all the difference for a business looking to grow.

What are the reasons for using analytics software?

Informed decision-making

Digital marketing analytics software is like a GPS – it helps businesses navigate through unknown terrain and find the fastest route to reach the goal. By having an updated map and a clear layout of all the available paths, marketers are in a better position to make informed decisions. And that is something that can significantly impact the online growth of your brand and business. Whether we’re discussing your channels of advertising so far, your overall marketing budget, or your engagement with target audiences – you need analytics.

Real-time insights

Marketing analytics software provides real-time data when it comes to the behavior of target audiences and how or if they interact with your campaigns. And this is raw knowledge that experienced marketers can take and mold into useful data for improving their efforts. In modern consumerism, time is a commodity that is in scarce supply.

• It’s as simple as the early bird catching the worm. Marketers get the data they need to take immediate action in changing how they interact with customers.

By tailoring to the preferences of audiences as soon as possible, a business can boost engagement and generate more leads. Additionally, customers will recognize the dominance of a brand to provide them with just the solutions they need. The way marketing analytics fits into this is that it offers your team the chance to leverage real-time data and get a sneak peek at how your customers are responding to your efforts thus far and what they might be missing.

Other benefits to consider

• Shaping content into a unique and easily recognizable brand message.
• Higher chances of engaging with audiences.
• Predicting future customer and market behavior.
• Tracking and measuring ROI becomes easier.
• Forecasting trends and results by understanding present ones.

The features to consider

Understanding the purpose and the benefits of this particular type of software is only the first step. Given the plethora of different tools and solutions out there, a business should search for the ideal fit for its needs, based on the general features each marketing analytics software possesses. Yes, most of the more popular solutions will prove beneficial for your business so long as you have a marketing consultant or agency to implement them. However, spending more time in finding the software that matches your business needs perfectly can offer optimal performance growth on a long-term basis. So, consider the following features:

Data collection

Depending on the size of your business and market, the number of your competitors, and the volume of audiences – the data you need to collect can vary greatly. And based on these criteria, you have different marketing analytics software solutions. You need to consider the amount of data that you need to collect before you pay for software that can’t keep up with your data collection needs, or one that might analyze too much and incur additional expenses because of it.

Return on investment (ROI)

As we explained previously, marketing analytics software is a great way to examine your KPIs and make informed decisions based on it. Being unable to analyze the marketing metrics for your business can leave a business having to fly blind, hoping that everything is going smoothly. And for most, this is not the case – at least not without the right strategy in place.

ROI is one of the more essential metrics that can help marketers determine just how good their strategy is doing. However, it is also one of the more elusive metrics to measure. Analytics solutions can help a company in measuring its ROI by quantifying the outcomes of every marketing campaign it launches.

Reports and dashboards

Once you gather data and quantify the ROI, you also need the ability to showcase the results in the form or reports. Only by doing so will you be able to cross-compare your current efforts with past ones and establish patterns that work for your marketing efforts. And so, you need to look at marketing analytics software that provides a user-friendly dashboard and easy-to-create and use reports for the data you collect.

This feature can not only make your insights more presentable but can also save your team time and work of having to do it manually. It’s a simple matter of automating the task of filtering data and discovering digital marketing trends. You can then share all that data instantly with the rest of your company, giving you higher chances of making accurate predictions for your marketing goals.

Attribution reports

To get the most out of your marketing efforts, a business needs to know where which channels its conversion is coming from. Otherwise, it can be impossible to differentiate between effective and ineffective marketing activities. The way marketing analytics software fits into this equation is by offering attribution reports that can help track conversions back to the source they came from. And some of the attribution models that you can track with the right software solutions include:

• last interaction attribution;
• first-click attribution;
• multi-touch attribution (linear, time decay, and position-based attributions).

The ability to track where your conversions come from reveals the bigger picture of your marketing strategy and carries the potential to attract more optimal crowds to your website.

Multichannel tracking

Finally, to reveal the full scale of your marketing efforts, you need to be able to look at all your advertising channels. And analytics software is a tool that offers just that – the ability to track marketing performance on multiple channels, gathering separate data from each and attributing conversions to each.

The potential issues to account for

Data accuracy

The value of the insight you get from marketing analytics relies on the accuracy of the metrics you are using. If the metrics are off, the insights will offer little to no value. This outcome can be the result of using third-party data such as marketing analytics platforms. Since you don’t have a direct relationship with users, you run the risk of gathering inaccurate data.

Data volume

With such a wide variety of advertising channels that businesses use, it can be difficult to focus on the data that is useful for your business. And this brings us back to taking the time to choose the software that has a data collection feature that suits your niche. Otherwise, the data you gather can easily become overwhelming and cost you time and resources to go through and convert into something useful.

Privacy concerns

Privacy and data protection have become a leading concern for modern consumers. With this type of software collecting data on everyone in your sales funnel, there can be some legal risks that you need to address. To do so, a business has to stay up-to-date on data privacy laws and restrictions, to protect against any potential lawsuits while gathering the data necessary to grow.

Different types of marketing analytics software

• Social media analytics software. Good for tracking engagement through social media channels (comments, likes, shares, etc.)
• Digital analytics software. Good for tracking and measuring website traffic (sessions, unique visitors, user entries, exit pages, etc.)
• Content analytics software. Good for tracking interaction with your content (page views and shares, outbound clicks, average time spent on posts, SERP rankings) as well as monitoring competitive content.
• Attribution software. Commonly used by sales and marketing teams, this type of marketing analytics software helps track the customer lifecycle through your marketing efforts.

Start looking toward improving your marketing efforts today

Whether you are an individual, a small business, or a large enterprise – the practicality of implementing marketing analytics software solutions speaks for itself. And with the professional guidance of Digital Dot – NYC digital marketing agency, you can put your business on the right path in terms of reaching that ideal level of marketing activities to ensure long-term growth. Contact us today for a professional consultation on how best to approach the analytics of your marketing strategy!