Take a lesson from retailers in the mall–they know what the important elements are that can make or break a store’s success. Shop owners intuitively look at just the few things they know mean dollars at the register. So I recommend looking at fewer, more telling measurements at first and improving only those. The rest of the success metrics to test, track and tweak will follow.
1. Amount of traffic to the site.
I know this seems obvious but very few people look at the total number of people that visit the site. They focus on other metrics such as conversion rates and cart abandonment, which are important, but if nobody is coming into the store, improving those metrics aren’t going to be much help. For the purposes of analogies, let’s imagine a small sporting goods store in the mall. If nobody goes into the store, no sales are made. So watch that metric first and focus on increasing traffic. But be careful–not all traffic is equal. Paid traffic or traffic that doesn’t convert well doesn’t help you at all.
2. Traffic patterns on site are very telling.
Find a tool that helps you understand where people go on your site and how much time they spend on your site. Just as if you are owner of the sporting goods store in the mall, and people only come in and look at the first rack and walk out, you know to change out the products or reconfigure the space. What people are clicking on is what interests them, so capitalize on that. They might not be interested in what you are selling, therefore make sure you understand what people are clicking on and then you can improve your site. If the hottest item in the store is in the back on the bottom shelf, you have a big problem; finding that out could be key in making a huge conversion difference. Google Analytics has a great overlay tool that lets you see what people are clicking on, not just read the stats.
3. How different campaigns perform.
The intelligence that you can glean from campaign performance using campaign codes is huge. They don’t take long to set up and you will be surprised how many people don’t use them. I believe that a fundamental step in any campaign is to figure out if it is returning any results. Too many people do something because others are or they’ve always done it that way, without even taking time to analyze the results. In this case, it is important to measure which messages, promotions or channels are working well and which aren’t. The mall store owner knows which messages are working in his store by how many people are standing by the sale rack or how often they have to restock the shelves. Old fashion coupons, store signage or even people in the mall “barking” messages at the customer are their tools. So in the same vein, which campaign performance metrics are you tracking about each email, coupon, newsletter, advertisement, twitter or on site promotion?
4. Meeting your goals.
I know your goals are mostly about making money, but this metric is about setting up goals around stages in the purchasing process. In the mall store, it is the same for the consumer–entering the store, putting something in their basket, going to the dressing room, proceeding to the register line and exiting the store. A good mall store owner knows when nobody is trying things on–that the shopper must not like what they are seeing and and as a result, the goal is not achieved. Google Analytics has a tool called Goals where you can set up pages that mimic the mall stores buying process. You can tell where people are dropping off and investigate why. It is an easy tool to understand if your checkout line is overly complicated and a barrier for conversion (sale). There are many reasons why goals fail but knowing where they do helps find and fix the problems.
5. Cart Abandonment.
Do you know how many people you have lured to your store, who have taken time to shop, add to their cart, and then during checkout, gave up, left, stormed out? Do you know the cause? If you don’t know they are doing it, you can’t even look for a cause. Tracking cart abandonment and reducing abandonment just slightly can have huge results at the register. Using Google Analytics Goals, as mentioned above, can help you understand 1, if it is happening and 2, where it is happening. Finding the cause and/or cure will take a fair amount of testing on your end, but pay attention to this number. A test that results in a negative number is costly.
6. Please come again. (Bonus Metric)
I felt compelled to add this to this post because of how important it has become for the valuation and the viability of online companies. Sure you have lots of customer and lots of sales, but how many customers do you have permission to contact? That number is a key indicator of how much affinity your customers have towards your company and how easy it will be for you to maintain a sales level without relying only on acquisition strategies alone. Please give your customers many opportunities to be a part of your company. The most important factor in your list success is your relevance towards your customers with your company or your content. If you approach it as a privilege to be able to talk to them, then you treat all communication with the same respect and are not alienating your customers or pushing them to unsubscribe. The sporting goods store owner talks to his customers about things that will engage them; he creates an avenue to say “if you liked that Cowboys jersey, come back next week when we get new Cowboys ball caps”. You can do the same with your customers.
In future articles, I will discuss metrics relating to your popularity, conversions of all types and why you need a landing page solution to your marketing efforts.
One Comment
I loved the post. I do think is important to actually measure the results of any campain. Becase only then you can start making inteligent moves to fulfill your goals.
Nice!
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