A lot of creatives enjoy the process of producing something. Whether it’s writing content, designing visuals or building a website, there’s one important part that you can’t be ignored.
Numbers.
In the digital space, everything can be tracked. Unlike traditional media, the online world gives us the opportunity to learn more about the people we’re interacting with. But you can’t do this without knowing your numbers. While this might you cringe at the mere thought of maths, don’t be worried.
There are plenty of tools out there to help you understand your audience, such as the Google Keyword Planner for writers and ‘heatmaps’ for website designers.
So, designers, User Experience (UX) analytics will enable you to learn how visitors interact with the website. This data (yes, numbers are also data) can be analysed to obtain information like their age, location, interests and behaviours. In other words, who is visiting your website.
Knowing who your users are, what they’re looking for, and how you can deliver it… this data takes the guesswork out of your communications and helps to answer questions like:
- Where are my customers entering (and leaving)?
- How long are they staying on my website?
- Are there parts of my design that viewers don’t interact with?
- How can I boost conversions?
- Can I rearrange it to fit the user’s needs?
And data comes in handy for writers, too. You should already know all about keywords and how you can use them to attract more readers. There’s nothing new about this. But this might surprise you. Algorithms are being used to plot the emotional beats of best-selling novels.
It also detects the topics and the frequency of words under each category. This data will tell an author whether their manuscript will hit the New York Times bestseller list with 80% accuracy.
Cool, huh?
See, for writers, data goes beyond the expected keywords, Facebook likes, Instagram followers or Amazon reviews. It can do lots of other things, like drive your research and point you in the right direction. And with the Internet of Things, AI and robotics set to change the landscape of, well… everything, get on the data bandwagon now, if you’re not already.
This goes for all digital communications. If you first change your perception of data (all you number doubters) and leverage its power, you’ll see what it can do for your brand. And it’s not just to help reach more people and to make sure your message (whether it’s visual or written) resonates. It can act as a compass that directs your marketing and advertising spend.
Interpreting data should be an important part of what you do. Whether it’s for your website, social media, blog and other content, a podcast, advertising campaigns, event attendees or specifically about your clients, make the time to deep dive into your data.
Think of data is a tool. Don’t overcomplicate it.