Have you ever heard the expression “you can’t manage what you don’t measure?” This popular saying happens to be especially true in the world of small business. That’s why having an effective analytics setup is crucial. Getting started with data is overwhelming so I break down specific areas below and how to leverage them for both sales and marketing efforts. Small businesses can use this blog post to gain valuable insights about marketing and outreach efforts.
Analytics Goals
The biggest misunderstanding with Google Analytics is that it tracks behavior through destinations when installed fresh out of the box. However, tracking engagement and calculating insights requires a customized setup for brands.
I’m a fan of a visual so I put one together below. While this may seem obvious in representation it hopefully demonstrates the need for modifications in order to successfully measure ROI.
You can find countless videos online about how to properly set up a goal within Google Analytics. However, there are a few key rules to know.
- Always leave 1 set of clean untouched data to fall back on [?]
- Separate website domains should be setup as properties [?]
- Get started using a trusted gmail account then invite others [?]
Traffic Sources
Make a list of the core audiences your brand works with and then look at your website. Is the path to contact you the same one everyone would take? Although a single form is easiest for a developer to set up it creates data issues down the line. Did your own team make the list? Because a quick tip would be to block your own IPs from reporting. [?]
Building brand loyalists is similar to dating. (Hear me out!)Yes, social media gains brands a lot of attention but think of those channels as a dating profile. It’s easy to get fixated on what you think you want versus what you need and end up in all the wrong relationships. On the other hand, think of your website as a long-term relationship where you provide mutual support. You listen and teach. Actions should always be clear for consensual opt-in or opt-out.
I may have just lost my audience, but if you’re vibing with what I just said and want a deeper dive into website strategy then the article below is for you:
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Site speed
This is a metric often overlooked by leadership to focus on what I lovingly refer to as “vanity metrics.” However, all of the full resolution images and outdated technology a website has is absolutely communicated with search engines which affects SEO.
It’s important that leadership doesn’t get blindsided by overall metrics because the devil is in the details. I’ve worked with enterprise companies that have a bounce rate of over 90% simply because IT set every computer to have their website at the default browser homepage. You’re only as strong as your weakest page. Too often marketing is held to a standard of performance that is comparable to paddling upstream in a technical issue.
Behavior Flow
Remember those audience segments I asked you to identify? Your next step is to consider all of the ways they navigate your website. And I don’t just mean how they are currently navigating but instead how they could be. Clicking any page within Google Analytics presents a “Page Navigation” tab that will show you what pages users inter in on and then go to next from that page. That should help inform the order of your links on a page as well as page creation opportunities.
I like to think about page content as a one-stop shop. You’ve heard the phrase, “any page could be the front door to your brand.” Well, if a user landed on a particular page what are all the things you could give them to do in a way that educates, inspires, and entertains them. Page navigation actually happens in the body of the page and by grouping things visually you are thinking empathetically to the user instead of only asking for conversion. Creating visual consistency across pages tells a measurable journey within analytics.
Engagement
Let’s jump back into the dating analogy because my coffee is flowing and I’m in a silly goofy mood [?]. Consider those new pages like gifts for your audience. A brand’s goal is to communicate unique value and leave enough room to romanticize a life together. This quite literally is user experience. Without those pages, brands are simply listing what they hope to get transactionally. (No, I don’t mean that kind of transaction.) Basically, you can’t ask big favors of a new acquaintance before building a foundation of a friendship. One might even call it brand trust.
quantity is the biggest factor in engagement
Some Examples:
- how often a brand produces blog posts should inform the quantity displayed on a page so it appears to be fresh when a user visits
- how many conversion pages are needed to create new opportunities for partnership, services, or ideas
- are there too many buttons are on a page that appear overwhelming as asks
- how many buttons can actually be text links to appear as gives
- which should be setup as a goal in analytics to measure a conversion pipeline
Analytics Insights
Audience groups and user journies are now identified. Let’s talk about outreach. When enabled, analytics informs brands about the gender, age, location, and interests of their audience. However, these kinds of insights are typically only reviewed monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Most marketers have heard of Bitly or maybe even consider social analytics to be their performance measurement. When combined, audience data points and UTM tracking can unlock real-time lead and performance tracking which benefits both marketing and business development.
(or really help out solopreneurs level up their game) UTMs don’t have to be scary. Google has a great tool to help.
WARNING: UTMs are case-sensitive which affects reporting
Google Data Studio can connect multiple data feeds and visually display the information. Brands can leverage existing data points like location and compare to trackable links to identify interested leads in real-time. Yes, a lot of sales is about gut instinct but would it be better to know if somebody actually opened a proposal and spent more than 30 seconds reading it? Sure CRM software offers that kind of tracking built-in but customer service isn’t the only area where people want to talk to another human.
urgency is the biggest factor for insights
Some Examples:
- UTMs can be placed on sales deliverables for real time lead tracking
- Email signatures or LinkedIn Profiles that link to a brand website is a great opportunity to track human outreach
- Most social media limits how far back data can be pulled for performance
- Linktr.ee seems like a great option but it’s just as easy to build a Links page on your website to own your traffic and track where users enter and go next
- What time of day is a user most likely to read a deliverable?
- What day of the week is a user most likely to make an action?
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Takeaways:
- Keep a clean data set
- Map website destinations and engagement paths
- Setup measurable conversion goals in analtyics
- Research technical impact on peformance
- Pace give vs. ask content quantity in marketing
- Humanize urgency and timing with your audience