Marketing today has become intensively driven by data and analytics. You always hear about data everywhere. It’s all about the numbers, such as traffic, impressions, engagement, conversion, and click-through rates among others.

Tracking behavior online is seen to be the next frontier when it comes to effective digital marketing. Being able to track customers is necessary as this ensures that the business is spending time on the right platforms and adjusting when necessary. Analytics is also seen as a method of understanding customer behaviors better while improving sales.

Juggling tons of tools

It is important to keep in mind that tracking metrics is just scratching the surface. More work is required to be effective in monitoring these numbers. There isn’t a single tool that gets all the necessary data for every aspect of digital marketing.

One has to use different tools and programs to fully analyze and track every metric from different digital marketing strategies. There is specific analytics to check on every social media platform. When it comes to measuring website performance, Google Analytics and Kissmetrics are handy. Plus, you need to supplement the information given by these platforms with other tools. Most of these analytics tools have potholes that you need to address in order to get the data that you need. This is why you need to juggle a ton of tools just to track metrics.

It’s not enough

Even with all the tools that track and analyze the metrics, these numbers don’t show the real story. This is just one side of the whole picture of your business and might not paint an accurate photo.

Remember that every buying cycle is unique. There will be customers who have heard of your brand through print, radio, or TV and only research online after deciding to make a purchase. Others, who might have discovered you through word-of-mouth, will look into social media to learn more. All these scenarios will be discounted by digital analytics and will only be measured as a number from Facebook or Instagram.

This is where face-to-face interactions and human feedback come in. Making sure that you talk to customers and ask them where they’ve heard of you is still important. This might seem old-school, but it can be an essential input to add to your business’s CRM solutions if possible. This allows you to look into the other possible methods that are getting your brand to new ears.

Adding feedback into the mix

Big data will continue to be an important aspect when it comes to digital marketing. Knowing your numbers and understanding the analytics will give you an insight to your best-performing platforms that drive the most traffic.

However, soliciting customer feedback is also effective in understanding where the in-store customers come from. This also allows you to recognize your customers’ needs and preferences. Having this simple dialog can open opportunities in getting to know your customers well.

Data and customer feedback are two strategies that can work hand-in-hand in order to deliver better customer experience and increase sales. It is best to go beyond the reports and add a mix of in-person interaction. Data, although it provides effective customer tracking, does not tell us the full story. Numbers are good, but adding a qualitative aspect is better.