Welcome back to part 3 of our Data blog series. Catch up on part 1 and part 2 here. Read on to learn more about the 14 sources of business data that are yours for the taking.
Whether you’re looking to attract new customers, retain your existing customers, or sell more product, data collection is an effective way to boost your business. Here are the 14 sources of business data that are easily accessible and ready for the taking.
1. Invoices
You’re already using invoices to get paid. Why not track product sales, quantities, prices, and customer information to help make future business decisions?
2. Inventory Records
Do your inventory levels fluctuate more at certain times of the year? What products are flying off the shelves? Which products tend not to sell? Inventory Management goes hand-in-hand with the entire order fulfillment process.
3. Spreadsheets
You may have already begun collecting business data for accounting, employee workflow and more. Use the data you already have to your advantage.
4. POS System
Information collected from your POS system will be similar to invoice data and includes customer order history for tracking shopping habits. Learn more about POS systems here.
5. Employee & Customer Surveys
Surveying your new (and existing) employees or customers can provide insightful data into what they are looking for in their jobs. Use this data to positively impact workplace morale…and your bottom line. L-Tron will survey our OSCR360 users on how to improve training processes.
6. Email Campaign Click Rates
Are you sending emails to update potential customers? Track where your customers click and use link tracking tools to see what content is most important to your client base. Further segment your audience to make emails more personal.
7. Social Media Interactions
According to social media scheduling platform, Hootsuite, approximately 45% of the total world population are using social networks. Why not tap into this resource for additional data? Pull data on your audience, track social media interactions and see how much traffic social media can drive to your website, which brings us to…
8. Website Traffic
Which time of day do you have the most customers on your e-store? Which items in your inventory are most often purchased together? What are clients searching for? Do you have what they are searching for?
9. Sales Records
Are there certain times (of the day, month, or year) that products tend to sell better? Who is buying your product?
10. Customer Contact Forms
Whether potential customers are filling out forms at conferences or on your website, this data should be recorded and used to garner future sales.
11. Competitor Pricing
See how competitors are pricing their products and analyze this data to impact your pricing.
12. Incoming/Outgoing Phone Records
Which of your customer verticals tend to call in for support? Where are your employees outgoing phone calls focused?
13. Google Trends
Access Google’s statistics on search volume to learn what customers are looking for.
14. Government Site Data
Small Business Association identifies 5 places to access government sources of market data that can help your business and the National Federation of Independent Business provides additional small business data sources.
Now that you’ve had a chance to think about the “how”, it is important to keep in mind that data collection is just the beginning. Data analysis is just as critical – as is implementing change based on your findings.
Didn’t catch the beginning of our Data blog series? Read ‘Part 1: 3 Reasons why Data is here to stay’ here.
