Khalil A. Cassimally, Consultant in Audience Development, User Needs & AI, and regular contributor to Audiencers, shares 7 strategies to not only become data-informed, but data-led.
1. Data is a compass, not a map
2. Connect every role to the bigger goal
3. User value first; business follows
4. Don't focalise on tools
5. Create one source of truth
6. Start with one analysis, and keep going
7. Optimise the funnel; small lifts compound
There is no shortage of data in media operations. There is also no shortage of stress and overwhelm in media operations – and an abundance of data is now contributing to it.
“There’s so much data – I don’t know what to look at, I don’t know what’s important.”
Data is an opportunity for media operations. It improves four things at once:
- Audience understanding (the foundation on which everything else lies)
- Content strategy
- Business performance
- Impact measurement
Unlocking these improvements rely on appropriately leveraging the data in meaningful and actionable ways. And when done systematically, harnessing data becomes a natural part of operations. That’s a data culture to strive for.
Building such a data culture doesn’t happen overnight. And some newsrooms are certainly further along on their data maturity ladder than others.
The data maturity ladder is made up of three rungs:
- Data-informed: we have a basic understanding and visibility on what’s happening
- Data-driven: we are actively using data to support strategic decisions, and ultimately growth
- Data-led: we are putting data in service of business outcomes, having systematised its leverage
