The top 5 marketing analytics mistakes (and how to fix them)

Too often, businesses implement their BI tool without a clear business intelligence strategy. As they bring their BI tool to different teams as departments, those departments often receive no guidance on how or why to use the tool.

As a result, they may not get the most out of these powerful tools. And when that happens, it can hurt the business. Worst of all, it means that dollars and hours are wasted working with the wrong outcomes.

Marketing is a life-or-death operation for a business. If a business’s marketing is failing, then their sales will drop, their customers will leave, and ultimately, they’ll start to collapse. That means it’s very important that businesses get the correct results from their marketing analytics.

If your company is going to take full advantage of marketing analytics and BI data technology, it’s important to avoid making these five mistakes:

1. Not defining the objectives

Before implementing any new technology, it’s essential to clearly understand what you want to achieve with it. Otherwise, you risk not using the tool to its full potential or – even worse – using it in a way that actually harms your business.

For example, a company that wants to increase sales might use marketing analytics to track which marketing campaigns are most effective at generating leads. But if the company doesn’t have a clear plan for turning those leads into customers, it will not see the results it wants.

The marketing team will do all this work to generate leads for the sales team, just for the sales team not to capitalize on those successes.

Many teams make the mistake of diving into data without first thinking about what they want to achieve. As a result, they may end up with a lot of information but no clear understanding of how to use it to improve their business.

How to fix it

In this case, it’s important to focus your objectives and collaborate carefully between departments. If sales wants to push a certain product or service, then marketing needs to track the KPIs that determine that product or service’s success. Both teams need to communicate to make sure their goals are aligned.

Even the most potent BI tool won’t be able to help your business if you don’t know what you want to achieve with it.

2. Not integrating the tool into your workflow

Many marketing teams treat their BI tool like it’s an outsider. They don’t consult it for day-to-day marketing work. They only log in and check their data if they’re specifically told to, or if they’ve found out something’s gone wrong.

This means that the BI tool is a massive waste of money for the business, since marketing teams haven’t adjusted their workflows to fit the tool in. They’re still using the same gut-driven, data-poor strategies they’ve always been, now they’re just paying their BI vendor for the privilege.

How to fix it

When a business introduces a new tool like this, it’s important to get buy-in from the people who will actually be using it. People are resistant to change, but if they can see the benefits of using the tool, then they’re going to be much more likely to use it.

Often, a business will use their BI tool to get key wins in core business areas, and then use those wins to show other departments how the BI tool can improve their operations. Using this strategy, it’s much easier to get buy-in.

Integrating the tool into your workflow may take some time, but it’s worth it in the end. Otherwise, you risk not getting the most out of the tool.

3. Not training your team

Many businesses don’t give team members any explicit training on their BI tool when they hand it over. Not surprisingly, this often leads to frustration and confusion. Even those who may be technically savvy can find themselves struggling to use a new tool if they don’t receive any training on it.

When teams don’t have any guidance on a tool, they’ll end up using the tool in ineffective, unoptimized ways. They’re much more likely to give up on the tool if something goes wrong, and they have no way of knowing if they’re getting valuable insight out of it.

How to fix it

Investing in training for your team is one of the best ways to avoid this mistake. There are many different ways to train your team, but it’s important to choose a method that will work best for your team.

Some companies prefer to use in-person training, while others find that online training is more effective. No matter what method you choose, make sure that your team is properly trained on how to use the new tool before you expect them to use it in their work.

4. Not managing expectations

Many teams make the mistake of diving into data without first thinking about what they want to achieve. This can often lead to unrealistic expectations about what the tool can do.

It’s easy to get the idea that a BI tool can solve every business problem that a department has. This can be especially tempting to believe in marketing analytics, where data is so important and success is so crucial.

If expectations are too high, then your teams will think that their tool is failing when it’s really working correctly. They won’t put in the work necessary to get really valuable insight.

How to fix it

To avoid this mistake, it’s essential to set realistic expectations for what the tool can do. This means being honest about its limitations and what it can’t do.

It’s also important to manage your team’s expectations about how the tool will be used. For example, if you’re implementing a new marketing analytics tool, ensure that your team understands that it will take some time to learn how to use it effectively.

5. Not monitoring your data

Many departments think that their BI tool is ‘set it and forget it.’ Once they’ve built their dashboards and set up their analytics, they don’t need to do any additional work or check in with the tool at all.

With this mindset, teams will use the tool to get a couple of quick wins and then discard the tool because they think that’s all that it can do. They won’t iterate on their successes or monitor their key metrics.

If you’re not monitoring your data, you run the risk of missing important insights that could help improve your business. Additionally, you may also miss out on opportunities to spot trends and patterns in your data. And you can guarantee that for every trend or pattern you miss, your competitors will be quick to spot it and take advantage of it.

How to fix it

Real-time, public dashboards are essential for continued use of a BI tool. Teams need to build dashboards that show their KPIs, update as frequently as is possible, and are visible to every person who needs to know that information.

This way, teams can stay aware of how their KPIs are trending as changes occur. They’re not shocked by sudden changes or caught off-guard by new developments.

In marketing, it’s very important to track key metrics like conversion rates, return on investment, marketing spend, and other indicators of success. With a real-time public dashboard, marketers can stay aware of their key metrics at all times.

Make data your superpower

There’s no question that data is a powerful tool. However, it’s vital to use data wisely.

If you’re not careful, you can easily make some common mistakes that will prevent you from taking full advantage of data. By avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure that data works for you and not against you.

If you are ready to enhance your data use for marketing analytics, consider investing in a BI tool. A market-leading, cloud-based, self-service BI tool can help turn data into insights that power your business.

A good BI tool can quickly and easily connect to data from any source, blend and clean that data in the cloud, and then create interactive dashboards and visualizations that can be accessed on any device. Additionally, BI tools allow users to collaborate with others, automate workflows, and get alerts when things go wrong — all on one platform.