In our most recent blog post, we shared tips on how to build a business case to make data analytics a priority in 2022. Now that you are prioritizing data analytics, we want you to keep the momentum going with some quick wins. Quick wins will give you tangible results to keep data top of mind throughout your organization.
Get your quick wins quickly by starting now! And don’t go at it alone. Build a diverse core team with colleagues from across the organization: membership, marketing, events, learning, IT and operations are good places to start. Look for people who have different points of view or have different skill sets to round out the team. You could even ask for volunteers to discover some data-loving people in your association. This will help create a culture that is “all in” on data.
Choose your goals wisely to make sure your quick win is indeed quick. Limit the scope to be intentional. Simply start with one problem to solve, figure out what you need to know, and then move on to the next problem. Remember to not get bogged down with perfection. Your data needs to be good enough for validation to move forward. When you have your results, be proud and excited, promote the results internally to continue to foster a data-driven culture.
Don’t be afraid of failure. Even if the result isn’t what you expected or wanted, you still win because you built a team and implemented a process. Also, you learned more than you knew before you started. If you get frustrated, don’t bail on the project. Stick with it until the end. As long as you choose your goal(s) wisely, build your core team, and move through the process it is worth sticking it out until the end. Going through the process repeatedly will get you in the habit of being successful.
Here’s our list of Top 10 Analytics Quick Wins:
10. Focus
Embarking on an analytics project will naturally result in a focus on data quality and data governance. As you start focusing in these areas, you’ll quickly see improvements that will also have massive impacts down the road. The renewed focus is a quick win.
9. Communication
Communicate what you learn with people that don’t have the insights you know and/or have access to the data that you have. Share information with the Board, Chapter Leads, staff, even members. This can result in happier board members, more successful chapters or members who better understand your value proposition. Keep your communication style simple to capture the attention of your audience.
For example, infographics and other concise visualizations work better than reports for most audiences.
8. Alignment
Strive for alignment around KPIs and strategic goals. Be deliberate about KPIs from an organizational level to the departmental level. Use data to ensure that everyone is heading in the right direction toward your goals.
7. Visibility/Collaboration
Collaborate with others inside and outside of your team. Show data and reports to colleagues, especially ones you don’t usually collaborate with. Ask colleagues to share their data with you. After a while, you will have centralized data that will organically create transparency across the organization. You will have visibility into other groups’ data without having to ask for it.
6. Self-Service
When you’re able to answer basic questions on your own, it helps eliminate the bottleneck to get information. You don’t have to rely on an expert or gatekeeper to run a query or answer your questions, which saves time across the association. Quickly move towards self-service with something as simple as a shared excel spreadsheet and eventually, you can move to a more elaborate, automated system, like Acumen.
5. Optimization
By spending a little bit of time today optimizing your data and reports, you will save time and effort in the future. If you start by organizing your data and setting up your reports now, you will eventually see up to 50%-time savings on report generation, formula creation, and work duplication across multiple departments.
4. Staff Engagement
Employees want tools that make them better at their jobs and feel better about where they work. Start with your core team to get them energized so they will evangelize data analytics throughout your organization. With data analytics, you will move towards being an organization that makes evidence-based, data-informed decisions. This will pay off with high levels of employee engagement. It can also help with recruiting as potential workers are increasingly expecting modern tools to set them up for success in their new roles.
3. Revenue
Create a process to generate revenue using data. You can start with something small and incremental that generates revenue quickly. Identify low-hanging fruit to generate more revenue. For example, find a few more attendees to go to a trade show or find people who bought a product last year, but didn’t this year.
You could even look at renewals and identify people that should be renewing, but haven’t done so yet – then target them with a renewal discount.
The key is to identify the insights then develop a few quick actions or programs that can rapidly move the revenue dial and provide demonstrable ROI.
2. Confidence
Data helps you make business decisions faster and with more confidence! As the saying goes, “Don’t guess, know.” When you can validate your data, you will be confident in your decisions.
1. New Insights
Find and share new insights. If you see something that doesn’t make sense, dig into data to see what is occurring, find the “aha moment” and share your discovery with colleagues. You don’t need to be a data scientist to identify these insights. It could be something as simple as realizing your active community members renew at a rate 5x that of members who do not engage in the community. Aha! Now you need to develop initiatives that get people more involved in your community right from the start.
Jump in to data analytics and start achieving your own quick wins. The team at Association Analytics is here to help you be a winner! Schedule a call with one of our data-loving experts, book a personalized demo of Acumen or watch our recent webinar on How to Create Quick Wins with Analytics.
