Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Using Google Analytics to Track Your Progress

If it was your New Year’s resolution to improve the effectiveness of your marketing, how do you determine if it’s working? Since one of the benefits of 1:1 print marketing is the ability to drive traffic to your website, one of the ways to determine success is to use Google Analytics and similar tools to monitor your Web activity.

Online analytics tools are about more than the number of visitors to your site. They can tell you where these visitors are coming from, how long they stay, which sites or search engines are driving the most traffic, and more.

In addition to basic site traffic, let’s look at some of the metrics Google Analytics offers.

  • Absolute unique visits. Number of individual visitors (as contrasted with people who might be visiting the site more than once).
  • Page views / average page views. When people come to your site, how many pages do they click on before they leave?
  • Time on site. Once people hit your site, how long do they stay? Are they taking the time to read the content? Or clicking out right away?
  • Traffic sources. Where are your visitors coming from? Are they typing in your URL directly? Coming from referring sites? Search engines? If the latter, which ones? What keywords are they using?
  • Page navigation. Did people land on each page directly? Or did they click through another page to get there? After viewing the content, did they click through to more pages? Or leave the site?

What can you learn from this type of information?

If you’re running a specific 1:1 printing campaign, for example, you can watch how effective it is for driving website traffic—how quickly traffic peaks and how high.

Once people land on your main URL, if they leave without clicking through to other pages, it might tell you that you need to improve the relevance of your index page or make the content more compelling.

If you know the keywords being used to drive the most traffic from search engines, you can use this information in your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts.

If you track which pages people are landing on or clicking through most often, you can add content or links to those pages to maximize your message.

You make a significant investment in 1:1 print marketing, so maximize every dollar you spend. Once you’ve driven people to your website, free metrics tools can help you sharpen your message and improve site relevance, navigation, and functionality. You will capture more site visitors, hold them, and ultimately drive more conversion to sales.
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." ("The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs," 2001)

Friday, July 12, 2013


Personalized Marketing: It’s Mainstream
Just look around you. Personalized marketing is everywhere. From personalized coupons at the checkout counter to personalized recommendations at Amazon.com. Now there is research to show just how prevalent personalized marketing has become.

In a study of 466 marketers (“Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity,” 2010), InfoTrends found that only 40% of marketers’ campaigns fit into the category of “one to many.” Forty percent fit into the category of segmented marketing (“one to few”). More than one in five (21.0%) fit into the category of full personalization (one to one), whether print or electronic media.

Think about that for a moment. One in five campaigns is fully personalized. What does that mean for you? It means that if you are sending static mail pieces, you’re competing with marketers who are speaking (potentially to the same customers and prospects) on a personalized level.

If your competitors are personalizing and you are not, who do you think is going to get the most mind share? Even if your competitors aren’t personalizing today, they might be tomorrow. You want to get there and establish a relationship with those customers or prospects before they do.
Personalization doesn’t have to be difficult. Even with a simple basic customer list, there are steps you can take:

1. Personalize by name.
Don’t just personalize the message. Use the recipient’s name creatively. Integrate it into the design in an interesting, eye-catching way.

2. Target by a single, simple variable.
Will it help to target the mailing by gender? How about by ZIP code? Would it help to add a map? (This works great for new businesses or new branches or locations.) These are data you already have. Use them!

3. Append the database.
Still think you don’t have any variables you can use? Do what’s called a database “append” in which you purchase simple variables like home ownership or household income for the names you already have. Appends are not expensive and can boost your marketing effectiveness exponentially.

Talk to us about how you can put it to use to create a more personal relationship with your customers. You probably already have more information than you think!
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
 
There is only one boss.  The customer.  And he can fire everybody in the company from the
chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Sam Walton