Using dashboards to visualize information and make data-driven decisions
Welcome back to "Process to Profitability." I am beyond excited to dive into today's episode with our incredible guest, Carolyn O'Brien. In this episode, Carolyn shares her expertise on the importance of using visual dashboards to track data in your business. We all know that the ultimate goal is to turn visitors into loyal customers, but how do we make that happen? Carolyn walks us through the process of distilling the overwhelming world of numbers and data into something meaningful and actionable. She shares how she uses dashboards to track metrics, and how they can be a game-changer for making informed decisions in your business. So grab your pen and paper, because this episode is packed with practical tips and strategies to help you optimize your funnel and turn your process into profitability. Let's get started!
Timestamps:
[00:01:09] Meet Carolyn O'Brien
[00:04:39] Getting started with gathering metrics and data
[00:05:59] The important marketing metrics you need to know
[00:07:45] Visualizing data through dashboards can help you see important metrics and trends
[00:11:15] Getting your dashboard set up
[00:13:07] Why you should track your data weekly
[00:14:49] How you can use the data you've gathered to make decisions for your business
[00:18:04] Know your baseline data before determining your goals
[00:21:11] Why GA-4 dashboards aren't helpful for most businesses
[00:22:56] Getting started with Looker Studio
[00:23:45] Connect with Carolyn
Key Topics:
The importance of tracking metrics in a funnel context-
Using dashboards to track metrics and make decisions
Tracking the customer journey from encountering the business to becoming a customer
Making metrics fun and less overwhelming through dashboards and visualizations
Focusing on relevant numbers and not getting overwhelmed by data
Checking dashboard performance regularly and making changes based on results
Using dashboards to identify trends and compare performance over time
Looker Studio's ability to connect to Google Analytics and pull data from a Google Sheet
Resources:
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: If you feel like you are overwhelmed by metrics and data and you have no idea where to start, today's episode is going to be a great one. I'm talking with Carolyn about how she uses dashboards to track metrics and make decisions in her business and give her clients the power to make decisions on their own.
[00:00:24] We are talking specifically about how she uses Looker Studio, which is a Google product, but more generally, what are we even supposed to be looking at? How are we supposed to use this information to make decisions and how can we get started taking everything that's out there and pulling it in?
[00:00:43] We talk about the importance of really looking at your marketing funnel from where people first encounter you, all the way down to how you make the sale and why there are some metrics in there that people might say are important, but we can really leave on the table because we are more focused on that journey from encountering us to becoming a customer and how people are moving through that.
Meet Carolyn O'Brien
[00:01:09] Samantha Mabe: Carolyn O'Brien is an operations and metrics strategist whose goal is to make metrics fun and less overwhelming through dashboards and visualizations. She's a certified OBM has worked with hundreds of digital course creators and coaches, and has mentored groups of fellow service providers along the way. Although she doesn't consider herself a numbers person by trade, she's seen what a game changer they are. Carolyn lives in Connecticut with her husband, nine month old son, and a giant golden doodle.
[00:01:38] Hi Carolyn. Thanks for joining me.
[00:01:40] Carolyn O'Brien: Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
[00:01:42] Samantha Mabe: So I did your official bio at the beginning of the show, but can you tell people more about how you got started in your business and kind of your background and the journey that you've been on?
[00:01:53] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so I started my business about four years ago now, which is hard to believe and I started out as an OBM, so a certified online business manager. I went through the certification program and it was my first introduction into the world of online courses and programs and coaches.
[00:02:12] And before that, I really had no knowledge or concept of this whole online business world and everything that existed in it. Before I took that certification, I was working for a SaaS company based in New York City. I lived in New York City, worked for a bunch of different companies there. I ended up moving out to Denver and was working east Coast hours, but living in Denver and so I had some extra time on my hands and my goal had always been to figure out how to work for myself.
[00:02:41] I was traveling a lot for work, working in corporate, and I just knew long term it was not something that I wanted to do. And so I was really trying to figure out like, what can I do next? And you're Googling like, what to do working from home, or how do I start a business? And I came across this online business manager role. I realized that a lot of my skills and experience in the corporate world would apply pretty well. And so I just said, you know what just try it out.
[00:03:09] And so I started working with clients on the side of my corporate job. Did that for a little bit and then had realized that I was making enough money to at least support myself. And quit my job and have been working in my business full-time ever since.
[00:03:24] And so I have, transitioned a little bit from working as like the more traditional OBM, online business manager, to having a more of a strategic operational role with some of the clients I work with. And then focusing also on metrics and dashboards for course creators, coaches, but then also for service providers who are working with those people who maybe don't feel as comfortable with numbers and metrics and helping their clients with those things.
[00:03:55] Samantha Mabe: So do you primarily do just like the dashboard setup or are you an ongoing?
[00:04:00] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, I have both types of clients. So I have been extremely lucky in the clients that I actually started working with. I've worked with my clients for three plus years now, all of them. And so I work with them in an ongoing basis.
[00:04:16] But then I also work on a project basis with clients to build custom dashboards. And then I also sell courses and programs and templates for dashboards specifically.
[00:04:25] So a couple different ways that I work with clients and different people in the space.
[00:04:30] Samantha Mabe: So all about metrics and data and figuring out how to use that.
[00:04:36] Carolyn O'Brien: Yes, exactly.
Getting started with gathering metrics and data
[00:04:39] Samantha Mabe: Let's get started. If somebody, they know that they need to track their metrics, they know that they need data in order to make decisions, how can we get started just gathering that information?
[00:04:53] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah. So I think the problem with numbers and metrics is for a lot of people it's not fun, right? They don't wake up and they're like, yes, I cannot wait to pull my metrics for the week, which I understand. And it's overwhelming for people because there's numbers about every aspect of your business. If you haven't started, then like how do you know where to start and how do you do everything at once?
[00:05:14] So I always tell people, just pick one area to start in and then you can always add on from there. I've been working with clients for years and we still adjust the numbers we look at on a regular basis. We add to it, we take things away, we change the focus.
[00:05:28] So you're never gonna be able to start out and have everything tracked right away exactly as you want it. So if you're starting out really in the beginning, you have to look at your money metrics first because it's a business. So you need to know money coming in, money coming out.
[00:05:43] But then you can move on to the marketing metrics, which, I think to be the most fun. Cuz that really is what helps move the needle to drive those money metrics. The first place to start is money metrics. From there, pick one area and then you can grow on and add on from there.
The important marketing metrics you need to know
[00:05:59] Samantha Mabe: When you are looking at something like marketing metrics, is there something in there that is helpful for most people? Because I think we tend to look at follower numbers and maybe likes, because it's obvious that's what people talk about, but is there something that can get more to the heart of what we need to know?
[00:06:19] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so when I say marketing metrics, that's actually a really good clarification point, people call 'em vanity metrics on social media and sometimes they can be vanity metrics. Sometimes they may be important to you and your business. So if it is, then you can track 'em. Like different metrics are important to people for different reasons.
[00:06:35] But the marketing metrics that really you wanna focus on is a funnel or a customer journey, so whatever path people are taking to first land in your ecosystem, they get introduced to you some way. And then what journey are they going on to then hopefully become a customer or buy from you? And so really think about the steps that people are taking from when they first were introduced to you to when they buy. And those are the metrics you wanna start tracking.
[00:07:04] If you have a more sophisticated business and you have a lot of different ways, once again, just pick the most important one or the biggest revenue driver, start there and then you can add on.
[00:07:15] But when thinking about the customer journey or a funnel is there a landing page? How many people are landing on the page? Then is there an opt-in? How many people are opting in? Is there a sales page? How many people are going to the sales page? Is there a checkout page? How many people are purchasing?
[00:07:30] So really it's conversion rates of different pages and then sales conversion rates as well. That's really what's gonna help you drive up the needle and determine, what needs to be updated or tweaked or optimized in order to make more sales.
[00:07:45]
Visualizing data through dashboards can help you see important metrics and trends
[00:07:45] Samantha Mabe: Part of what I like about what you do is you create these dashboards to help visualize data. And I think most of us, if we're tracking anything like mine is in a spreadsheet where I'm just like entering the numbers. Okay, this month I had this many followers. This month I had that many followers. So why dashboards and why do you like helping people visualize it in their business?
[00:08:09] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah. First I will say the fact that you're even tracking it in a spreadsheet is like an amazing first step. So that's always where you wanna start. And then from the spreadsheet, the dashboard can be built.
[00:08:21] And the reason I love dashboards so much is it really makes numbers feel less overwhelming for a lot of people. And it's much easier to understand, like I talk about data, I talk about metrics, and it's even hard for me to look at hundreds of rows of numbers on a spreadsheet and figure out what it means or like where I should focus.
[00:08:44] And so the fact that you're looking at it visually makes a huge difference in terms of seeing what trends are happening week over week or month over month. Comparing performance of different items, like one month, did it go up or down compared to the last month? You can really see different like growth rates of different items.
[00:09:04] And it allows you to highlight the most important metrics because when you're looking at rows of numbers on a spreadsheet, it's really hard to figure out like, What should I be looking at in relation to these other sets of numbers?
[00:09:18] Dashboards also can be fully customized, so you can make them look pretty, you can use your brand colors, which kind of sounds like a silly thing, but it goes a really long way in, in making you wanna look at it because it's personalized and customized to your business. And it just is more, it visually it's easier to understand what's happening.
A visual dashboard brings in data from every part of your business so you can see the full picture
[00:09:39] Samantha Mabe: I'm sure people have been in maybe the back end of Google Analytics or their website analytics or their email providers, so they've seen kind of these charts. Is there a reason that we should create something other than just like looking in those places?
[00:09:55] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so for me, Google Analytics is a great data source to get information from. It's like way overwhelming for me, and I'm sure a lot of people feel that way. There is so much data and there are so many numbers, I don't even know what to do with it. So let me just like close that browser tab down because I don't wanna look at it anymore.
[00:10:17] The beauty of a dashboard that's being built is you are picking and choosing what's being shown on that screen and you wanna maybe see the page views of every single page on your website maybe? Or do you really wanna see how the page views of a specific page fit into the funnel conversion of the customer journey that's driving sales, right? So like you are prioritizing what numbers you're looking at.
[00:10:41] And the other thing with the dashboard is you can have different data sources being pulled into a single dashboard.
[00:10:46] So maybe you're getting some numbers from Thrivecart, maybe you're getting something from Google Analytics. Maybe you're getting some from your Instagram, cause you wanna see how followers are increasing on your Instagram over time. So with the dashboard, not only can you pull from Google Analytics and from some other softwares, but you can pull from a Google sheet. So any numbers you're tracking a Google Sheet can be brought into a dashboard and like mixed and merged with other data sources to get a full picture of how your business is performing.
Getting your dashboard set up
[00:11:15] Samantha Mabe: So I'd love to know what tool you use to set these up. And then you mentioned you can pull in information from everywhere, so like how does somebody go about setting up the basics of a dashboard to get that information in there to begin with?
[00:11:30] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so I use Looker Studio, so it used to be called Google Data Studio. Google recently bought Looker, and so they've changed the name to Looker Studio. But the great thing is it is that it's a Google product, so it's free. You just, sign up with your Google workspace email and it can connect to Google Analytics directly.
[00:11:47] And it does have some built-in integrations. So there are some softwares you may use where you can connect directly. There's some third party connectors you may or may not have to pay for.
[00:11:58] What I do primarily is pull from Google Analytics and also pull from a Google sheet. So you're still tracking your data in that Google sheet because one, it allows you to customize the dashboard to pull in any numbers you want. But two, you have historical record in Google sheets of all of this data.
[00:12:18] So the dashboard is amazing for visualizing the data and that's what you're gonna be looking at on the more regular basis. But maybe you wanna go back and when you have a lot of data compare a certain week, one year to a certain week and another year. Having that historical record of data in the Google sheet will come in handy in those types of situations.
[00:12:41] And so what I always tell people is the Google sheet is created for you or maybe a VA on your team to drop numbers in on a weekly basis. The Google sheet's not gonna be pretty right, it's just gonna be to house the numbers. The dashboard is what, you as the business owner, the CEO, you're gonna be looking at on a weekly basis to make the analysis and make the decisions that are backed by the data that's showing there.
Why you should track your data weekly
[00:13:07] Samantha Mabe: And you mentioned, you are doing this on a weekly basis. So is that what you recommend for everybody? Why weekly?
[00:13:15] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah. So I always say track weekly. Every Monday, it's like the data and you're just going in and you're pulling numbers from the previous Monday through Sunday. So that's my preference. Start out Monday, the start of the business week rather than starting out on Sunday. Because also if you are making changes, you can make them on a Monday and have a full week's worth of data to then track the results of the changes.
[00:13:39] The only times I will say to track more than weekly are during a launch or a promotion. There's a lot of time, money, and effort that goes into big launches and promotion. So you really do wanna track on a daily basis because, what if something's broken, right? And also it will allow you to make last minute pivots if you need.
[00:13:58] If a page is not converting as well as you think it should, you can go in there one day, make a change, and then you have all of the numbers back up that change.
[00:14:06] And then the other times is if you make like a backend tech or software change, just try to look at it on a daily basis just to make sure everything's working correctly and, nothing's broken on the backend.
[00:14:18] But otherwise, I don't think numbers should be tracked or even looked at on a daily basis for regular business performance because, things change so much, right? If you are making decisions based on daily data fluctuations, like you're gonna be making a change every day. There's no way that you can determine if something is or isn't working on a day's worth of data. And so at a minimum, have something live for a week. But that's why I say, track numbers on a weekly basis.
How you can use the data you've gathered to make decisions for your business
[00:14:49] Samantha Mabe: So once we have this in there and we're taking a look, can you tell me what you do with that data or what your clients do with it? How do we even begin to use it once it's there?
[00:15:02] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so I think one of the first things is to understand what your goals are for the business. I know a lot of people talk about KPIs and goals and, but it really is important in determining what numbers you're gonna track, but then also what you're gonna do with the numbers that you are tracking.
[00:15:19] If we go back to this customer journey or funnel example, if you say, I want this funnel to convert at this percentage, Or I want the opt-in page to convert at this number. Once you're starting to look at the numbers, you can see what the performance is and then start to make changes to see if it goes up or down.
[00:15:38] And so I think having specific goals and then also goals within a larger goal. So like micro goals of a funnel. You'll know what you wanna look at and what you wanna optimize for. And that's why it's so important to prioritize the numbers you're looking at.
[00:15:56] So you're not looking at every single number available in your Google Analytics account or in any software you're using in your business. You're becoming really focused on what the goals are and how you can affect those goals based on changes you're making.
[00:16:13] In terms of what you actually do, once again, it's like a Monday thing is you're looking at your dashboard on each Monday and seeing how their performance was and determining if you wanna make changes or, if you're comfortable with where things are.
Collect at least a week's worth of data before making changes
[00:16:29] Samantha Mabe: Do you recommend making changes on a weekly basis or are there things you like to sit longer? I know in a launch it's different. We're making tweaks and changes all the time, but if somebody's just got their sales page on their website, how much kind of historical data do we need in order to see the trends that something might have?
[00:16:49] Carolyn O'Brien: So minimum, I would say a week. If you can, I would go a little bit longer. If you're getting like enough traffic to it, which I know enough is like a vague term, but if it's been a week and you've had 10 people go to the page, like I would maybe give it a little bit longer to have like more volume there.
[00:17:06] And I know it's hard because a lot of clients I work with, they see the numbers and they're like, we need to change it right away. But if you give it like another week, things really could change and adjust, especially if you're driving traffic there.
[00:17:18] I would say a week minimum, but if you can go longer, I would to make sure you're running enough of a test, right? A lot of marketing is just testing different things that work, so you wanna give it enough of an opportunity to see if it is working.
[00:17:35] Samantha Mabe: That makes a lot of sense. I tell my clients when we make, they want like SEO changes and I'm like, you gotta give it time. Give it enough time that Google is gonna catch up and that people are gonna catch up because it's not an automatic thing that you're gonna see results right away.
[00:17:53] And a lot of the strategies that we're using are long-term strategies. We're trying to see long term growth. And not just, okay, I want to jump in this next day or two.
Know your baseline data before determining your goals
[00:18:04] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah... And the other thing I'll say if you're just starting out is you need to understand like your baseline before you're even determining really what the goal is or what you wanna get to.
[00:18:15] People always ask like for benchmarks. That's like a big, like, catchphrase that's thrown around and sure there's industry benchmarks, but you really have to look at your own benchmarks and your own baseline before determining what your goal is. My kind of favorite example is if your email list is 300 people or 30,000 people, your email open rate probably gonna be different.
[00:18:37] And so you have to know what your baseline is before knowing what you can get to and what is considered an improvement on that number.
[00:18:45] Samantha Mabe: That makes a lot of sense.
Make sure you're looking at the data that's important for your business
[00:18:46] Samantha Mabe: And I think that's what making sure you're looking at the right data is helpful. If you're looking at how many people unsubscribe from your list, but you're ignoring how many people purchase from your list, you're looking at the wrong numbers. It doesn't matter if somebody stays on the list, if they're not gonna ever buy from you.
[00:19:03] Carolyn O'Brien: Exactly.
[00:19:04] Samantha Mabe: And there are places where that might be useful. If you're having tons of people unsubscribe, maybe something's not working or something weird is going on. But if it's just like here and there kind of things, we have to just say, we're gonna let that go and we're gonna focus on what's actually going to bring in traffic and bring in money and grow our business.
[00:19:25] Carolyn O'Brien: A hundred percent. And same thing with, it's great if you're having people buy, but if then if your refund rate or your churn rate is the matching the amount of people who are buying, then like clearly there's a problem.
[00:19:39] So like you have to look at things in the context of what's happening in your business and what other numbers you're looking at. Just looking at numbers in a silo is really never gonna help out.
[00:19:51] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, and I love that you mentioned here a couple times that you're looking at kind of the funnel, because I get a lot of people who ask me like, which website analytics should I be looking at?
[00:20:01] And it doesn't matter how much traffic is coming to your website, if nobody's actually like getting all the way down your funnel. Or it doesn't matter how good your sales page is if nobody's getting there. So it's all about kinda that big picture.
[00:20:15] Are there specific especially when it comes to like websites, metrics that you do like to track, or ones that are like just, you definitely can throw those out the window?
[00:20:26] Carolyn O'Brien: I always like to track things when it comes to, like you said, a funnel, right? As long as it fits in the context of what the goal is and normally the goal is for people to buy or become a client. And so looking at things like page views or users are great if they exist within a funnel that you are trying to optimize or you're trying to get people to convert.
[00:20:49] Looking at page views of every single page on your website, like I guess overall you're getting some information. But are you really understanding kind of the behavior people are taking in order to become a customer? Probably not if you're looking at just page views of every single page that's on your website. And so I think looking at things in context is really important.
Why GA-4 dashboards aren't helpful for most businesses
[00:21:11] Carolyn O'Brien: Google Analytics, there's now GA-4 that has come out, which has changed the way that people are looking at certain things. And once again, I think they've tried to make it a little bit more focused in terms of what metrics are shown, but there's still like work that you would have to do in your Google Analytics for account, for it to make sense in terms of a funnel.
[00:21:34] And I think that's the ultimate goal is you have to distill down all of those numbers into something that makes sense for your business goal.
[00:21:44] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. And they have, like now that you go in there, you can see a dashboard, but it's not the information that you might need. And it's certainly not pulling in from other places that are also going to be relevant.
[00:21:56] Carolyn O'Brien: Exactly, yeah. An example with Google Analytics is they probably are the most accurate in terms of users landing on a given page. And nothing's gonna be a hundred percent accurate because of just like different security features sites have and all of that.
[00:22:10] But if you wanna understand how many people land on the page, but then how many people are opting in to, let's say a freebie or a lead magnet? For me, I personally would use the software system that's capturing that lead, right? I'm not gonna use a Google Analytics thank you page view as confirmation of someone opting in necessarily, because I want the most accurate numbers in terms of opt-in, so for me, that's coming from the software that's actually capturing that person's email address in a given amount of time.
[00:22:40] And so that's the beauty of having information pulled from different places is you are getting accurate information or as, as accurate as it could be, and you're putting it in a dashboard in a way that makes sense given, the context of the goal.
Getting started with Looker Studio
[00:22:56] Samantha Mabe: So do you have any other tips for Looker Studio? If people want to check that out and get started with it, to bring all of this together?
[00:23:07] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah. So when looking at Looker Studio, I would definitely say the easiest place to start is a Google Sheet, and then connect it to your Looker Studio dashboard. They're both Google products. They play nicely together. And then you have free reign over how you display things, what data you're pulling in. Like I said, you can pull from different places.
[00:23:27] And that's the, it's the simplest, but it's also the most customizable place you can have as a data source.
[00:23:34] So that's still my go-to and I've been doing these dashboards for a number of years. It's still kinda my favorite way to build dashboards. So that's definitely the best place to start.
Connect with Carolyn
[00:23:45] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. Thank you so much. I know people are gonna be checking this out and trying to like, figure out what they need and how they need to do it. So where can they connect with you and learn more from you online?
[00:23:56] Carolyn O'Brien: Yeah, so metricsuccess.com. I have a bunch of different free freebies on there. I also have some dashboard templates that are plug and play. But everything's on there and you can find out more information there.
