The Road To Online Marketing Success Starts With This One Thing

Would you hire an investment advisor and not demand that you get regular statements?

Of course not!

That’d be absurd. If they’re investing your hard earned cash, you’re gonna require some accountability there. You want regular updates to keep track of how your investments are performing.

Well, your website in no different.

If you’re putting money into marketing your website, you have to keep track of how it’s performing.

Because marketing IS an investment.

Most business owners view it as an expense, but marketing is really an investment.

And, as with any investment, you need to keep track of it and see if you’re getting a return on that investment.

And, to do that, you have to measure your results.

The How and Why of Measuring Your Online Marketing Results

Do you have Google Analytics (or some other analytics program) installed on your website to track visitors?

Hopefully most of you do (and, if you don’t, please get Analytics – it’s free – installed as soon as you’re done reading this article!)

Now here’s the big follow up question…

…If you do have Analytics installed, do you have Goals set up in Analytics to track when people complete key actions on your site (ie. making a purchase, visiting a key page, filling out a form)?

And, if phone calls are important to your business, do you use a call tracking service so you can track the phone calls generated by your online and offline marketing campaigns?

Having tracking like this is place is the first thing I look for when a company brings me in as a marketing consultant to take kick their online marketing efforts to the next level.

Because if you don’t track and measure results, you can’t answer critical questions about your marketing and your business including…

• What does it cost you to acquire a new customer?

• Are your marketing campaigns profitable?

• What are the conversion rates on your website?

• Have changes you’ve made to your website design increased or decreased conversion rates?

If you don’t know the answers to questions like these, you’re just stumbling around in the dark.

By tracking and measuring your results, you…

…Establish a baseline so you can tell whether the changes you make to your website result in more leads and sales, fewer leads and sales or have no effect.

…Focus your attention on what’s working well in your marketing so you can improve upon what’s working and cut your losses on the things that aren’t.

…Get an accurate picture of the ROI your efforts are (or are not) producing.

The most successful business owners and marketers I come across know their numbers. If you aren’t tracking and measuring the results of your marketing efforts, getting that set up will be the most important step you make to getting your marketing house in order that you’ll ever take.