Her Data Method

  • Homepage
  • About
  • Services
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Courses
  • Login

July 4, 2017 - Andy Derrick

Have you ever wondered if your social media campaigns are actually doing anything for your business?

Social media is THE place to connect with our audiences and build our brands. We all know this. BUT, do you ever feel like you’re spinning your social media wheels unsure if you’re actually going anywhere? We’ve all been there.

Meet social media and marketing expert, Alyssa McNally. In this interview, she shares exactly how you can make sure your campaigns are making an impact by using data by learning how to set goals the right goals and measure campaign effectiveness. She also shares her favorite power tools that help her keep everything organized.

Read on to learn how to NEVER waste time or energy on a social media strategy that isn’t working!


Thank you for doing this interview! Let's jump in and start at the beginning. When did you become a social media marketer and what has that experience been like?

When I graduated college, social media had just started to become the most popular form of communication. Instagram had just launched, Twitter was picking up speed, and Grandma’s around the United States were starting to create Facebook accounts. And as the token millennial in my first job out of college, I was looked at to lead their social media marketing efforts.

I worked for several years as a marketing manager at a publishing company right outside of Chicago. They gave me the opportunities, resources, and time to really learn about social media marketing strategies. Fortunately, the projects also had budgets that allowed me to test out my marketing theories while promoting entry level authors, which always helps, right?

Alyssa McNally - Social Media Marketing Interview for HerDataMethod.com

From that job, I transitioned to Nashville where I began freelancing for a few different companies running their social media accounts and campaigns, as well as writing and editing content as needed.  

Which led me to a brief stint at a small startup called Gradient; an online magazine focused on exploring the human experience. But, as so many startup stories go, after a series of unfortunate events, that company lost their funding.

Finding myself pushed back into the world of freelance, I decided to launch my own small business. I still provide social media marketing for startups, but now I work on a contract basis with more than one company at a time. 

What is your process for choosing and developing a new social media campaign?

My business is generally comprised of two different types of projects, campaign based or brand based, and they are exactly what they sound like!

If a company hires me to execute a campaign based project there is always a very specific goal in mind for a short period of time. They usually want to raise awareness about a specific product, to grow by a certain amount of followers or to increase sales.

Brand based projects require more time to implement.  And generally, the focus is on developing brand awareness, creating higher conversion rates, and/or increasing their SEO all of which require several months of development and a lot more time to execute.

However, both types of project are very influenced by data. When I create specific social media goals and think through how I can reach them I have to know what their current customers look like before I start targeting who they hope to reach.

Campaign Based Project Image for Alyssa McNally Interview on Her Data Method Blog
Brand Based Project Image for Alyssa McNally Interview on Her Data Method Blog

Data allows me to know who is already visiting their website, who has already bought into their brand message and product. Once I know that information I can quickly deduce the kind of person I need to target. Then I begin to identify opportunities to expand into different markets.

When it comes to social media channels, I always start by collecting demographic data (information like age, gender, and location) on the existing audience. Then I look at how engaged, or active, they are on each of the client’s existing social media platforms. I have to establish a baseline first of who they are currently reaching and who is already converting. Otherwise, once I begin to grow their reach it would be impossible to measure what is working and what isn’t if I don’t have this figured out.

Once you determine who your target customer is what is your process for setting goals at the start of a new campaign?

I always 100% of the time set goals before starting a new campaign or taking over an existing account. I do this for many reasons, the first being it helps measure success and show the client progress. Throwing money into campaigns or marketing agencies with no measurable goals is pretty pointless. I just think it makes sense to start with a baseline and work towards a goal. And if I miss the clues and the audience doesn’t react like I thought they would? It’s still great information about your customers! You can’t control the data, you have to follow whatever it tells you. 

Up Graph of Growth of Social Media Strategies - Alyssa McNally - HerDataMethod.com Blog

There are parts of social media campaign that are harder to track than others — like overall brand awareness and customer comfortability — however, those things are trackable, just not easily through most traditional analytic tools. You have to dig a little deeper for those!

Secondly, setting goals helps me create measurable analytics; it helps us adjust posts, audiences, and verbiage throughout the campaign to meet those initial goals that were set.

Tell us about a time you knocked a social media campaign out of the park. What factors influenced the campaign’s success the most?

One time I had a client who wanted me to help him with three very specific, measurable goals:

Client Goal No.1 - Alyssa McNally Interview - Her Data Method

To expand their audience reach by 40% on Instagram within the next three months.

Client Goal No.2 - Alyssa McNally Interview - Her Data Method

To impress and woo large corporate brands into buying their product by developing a more sophisticated brand presence.

Client Goal No.3 - Alyssa McNally Interview - Her Data Method

To drive 100 visitors to our client’s website per month through organic engagement (not paid).

SOLUTION NO. 1

There was a little bit of trial and error on this one. But, once I got a strong grasp of how the brand was currently perceived, and then I was able to expand their audience engagement and reach on Instagram over 90 percent!

Through Minter, (see tool recommendations below) I was able to discover when their audience was most active on social media, which hashtags were getting the most traction, and what posts were attracting the most traffic and at what time of day. I kept measuring and adjusting as needed. I tested different types of posts, even tested a different language before eventually finding out what would work best for their audience.

SOLUTION NO. 2

Designing a curated feed so that large corporate brands would see a level of professionalism in their brand. Every photo and design was posted in context with the rest of the feed. The owner had other companies coming up to him complimenting him on their presence, and he was able to sign a contract with a large brand because they were impressed with his social presence.

SOLUTION NO. 3

The client’s online traffic increased and an average one hundred people visiting his website every month due to the actions that were implemented for steps 1 and 2, which was tracked by Google Analytics.

Now, what about a campaign that didn't go so well? What did you learn from that one?

I was working on a team that a company hired us to do a LinkedIn campaign. They wanted to increase awareness before a conference they were attending. While the client was actually extremely happy with the work we did, we were underwhelmed with the results and felt that we didn’t hit the mark.

The main reason we felt like we didn’t make much of a difference was that we started the project with very little knowledge about the client’s customer base. They did not provide any statistics, or understanding of how their target audience was spending their time online. We had to make educated guesses and launch with the information we had to work with. So, case in point, right? It’s all about the data! 

Social Media Campaigns - Alyssa McNally - HerDataMethod.com Blog

What tools do you love for social media management, data and analytics?

Other than the obvious analytic tools that are built into each individual social media platform and Google Analytics, here are three that I love…

Social Media Marketing with Impact - Alyssa McNally - Her Data Method
grum.co – Great for scheduling Instagram posts (from your computer!!)
Social Media Marketing with Impact - Alyssa McNally - Her Data Method
minter.io – Minter has the best Instagram analytics!
Social Media Marketing with Impact - Alyssa McNally - Her Data Method
sproutsocial.com – Awesome analytics for every social platform!

What one piece of advice would you give to a woman looking to start or improve her social media marketing efforts?

My biggest piece of advice is…don’t have social media accounts just for the sake of having them. Create realistic goals for your platforms, post with purpose and take the time to understand how it is valuable to advancing your brand.

Where do you think social media marketing is going? Where should people be looking in the future?

A few things…

Everything will be more live, more authentic. Think about how your brand can be live, present and active with your target market.

Sales are going to just continue to move online, Amazon is changing the game, and it is cost effective for businesses to move their products online. And as a result, social media will continue to be oversaturated with sales, which will keep forcing social media marketers to figure out how to stand out.

At the end of the day, learn how to tell your story and focus on being authentic with your audience.

Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

Related Posts

*This post contains affiliate links. Please know that we only recommend products or services that we genuinely enjoy and have gotten great results with for our own business.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: analytics, data, planning, social media

June 20, 2017 - Ashley Haugen

How Data Made Her Do It

When it comes to the day-to-day tasks involved with running a startup, Shannon Ware knows the routine. She and partner Melody Jennings Bowers founded the Virtual Collective, an online network of contractors that provides digital services to clients and businesses of all kinds and sizes. Shannon’s role is that of virtual team manager as well as project manager for the company’s clients. “My role is to oversee team productivity and functionality,” she says. “I make sure the right team members are in place and that all projects are moving in the right direction, on time and under budget.” But she says, “I have to be honest, data is not what excites me. I do not love looking at graphs and charts, but I do love knowing who our customer is, what they want, and knowing that we know how to deliver. THAT is exciting to me!”

“I have to be honest, data is not what excites me. I do not love looking at graphs and charts, but I do love knowing who our customer is, what they want, and knowing that we know how to deliver. THAT is exciting to me!”

Since launching Virtual Collection in 2014, Shannon and Melody observed that most of their clients came to them in search of help solving a problem, yet they weren’t quite sure what the problem was. “They want a website without knowing what they want their customers to do on their site. They want blogs without knowing what their customers want to read about. They want a copywriter to match their voice when they haven’t truly defined their messaging,” explains Shannon. And she and Melody were quick to identify the fact that without having these sorts of answers in place, it was highly unlikely that their team — or any team — could help these clients without data to help guide them.

The pair quickly learned that if they brought on clients who admittedly didn’t have all of these things figured out, their ability to actually help those clients was slim. And that was a turning point for the duo. They decided to shift their approach and redirected their potential clients to begin working through the necessary steps of understanding their customers and data first, before doing anything else much less spend another dime on marketing and growth efforts.

“They want a website without knowing what they want their customers to do on their site. They want blogs without knowing what their customers want to read about. They want a copywriter to match their voice when they haven't truly defined their messaging."

Check your stats - image

Both Virtual Collective and their clients have seen dramatic results.

“The difference in the outcome of the projects where we insisted on sticking to our own proven processes versus the projects where we allowed the client to dictate workflow has been very eye-opening,” shares Shannon.

Eventually, this eye-opening journey is exactly what led them to create Her Data Method, an online education platform that teaches female business owners how to collect relevant data for their company. And to ultimately use it to guide decisions for company growth in a much more effective and targeted way. “Melody kept saying, ‘We need to teach people how to collect data!’

After enough rounds of backtracking with clients, I totally agreed. So we mapped out what we thought were the essential pieces of information that each client needed to know before implementing any marketing efforts, and that’s how Her Data Method was born.”

Thanks to a successful iFundWomen campaign Shannon and Melody were able to raise enough seed money to start building the course. They are working towards a launch date for Her Data Method later this summer! They are excited to start teaching the ins and outs (and whys) of data collection to other women so that they can make more informed decisions.

Three Powerful Data Questions, Answered

To hold you over until the course is launched, we picked Shannon’s brain on the three most important questions about data that women business owners (and men, for that matter) should be asking. Take a look and see if YOU can answer these essential questions about YOUR data? And then make sure you sign up to be the first to find out when the Her Data Method course is live!

Step 1

What is the most useful datapoint that people overlook when launching into marketing efforts?

I feel like at least 50% of our small business clients miss the mark on who their target customer really is. They all know who they think their customer is and then wonder why they are missing their sales goals. Data doesn’t lie. And more than likely, they have no clue how to figure out who they should be marketing to.

Step 2

Describe a real-world scenario where you used data to help make a strategic decision for your company?

We had been cranking out content for our Virtual Collective blog for over two years before we realized we were creating content for the wrong customer. We stopped, revisited our value proposition and made sure we were offering services that provided solutions for the customer we wanted to serve. Which is why we no longer have a blog published on our website! Two years of awesome content (that we spent a LOT of time and money on to create) is sitting on our website, unpublished. If we would have known to go through the simple steps that we teach in Her Data Method on the front-end we would have made adjustments a lot earlier in the game. But what a great example of a real-world scenario to learn from, right?

Step 3

If you could offer one piece of advice to future clients and/or someone starting a new business regarding the importance of data, what would you say?

The most important thing you can do is build a framework from the beginning. If you have a solid foundation of information about your customers, any stressful decision you need to make becomes less stressful. When you have real data about YOUR customers you can be more confident about making the next move for your business.

BONUS-100x100

What is your No. 1 goal for Her Data Method?

To empower women. The entrepreneur/business owner scene can be brutal and is predominately male-driven. We women have to stick together! I don’t expect everyone to care about data, but I like to think we can all learn something from each other in the process.

Can we get an amen?! If you’re ready to find out how to collect data and use it to grow your business beyond your wildest dreams, sign up to find out when the Her Data Method course is live, get our newsletters filled with handy tips and more. Data made us do it, and it’ll make you do it too!

Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

Related Posts

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: data collection, female entrepreneurs, women business owners

June 6, 2017 - Ashley Haugen

How Data Made Her Do It

Today I am interviewing Melody Jennings Bowers, co-founder of the Virtual Collective and Her Data Method. A former school teacher, Melody is a brilliant, hard-working, data-driven woman, mom of two rockstar teenagers and all-around badass, and she can hustle with the best of them when it comes to making things happen. In fact, she and her co-founder Shannon Ware hustled so hard during the iFundWomen campaign that they met their funding goal and then some, which has since allowed them to begin converting their Her Data Method dreams into reality. Melody took a quick break to share with us what she’s gained through the crowdfunding experience (HINT: It’s not just money …), what her goals are for Her Data Method and so much more.

Meet Melody, Co-Creator of Her Data Method

Melody! How are you?

I’m good! Good!! Just working like crazy to get Her Data Method built and launched.

Excellent! Before we get into Her Data Method, I want readers to get an idea of who you are and the path that led you to this point in your career.

Through the work we were doing with Virtual Collective, we found that our clients often struggled to understand how the health of their website impacted their ability to collect data, and that kept them from being able to effectively market their brand. Which ended up leading to wasted time and wasted ad dollars.

After I learned how to code and I built a couple websites from scratch and understood how everything works from the backend of a site, I realized that there are several basic fundamentals are non-negotiable if you want to have an online presence. I began mapping out a course to start figuring out what and how to teach in a way that would make sense to non-tech people. Once a teacher always a teacher!

"I mapped out a course and started to figure out what and how to teach it in a way that would make sense to non-tech people. Once a teacher always a teacher!"

Live-Crowdfunding-Marketplace-Event-Nashville-Entrepreneur-Center

How did you and Shannon conceive the Her Data Method idea?

Shannon and I had committed to building an online course about how to collect data and we brought on Andy Derrick to help us figure out the best way to build it. In our first brainstorming session (where I was probably terrifying him with releasing all that was in my head!), I kept giving examples of situations that could have been helped by this course. He asked, “Don’t you think there are other women in business who could benefit from this?” That never crossed our minds. The minute I told Shannon about Andy’s observation, she got excited too. Everything clicked! We did some more research, came up with a name and began developing the course. A couple of weeks later, I received the iFundWomen press release email and everything kind of took on a life of its own.

At what point did you and Shannon say, “We’re doing this.”?

After I saw that press release on the morning of February 9, 2017, I quickly applied and then sent Shannon an email that said, “I just applied for this — could be a great way to launch the HDM idea.” And by 4 p.m. that same day I had been interviewed by the iFundWomen team and we were accepted. The goal was to launch our campaign on the iFundWomen Nashville page which was going live on March 6, and then we would prepare for the Live Crowdfunding Marketplace Event with the Mayor that was scheduled for March 26 at the Entrepreneur Center. I told Shannon “Yay! We just got accepted!” She said, “Yay!” but didn’t look at all the emails in detail until a week later when she emailed me and said, “This looks like a pretty amazing opportunity! What all do we need to do?” HA! Once we started looking into what all was involved with pulling off a crowdfunding campaign, we realized it’s a good thing we didn’t know what was involved or we might not have ever done it! But with the help of the Virtual Collective team, we pulled it off!

IMG_1884
FullSizeRender-900x500
IMG_1883

"With the help of the Virtual Collective team,
we pulled it off!"

Describe for me the moment when you achieved full funding.

We were at my house doing our weekly “partner meeting” and going over ways to cross the finish line. She sent an email reminding a client who had mentioned that he was interested in supporting the campaign that we were pretty close to our goal. He responded about five minutes later by saying, “Refresh your page.” He had donated $500! Which took us over our goal! We whooped and hollered, cried some happy, humble tears, sent him thank yous, and then got back to work.

What was the biggest “A-ha!” moment for you throughout the entire iFundWomen campaign experience?

There were so many “a-ha” moments. That whole experience was pivotal for me in realizing that everything we have been working toward with Virtual Collective and now Her Data Method has been time well spent. On a human level, it reminded me how awesome our team is and how valuable all of our community efforts have been. It felt like one big universal nod to go forth and prosper. It was so empowering! As a woman, it underscored the need for women to stop working for free and to not feel weird or uncomfortable about seeking funding.

Her-Data-Method-Crowdfunding-Project-on-iFundWomen-735x1100

Why do you think the focus is so heavily shifting toward empowering women, with Her Data Method and iFundWomen being prime examples of that?

There is strength in numbers. When you find other women who are either ahead of or behind you in their journey, it’s empowering both ways — it’s empowering to be the one who can help another woman in her efforts and encourage her along the way by sharing your experiences or knowledge or whatever. But it’s just as empowering to be on the receiving end of the encouragement and to feel that support. It’s contagious. That spirit is what will continue to move us forward.

Talk to me about equal pay for women, and the disparity between investments made in female startups vs. male startups.

Women are starting to change the entrepreneurial landscape with or without funding; the micro-funding boost just helps makes getting to the next level in the process a little more possible. But you know what? Until the day comes when women are on a level playing field with men in terms of pay, or VC investments, we need pioneering women like Karen Cahn who are willing to bring projects like iFundWomen to life that help all of us push our ideas forward – have you seen all the amazing female founders projects on iFundWomen?  I think women are already changing the world, give them a supportive community, some funds and get the out of the way! Plus it’s just fun to connect with that many other passionate women who are getting shit done with a shoestring budget and an iron will.

So do guys have any role at all in these women-driven businesses and initiatives?

Absolutely! Even though the focus is on women, it’s the community of inclusiveness that gives these initiatives power. Men, women, whatever. The future may be female, but we aren’t going to get there by ourselves. When people believe AND invest in you and your idea, the energy exchanged is powerful, and THAT is why iFundWomen was worth doing. We want to invigorate others in that same way to help them accomplish their goals and make a difference not only in their lives but in the world. It’s a cycle … and it’s life-changing for anyone who is a part of it!

IMG_1931-900x900

So what’s the ETA for the launch of Her Data Method?

Well, we just finalized the course outline today, and we begin building in May. You can pre-register now and we’ll let you know when the course is live. Beta testing is scheduled to begin in July, and we are on track to have the course live in August 2017! 

If ever there was a team that could meet — and exceed — their goals, it’s Melody and Shannon and their dedicated, loyal, passionate team. If you’re ready to get on board with Her Data Method and take your business to the next level, sign up to be notified when course registration goes live. Click here, learn more about it, sign up and get ready to rock!

[Sassy_Social_Share title="Sharing is Caring"]
Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

Related Posts

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: crowdfunding, data, female entrepreneurs, iFundWomen, Nashville, women business owners

April 12, 2017 - Melody Jennings Bowers

Why is iFundWomen Founder Karen Cahn Disrupting the Norm?

Here at Her Data Method, we are building and growing and evolving and thriving for one key reason: our iFundWomen campaign. Thanks to the hands-on coaching and support from the team at iFundWomen our project was funded three weeks into our campaign. Which is why we felt it was the perfect time to interview iFundWomen founder Karen Cahn to find out more about what led to the founding of iFundWomen, her thoughts on digital culture and, obviously, why she thinks data matters. Enjoy!

As Karen Cahn says it, she was born on the internet.

“I was one of those Gen-Xers who was in college when email became popular,” she explains, “and I’ve only ever really worked in the internet.”

Indeed, the iFundWomen founder has spent her entire career in the digital space, working at heavy hitters like Google, YouTube, AOL, and Salon.com to name a few.

And while she enjoyed supportive communities of female co-workers who worked alongside her in media sales, she is quick to acknowledge that that sort of support wasn’t as present on the tech side of the digital world. “I know that my sisters on the engineering side had very different experiences,” Karen shares, referring to the largely male-dominated tech industry, which she says is still, in large part, a “good old bros club.”

Which, in fact, was the impetus that led her to launch iFundWomen.

iFundWomen Crowdfunding Website Homepage Image

She looked specifically for crowdfunding sites for women. And when she couldn’t find any, she decided to build one.

“When we did our first crowdfunding campaign in 2016, I realized how little coaching, mentoring, and information there was available to entrepreneurs in general, let alone female entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding can be confusing, and it’s hard to raise money in general, let alone with no human help to ask questions to or to guide you along the way,” she says.  “Very quickly into our crowdfunding campaign, I figured out that it was just about having basic sales skills. Truly, it’s just sales. Selling people things they want to buy, through your crowdfunding campaign, as a way to fund your business. If you prepare and you have a community and coaching, then it’s do-able.”

That Kickstarter experience led her to the internet where she looked specifically for crowdfunding sites for women. And when she couldn’t find any, she decided to build one.

“Silicon Valley culture hasn’t evolved really. Sure the funding gap for female-run companies is starting to get a little bit better in the Silicon Valley specifically, but everywhere else, it’s not getting better,” she says, “and that’s exactly why we started iFundWomen.”

It's time to disrupt the norm.

We definitely consider her a trailblazer for women in the digital space, and she does too.

Not boastfully, but proudly. And passionately. And with an enthusiasm that is downright contagious.

When only 2%-6% of venture money goes to women and even less than that to women of color, iFundWomen is here to disrupt the norm and close the funding and confidence gaps.

To be clear, it’s not about chest-beating, man-hating females staking their claims.

In fact, it’s just the opposite. “Half of the backers on the platform are men who are excited about the same mission,” says Karen. “iFundWomen is not just a platform, it’s a movement, and it’s going to take all of us working together to get there.”

iFundWomen Founder Karen Cahn - Her Data Method Blog
iFundWomen Founder Karen Cahn - Crowdfunding Platform Build Exclusively For Women - CNBC Executive Edge

Data can open up a whole new world.

Karen’s mission and ours here at Her Data Method are definitely in sync.

Hers is to help women get equal access to not only funding but to the resources and support needed to help them launch their businesses. Ours? Well, we’re excited to help women successfully launch, grow and thrive with the empowerment that data provides.

“Data is SO important! And I love what Her Data Method is doing because you’re not dumbing it down,” Karen says, with the same level of excitement that we have as well.

Her Data Method Team at iFundWomen Nashville Marketplace Event

“Historically, women have not been encouraged to go into STEM fields where you are trained on how to use data for every decision. We have been encouraged to go into literally any other field other than STEM, fields like fashion, beauty, lifestyle, or even public service, which is fine, but if you demystify the world of numbers and analytics and tools, and make all of that less scary and more approachable, an entirely new world opens up, and the sky’s the limit. I just think that the mission of Her Data Method is amazing!”

And coming from an amazing woman like Karen Cahn, we will most definitely take that as a compliment!

“Data is SO important! And I love what Her Data Method is doing because you’re not dumbing it down!”

Conclusion

iFundWomen founder Karen Cahn spoke with Melody about what led her to launch a crowdfunding platform for women-led businesses. After completing a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds when launching her first startup she realized how little information, coaching or handholding is available to entrepreneurs in general, let alone female entrepreneurs. The crowdfunding process can be overwhelming without human help and guidance. When she was unable to find the resources that she was looking for she decided to build a crowdfunding platform for women. Now iFundWomen is here to disrupt the norm and close the funding and confidence gaps for companies like ours to launch projects that we thought not previously possible.

Data Matters! HerDataMethod.com Nashville, TN

Related Posts

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: crowdfunding, data collection, female founders, iFundWomen, startups, women in business

March 22, 2017 - Melody Jennings Bowers

Why Data Collection Matters: Web Entrepreneur Kevin Murray Weighs In

When Kevin Murray, a California-based entrepreneur, first began his digital career, it was in the late ‘90s at a time when the Internet and all of its potential was widely unrealized. Now, having worked in web development and design for nearly two decades, he has not only seen the evolution of the Internet, he has staked his claim in the digital space. “I was working for Entrepreneur.com (Entrepreneur Magazine) in web development and technical design,” Murray shares, “and working at a place like that, you can’t help but get inspired to start your own business.”

So that’s just what Murray did.

He went full-time freelance, translating the technical knowledge he gained at the agency level into a successful career, and in 2015, he launched KamGraphica, as a boutique web studio based in Long Beach, California. “We build websites that appeal to both people and search engines,” Murray explains of his work. “And we aim to turn our clients’ prospects into customers.”

Educated and Informed Decisions Require Data

He quickly built an impressive client base comprised mostly of referrals, and his company continues to thrive. And he credits data as one of the most crucial components of his success. “The biggest thing is getting the data so you can make educated and informed responses to what’s happening with your investment,” Murray shares. Whether he’s creating a site for a client or developing his own projects, he understands that data collection matters to help guide every decision from how and where to spend your marketing dollars to where to place your social buttons on your homepage. “If you have a campaign on Facebook or analytics for Google, seeing metrics helps you understand your audience and shows you where the efforts need to be applied.”

But simply looking at your Facebook insights or Google analytics, while helpful, doesn’t offer the big picture of how all of your efforts and entities are working together. “To do it one-off makes it hard to understand the overall scope — you have to go to each platform, compile it manually, and it can be time-consuming and time-intensive,” Murray explains. “A dashboard allows you to simplify your data collection in one spot and get the basics in one place.”

If you don’t have a starting point, it’s hard to understand where you need to focus your efforts. That’s why I recommend all small business owners set up their data tracking efforts before they launch their business to set a benchmark.

Most importantly, Murray underscores the fact that time is of the essence. “If you don’t have a starting point, it’s hard to understand where you need to focus your efforts,” he says. “That’s why I recommend all small business owners set up their tracking efforts before they launch their business to set a benchmark.”

Start small. You don’t have to collect ALL the data at once!

One important suggestion Murray offers is to start small. Diving into data and signing up with the big tech tools to pull a bunch of intricate and possibly irrelevant data is not only unnecessary, but it’s also expensive. “I’ve seen people start big, and it’s too much,” he shares. “There are a lot of tools out there, and some are too technical for people just starting out. But if you start small and start to understand the data, then you can move your way up with a more clear understanding of why you need more technical tools.”

Before even that, though, is the need to understand how to begin the data collection process so you can determine which data matters most to your company’s success, which is where Her Data Method comes in. “There’s a saying in the conference space that content is king. Everyone is looking for the next big piece of content. But I want to say ‘data is king.’ The data side, the SEO, is a very mystifying thing, so people are reserved to spend money on it because it’s not a tangible thing,” Murray explains. “Trying to justify $500 a month to services for a ranking that could change next week is hard if you don’t understand the data, so understanding what the data means to the business will help you understand the investment and feel good about the direction your company is heading and the decisions you’re making to get it there.”

Related Posts

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: data collection, entrepreneurs, startups, web development

  • Homepage
  • About
  • Services
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Courses
  • Login

Courses

  • Intro to Data Collection
  • Data Collection 101
  • My Courses
SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY DATA MATTERS NEWSLETTER

MADE BY THE VIRTUAL COLLECTIVE, LLC IN NASHVILLE, TN © 2020

SITEMAP | PRIVACY | TERMS

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

SAVE & ACCEPT