Data provides us with a wealth of concrete information. From the type of person your brand reaches to the effectiveness of your marketing strategies, your analytics can (and should) guide your business decisions, big and small.
Some catering and event professionals have started to consider growth endeavors. As we rebuild and recover from the pandemic, many have taken the lessons learned in 2020 and turned them into profitable products and services. Food deliveries, boxed meals, and other pandemic-inspired shifts proved to be effective money-making additions, so you may be wondering how to turn a temporary stopgap into a sustainable source of income. Or, maybe you’re considering increasing your reach and serving a new market that arose out of necessity during the pandemic.
If growth has been on your mind, it can be a great way to rebuild better in 2021 and beyond. But decisions made on a whim don’t make for smart business moves. They rely on data-based facts that reduce risk and propel your business in the best direction based on historical information.
Forget about guesstimating or the “wait and see” method — using your analytics to make business decisions sets you up for success. Here are a few ways your data may be hinting that it’s time to grow.
Consider entering a new market.
Branching out to a new market involves a fair amount of effort. Don’t go into it blindly! Review your Demographic and Geographic reports to evaluate your website traffic. How does it align with your ideal client? Do you notice increased traffic from a neighboring city or a certain age group you hadn’t targeted prior?
Growth in traffic and inquiries from demographics beyond your ideal client’s signal that your brand’s offerings are needed elsewhere, and it’s important to see how you can adjust your business model to serve these communities before someone else steps in to fill the gap.
Optimize your partnership strategy.
Strategic partnerships continue to be a powerful way to grow one’s business, but they must be the right fit. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and money on an endeavor that provides little to no return. If you want to establish an advantageous partnership, it starts with looking at where you’re receiving referral business. Those sending you qualified leads have already shown their support for your brand, so it’s a good sign that they would be open to a partnership.
However, you can go beyond word-of-mouth marketing and turn your sights to the Referral report on Google Analytics. It reveals where your website traffic comes from, providing you with greater insight into where your ideal clients are spending time.
Say you see a lot of traffic from a photographer’s blog about a wedding you worked on together. You likely share a similar aesthetic, and their readers showed interest in your brand. You can establish a mutually beneficial referral network or take it to the next level by partnering for a styled shoot or offering a shared package. The possibilities open up when you have data pointing you in the right direction.
Find more qualified leads with proper targeting.
Do you ever feel like you’ve spun your wheels on marketing, only to see little to no improvement? You’ve put out Facebook ads, developed email marketing sequences, scoured LinkedIn, and gone Live on Instagram — but to no avail. It might be a case of spreading yourself too thin. A marketing approach with fewer heavily targeted channels brings more success than one with many hit-or-miss channels.
Analytics reveal where your ideal client spends time online, as well as the type of content that gets their attention. Track your social media and web metrics to see which platforms are the most popular. If Instagram generates the most leads while Twitter feels like a ghost town, forget about Twitter and invest your marketing energy into Instagram!
Similarly, look for engagement and conversion rates on individual social media and blog posts to determine the type of content that generates the most interest in your target market. Then, replicate, rinse, and repeat!
Choosing to grow your business is one of the biggest decisions you can make. Don’t take it lightly! By using data to back you up, you can scale without the risk of the unknown. Whether your conversion rate hints that it’s time to hire or your demographic report tells you to expand your service market, you can rest easy knowing these choices are rooted in fact and certainty.
