Most organizations couldn't survive in today's market without data analysis—including Christianity Today. Over the past decade, the amount of raw data available via the web has exploded, according to CT's Analytics Manager, Luke Schoenrock. "The paradox is that this boom in data has not always led to a boom in insights," he says. "In fact, the amount of data available can obscure true insights and even discourage data-driven decision making. It can be like drinking from a fire hose."

"There are so many pieces coming from different sources and tools that someone is needed who can function as an aggregator and translator to convert data into ideas," Schoenrock says. "That, in a nutshell, is why I have a full-time job."

At all levels of a company—including at a nonprofit media ministry like Christianity Today—analysis guides the decision-making process. It "focuses on answering essential questions through data, identifying opportunities and weaknesses, and ultimately driving increased revenue by focusing the company's efforts," Schoenrock says. "In a more practical sense, analysts often function as customer advocates, using data to identify how customers engage with our products with the goal of a continual improvement of the customer experience."

Schoenrock regularly tracks CT's online traffic and analyzes what types of content successfully interests readers, where those readers are coming from, what their behavior is like on our sites, and how we can better meet their wants and needs. He also tracks our free weekly e-newsletters to determine which articles do well, what types of headlines people like to read, and what makes everyone click.

"There are definitely patterns in how people share on social media—especially on Facebook," Schoenrock says. This past year, readers on social media were most interested in Elisabeth Elliot's passing, why Hillsong United's "Oceans" still tops the charts, and a cartoon on confusing texts in church, which happened to receive more than 100,000 likes and reached more than 20 million people—the most, by far, of any post CT has ever shared.

There are posts that people share that Schoenrock likes to call "vanity shares," where readers share something that they want to be associated with or that they think is important. "Posts like that build a lot of reach and likes but typically not traffic," he says. An example of this is the previously mentioned cartoon and various inspiration images often promoted by ChristianBibleStudies.com and Today's Christian Woman.

"Then there are articles that hit the sweet spot," he says. "These are articles (like the Hillsong United article) that have a high reach [the number of people who see the post] but also drive high traffic numbers [the number of people who actually click on the post]." All of these articles shared from socials created 1- to 2-day major traffic spikes throughout CT's sites—all just because of Facebook.

However, different articles do better on different platforms. For example, while many articles do well on social media, not all of those same articles generate as many clicks to CT's various sites when promoted elsewhere.

In 2015, non-social media readers were most interested in C.S. Lewis being a secret agent, Wayne "Pops" Jolley being a "cult leader," and perennial top-traffic drivers like "Guidelines for Christian Sex" or "The List That Saved My Marriage."

This past year, Schoenrock discovered some "enlightening" data through his analyses. Did you know that …

• 30 percent of CT's traffic comes from outside the United States?
• more than half of CT's traffic is viewed on mobile devices? And that the most-used device across our sites is the iPhone5?
• almost 50 percent of our traffic is driven through search engines?
• our audience is almost evenly split among men and women?
• within the past five years, the number of visitors to CT's sites each month has grown from 1 million people to nearly 4 million?

Data like this can help answer questions that we may have regarding future article topics, projects, sites, or other new initiatives. For example, CT recently launched the new Christian History site. Schoenrock was brought into the conversation early in order to help map out how current visitors were reaching and interacting with the old site. "We were able to identify what search topics and sections of the website were most effective at drawing in visitors and highlight those in the new design," he says. "We also worked on developing ways to make it easier for users to navigate the site and locate related content." While the site is still in its early stages, so far the extra analysis seems to be paying off as the number of visits has increased by about 40 percent year over year.

The knowledge we can gain from data analysis is essential to understanding our customers and being good stewards of the ministry God has given us.

Natalie Lederhouse is administrative editor for Today's Christian Woman.