Data is big business but that doesn’t mean it’s the reserve of big businesses. Research shows that data-driven companies are often more successful. Just look at the Fintech scene and you’ll see plenty of success stories using data to create ever more convenient tools and platforms for faster, easier payments; slicker, simpler banking and more transparent finance.
Wealthfront’s automated investment service is one of the best known FinTech companies in the world, with over $2 billion of client assets now on their books. It claims to take the guesswork out of long-term investment by leaving the decisions up to an automated system which manages users’ personalised online investment accounts.
Duedil has harnessed public data on companies to provide new metrics on how solvent a business is. It’s the largest source of free private company information in the UK and refreshes the majority of its data on a daily basis to ensure the accuracy of its research engine for B2B lead generation and risk management.
And, Everline and ezbob have used data to disrupt an old-fashioned finance industry to offer UK small businesses a transparent and convenient means of accessing working capital at any time of the day, any day of the year. This is all made possible through an automated online lending platform, which connects directly to real-time data, such as business bank accounts to determine a business’ ability to pay back.
So what data is available to you and how can you use it to your advantage – whether that’s turning your company into a billion dollar success story or simply using it as a powerful customer insight tool?
Knowledge is power
Knowledge is power and there’s no bigger source of knowledge in today’s digital world than data. The Government’s recently passed Small Business, Enterprise and Employment bill is proof of this, requiring banks to share bank statement data with alternative finance providers to help open up lending to small businesses.
The rise of cloud-based platforms, such as Birst and SAP Lumira Cloud, are also bringing together data from individual small business’ customers, providing any one business with way more data than it could collect itself.
Small businesses also have a host of data at their fingertips that can be used to the business’ advantage, with little time or cash investment needed. How do customers like to pay; when are the biggest spikes in traffic to your website; where are customers located are all things that can help drive sales, marketing and customer support.
The sheer volume of data can seem overwhelming for a small business, and you might think you just don’t have the resources to deal with it. But, big data isn’t just for large companies and in some ways suits small businesses better, as their lean structure allows them to act on insights in a quicker and more flexible way. The key is to harness and use the information in the most efficient way possible.
1. Analyse your website
There are a number of tools to help you find out who is visiting your website, the most well-known of course being Google Analytics. For a more detailed demographic breakdown, try Quantcast, which will identify the gender, age and location of your visitors, and offer insights into what other content they might be interested in. To see how your site stacks up against the competition, Alexa will give you national and international rankings as well as detailed demographic and behavioural information, such as which websites your audience visits next.
2. Identify trends
Google Trends helps you find out what your customers or website audience are searching for online. Type in your keyword, for example ‘cycling’, and Google will do a sweep of its databases to bring up the most popular search terms related to that keyword. If you discover that ‘cycling in the city’ is being searched for often, you could use this insight to create related content for your website to draw in visitors and potential customers.
3. Monitor social media
By monitoring Twitter, Facebook and other platforms you can stay on top of your reputation by simply acknowledging feedback (good and bad), responding to a misguided statement or offering help to a customer having trouble with direct customer support routes. SocialMention and Talkwalker are great free tools with the latter allowing you to benchmark your brand against industry peers and analyse social campaigns.
4. Make connections
Put your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to good use by analysing what your connections are interested in and writing about. Scoop.it allows users to store articles on a board and share them with other people, helping build relationships and gain insight into how customers think. Similarly, Newsle will find content that your contacts have written, giving you valuable information about their ideas.
Pooling data
Key to any small business is surviving the peaks and troughs of cash flow. Tapping into data you have on past sales patterns, visits to your site, supplier payments and business outgoings can all help plan for gaps in cash flow. Customer data can show you what to invest in and business performance data can show you when the best time is to do it.
More and more industries are now sharing data to better inform decisions and help businesses within it to optimise their performance. Equally, the more data businesses themselves share, the more services will be opened up to them. For example, in the world of small business finance, if all lenders, traditional and otherwise, combine customer data, better informed decisions can be made across the industry which will help increase the availability of finance for the right small businesses.
Data is a real source of power so use it and share it to open up your business to more customers and more opportunities.