StoresOnline Merchants are always looking for new ways to advertise and market their online businesses. Tracking Return On Investment or “ROI” is important to StoresOnline Merchants. Here is an excerpt from an article “Website Design Tips for Tracking ROI” by Chet Geschickter:
Test, learn, optimize, repeat. That’s how you unlock ROI. Very few people get it right straight out of the gate. Even if you do, can you get it more right by making changes and improvements? The answer is yes. This may not be the message you want to hear, but there’s no rest for the weary. Following best practices in planning, design, and implementation does not mean you are at the end of the road. It means you are at a good starting point in a journey of continuous improvement.
Data is expensive to own and use. It’s cheap — almost free — to get. The commoditization of data is a problem. When a client or colleague demands that “everything” be measured, your quick retort is simple: “Who, then, is going to analyze everything?” Don’t let yourself get snared in the trap of all-inclusive measurement. If you do, you’ll regret it later. So be selective. Pick your key conversion events and devote your time and attention there. Out-of-the-box top-line metrics are fine as part of the ritual of reporting on how a channel is doing. But don’t get distracted by them. You’ve got more important ways to spend your time — measuring and improving ROI.
1. Targeting key market segments
Smart marketers invest limited resources identifying and targeting the highest opportunity segments. The starting point for doing this online is using sound market research to create personas, which are fictitious characters that represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site.
2. Driving purchase consideration
Most websites share the common goal of driving revenue, but what can you do if your site doesn’t have an online cash register?
3. Creating customer loyalty
A basic site loyalty metric is the distribution of the number of visits by visitor for a set timeframe. This should be a familiar table for users of Google Analytics, but it is a site-focused metric — not a customer-centric metric.
4. Fostering advocacy and word-of-mouth (i.e. viral) marketing
A YouTube video view about your product is like a television commercial on steroids. With a TV commercial, users are motivated to watch the TV program that your commercial accompanies. With a YouTube video view, they are motivated to watch you!
5. Accelerating revenue
New product introductions create a golden opportunity to track how quickly and effectively your company is creating awareness. Measure traction and uptake by collecting metrics on new product or service page views, starting from the launch date and extending out into day 1, day 2, day 3, etc. Building and tracking separate landing pages for new products and key marketing campaigns create an opportunity to measure interest. Depending on how your campaign is configured, the interest can be from both digital and non-digital PR and marketing efforts, especially if the non-digital components include drive-to-web messaging.
6. Reducing cost to serve
Self-help is a good thing if self-help sessions are successful. Success is in the eye of the user, so include a “did this solve your problem?” question at the end of every support listing. Track and report on responses to identify the type of content that helps and the areas where you need to overhaul the information you provide.
These insightful ROI tips will help you increase the effectiveness of your site design for your StoresOnline business.
Tags: StoresOnline, storesonline business, StoresOnline Merchants
