19th November, 2018
Using contemporary software in your business has a variety of benefits. But one stands out above the rest: they offer business owners the chance to generate data-driven insights.
As the year winds up, you’re probably starting to plan for the coming 12 months in your business.
If you’re like most forward-thinking business owner, you’ll be thinking about how to generate growth and achieve other, related work goals.
While there are lots of opportunities for growth to grasp onto, one that’s certainly helpful in this tech-driven world is analytics.
Of course, you can’t analyse your business data if you’re not capturing it. But assuming you’re already running a comprehensive online accounting software and have access to Google Analytics, then you should have everything you need to take on a data-led growth strategy.
Read on for some key ways data can be used to achieve growth in 2019.
One of the big benefits of analytics is that by examining data about both your target market and your current clients, you will understand these people better.
Through understanding them, you’ll then be able to generate interest in, and orders for, your services much more easily.
Repeat business will grow too, because you’ll know what kinds of services consumers really want.
Get clear on this, and focus on providing more of these offerings, and you’ll become even more appealing – it’s a positive cycle that leads to continual growth.
Use analytics to learn about things such as where people research service options, what times of year they most want to hire someone, and what price point they will go up to.
You especially need to know what kinds of pain points your preferred clientele have, or the types of benefits they hope to receive.
Similarly, looking at analytics will help you to make better marketing decisions.
Investigate the platforms people use to find service providers, so you know where to concentrate on marketing yourself.
READ: Data analytics for professional services – Move beyond the technical to get out in front
Analyse data to learn what types of marketing content work best, such as blog posts, magazine articles, videos, online or offline advertisements, joint ventures, social media posts, and so on.
Use analytics programs to help you decipher the types of language and tone to use to most appeal to your target demographic, too.
Also, data will give you an understanding of the right kind of information to share.
Another way to use analytics to grow your business is by improving customer service.
After all, to get people to not only engage your services repeatedly, but also to refer you on to their work contacts, you must make them happy and ensure they enjoy interacting with you.
Use data to improve the experience you give clients at every touchpoint along the way.
This covers from when they first get in touch with you to make a query, through to after you’ve finished their work and follow up to see if they’re satisfied and need any other assistance.
By analysing information, determine which contact points most people use to get in touch with you. Then, monitor these avenues closely, and respond within an hour wherever possible.
You can also determine which questions get asked the most. This indicates the kind of information you need to make more available to people, such as on your website in a FAQ section, or in an advertisement.
Use data to also work out the types of loyalty rewards or perks/gifts you can offer customers to make them feel appreciated and special.
All of the above steps will help you to cut costs, too.
For example, by understanding your key target market, you’ll ensure you spend your valuable time targeting the right customer types; the ones who will be the most profitable for you.
You’ll also be able to spend time on in–demand services, and have more time to complete top-paying tasks.
When it comes to marketing (one of the biggest expenses for many professional services workers in time and money), analytics can also help you cut costs.
By focusing your efforts on the most effective marketing strategies, you’ll reduce your spending and have more time free to use for other business efforts.
Similarly, by providing excellent customer support, you’ll reduce expenses. When you make all the information potential clients want to know easily available to them, you won’t have to spend so much time fielding queries.
Plus, by making customers happy, they’ll recommend you to others, which leads to more bookings without you having to spend extra on paid marketing.