You know how big I am on planning when it comes to marketing (think: goal setting, building systems and processes, using project briefs, and content planning), but the other recommendation I like to talk about a lot is making decisions that are backed by data.

When building out a strategic marketing plan, data is going to be key in informing your decisions in a way that will allow you to reach your bigger business goals. 

Abiding by data is harder to do when you're new to business, but you can set yourself up to collect data from day one. And, as the data about your activity grows, you'll have insights you can use that are infinitely more reliable than all the third-party data in the world.

What do I mean by third-party data?

If you’ve ever searched Google for something along the lines of, “when should I post on Instagram,” you’ll have an idea of what I mean! 

Essentially, third-party data is any article that comes up with statistical information about the timing of when to post, average open and click-through rates on emails, or any other data points that are meant to be suggestions you can use to make marketing decisions.

That data? It may include insights about your audience, but ultimately it’s an average of very general trends among the included accounts, and therefore may not be at all relevant to you.

This is why it's so important to watch ALL your business numbers – not just the financial ones, and taking into consideration your target audience and what their behaviours are.

Here's an example for you:

Let's say you provide a service primarily for parents of tweens or teens. The very general description of your target audience is parents, especially the primary caretaker. They work full-time and take home an upper-middle-class salary. They're comfortable, but not rich.

They have 2-3 children and since their kids are older, they're also more independent. The parents or guardians spend time with their children, but they're at a stage where they're less distracted by the kids' needs and can focus on their career more closely.

Based on these details, what might you assume is the best time of day to reach those parents?

Your working hours may be during the day, but you might actually get more traction with the content you share in the evening or on weekends, when these parents or guardians aren't likely to be working and instead may spend some of their leisure time scrolling social media. 

(More traction when it comes to content might look like greater engagement on social media including likes or comments, higher email open rates, or more messages inquiring about your services).

If we change up the scenario though to say that you’re providing a service primarily for parents of young kids, the ideal timing of posts will likely change. Let’s say the kids are 6 or 7 years of age and therefore require more attention when they’re not in school, and let’s also add in that one parent doesn't have a paid job outside the home. In this case you may see more engagement in daytime hours of 8am-4pm or 9am-5pm when the kids are preoccupied and it’s the only time the stay-at-home parent has to themselves. 

Weekends and evenings may be quite busy for this family in between commitments like kids sports or music lessons, and so these parents or guardians may be too preoccupied to be checking their social media accounts or email inboxes. 

And, if we switch the scenario one more time to start trying to target people who are nursing their children, that basically opens up a 24/7 window to test, as at least one of the parents is likely home most of the day.  

You can see how the aggregate data that's reported by general third-party sources can mislead without taking these specifics into consideration. This is why it's so important to pay attention to the cues you get from your audience.

Consider,  

• What does the schedule of the person you’re trying to target look like? Where is there more free time in their day where they might be on social media or reading emails? 

• What kind of content would draw them in? What information, tips, or inspiration might they be seeking out? 

• How could you start testing content to confirm your predictions? 

Beginning to collect data from your content such as average post engagement rates or email open and click-through rates will give you guidance as to how to more comprehensively build out your content plan and marketing strategy. 

And including this custom data analysis in your marketing decisions, rather than relying on general suggestions, or simply guessing, can help you to produce better results in your campaigns. 

Depending on how long you’ve been in business, this will take some trial and error at the beginning. But there are also simple ways you can begin collecting data to support your content processes. 

1. Look at the posts that get the most engagement

What can you learn from them? What are the similarities among these posts? Look for overlap in layout, colour, headline, and content. 

What engagement did you receive? Were there business inquiries or did the post have traction among a general audience but didn’t result in any genuine leads? There are different levels of engagement to account for, and although not every post may result in a new client, the ones that do are important to look at! 

Collect this data in a project management tool and use this information to plan out your content and generate new content ideas that are likely to appeal to your audience. 

2. Pay attention to the times you get the most engagement

What does this tell you about your audience? 

Think about what these interactions let you know about your audience’s habits, leisure time, and what they’re searching for. Are the people engaging (if you know them) within your target audience? 

Play around with the days and times you post to test the impact. Note that tests aren’t a one-and-done process. There will always be reasons beyond your control that a different day or time posting doesn't generate as much response, so this requires continuous revisiting and tweaking. 

 3. Get creative in how you show up for your audience

Mix up the type of content you’re posting to help keep your audience interested.

If you’re posting on social media this might mean using different styles of posts (video, photo, or graphics), and using attention-grabbing statements to invite them to check out what you have to say. If you’re trying to increase your email open rates, it might mean experimenting with different subject lines.

This is up to you so have fun with it! Think about your own habits and behaviours to help guide this process, and/or start polling your audience to see what resonates. 

Data is your key to greater results

If you're going to make the best possible decisions for your business, you’ll want to make sure you're tracking the data behind your marketing strategies. 

This means monitoring how your activities impact engagement and, ultimately, the sales of your offers.

This tracking and analysis should be a regular part of your marketing activities, and should begin as soon as possible from the time you start your business for the best results. 

Know that the data will change over time (which is why it’s so important this isn’t a one-time process), but the more you get to know your audience, the easier it will become to create content that makes an impact.