Big data seems to be the key to everything these days, and companies that are better-equipped to collect and process vast amounts of data for analysis undoubtedly have the competitive edge. If you’re interested in making your company’s data analytics strategy better and stronger than ever, then the three things listed below should be your top and most immediate priorities.

#1 – Make it Actionable

Staring at a report filled with various numbers can help you understand what’s happening in your business, but the only way to change the numbers you see on that paper – and your company’s revenue – is to act, and to act immediately. Utilizing segmentation is the best way to come up with actionable insights that can truly help your business grow, and it involves putting visitors or leads into categories based on the things they have in common.

Once you can see the various segments in your audience and the differences in how they interact with your company, its website, and its social media pages, it becomes much simpler to come up with a plan of attack to engage with the segments that seem to have lower conversion rates. Furthermore, it also shows which segments are most likely to buy, giving you a good idea of where you should focus much of your campaigning.

#2 – Don’t Immediately Discount Data Integration

If you’re looking to improve your business decisions by analyzing the data available to you, it’s important that you get the biggest possible picture. After all, your goal should be to get to know your customers and leads, and the more data you have available to you, the easier that task becomes. If you integrate your traditional database with a big data solution, then connect all your sources, you’ll probably discover incredible insights that can help you understand your customers. In return, you can create better and more effective marketing campaigns.

#3 – Set Goals

Setting goals isn’t as simple as coming up with a KPI that you want to meet. Rather, it’s about asking yourself where you want your company to be in the next year, the next five years, or even the next 20 years. When you can analyze your data to the fullest, it can help you put together a complete roadmap to get you from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where you want to go) in a specific timeframe.

This process will involve several different steps, and one of the most important involves brainstorming recommendations that can help move your business forward. Then, look at the list and the data that is available to you and start determining the feasibility of each of your ideas. Don’t forget to consider things like budgeting, resource availability and participation, and even whether you might need to hire another company to help you complete the task.

Your data analytics strategy is one of the most important facets of your business. With high-quality data and the ability to break that data down, you can read your company’s progress like a book and use that information to your advantage. By making the changes above immediately, you’ll find that your data can provide you with more insight than you ever thought possible.