This week, we are pleased to share part three of a new five-part series from The Marx Group on marketing metrics. (To read part one, click here. For part two, click here.) The series will continue every Friday.
In
our last article, we talked about advertising and public relations (PR)
and why they are important. This time, we are going to look at Web
traffic and conversion, which is the second of our top five marketing
metrics.
The Internet has become an integral part of most
people’s everyday lives. We all know it is important for businesses to
have an online presence, yet many companies do not have an effective,
integrated Internet presence. Yes, they may have a website, but it is it
effective? Do they have a way to determine just how effective or
ineffective it actually is? Often, people say, “My business isn’t driven
by e-commerce, so my website isn’t a priority.” This is a dangerous
statement. For most people, the Internet is the first place they go when
they are looking for a new product or service, or when they are looking
for additional information on a product or service that they are
already using.
Your website is the most import piece of media
your company owns. It should support all of your marketing efforts and
deliver metrics that you can use to measure its effectiveness. When
building or updating your website you need to consider its content and
how it will engage your current customers and prospects.
The way
to measure the effectiveness of your website is to use a tool like
Google Analytics. A tool like this can provide a wide range of
information including what sources referred visitors to your website,
how many unique (first time) and repeat visitors the website had, what
pages were viewed, how long they stayed on a page, and what the
conversion rates are. With this information you can determine what value
your website is currently providing for your customers and what areas
of it need improvement. Increasing your Web traffic and understanding
where it is coming from are critical to the success of your business.
There
is much misconception about conversions. Some think that simply having
someone visit your site is a conversion. Unless this visit was driven by
a call to action in an ad, it is not a conversion. The definition of a
conversion will be different for each company. As mentioned earlier,
sometimes a visit to a website is a conversion, other times it is
getting the visitor to click on a banner ad to purchase a product or
having them click on a link to view additional information on the
product. The first step in gathering and analyzing conversion rates is
to define what a conversion is for your company or a particular product.
Once that is defined, you can then measure what your conversion rates
are.
The conversion rate is the number of visits divided by the
number of conversions. Conversion rates are important because they are a
key tool in measuring how effective your website is in getting visitors
engaged.
We hope that this article has provided you with ideas
that you will be able to apply in your marketing program. Our next
article in this series we focus on search engine optimization (SEO), the
third of our top five marketing metrics.
About The Marx Group
The
Marx Group (TMG) is a full-service business strategy and marketing
communications agency offering a diverse range of marketing services,
including research, business development strategies, lead generation
programs, customer retention processes, advertising, website design,
public relations, collateral, online marketing, research, trade show
programs and interactive campaigns.
TMG began as an advertising
and marketing agency in Southern California in 1984. Now based in San
Rafael, the company has creative and account teams in New York, Chicago,
Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Knoxville, Tenn. TMG
team members, each with a strong, proven track record, include
strategists, account managers, public relations and media specialists,
and an award-winning creative group for both print and online programs.