There’s a marketing mantra that says “If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing” but with the amount of data available these days marketers can easily get so bogged down in measurement that you’re left with precious little time to do any actual marketing!
Google analytics, for example, provides free access to in-depth information about website activity but it’s easy to end up spending hours down this particular rabbit hole without actually learning anything that can be used to improve your marketing activities.
Conversely, understanding your website traffic is essential to successful marketing - your website is often your customer’s first touch-point with your brand and the activity on your site can tell you a lot about what they’re looking for. Tracking visitor statistics over time also gives you a good benchmark to measure campaign success against.
So, what should busy marketing teams that don’t have time to do a deep dive into their website data be tracking?
How many people are visiting your website every month?
Keeping track of how many website visitors your site attracts every month over a long period can help you identify trends and plan activities that can capitalise on this data. If, for example, your website visitors peak at a certain time of year then you may want to run an online special to generate additional sales from the increased traffic at that time.
Who are your visitors?
What countries do your visitors come from and what languages do they speak? Ideally this should be a direct reflection of your business location and areas you operate in, but inconsistencies could help you identify potential new markets. For instance, if your website is attracting a lot of traffic from a territory that you don’t do business in, it could be an indication of a gap in the market.
Where is your web traffic coming from?
Are your website visitors finding your site via search, your social platforms, links on other sites, or by typing your URL directly into their web browser? Knowing how visitors end up on your site can help you decide where to invest more marketing spend and evaluate your day-to-day (ie: outside of campaign) activities.
How long are website visitors spending on your site?
What is the average amount of time spent on the site and how many pages does the average visitor look at? If you’re not measuring goal conversions, then these details will at least give you some insight into how engaged your website visitors are.
What content are your visitors looking at?
Knowing what pages your visitors are looking at can give you clues as to the market’s appetite for specific products and services you offer – or indicate that your website needs to be reorganised to make key content easier to find.
Website stats give marketers a fantastic insight into how potential customers engage with their brand, just remember not all marketing activities result in web traffic and not all marketing and PR results are as easily measured.