Even small businesses can use big data techniques to improve marketing efforts, reports Inc.com. According to Jesse Pujji, co-founder and president of Ampush Media, a company that helps brands optimize online advertising, small businesses should measure everything, consider the outcome, focus on good customers, be early adopters and start small. “Small businesses should take their analysis as far as possible,” Pujji suggests, “and measure everything.” For example, they should not just measure how many visitors clicked on a link; they should also look at what visitors were doing before they clicked. Another suggestion is to find out how long visitors stayed on each page, not just how long they stayed on the website. This type of analysis can help small business owners improve conversion rates.
In online advertising, much of the attention goes to when and whether a user clicks on an ad, Inc.com reports. “It’s important for business owners to measure the outcome, as in when a transaction takes place, not only the click through rate and actions,” Pujji says. Beyond outcome, businesses should determine whether the customers they acquired with an ad went on to become repeat customers. In addition, a small business owner should identify whether there is a particular keyword that drove high-value customers to the site.
One advantage for a small company is that it can try out new markets and new social media more quickly than a big corporation, Pujji points out. “Try to be on the cutting edge, but don’t expect to begin implementing changes and measuring everything immediately. It’s better to ease into analyzing your data and to get it right.”