Using Data To Skyrocket Your Business Growth With Donna Dube

What's your first thought when you think about tracking business data? Many business owners hesitate about this since it's intimidating to think about. Some people shy away when they have to analyse data, but it’s a critical task! Are you stuck on how to generate conversions? Want to create more revenue? Data may be the answer you need for business growth .

In this episode, Donna Dube joins us to discuss how you can analyse data to create smart business decisions to achieve your goals and dreams. There's no need to track everything — start by only tracking relevant metrics. We also discuss how all businesses, even small businesses, can benefit from data.

Listen to the episode to learn how you can analyse data and harness its power for incredible business growth!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Understand why tracking data is critical for business growth and how you can start applying strategies right away.
Learn how to start and which metrics to track.
Discover how data can guide better business decisions.

LISTEN NOW:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:46 — 54.6MB) | Embed

WATCH NOW (and check out the Resources and Episode Highlights below):

On today’s show Donna is going to share:

Gain confidence with looking at your data
Use data to skyrocket your business growth
Start making smart decisions based on data today!

Resources

Download the workbook and jot down relevant notes as you listen to/watch the show
The Influence Alliance — A business-building community for changemakers who want to build a sustainable and scalable business they love.
The Influence Alliance Free Podcast Series
Are you struggling to be known as a trusted authority in your industry? Schedule a chat with Annemarie at help@annemariecross.com.
Connect with Donna: Productivity Plus I Facebook I LinkedIn I Instagram
Facebook Pixels
Google Analytics
Google Data Studio

Episode Highlights

[02:42] Why Tracking Data Can Help Your Business Growth

Remember that numbers and data can help you answer problems and questions in your business growth.
Don't be scared about your spreadsheet — you can organise data visually for easier understanding.
The benefit of tracking your numbers is to help you know what’s not working and what’s working.
Small companies can benefit from tracking numbers and help accelerate business growth.

[04:33] What are Common Business Data Myths?

You don't need an analytical brain or a mathematician on hand to understand and analyse data. Data can be represented through visuals like tables, graphs, and pie charts.
Creatives can get a lot of insights from data.
If you don't understand data at first, take some time to familiarise yourself with them.

[06:56] What Should We Be Tracking?

No matter the size of your business, start immediately and create the habit of tracking numbers.
Forbes reported that around 50% of small businesses survive beyond five years. One in three of those make it to ten years.
Donna believes that these statistics are because small businesses don’t analyse data to grow continually.
Start small; pick three to four critical metrics to track. Don’t get swayed by other business owners when you hear what they’re tracking.
Reflect on what you want to achieve in 12 months. From there, assess which metrics will help you reach that goal. Make sure your metrics are measurable.

[09:50] Data and Business Growth Strategies

You don’t need to use the latest technology to keep track of your data. Annemarie shares how one of her mentors grew her multi-million business using only pen and paper!
Tracking numbers will help you focus on making the right business decisions.
Donna's client was becoming overwhelmed from managing all her business social media accounts. She thought hiring social media managers would help.
However, Google Analytics showed that Facebook had the highest engagement while Instagram had the highest return on investment.
These numbers helped the client reduce overwhelm and focus on the platforms with the highest return on investment.

[13:54] Why You Should Be Patient

It takes time for data to show trends and patterns. Don't dismiss things just because they didn't work immediately.
Have a monthly review of your data to adjust for the following month.
It's not just about revenue. Make sure to track other metrics like return on investment.
Make sure to have annual reviews so you can spot trends.

[17:35] What to Use to Track and Analyse Data

Donna recommends using Google Analytics since it's free to use. Then hook to Google Data Studio, which displays the analytics visually.
Consider looking at the number of website visitors, what they're doing on a site, how long they stay, and which pages are popular.
If you want to track how well your social media platforms perform, attach a UTM to your links. A UTM will tell Google how people get there.
Highly searched keywords and phrases can also help people find your website more easily.

[24:12] How to Create a Business Growth Plan

Donna recommends having a strategic business plan and setting goals you want to achieve every quarter.
For example, if you want to start a podcast, assess what you want to have in 90 days. You can base this goal on the number of episodes, viewers, guests, or another metric you define.
Businesses change frequently, so you need to adapt.

[26:10] Understand Your Numbers

Increasing sales and generating leads will flow down to your bottom line. Eventually, you can upsell your products.
Be mindful of what you're tracking. Even if your business revenue is significant, consider the profit, loss, and how much it took to get clients.
Don't undersell your products and services. Know how much they cost to create.
Streamline your process where you can so you can save expenses. Be sure you're not paying for systems and tools you're not even using.
Learn to balance your expenses and savings.

[32:41] Don’t Just Delegate

Business owners often think that they can delegate work to others. However, you must have clear instructions or processes on hand before you can delegate effectively.
We can't delegate tasks effectively if we don't understand the role.
There are three main things you can measure. These are marketing, financials, and operations.

[34:22] When and How to Start

Just start, no matter how simple.
Business owners often assume problems arise from having specific systems. However, these problems are often symptoms.
You won’t know what to solve unless you track and analyse data.
If you’re not comfortable with data, work with someone else to help you build momentum.
Numbers don’t lie and can skyrocket your business.

10 Powerful Quotes

[3:32] ‘But really, numbers don't have to be scary. Numbers help you answer questions in your business, what's working, what's not working, right.’

[05:07] ‘I think a lot of people think when they want to look at their data, they have to have a very analytical brain, not a creative brain, they have to be good at math. And that's so far from the truth. Because, again, if you show that data in a visual way, you're now looking at pie charts and graphs and tables, not looking at formulas on the back end.’

[07:13] ‘Doesn't matter if your business is what you think is small, if you start this as a foundation, you're putting the right practice in from the get go. So as you grow in scale, you're already used to looking at those numbers.’

[08:24] ‘When we look at all the technology we have today. There's so much data swirling around us, almost every tech program software that you're going to use is going to give you some sort of analytics, right. But again, I say start small, pick three or four metrics that are going to be really important to you in growing your business for the next 12 months and start there.’

[12:46] ‘And so I said to her, let's experiment, let's dive into Google Analytics. And let's see, actually where your traffic is coming from the traffic that end up buying, which channels they're coming from. And we were pleasantly surprised to find that Facebook actually had the most people looking engaging and following her, but where her return on investment was was coming from Instagram.’

[16:33] ‘It's so insightful to go back and see the whole year in front of you and look at the the trends because oftentimes people will find, they may sell a certain product more times a certain month, than another month.’

[19:55] ‘So you can drill down very far but you can start you know with the foundation. So how many people are coming to my website? What kind of things are they doing when they get to my website? Which pages are most popular?’

[24:44] ‘So what I like to do is called strategic business planning right from the get go. And if I can get the client to agree to it, I like to do it every quarter, like you're saying every 90 days, because especially in small businesses, we change and evolve.’

[28:05] ‘How much did it cost to get that client? How did I actually make from that one sale? There's things that are skewed and so it's almost like you're looking through a glass that's blurred.’

[31:08] ‘Looking at that data can really help you with that, because you can look at and say, okay, good, I'm happy where my revenue is now, but my expenses, you know, they're going through the roof, and we need to do something.’

About Donna

Donna Dube is the founder of Productivity Plus, where she helps high-level entrepreneurs skyrocket their business growth and fulfil their business goals. Donna's expertise is in operational excellence, project management, team management, and accurate data measurement. She ensures her clients establish a strategic foundation to increase business productivity.

Want to learn more about Donna’s work? Check out Productivity Plus.

You can also connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Enjoy This Podcast?

Every company needs to understand itself if it wants to succeed. Do you want to scale? Do you want to experience the best business growth you can? You need to track and analyse your data, and as Donna presented, it’s easier than ever today.

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To staying ambitious,

Annemarie