Online marketing is all about direct response marketing. In direct response it is all about measuring your activities and doing more of what works and less of what does not work or cutting what does not work.
Testing and tracking and analyzing the data so we can make informed decisions will allow us to make profitable decisions. In the world of online and internet you would be surprised at how many people do not track their activity on their website. It is a kin to leaving the front door open in your store on Main Street and the back door as well. People come and go as they please and there is no one there to help them answer questions or select products.
Google Analytics
When talking about online analytics we will almost always use Google Analytics. Google Analytics works well, it is free and we can share the data easily with employees and partners alike. Google Analytics is also easy to install, however it is often installed incorrectly. As analytics consultants we will assist you in getting up and running in a matter or minutes or hours.
One of the key goals in measuring your success is measuring website behavior. For example did the user download a white paper? Did the user fill out the web form? We can measure almost anything. How many pages did they click through on? Each one of these actions we can set a goal and then assign a value to them. Are we able to get the users to take action? The biggest single problem I see with Google Analytics is I do not see the goals set up correctly. How important is this? It is like counting money in your bank account and looking at the bottom line.
The other piece to Google Analytics I like a lot is our ability to customize the reports extensively. We can generate weekly reports and automate them and set them and forget them, but we do want to look at them and pay attention to them because often based on the reports we have to make adjustments to the web site or to the traffic we are driving into the web site. There are some other analytics packages out there and are more advanced but in my experience if we can max out all the analytical utility in Google Analytics alone we are usually in pretty good shape.
Google Webmaster Tools
Then there is also Google Webmaster tools which will give you an accurate view of your incoming link protfolio. This is important because it is one of the single most important criteria that Google uses to rank your site in their search engine. You can also see how your data is linked by anchor text, this is important because the anchor text helps your keyword values go up.
Consolidated Tracking
For a few other projects we are using a Consolidated Tracking system. Where this really comes in handy is we have the ability to track the ad source which can be a billboards, a website, a TV Ad, a postcard or any other form of media. Once the calls come in or the web visits come in we can track each one and then score the quality of the phone calls and determine how each ad source is performing. Why spend money on an ad source if it does not perform? This as perfect an analytics tracking system as I have seen yet.
Trace Watch
Another web analytics tracking solution is Trace Watch. Why this can do that Google Analytics cannot do is track the users path through the website. The other little thing not discussed much is if you remove Google Analytics and just leave in Trace Watch Goopgle itself cannot tell how long people are staying on your website and from where and how they are coming to you. If this is so then some folks believe Google will give you the benefit over the doubt and rank your site higher than others with Google Analytics installed.
To advance analytics call Jim Peake on my cell phone if you want help with your analytics installation. 781-990-8844
