How can we use data analytics to improve customer engagement and retention?

I guess it depends on the business you are running. But I think the overarching concept is to understand your customer. Once you've understood their drive to buy your product you'll be at a much better place than before. For instance, in the ecommerce world (and I'm sure in other types of businesses as well) there is a great hurdle in having access to data. Ecommerce businesses use so many different platforms that it's easy to get lost and feel that everything is "disconnected". So the first thing I recommend is getting all your data in one place via a CDP (Customer Data Platform). With this in place, you can now analyze what factors drive retention and you can start to answer questions like: which customers come back and what do they buy? Are customers more likely to purchase when offered discounts? Which customers interact more via certain channels, like email than say social like Facebook, or paid search like Google. This can also help with optimizing marketing spend on the channels that are most effective for each customers, and providing a more personalized experience. Disclaimer: I'm the CTO of Sweet Analytics, and we provide solutions to exactly these problems. Our platform also allows you to get a global view of how your business is performing and analyze which key metrics are negatively or positively impacting the business' bottom line. Hope that helps a bit!

There will always be data to analyze, but if they don't lead to results in the form of increased brand loyalty, brand awareness, or brand to consumer engagement then valuable time is being lost. Oftentimes we become too focused on the fact we need to collect customer data and in turn lose sight of the overall goal: engagement. Instead, we need to see data analytics as one method of reaching our goal rather than being our whole focus. I've recently read about this company called PICKL that has found an innovative way to collect insights and improve brand loyalty by engaging consumers. Check them out: pickl.xyz