Five Things You Need To Keep Track Of

Keeping track of statistics and data will allow you to identify what happened on the good days as well as what happened on the bad ones. You can track your results month by month and identify which months were your best and which ones were your worst. These statistics allow you to take action based on past results so you are able to optimize your future results. In a world with more statistics and data than ever, few people know which of those statistics and data are the most important. Here are the five statistics and pieces of data that you need to keep track of.

1. Your earnings. You will be able to identify the growth of your revenue. Some months will be good while others will be bad. There will be rises and drops in your earnings. In order to figure out why and how those changes take place, you need to record your earnings. In addition, you need to record which sources of income made what amount of money. While this allows you to identify and solve problems, it also allows you to look back at what you have accomplished and envision yourself making a stronger income as well.
2. Follower growth. The growth of your social networks has a big impact on your blog’s traffic, your sales, and your credibility. When you see a big growth in your followers, you need to identify what you did on that day to see the big change. Then, continue doing what you did on that day to see that “big change” become common.
3. Your blog traffic. With these statistics, you can keep track of views, visitors, clickouts, referrers, and more. You can identify which social networks are bringing in an abundant amount of traffic as well as the social networks that are not creating the same results. You can use these statistics to identify the best strategy for your blog and your social networks.
4. One competitor. I know what some people are thinking about this one. It is more important to differentiate oneself than it is to focus on the competition. The truth is that no matter how much you differentiate yourself, competitors will do everything in their power to catch up to the new change. Ford’s Model T was innovative, but now there are numerous car companies. Those car companies caught up to Ford just like competitors catch up to each other in their respective niches. By looking at the statistics from one of your competitors, you will be able to identify that competitor’s good days and bad days. If you look deep enough into the statistics and what that person did for the day, patterns–patterns that you can use to your advantage–will emerge.
5. Returning customers. One of the pieces of data most people forget to record is the returning customers. If your customers returned once, then they tend to return multiple times. By having the names and contact info of your returning customers, you will be able to contact them. Three great ways to contact a returning customer are to tell them about a big discount just for them, thank them for being returning customers, or ask them to leave a testimonial/review and that you would be honored if they did so.

By keeping track of these statistics and pieces of data, you will be able to identify where you need to improve and where your strengths are. This analysis will allow you to identify where you are lacking and where you have everything under control. This knowledge will allow you to take a different, better course of action that you may have never taken if you did not have this knowledge. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional statistic or piece of data that you track? Please share your thoughts and advice below.