Why Should Startups Consider Digital Analytics as a Stepping Stone to Growth?

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In a world where most businesses shut down within their first year of operations, it is almost like startup entrepreneurs are among the most vexed-up lot.Most entrepreneurs are unsure of the market conditions, how their prospects/customers will react to their brand messaging, and whether or not the business decisions they take are correct.

Further, they are often fixated on the thought that they are not generating enough data to seriously consider analytics.

On the contrary, new businesses begin to churn data as soon as they go digital. Data starts to pour in from everywhere and soon new businesses find themselves struggling to make sense of it all. With the help of digital analytics, all the risk and unpredictability that dominates a new business can be eased.

There is no Better Time to Kick off Analytics Than at the Very Beginning of the Journey

A founder of a new business is always anxious about tracking every single prospect and hopes that each one of them would convert. But they find themselves at a loss when their efforts on building a digital presence go in vain.

Digital analytics can be the Holy Grail that can give answers to the most elusive questions such as – Why aren’t my prospects converting into paying customers?

By implementing analytics right from the start, entrepreneurs can make sure that they are able to leverage critical information from the day they open for business. Furthermore, as the business grows, the depth of the analytical insights extends as well, acting as a foundation to some of your key business decisions.

Since the startups are usually cash-crunched; they can take advantage of free tools like Google Analytics. Even a simple website of a few can utilize features like Goal Setting, Advanced Segments, Custom Variables, Event Tracking, Conversion Funnels, and much more. These can bring in the valuable knowledge that can play a crucial role in business growth.

Analytics can Guide You Towards the Right Business Idea

While all entrepreneurs feel that they came up with the next big idea”, many fail in building on them effectively. To avoid this, one needs a better understanding of the market and the customer.

With analytics, it is possible to study customer behavior, engagement patterns, customer feedback, market performance, benchmarks against competitors, among other things. These insights can help tweaking the business idea as well as making sure that it reaches the right audience in the right way.

Track Visitors, Engagement, and Channel Performance

It is extremely important for startups to invest their money on the right activities. Most new businesses do not have big marketing budgets and need to be cautious about where they spend their money. By tracking website visitors, traffic sources, marketing channels, and conversions, they can find out which marketing activity produces maximum results in the least amount of time and money.

Decision makers can also study the channels that generate high-value customers in order to build marketing strategies to target more prospects. In other words, analytics can help in optimizing the overall digital marketing efforts of the business.

Stick to the Goals

Timelines are often overlooked during the startup phase as teams remain focused on enhancing the product or solution. If entrepreneurs take analytics seriously right from the beginning, it is possible to set-up goals and identifies key performance indicators.

Critical information derived herewith allow teams to work towards common goals and track the achievement of initial plans.

Many businesses find it challenging to define and stick to clear goals at an early stage of operations. Analytics help entire teams to set realistic goals, stick to their goals and achieve them in a timely manner.

Test Before you Tread

It is not uncommon for startups to create what they feel is a “killer” website and then forget all about it with the hope that it will produce incremental conversions on its own. Once the traffic builds up, the worst mistake startups make is to keep the website stagnant. By choosing to proactively optimize a website, it is possible to generate more conversions from the same traffic. Optimizing your website also involves gaining access to consistent analytics and testing.

Testing can throw light on customer preferences and how the brand messaging needs to change to meet the needs of the customers resulting in an increase in sales. The smallest tweaks in your messaging could have a significant impact on the results. Testing is a great way to understand the customers better and find out how they react to different circumstances – this can aid in perfecting the product as well as its positioning.

Take Data-Driven Decisions

Data analytics plays a huge role in helping businesses take critical decisions. Businesses are challenged with hundreds of daily decisions for which it is not always possible to rely on past experience or the gut feeling.

Data analytics empower team members with relevant insights while taking these decisions. Furthermore, relying on analytics from the start helps create a culture of leveraging the right resources from day one.it

In Conclusion…

Digital analytics can help any business perform better, and especially so in the case of startups. It helps in building an analytics culture in the organization, aiding decisions all through the business lifecycle. The business finds basic knowledge about traffic sources, behavior patterns, channel performance, etc., so that they can leverage this knowledge to improve the service, optimize marketing campaigns, and align the website with the customer needs.

It also enables startups to get the most out of their investments and reduce the inefficiencies caused due to decisions made without the backing of relevant information.The entire team can take smart, data-powered decisions and be in a better position to predict outcomes of their decisions. For startups, digital analytics can play a crucial role and can truly be a stepping stone towards success.