Is your Lack of Business Intelligence Holding You Back?

According to IBM, every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years.” So, do you understand why Big Data has become such a popular phrase? Because we collect massive amounts of data; and now we have developed the tools necessary to read and analyze it.

Are you taking the time to analyze your data to grow your business or are you simply in collection mode?

If you stated that you are currently in collection mode, then here’s a challenge to get you started with analysis of your data:

• Dive into one industry sector of your data – Example: Imagine you are a real estate developer and based on historical experiences, you know that the construction industry clients have been your best revenue generators. First, break down the data to confirm this is a true statement, then understand how much you’ve generated (and have grown) in that sector and finally brainstorm ways to grow that sector even more.
• Dissect your data to understand your service areas – Example: Imagine you are a marketing consultant who provides three services (strategy, implementation and research). Break down the data in each service area and determine what area is most profitable, then take steps to focus more of your business there.
• Evaluate the effect of social media on your company – Analytics are being provided at no charge these days from social media sites.  Take the time to review and analyze (at a basic level) the information that is being collected to understand how social media can help you build a more respected brand and in turn generate more business.

Once you begin diving into the masses of data collected on your company, it’s time to make the data work for you. Here’s a few ways how you can do just that:

• Find out what your customers value most and then engage them with relevant content pushes
• Identify which customers you enjoy working with most, then work to clone them (wouldn’t it be great to clone your top 10% of customers?)
• Monitor your customers behaviors with big data to understand what they need more of; then provide it in an educational manner to add value to the relationship.

Knowing what data is relevant to your customer can be key to your business’s growth. By taking the time to dive into the big data that you have, you will understand their needs further and be able to provide them with solutions. Which in turn, will grow your business.