Internet Marketing Blog

Using Web Analytics to Build a Visionary Company

June 5, 2008 – 6:58 pm

It’s interesting how businesses, specifically small ones, continue to pump thousands of dollars each month into multiple marketing campaigns, yet still don’t know which are generating ROI. As a business owner myself, it seems that sometimes we get so caught up in the grind of executing tasks, managing projects, interfacing with customers and so forth, that we forget to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

It’s one thing to set up web analytics for your website, it’s another to apply this data to your company’s overall marketing plan and spot trends over extended periods of time.

Businesses go through many different stages in the development of their marketing strategies, but one element remains consistently important: generating ROI. However, this does not alleviate the attention we must pay to other important aspects of business like customer loyalty, internal efficiencies, corporate leadership, social responsibility, and building a long lasting organization (if you’re interested in reading about some of the most successful, visionary companies of our time, I highly recommend, “Built to Last” by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras).

Realistically, your analytics data will not offer insight on all these factors; it’s simply a tool to help facilitate the process of better understanding your customers and seeing how they interface with your brand. With a trained eye, you will be able to isolate buying patterns, chart lifestyle desires and needs, buyer locations, visitation frequency, and the impact of specific marketing campaigns.

But, back to reality…you have a business to run, a division to manage, and a long list of tasks to get through, and who has time to analyze and assess data all day? Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your web marketing efficiencies. So take it one step at a time…

Step 1.

Get the decision makers in your company on board with implementing web analytics for your various web properties.

Step 2.

Hire a professional marketing agency, or choose a group of experienced individuals to manage your analytics program. Make a decision on which solution is best for your company. If you’re just starting out, you may want to evaluate Google Analytics, which is free to its users. If you need a more robust solution, consider the following platforms - Omniture, WebTrends and ClickTracks. Set up all your online and offline campaigns within the software and watch the results closely.

Step 3.

Absorb the data and utilize it to improve all aspects of your company’s online and offline marketing initiatives.

Step 4.

Repeat Step 3.