Cofamedia Blog

You really should use Google Analytics

Are there still companies that do not use web analytics? Yes, there are. However, with the arrival of free web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, every day more organisations start using web analytics.
Unfortunately many companies do not get past plain old measuring web site traffic: page views, unique visitors, entrance and exit pages, number of visits per visitor, you name it.
And of course Web Analytics is much more that that. It’s about gaining insights into your customers, your business and your online marketing activities.
Below you will discover five good reasons to use web analytics.

1. Find out the exact yield of your online marketing efforts

In a competitive environment where everybody is involved in online marketing and a global economy where budgets and yields are continuously under pressure, efficiency has become the number one issue. Are you obtaining a maximum yield? What you need to do is compare your results to the objectives you defined earlier. This is true for all online efforts, including corporate websites, newsletters and web logs.

2. Do as your colleagues do

Imitating others may not seem an ideal way to achieve the best online marketing results. But we know from experience that there’s much to be learned from others. For example, one of the main concerns of professional marketers is to find an optimum method to measure the return on marketing investment. And it is essential for online marketing. By the way, you need not copy everything you see. You can stand out from the crowd by measuring actions your competitors have overlooked and by applying what you’ve learned to make your web analytics more professional and more profitable at the same time.

3. Get to know your visitors

No doubt you have a fair idea of the number of people visiting your website or reading your newsletter. However, the mere number of hits is quite meaningless in itself. Wouldn’t it be far more interesting to get to know the people behind these figures? And the answer to this question will, in turn, lead to other questions. Are you reaching the right target groups? Is your website affecting them the way you want it to be? There is so much to find out about your visitors’ behaviour and there are so many ways to take advantage of this knowledge. The possibilities are endless. It’s all a matter of web analytics.

4. Find out what your customers and prospects want

It’s one thing to know who your visitors are; to know what they want is quite another. By mapping out the behaviour of visitors to your website, if possible in relation to their profiles, you can find out a lot about their needs and wishes. And, hence, about the needs and wishes of your customers, prospects, and business partners. And what’s more, your website incorporates the easiest way – and the most cost-efficient way – to find out what your visitors want. Simply by asking them!

5. Obtain an overall picture of your communication efforts

Though terribly exciting, the life of a marketing professional is not an easy one. And, on the face of it, it’s getting more complicated all the time. Media are multiplying, while media consumption is becoming more fragmentary. And contact moments are increasingly diverse and varied. But it doesn’t have to be all that complicated. Web analytics is the single most crucial part of your overall approach to online marketing communication. And while mapping out the contact moments of customers and prospects, you will discover a fascinating world revolving around profit and efficiency on the web.