Chances are you’re really busy. Your website is probably just one of many things you’re trying to manage and maybe its not a priority. So realistically, is measuring a website even necessary to your business?
At a basic level, I’d argue there is little point conducting sustained marketing activity if you have no idea whether it’s working or not. Your website is a marketing activity like any other. Maybe its purpose is to:
- generate enquiries
- drive direct sales
- answer customers’ questions so that they don’t have to phone
- maintain a relationship with customers between visits
- provide public information
If you know why your site exists, then the very nature of Internet technology means there is plenty of data you can access to track how successfully you are achieving those goals.
But measuring your website brings rewards that go far beyond identifying whether specific marketing activity is working. It can give you a year round, in-depth view of your potential customers behaviour – and not just the ones who end up physically walking through your doors, but also the ones who disappear, never to be seen again.
How many other opportunities do you get to benefit from the customers you never had?
The customers who come through your doors represent the very tip of the iceberg. Chances are that for every 2 website visitors you get to meet, there are 98 that simply go elsewhere. I believe that one of the most compelling reasons for measuring your website is that it offers an unprecedented view on “the ones that got away”. You can see what you’re missing; from there you can investigate the likely cause and act on it.
Tourism businesses are cyclical – more so than for many sectors. You can use the hindsight of web measurement to give you foresight. For example, by observing what search terms people use and when – you are observing the very clear signals your potential customers are providing about their stage of interest and associated information needs. So, once you know that potential customers begin researching Hogmanay breaks in early September, you can align next year’s web content and other promotions with this
So, just how difficult is all this?
Well, measuring your website no longer has to be costly – there are high quality free and low cost web analytics tools available, plus all sorts of other data sources you can utilise. But tools do not give you answers. Web measurement does require working with information you may not have encountered before, but there are blogs, courses, books and people that will help you.
The primary challenge is committing the necessary time to the process – not just to use your chosen tools, but most importantly to deriving insight from the information that you have and taking appropriate actions. But, investing time appropriately will deliver rewards and those rewards are quantifiable – for example, in terms of “saving” previously lost prospects, reducing wasted advertising, improving return on investment from the web and in better understanding of your visitors.
So even though you’re really busy, don’t let that be a reason to do nothing. By getting started on website measurement and taking small steps and actions to improve your online presence, you can ensure you are focussing your energy and efforts on really delivering value to your business.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Online customer behaviour, Tourism market research, Web analytics and web measurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.