Many solopreneurs, consultants, professional service providers, and small business owners who develop more and more internal activities that requires their attention - reviewing invoices, following up on customer requests, and so on. Eventually delegation is needed for growth, but some time is initially spent understanding the details so that delegation is done correctly.
In analytics and marketing optimization, developing the connection between data and context is the reason to review data in the first place. That connection can reveal which marketing tasks are needed. So before delegating your marketing optimization, look for a few clues that indicate when more support is needed:
1. When questions are becoming more about strategic concerns than tactical concerns
If you are asking more questions about how to tie the data to your business, then you may be seeking solutions that do not leverage your business to its fullest capability. Many answers regarding even light coding decisions such as that in search engine optimization have value when implemented relative to your business objectives, not just as a “nice to know” answer. Let someone help develop the details of how a social media platform like Pinterest or Google Plus should be used in your business, as well as monitor the results of the data in an analytics report.
2. Implementing applications that require some coding changes
Like any website developing, coding changes related to your analytics take time to implement. E commerce is one specific application, as is combining analytics with a CRM. If you are comfortable with Javascript, then it is a valuable to budget a few hours of time to review how the change impacts digital marketing plans and measurement capability.
3. The tactics for marketing has made attribution complicated
A solopreneur can handle a simple marketing plan. But when there is several media being used to market a business, the number of ways to examine an analytic report rapidly increases. In his book Web Analytics 2.0, Avinash Kaushik noted that 300 reports in Google Analytics are possible. Connecting the dots as to the return effort on a marketing campaign takes time, a precious resource on a small team.
4. The discipline to implement changes is non-existent
A business needs to make time to review its measurements and see where its going. The need is no different than reviewing its cash position. As point three mentioned, marketing can be complicated. Analytics is not just numbers. It’s taking the time to break down ands understand how your site is doing.
If you do not have the discipline to make a light review of your data, then it’s time to seek someone who does and can make the time to review your results.
5. A large amount of data can be …well, too large
Dedicated support makes sense when your reporting needs have become monthly with a huge amount of data. What’s huge? Anything more than a few hours to answer means either additional tools are needed or more support may be needed to get to answer. Many ad agencies have analytics teams that report weekly on marketing campaigns, while large corporations may just want a monthly report on the sites an activity. So mark your time and reasoning for the action you take. Research should be separate from your standard business activity, so that any results and effort can be better understood and applied effectively.
