How To Use Statistics As A Competitive Advantage

Business statistics is part of business intelligence that reports on trends. This can fall under the two main types, descriptive statistics and statistical inference. 

Descriptive statistics describe a large amount of data that is represented in charts and tables with no conclusions made. 

Statistical interference is when conclusions can be drawn from the data set. 

Analytics is a key part of the sales funnel. The sales funnel is a huge part of generating profit, as without leads means no sales and thereby no revenue or profit. 

By having a thorough understanding of the sales funnel, a business will be able to locate the “holes” and rectify where the problems lie. 

Using statistics, a business can use data-driven, educated strategies to get more customers into the sales funnel and therefore generate more leads and/or sales. 

The Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is the process of when a stranger is converted to a customer. 

It starts with the top of the funnel, stage one, awareness. This is when the business gets the attention of a potential customer, making them aware of your brand and products. 

Second, comes interest. This is when the customer delves into research and starts to shop around comparing your products with what the competitors have to offer. The interest phase is when you should start to educate consumers about your product. Throwing promotional material at them may scare them away. 

The third stage is the decision stage. The customer is now ready to buy the product but deciding their options from different companies. This is when a business should promote and win the customer over. 

The fourth and final stage of the sales funnel is action. This is when the customer acts and purchases the product. This stage does not just apply to new customers but also is essential with customer retention and keeping existing customers loyal to the brand. 

The funnel starts with a broad opportunity to reach out to a large audience and catch the eye of a percentage of them. Once the attention has been caught, a business must create a connection with potential customers with the right message and timing. Within the third stage, there may be obstacles, providing the solutions to their problems or reservations they may have. A successful business will need to overcome such as showing they offer the most competitive price or the best customer service. 

With persistence and an integrated marketing campaign, a business will convert a stranger into a customer, and with an ongoing customer retention strategy, a loyal customer base will be created. 

Tracking the success of the sales funnel against business goals will show how effectively the business is using the funnel. Is the business hitting its lead generation target? Has the sales target been hit? Are you receiving the correct data from potential customers in order to communicate, educate and persuade them to purchase from the brand? 

What Is Business Statistical Analysis? 

Business statistical analysis, otherwise known as just statistics, is the term used when describing the process of the collection and analysis of data when discovering trends and habits of customers. 

What Is A Statistical Analysis Process?

The category of data is to be identified. Data can fall into the following whether qualitative or quantitative: 

  1. Personal data: name, address, email address, location data, or acceptance of cookies 
  2. Engagement data: product usage and brand, marketing, support, and success engagement 
  3. Behavioral data: website engagement, buying habits, new or returning customers 
  4. Attitudinal data: this is generally qualitative data, such as preference, desirability, and opinions

In order to run statistical analysis that follows the common process, stages that will need to be included are:  

  • Estimates 
  • Confidence Interval
  • Credible Intervals 

Benefits Of Statistical Analysis 

The main advantage of using big data in statistical analysis is to identify and potentially predict trends. The conclusions created from the data trends can further influence decisions getting businesses closer to reaching business aims. 

Big data analysis can aid marketing strategies, and it can establish where cold, warm and hot leads are coming from, as well as where they visit your website from (social media or paid ads, for example). A business would be able to identify where their customers are falling out of the sales funnel on a website and give the opportunity to create a new strategy to catch them and put them back in. Without the advantage of data analytics, a business would not be able to know why or where their customers are leaving them. 

Responsibility With Statistics  

Using statistical analysis to represent data is an easy and quick way to present the business to stakeholders or potential investors. 

Instead of describing how the business is doing, a report can show the financials, customer base, and future predictions. 

Using statistics will report findings in an objective manner and help businesses to pin-point an optimized return on investment 

What Kind Of Analytics Are There?

Predictive Analytics 

Predictive analytics is appropriate for large data sets and different types of data to get knowledgeable insights. These days, businesses are more likely to turn to predictive analytics software to provide an answer for difficult questions, causing a block in the business, or to provide innovative data insights leading to new opportunities. 

This kind of analytics software is ideal for improving operations, optimizing marketing campaigns, and even detecting fraud. 

Consumer Insights 

Consumer insights give a business personalized, high-quality insights into a customer database. It helps to identify the target audience’s needs and influences how to use this information in a marketing campaign. 

There are different levels of insights that can be found using different tactics. Consumer insights can be gathered through different marketing channels. From customer communications, a business would be able to track email opens, and from website analytics, a business can track website engagement, importantly the sales funnel and product sales. 

A business will need to look at the data collected within context. It may not truly represent your customer’s honest habits if they are influenced by a discounted price or promotions. However, collecting the data of sales that were a direct response to a sale or promotion is something to be noted (it may come in useful if a sales target has not been hit). 

Analyzing consumer insights can help identify consumer groups that are not responding to a campaign or if there is a potential to target a new and upcoming target audience. 

It is imperative that businesses collect the right data in order to get the right insights, and to do this, it is worth keeping an eye on top of the latest consumer, industry, and market trends. Social media is a free tool available for a business that is keeping its ear to the ground. Insights regarding brand loyalty, the consumer, and the wider culture can be found by running investigatory campaigns to find out what you need to know. For example, running an engaging campaign to find out which color schemes for a new product they prefer. 

From the information, a business can then create a customer journey map and isolate the underperforming stages of the sales funnel. 

Industry-Specific Statistics

There are many types of universal statistics that businesses rely on; however, there are also niche statistics such as Weather Applied Statistics for unlocking secrets of weather-related consumer purchasing patterns. Click here to learn more.

Such statistics established themselves with the quality of data, efficiency, and was of use. It goes without saying that Weather Applied Statistics is a software that is popularly used with large international and national weather services. 

Without statistics, the weather industry would not be able to predict the weather, good or bad. 

For website tracking, software such as Google Analytics can help identify popular landing pages, conversions from a specific campaign, and the most likely page that potential customers exit from. 

For social media scheduling and listening, software such as Hootsuite and Sendible can track a business’ followers and even monitor which posts are generating the most clicks. From this insight, a business can then amend its marketing strategy to provide similar posts to attract more of its target audience to respond to. 

In Conclusion

Statistic analysis is important for businesses. Data is imperative for the sales funnel after analyzing where potential customers are falling out, and leads are being lost. 

Businesses should utilize statistical data to highlight and predict trends to understand their customers better. 

Getting in-depth knowledge of your consumers and financials will allow a company to mark themselves against their business goals and also make it more simple to represent in a report. 

It does not just apply to consumer insights; there are many industry-specific analytic software and measurements that can be put into place to forecast and predict the future. 

Using a data-driven strategy will allow a business to make educated decisions when creating a marketing strategy for attracting new leads into the sales funnel, communicating and educating potential customers in the decision phase, and converting them into committed and loyal returning customers.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.