Three Keys To Creating Actionable Insights

Author:

David Baker

Source:

Three numbers: 90; 10; 0. 90 is the percent of total time spent on an email campaign during which email marketers work on getting that campaign out the door. 10 is the percent of time spent in reporting and analysis.  And zero is the amount of time most marketers spend figuring out how to optimize a program.
 
The key to optimization is understanding what is maneuverable, and weighing this against the expected return. If the return is too small, you'll never build continuity over time. If the effort is far too complex or time-consuming, it will compete with day-to-day operations and ultimately drive your business down.
 
Here are three ways to create actionable insights.
 
Simplify the cockpit instruments. If you've ever looked inside an aircraft cockpit, you'll see it looks like analytics and the business process: confusing if you try to take it all in at once. Marketers, much like the pilot, may know all the panels and instruments and the outputs of each. Yet it becomes increasingly difficult for marketers to know which instruments to monitor, which to tweak, and in what order. To simplify, you have to strip it down by what insights each variable or output informs.
 
Think RFM...