Opinion: How to put data into your playbook

Data is everywhere, yet it can seem uninteresting and so easy to pass over.

I find businesses are surprised to learn how much data is currently on their own shelves. However, businesspeople may not have the knowledge, resources or time to utilize all the data available to them. Do you find yourself guessing what your customers may be thinking? Do you make assumptions about pricing and hope for the best? Are you wondering how data gathering is changing and what that means to your business?

Data is actually interesting if you think in terms of using the data to get greater outcomes. That’s why I get excited about data and insights. When used strategically, data should drive your decisions to get you closer to the “truth” that galvanizes the purpose for your initiatives.

As we review some of the data on Springfield Business Journal’s shelves, here are a few samples of what I love and why:

1. Voice of the customer data is one of the easiest, most timely, cost-effective and well-rounded data you can get. Surveys are done mostly online and are simple to create, analyze and reference. Programs like SurveyMonkey are fast, intuitive and easy platforms to use. You may have seen ours. SBJ sends surveys a couple of times a year and we have utilized the voice of our reader to relaunch our print edition, improve our website experience and shape our events. Our customers’ feedback has been an invaluable resource. You will continue to see SBJ respond to your feedback with action toward improvement.

Just last month, SBJ conducted an online survey with 31 questions ranging from gathering simple demographics to rating platform preferences and asking open-ended questions about what we need to improve. We want to thank the readers who invested time to give us feedback. We’ve had 635 local responses. We designed the questions as a team and it took a week to get a valuable data set. Your customers want to share feedback and they feel important when they see changes made as a result.

2. Transactional sales data can be overwhelming. However, taking an economic approach to how and what customers buy from you can be an extraordinary resource.  Depending on how you gather and store this information, it is inexpensive, reliable and easily tracked.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner describe it in their breakout book, “Freakonomics.” They call it “the study of incentives.” While many of the examples used in the book are based on sociology and criminology, the basic definition can be applied to so many aspects of life and business. Read it and it could change your perspective on incentives and impacting buying behavior.

Customers increase or decrease buying behavior because of their satisfaction levels. Understanding the behavior around these thresholds can give you a clear and empirical way to understand purchasing patterns and satisfaction in a different way so that you can strategically impact future behavior. Creating pricing incentives, value added incentives or any other incentives, in proximity to those thresholds can dramatically increase the chances of impacting buying behavior.

Here’s how we use transactional data at SBJ. Historical transaction data shows us advertisers that buy one ad don’t usually buy from us again. We find that increasing frequency levels over longer periods of time improves advertising results and those customers continue to buy. So, we naturally build incentives along those thresholds. I suggest taking a simple spreadsheet and bucketing transactional ranges with a key behavior set in mind. In this example, it is how many customers retained or churned based on frequency levels. Where you see a break in transactional behavior, you’ve identified a threshold.

3. Big data that reveals consumer preferences, insights, need states, website usage, behavioral targeting, predictive analytics and more is an explosive area for data mining. Privacy is a giant issue and will become more important as data scientists use technology to track consumer behavior. I suggest learning all you can about what types of data are becoming available and understanding their application for becoming more informed about your audience or customer base.

SBJ has recently partnered with Bob Noble and his team at CultureWaves to utilize real-time, anonymous device data that yield behavioral insights of device users based on websites those devices visit. Since the data is anonymous and only gathers website history, CultureWaves has categorized these websites into needs-based states to identify accurate personas of Springfieldians based upon needs and device usage. It’s fascinating. We are focusing how SBJ can continually shape content and platform preference for news as well as smart marketing strategies for advertisers. It’s one way we are understanding the data revolution and applying it to our business.

Data actually is kind of boring. Outcomes are exciting. But logical, data-driven strategies produce much better outcomes. So, as you plan 2019, dust off the data from your shelves and put it into play.

Springfield Business Journal Associate Publisher Marty Goodnight can be reached at mgoodnight@sbj.net.