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Creating a Culture of Analytics Starts with Building Relationships
Marketing Analytics Insights by Anil Batra, Optizent
Anil Batra
January 09, 2024
Table of Contents
One Insight That You Can Apply Right Away
Creating a Data-Driven Culture or Culture of Analytics in any organization is very hard. It is a grueling uphill task. If you are the only digital/web/marketing analyst in your organization, then I am sure you already know this. However, if you are successful in creating such a culture then you are also going to benefit a lot both in terms of career satisfaction and monetary gains.
So how do you create such a culture?
Before we dive into the answer, let’s first take a look at the most common reasons why people don’t use data:
They have always done things without data. They know what works best.
It is an additional step that nobody wants to deal with.
They feel they don’t have the required skills to use the data and insights
They have a fear of accountability. Using data means they will be measured and criticized. Nobody wants that.
Those who tried in the past were not happy with the reports that they got and felt they wasted their time.
They didn’t believe in web analytics data because they had no clue how the data was collected. They were not in the loop.
They don’t understand how web analytics can help them. The data and analytics team was too busy providing reports and not insights and hence stakeholders.
They simply don’t understand digital, web, and marketing analytics.
However, all these issues are symptoms of one common underlying issue. And that issue is the lack of relationship between the analytics team and the stakeholders they are serving.
People help and are willing to go the extra mile for the people they have good relationships with. If that relationship does not exist, then they won’t put in the effort required to change the way things have worked in the past.
If you are in this situation, where you are having a difficult time developing a culture of data, then I would like you to step back from your day-to-day tasks of generating reports, insights, etc., and focus on the relationship aspect.
You need to carve out time to build a relationship with your stakeholders. Understand their needs and assure them that you are there to help them. Your job as a digital analyst is to help your stakeholders get the right data and insights so that they can confidently make data-driven decisions.
Here are a few things you can do to get started:
Identify various stakeholders, who are currently getting the reports, insights, etc., that you or your team is producing.
If you don’t have enough people in your stakeholder list then identify who could potentially benefit from digital analytics in the company. You don’t have to have a comprehensive list of every person but some that you think could immediately benefit and you can immediately help is also a good list to start with. As I covered in my digital analytics career coaching week, digital analytics data can impact almost all the departments and aspects of your organization so you don’t have to limit yourself to the marketing department.
Get a meeting with them, individually (preferably) or in groups based on their roles/departments, etc. If you do individual meetings, then you can meet them in a casual setting instead of a meeting room.
The agenda of the first meeting should be to get to know them and build personal relationships.
Make sure you gather as much knowledge about their roles, department, etc. before you go into this meeting. You have to be well prepared.
Don’t talk about tracking, metrics, KPIs, etc. yet. If they talk about goals, metrics, etc. then fine but don’t jump the gun on your own.
During the conversation, you should try to understand why they have not used web analytics in the past and what they would like to see from the analytics group.
Make sure they understand that there will be a follow-up and you are there to help them and not to use numbers to find faults in what they are doing. You need collaboration.
Keep in mind that the goal of this exercise is to build relationships and trust. You need to make people feel confident that they can trust you. You are there to help them make data-driven decisions without jeopardizing their jobs. You understand their concerns and are willing to address them.
Schedule a follow-up meeting to go over your analysis of the past meeting and address any concerns/issues that are preventing them from using analytics. Show them various analytics use cases and collectively figure out what will help them.
During this process, you will also find out who all (groups/individuals) are more willing than others to help you build your case and will provide you with small wins that you can use to garner more support. If you have executive support e.g. your boss’s boss then leverage that to help you build these relationships.
In the end, remember, every company is different. The culture is different, challenges are different, and political structure is different so you must understand all those elements. It is not going to happen overnight so be prepared for a long rocky journey.
This is just one aspect of developing a culture of analytics. In future posts, I will cover more such topics and short learnings that you can apply right away to enhance your career.
We regularly discuss such issues in our bi-weekly meetings. If you are alone in your journey then consider joining my “Optizent Academy Insider” group. We are a group of people who are there to help you become successful. Join at https://academy.optizent.com/courses/membership/
"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." -- Denis Waitley, American Motivational Speaker and Writer
Two Free Educational Links For You
Digital Marketing and Analytics Jobs
Here are a few Digital Analytics job listings that our team has hand-picked. New job listings are added each week. Would you be interested in a separate Weekly email with job listings? Update your preferences.
Digital Experience Analyst - Cook Children’s Health Care System (Forth Worth, TX, US - Remote must live in TX)
Senior Marketing Data Analyst - AirHelp - Berlin - Remote (Paid search, SEO, email, affiliate marketing, reporting, GA, Ad managers, Google Marketing Platform, CRM, SQL, DBT modeling, Looker Studio)
Senior Data Analyst - AirHelp - Poland - Remote (Python, BI, SQL)
Senior Marketing Data Analyst - AirHelp - Spain- Remote (Paid search, SEO, email, affiliate marketing, reporting, GA, Ad managers, Google Marketing Platform, CRM, SQL, DBT modeling, Looker
Digital Site Analyst, Ford Motor Company, Remote US (Web Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Tag Management systems, Optimizely or similar, Looker Studio)
Senior Digital Product Analyst, Web - Boston US, Remote (GA, GTM, Amplitude or Mixpanel, SQL, data visualization tools)
Senior Digital Marketing Analyst, Koddi (Fort Worth, TX, US - Remote)
Senior Digital Marketing Analyst- Dallas/Ft. Worth or St. Louis
Social Media Data Specialist - TechnologyAdvice (Nashville, TN, US - Remote) (SQL, Looker, Power BI, Google Analytics, Meta Business Insights)
Senior Digital Analyst, Kyriba - Clearsulting , Atlanta, US - Remote
Digital Performance Analyst, Fusion Technology, Clarksburg, WV Remote
Marketing Analyst, Remote - Skiltrek San Francisco, California, United States Remote
Acquisition Marketing Analyst Crain Communication Remote US -(Sailthru, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Tableau)
Senior Manager Marketing & Consumer Analytics, Coach, NY USA
Senior Manager Email Marketing Data and Analytics, Salesforce, San Franciso, CA USA
Thank you,
Anil Batra, Optizent.com