|
How well is your Web site doing? Has the
site been an excellent referral source? Have your customers
received better service, become more knowledgeable about
your products, and become better customers because of
what you have offered them online? How do you know?
Too often businesses spend the money to develop a Web
site, throw a launch party, add the Web site address
to the stationery, and then neglect to follow through
to see how well their Web site measures up. An effective
Web site takes significant time and resources to develop
and maintain, so it makes good sense to measure how well
the site performs against the business objectives it
is designed to accomplish. These objectives may include
increasing the business you do with existing customers,
generating leads, gaining new customers, reducing selling
costs, supporting your referral community, and providing
more effective customer support.
Defining your objectives was the first step toward analyzing
the effectiveness of your Web site. The next step is
to select the performance criteria you will use to measure
success. These criteria may include the volume and sources
of site visits, call to action conversion rates, increases
in online and offline sales, increases in referrals,
customer and partner satisfaction, and business operations
improvements.
Collecting the data you need to evaluate all these criteria
should not be difficult. Web site traffic tracking software
is widely available, and most business Web hosts offer
access to Web site statistics as part of their package.
Analyze your site traffic trends regularly, and share
with those who are responsible for achieving the Web
site's objectives.
What are the key data to look for? Web site traffic
statistics packages vary in the extent to which traffic
patterns are tracked. You will want to watch how popular
your site is, where people visit, and who refers visitors
to you. Page views measure how many individual Web pages
have been viewed. By tracking the number of page views
over time, and at different times and days of the week,
you can gain insights into your visitors. Studying which
sections and which pages people visit most often will
point out the hot features and content. You can also
find out which search engines or other Web sites refer
visitors to your site. These traffic data can track how
effective your marketing and advertising campaign is,
and provide valuable feedback.
Apart from Web site traffic statistics, you can gain
good insights from studying the customers acquired as
a result of your Internet presence. The benefits of these
insights can be demonstrated by the experience of one
of our clients. The company is methodical in tracking
how they acquire each of their leads and comparing their
success rates in closing the deal with customers from
different sources. Their Web site is an integral part
of their marketing strategy. Their sales staff track
the effectiveness of the different marketing and advertising
media in attracting customers. They then continue to
track the buying process and how these different groups
of potential customers interact with the sales staff.
Finally, they track the closing ratio. Armed with these
data, the company can identify the most cost effective
ways to acquire a customer. Not surprisingly, as backed
by industry studies, people who have visited the company's
informative Web site are twice as likely to buy as people
who have not. These customers also have a shorter buying
process, thus allowing the sales staff to serve more
customers. Finally, these customers are also more satisfied
with their purchases, because they are more informed
about the products.
You can use similar approaches to define the criteria
and the performance matrix you use to measure how well
your Web site meets your business objectives. The data
you gain will be invaluable in testing assumptions about
the market, and providing information you need to refine
or change your strategies.
Building the site was only the beginning. Now it's time
to know whether people really visit your site, and when
they do, whether they become your good customers.
Copyright Eva Chiu and InfoAdvantage.
E-Business
Articles >
|
