What is the difference between Analysis and Analytics?

The most common mistake people make is assuming both Analytics and Analysis mean researching and reporting. But that is not the case at all. In fact, there is a huge difference between Analytics and Analysis. They are not interchangeable terms and let's see why...

ANALYSIS

Let's say you run a campaign for your business. (Refer to the image if you don't have time to read). You are responsible for driving traffic to the landing page--> make them sign up for your webinar---> send reminders for the webinar via e-mail--> thank them for attending and send the link to the recorded version of the seminar (if they have missed it)---> send a follow-up e-mail talking about your business and why they should choose you---> convert.

Here, if you are not converting anyone for a long time, we need to check what is going wrong and where that is... we need to explain 'how' or 'why' your audience isn't converting. In order to do that, we have to go back to the past and look at what happened step by step. This process of looking at past data and their relationship to provide a solution to a problem is called Analysis.

ANALYTICS

For the same example given above, let's say we plan another webinar similar to the last one, but how can we be sure people will show up? or if they'll convert? We can make use of the past webinar data and patterns to predict and explore more options, this is Analytics. Analytics explores the future by looking for patterns and finding different ways to use them.

There are two kinds of analytics:-

• Quantitative analytics – Uses Mathematical computation and algorithms to your data from analysis.

• Qualitative analytics – Uses intuition, business knowledge, and data from analysis to make a business decision.

Both analysis and analytics are important parts of a business. Learning from past mistakes, and wins to optimize the system is vital.

-Anusha