Google analytics, Facebook insight, YouTube insight, feedburner, klout, itunes reports, on-site search result trends, adwords campaign, plug-ins and widgets like meebo or apture…
Oh me, oh my.
The amount of data that you have access to is both amazingly empowering and, at times, totally overwhelming. How do you parse all of it to determine what’s working, what’s not and what you should fix?
One very useful approach, touted by Avinash Kaushik is called aggregation of marginal gains, wherein basically you laser target small, useful changes and let those minor successes pool into big results. This is counter to what most people will try to do, namely fix some really big thing and therefore hit a home run. Avinash is all about hitting meaningful singles.
Another tactic is to set the bar and then push it. How many views should your average youtube video be getting? Benchmark the competition and set a realistic goal for yourself. Say 500 views within the first week. Then, when you’ve hit that mark consistently on 5 or 6 new submissions, push yourself. How can you hit 1,000 in that first week? This is where your keyword research, marketing strategy and your knowledge of your audience (based on your analytics) reach a confluence.
What’s nice about this is that you develop a routine and once it works, it usually keeps on working.
Do you have any tips for dealing with analytics data overload? Check out mission control video. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InrOvEE2v38&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Tags: analytics