In entrepreneurship, there’s no such thing as overnight success. You can plan every detail of your startup’s launch, but you can never fully prepare for unexpected roadblocks to growth. You can only embrace these ongoing challenges and accept them as stepping stones. Once upon a time, only big businesses can afford big data analytics. But thanks to cloud-based tools, business intelligence is now more affordable and accessible to startups and small businesses.
Below are seven cost-effective and affordable analytics tools that can help you monitor, optimize, and grow your startup.
ClearStory Data
As the name implies, ClearStory Data will tell the story of your brand with the help of various data sources.It combines external data from your industry as well as internal data from your business to deliver specialized predictive analytics. It also provides collaborative “StoryBoards” – perfect for remote startups that communicate on the cloud.
Cyfe
Despite having a freemium pricing model, Cyfe is an all-in-one analytics dashboard that lets you monitor every single facet of your startup. It’s the closest you can get to enterprise-grade business intelligence platform without spending a single dime – and it also has a smooth learning curve for startups with smaller teams. You can simply choose pre-built widgets to pull data from different sources and into a single location.
Geckoboard
Keep in mind that analysis without focus may turn into paralysis. Geckoboard makes sure the data you gather directly benefits key pieces of business growth – be it sales, digital marketing, or customer support. It utilizes data visualizations to help you keep track of key performance indicators or KPIs. More importantly, data is shared in real-time through “live TV” dashboards to keep everyone in your team on the same page.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a flexible and scalable analytics platform that focuses on the performance of your website. It provides an in-depth overview that covers metrics that matter, including audience demographics, traffic acquisition channels, and bounce rate for individual landing pages. By understanding this data, you can focus on optimizing your content and user experience for maximum conversions.
Mailspice
Email services offer the best way to gain a direct line to your customers. Regardless of which email provider you use, Mailspice can provide you real-time statistics that help you gauge the performance of your email marketing campaigns. In addition to relevant KPI’s such as click-through rates, open rates, and recipient geolocation you’ll find out more about the actual email reading time of your readers – the data visibility you gain with the platform is substantial, which is why it prides itself as the “Google Analytics for emails”.
Buffer
Buffer is a free, comprehensive social media management platform that’s equipped with built-in analytics for all of your social media content. It comes with an easy-to-use visual interface to help you turn metrics into actions in just a few clicks.
Mint
While it is positioned as “personal finance” app, Mint is capable enough to meet the extended needs of small businesses. It links directly to your bank accounts and payment services, so it doesn’t depend on manual data input – unlike most budget management platforms available in the market. This time-saving feature is a huge deal for small startups that are already undermanned.
