Analytics is not something that comes naturally to many companies. Some are struggling to get their management to approve, others to get the rest of their company on board. Perhaps this blog post can help you with both.
The Rabbi
Growing up in a Jewish Family, I remember a number of Jewish anecdotes from my childhood:
A Jew goes to a Rabbi and says, “Rabbi, help me, my chickens are dying!”
The Rabbi thinks for a while, consulted the Talmud, and says, “Try washing them in sea water.”
The Jew comes back after a week, and says, “Rabbi, my chickens are still dying!”
The Rabbi thinks some more, consults the Talmud, and replies, “Try giving them fresh radishes.”
Another week later, the Jew returns looking very sad and says to the Rabbi, “Rabbi, all my chickens are dead!”
Rabbi scratchs his head, and says, “Oh, what a pity! I had so many more good ideas.”
Today, I still find this anecdote amusing, especially when I think about marketing. I’m pretty sure that everyone knows a person or even a company that does marketing in a very similar fashion. Direct mail – doesn’t work – forget it, the answer is SEO. If SEO doesn’t work, we just have to send more email. If email does not work, let’s try PPC. The number of options is endless, but budgets are limited, competition is vicious and market attention is miniscule. At some point, if we do not change the approach, the chickens will die.
Big Data
Every day, I see some kind of message about the importance, value and the ROI of big data and even small data – any kind of data really. So what is this big data, and how can it help us save the chickens? Imagine going to the doctor, and telling them: “I am sick.” In response Doctor says: “That’s too bad. Here are the sick pills to make you feel better.” This would be a very scary proposition.
In reality, the doctor will take your temperature, measure your blood pressure, and send you to take additional tests. The doctor is collecting the data to make an accurate decision. In fact, the doctor is doing a very basic version of Big Data – collecting information from different sources to understand the cause of discomfort. We need data to diagnose. The value of data is in diagnostics, and in its ability to prevent us from guessing.
Value of Analytics
Right now, InfoTrust is working with a product conglomerate to help them leverage their web data to make company wide changes. Not everyone inside the company is on board, as this represents numerous strategic changes. Some employees are pretty vocal in expressing their opposition. To ensure that all concerns are met, we began meeting with all the stakeholders, and we have discovered something very interesting: People had incorrect expectations for what analytics will help them accomplish. They heard too much marketing fluff about data and analytics driving ad revenue, increasing online subscriptions etc. Data and analytics can’t accomplish those. Rather, data and analytics can diagnose the issues with their site, with their emails, and with their content that prevent people from reading, liking, clicking and buying. And then, once the problem is diagnosed, we save the chickens.
The Expectations
When a company is considering purchasing a new analytics tool (or another solution), there are always two questions that have to be answered:
- How do I get my management to approve?
- How do I get everyone in the company to buy-in?
The key is in managing expectations. A doctor does not send you to take the test in order to get cured, but to identify what is preventing you from being healthy and feeling well.
We know where we are, and often we have an idea for where we want to be. The shortest distance from here to there is data. This way, the chickens might live another day.
