A great website that few people will see will not get the marketing results you desire, this is much more important now since the explosion of online marketing. The internet is now the dominant platform for online marketing yet too many businesses are failing to fully capture the potential from online marketing. Why is this you may ask? Simple, the answer is lack of knowledge of available tools and a fear of spending money without measuring the ROI.

The use of Google Analytics has made it easier to measure online performance. With enhancements to its AdWords platform, it is now common to hear the terms PPC, pay per click and sponsored links. The use of Analytics has made it easier to capture data about how people are using your website.

Configuring Analytics to achieve full accountability

Online marketing involves making decisions, to make this easier you need to have the right data at hand. Having full accountability of where traffic is coming from is necessary. This can be done through the web analytics tool that you are using.  Analytics will tell you how customers are shopping and what they are buying. This is valuable data to help us build custom metrics that capture exactly what we want to see and how we want to see it. Goals can be set to drive traffic to your website.

Traffic generation using PPC

Over the next few years online ad spending is set to grow by 16% and is an area which as a business you need to be involved in. However, Id your PPC campaign is poorly constructed and managed it is likely to fail. Many people will click on the PPC ad but fail to follow through and convert to a customer if the advert displayed and the search term are not relevant to the landing page. It is not realistic for all visitors to convert to customers but a certain number a required to convert for the investment in PPC to pay off.

Using AdWords to achieve high relevance and higher conversion rates

To achieve a successful PPC campaign, many methods and strategies can be adopted.  The main factor has to be relevance – the customers’ desire and the business offering. Relevance is what it takes to obtain a high level of conversion.  Different landing pages achieve different results when setting up PPC campaigns.

Optimising for local searches

Any local business should consider getting optimised for a local map listing as this is essential if your business is relevant to the customer experience. Not all businesses require to be optimised for the customer, for example amazon.com does not require optimisation for local search as the transaction takes place online. If a customer has to come to a physical address for goods e.g. local DIY store or pizza place then it is imperative the business has optimised presence on local map listings.

The right data combined with PPC marketing is winning strategy.

Most companies have at least one website these days, some dabble with search engine marketing and social media. However, only a few companies are being forensic with their results and even fewer are really getting to grips with their websites to turn them into sales or lead generation machines.

At a time when discretionary expenses like marketing are under pressure, business owners should be scrutinising their costs. Many businesses do not analyse their marketing spend against any criteria or results. Some businesses think they should be marketing in the good times, some businesses think that they should be especially marketing in the bad times, so which case is right? Of course as a discretionary spend, marketing is an easy target. Far easier to cut a discretionary spend with the swipe of a red pen than to actually make real efficiency improvements, or to set real investment tests and comparisons. However, cutting marketing indiscriminately risks killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

So what should Managing Directors, Financial Directors and Marketing Directors be doing to make the right calls in hard times? It has always been true that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, so the first thing is to start measuring marketing activities. With the Internet this is so much easier than any offline marketing.

Google Analytics is a free bit of code that can be inserted into websites. Google Analytics shows a raft of information including data on where your traffic has come from e.g. referring websites, search engines and keywords used; pages visited, time spent on pages, and paths taken to a site. It is also possible to set desirable  events or actions as goals e.g. clicking on an e-mail address, submitting a contact form, downloading a document, buying a service or product etc, In addition the pages that lead up to the “transaction” or goal can be defined as a funnel.

What does all this data let us do?

• By tracking which sites refer business and which keywords buyers use, suggests which keywords to best invest in, for search engine marketing. Conversely, keywords that have a high bounce rate ie when visitors leave the website almost as soon as they have landed, we can learn which keywords not to invest in, or indeed, that our website needs to meet and greet these visitors far better, by using a specially designed landing page. This is one of the easiest ways to increase sales and decrease marketing costs, essentially doubling the effectiveness of the marketing spend, by doing more of what works and cutting out what isn’t working.
• By defining a checkout funnel, we can identify the pages that potential customers are dropping out on, and take action to identify reasons for drop out, e.g. a needless login process, bad sign posting or unclear pricing. By careful attention to the checkout process a website can change conversion rates from 1% to 4% or more, potentially quadrupling sales.
• With accurate onsite data it is possible to run tests, for example varying the headline, the offer, the image, the call to action etc, often minute changes on page can dramatically increase the amount of potential customers that engage and click on to the next stage. Google themselves have run tests on their analytics sign up page, and by running a series of tests, have increased sign up by 56%

So why don’t more people use the tools that are available?

Often the volume of data can be perplexing, but with a little hand holding from a professional adviser, the data can be made clear and the resulting actions directed.

Many web designers do not install Analytics or inform their customers about the analytics.

Some web companies will not only explain about Analytics, but will make a point of going through the analytics on a regular basis and can advise on or indeed set up goals and goal paths.

So if you’re not sure if you have web analytics installed on your website, ask the company that built it, they may want to charge, and although analytics is free, it does take some time to install the analytics and set up the goals and goal paths.

Once you have access to the information, keep a simple spreadsheet of your most important statistics so that you have a record of the key data, you will then be in a position to ask searching questions about the power and effectiveness of any online marketing or search engine optimisation, and you will have the answers at your finger tips.

So don’t get the red pen to your marketing budget just yet, work out what is working best and what is working least, then invest the under performing budget in the over performing budget to secure your companies growth.

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Profiled in the Huddersfield Examiner Steve Harvey-Franklin said that companies could be making much more of their internet presence.

Yorkshire Companies have invested in the internet but are  failing to maximise their opportunities, which considering the economic climate is highly surprising. There is is some extremely low hanging fruit to be had, by taking some simple steps with their internet presence:

The first step is to develop an internet strategy, set some goals and be forensic in your analysis of what works and what needs refining.

A Social Media campaign when done properly can help improve conversions and increase keywords.

Simple Analysis of the website statistics can reveal what elements of the Internet Marketing Strategy are working best , and therefore where to invest versus where to save money.

Steve also called for Yorkshire’s Managing Directors and Financial Directors alike to look to the Internet, to squeeze the most out of their marketing budgets.

Read more of the article in The Huddersfield Examiner

Steve Harvey-Franklin is a lead Internet Consultant and owner of WSI Yorkshire, the Huddersfield based Digital Marketing Agency.

Steve’s team of Huddersfield based Internet Consultants are on hand to give Expert Advoce to their clients throughout Yorkshire and Manchester

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Web Analytics Highlights:

• Hits= How Idiots Measure Success
• Better focussing on behavioural metrics e.g. Bounce Rate, Loyalty etc
• Landing Page is absolutely crucial you have 2-3 seconds to impress
• Websites should be about your customers not yourself
• Make Content dynamic to who the users are, and how they behave.
• Be Active online, get info to your customers
• You cannot improve 1000%, but you can improve 1,000 things by 1%
• Measure Visitor loyalty focus on those that visit multiple times. (Problems with Analytics, as same visitor may visit through different sources.
• If enough people visit your site every day, provide new content everyday.
• Use of tracking codes for promotions, on-line & off-line promotions, e-mail campaigns etc
• Use advanced reports
• Segment data to get behind the behaviour and discover opportunities for our clients
• Find out why people come to your website, what they like and don’t like and what are you going to do about it!
• Learn how to fail faster (use stats to learn your mistakes early)
• Test variations on pages and campaigns to see what works well and what “sucks” !
• Why not improve already great pages, results from small improvements go straight to your bottom line
• Focus on the Metrics that are important to you
  • What are the specifics things that your are doing today to drive your metrics?

Steve Harvey-Franklin asks follow up question to Avinash Kaushnik

SHF> Loyalty analytics e.g. number of visits froma unique user is important but, people come to teh site from many different sources e.g. iphone, pc, lap top , home work, each of these can measure as 4-5 people visiting once. rather than 1 person visiting 5 times, Do you use anything to counter this

Avinash Kaushnik >> The key is to get users to sign in to the site as early as possible, bu offering incentives, enhanced content etc, then you can track the visitors across all media

WSI Yorkshire are attending the WSI Global Excellence and Innovation Conference in Miami.

WSI are Internet Consultants and Digital Marketers specialising in Web Analytics

The new position is for an Internet Savvy Account Manager to help promote our internet marketing services to our customers and to help plan and manage or Internet Marketing Campaigns. No campaign is the same. We may mix such techniques as: SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, PPC Pay Per Click Google Adwords Marketing, Social Media,  E-mail Marketing, Internet Analysis, Internet Consultancy and Web Analytics.

We have achieved outstanding results for our customers and are looking for a new member of our team who will add value to our customers.

The Job Specification is below.

New Internet Marketing Jobs at WSI

Role: Internet Marketing Account Manager
Location: Huddersfield
Salary: £20k-£25K according to experience

As the Internet Marketing Account Manager in our growing Digital Marketing Agency you will be responsible for the planning and management of SEO and PPC for client websites. You will also be responsible for analysis and research of prospects. Training will be given, and you will have access to the latest SEO and analysis tools. You will also analyse the results implemented by our SEO Consultants and liaise with clients, looking for opportunities to improve the clients’ online business. You will attend client meetings and be in constant communication with the client to ensure all Search projects are achieving their targets.

You should have hands on experience of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Google Analytics. As this role is client facing you must have strong communication and presentation skills. You will implement Search Marketing strategies and be competent in the delivery of SEO & PPC Social Media and Conversion Analysis. You will also be responsible for making ongoing recommendations and campaign improvements.

There will be significant training opportunities to further develop your skills.

If you would like to apply, please e-mail your CV and a covering letterincluding salary expectations to lisa@wsiyorkshire.co.uk.

You can checkout the person spec on our careers page

This role overlaps with similar jobs such as

Internet Consultant, Internet Marketing Consultant, Internet Marketing Analyst, Internet Marketing Account Manager, and is based in Holmfirth near Huddersfield

Isn’t it about time you started managing your website like your sales people? Everyone knows if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it. Although most companies now have a website, very few company Directors get any viable and actionable information on their website, worst still many Sales & Marketing Managers don’t value their website like their sales and marketing teams.

In an economic environment where value for money is important; where everyone needs sales and new accounts and where there is extreme pressure on costs, “it is a relatively easy win for companies to make more out of their websites” says Steve Harvey-Franklin Internet Consultant with WSI, “most senior executives and marketers should seek training on at least the basics of Internet Marketing such as Search Marketing, Web Analytics and Social Media, so that they can understand the jargon, realise what hidden profits they could be tapping into and better manage their own web marketing agency.”

So what are the key steps to make more out of your internet marketing budget?

1. Start Measuring. Google Analytics is excellent for most sizes of business; use analytics to measure key statistics on a regular basis.
2. Set Goals and Targets. Identify the website behaviour that you want to encourage

Goals may include:

• Sales
• Leads
• Brochure Downloads
• Contact Requests
• Time on Site
• Specific Page Paths

Ie anything that you consider valuable economically or to your brand

Targets may include: Increasing Sales or Leads. This may be additionally broken down to include:

• Increasing Conversion rates
• Decreasing Bounce rates on a page
• Increasing visitors to the Basket
• Decreasing Basket Drop out

1. Set up a simple 1 page report of the vital information that you need either daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the intensity, importance  and volatility of your traffic and  goals.
2. Make the targets measurable and quantifiable

As your system gathers data, you can then start to hone in and ask very specific questions to determine what is making you money and what is losing you money, then your marketing investment decisions become very easy.

For Example:

Once you can focus on a specific section of the site that is driving the most interest, the marketing campaign can be fine tuned or even reduced, by focussing on what is successful or by refining what is not successful. For example,  on the same Keyword :

• Establish the best format for your advert by running 2 adverts with identical headers but different text bodies. Then reverse the test keep the best advert  body  and testing the heading. Using your analytics see which advert works best over time.
• Establish the best page layout and images for your adverts to land on, again in a controlled way varying elements of your web page, possibly running them side by side over time, to eliminate seasonal factors.

This process is known as split testing or multi variant testing

Steve Harvey-Franklin commented that he has seen “remarkable results for our customers by testing and varying significant elements on page. If we can move a client’s conversion rate from 1% to 1.5% their sales are actually increasing by 50%, who wouldn’t be interested in increasing their sales by such volumes?”

Google Landing Page Analysis

In tests that Google performed, they increased their own sign up conversion rate by 56% by testing and making 4 relatively simple changes. In the image above. The page on the right outperformed the page on the left by 56%.

Mike Smith from Ripley Training who runs courses on Internet Marketing and Web Analytics commented that “the need for this level of knowledge, and the results that our courses can drive are switching senior executives onto our new Internet Marketing Courses…….  where we educate them to improve their return on internet investment ”

Most businesses today do not take advantage of how important it is to test regularly. The key for any business wanting to achieve online success is knowing how to communicate to your target audience and knowing that all parties do not act on the same principles. This also allows you to figure out your online ad spend in an effective manner. The average online conversion today is between 1% and 2%, which means that a large portion of ad budgets is not being used effectively.

The key is really to keep the testing simple and uncomplicated and once you have established your benchmarks then you can start the process to target, measure and refine. This can be a simple process or a more complicated one but the key is simply testing, testing and more testing of the right things and you will increase your online conversion.

Steve Harvey-Franklin is an Internet Marketing Consultant
at WSI Yorkshire, the Huddersfield Based Digital Agency