7 Ways Web Analytics Improve Marketing

Web analytics provide key insight into the data which helps you understand and optimize your web presence. When evaluating your brand’s performance, the use of hard data collected by tools such as Google Analytics can be immensely helpful in identifying areas which require improvement or attention – and also determining what marketing efforts are offering you a great return on investment.

Strongpages has put together the following tips for using web analytics to improve your marketing, grow your business, and maximize revenues.

1. Assess your traditional advertising. Not sure if your traditional advertising is cost-effective? Include a specially tagged URL or QR code which can help you identify and track traffic driven by print advertisements, press releases, or other traditional, offline media. You can then use web analytics to compare and contrast these methods with online marketing efforts, review for cost-effectiveness, and focus your resources on the channels which maximize your ROI.
2. Inspect your funnel for leaks. Most tools used for web analytics offer a traffic funnel feature which can be used to gain insight into user patterns. By reviewing the data provided, you can determine where blockages or leaks may be occurring, and take action to correct them. If there are particular pages or points in the process where you tend to lose visitors, those points can then be modified to retain traffic. This type of review can also help you identify points where it may be helpful to place special offers or include opportunities designed to further engage your visitors.
3. Track media interaction. Event tracking is another feature offered in many tools designed for web analytics. A short segment of code is added to page features which call for visitor interaction, such as videos, presentations, or downloadable content. This code then tracks and counts the number of downloads or plays for each piece of content, providing you with a clear picture of audience engagement and interest.
4. Review real-time data. Knowing the specific pattern of traffic during a particular time or date is often helpful for assessing impact of events such as media coverage, special offers, sales, or other marketing campaigns on your site’s traffic. Real time web analytics tools can provide granular insight into the timing of your traffic, so you know what events are driving visits, and when visitors will be more likely to engage with your content.
5. Identify customer segmentation. By setting custom parameters for segmentation, you can develop a more thorough understanding of the visitors currently engaging with your website. By embedding custom variables and tracking via web analytics, you can identify visitor segments that best match your site goals, and gain deeper insight into audience response and interaction.
   Inspect site performance. Examination of web analytics such as bounce rates, traffic patterns, and funnel diagrams can reveal site issues such as broken links, browser issues, or malfunctioning features. Data regarding traffic origination can also help you determine whether your site should be optimized for mobile interaction, and identify other factors which might impact the user experience.
6. Facilitate geographic assessment. Some tools designed for web analytics offer map overlay features, which can be utilized to identify traffic by region or geographical area. This is incredibly helpful for determining the success or failure of specific marketing campaigns in a targeted region, and identifying areas of rising, falling, or trending interest in your brand.

These days, more and more tools are incorporating the use of web analytics to provide hard data for improving site performance and marketing. For more information on how you can use web analytics effectively to improve your audience interaction, contact the experts at Strongpages today.