When you are busy with the day-to-day tasks of running a business, it can be hard to know whether what you are doing is working. Aside from making the time to take a look at your business strategy, it can be hard to know what tools you need to make sense of your success. Using analytics can help you understand and improve upon several different areas of your business.

Marketing

One of the areas of your business that can be improved with analytics is marketing. In the world of marketing, there are a lot of different types of analytics you can collect. You can collect data on email marketing campaigns, including open and click-thru rates, organic social media growth, and your website’s search rank. As Smart Insights points out, marketing analytics can help you learn more about your customers through analyzing their behavior and activity on your site. Your marketing analytics should focus on key performance indicators, or KPIs, that are directly related to the goals of your marketing plan.

Inventory Management

Another area where analytics can have an impact on your business is managing inventory. According to Kodak, you can use analytics to make resource adjustments based on sales history, allowing you to make improvements in your sales forecasts and cash flow. Analytics about your inventory can tell you more about how your inventory sells and when. This can allow you to be prepared to fill orders if there is a surge of orders for a certain product. Having the right amount of inventory on hand at any given point to fulfill customer demands efficiently requires analysis of sales history in order to create projections that are likely to be accurate. Good inventory management helps you build a better relationship with your clients by anticipating their needs.

Decision Making

Thinking about expanding your business, but not sure if it’s ready for it? Interested in adding another product to your line but not sure whether it will sell? Using analytics can help you make better, informed decisions about your business. By analyzing sales, you can see what types of products customers are most interested in to help inform you on what kind of product they would want to see next. Collecting data from customers in the form of surveys or reviews can help you better understand areas of improvement and things your customers like about your business. 

Analytics in business is more than just a numbers game. All different kinds of analytics can help you better manage and grow your business. Devoting the time to analyzing the data you collect can help you make decisions to ensure your continued success.

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