Data can really say anything you want it to say.  It is up to us to interpret data correctly and then use it wisely to help us market correctly.  Recent survey results boasted that 83% of people prefer Google for their search engine.  http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/09/business/la-fi-tn-google-search-engines-pew20120309 What does that really mean?  Were survey participants asked a survey after using Google search engine?  What about the other people that use other search engines like Bing or Yahoo, did they also take the survey? Would people’s answers change after new privacy policy changes were made?  What about those that didn’t take the survey or the 31% of the people that don’t access the internet http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/almost-a-third-of-americans-still-dont-use-the-net/.  All of a sudden our 83% starts to look like a much smaller number. This leads me to my top 5 questions to ask when working with data to develop reports used in marketing.

1.   What data do I really have?  Make sure you understand what data you have actually collected.  This includes the size of your data pool and the demographics in your pool.     

2.      Is my data usable?  Data needs to be current and valid.  How recently was the data collected and are your sources valid.

3.      Am I missing data on a group that I need to market to?  If you have gaps in your data pool figure out a way to start collecting additional data or see if you can access that data through another source.

4.      Have I correctly thought through my data analysis?  Make sure you know what you are analyzing and what results you are trying to obtain when generating data reports.  Always double check your thought process.  Have someone on your office team review your logic to make sure you are pulling the right report information.

5.       What are the needs for the future?  Think through what problems you have with your data on current projects and about what additional information would have improved your marketing capabilities.  Think about changing surveys or asking customer service reps to collect additional data when making customer service contacts.  Make sure to add these data fields in your data management software once you start collecting the new data.

Data is only as useful as how it was collected, what group was sampled and how it is used.   Data should be used with care.  In other words it should be used in an unbiased manner as a tool to help us predict trends or measure current and past customer usage.  When we use data as a means to justify current or future actions by manipulating the actual data we have in front of us then data loses its real value.  In the end it is just data.  It is up to us to use it wisely and understand exactly what we have that we are analyzing.  Remember data is just information, slivers of what happened at a particular moment in time, nothing more. 

Next up – Ethical Sales