Data-driven decisions: 3 pillars for gathering, analyzing, and acting on business data

Welcome back to another exciting episode of "Process to Profitability." Today, I’m diving into the world of data-driven decisions and how they can transform your business. In this episode, I'll explore how to leverage your existing website traffic, analyze return on investments, and make informed decisions by utilizing valuable data. Get ready to discover how data can supercharge your business growth and take you from good to great. So, grab your notepads and get ready to uncover the secrets of making data-driven decisions on this episode of "Process to Profitability"!

Timestamps:

[00:01:15] Why data is important in making decisions and how you can start using it

[00:01:40] Your values are going to drive the data you consider important

[00:02:13] The data I'm looking at and how it has impacted my business

[00:05:10] How to start gathering and using data to make decisions in your business

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of making data-driven decisions in business

• The impact of using data to attract more clients and improve client service

• Identifying and utilizing the most important data for one's business

• Focusing marketing efforts on platforms where ideal clients are present

• Utilizing website analytics to enhance the client journey and increase website traffic

• The role of data in analyzing return on investment for different business investments

[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: As you begin to make decisions in your business , as you grow and shift and evolve, you need to go back to the most important information that you have in order to make those decisions. And that's all about taking a look at your data and using that to move your business forward.

[00:00:25] In this next mini series of Process to Profitability, we're gonna be talking about making data-driven decisions, both for your business overall and for your website specifically. I'm gonna be talking about a couple of ways that I have started to really dive into the data in my business and use that to see what I can do to bring in more clients and to serve those clients better.

[00:00:51] I want to encourage you to do the same. So as we dive into this series, what I want you to think about is what data is going to be most important in your business, and then how you can get, gather that information and how you can use it to make decisions to move your business in the direction that you want.

Why data is important in making decisions and how you can start using it

[00:01:15] Samantha Mabe: So there's three pieces to all of this, is what kind of information do you need? How do you gather it? And what do you do with it? And there is lots of conversation around this online. There is lots of information that you can gather, but as you listen and as you think about this for your business, I want you to think about what's actually most important for you.

Your values are going to drive the data you consider important

[00:01:40] Samantha Mabe: And that goes back to the values that I talked about with Ashlee Sang in her episode at the beginning of this season. If you are not concerned with hitting a six or seven figure year in your business, if you are not concerned about getting thousands of students into your program, then the information that leads you towards hitting those goals is not going to be important. You have to look at what's actually important to you?

The data I'm looking at and how it has impacted my business

Where I should put my marketing efforts

[00:02:13] Samantha Mabe: In my business, a couple of things that I look at are where I need to spend my time marketing. So is my time best spent on social media? And if so, which platform? I've recently shifted from focusing on Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest to looking more at LinkedIn because I can see that that is where people who are my ideal clients are hanging out.

Where my website traffic is coming from

[00:02:46] Samantha Mabe: I have also been thinking about how I can use website analytics in a smarter way. So instead of just looking at how many people are coming to my site every month and maybe looking at which are the most popular pages, I'm actually diving into learning how those people are getting to my site and what they're doing once they're on that site in order to improve the client journey once they've landed on my site, and to get more people onto my site in ways that help them move forward and make decisions that's backed up by data.

[00:03:26] So I can see that lots of people are landing on my website through specific blog posts. And what I did then was I went into those blog posts, I optimized them for keywords, I optimized them to highlight my VIP Day service to move people towards working with me once they've already landed on my site.

[00:03:50] I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get traffic to go to different blog posts that might be more relevant to my VIP Day or that I think they should be going to, because that's not what the data was telling me. They were coming to a specific page on my website and I was going to take advantage of that traffic that was already coming in.

Where I can make the best investments

[00:04:13] Samantha Mabe: Another way that I have been using data to make decisions in my business is I have been looking at my investments and what kind of return I am getting on those. So in the past, I have hired a podcast editor. I've hired a social media manager, I've worked with coaches, I've joined programs. I have software that I use. All of those are investments in my business that cost money.

[00:04:38] I am taking a look at what is actually moving my business forward? Are there any programs and softwares that I can get rid of or replace? Are there specific coaching programs that would be a good fit for what I'm looking for or that might not be a good fit and wouldn't be worth the investment? What is actually going to move me towards my bigger business goals? When it comes to the money that I spend in my business.

How to start gathering and using data to make decisions in your business

[00:05:10] Samantha Mabe: And so as we go through this series, you're gonna get lots of information about all those types of decisions, and I'm gonna be talking about how I am looking at data specifically on my website, but I want you to be thinking about how you can start with your values, determine the types of information that you would like to see, figure out how you can gather that information, and then how you can make decisions with that information that do move you towards one of those goals that helps you to grow your business in a way that feels good and really hits the bigger picture for you.