Online marketing is all about direct response marketing.  In direct response it is all about measuring your activities and doing more of what works and less of what does not work or cutting what does not work.

Testing and tracking and analyzing the data so we can make informed decisions will allow us to make profitable decisions.  In the world of online and internet you would be surprised at how many people do not track their activity on their website.  It is a kin to leaving the front door open in your store on Main Street and the back door as well.  People come and go as they please and there is no one there to help them answer questions or select products.

When talking about online analytics we will almost always use Google Analytics.  Google Analytics works well, it is free and we can share the data easily with employees and partners alike.  Google Analytics is also easy to install, however it is often installed incorrectly.  As analytics consultants we will assist you in getting up and running in a matter or minutes or hours.

One of the key goals in measuring your success is measuring website behavior.  For example did the user download a white paper?  Did the user fill out the web form?  We can measure almost anything. How many pages did they click through on?  Each one of these actions we can set a goal and then assign a value to them.  Are we able to get the users to take action?  The biggest single problem I see with Google Analytics is I do not see the goals set up correctly.  How important is this?  It is like counting money in your bank account and looking at the bottom line.

The other piece to Google Analytics I like a lot is our ability to customize the reports extensively.  We can generate weekly reports and automate them and set them and forget them, but we do want to look at them and pay attention to them because often based on the reports we have to make adjustments to the web site or to the traffic we are driving into the web site.  There are some other analytics packages out there and are more advanced but in my experience if we can max out all the analytical utility in Google Analytics alone we are usually in pretty good shape.  Call Jim Peake on his cell phone if you want help with your analytics installation.  781-405-5815.