data analytics | LGK Marketing Matters Blog

In the time it takes you to do these things at the office you could have already facilitated the set-up for HitTail:

Check your daily email and voicemail messages
Perform weekly website updates
Attend the weekly staff meeting
Prepare social media posts
Eat lunch and socialize at the water cooler

So, what is HitTail? We talked about it previously here, but, in summary, it is a service that helps businesses increase their website search traffic by pinpointing the keywords people use to find the company. For example, did they find your men’s custom tailoring shop by searching for “tailors,” “custom tailors” or “custom tailors for men in Chicago.” HitTail’s SEO methods will analyze the data, provide suggestions based on the long-tail keywords and allow you to create content based on real data and guide your back-end marketing based on the results.

And it only takes about an hour to set up – a real selling point in our book. This article by Ashkay Hallur, How to Do Long-Tail Keyword Research for SEO gives an alternative do-it-yourself method:

Find a topic to blog upon
Put the base keyword in Google search
Go for UberSuggest
Analyze the competition for the keywords
Optimize the blog post for the keyword

Source: GoBloggingTips

It could be effective for sure, but does a small business really have time for this? Doubtful. In addition, it requires expertise, while not impossible to learn, might be intimidating for the everyday, multi-tasking employee.

There is another substantial advantage to HitTail we like after testing it for just a short period. The information is in a format we can understand. So that means no numbers of unknown origin, no indecipherable gobbledygook and no more “not provided” keyword messages. What good is data that people don’t use or understand? Not much, according to this Harvard University professor.

Big Data Is Not About the Data!

(Presentation from Gary King, Harvard University, about how the real value of Big Data is in the analytics)

Long-term our interest in HitTail is also to create better content that our partners, friends and potential clients can enjoy and find on the crowded Internet superhighway.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to increase web traffic and in turn generate new business. Moreover, while we are trying the subscription-based service courtesy of HitTail, it is still early in our testing phase, so we will continue to provide updates of our experience.

Leisa Chester Weir

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Remember Deep Blue, the IBM computer that played chess champion Garry Kasparov in the 1990s? His just-as-smart younger cousin, Watson, became a media darling in 2011 when he challenged Jeopardy legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, beating both of these highest-winning champions. Deep Blue is but a distant memory now, filed in the IBM historical archives, and Watson, named after IBM Founder, Thomas J. Watson, has moved on from games shows.

Watson is now available for Big Data analytics and here’s the best thing about his services for the moment – they’re mostly free, currently charging only for complex data analysis. IBM wants to reach the masses, hence the freemium pricing structure and easy access. Billed as a model for the everyday business person, not necessarily a researcher or analyst, it promises to use real language and logical algorithms to come up with targeted business solutions. Here’s more good news – marketing and sales are two of the areas where it excels.

So, if you struggle with analyzing data or don’t know what to do with all those numbers, spreadsheets and charts, Watson deserves a closer look. We will do our own review of it and get back to you in a future post about its effectiveness. If you’ve tried Watson, please share your thoughts.

For more insight about Big Data, listen to the Small Business Big Data Intervention featuring Nancy L. Hohns on The Marketing Mojo Show. In this clip, she talks about gut instinct vs. Big Data.