Maximize Profits with Data Analytics Tools

The best data analytics tools help you visualize data. Data visualization allows you to digest massive amounts of raw data using easy-to-read and understandable formats like graphs and charts. You can collect all sorts of data, including employee performance and satisfaction, customers, internal business processes, and finances.

Several data visualization tools transform data from difficult-to-understand numbers into easily digestible charts and graphics. Many data analysis tools are designed to help you create dashboards with visual elements to help you understand information better and develop data-driven business strategies. Not every business owner has a degree in data science, but that doesn't mean you can't understand the data you collect throughout your business.

Some data analysis tools are designed for complete oversight of your business, offering features designed for financial data tracking, data processing, customer data, and marketing analytics. Other types of data analysis tools have a single purpose. For instance, you may use Google Analytics to track website traffic.

Additionally, some tools for data analytics are more robust than others. For instance, a company may rely heavily on Excel spreadsheets, while others have a comprehensive business intelligence platform to track everything in their business. There are also qualitative and quantitative data analysis software tools that allow you to track numbers and non-numerical data, such as customer feedback, surveys and questionnaires, and social media comments.

Another type of tool is predictive analytics software that's designed to forecast future events that can impact your business. For instance, predictive analytics can forecast the impact sales have on revenue or what might happen to your marketing campaign if you change the number of email subscribers.

This data analytics tool uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive analysis modeling to help predict the future. However, most basic data tools use current data from various sources like your customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and marketing software.

Why use analytics tools for data?

The main reason to use analysis tools is for data management, tracking, and visualization. Most people can understand their website analytics, but what happens when you factor in other information, like marketing campaigns that bring paid traffic to your site?

In this case, you may want to compare organic versus paid traffic to determine which you should invest more in the next quarter. Handling massive amounts of data can confuse the average person, whether you're a new business owner or a seasoned marketer.

Here are a few other benefits of using data analytics software tools:

Ensure accurate and real-time results

Interactive data analysis software can help you stay on top of business data, allowing you to see real-time results from campaigns and initiatives. Manual processes can cause data analysts to spend a lot of time organizing information in a digestible way for decision-makers. Additionally, seeing numbers without context confuses the average business owner and marketer.

If you want to know how your activities are going, the best data analytics tools allow you to understand your business performance in real-time. Additionally, they often include visual data analysis that enables you to tweak campaigns to make them more effective and uncover new solutions to help your business succeed.

Make more informed business decisions

By using popular data analysis tools, you can ensure you're making data-driven decisions for your business. For instance, you might want to try a new business idea or marketing campaign.

Reviewing your current data can help you determine whether you have the resources to make it work, and if not, predict when you may have the resources to make it work. Similarly, you can use predictive analytics to determine whether your new ideas are viable and how they may affect the company.

Gain a deeper understanding of customers

Tools for data analytics can help you understand your customers, allowing you to develop more effective marketing campaigns and strategies. For instance, if you collect psychographic data from customers, you can use what you've learned about their personalities, interests, opinions, and values to build marketing campaigns tailored to their specific needs.

Of course, you also collect other types of data from your customers. For instance, when they complete a form on your website, you can learn where they're from, their age, business name, and anything else you choose to put in a form field. Additionally, you can review website analytics to determine your audience's demographics, including age, location, and gender.

It's important to note that while you might like to learn everything there is to know about your customers, there are data protection laws in place, which require you to be clear about what you use consumer information for. When collecting customer data via forms or cookies, you should describe what they can expect when they share their personal information.

Build in-depth reports

The main function of data and reporting tools is to help you build reports that are easier to understand than numbers on multiple spreadsheets. With these tools, you can create reports with graphs, charts, and other visuals to make the data more digestible. These reports can help you make decisions, review marketing campaign performance, and track data throughout your business.

Choosing the right data analysis tools

Your business collects complex data, some of which you might not even realize you have until you begin tracking it. For instance, your website gathers visitor information, your accounting tools track financial data, and each department tracks its goals and other information. Finding the right tool is crucial for helping you organize all the information your business obtains.

Unfortunately, there's no best data analytics tool for every business. Depending on your needs, you might only need one tool to help you track high-level metrics about the company. However, each department may need various data analysis tools to track its efforts.

When looking for data analysis tools, there are a few things to consider, such as:

Budget

Budget is the most crucial aspect of any data visualization tool. Since so many options are available for businesses, it's crucial to determine how much you're willing to spend. For instance, you can find free tools like Google Analytics and Google Data Studio that integrate various marketing and business software, such as CRMs, SEO tools, email marketing tools, and so forth.

However, depending on how much data your company processes and the type of information you want to collect, you may have to invest in more robust tools, which will come at a higher cost.

Goals

What do you want to do with your data? Every business has goals it wants to achieve and measure throughout the month, quarter, or year. For example, your marketing department wants to measure campaign performance, while your CEO might want to determine how the marketing department impacts sales.

It's crucial to identify your business goals to help you find the right data analytics software tools because you have to decide what you're measuring. Once you understand your objectives, you can choose the most important metrics to track throughout campaigns and initiatives. For example, to measure customer satisfaction, you need to know how customers feel about your business to create a baseline and continue monitoring your efforts through data.

Customizability

User experience is crucial when searching for an analytics tool, whether using free or paid solutions. The top data analysis tools available today offer customizability. However, not every program is as robust. This is why it's crucial to determine your business objectives before purchasing a business analytics tool.

Additionally, your analytics tool should integrate with other solutions that collect data. Data integration allows you to pull data from various sources into one dashboard to see how different activities within your organization support your objectives. For instance, you want customer data from your CRM to easily integrate with any business intelligence tools you're using to track the customer journey.

Security

You want to keep your company data private, so it's crucial to find a secure data analytics tool that can prevent hackers from accessing internal and external information. You can review your vendor's security measures to determine if it's the right solution for you. Then, once you begin using the data analytics tool, you'll have to set security standards within the organization that prevents employees from accidentally sharing your data with the wrong entity.

Analyze data with the best tools

Data analytics software is crucial for any business. With the right tools, you can decrease or even eliminate unnecessary costs while increasing customer satisfaction with personalized marketing campaigns. Regardless of your business goals, you need a solution that allows you to track and manage audience data, learn more about your customers, and make informed business decisions.

Try Mailchimp today to gain access to our data analytics tools and grow your marketing efforts.