This is part 3 of the Data and Your Audience Guide. Want to download the entire ebook, “Decoding Audience Data to Optimize Your Reach”  CLICK HERE!

I first read about “The Trinity” when I was in a role that didn’t have much to do with data. But as the marketing analytics boom really matured, I found it to be classically relevant. Just a quick spoiler alert: The Trinity organizes how you should use data into three elements. And here they are:

The Behavior Analysis. These metrics are the ones that show what people actually do with your content. The answers can be pretty basic, but TBH, these are some of the most important. Questions like: How many people opened your email? How many people clicked the links? Which link got the most clicks? Where else were people clicking within your email? What time are people opening your emails? Are people unsubscribing when they get your emails?

You can typically find most of this data on a dashboard within a free subscription to your email platform, so it’s relatively easy to find.

Why does this information matter? Because understanding your audience’s behavior will help you make sure you’re tailoring the experience to their preferences, which can increase the likelihood that they’ll actually engage and act on your content rather than just swipe on by.

The Outcome Analysis. These are the metrics that show what the actual business results of your campaigns are. You know – the results you’d share with your Executive Director or your Development Director. For nonprofit’s sake, this isn’t as quick of a hit and takes a little bit of work to get it into place. MOST fundraising platforms, event management systems, and donor management systems don’t quite connect with email systems. BUT, there is a way to make this happen.

MailChimp in particular offers Analytics360 to its paid subscribers, which syncs your Google Analytics account to your emails. Many of the other email platforms also offer Landing Page building options to help you understand what converts and what doesn’t. And what this means is that you’ll be able to track the journey of the person who might click your DONATE NOW button in your email.

Why does this information matter? Because it will help you figure out where things may have broken down in the journeys you’ve created. Any call to action you share with your audience should have a relatively simple process. And if it doesn’t, the person will likely get frustrated and abandon the process. This will help you cultivate important things, like your organization’s donor journey, your brand, your site map, and even your software.

The Experience Analysis. The third element involves the metrics that show the why behind the what. Most of the time, this isn’t something that your email marketing analytics system can just build a report for. The experience analysis can be achieved by (virtually for free) by conducting surveys or conducting A/B testing (which we’ll get to in a minute).

Why does this information matter? Again, knowing how your audience member’s brains work is important as you craft and finesse your marketing and content strategy. If your content isn’t converting, and your action items aren’t happening, you have to make a change. This information will give you good places to start.

As you dive into the data game, crafting a simple analytics strategy can help save you time, energy, and frustration. What are the most important data points for your organization? Share them in the comments below!

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