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Strong Businesses Know How to Use a Good Data Strategy

Collecting data is pointless unless you know how to interpret what you see. The results can be applied to improve marketing and business overall.


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James L Katzaman

2 years ago | 4 min read

Numbers mean little until you apply them for your benefit

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

Collecting data is pointless unless you know how to interpret what you see. The results can be applied to improve marketing and business overall.

Specializing in data privacy, security, information management and digital transformation, Larry Mount risks having more data than he knows what to do with on any given day.

Fortunately, he is also a systems guy — a big fan of staying organized — which helps him understand what he has in hand so he reaches the correct conclusion.

Mount and social media manager, author and blogger Carol Stephen talked about the need for data strategies and how they apply in all sorts of fields.

When it comes to running your business, it’s essential to know what data you need to make good decisions.

Listen for what potential customers are talking about. Apply that to whatever you offer that meets their needs before they ask.

“No matter what size organization you are a part of, you need evidence to support your decisions,” Mount said. “The internet of things makes data accessible.

“Now, artificial intelligence, machine learning and end-to-end process capabilities are improving data quality,” he said. “You owe yourself well-informed decisions.”

Industrious souls can take a manual route to gather data. That’s hard, but advocates say it pays off.

“That investment is appreciated, I’m sure,” Mount said. “I suspect there are ways to automate this, but then we have to consider scale and return on investment.”

To that end, Stitch has an article, “Data Strategy: What it is and how to achieve it.”

Good Luck is Made Luck

Data strategy leaves nothing to chance. Good luck comes from good planning. The more you talk about what you do, the better chance it has of finding the right ears.

“I make educated guesses much of the time on social media,” Stephen said. “I can see which posts did well before and try to create similar posts.”

Mount disdains ad hoc methods.

“Even the most random approaches can be planned for,” he said. “That’s where being agile in software development mitigates change when it occurs in the product cycle. There are lots of tools such as email. Clients often include calendars and lists at a basic level.”

Data strategy might seem intimidating, but it’s a matter of perspective.

“A data strategy does not have to encompass big data,” Stephen said. “A small business may need to focus on small data — the kind that helps with day-to-day operations.”

Examples include inventory data and business energy use data.

“I’ve started listening to the many parts of my organization — what they need, what format, why and what is their awareness of legal compliance,” Mount said. “If the horse has already bolted, you have quite a task to instill data governance.”

Stephen added that pricing, sales and wages are all good types of data to have.

Grasping Essential Elements

“Depending on what you deliver — products or services — my take is that it will include three factors: people, process and technology,” Mount said, noting that business owners have to know these factors:

  • What success criteria you have
  • How you can measure that
  • How to use the data to drive improvement

To establish a data strategy, Mount recommends picking three areas of interest and identifying how to measure them.

“Applications such as Tweepsmap and Nodex can assist with tweet reach and impact,” he said. “It’s important to have the means to not just measure but interpret data accurately. Quality and governance are needed.”

Competitors are often good for comparisons.

“Research what similar businesses are doing and what their data strategies are,” Stephen said. “You can start right on Google. There are free courses, too.”

Software applications can manage and mine data.

“Using Foundry and Krakken is one approach,” Mount said. “The Microsoft 365 PowerBI capability included with Microsoft Teams plus Microsoft Azure are excellent, versatile and readily customized.”

Stephen emphasized that Tweepsmap helps with data.

“Twitter has analytics built into the platform, as do the other social media platforms,” she said. “For customer feedback, I’ve used SurveyMonkey.”

Mining for Gold

Mount has benefitted from using several data mining techniques:

  • Tracking patterns. Learn to recognize patterns in your data such as odd spikes in data at regular intervals or an ebb and flow of a certain variable over time.
  • Classification. Collect various attributes into categories from which you can draw conclusions such as evaluating customer data and purchase histories and defining low, medium or high credit risks.
  • Clustering. Group chunks of data together based on similarities such as cluster audience demographics into packets. That’s based on disposable income and how often people shop at your store.

Rarely does data not have a use case.

“This may vary according to what your role is, but in any organization someone is crunching data,” Mount said.

“Financiers review sales and revenue data,” he said. “Commercial officers review contract data. Information technology pros check system integrity.”

Data quality checks should regularly verify data and analytics.

“If you don’t do that, then start soon,” Mount said. “Measure the right things. Then you’ll have data that protects against poor measurement and its impacts on you. It also helps avoid legal issues such as data breaches, which can carry fines and penalties.”

Aggregate all the data you want, but unless you understand what you’re looking at, it’s like a bowl of alphabet soup.

“It depends on when aggregation occurs and how it has been planned for — or not,” Mount said.

“Often, we overlook security measures around the data we collate,” he said. “If you build in data governance and cybersecurity measures, you can protect your intellectual property rights, customer data and maintain advantages.”

About The Author

Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on TwitterFacebook and LinkedIn.

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James L Katzaman

Jim Katzaman is a charter member of the Tealfeed Creators' program, focusing on marketing and its benefits for companies and consumers. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as subscribing here on Tealfeed.


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