Whats and Whys of Digital Analytics for Your Venture

Digital Analytics whether Web or Mobile is an extremely powerful tool that brands have which allows them to decipher what their audience is telling them. In fact one of the key differentiators of Digital as channel versus other conventional channels like Print/Display/TV etc is the availability of data, that too generated real-time. Hence Digital Analytics assumes an all important role in providing the edge that marketers are looking for.However marketers tend to overlook the following basic tenets:-

I. True definition of Analytics

II. How silo-ed data view can be dangerous

III. What matters and Why you need to ignore meaningless metrics

Conventionally Digital Analytics can be defined as:-

"the collection, measurement, analysis and reporting of data for optimizing channel usage..."

What gets missed out in this definition however is the coverage of generated digital data, the possibilities that data can lead to and how it needs to be viewed. Hence a more comprehensive definition looks like this:-

Digital Analytics is the collection, measurement, analysis and reporting of data for optimizing channel usage, that:-

(a) Presents the entire spectrum of data across silos

(b) Helps answer questions of Who? What? How? AND WHY? people visit your portal

(c) Provides insight for business action

For starters marketers need to acknowledge the fact that analytics is ONLY a means to an end and not the end in itself. The obsession with data and the need to churn out good looking reports needs to be stopped immediately! Right now the data footprint increased and your life decreased!!

Actually Analytics is like a thermometer that gives you a reading 102.3 Degree Fahrenheit. Now based on this what you need to do is purely left to you...I'd presume that you consult a Doctor or do self medication like swallowing a paracetamol etc. As a responsible adult, I'd believe that any emotion you display ranging from panic to sagely calm or any action you take from consulting a physician to downing a few pills is triggered based on the thermometer reading. Beyond the point of displaying your body temperature, the thermometer stops being a device of any value to your life!

Analytics should also be viewed similarly.

While the power of Analytics and its utility to marketing can hardly be over-emphasized; its true use lies in its ability to provide hard and objective points for inference and action.

This is the first in a series of articles on Digital analytics by Xerago.

About the Author

Srinivas Chari is the Co-Founder and CMO of Xerago. A finance professional by experience, Srinivas has over 15 years of experience handling Product, Services lifecycles. With his strong finance, operations, technology and process skills, Srinivas has played an instrumental role in business planning and building the operations and technology capabilities at Xerago. Currently he drives consulting, client engagement, and marketing at Xerago. Srinivas began his career at ANZ Grindlays Bank and subsequently moved to HDFC Bank before he found his true calling to build the World’s biggest Accountable Marketing entity. Xerago works with big brands globally and operates through a proprietary service model called ‘Customer value maximization’ and helps maximize returns that marketing programs deliver.