Well, in the world of direct
marketing, especially
on-line direct marketing
it's "test, test,
test". Knowing what to test,
why you are testing it and
how to make changes based on
the data, is somewhat of an
"art", but mostly "science".
The science part means
having the proper tools to
know:
-
Where your visitor came
from? Was it from
Google, Yahoo, MSN,
another web site, an
email campaign, an
organic search or a PPC
campaign. The list goes
on.
-
Exactly what did the
visitor type in the
search box that cause
them to see your ad? Are
they using words like
"free" or "red" when all
you sell are "blue"?
-
What pages did they
visit on your web site
and how long did they
stay on each page? Did
they read your customer
testimonials because
they wanted to see what
your customers were
saying about you?
-
Did they take a specific
action, like download a
document, sign up for
your newsletter or buy
something?
Knowing the answers to these
and many other important
questions is all possible by
implementing web analytics.
I like to refer to it as
"peeking behind the
curtain". Web analytics are
a very powerful tool, but it
does require an additional
investment. It's not a
requirement unless you are
really serious about making
the most of your internet
marketing campaigns.
And one more thing, here is
another ism I like which is
very appropriate. "You
can't improve what you can't
measure". Web
analytics is the tool that
allows us to measure.
I don't require installing
web analytics on your
website, but if it is
installed it will allow
me to do a better job of
optimizing your campaigns.
OK, so how do I get web
analytics?
It involves using your
webmaster to put a few lines
of Java code on each web
page of your site. This code
sends data on visitor
behavior to a data base
which can be queried to
provide valuable information
about how well your campaign
is performing.
What are my options?
Option 1 (no charge)
I will work with your
webmaster to install the
code on your site and I will
create a sub-account in my
personal web analytics
account. It will give me
everything I need to manage
your campaign and I can
relay other important
information to you, but you
will not have direct access to the
information.
Option 2 ($20/month)
I will work with your
webmaster to install the
code on your site and you
will have access to
the data. Any assistance I
provide will be at my normal
consulting rate.
Google Analytics -
The web analytics
application I use is not
Google Analytics because
Google Analytics doesn't
provide the information I
use in the format I need.
Google Analytics provides
interesting information, but
not what I consider
actionable information.
However, if you like, I will
work wit your webmaster to
install the Google Analytics
code at the same time we
install the application I
use. The two applications
work the same way and there
is very little incremental
effort to implement both.
The advantage being that you
will have free access to
your own Google Analytics
account.
