All online and offline marketing campaigns should be tracked and measured. Let’s say you just wrote a blurb that promoted your website and there was an increase to that specific page. Without marking this blurb as a campaign within your analytics, what would you attribute the increase in traffic to? IN addition, having clear tracking for offline marketing, like trade shows, is an important way to compare the results of your entire marketing strategy.
Measure Traffic Sources. Find out how your visitors are finding you. Finding out which sources are driving the most traffic to the website will allow you to determine how well the search engines index the content on your website. You can also get the information to know if social media is actually working and which email campaigns are driving traffic. With the sources data, you can drill down further to strategize on what types of calls-to-action you place on specific pages.
Measure Conversion Rates. Getting visitors to the website is the first step; getting them to convert into a lead or business is the next. Offering compelling content and clear calls to action will help to convert more of this traffic into leads for the business. Variant or A/B testing with landing pages and calls-to-action allow you to test which are converting at a higher average. Determine which keywords are giving you the best top, middle, and bottom of the funnel leads.
Ensure the data is clear. Focus on one metric. For example, if you notice an increase in traffic one week, can you tell what the cause of this increase was? You may notice there was a large increase of traffic from the blog; then, after drilling down further, you find that it was a specific article. This shows you that this specific content is compelling to your audience, and it would be a great idea to create more content on this topic.
Close the Loop. Most marketers are concerned about their marketing ROI and knowing where to devote more time, energy, and resources are important. Closed loop marketing finds out which campaigns are driving the most traffic, leads, and most importantly, customers. You want to devote your valued resources to marketing campaigns that are driving actual customers and business.
Proper web analytics can help you attract and retain customers and to increase the dollar volume each one spends.