With brazen confidence, and maybe even a note of defiance, MC Hammer responded to reporters who asked him if he felt self-conscious about being a middle-age rapper at his recent Utah concert: "I'm the guy who went to the Tokyo Dome and sold out five nights.
Who's the other rapper who sold out five nights at the Tokyo Dome? Oh, that's right, there isn't one.
"  What makes The Hammer "too legit to quit?"  Hammer spills his secret.
  It's marketing analytics.
  Check him out on YouTube: search for "Hammer on Analytics.
".
What Are Marketing Analytics? Analytics is the science of making intelligent business decisions based on quantitative data.
  Marketing analytics applies specific analytical techniques to the marketing process.
To be of any use, collected data must be presented in such a way as to gain actionable insight.
  Analytic competitors use information visualization techniques to take raw data and transform it into true intelligence.
Why Are Analytics So Important? This recession has tightened everyone's belt.
  Cutting costs, improving operational efficiency and maximizing marketing ROI are key ingredients to surviving these times.
  Wouldn't you sleep better at night knowing that your decisions were based on facts instead of gut instinct?  With marketing analytics, it is possible - even easy - to: o    Drive targeted website traffic o    Generate business leads o    Build brand loyalty o    Optimize your website And you can do this on a considerably reduced budget.
How Do I Use Analytics in My Organization? The marketing analytics approach is a cyclical process.
  As such, you will continually be returning to where you started as you progressively improve your organization.
  The six steps are:

1. Define business objectives
2. Establish marketing goals
3. Determine critical success factors
4. Create and execute strategy
5. Collect and measure data
6. Visualize for insight

The next few articles will take each of these steps and break them down into further detail.