What to Do With Your Analytics, Insights, and the EZ Texting Edge

Remember the days when market research announced its presence? Whether it was asking questions on the street, organizing focus groups, or taking surveys by mail or in-store, mining consumer information used to be an explicit activity. It was an industry all of its own; it had to be – commercial transactions used to take place between two people, and there was scant record of the purchase, other than the bare minimum of information contained in a receipt.

One of the best things about SMS messaging as a marketing tool is that it functions as its own research center. Not only is it highly effective at engaging consumer spending power, it allows businesses to harvest crucial data on personal preference, location, demographic, and all sorts of other useful metrics. If you’re conducting a mobile marketing campaign, don’t make the mistake of thinking your job is done once your SMS blasts have been scheduled. This is only the beginning.

Analytics help you make sense of all that written data. A recent Wharton School Customer Analytics Initiative claims American companies spend $10 billion dollars annually just to find out what consumers think of their products. And yet, access to public attitudes has never been easier, with scores of user reviews and consumer blogs available online, for free.

Between web content and data mined via SMS messaging, you can practically eliminate whatever ‘market research’ budget you once had. EZ Texting’s reports and analytics features are a good example of a text service with built-in research tools. It gives you the ability to:

• Track incoming and outgoing messages
• Track how and when new contacts join your list
• See opt-in spikes to ascertain which campaigns are the most effective
• Track reasons for opting out
• Gather detailed information on the status of messages sent

Of course, it’s not simply a numbers game. Having automated data collection capabilities is pretty exciting stuff (at least for number-crunching geeks) but understanding what to do with the information is less intuitive. With that in mind, EZ Texting gives you three top tips for making the most out of your analytics:

1) Identify Actionable Insights

The flipside of all this easily available data is that you end up with a lot of information that’s of no real value to your business. Developing a knack for separating actionable insights from white noise is one of the marks of a good business head. What is ‘useful’ will differ from industry to industry. Decide what information you are looking for before you even examine your raw data, and ruthlessly discard everything else.

2) Assume Mobile

Always assume the customer is going to engage with your business on a mobile device. You’ll have a desktop site with analytics anyway, so there’s no downside to focusing on measuring what the mobile audience is saying.

3) Embrace the Negative

Too often, businesses regard customer complaints as a crisis management situation. A situation that you hope goes away as quietly as possible. But ignoring the negative conversation surrounding your brand is a missed opportunity. Study complaint data closely and find out what the common thread is – there’s bound to be one, and understanding properly it will improve future retention rates.