Marketing and measurement.
Logically speaking, the two are joined at the hip. Realistically speaking, the two are (more often than they should be) as disjointed as a divorced couple in a custody battle. I am always a bit surprised by the companies that have nary a clue how their digital marketing is doing.
No analytics in place, no tracking mechanisms, no idea. Going even a bit further, there is a big difference between analytics and the age-old “stats” package. If you are still looking for data on “hits”, then do a little bit of homework to learn more about the metrics, which metrics are important to you, and what they mean.
No matter if you are building out a new website or wanting to learn more about an existing one, insist it include an analytics package. With Google Analytics being a free, and very useful, tool, there is really no excuse. Simply create an account, place a snippet of code, and you have data. With some understanding of that data you will be able to make more informed decisions and gain a better understanding of what parts of your marketing are working and more importantly, which ones are not.
Some Web Analytics Packages and Tools
Two analytics tools you can put in play quickly and easily to replace your old “stats” program.
Google Analytics – It is free, provides loads and loads of data and hacks and has become ubiquitous for SMB’s and measurement.
Woopra – If you love graphs, real-time data and dashboards, look no further. Recently out of Beta and available to everyone, Woopra provides a dashboard that will make you feel like you are launching the space shuttle. Loads of information, real-time and even live chat feature. This is a paid, but very reasonably priced service worth checking out.
Heat Maps
Heat maps help visualize the items on a page that are drawing attention from your visitors. Identify misplaced calls to action and much more, along with standard analytics data.
Crazy Egg – Data and heatmaps at a reasonable price. We have used this service to help with Landing Page optimization, ecommerce optimization and web form optimization. Heatmaps can offer some incredibly useful data that is outside the traditional “numbers” mindset.
Click Density – Anther tool utilizing heatmaps, worth taking a look at.