Ways to Best Capture and Report on Your Data

December 11, 2020 Stan

As we all know, the landscape of business is changing like never before. This means that what you are capturing and reporting may need to be looked at in depth. This may seem obvious to some organizations but many will continue their plans as is with maybe one or two adjustments instead of looking at the data as a whole to make an informed decision. This blog will highlight three overarching use cases that I believe are crucial to successful reporting and analytics.

Defining activity and capturing data with regards to privacy

We know GDPR in the EU is becoming the gold standard for privacy. Similar regulations may slowly come to the US, similar to what is already starting with CCPA (California Consumer ProtectionAct). CCPA acts similar to GDPR but only in businesses that operate in California. We also have CASL, CAN/SPAM, and others that exist today. Understanding these laws will allow you to figure out how to capture data correctly and efficiently. If you are in the US and have not started any of these practices, then you should get started ASAP. Being at the forefront of privacy laws will allow the business to show it is complying with data protection that other organizations may not have implemented.

This will allow you to expand your reporting in a few ways.

Finding your true “Opt-In” Rates
Enabling your users to engage with confidence because their data is handled properly
Optimising communications & personalization targeting

Using the points above will expand your reporting and will benefit the analysis you bring to the table.

Privacy regulation impacts a lot more than just reporting, however. The privacy policies you employ directly impact the activities you can produce based on the data you collect. This makes strong privacy regulations critical.

AI Data + Innovation

Back in April, I touched upon this topic in a previous blog. AI is on pretty much every site that you visit these days. It’s the new “innovative” way to talk to your customers and prospects. Almost every major website has a chat bot to help in their conversational marketing. To make even greater use of this technology, put this data to work by leveraging the chatbot AI to not only make your job easier, but also produce better numbers that impact the business. Using AI and being innovative will lead to better results. There are many platforms that can help you, but you have to be able to identify internal processes to make sure you select the right one. There are some great AI tools available to expand your reporting capabilities. One that is excelling in this space is UberFlip. UberFlip not only uses AI to help promote content through intent data, but also captures that data so you are able to report back on how those performed. Working smarter not harder. Import.io is another interesting AI driven tool that is aimed “To allow you to import data from any web page, even if the data you’re after is hidden behind login forms or other elements.” You can then build different reports to export into different formats. The possibilities for data capture and reporting are starting to become endless with the amount of data an AI system can capture and process. Trusting the computer to build a web of data that you can then utilize will allow expansion on the current reporting landscape in your organization.

Reporting is a team sport (Stakeholder changes)

Organizational structure is always changing. This doesn’t just go for these tough times but always. I like to look at each business unit within an organization like the hierarchy on a sports team. On a sports team, you have your players (sales) and head coaches (direct management) who are at the forefront of producing results, but then there are trainers, assistant coaches, and all the others that contribute to the team’s success. When you look at it this way, you can see how many different people may use your report or how many people you haven’t spoken to regarding the reporting that you are producing. There are times where you should review the stakeholders that contribute to the impact on the business from the reports or insight you are sharing. Getting fresh eyes on a report may allow you to see a missed opportunity or open up doors to a new opportunity.

There are many tools, guides, and logic to strengthen your reporting, but it will always be crucial to analyze the larger goal which is business success. If you can paint that picture with strong data, then you will be able to succeed. If you need some assistance or want to chat more, drop us a line.

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