|
|
Turn Your Website
into a Living Laboratory
The
Science of Online Profitability
Welcome to the latest
edition of the Inside Edge--your monthly report on Internet trends
and advancements that can turn your business into a more profitable
e-Business! This month we look at Web Analytics and how you
can transform your website into a virtual laboratory to help you
make more money, scientifically.
After you read this
month's edition, contact your WSI Internet Consultant to find out
how to put this valuable information to work for your business right
away.
Thanks for reading!
What is Web
Analytics?
If you thought that online profits were a stroke of luck and not
many are lucky enough to win fortunes, think again. As we unveil to
you the science and the incredible power of Web Analytics, you will
realize how a pragmatic approach to building and keeping your
website alive can ensure long term profitability and competitor
edge. Web Analytics, also referred to as website traffic
analysis, gives you information that you can leverage not only to
better understand how visitors are interacting with your website,
but how you can dramatically increase your customer conversion
rates. As important as it is for your offline marketing strategies
to be flexible and quickly adaptable to suit changing customer needs
and market conditions, you will agree that it is not so easy to make
these changes as frequently as you should. The beauty of your online
marketing strategies on the other hand, is that you can actually use
the scientific data gathered through Web analytics to experiment in
your website's living laboratory. Only the most profitable
experiments then need to continue, while other less profitable ones
can be done away with or improved upon to yield better results.
Studying Visitor Behaviour
You can learn a great deal about who your visitors are and how
they interact with your website. Web analytics can tell you
how they arrived at your site did they arrive via a search engine,
follow a link to your site, click on your pay-per-click ad, or type
in your website address directly into their browser. You can
tell how long they stayed on each page, where they clicked, what
pages they viewed as well as from which page they exited your
site. Once you understand visitors' behavior, you will be able
to identify and eliminate navigational obstacles that slow down or
prevent visitors from completing the conversion goal. The result
will be an improved visitor experience encouraging more conversions.
A scientific, logically progressive way to make more money
online. Web Analytics also helps you learn more about your
visitors' identities such as what country were they from, who is
their Internet Service Provider, the date and time they visited your
site, and information about their computer systems and Internet
browser. All of this can enhance your efforts to funnel and
narrow down information about which traffic is most likely to
convert. You can then begin to focus your online marketing campaigns
on areas that are more likely to deliver ROI and improve your
website to convert more visitors. Contacting your WSI Consultant in
your local area is a great way to get started on finding out more
about your website visitors.
Identifying Your Website's Vantage Points
Retailers have long practiced the art of store planning and
monitoring traffic patterns to identify "prime real estate" or
vantage points in their stores. Grocery stores are a prime
example of successful store planning in action it's no accident
that staples such as milk are traditionally placed at the back of
the store and impulse items are placed near the cash register.
Regardless of the grocery store you walk into, the layout is
typically the same everywhere. Why? Years of research
and monitoring consumer behavior have identified these areas of
profitable prime real estate based on the interaction of consumers
with the store layout.
Believe it or not, the same rules apply to your website.
With the help of Web analytics you can identify your high traffic
areas as well as areas which need additional traffic. By
identifying your "profitable online real estate" or the areas of
your site that are likely to impact the greatest customer
conversion, you can increase your ROI exponentially. Your WSI
Consultant can assist you in obtaining and interpreting Web analytic
reports to help you identify your most profitable online real estate
and take action to increase your ROI.
Experimenting in Your Website Laboratory
Once you've identified your most profitable online real estate
you can now try testing different offers and promotions (also known
as A/B testing or split-testing). In essence, this is one of
the simplest and easiest methods for testing elements of your
website - such as new product offerings or copy. With A/B
testing you expose one group of customers to one offering, while the
second group receives an alternate version where one element has
been changed (such as price, copy, product placement). Then
you track results to determine the winning combination that gives
you the most conversions to sales at the lowest cost. This winning
combination then becomes your "control" offer - the offer that
out-performed all others tested, resulting in increased spending by
visitors.
All of this can be possible by analyzing your Web analytics
reports and experimenting with different strategies tested in the
real world. Your website can truly be a living laboratory, buzzing
with online experiments. Call your local WSI Consultant who can
assist you in selecting the right analytics program that meets the
requirements of your business at an affordable cost. In
addition you will also receive recommendations and monthly site
traffic reports to help you grow your online business, and convert
more customers.
In the next edition of Inside Edge, we will provide
you with more insights into Web Analytics. For your benefit, we will
include a glossary of terms and definitions that will make you an
informed user of Web Analytics services.
WSI,
headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is ranked the #1 Internet Services
Business in the world. With systems that have been developed,
utilized and proven by over 1500 Internet Consultants in 87
countries worldwide, WSI delivers thousands of e-Business solutions
to small and medium-sized businesses
annually. |
|
