From Stats to Stories: 3 Unique Ways to Use Your Analytics to Level Up Your Branding

Data, data, data. It’s the best and worst part of our jobs as content queens. Marketing and math go hand and hand (unfortunately) a necessary evil in our profession. We spend hours pouring over data but stalking analytics charts has gotten stale, and picking apart engagement stats is just plain boring. 

Well sis, call us a Polaroid picture, cause we’re writing this blog to help you shake things up a little. We thought, what if we could do more with our stats than schedule our posts at prime time? How can we take all these graphs and numbers and use them to create something special? 

As a digital marketing pro, you're probably knee-deep in analytics so we found three ways you can take those numbers and flip the theme into boss-level branding  instead of feeling like your mom was right about that accounting degree)

1. Heatmap your Homepage: Align Your Brand’s Aesthetic with Heatmaps

Your homepage is where your brand lives. It’s easy to hyperfocus on your social feeds but in reality, all roads should lead to your business's digital home. Heatmaps are a pretty nifty tool that shows you where users click, scroll, or hover most on your website or digital content. It’s like having X-ray vision for your audience's attention span.

Track which parts of your page are consistently getting the most attention. Do these hot spots feature certain images, colors, or CTAs? Take notes, sis. When the time comes to adjust campaign materials or redesign your website, you can use this info to make assets that incorporate things your audience is already interacting with. Create intentional color schemes for your site or inform your product placements—stop playing guessing games. With heatmaps, you can build a brand aesthetic that’s based on things you know your audience will engage and interact with, instead of playing pick the TikTok trend with your visuals.

2. Embrace the Hate: Use Negative Feedback to Reinforce Your Brand Values

All engagement is good engagement, especially if you know how to flip a negative review or comment. Internet trolls are the worst, but a pointed criticism or impassioned hater be an opportunity to let your brand stand on business and reinforce your values. Instead of shying away from criticism, embrace the feedback and engage. Your willingness to face your haters with an open ear and respect is a level of engagement that will set you apart. Use the discourse as an opportunity to tell your story your way.

Got a new campaign that isn’t landing with your base? Don’t get defensive. If your data is showing that customers aren’t responding well to something new, use that to figure out how to evolve. Sometimes, in business, we make decisions that there’s no going back from, but there’s always an opportunity to let your audience know that you’re listening. You can take the data you receive and craft a message about how you’re evolving.

People love a brand that listens and adapts. By turning tension into teachable moments, you’re showing your audience that you’re legit, you're listening, and you're learning. There’s no better way to build trust than to send a message to your audience that says “I see you.”

3. Put a Pin In It: Leverage Geo-Targeting for Localized Campaigns

Geo-targeting falls into the digital gray area, but there are plenty of ways to use this power for good, especially when it comes to marketing. Most brands look at location data as a bottom-of-the-barrel basic feature; usually what countries or cities their audience is coming from. You can do better, queen. Why not use geotagging to find out the specific interests of a community? Location data can be an entryway into a community. By combining location stats with other data, you can tap into the cultural moments happening in every neighborhood and craft localized campaigns around this information.

Is a chunk of your audience living in LA County? Reaching out to West Coast influencers or creating content that ties into events like Coachella can be a great place to start building your campaigns. On the flip side, if you’re gaining traction in a smaller market go hyper-local and connect with organizations or local influences that are connected to community-driven initiatives. Think about how you can piggyback off of things that are popular in specific markets.  

By going local with geo-targeting you make your audience feel like you’re not just speaking to the masses, but to them. Don’t be afraid to use the details to build high-level personalization and create connections that make you feel like a part of the neighborhood. Remember queens trends lie, people lie, but numbers don’t. Data is the blueprint for creating a brand story that can help you connect with your people. We hope this helps you figure out a new to cut through the analytics noise. Checking the stats, you might find a new way to breathe life into your brand. 

Next time you do your analytics report, and you find yourself drowning in figures and stats, feel free to take this page out of the TCQ Handbook, and make your data a little less daunting sis.

This one’s on the house. You know we’re in your corner queen.

With love, 

The Team at TCQ.