In the past, intuition, gut feeling or entrepreneurial acumen played a big part in marketing success. Whilst it remains relevant today, none are sufficient to steer and keep ahead of the competition. With the Internet being a huge part of people's lives, we are living behind huge digital footprints. The resultant measurements can help businesses develop more effective marketing strategies. However, not many small businesses may be familiar with the effective use of marketing analysis and research to drive growth. Research, to begin with, isn't the forte of most. In this post, we've outlined 3 simple steps small businesses can take to leverage fully from the data you have collected as a result of various social and digital media marketing activities. 1. Organise the data You'll be surprised by the amount of data you'll have amassed. Multiply that by the time you've been engaged in social and digital media marketing, painting an up-close-and-personal portrait of your target audience isn't impossible. But first, you'll need to organise them. Start with basic demographic, for example, gender, age group or location. These can form the pillars to hold up the other data that may be useful for you. The latter can include shopping behaviour or lifestyle. 2. Use them! Use it or lose it! This principle applies to marketing. Treat the data you've collated and organised as starting points to understand your target audience better. Apply them accordingly and measure the response. If you don't, they are nothing but useless data points. 3. Transform your data into insights Using marketing analysis and research to drive growth is a continuous learning process. To this end, it makes the discipline dynamic and versatile. A common failure of businesses attempting to use data to drive growth is not taking a step back periodically to compare and contrast the data they've accumulated. When you do so, the learnings transform your data into insights. Over time, you'll put your brand in a stronger position, and will be able to gain insight from your data for further use in your marketing. Contact us today to learn more about data and insights-driven marketing.