How Smart Analytics Can Help Small Businesses Boost Sales

According to Marissa Meyer “with data collection ‘the sooner the better’ is always the better answer”

This quote shows that what smart business needs today is not just data, but fast data that is reliable, useful, and valuable in an instant. Of course, there is data everywhere, big companies like google spend billions year by year to gather data, be it structured or unstructured, unfortunately, time and effort must be put into converting this data into information. This is where smart data comes in

Smart data, although not the only way of converting data into information, is the smartest and fastest way of doing so.

What is smart data?

Smart data is digital information from intelligent algorithms which have gathered, monitored, filtered, and extracted this digital information from large amounts of statistics and numbers otherwise called big data.

How can smart data help small businesses increase sales?

• Create products tailored to your customers' needs.

A lot of startups begin their journey by creating products that they think will sell, this method is called the traditional method. However, after a few tries, it becomes evident that no one wants what they're selling. In making better recommendations about what measures they should take to create better products, smart data notifies a business on what will work before they even try it.

• Organize and analyze a company's data to facilitate fast and informed business decisions:

With the amount of vast data present in any organization, sorting through them will be time-consuming and inevitably lead to less productivity. With a smart data approach, businesses don't need to spend time sorting through irrelevant information to analyze data - A field that they may not have any knowledge of, thus they can focus on more actionable data to define sales and financial strategies and they can do this in an instant.

• Monitoring trends and analysis.

The world is constantly changing, what customers want today might not be what they want tomorrow. Small businesses need smart data to detect these changes to modify their plans and approach to match these constant changes in trends. Data that is relevant, valuable, useful, and up-to-date ensures that brands can track campaign impacts at the very instant of implementation.

• Personalization and customization.

The feel of a website, product, or user experience can make or break a business, smart data analytics helps businesses to tailor their brands to their customer's personas. For instance, the internet is filled with multiple Websites by companies offering the same thing. With just a few searches on google, anyone can find what they want. Today's world doesn't just need you to have what people want, you have to be able to build trust and connection with your customers.

According to Slideshare, 80% of people are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience and according to Salesforce, 66% of consumers expect brands to understand their personal needs.

Since smart data tells you what works, it tells if you're building connections and thus increases the likelihood of growing your business.

For example, A retail chain can collect customer data from sales, marketing, website, social media, and ATMs to gain insights into every customer it has, the results can be used in making customized coupons for the exact products each customer likes. This builds a sense of familiarity with the company making each customer believe that the company knows them individually.

• Monitor competitors.

Regardless of the possibility to customize products for customers, Businesses have to consider the fact that this possibility is accessible to their competitors as well, this calls for strategic ways to monitor competitors to stay ahead and relevant. We are surrounded by businesses competing for customer's attention everywhere, companies have to monitor their competitors' strategies to find gaps and loopholes  to exploit,

In conclusion, data analysis must become an integral part of any business that wishes to survive in this digital world, but the approach to it must be considered as well. Timely, beneficial, useful, and relevant information has become the norm of the day and small businesses must take steps to ensure they have the information.