Be selective with the data you collect, and move quickly when it tells you a story

It’s said that all of the knowledge ever can be found online. Big deal. All that knowledge is like all the customer data you’ve collected. It’s useless unless you can use it to gain insight, and then turn the insight into action.

You’ve got to know whom you should market to, and you need to make nimble business decisions. Sorting through the mass of information can seem like voodoo to the uninitiated … but no spirits are speaking. It’s customer data. The answer is in the data, but you have to get it to tell you a story.

Walk before you run

Do you have the basics squared away? In the quest for sophistication, it’s easy to forget to ensure that basic data is flowing in and being measured. What can you learn about the number of lead forms submitted your site? Not much. But do you actually know the number in the first place?

Ensure that you have a solid foundation for data collection. It’s not just about accuracy – you must also demonstrate consistency with your collection. Know what you can collect. A specific data stream may not tell you much on its own, but perspective when parsed with other data can tell you an actionable story.

It doesn’t come with an instruction manual

Are you doing it right? Who’s grading the test? The beauty of data – especially customer data – is that you only collect what applies to you. The information you gather and your analysis will depend on your business requirements.

There are best practices for data interpretation, but there’s no definitive way to gain insight. There’s only one thing that matters: assurance that the data communicates a trait about your customers.

It’s data, but it’s about people

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the numbers represent human beings. You collect the data and it provides insight. You then take an action as a result. If it causes the desired result, you have the people to thank, not the information.

Numbers behave predictably. People seldom do.

Decide what you want to produce before you start

The data will tell you a story, and it may be something you weren’t expecting to hear. But you won’t get this insight, and there’ll be nothing to act on, if you decide to collect data just to see what you can do with it.

Actionable insight from data isn’t a fishing expedition. Start with objectives that help you understand what you’re already seeing or that you know exists. Would you like to be able to predict what a customer will buy next? Are you concerned about customer churn?

Economic opportunities often make these decisions for you and then the data can be put to work. The information often validates a general assumption. It’s common, for example, to see the 80/20 rule come into play: 80% of the revenue is coming from 20% of your customers. But when you dig deeper, you might discover that this smaller percentage of active customers purchases only your least expensive products.

What would happen if you could induce just a few of these repeat buyers to purchase more on the next visit? The data may also tell you that a small number of non-frequent visitors make large purchases. Would your efforts be better spent finding ways to engage more of these high-spenders? Look to the data for insight, and then …

Don’t deliberate, act!

Only a subset of the data you collect will tell you a story that produces something you can act on. Move when it does! Resist the urge to collect more data to see if it validates the actionable insight you’ve already decided upon. The better choice is to move on it and have your customers prove or disprove it. If you were right, you’ve already started making more money.

One insight at a time

It turns out that data voodoo isn’t magic. Most of it is common sense and an understanding of basic human behavior. Customer data helps you determine which behavior you can amplify or modify. These research-driven insights in turn build a history of success, and it’s a process that happens over time. Each action based on insight sends a ripple through your organization. More of your organization will adopt the approach as they see the cause and effect.

Be specific with your collection and analysis goals from the outset. Avoid the “Here’s data, now do something with it?” approach – because that’s one voodoo spell that just won’t work.

For more insights on how to leverage your online data, including how to create an effective user experience, contact the online strategy and design experts at Creative Technology Partners.

Prevent data overload by letting your goals select what you measure

If you’re a marketer, you know we live in a data-driven world. The Internet and has unlocked a level of statistical analysis that can tell us a considerable amount about the people who come to visit on the web or on our hosted apps. It’s so much data that we can be easily overwhelmed. How much information is too much?

Then there’s the FOMO (fear of missing out) aspect of data collection. You hear that a competitor is gathering and using data that you are not. Will that give them the leg up? Rather than feeling like you’re in control of all this customer engagement data, it’s easy to feel that it has taken control of you. Here’s how to tame the data beast:

Pick your goals

It doesn’t matter what collection software you use. The options on what to gather probably outnumber what you need. The ones you should pick will depend on how you answer this type of question:

What do you want social media to do for your organization?

If you’re not sure, it’s not even time to be collecting data yet. Often, your goals will turn out to be uncomplicated, such as:

• You want to collect email addresses

• You have digital products that you want to give to people who sign up for them

• You want to increase brand awareness

These are key objectives. Measuring them gives you the metrics you need to gauge successful usage of social media and other online efforts. Goals come first. Tracking data comes after.

Understand that having data doesn’t mean having solutions

Before all these ways to measure engagement came along, marketing was considered a success because people told you they thought it was creative. But following creativity is like falling down a rabbit hole. You might end up with success, but you could also just get a whole bunch of useless compliments.

Yes, creativity can sell. You don’t want to measure it. What should be measured through engagement data is likability and trust. Creativity can’t get you to your goals if users believe you have a bad product or service. And mundane marketing messages won’t prevent you from attaining those goals, either.

The data you decide to collect should give you the ability to challenge or validate what customers think of your brand – not your marketing. It’s your audience and their engagement that generates this data. And speaking of challenges, the way to measure this information keeps splitting into subsets. It can be a full time job just keeping up with what’s new.

It may seem like you’re dragging your feet, but consider taking a wait-and-see attitude about new customer engagement data measurement. At least pause to find out whether it develops from a fad into a bona fide trend.

Take a realistic approach

A billion people have Facebook accounts. Individuals from all over the world can visit your company page. It takes just a single click to like your page and become a fan, and that person may never become a customer. Social media is simply a barometer.

At the macro level, a measurement of likes may not provide much insight, but this ties in nicely with your goal setting. Measure what matters, and know why it matters. Otherwise, what difference does it make if you have tens or hundreds of thousands of likes, but there’s no correlation to sales (meaning you’re not making any)?

A realistic approach also means that you’ll set reachable goals that matter. We all want explosive growth. But first, it’s wise to use data to measure the level of increase needed for growth and then extrapolate where you’d like to be.

It’s just data

Collect as much of it as you want. Amassing customer engagement data is not going to produce your own magic oracle. You’ll need more than just information streams.

This might seem like it contradicts the earlier warning of skirting macro measurements. It’s not. Instead, it’s a reminder that data must be augmented with the insights gained by qualitative and contextual research. The information needs a tool for interpretation.

Respectful collection

Finally, your customers know that you’re collecting their data and you might want to share your insights with them. It’s a courteous and subtle way to show that you’re being an appropriate custodian of the information you collect. TMI goes both ways. You don’t want to be overwhelmed, and they don’t want to be left feeling like their online privacy has been abused.

For more information about how to effectively gather and leverage usage data, contact the online strategy and design experts at Creative Technology Partners.

It’s the Internet of 1999 all over again

Statistics make it clear. The Internet of Things (IoT) is gathering more data and using more devices, from more users, than at any time in history. And it’s only just begun.

Where is it all going? How will it be stored? Who’s keeping it safe? Some ask these questions out of curiosity. Others ask them because they’ll only stay in business if they have the right answers. The industry creates its own solutions as it invents itself.

By the numbers

Just how much data are we talking about? Here are some recent counts of the devices creating the data tsunami:

• 9 million smart thermostats, smart smoke and CO2 detectors, Wi-Fi cameras, smart locks, smart home systems, and smart switches, dimmers, and outlets to be sold this year

• 14 million smartwatches to be sold this year

• 17 million fitness trackers to be sold this year

• 38 million wearables to be sold this year

Looking ahead to the end of the decade:

• 6 billion mobile users

• 600 million wearable devices in use

• 16 billion Internet of Things-enabled devices (excluding mobile phones)

A practical (sort of) example

It’s difficult to wrap our heads around those kinds of numbers, but extrapolating the amount of data involved can be even more of a challenge. So, here’s a scenario for just one IoT device we all can understand.

It’s estimated that by next year (2017), 80 percent of all new cars will be connected to the Internet. Each will send 25 gigabytes of data to the cloud for every hour it’s operated. The annual total is 130 terabytes of data per car.

Here’s the final part to that equation. IHS Automotive predicts that U.S. auto sales in 2017 will be 18.2 million. This means more than 14.5 million vehicles will each generate 130 terabytes, or almost 1.9 million petabytes of data.

1 petabyte is 1,000 terabytes. A quick check on Amazon lists the price of a 5TB hard drive at about $133. So you would need about 400 of them costing around $53,000 to store the first year’s worth of information.

That’s just the cost of the data storage devices. We’ve barely scratched the surface. You’ll still have to add data transmission, electricity costs, backup, and much more to even begin to estimate a realistic idea of the cost to facilitate data for just one type of the 16 billion IoT devices we’ll have around us by 2020.

Who’s guarding our IoT data?

Before you consider the answer, ask yourself who’s in charge of security on the Internet. Billions of dollars are spent on technology security, and it can’t completely prevent hackers from breaching even the most secure data centers. Data security for IoT devices is primitive compared to what you experience when you use your computer to pay your bills.

Human nature and the necessity to change default passwords are at a conflict. Gartner predicts the average family home could have more than 500 smart devices by 2022. If we can’t be bothered to change the default password on the handful we have now, we’re in for big trouble by the end of the decade.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that your new IoT gadget even has a password or offers data encryption. There’s no standard at the moment. Data security tends to be more of a marketing effort than a prerequisite. And maybe that’s because we haven’t quite fully understood what all this unguarded information could do if used inappropriately, or if it fell into the wrong hands.

Here’s an interesting scenario. You go to apply for life insurance. You’re turned down. The reason? The life insurance company accessed the data from your wearable fitness device, which shows that you are, shall we say, living an unhealthy life.

The push for privacy

Too much data coming from all those IoT devices might make it impossible for companies to make a scenario like the one about the life insurance company above come true. In an altruistic IoT world, all this data makes it a better place to live.

An example of this is Amazon. If you’re a frequent user, you already know that the online retailer tracks not only the products you buy, but also those you look at. As time goes by, Amazon gets better at recommending items based on your searches.

Our IoT devices have the ability, if used appropriately, to take the Amazon approach to the next level. There are big hopes for what can be done with all that data from IoT devices. The possibilities of those intentions remain to be seen.

For more insights on the impact of changing technology and the Internet of Things, contact the experts at Creative Technology Partners. We stay abreast of all developments in the realm of online technology, and we provide software engineering, strategic user experience, and design services.