How STAT News Reworked Its Data Strategy, Improved Reporting Capabilities with BrainSell

STAT News is a prominent health and medicine news website that provides breaking news, in-depth investigative journalism, and insightful commentary on the latest developments in the healthcare industry. Founded in 2015 by veteran journalists from The Boston Globe, STAT has quickly become a go-to source for the healthcare industry.

The Problem

STAT News encountered several significant challenges in managing its data effectively. One of the primary issues was that their data was siloed across multiple systems, which included their identity platform, subscription platform, CRM, and over ten additional sources. This fragmentation greatly complicated the process of analyzing customer data and generating comprehensive reports, as the information was scattered across these various silos.

As a result, compiling reports became a tedious and labor-intensive task, necessitating team members to manually pull data from numerous systems, leading to inefficiencies and potential errors.

Moreover, the team faced difficulties efficiently querying their customer data to identify trends and patterns, which are crucial for making informed marketing decisions. The limitations of the Hubspot CRM further exacerbated the situation, as it was not optimized for large-scale querying of extensive customer datasets.

This lack of functionality made it even more challenging for the team to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and engagement levels. Consequently, these data management hurdles hindered STAT News’s ability to leverage data-driven strategies and ultimately impacted its operational effectiveness.

The Solution

STAT News effectively tackled its data challenges by forging a strategic partnership with BrainSell and Interloop to create a more efficient and integrated system for managing its vast amounts of information. They began the transformation process by meticulously consolidating key customer data sources into a unified platform built on Microsoft Fabric, which streamlined their operations and laid a strong foundation for a more coherent approach to data management.

Following this initial step, they implemented a robust ETL (extract, transform, load) process, which was instrumental in effectively aggregating all the disparate data into a single, comprehensive source. This systematic approach ensured that the STAT News marketing team could collect and transform data from various touchpoints into a user-friendly format, making it easier for stakeholders to access and utilize the information.

To further enhance reporting and visualization capabilities, STAT News leveraged the powerful features of Tableau, a leading data visualization tool. This integration allowed the team to create dynamic dashboards and reports, providing more precise and actionable insights into the integrated data, significantly improving their analytical capabilities.

Additionally, STAT News is beginning to incorporate event data into its analytics framework. By layering this information, they aim to create a compounding effect that enhances the overall value of marketing outcomes. This approach allows for a more comprehensive understanding of audience engagement and helps marketers tailor their strategies more effectively, ultimately driving better results and higher returns on investment.

Moreover, this partnership facilitated more ad-hoc querying and comprehensive analysis of the consolidated customer dataset, enabling teams to explore data trends and patterns on demand. Ultimately, these concerted efforts equipped STAT News with improved visibility into its data landscape, empowering the company to make more informed, data-driven decisions regarding its subscription business model. This led to better customer engagement and retention strategies. This proactive approach optimized their internal processes and positioned STAT News to adapt swiftly to market changes and customer needs.

The Results

Through its data modernization initiative with BrainSell, STAT News has achieved several critical results. One significant improvement has been in its reporting capabilities. By layering Tableau on top of Microsoft Fabric, STAT News can automatically generate and distribute timely reports, streamlining its processes.

Additionally, the integration has enhanced their ability to query customer data directly, eliminating the need for manual processes to extract information from siloed systems. This shift has led to improved data integrity and increased confidence in the accuracy of customer insights. As a result, STAT News is now better positioned to make data-driven decisions, such as identifying planned features that would have negatively impacted revenue rather than delivering value.

Time savings and enhanced data trust also emerge as key benefits of this initiative. Furthermore, with the ability to develop new features more rapidly—such as through A/B testing—STAT News is discovering innovative ways to monetize its offerings. It also sets the stage for future machine learning and AI advancements, effectively future-proofing its business.