Web Analytics: How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Online and Offline Marketing Campaigns

One of the great things about the internet is that it is so measurable.

Anyone participating in an internet marketing campaign can know definitively whether or not the program is working because of all the measurements that are built into the web.

 Even more so the web can be used to measure the effectiveness of other advertising: television, radio, print ads, billboards, etc.

 When you decide you really want to take advantage of web analytics there are a few steps to take.

 First, what is your business goal?  This is something all business owners know but rarely consider.  Sometimes there have been changes in your market: more competition, changes in technology, etc.  What effect, if any, does that have on your business goals and what will it take to continue being successful?

The first reflex is to say that you want more sales, of course.  But maybe you need to look at more than just the sales component.   Even more important than sales is profit.  Selling more doesn’t necessarily make you more profitable.  By watching the analytics on your site you can see what areas are of most interest to visitors and use that information to increase sales and profits.

Goals should also be specific.  This further identifies those key areas where revenue and profits can be increased.

Once you determine goals then you can determine which metrics will be used to identify how effective your business is at achieving those goals.  Simply put: “to increase profits in the widget department we will have to sell more x widgets.”  Put another way, “If we know we need to make x profit and x widget has the best opportunity to produce higher profits we need to sell more of x widget.”   This number will be a Key Performance Indicator.

Side note:  The example above, of course, takes a retail approach.  This can just as easily be applied to the service industry.  If you make more profit providing one service over another then it makes sense to promote one service further.

Now you can combine what you want to know with what you can know using web analytics you’ll be able to determine if your plan is working.  But be aware that there are trends in every business and those trends need to be taken into consideration.  For example, Christmas is a big time of year for retail so there will be a spike followed by a drop.  This is normal.  The same is true of Mother’s day for the floral industry.

The most important thing to remember is that without using the metrics to actually implement change the best plans will be fruitless.  And the same is true of making too many changes.  When implementing a change to affect your key performance indicators take a scientific approach changing only one variable at a time to be sure you know what is actually working.

Naturally, the best time to examine your key performance is at the beginning of the year but some businesses choose to undertake this exercise more frequently.  You know your business best, just be sure to have a consistent, solid approach to improving performance.