by Sabah Karimi
As the recession continues to tighten marketing budgets across all industries, launching a fresh new advertising or social networking campaign online may no longer be at the top of the agenda. However, there are several ways to leverage the effects of the tough economic times.
Paying attention to your web analytics campaign is one strategy that can help you stay one step ahead of the competition and pave the way for marketing success when things do turn around. Why? Because analytics data can be collected, organized and analyzed in detail to determine what your customers are doing, why they’re doing it, and what you can do now to affect their behavior. Here are some key reasons why a tough economy means it’s time to start reviewing detailed traffic reports:
#1: Web analytics will help you determine what is making your business profitable
By monitoring traffic reports and website customer behavior, you can narrow down exactly how much it costs to make your sale. Measuring every step of the customer’s path up until the sale will tell you how efficient your sales funnel really is, and may shed some light on how you can improve it. During a tough economy, this type of data can help you increase the chances of prospective sales without doing any additional marketing.
#2: Web analytics data can help you reallocate marketing dollars
Are you spending a lot of your marketing dollars on pay-per-click campaigns that are bringing in non-converting leads? Is banner advertising really bringing in the type of customers that will become long-time clients? Web analytics will help you answer these pivotal questions, so you can reallocate your marketing expenditures to areas that really are working for you.
#3: You can accurately identify your ‘ideal’ customer
Many companies hash out the key characteristics and descriptors of their ‘ideal’ customer or client, but find that their definitions aren’t as accurate as they need to be. This is where web analytics can help. Instead of conducting pricey consumer surveys or hiring a market research team to evaluate your target market, you can tap into web analytics data to find out who your current purchasers are, and what type of demographic profile or spending profile they fall under. This in-house approach will provide you with highly-accurate data that is specific to your industry. This is incredibly valuable information, the type you wouldn’t be able to get from any market research study or focus group.
In an ideal world, how do you want your prospects to engage with your website and proceed to complete the sale? How are they doing that now? Identifying the conversion funnel, or sales channel that you want your customers to go through, and then comparing that to what they are already doing, is easier with a web analytics plan. Use existing data to map out what is happening right now, and then assess where your prospects are dropping off if they don’t complete the sale. Identifying these bottlenecks will determine what needs to be changed on your website so you’re not wasting marketing dollars on attracting traffic that can’t even convert.
#5: You can monitor customer behavior and speed up your reaction time
Having a web analytics plan in place will help you monitor customer behavior to get a close look at any drastic changes. This could be as simple as not clicking on certain areas of your sales page, or complicated as visitors arriving at a certain page and then leaving immediately. Monitoring these details allows you to tweak and modify your website so that it encourages a more positive response. Having proof of what is happening at your fingertips might make it easier to proceed with changes that would affect future visitors.
Web analytics may be a ‘recession-proof’ tool for any marketing department that wants to increase sales and conversions. Focusing on web analytics during the tough economy means you can get a close look of customer behavior and trends, and make changes that affect these behaviors almost immediately. This can increase the quality of your leads and improve conversions, so you don’t have to worry about spending more money on the acquisition of new customers.