web analytics

Back in the day, web analytics was the purview of large companies with fat wallets. This, however, no longer holds true. Today, both big and small companies use web analytics in one form or another, getting the most out of this technology in various ways. Modern companies can’t afford to ignore it because there’s an excellent chance that their competitors use this technology; if they don’t use it, they’d get left behind. 

Web analytics improve a company’s decision-making process, providing them with insights gleaned from the collected data. Those insights help them create effective marketing campaigns. But as to how businesses can fully take advantage of web analytics’ many benefits, it pays to understand web analytics first. 

Web Analytics Overview

Web analytics refers to the analysis of user data, such as how long they stay, the objects they click, the pages they visit, how they arrive at your site, and other behaviors, that are collected when they visit your website pages. The users’ location, gender, and age are also gathered, as well as your total conversion. 

The collected data will then be analyzed by software tools, such as the ones developed by decemberlabs.com, and the resulting report could help you tailor your advertising to your target audience, plan a more effective marketing campaign, and other business decisions.       

How Data Is Collected

Web pages are usually tagged by the analytics tools via a snippet of JavaScript inserted in the code of the web page. Through the tag, the number of times a page is visited or clicked on is recorded by the analytics tool. The tag also records the user’s browser, the device and its operating system, as well as the geographic location (via the IP address).    

Web analytics services not only know whether a user is a repeat visitor, but they can also track sessions through the use of cookies. However, although these services may provide a ton of valuable data, they aren’t 100% accurate. The results of the different analytics tools can vary and may provide dissimilar results. Besides, some users clear their browsers and delete the accumulated cookies, while browsers may restrict code snippets. 

How To Make Collected Data Work For You

Nowadays, most companies may be collecting precious data, but not all of them, unfortunately, know how to maximize its potential. To avoid under-using your data treasure trove, find out first the exact problem you’ve been having in your business that you’d want to solve. For example, you’re having problems with custom retention, and you’d like to address that particular problem quickly. Web analytics can help you understand your customers better.

Another thing is the quality of the collected data. Your business might be collecting data for many years, but if the data is unstructured and disorganized, it might as well be trash. ‘Trash’ is accurate since that type of data is known as ‘dirty data.’ 

Examples of dirty data are insecure data (something to do with collected data that might have violated privacy laws), incomplete data, inaccurate data, outdated data, duplicate data, and other unusable data. Fortunately, you can do a clean up; to some of them, anyway. There are available tools you can use to organize them and put them into a structured and usable format.

Lastly, you can optimize your collected data by building models that could provide accurate insights for your business. Visualizing the data is great, but modeling is better. The one drawback to modeling is it can take a good chunk off your budget. But if you’re willing to invest, it could tremendously help your business.

Benefits Of Web Analytics Benefits To Business Growth 

Speaking of investing in technology, here are some benefits that your business can get when you invest in web analytics:

1. Acquisition And Retention Of Customers

If you want to get ahead of the pack, your marketing strategy should stand out. Web analytics can identify your clients’ needs, which could help you focus on those needs. By being proactive with your clients, you’d likely establish a solid relationship with them.  

Additionally, analytics can provide you with the consumers’ behavioral patterns. You can use these patterns to inspire brand loyalty by finding out various trends and methods that would make clients satisfied with your service. 

An e-commerce business, for example, can provide a highly personalized shopping experience to its customers. It can do this by giving ad suggestions that are based on similar products purchased, customer browsing behavior, and other considerations.  

2. Creating Focused And Targeted Marketing Campaigns

A shotgun approach to marketing would be a colossal waste of money since it doesn’t work. With web analytics, you can tailor marketing campaigns and products that can effectively reach your intended audience. Analytics can provide a detailed analysis of consumer trends, which could include online purchase monitoring and point-of-sale transactions. 

With these in your arsenal, you can anticipate your customer’s needs and exceed their expectations. This means that winning their loyalty to your brand won’t be difficult anymore.

3. Early Recognition Of Potential Risks

Today’s companies operate in an environment that might be considered high-risk. This type of environment, however, makes businesses adapt and learn to manage different risks that they face. Fortunately, there are tools at their disposal, like web analytics. With the help of analytics, companies can spot trends that could affect them, enabling them to anticipate and adjust to potential risks. 

For example, if analytics indicate that your customers are increasingly getting younger, you can make a few adjustments to your marketing campaign that reflects this trend.

4. Build Strategies To Gain Referrals

Web analytics can also give you the chance to identify sites that get you the most referrals. Knowing them, you can analyze what you’re doing right, perhaps give a few adjustments, and devise strategies to get even more referrals not only from them but from other sites, too.

If your analytics, for instance, show that the majority of your traffic comes from search engines, this would indicate a strong SEO (search engine optimization). Armed with this knowledge, you’ll know which practice is effective. Building from that, you could do a few tweaks to expand your online presence and attract more traffic.   

Final Thoughts

Web analytics are used by companies of all sizes, and not only by large corporations with deep pockets. Through web analytics, you now have the option to use focused, targeted marketing campaigns that reach your target market. Hence, you no longer have to use a shotgun approach to marketing that can be expensive, not to mention ineffectual.

Web analytics help companies grow by providing them with the tools to improve their marketing strategies, acquire and retain customers, adjust to future trends, and improve referrals.