Not using data to guide your digital marketing is like trying to fly with your eyes closed – it is something you should just not do.
It would not be safe to fly a plane that did not have a windshield, a radio, and guidance instruments or without filing a flight plan. Likewise, you should not spend time or money on digital marketing without data to guide you. Data is your marketing “flight plan” – it shows you where you’ve been, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there.
Where Have You Been?
Your digital journey should begin by looking at the current and historical performance of your online marketing activity. To do so, you need a tool or platform that will collect and analyze all the available data for you.
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful data tools available. Through Google Analytics, you can learn things such as how many people visit your website, what pages they click on, and how long they stay on your site. You can also see what websites your visitors come from, where your visitors are located as well as their age, gender, interests, and even the type of devices they use.
The insights gained from analytics are the key to helping you answer specific questions about your audience and their behavior. For example:
- What do visitors search for when they visit your site?
- Why and how often are visitors bouncing from your site?
- Who is visiting your site in relation to your target audience?
- Which social media platforms, ads, campaigns, and/or third-party platforms drive the most traffic to your website?
- What website content do your visitors find most appealing?
You can also use Google Analytics to track the results of any paid digital advertising campaigns you may be running. These results, combined with the insights about your audience tell you where you have been and where you are currently in your digital marketing journey.
Most importantly, by analyzing your combined data, you can determine if you need a course correction or perhaps, a new destination altogether.
Where Are You Going?
To determine if you are headed in the right direction, you first need to know where you are trying to go. You do this by setting goals for your digital marketing. Top-level goals for digital marketing typically include promoting brand awareness, generating leads, making sales (ecommerce), and/or providing customer service.
Marketers may also establish more granular (tactical) goals such as clicking a link, filling out a lead generation form, subscribing to newsletters, or downloading an eBook.
All marketing goals should be specific and measurable for a designated period of time. For example:
- The number of followers gained on social media within a certain time period or as a result of a paid campaign.
- The number of leads generated from a piece of downloaded content in one month.
- The growth of unique website visitors in a two-week period.
It is important to set a benchmark for each goal – a number that determines if the goal has been achieved. Are 100 new followers on social media a good result? Are 25 new leads enough? The benchmark and what constitutes a “good” result is entirely up to you and is based on your business objectives (and oftentimes your budget).
How Will You Get There?
Your analytics and top-level goals inform the specific tactics and tools you will use to reach your “destination”. How will you generate leads? How will you increase the number of website visitors? What tactics can you use to gain followers on social media?
There are many tactics you can use to achieve your marketing goals. However, without data to guide your decision-making, you will be flying with your eyes closed. You will not know where you are, let alone when you will arrive.
Of course, you will encounter some turbulence on your journey. The key is using the tools you have available to fly through it or fly around it so that you will reach your destination safely.
No Need to Fly Solo
Setting appropriate goals, choosing tactics, and delving into the details of Google Analytics is not something everyone can, or wants, to do. Small and mid-sized business owners and executives typically do not have the time or expertise to handle these tasks on their own
That is where NWI Business Solutions comes in. Consider us your navigator – we can chart your digital journey, help fly the plane, and get you to where you want to go.
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