Like it or not, we live in a data-driven world. With each of your jewelry brand’s digital footprints, you generate heaps of data, from your ecommerce store and your social media presence to your email marketing, digital advertising campaigns, and beyond. You probably have more data associated with your jewelry brand than you realize, and you’re likely not fully capitalizing on it.

The truth is that data can feel overwhelming, especially if you don’t know what you want your data to reveal. However, it can be invaluable when you set clear goals, and you understand how to interpret the data available to you. Ultimately, data is power in the hands of brands that know how to use it.

According to research from Ascend2 and Research Partners, the top two reasons that marketers use data are: to feel confident about making decisions based on data analysis and to acquire new customers. Do you often feel confused about what to do next in your marketing strategy? Do you wonder, “Where do my target customers spend their time, and how can I reach them effectively?” The answers to these questions lie in your data.

So what role should data play in your jewelry marketing strategy specifically, and how can you start using data in a more intentional and proactive way? Below, we share five common sources of data and explain how your jewelry brand can leverage each one to its fullest extent, so you can make better decisions moving forward and reach your customers where they are.

Google Analytics

A free service provided by Google, Google Analytics (GA) is one of the most powerful tools that ecommerce jewelry brands can use, since it allows them to monitor and track a multitude of online shopping behaviors. For example, with GA you can see how many prospective customers are visiting your store within any given time frame, understand how those prospects are finding your site, view how much time prospects spend on various pages, and see how many people are abandoning shopping carts instead of finalizing their purchases. We’re just scratching the surface of what GA can do.

To start collecting data with GA, you simply have to install a small section of code on the backend of your website – that’s it! Not only can you customize your reports based on your individual needs and goals, but you can also set actionable goals before you start with any given marketing campaign. One of my favorite features of GA is the ability to create UTM parameters (I wrote more about UTM parameters here), which refer to a tracking code that you add to the end of any URL you want to track. For example, if you run a Facebook ad campaign, and you want to use GA to compare Google’s data with Facebook’s internal clickthrough data, then you can add a special tracking code to the link in your ad campaign. You can give that tracking code a specific campaign name and then track the results in GA.

Market Research

Are you struggling to understand your customers? Are you wondering how to move forward with your product development strategy? Market research can provide you with data you need to get unstuck, so you can confidently plan a strategy for forging ahead.

When conducting market research, you can consult primary research and secondary research. Primary research refers to research you conduct yourself, like focus groups, online surveys, and beta testing. On the other hand, secondary research refers to research that has already been done, like articles, references, and reports.

Among my jewelry brand clients, I find there’s a common misconception about market research: that it’s expensive. However, that’s simply not true. One of the best things about market research is that you can scale it accordingly. If you really have no budget, you can focus on consulting secondary sources, which are plentifully available on the Internet. However, if you’re feeling creative and/or you a little bit of money to invest, you can try polling your customers on Instagram or via SurveyMonkey, sending a survey email to your top customers and offering an incentive to complete that survey, using a service like PeopleFish, or simply talking to target customers at live events. To hire a market research firm will cost about $15,000 to $35,000.

Organic and Paid Social Media Data

It’s in Instagram and Facebook’s best interest to provide your brand with lots of data, since they want you to ultimately advertise with them. As a result, you can easily find data insights about your social media posts. On Instagram, for example, you can simply visit your profile on the app, click the “hamburger” button in the top right-hand corner, and tap “Insights”. From there, you can view a summary of metrics like reach, impressions, and audience activity. You can get a sense for which types of content perform better than others and also gauge your audience demographics. If you’d like to access more comprehensive data and reports about your social media accounts, then you can try a tool like Iconosquare.

Do you run Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns? If so, then you’ll definitely want to pay attention to your data. Not only does this data help you determine whether or not you’re spending your ad budget efficiently, but it can also provide you with additional insights about your target customers. Furthermore, it can help you understand the imagery and copywriting that best resonates with those customers. With its detailed targeting capabilities, Facebook advertising can be a great way for your brand to test a new market before you commit to it.

Customer Sales and Customer Experience Data

If you run an ecommerce jewelry store, then you’re sitting on a goldmine of customer data that brick-and-mortar store owners often don’t have unless they do a lot of prodding and are diligent about their customer records. In order to make a purchase, your ecommerce customers need to submit a certain amount of information about themselves. You also collect data about customers’ path-to-purchase via tools like Google Analytics and Shopify (or whatever ecommerce platform you use).

Once you know more about your customers’ browsing and purchase history, then you can further personalize and tailor your offerings to satisfy their wants and needs. You can segment your customers by behavior and other characteristics and then precisely target your marketing messages. In addition, you can make adjustments to your product assortment and merchandising strategy based on customer activity.

In addition, you should also be tracking data related to customer experience, which refers to how a customer feels when interacting with your brand, making a purchase, or reaching out to your customer service team. To do this, you can monitor your online reviews, send surveys, and analyze your customer retention rate. Remember: it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to win back an existing one, so you should put a lot of time and effort into monitoring the customer experience and ensuring that it’s consistently a positive one.

Email Marketing

Your email marketing list is like gold; of course, you always want to be winning over new customers, but also you want to spend as much time winning over new email subscribers, since those subscribers are the prospects you’ll be nurturing and turning into your future customers.

If you’re not paying attention to the data from your email marketing efforts, then you’re missing out on major opportunities to build long-term relationships with prospects and current customers. An email marketing platform like Mailchimp can provide you with invaluable data like open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and more, so you can assess the strength of your email marketing efforts and then make adjustments to future campaigns. Furthermore, you can A/B test your email campaigns to discover whether one type of messaging is more effective than another type.

Please be aware that this is not even close to an exhaustive list of potential data sources for your jewelry brand. However, they’re the ones we use most often with our clients, and they typically provide the most accessible and relevant information. Ultimately, where you seek your data and how you decide to track it will depend on your individual business and marketing goals. If you don’t have a goal in mind, then you won’t be able to designate one or more key performance indicators, and your data will look like nothing more than a meaningless bucket of numbers.