“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” This is especially true when it comes to measuring your marketing.
The famous mathematician and statistician Karl Pearson coined the phrase and it’s as important in business and marketing today as it was in the victorian times in which he lived.
As small business owners in the digital age, we have hundreds of tools to make our life easier, but today’s marketing focus is on a tool many of us fit and forget.
Measuring your marketing with Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tool provided by Google to help us improve our website, perfect for measuring your marketing efforts.
It collects data from visitors and can give us a wealth of information, from how long someone spends on our website, to the types of devices that they are using to view it.
We often fit and forget, but it’s a great tool that can help us improve our website in a number of ways.
Take a look at just two of the following reports within Google Analytics:
- Landing Pages. This report tells us the most popular pages that people are landing on when they visit your site. There could be a popular keyword, service or other reason people arrive there.
- Audience Overview. One of the key statistics here is the Bounce Rate. This is, how many people are visiting your page, looking at the page content, not interacting or clicking onto another page and leaving. Harsh facts, but if they are bouncing after spending less than 1-second on your site, and that figure is high ie 70%, then maybe the content needs a little love and attention.
For both of the above.
- Could we improve those pages with the highest visits, or bounces, to ensure there is more valuable content for visitors?
- Can we add calls-to-action, contact details or other easy ways to generate more enquiries?
Not installed Google Analytics on your website yet?
Here’s a quick easy guide on how to install Google Analytics, if you use WordPress.
Don’t worry, the guide takes you through step by step.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-install-google-analytics-in-wordpress/
Ok, so you have your website nailed, check Google Analytics regularly. Where else could it be helping your business?
Google Analytics isn’t just about measuring your website visitors.
It’s a powerful tool that can be used to measure the efficiency of ALL of your online marketing and communications. Measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts, your advertising campaigns, and any document you include a link to your website from.
Urchins.
Nope, not the ones that live under the sea, we are talking Urchin Tracking Module (UTM).
Taking you from Google Analytics starter to super-hero, UTM’s allow you to track any marketing efforts into the GA reporting software.
Wondering how measuring your marketing can make a difference in your business?
Do you have an online brochure or price list, with links to your website? You could track those link clicks with an Urchin.
Maybe you are working hard on building an audience on LinkedIN and want to track how effective it is at driving traffic to your website? An Urchin would be perfect for this.
Facebook Ads or Google Ads campaign? Urchins come into their own here too.
Want to read more about UTM’s and how to use them? Here’s a handy guide.
https://buffer.com/library/utm-guide
Marketing is all about spending time on what works, and ditching what doesn’t. That’s why it’s so important to be measuring your marketing.
As Pearson said, we can either measure and improve it, or if it’s not working we can focus on what is.
Struggling with getting your head around digital marketing or social media?
Why not book a chat at The Photography Show?
You will find me on Stand G70 with the British Institute of Professional Photography
