Success happens when you measure and understand what is working and not working. We measure things every day in our life, how long it takes us to get somewhere, how much sleep we had the night before – and then ask do I need more or less. Marketing is no different, if you are going to spend money wouldn’t it be great to know if you are spending the right amount in the right way?
Google Analytics is a great tool to get started measure how well your website is working. You can measure how many visitors come to your website and what actions they take. Understanding some of these simple things helps you to make decisions to define a marketing strategy. Marketing your business online can be very expensive when you make choices that follow a path away from your business objectives.
Here’s a few tips to get you started on Google Analytics:
1. Understand your business and what you want to achieve.
Knowing you want to grow your business is one thing, but let’s dig a little deeper. How much do you want to grow your business and what product or service would you like to focus the growth? Setting specific and attainable goals is the first step to having the ability to measure those goals. Do you want to grow your business by 10%, 25% or 50% this year? Where have you been most successful?
2. Who are Your Competitors?
In order to develop a good digital marketing strategy you must understand your competition and how they are competing. Understanding what your competition is NOT doing gives you a competitive advantage and understanding what is working well for them allows you to maximize opportunity.
3. What actions are your visitors taking on your website?
Understanding what interests your visitors and where they spend their time allows you to improve your visitor’s experience. Dominate in search engines by tailoring content for how your target markets is searching for you and encouraging your existing customers to return.
4. How are your visitors finding you?
With so many ways to make yourself found by search engines, it’s important to know which tactics are working. Do you have a huge following on social media and are marketing on multiple social media channels? Are you the best content marketer and Google is rewarding you by increasing your ranking? With the many other ways you can increase your brand awareness it’s important to know which ones are working the best. Understanding where your traffic is originating can allow you to focus on what is working and stop doing what is not working.
5. Reduce Your Bounce Rate
First let’s answer the question, what is a bounce rate and why do I care? A bounce rate tells you that someone has visited your site and taken no actions before leaving. Actions can be visit another page or complete a form. To put it into perspective, If you went into a store and realize it’s not what you expected, turned around and walked out – technically that is a bounce. A high bounce rate tell you that you are not displaying what people want, or how they are finding you through search is not relevant to what you sell. All of your marketing efforts are wasted if people aren’t looking for what you’re selling.
Measuring your marketing efforts can be simple or complex based on your business objectives. Even in the most simple form your business will reap the benefits of knowing you are making the right choices.
If you would like more information on analytics or need help setting up tracking and reporting, get in touch with your local WSI Digital Marketing Consultant today.
