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Using Web Analytics For Business Growth
Traditional retail stores are tried-and-true and act as the backbone of most sales around the world… well, for now.
When compared to marketing tactics and business models that may have been used only 10 or 20 years ago, it’s easy to see how the power of the internet has completely changed the way we conduct business today. For example, in 2021, the number of digital consumers worldwide is expected to grow to over 2.14 billion people. To put things into perspective, as of today, there are only 7.8 billion people in the world. This means you could be reaching over 25% more customers just by bringing your business into the digital space!
We understand how the growing importance of e-commerce can be a little intimidating for business owners, especially if you’re not entirely familiar with the inner workings of digital marketing. The truth is, making sure your business stays ahead of the competition is actually easier to do than people think it is.
HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS IN THE DIGITAL SPACE
The rapid increase of businesses starting online operations and websites to supplement their retail offerings, in order to keep up with growing consumer trends, has only accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, as more and more businesses begin to use online platforms as a way of selling and marketing their brands, products, and services, it can become increasingly difficult to make your company stand out. And as websites are quickly becoming a new “norm” for businesses, it’s important that you ask yourself if you’re doing everything you can to make sure your brand stands out.
So what does this mean for you?
CREATE A WEBSITE
If you haven’t already considered creating a website for your business, then now is a perfect time! Websites provide businesses with a competitive edge in the marketplace, communicate trust and reputability, and allow you to expand your reach to new customers.
If you’re not the most tech-savvy business owner out there, you have nothing to fear – this is why marketing and design experts exist! Website specialists, such as the team at Big Fish Creative, help simplify the design process and work to create lasting and effective websites.
We recommend you begin by reading this short article on the differences between a basic website and a beautifully designed website, then race back here to learn how to stay ahead of your competitors.
While we can’t backtrack and create a website in the past, the sooner you start, the better. Aside from building brand awareness and earning your digital market share, there is this little mechanic called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that can generate your site’s organic traffic and credibility. While we would need several other articles to cover its workings (“little” as in subjectively), the sooner you build your website and have it live on the web, the better it’ll be for your SEO when you do get around to it. Here are a few neat articles from Moz and Search Engine Land that go into the details of SEO if you’re looking for some further reading.
USE WEB ANALYTICS
The usage of effective web analytics has opened up an entirely new world of competitive advantages for business growth and is a secret to making sure your business stays ahead of the competition. Still with us?
Let’s start by breaking down how “web analytics” work.
WHAT EXACTLY ARE WEB ANALYTICS
Website analytics include the collection, measurement, reporting, and analysis of website data that allows you to better understand and optimize the operations of your website. Think of it as understanding how your consumers interact with your business, and using that knowledge to make business changes to help increase profits and create better customer experiences.
Web analytics revolve around creating better marketing campaigns and strategies to help grow your business, and capitalizes on the 4.66B (and counting) active internet users worldwide! And to help you better understand how website analytics work to grow your business, here are 5 of the top ways web analytics can benefit you.
1) ANALYZE YOUR WEBSITE’S TRAFFIC
With hundreds of new brands and businesses emerging each and every day, success in your market is as much understanding your industry as it is your customers. This just means that if you’re able to understand how your customers think, then you’ll be able to provide the best customer experience possible!
Web analytics allows you to analyze the type of users that make up your online traffic or the people that visit your website. Understanding this data allows you to effectively optimize your website to meaningfully cater to the needs and interests of your customers. This includes important customer demographics and details such as:
- Where your visitors are from
- What aspects of your site they’re most interested in
- What they’re searching for
- The amount of time they spend on each of your web pages, and more.
In short, web analytics gathers data on every aspect of how your website performs and allows you and your marketing strategists to make changes to produce better business results.
2) TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE AND CUSTOMERS
There’s nothing worse than spending a hard-earned marketing budget on a campaign that targets the wrong audience. At its core, web analytics allow you to identify the who, what, when, where, why, and how’s of your target customers.
Web analytics are vital to ensuring your marketing efforts are reaching your intended consumers. Once you figure out exactly who is visiting your website, marketing experts are able to create specialized shopping experiences to:
- Boost sales and customer satisfaction
- Strengthen brand loyalty and increase the number of returning customers
- Improve purchase conversion rates (the number of people that visit your site and purchase something), and more.
Put simply, if you can understand who your consumers are and what they like, you can make adjustments to your business to limit any wasted time and energy while improving on your strengths.
3) MONITOR BOUNCE RATE AND OTHER KPIS (KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS)
The bounce rate of your website, in technical terms, is the percentage of users that visit your website and navigate to another website, without having interacted with anything. Think of the bounce rate as the number of people who walk into your store, only to briefly look at one thing before quickly getting bored and leaving to shop somewhere else. You should aim for a low bounce rate.
A high bounce rate might indicate that your website has an unengaging user experience or lacks the content that customers were hoping to find on your site. Web analytics allow you to improve your bounce rates by providing guidance for potential website improvements. This may include:
- Altering marketing materials and strategies
- Replacing ineffective and underutilized web pages
- Changing creative designs for increased engagement
- Adjusting website layouts for improved navigation
Web analytics simplify the process of monitoring information surrounding your key performance metrics (KPIs) by converting hard to interpret data into understandable and usable information to guide business decisions.
4) ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES
A strong customer experience begins before consumers even enter your website. This means making sure your website is easy to find (holds a strong search ranking) and is seamlessly marketed to your target audience.
Web analytics allow a company to assess any inefficient areas of a website. This information is often used by marketing experts to:
- Optimize landing pages and improve “weak” areas of a website
- Adjust web page layouts to enhance customer experiences
- Provide personalized promotional offers based on customer preferences, and more.
More importantly, web analytics are used to strengthen search engine optimization (SEO) factors on a website. This means improving the search ranking of your website (the order that it shows up in when you web search for something related to your business), so more consumers are able to find your website.
5) TRACK MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Apart from guiding the purpose, strategy, and audience of a marketing campaign, web analytics help assess and monitor the success of your marketing efforts.
By being able to track different links for various marketing pieces, you’re able to determine if your marketing efforts are effective, if you need to re-strategize, or if you need to pull out of a campaign entirely to avoid further losses.
SUMMARY
If it wasn’t already obvious, web analytics encompass a boatload of business metrics and website data. When website analytics are effectively utilized by marketing specialists, companies typically see accelerated business growth and development.
With competition continuously on the rise, web analytics can provide you with the competitive edge you need to dominate in your market.
For more business tips for success and marketing advice, be sure to check out our other articles.
