Measurement: defining your status

It sounds obvious, but how do you really know the value of something if you don’t measure it? Think about your website for a moment. Do you really know how efficient your pay-per-click campaign is? Do you really know how well your website converts visitors into buyers?

If you’re anything like the majority of e-Business owners, you’re probably using tools like Google Analytics to measure basic information such as visitor numbers or demographics. But have you considered using these tools on a more granular level to optimise your website and campaign management, to get more sales and enquiries?

As an example, half of your pay-per-click campaigns could be working well and sending you large numbers of qualified traffic. However, the other half could be costing you more than what they’re worth to your business. If you’re just looking at aggregated figures, then you’re masking the areas where you’re losing money. The same goes for your website. Overall you may be quite pleased with the numbers of sales and enquiries you’re getting. But what if there are various obstacles hidden within your site that are causing prospective customers to leave and head straight off to your competition? You can only begin to get a clear picture of these if you measure the things that are important.

So where do you start? An initial point for any online channel is to list the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are right for you, using analytics software such as Google Analytics. Keep the list short, maybe just four or five items, so you can check regularly and prevent from getting too bogged down. Some of the KPI’s could include: unique visits, bounce rate, conversion ratios and so on. These figures represent the lifeblood of your online channel. You’ll be amazed at how many businesses are not measuring these KPI’s, so by doing this, you’ll be getting a competitive edge.

Another step would be to start measuring conversion funnels on your site. Just like a traditional sales funnel, your website has a funnel as well. Visitors arrive as prospects and as they move through your site, they become more and more qualified and ultimately (hopefully) give you their business or make an enquiry. Think about the key actions that you’re trying to get people to take (e.g. buy a product, sign-up for newsletter, submit an enquiry) and how you are helping them achieve those actions.

Measuring basics on your website, simple as it sounds, could be the difference between a good e-commerce company and a great one.

Which one are you?