Playing the Numbers
Everyone knows that a website is a critical gateway and often the first impression that customers have of your business. In a single moment, your website has to convey what you do, how you do it, what you value, why you’re different, and why your prospective customer should want to continue a relationship with you. Having a good website is a crucial element to having a successful business, but what exactly makes a website good? To answer that question, you must deeply understand the purpose of your site and the way your customer thinks. Your website, like every aspect of your marketing strategy, exists to align your business goal with the unique needs of your customers. For every company, that goal will be different. Simply putting a large splash picture on the home page and a never-ending set of scrolled content because everyone else does it, doesn’t mean it is right for you. For some, the website may aim to educate and for others to generate leads. Once you understand your specific goal, ask “How is my website helping me to achieve this goal?”
Your website is a communication of your company’s brand. It should be consistent not just in look & feel, color palette, font, etc., but should build on the brand relationship. This is particularly challenging because by definition, a website is a passive process (that is, unless you have online chat functions). As you design your website, you must consider who you are as a company and what you stand for and then ensure your website gives that message. If you value being easy to work with but your site is difficult to navigate, there is a brand disconnect. If you lead with innovation, but the content and images seem dated, there is a brand disconnect. If your brand is all about strategic collaboration and partnership, but you present the entire site in third person, there is a brand disconnect. Your website is not just a data dump but an opportunity to pique interest, build confidence, nurture a relationship, and reinforce your brand (which is the unique relationship you have with your customers that your competitors cannot claim).
Understanding and using website analytics can give valuable information that informs the success of your user experience on your site. Website analytics measure, collect and interpret your website’s data. You are probably most familiar with website traffic, one small component that tells you how many people have visited your site. In order to make web analytics work for you and inform your overarching strategy and goals, your study must go much deeper than measuring traffic.
The wide array of data trends identified in the analytics tell us different things. Steer clear of vanity metrics. These are numbers that might look good on paper but when you look deeper, do not give you actionable insights. For example, a high number of unique visitors to your site might feel good but what does that number specifically tell you? Or, if you had a decrease in unique visitors per month, would you know why and how to fix it?
To get the most insight and impact from your analytics, focus on the ones that inform your unique strategy. For example, you might have a healthy number of unique visitors coming to your site but a large bounce rate. Why aren’t users taking further steps on your site? Does the homepage take too long to load? Is the information they’re looking for not easy to find? Is your homepage cluttered or otherwise visually unappealing? It takes users less than a second to decide if they like your site or not so it’s absolutely crucial that your homepage is user-friendly.
Some other things to consider:
What does the data tell you about your audience? Who is visiting your site? Where are they located geographically? What kind of a device are they using to browse? With information about your site visitors you can determine if you’re reaching those that match your ideal customer profile. Not reaching your target audience? Now you know that you need to make changes to your online customer experience to attract the right visitors.
Pay attention to navigation paths. Every customer is on a journey, which is often aligned with the buying cycle or stages of change. When people visit your site they each follow their own path, but you can influence that path by organizing your site in a strategic way. If the goal of your site journey is for a user to purchase a product through your ecommerce platform, the path needs to end at a “Buy Now” opportunity. That said, visitors may be in different places on their own personal “stages of change” journey, meaning that some may not be ready to buy on the homepage. Your job, then, is to create a web flow that integrates the type of information your clients need to make a buying decision in a way that is easily processed. Let’s say you are selling a new device to reduce migraines. You may have already determined through market research that the patient population needs one good peer-reviewed study to give them the confidence to take the next step. Thus, the study should be the very first thing they see on your site. Only then should you direct them to the buying opportunity.
Navigation paths will tell you if your customers are taking the journey needed to reach your unique goal. Are people wandering around your site? Are they going to one page in particular? If so, is that page a progression step on their journey that gets them closer to your goal? The organization of your site must be aligned with the customer journey. Navigation metrics give you insight into whether or not the organization is working.
Your audience’s behavior is important. The average time spent on a website is only 15 seconds so every single thing your visitors do while on your site is crucial. Find out more by identifying which page is the most common landing page for your site. Which pages are the most frequently visited? What’s the ratio of new to repeat visits? Which pages do visitors spend the most time on? Which pages have the highest bounce rate? Every little detail can give you insight into what’s working on your site and what isn’t.
Your website might be getting results, but is it getting the ones you want? Consider which metrics are most effective to identify the progress of your overarching goal for your website. If the purpose of your site is to generate leads then you need to know if people are visiting in order to contact you regarding your services, or if they’re visiting because you wrote a great blog post to which someone else linked. How will you use the information available to you to tell the difference?
Don’t forget about calls-to-action. It’s important to both know what you want your visitor to do on the site and give them a way to do so. A website is not just a fountain from which you hope your customer takes a drink every now and then. It is a strategic tactic designed to create a relationship when you can’t physically contact every prospective customer yourself. That said, what would you do if you COULD meet every visitor in person? You would ask questions and focus on THEM and THEIR needs. And you probably would end the conversation by saying something like “When can we meet again?” or “What more information can I give you to make you comfortable using this product/service?” or “Would you like to buy now/receive a proposal or estimate from us/talk with one of our experts?” The website, to the best of your ability, needs to create a simulated proxy for the relationship you would develop if you could be in person with every customer. It’s not an easy task, but if you are willing to go beyond the “pretty” and create a simulated human experience that reinforces your brand, you will drive the customer engagement you need to drive business.
Not sure if your website is meeting your needs? Contact us for a free consultation. We can help you interpret your website analytics and ultimately turn your website into a much more powerful brand tool.