The Importance Of Contextual Data Analysis
In a past role working in Marketing Operations, I remember having a conversation with a colleague who was in sales about the performance of a campaign that I helped launch. It went something like this:
ME: Did you see how many MQLs we generated from this last campaign?!
THEM: I did, but I also noticed we had a lot of unsubscribes.
ME: What do you mean? I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when looking at the metrics.
THEM: Well the total number wasn't high, but we lost prospects with titles that we would want to talk too.
ME: Oh. Oh my.
This was my very first introduction to contextual data analysis. Think of this concept like an iceberg - we only see a small piece of it above the surface while the bulk of it is under water.
As marketers, we are used to reporting on and presenting pretty standard metrics around the performance of a campaign - be it open rates, click through rates or MQLs generated, but I often find we lack the understanding of what makes up these metrics. We don't stop and ask "why?".
By applying different lenses to any given metric, you can start to get better insights into what makes up that number you keep staring at. For example, if you are noticing that your recent campaigns have had low click through rates, perhaps look into the following:
- How active/inactive was the audience before receiving the content?
- What (if any) content has the audience consumed previously?
- What drove the audience to be apart of the campaign in the first place?
- What are profiles of the audience that did (or didn't) action on the content? (i.e. title, industry, company size)
The goal with this sort of analysis is to find trends and consistencies in your data that help better explain what is making up the underlying metric. If a metric is making you jump up and down with happiness, what trends are you able to find so that you can replicate it in the future? If a metric is making you shed a single tear, what trends are you able to put a stop to for future campaigns?
Modern Marketing is all about relevancy and personalization. By applying the necessary lenses to your metrics, you can better strategize around everything from content development to data acquisition to help ensure you are doing everything you can to drive the ultimate customer experience.
