Everyone is undoubtedly familiar with the phrase “knowledge is power.” It’s the kind of thing that used to get served all the time on TV shows, when we were kids, and likely many of us had our parents constantly reminding us of the importance of education, on the basis that it would enable us to live fruitful, successful, and happy lives.

Of course, this statement has many profound truths to it. The more you know about health, fitness, and nutrition – the better able you are to keep yourself in top physical condition, optimise your mood, and avoid health crises down the line. Or, to give another example – the more you understand about DIY, the less reliant you are on potentially expensive repair services.

But, of course, one of the key areas in which the statement applies is in the realm of business.

Here are a few reasons why knowledge really is power in your business, and why you should commit to continual education, and depth of understanding, if you’re interested in long-term professional success.

Your analytics can show you the right path to take

There are many various types of data analytics which are likely to be relevant to any given business. One of the key metrics that is often tracked, for example, is “bounce rate.” This is a metric that refers to how long the average visitor spends on a given page, or section, of your website.

If you notice that your primary sales page has a “bounce rate” of three seconds – you can assume that there is a real problem there, that needs to be addressed if you want to have any hope of actually making any sales via your website and all.

Then again, your analytics can also show you what’s going right. Perhaps you have embedded certain links in a newsletter email, which gets automatically sent out once a week via MailChimp, and have noticed that one of these links seems to yield a disproportionate number of engagements.

It would then be, by far, in your best interests to try and identify what it is about that particular link which is appealing to customers and clients – and to apply those principles to other dimensions of your marketing.

Simply by measuring and reviewing your analytics, you can often completely transform the course of your entire business for the better.

Specific goals, targets, and strategies get results – non-specific ones don’t

It has been said, time and time again, that “if you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll never get there.” On one hand, this is an injunction to pay attention to the importance of goal setting, generally.

In another sense, however, this quote – and ones like it – hits at a more nuanced truth. That is, that specific goals, targets, and strategies get results – and non-specific ones don’t.

You have likely heard of “S.M.A.R.T.” goals – an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.

The point of this acronym is that when you set goals, they should be as focused as possible. You should know exactly – not broadly – what it is you want to achieve. You should know when you want to achieve it by, and you should have a clear idea in mind of what metrics you are going to track to see whether or not you are progressing down the right path.

Of course, being specific involves – almost by definition – having more information. The more information you are able to bring to bear on the goal-setting and planning process, the more likely you are to actually be able to bring your dreams to fruition.

The more you know about your field, and industry, the better able you will be to navigate it masterfully

Here’s a no-brainer question; if a potential employer had to hire one of two people for a given role, and one was an expert in the field, and had a proven track record of being masterfully insightful in that domain, and the other knew absolutely nothing about the field and all, who do you think would get the job?

Of course, this is an exaggerated situation. It is rarely, if ever, the case that out of any two applicants for a job – one will know everything, and the other will know nothing.

Nonetheless, the point stands. When you know more about your field and industry, you’re invariably going to be more attractive to potential employers.

More than this, though, you are also going to be better able to navigate the industry on your own terms. An entrepreneur who knows more than his competitors, for example, is in a very advantageous position.