You have a website that is incredible, yet would you be able to say it is truly doing what it should do? In today’s economy when brands have become conscious of every dollar they spend on marketing, it has become of utmost importance to keep a check on website visitors. I can’t stress enough on how knowing your visitors is beneficial for your business. When someone visits your house it goes without saying that you know who they are, where they have come from, where they are headed next, what they like/dislike, etc. You make sure they have a good experience and leave with a thought of wanting to visit again (well, only if you like them). Consider your website your home and the visitors your guests. Now you know what’s been missing?
Website visitors come through various sources depending on where you place your ads. Considering you advertise on all digital mediums, your visitors will come from one of the many platforms. Over time you will realize certain platforms don’t send as many visitors and spending money on them is simply a waste of effort and cash. Such insights come when you regularly keep a tab on the source of your audience. This data can be used while deciding where you should invest your money to generate leads.
While knowing the source of your audience is basic, knowing what they do on your website is essential. Website visitors show signs of what they like and what they don’t by the way they navigate and leave. Tracking shows how much time they spent on each page and from where they abandoned your website. You can use this data to improve your UI/UX to deliver a better website experience.
Let us assume you want to target people from the tier 1 and 2 cities, falling in the age bracket of 20-35, with interests in lifestyle, fashion and high end couture. Now how do you know these are the people checking out your website? This is where analytics can be put to use. It gives you demographic data of the audience visiting your website which can be used to make sure if your targeting is done right and your marketing activities are paying off. You can also use this data to refine your strategies and communicate in a better fashion. Brilliant, right?
Web analytics gives you an ocean of information about your audience. But some metrics hold more power than others. You should keep an eye on them if not all. For example, trackunique visitors (users) on your site instead of tracking all the sessions. This gives the number of sessions that happened within the specified time range. Bounce rate is another important metric. It tells you the number of visits in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further. Keeping your bounce rate low is extremely crucial. You should also track your visitor’s favourite pages. You can use them to upgrade your marketing and content strategies.
Investing in website traffic analytics will give high value data on how various devices are performing for your business. You also gain insight of the performance ratings of each device, areas that need improvement and actions that need to be taken. At the same time, you can track customers surfing on a laptop but buying through their mobile phone or vice versa. This information is gold because it tells you which devices to bet on so as to improve your device targeting strategy.
To better understanding website visitors, you must segment them in groups based on common traits. It is important precisely because as a business you can communicate to the right group with the right message at the right time. In the long run, it benefits the company as customers with specific demands can be targeted efficiently. This in turn switches them in to brand loyalists and brand ambassadors.
Another important part of digital marketer that should be considered is attribution modeling. Why? It identifies touch points that contribute to desired outcomes on the website and assigns a value to them. In short, it determines the steps that were taken before the visitor was converted to a customer. A lead before converting might click on the Google ad, come back later through Facebook ad, visit again through organic search and directly enter the web address and land on the site. Thus, it is very important to attach credit to each event. Else, it may lead to loss in ROI. Basically, it helps assess the effectiveness of your marketing channels and its impact on conversion.
Need help in understanding your audience?
Analytics might seem intimidating to begin with. If you want deep insights that can be turned in strategies that deliver results, you might want to consider hiring an agency.
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