How many Twitter followers do you have? How many Facebook fans? Most people have a good idea of their online social popularity. But can you describe how these followers are interacting with your website or blog? How many are actually visiting you and converting to customers?
Google Analytics, free web tracking software, allows you to attach little codes to your links so that you can track just about anything. You can track campaign performance through email newsletter clicks, tweets, banner ads, affiliate programs, pay-per-click, and even offline campaigns. This will help you see which marketing efforts are the most effective and to better target your future campaigns.
You can use Google’s UTM Tag Builder to accomplish this, but I prefer UTM.to because it uses easy, down-to-earth language. You type in your link URL and your campaign details. Little pop-up bubbles tell you how to fill out the short form, and alert you when you’ve messed up the format. You can also get a long or short version of the new tagged-up URL.
This Week in The Biz Bite, Entrepreneur Coach Whitney Keyes lists her Top 10 Small Business Technology Resolutions. Three of them especially caught my eye. I believe that these are major things every business should do all year long every year! Here’s an excerpt:
10. Work the Web. Ask yourself if your website (you do have a website, right?) still fits the needs of your business. Is it time to upgrade to an e-commerce solution so you can sell your products or services online?
I agree. I suggest getting a professional competitive analysis to see how your website stacks up to your competition. You will then get personalized recommendations for the most cost effective ways to expand your online presence and increase your website ROI.
7. The Search is On. Do you know what SEO is? Search engine optimization improves your rank on sites like Google and Yahoo! A few keywords can catapult your ranking in only a few months.
I continue to see small business websites that have not yet tapped into this opportunity. Step out into the search engine spotlight by investing in SEO. Consult with an SEO specialist to determine how you define your organization/products and how to capitalize on your strengths while attracting new customers.
6. Be Smart and Social. Do some social media due diligence to find out if your industry cares about tweets, friends or followers before you invest valuable resources in social media.
Have your web designer do research on the viability and potential for social media. Do a test run to see the results. Be bold, think outside the box, and you might just be surprised!
In addition to Ms. Keyes recommendations, I also strongly suggest that small businesses put in place a regular web analytics schedule. This will enable you to see how well or poorly your website is performing monthly or quarterly. Then your web designer will suggest simple, practical improvements to increase the effectiveness of your site.
This short video interviews John Marshall of MarketMotive (former CEO of ClickTracks) and explains how small businesses can make the most of their analytics software. He recommends you answer 2-3 business questions you’ve crafted in just a half an hour using your analytics program. He recommends 3 different web analyticstracking programs. And he also offers resources for help deciphering your analytics reports.
