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As technology advances, so will the ways we can measure interactions and engagement with our messaging. Until we have an AI to do all of this for us, setting up goals and stats in a framework that provides actionable intelligence is essential.
People tasked with managing communications inside an organization increasingly find themselves at a crossroads with analytics. At first, diving into data analysis might seem intimidating, especially to those who dedicate their time thinking about mission, outreach and crafting the best messaging to engage and motivate people. Collecting and crunching numbers seems far less thrilling than focusing on being creative.
Most organizations already have meaningful data to leverage. A simple shift in mindset when approaching analytics will unveil its essential power for measuring and improving the work that is already being done.
It’s been a longstanding challenge for organizations to quantify if they’re communicating well, connecting with the right audience(s) and communicating at the right time with the right medium. There are also questions pertaining to the frequency of communications, and if the messages being conveyed are received and understood by the audience.
Communications analytics can help answer these questions. Defining what the user wants to measure, collecting good data and understanding how to analyze that information makes it easier to finetune strategies and workflows for greater impact.
Getting Started
Communications analytics is about engaging and motivating people important to the business, including employees, customers, students or visitors. It’s been proven that effective communication leads to more satisfied employees and clients, higher productivity and retention, and a better audience experience.
Diving into communications data can identify the strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s workflows and messaging. It will show trends to adapt to and reveal opportunities to exploit for higher engagement, including the ability to:
- Measure the effectiveness of individual messages and campaigns.
- Learn which platforms are most successful.
- See which written messages and graphic designs work best.
- Streamline workflows by working from a baseline.
- Justify effort and expense with real-world results.
The first step is deciding what the organization cares most about measuring. Qualitative data is less common than quantitative data in most digital platforms’ analytics, so this can take some workshopping. It’s important to look at what data you can easily collect as goals are outlined.
While it’s impossible to make informed decisions or optimize communications without proper analytics, digital platforms today can at a minimum provide basic metrics you can track over time. In a lot of cases, the data collection is already in place but is not being used. For example, if Google Analytics is set up for a website or intranet, the traffic from a message that prompts people to visit a webpage is visible in the Google Analytics dashboard. If using a QR code or URL maker statistics on clickthroughs are usually provided.
Analytics for Digital Signage
Digital signage is just one subset of communications, but it’s one of the most common areas where measurement and analytics get ignored. It suffers from a “set it and forget it” mentality, with event schedules and weather showing up on screens alongside the occasional announcement, and no one tracking whether people are engaging with the screens.
Just like any other messaging platform, it’s necessary to track what’s being shown on screens, who’s contributing, and the effectiveness of those messages. Cloud-based analytics help clients easily answer key deployment management questions:
- How many times did a message play over a certain time period?
- Who are my power users based on content submissions?
- Who might need more training based on lack of submissions? (Our power users can likely help.)
- Where is our digital signage being utilized the most, based on playlist and player activity?
- What playlists need more content?
- Are we responding quickly enough to content that requires approval?
By using built-in analytics in their content management system, organizations can work to train software users and streamline workflows. Managers can also track playback, which is especially important in a retail setting or when it’s necessary to report back to other departments about onscreen campaigns.
Action Items
Once the organization has defined what will be measured, it’s time to crunch some numbers. Look for patterns, compare performance to previous time periods, and find any outliers that might point to surges or dips in engagement. It will likely take a bit of time to refine the data and properly collate it to measure success against goals. Once a baseline is established, data sets can be built over time to see what’s working and what isn’t.
The key is to use a troubleshooting mindset, adjusting items instead of overhauling everything at the same time. Always be sure to make one change at a time, so you can link that action to any changes that show up in your analytics. When too many things are changed at once, it’s difficult to know what caused a deviation in data.
Once the strategy is in place, share communications analytics with relevant teams, the C-suite, and employees. For too long, managers have hoarded data as top-secret information which only they should have access to. In many cases, they’re afraid that other stakeholders can’t parse the stats or don’t have enough context to understand the findings.
That can be true of raw data, so find an engaging and informative way to present progress and trends:
- Use visuals and graphs with trendlines.
- Provide context.
- Celebrate successes.
- Explain what is being done to address any shortfalls.
Transparency is extremely important to today’s workforce, students, and customers, so always present your data in a way that everyone can understand to build excitement and engagement.
Meaningful information is what communication is all about, and that’s what communications analytics will give you. As technology advances, so will the ways we can measure interactions and engagement with our messaging. Until we have an AI to do all of this for us — someday soon, perhaps! — setting up goals and stats in a framework that provides actionable intelligence is essential.
Communications specialist for Visix, Inc. and host of the award-winning Digital Signage Done Right podcast, Derek DeWitt uses 25+ years of education and storytelling experience to craft practical advice and resources for digital signage users.
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