Imagine this scenario: It's Monday afternoon, you just spent the first half of your day wading through last week's stats, comparing metrics, data-mining for the greater good, and assembling it into an easy-to-digest summary that speaks to the state of your company. You sit back, finish off your second (or fifth) cup of coffee, and hit "Send" on the all staff email alias.
Momentary satisfaction hits, data euphoria surrounds you. You are a Data Master.
You start your next project, occasionally checking your email. You think, "Surely someone will respond with a reaction." A few minutes go by...then a few hours...then the day rolls into 5 o'clock. No response. Uhm. Maybe your email client is down? Hmmm nope. So you check with a few coworkers to see if they received it, and they answer with a less than enthusiastic, "yeah you mean the thing with all the attachments, right?"
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Ugh. Your hours of data mining have fallen on blind eyes. All those insights, and those practical suggestions for cleanup, testing, and optimization are lost in a black hole (also known as your company's inbox).
How may of you know what I'm talking about? Raise your hand if you feel me.Yeah I thought so. For some reason it is beyond challenging to get some companies to care about data, and even harder to get them to embrace a data-driven culture. It seems like a no brainer, and if you polled most marketers I think they would {falsely} proclaim that they believe in a data-driven culture. Well today I'm calling their bluff.
Okay so I hear you asking, "how do we get the data-driven ball rolling?" We got you covered. I compiled a list (while stuck on a flight with no wi-fi last week) of over 1,000 things that drove me nuts at past companies who were far from data-driven. Rather than be a Negative Nancy, I then flipped that around to come up with the top ten things you can start doing right away to help get your company on the analytics fan bus. You ready?!
#10. Share the resources & log-ins
It seems so obvious, but you would be surprised how many of your coworkers don't even have the credentials to login to your beloved analytics. I find sending out the information, or a link to a secure page with the credentials, can be a great reminder that the data is there, waiting to be used for benefit.
#9. Send around other companys' success stories
As you come across case studies, blog posts, or other presentations on the web that showcase data-driven marketing, take the time to send around a link. People love to hear that one dollar turned into a hundred, and often these stories discuss just that. This SEOmoz landing page case study on Conversion Rate Experts about a test and the surrounding data was hugely popular for this exact reason.
#8. Get a data hub/visual dashboard
I'm borrowing this one from our resident SEO superhero, Tom Critchlow. He shared an epic post a few weeks ago that covered a company's personal journey into championing a data-driven culture to both employees and office visitors by implementing a visual dashboard of their companys' KPIs. I'm not even going to try and summarize this post in a few sentences, just go read it. You'll love it, I pinky promise.
#7. Give people free stuff!
Do you know how many free analytic tools are out there? Like a bazillion! Okay maybe not quite that many, but there are a lot. Here at SEOmoz we send around occasional emails with new tools we come across that really catch our eye. Keeping new analytic tools and apps front of mind reiterate the power of data in our everyday tasks. Lots of these tools have free trials you can take, so get on there for 30 days atleast and see what you can get from them!
#6. Hold brown bags
This is one of those things we all put on our calendar and then delete when the to-do list gets too long. I personally am guilty of this. I did a Google Analytics brown bag when I first arrived at SEOmoz, and had huge hopes for a full series of them. "Had" being the operative word there. With that said, these are worth doing if you can sneak them in. The sad truth is most people know data is valuable, but don't use analytics because they don't know where to start. That is simply a learning curve issue. Brown bags can help fix this issue in no time. Unlimited candy supply at brown bag meeting is optional but recommended.
At SEOmoz we have found people tend to appear and hang out wherever we drop loads of candy. Good to know.
#5. Put together an Analytics Advisory Board
Whether its an official thing or simple a bimonthly meeting of data lovers, colleagues should collaborate to make the data dives more effective. It's not a data-driven culture if you send around summary reports every week. Everyone needs to have their hand in the data and you need to be bouncing ideas off of each other. Here at SEOmoz, Casey and myself work in our numbers a great deal, but so does Crissy (from the help team), Sarah (our COO), Jamie (VP of Marketing) and Adam (VP of Product), so it's important we leverage all of that time and see what sort of data we can compare and use more effectively.
#4. Make the data relevant and person/team dependent
You know how people say a cardinal rule for speakers is to "know your audience?" Well the same applies here. If you want people to pay attention when you report on company metrics, you have to customize it for them. Show insights specific to their team and roadmap, show recent wins or losses that directly affect them, and advocate ideas that would help with their specific goals. These micro-focused data reports can help get teams excited about current projects and their results, and make your future discussions about data much easier to sit through.
#3. Tie the data to $$$
This one piggybacks off of #4. While it's important to customize the data you are presenting to the audience at hand, it's equally as important to tie every data discovery to revenue. You'll be surprised how quickly people perk up when you start projecting revenue based on metrics. Want a practical example? Here you go: At SEOmoz, we know that our conversion rate from OSE visits are 7% higher than visits to SEOmoz.org. I could project for upper management what an increase to traffic on OSE could mean in bottom-line revenue from PRO membership numbers, and make a case for putting more time into OSE.
#2. Report back on wins...and losses
I bet I get some slack for this one. I have heard a lot of analysts say you should really only report on the wins. Especially for those companies running a number of tests throughout a month, reporting on the ones that fail to return profitable insights can be disheartening. Well, hog wash! I think if your engineering team put time into getting a test up, and your creative team put together some great assets, and your marketing team put together the logic for a test, they all deserve to hear the results. So buck up, find the insights (or lack there of) and report back on them. Everyone starts looking forward to these test postmortems, and it can harness excitement!
Impromptu SEOmoz celebration when we hit 10,000 members. Yay!
#1. Give high fives all around
I am actually more of a hug fan myself, but HR told me I can't go hugging people every time someone gets excited about the numbers. Bummer. So instead I suggest going with high fives! What I really mean here, is never forget to thank people publically after they have given time to your data-focused efforts. Spotlight their efforts whenever possible. Saying thank you is crucial to keeping the momentum up!
Might seem like that's a lot to get moving on, but in reality, these are small changes that can have a huge impact on the way things are done at your company. When people start to get excited about using new tools to help them make decisions more efficiently, they begin to do that across the board. You will find they start to evangelize the data-driven strategy for you...in meetings you aren't even attending! It's beautiful.
And if all the ideas above don't work, I suggest picking up a copy of Avinash's book (for irony sake), and beating your executive over the head with it until they give in. Both approaches are pretty effective in my experience. I would love to hear what has worked for you in the comments below! Let's hear them!
Great post Joanna! Everyone has to fight this battle at some point or another undoubtedly. Some seriously great tips too. One thing that I've often had luck with is to share out forecasting. This takes the data to a bit different place at times given that you're looking forward rather than back, but learning the art of forecasting will help build out use cases for the actions the team may or may not take based on the data. Extra work for sure but depending on where the team/org is at can help them see the benefit of your hard work!
Gotta say also that the bit about sharing the log-ins and resources really resonated with me. That worked wonders not that long ago. Giving the people the ability to get in there and get their own hands dirty really sparked a curiosity about the data and what we could do with it. East. Win. Ever. (Of course this wasn't the first thing we tried :P but once we did it - twas easy :) )
This is a nice list Joanna. I particularly like number 2, 3, 4, and 10. I've managed to successfully create a data driven culture at prior companies. There's only two things that I use to devastating effect - in a place where faith based cultures are rampant.
One, I make my services free to the entire company as long as I'm employed there; people can come ask me anything, anytime they want and I give them the full answer + tutor them / implement analytics on their sites for free.
Second item, I post graphs with project names in bold titles all over my wall - people will naturally ask questions about different things and you just answer them. :)
Great post Joanna - one small correction, I didn't write the mygengo post. I wish I had, it's epic! :) I just pointed it out on twitter.
Correction made! I read that whole post as though it was Distilled's attempts at a data dashboard culture, and assumed it was you after sharing it. Goes to show I skip the author line... or in general assume most awesome data-focused posts are authored by you. ha. Thanks!
I like the way you started the post Joanna as I have been in that situation many times the only difference is that you send the email with all the analyzed data to your team and I send it to the clients and when you do not get any reply and send another mail to check if they have received the details , they casually say yeah went thru it but show no eagerness or enthusiasm to discuss about what corrective action needs to be taken or have no further inputs from their side - it is frustrating.
As it is a fact that data does not lie and all the major decisions of the next phase of the project depend on how well the data of the previous phase is understood and analyzed.
But, nevertheless we have to keep trying and send the reports in a format which will appeal to them as in my case instead of one rigid format for presenting data I keep on changing the way I present and corelate the reports for each client depending upon how SEO and web savvy they are.
Candy works like a charm, as does putting $£ against actions from the data. Putting an individuals 'why' spin on those actions allows the data to turn from being a barrier into something easy to associate with. Everyone likes to align with something to make them look good or effective.
Joanna let me first start by saying I find the best posts always come from idle time. And though I'm sure your wait at the airport was misery during, it's a gem for us all now. On that note, i've compiled 10 responses to your list of 10.(all responses are of my opinion, through my experience, and in no way are the absolute).
10: Share the resources & log-ins - This is a great idea...on paper. I find that by giving people this information, especially those that have 0 knowledge i get bogged down with emails, knocks at my door, and shouts from across the room about - What is this, how do i do this, and where can i find this. As long as we're only sharing this with certain individuals i agree with you, or get ready for a decrase in efficiency the day you open that flood gate.
9: Send around other companys' success stories - I love that you put this one down. I think it's so important to show the people you work with success of other companies doing what you're doing, or using similar services that you specialize in. This gives them that spark of hope and interest that they had their first day.
8: Get a data hub/visual dashboard - Part of the reason I feel that Google Analytics(aside from being a google product) is the most popular data analyst tool isn't because of how accuratte it's reporting is (come on, now) but how pretty it's GUI is. If it's pretty they will come...and surely they will stay.
7: Give people free stuff! - Whenever the next hottest tool comes out and I'm the only person in my office to be aware of it, I feel like Magellan. I make it a point to let everyone know about it, tell them that I'm currently in a trial and feel that they should also check it out. And then if the majority feels it is beneficial we can purchase it long term.
6: Hold Brown Bags - This one kind of ties with my first response. If you were to do one of these before giving credentials to your analytics then you could deter the problem with knocks, emails, and shouts. However, you better be a great speaker because Data isn't as interesting to everyone, as it is to you.
5: Put together an Analytics Advisory Board - I love this idea. Not only will you feel like a Knight at the Round Table, but you will be able to have real conversations with other people that understand analysis. That way instead of it becoming a lecture, it becomes a brainstorming celebration meeting of the minds!
4: Make the data relevant and person/team dependent - Personally, I find that the short, and straight to the point is easiest to digest. When it comes to clients, colleageues, or CEOS it's all about the bottom line.
3: Tie the data to $$$ - Conversions perk ears. Search Engine conversions perk bodies.
2: Report back on wins...and losses - This one's really big in my opinion. To many people only talk about the good things that happen in their campaigns, and brush the bad situations under the rug. It is important to report on both, that way you're not expected to be the golden child of what you do, and the impact will land a much softer blow then say the K.O you could receive for one giant mistake when you have a "track record" of 0.
1: Give high fives all around - Praise needs to be given. Rarely should you celebrate a victory that only you had your hands in. Let them know that you appreciate everything they've done, and look forward to seeing more moments like these. We couldn't have done it without you speeches will bring moral up, like you wouldn't believe. And if you're just high-fiving all the time then the energy level of your team goes up. Work can be fun.
Edit: Also I'm working on my first Youmoz post, so look for that in the future...hopefully.
I thought this comment was your first unofficial YOUmoz ;).
G! I got carried away, huh. Well, I hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
Im still surprised as a consultant how many small businesses don't have any tracking software installed on their website. Your post talks more to creating a data-driven culture as an in-house SEO or data analyst, but this is also a challenge with agency and consultants. I can't understand making decisions without knowing why (having data to back it up) - but business owners do it all the time. There is a significant part of what we do that requires educating our internal teams or our clients on why the data is important and how it affects their business.
Thanks for the insights.
Always good to see what other people do to promote data driven culture. Though i have yet to see such culture in my workplace. I have stopped doing data puking long time ago. First people don't understand the data. Second they can't draw any conclusion or take action. By people i mean my lovely colleagues and clients. And i dont blame them. After all how many can understand omniture and Google Analytics reports/metrics in real life.
"So you check with a few coworkers to see if they received it, and they answer with a less than enthusiastic, "yeah you mean the thing with all the attachments, right?"
For this very reason i refrain from sending attachments. If your proposal requires lot of data puking then something is not right with it. No one has time and patience to analyze countless excel rows and then make out something from it. Infact sending a long excel sheet is a fire shot way to freak out your co-workers/clients and make sure that your recommendations don't get read or implemented. I tell my co-workers/clients only three things:
1) What needs to be done and by whom? (Clearly explain the task in 2-3 lines)
2) What is the benefit? (Give analytical insight in 2-3 lines or through a pretty chart)
3) Why it is urgent? (Prove it in 2-3 lines)
If i don't prove urgency then the task usually ends up in 'i will do it later' list and that 'later' never comes.
IMHO Analyst aside, not many people love data in real life. What people love is the outcomes. So i just stick to telling people 'what needs to be done', what's the benefit' and 'why it is urgent'. At the end of the day i need to get the things done and improve the bottomline :)
HI Joanna,
I hear you on this one. Trying to get them to have a look at data is like pulling teeth. You go to find a soft entry point and produce what I call a "head fake" so they become interested. For example, my MD is an ex-banker so anything to do with ripping people of or getting a bonus from he is intersted in (only kidding).What I mean in is- just like your mother would mash vegetables into you food as a baby- you need to hide the data laden goodness and present it as something else and more appealing.
I always say different strokes for differnet folks- relating your analytics to the ROI is always a good idea. I usually make up some custom reports to show return according to keyword. This keeps them interested and usually gets them thinking of the analytics when it comes to press releases and buying up offline (I know didn't think it worked either) marketing materials, so the keywords get used in natural dialogue.
Subliminaly dropping it in is also a good tactic- for example drawing a graph up on the office whiteboard ALWAYS gets every one asking ohhhhh whats that? But if all else fails strap em to a chair and starting reading aloud lol.
Nice post, Joanna! A great topic that often goes unspoken.
I remember running across Tom Davenport's Competing on Analytics HBR article and everything (marketing, data, analytics, testing, etc.) kind of coming together in my head. These days, there really is no excuse not to be data driven. With so many great tools available for little or no capital investment, everyone should be collecting and mining data every day.
Whenever possible, I'm a big fan of being transparent with data. Of course, as a company grows, there is some need for restricted access to sensitive information, but cutting off those who are doing the work and making decisions that leads to said data can really take the wind out of their sails.
I recommend that everyone who is reading this article take the time to get your Google Analytics certification. It only costs $50 and you'll be amazed at how much knowledge and insight you'll gain by crawling through all the videos, tutorials, and tips available.
In keeping with the Q&A theme that has been popular on SEOmoz recently, I would throw that into the brown bag discussion. When offering a brown bag, consider also asking for your coworker's most burning analytics questions. Bake clear answers into your presentation.
Very good post, I agree with all points you have mentioned above and especially with the point no.4.
I believe that reports tailored to the specific needs of our clients are saving us the need to analyse literally everything and the time for both sites.
I think that a dashboard report showing some top data such as : total traffic, visits, SEO conversions, conversion rate, Sale value, cost per sale, SEO CPA and ROI is a great way to have an initilial insight in the clients accounts. Once we compile that type of data we can analyse them and the rest in greater detail, once again having in mind our clients needs and KPIs.
#8. Get a data hub/visual dashboard - the post by Tom is showing 404 error seems the page dont exist..please recheck the link if its moved....and repost the link
As always, great commentary and some key takeaways. Our clients are, like most, “idea rich but time poor” and are usually buried in dealing with the imminent rather than the important.
Mid-last year we started sending our reports with links to their login pages and a reminder of their access credentials – surprisingly more than 75% have started to drill down into the real data, nudged along by us conducting our report reviews in real time video conference with screen sharing.
The outcome has been two-fold – firstly we have more engaged clients who can then “talk the talk” and evangelise with conviction to their own peers and “gate keepers” with richer information at their “top of mind” and secondly, we have seen budgets increase from 20-50% since implementing this simple change which seems to have been a significant contributing factor.
Great Post! The situation is quite common and interesting… People think I am boring cuz I am a Data lover and spend much of my time with Analytics and try to find of the problems and create new action plans from it.
In my case, sending extreme details to the team members and waiting for them to show enthusiastic feedback is what I did and failed.
I think if you need their interest then show the necessary details and in a team meeting sit together and ask for them to come up with the ideas for future strategy, this always work out (at least for me)!
phenominal. data can show everyone what is going on but few want to take the time to learn about. make it about them and what they can get out it or just give them free stuff or reward them verbally. thanks for the great post that works for multiple industries.
Thanks Joanna, Your post made me smile and laugh. Two signs of a good post. :)
What do you do if your Boss/Owner won't give you the time to dive into the google analytic data?
He/She would rather rely on the data from the inventory/accounting/customer application called Mas90.
I would like to put the Google Analytics and Mas90 data together and dive in to that.... "we don't have time for that. say Boss/Owner"
Any suggestions besides bashing my head against the wall?
Joanna, your beginning anecdote was both funny and sad, as many of us data-driven folks have lived through exactly such a scenario. I can tell you that your experience is not limited to the world of online marketing. As someone who has worked in data analysis for several different industries and disciplines, it is the same across the board. Even worse is when someone comes to you desparate for answers and you pour your heart into analysis that is such a work of art, it would bring a tear of joy to Michaelangelo's eye, only to discover they have moved onto the next brush fire and can only give your brilliance a sideways glance.
I would like to add an item to your list: tell your audience what it means to them. Personally. Put this information at the very beginning of your email and phrase it like the thing that your CEO has been breathing down everyone's neck about. Bribery is good, but fear taps into the lizard brain and the primal response kicks in. I have always found this to be a useful tactic. Just make sure your analysis is airtight, because if scrutiny brings your credibility into question, this approach won't work so well the next time.
As for the rest of your tips, as a marketer, I like them a lot. You have a product to sell and if it's worth buying, promote the hell out of it. Brand your metrics, give them a mascot, use a special email template, get the CEO to mention them in her internal blog...whatever it takes to get the rest of the minions to take notice! Arrive in a limo and dress like a rock star and the paparazzi will take pictures!
Great suggestions for getting your coworkers interested! It's hard being the keeper of the data keys and knowing that you've discovered something useful, but no one else seems to care. I especially agree with point #4. The more targeted you can present the data, the more likely someone is going to read it.
Great POST!! :-)
This one grabed me from the intro!! I think anyone who has done SEO on a profesional level knows exactly what your talking about. In my situation i deal with Sales and marketing people, yet they dont and are not willing to try and understand link metrics :-) But i get satisfaction from BLOWING there mind with results. The small data often has the most power 42% week over week organic growth? Thank you Farmer update!!
The key to sharing data is your ability to translate sometimes mountains of data into very useful high level analysis, especially when you are doing consulting/agency work, but also in many cases in house work depending on the knowledge level of those you are sharing results with. Data provides you feedback which allows the adjustment and improvement of campaigns over time. Determining the desired results/requirements of the stakeholders before you ever start the campaign and on an ongiong basis is critically important to making improvements that are useful. Therefore if you are using data the right way, it will translate into high level results which engage the stakeholders because it is delivering the results they desire. This is why when producing progress reports it is typically best to use the executive summary to drive home the most useful high level analysis. The rest of the data should be in the report details to back up the high level analysis.
In that sense getting people to buy into a data driven culture doesn't require them to develop the urge to dive deep into the data pool. Those who want to can, but it should be enough for most to skim the surface if you do effective reporting.
Very good post Joanna and very needed, because, even though Analytics is a scaring beast for clients especially (all those numbers, %, graphics, hard to understand concepts), it is essential in order to put an order to all a business is doing with its online marketing strategy/tactics.
Somehow, without Analitics, SEO would be like like driving blindfolded. Or you are as Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman" or your strategy is going to crash.
That is why I've personally created a very basic guide to Analytics for my clients which explains - with the highest numbers of metaphores - the analytics' slang and what they will see in the data reports. With making that world so alien for them closer, I am able to make understand the good and the bad about their strategies.
>"I did a Google Analytics brown bag when I first arrived at SEOmoz, and had huge hopes for a full series of them."
I've no idea what you mean by 'do a brown bag'. I can only assume that it's some sort of lunch time meeting? (based on the stereotype that USA-ians eat dinner from a brown bag at their desk). Did I guess right?
hey there! :) Sorry about that! A brown bag is slang for a meeting/conversation/training that happens over lunch. The idea is an informal meeting that gets people together to discuss a topic. Next time Ill be sure to clarify better ;)
A brown bag, as I understand it, is - yep - a lunch meeting. The idea being that one person is giving a presentation while the others listen and munch on the free lunch you've provided as a bribe thoughtfully provided for attendees.
I love brown-bags - we do one every week here at Point It where one of us drops some knowledge and blows everyone's mind. It keeps everyone fresh on what other people are doing and is a great way to make sure key ongoing education is happening.
<3 the post, Joanna!
You guessed right. And FOOD is one of the secret Keywords in the MozPlex ;). Check here: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=8489236245&aid=273227
Nice pictures !!!
Can someone at SeoMoz ship Roger to me so I can take a picture and send both the picture and Roger back ? :))
The picture will be for the Moxplex area :D
...just kiding .. don't send it as Europe is at war and Roger could get detected :)
Hello. I'm looking for a SEO company to work with me on some SEO improvemenets to my website. Love the tone and feel of SEOMOZ, and thought this would be a good place to start. Many thanks!