What Are You Trying to Accomplish?
Website metrics and analytics are meaningless if you don’t have business goals to tie them to. You must know what direction your business is going in. Otherwise, how can you feel good about the time and money spent on online marketing? No amount of planning or design can make up for that. Surprisingly, eCommerce sites can struggle with this often. Those starting from scratch can lack a business plan. As John Proctor, Atlantic BT’s Senior Solutions Account Executive, states, “It’s always vital to begin with a business focus rather than a technical one…The technology is designed to accommodate the business, not the other way around.”
Also, having firm goals in place makes everything easier. You can narrow in on the strategies and tactics needed to reach them. This can also keep your entire team on the same page. When everyone shares a goal, the best ideas and contributions can get the entire group over the finish line.
Do You Have Intermediate Conversion Steps?
In a lot of organizations, getting to a new sale or partnership takes several different steps. It might not be the case that someone will visit your website, read an article, and then take action right away. When that happens, it’s crucial to measure progress towards the little conversions. Look at repeat visits to a specific page or an e-book download. These are the things that move your prospect towards the right end result.
Are You Focusing on Meaningless Statistics?
There are several stats marketers pay attention to that don’t mean a lot. For instance, the number of ‘likes’ you get on a Facebook post. This doesn’t tell you much about your branding or potential for future sales. Likewise, page views are wildly overrated. These kind of indicators can tell you something about popularity, sure. But, initial interest has to turn into follow-up actions. That is what will create real value for your organization and your customers. There is a difference between entertaining potential customers and engaging with potential customers. The ones you actually connect with, will come back. And their interest will most likely lead to business results.
What Do the Trends and Results Say?
The truth is, real results, like sales, will determine how good your online marketing is. But, perhaps you’ve only recently launched a new website or you’re testing fresh ideas. As a result, these types of statistics are not available. Then it’s a good idea to see whether things are at least trending in the right direction. That can give you a sense of whether your efforts will pay off in the long run. Giving up at the very start won’t allow you to learn anything new or see the real results that could come to pass. Even small numbers are valuable as long as they continue to grow.
Start Getting Better Online Marketing Results Now
At Atlantic BT, we design and develop websites. But that’s not all. We also specialize in helping our clients see real-world indicators of success. If that’s what you’d like from your creative team, contact us today to schedule a free consultation.
