Identifying Actionable Insights

Extracting meaningful insights from your data is an essential part of understanding audience behavior, and how to change it. But, with so many different insights to uncover, it’s only natural that some will be more useful than others.

Actionable insights help you make well-informed business decisions by uncovering why something might be happening, and what you can do about it. Essentially, they can help you change current perceptions of your brand, win over consumers or customers, and drive more purchases and growth.

So, how can you identify whether an insight is actionable?

Try asking yourself some of these key questions:

Does this insight provide you with information about why your audience is behaving in a certain way? Does it also indicate what you can do to change this current behavior into desired behavior?
Can you use this insight to help you develop your marketing activities and messaging in a way that will maximize effectiveness and have a meaningful impact?
Is it a unique insight? Will it help your business differentiate itself from competitors?
Is the insight realistic? Sometimes your insights might uncover barriers that can’t be easily overcome, or at all.
Is the insight accurate? Does your research and data fully support it?

Here’s an example of what an actionable insight might look like:

Stratosphere, an insurance marketing provider, needed to extend its reach and connect with its B2B target audience authentically, without relying on traditional paid media. After undergoing research, it identified key barriers that were preventing growth: a lack of brand awareness, and doubts over its credibility in the minds of potential buyers.

With this insight, Stratosphere developed a strategy to build partnerships with industry influencers and tap into their established networks, exposing the business to a wider audience. The influencer’s endorsement acted as powerful social proof, boosting trust and accelerating the decision-making process for prospects. From this, Stratosphere increased brand awareness and fostered long-term relationships that resulted in ongoing business growth.