By David Schuette, Web Marketing Analyst
In analytics, choosing the right way to attack a problem is one of the most critical early-stage decisions in the problem-solving process. Selecting the wrong approach can lead to overwork or rework, wasting valuable time and resources.
So how do you figure out the correct approach? The secret is to clearly define what you are trying to learn. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in your data that you get sidetracked by information that, although interesting, is ancillary to the main issue. As fun as this may be for analysts, it can lead to a lack of focus and generate a solution that complicates the issue rather than solving it. Clearly stating the goal right from the outset makes it much easier to perform successful analytics.
Once your goal is established, you can move onto the next task: determining the right way to get to the solution. Sometimes the question is one that should be answered through testing instead of analytics. For example, variable offers. Does $10 off $50 work better than 20% off? Which version of creative will drive the greatest response?
But if your goal is to truly understand customer behavior, testing alone won’t get you there. To yield the greatest insights, you must also perform analysis on historical data. What kinds of questions can analysis help you answer? A few examples: How likely are customers to buy again if you don’t continue to contact them? How many times must you contact them to get them to buy? How often did they purchase a product that wasn’t advertised through traditional channels? Which customers are your most and least profitable? Based on historical data, who is most likely to buy from you again next year--and who will not? Better yet, historical analysis can (and should) be used to inform your testing strategy.
So next time, before you dive into answering those pressing questions… determine what will be the best path to lead you to the answer. Doing this each time, before you attack a problem, will give you focus, efficiency, and--ultimately--a lot more answers to your most critical questions.
