Identifying Business Goals and Selecting Metrics
Case Study:
Company Background:
CompanyEC (CEC) is a Dallas Texas based creative services company, which markets mainly to online consumers.Ā Its website has loads of contentĀ andĀ offers services such as web design, graphic design, web marketingĀ andĀ dimensionalĀ andĀ digital art. CECās website receives over 12,200 page views per monthĀ andĀ their revenue model is advertising based. Their monthly online revenue is approximately $27,000.
CECās stakeholders have a little understanding of how well the website is performing. This includes the effectiveness of ad placement in driving in lead traffic. In addition, Currently CEC uses multiple analytics tools such as Google AnalyticsĀ andĀ JoomlaStats to monitor site visitorsĀ andĀ page views.
Needs Identification:
In sitting downĀ andĀ identifyingĀ the needs of the company, we were able to establish a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter most to the companyĀ andĀ its CEO. We have narrowed this list down to 3 majorĀ metricsĀ in order to truly provide a clear picture of how the website is performing.
CEC has 2 major needs:
- The ability to measure its Return on Investment (ROI)
- Measuring its websites effectiveness in order to generate revenue
In speaking with CECās CEO, we have determined that the KPIs will be:
- Average time a user spends on the site ā To help measure how visitors are interacting with site content.
- Unique visitors ā to measure potential revenueĀ andĀ ROI (if these visitors were to convert)
- Ratio of local audience to national audience ā to measure which areas CEC needs to aim most of its marketing campaigns.
Tracking KPIs
Being that CEC mainly focuses within the online market, it is crucial that the company has some form of analytics set up within its website. Without analytics, it is difficultĀ andĀ near impossible to measure the true effectiveness of the website in order to improve theĀ businessās bottom line. The fact is that without using analytics to monitor its websiteĀ andĀ company, CEC is making decisions blindly.
My first recommendation for CEC is to get a full understanding of which aspects of Google AnalyticsĀ andĀ JoomlaStats are most important to the company for reaching itsĀ goalsĀ andĀ resolving its needs. It is also recommended that when implementing its analytics code, that CEC use meaningful page names. This method will allow for a more intuitive understanding when reading the analytics reports. Currently, not all pages meet these requirements.
Strategically using KPIs
After reviewing our analytics report, we can confidently make a conclusion about the sites current performanceĀ andĀ identify actionable items that will help improve the KPI going forward. We can start be looking at the average time a user spends on the site. This report will be able to help us measure how visitors are interacting with the sites content. If we dig deeper, we should be able to see which pages are creating the longest stayĀ andĀ conversionsĀ andĀ which pages users are not finding to be relevant toward their search. If we dig even further, we can begin to see which pages users last visited before abandoning the website.Ā If we see a common trend of user activity, we will be able to make the corrections as needed.
The other twoĀ metrics, unique visitorsĀ andĀ ratio of local audience to national audience will be important to CEC because it will help CEC understand how engaging the website content is. These 2Ā metricsĀ are also useful in helping with future marketing. With CEC having a true understanding of what its visitors are looking for, it will be able to advertise on relevant websites to accumulate more leads, which will lead to increased ROI.
CEC should take its KPIsĀ andĀ set up dashboards within its analytics programs to stay on top of its stats. This will help in analyzing trendsĀ andĀ identify follow-up actions. This can also be done manually by exporting numbers from the analytics tools into Excel or customized dashboards within the analytics software.
The companyās KPIs should be revisitedĀ andĀ fine-tuned often in order to remain relevant in an ever-changing marketplace.