Understanding SQL in the Small Business Environment

Without doubt, virtually all businesses nowadays have migrated to online. For this reason, almost all the companies you come across, or you’ve heard about use SQL (Structured Query Language) in one way or another. Broadly speaking, SQL is a must language when we talk about data analysis simply because SQL is one of the most common data languages.

Given the history of the language, you will understand that it has earned its rightful place among the topmost data languages in the world; it has been around since the 1970s. Needless to say, SQL is the most common method of accessing data in databases today. Therefore, we can simply refer to SQL as a programming language designed with the aim of managing data in a relational database. You can access your data through the many functions SQL is providing for its users. Through these functions, you can easily read, manipulate, and change data.

Another basic way to look at SQL is a fundamental programming language used to send information, retrieve information, and organize information in a database. The benefits of this language for big as well as medium and small businesses cannot be mentioned in a single sentence. SQL is especially important to not only corporations that deliver products to end-users but also business-to-consumer companies.

SQL is a popular language since it’s compatible with almost any high-level language. For this reason, SQL is used mainly to allow for programs to interact with a database. As a matter of fact, SQL optimization is behind big data in regards to its demands in the workplace. SQL can be applied in a wide spectrum, i.e., can be used by a market analyst to analyze the market trends, data analyst in analyzing big data, among others. Below is an overview of what SQL is really all about and how important it is to your business.

Database management in SQL

Like we have discussed earlier, SQL is designed solely to manage databases. That’s arguably the most significant benefit you can get from using the language in your company. It is a common knowledge that SQL can run complex queries that are used to search for specific pieces of information based on listed criteria. For instance, in a workplace divided into departments, a manager can query the system to retrieve specific information about a particular department, say the amount of money paid to employees in the marketing department.

You need basic coding skills to use SQL effectively

You may encounter some basic challenges when setting up SQL for the first time, but the language is rather easy to work with. Compared to most high-level languages with lots of commands, SQL has only seven different commands, making it a rather simple language when compared to other languages. SQL is one of the least code dependent high-level languages compared to others.

SQL is used by large companies

Perhaps the fact that most large companies such as Microsoft use SQL will convince you to think about using it too. Microsoft employs SQL in Open Database Connectivity, SQL Server, and ActiveX Data Objects. It is also important to note that most software development companies prefer using SQL with their programs because of their effectiveness in managing databases.

Should you use SQL?

It goes without saying that SQL has many advantages that cannot be exhausted in a single post, but one thing is certain; you should definitely use SQL if you are interested in using data to solve complex business problems effectively. It does make your life a little heaven on earth, and one great take away is that SQL doesn’t take much of your programmer’s time to setup. One last thing is that SQL is easy to maintain and you can always sort out things through SQL forums when they get a little bit complex.

In conclusion, you already know database management is vital to your business, and sometimes things get complicated, and you may easily mess up your data. SQL is your refuge since it keeps things organized and simple. This way, your data is protected from accidental manipulation. SQL is also useful in speeding up the process of data management. SQL is your best bet because it’s quick, efficient, and will save your company a lot of money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Germar Reed, Senior Manager, Analytics Advisory Services – at Merkle and Principle at District Analytics, bringing more than ten years of data-driven marketing and advanced analytics experience to the team. He has extensive experience in developing and applying database marketing strategies for many Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries, including financial services, technology, retail, automotive and healthcare. Throughout his career, he has been associated with the development of many well-known relationship marketing brands and customer loyalty strategies.

How Small Businesses are Winning w/Data Analytics

Without a doubt, big data has taken over. Not only has it been a significant game changer for large businesses but it boasts considerable economic and competitive advantages for small businesses. 

Chances are you’ve already begun incorporating big data analysis to evaluate exactly where your business is propelling in the face of cut-throat market rivalry. And that means you might have already started integrating a couple important big data analysis tools to harvest important insights and gauge market trends.

According to research posted by Nielson, it was conclusively identified that overall, more than half of the 2,000 businesses surveyed in the US incorporated big data tools to discover new trends and business opportunities. If you’ve yet to incorporate data analytics and add it to your business toolkit, forget staying ahead, you’re already behind.  

Skipping the Technical Jargon

Why is big data analytics so important? If you look past the various technicalities of big data analysis, you find that there is one underlying concept and goal – market opportunities and advantages. Big data analysis efficiently and effectively enables you to learn from your business’ data, turning raw data into information that drives strategic decision-making in the future. While it isn’t much of surprise that large businesses across the globe have already been indulging in big data - what many don't know is its potential for boosting the efficiency and marketability aspects of smaller businesses.

So what does this mean? If you own a small business, your capability to succeed against larger businesses is becoming more and more of a reality. In the past success has more or less been driven by your intuition to provide topnotch customer service. However, big data is consistently altering the business battlefield and the playing field is being leveled.

The Real Benefits of Big Data for Small Businesses

Here are some of the reasons why small businesses have poised themselves for victory against harsh competition using big data:

Transparency of Information

Big data analysis and evaluations expedite information processes, making it conveniently accessible to small businesses, and that too in real time. With a plethora of business tools developed specifically to harness user data, small businesses can now in the blink of an eye, gather all information pertaining to customer behavior. With valuable customer and market insights, a small business can articulate and implement efficient and effective market strategies to enhance both short and long term prospects.

Monitor the Outcome of all your Business Decisions

Decision making is of the utmost importance in any business. And we’ve heard time and time again that “risk drives business.” Knowing the outcome of decisions made leads to more effective decision-making in the future. This is specifically where big data will help you the most. It will allow your establishment to track and monitor the results of your marketing strategies, get a bird’s eye view of the factors that have worked in your favor, and it eliminates the possibilities of risks posed by other decisions. 

Big Data Will Help you Develop High Yielding Products and Services

By using big data analytics, there are 3 fundamental elements that you will be able to efficiently comprehend:

• All current needs of your prospective clients/customers
• How well your products or services meet the demands of your target market
• Changes that need to be made to propel your operational efficiency and improve your services

Big data analytics can help you test the design of your products to evaluate potential flaws, potentially affecting your bottom line. Not only does big data analytics help you sell, but it poses a huge potential for a boost in after-sales services, which primarily include customer support and maintenance. 

Data analytics has a lot to offer small businesses.  To sum it up in a single sentence, all businesses can enjoy the advantages that limitless amounts of big data analytics bring to the business battlefield.

5 Metrics Every Small Business Should Track and 5 They Should Not

There is a wealth of data that small businesses can and should be tracking in order to ensure that they are properly armed to make better business decisions.

But which metrics should you track?

All of them?

No!

If data isn’t actionable or useful, don’t waste your time. A KPI is a key performance indicator – the metrics by which you measure your success. It’s a good idea to decide on the metrics that you care most about and put them together in a dashboard to make tracking easier/quicker.

DON’T: OVERALL TRAFFIC

Overall traffic levels are easy to track, but for a local business they are not helpful. More important is local traffic. Sure, national traffic might also matter, but tracking your traffic levels across the board is a waste of time.

Instead, monitor traffic segmented by location, so that you can see local traffic, national traffic and maybe even international traffic separately.

DO: TRAFFIC SOURCES

Where are your users/how are they finding you? If you’re getting traffic from India, it’s probably not converting. Filter out irrelevant traffic, figure out who are your most relevant visitors (probably the ones in your local area)…

And then consider where that traffic is coming from. Search engines? Local listings? Referral from other websites? Once you know where your best visitors are coming from, you can hone your marketing efforts accordingly.

DO: PHONE CALLS

Tracking phone calls is tricky, but possible, and for many businesses it’s the most relevant conversion metric. This is especially true for businesses that take bookings over the phone.

There are loads of services which allow you to track phone calls through your website analytics.

DON’T: COMPLAINTS

Should you listen to customer feedback? Absolutely.

But tracking complaints isn’t a useful KPI. Complaints are not representative of your entire customer base because they only come from the customers who are not happy.

Use customer feedback to improve your service, and absolutely respond to complaints and fix problems. But using complaints as a KPI will just get you down!

DO: CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE

Track your ROI on marketing campaigns makes sense. But unless you are tracking your customer’s lifetime value you can’t be sure that your ROI is accurate.

Tracking metrics related to repeat custom in order to estimate how much a new customer is truly worth to you. It’s not easy to track, but if you can do it, you can make better-informed marketing decisions.

DON’T: DEVICES

Local businesses have more mobile traffic, right?

Probably, but does that mean that tracking device usage is helpful?

If your website is not mobile friendly you may not get as much mobile traffic as you should. So you don’t get many mobile viewers, it might mean that your customers don’t use mobile devices, or it might mean that your site isn’t attracting mobile users – it’s hard to be sure.

Instead, track metrics that show you whether mobile users are being well served by your website.

DO: MOBILE/LOCAL RANKINGS

Tracking your SERP rankings is a popular strategy and it probably makes sense to do so. But are you tracking rankings for mobile/local users?

Google results are personalized based on location and the device you are using. And for a local business that is important. There are various ways you can track your rankings within a local area, and those are likely to be your most important ones.

DON’T: FACEBOOK LIKES

Getting Facebook likes (Retweets etc…) is nice and something to shoot for. But it would be far more helpful to track click through rates and how much traffic those platforms are sending you.

Looking at which posts historically get the most likes can be a useful way to hone your strategy, but tracking Facebook likes as a KPI might not be as helpful.

DO: TOP PAGES

Which pages on your site are most popular? This gives you a clue as to what your customers are looking for.

For example: If customers go straight to the contact page, it may mean they just want a phone number. You can use these clues to improve your navigation and make your most important information easier to find.

CONCLUSION

I’m not trying to tell you what to track, but to think about each metric that you do track. Which KPIs matter to your business might not matter to another. There’s no one size fits all answer.

Think carefully about which metrics truly impact your bottom line/are actionable. Put all of those metrics in the same place so that you can monitor them quickly and easily.