Many people will remember the times when the Internet was not such a crowded place. Just 10 years ago the digital landscape was a very different place; Twitter wasn’t around in 2005 and Facebook was just starting out. If you had a website then you were doing something that most of your competitors didn’t think they needed, and that was a massive advantage.
The attention on establishing a website and search engine optimisation was followed by the explosion in social media and everyone’s focus changed. Some businesses have still to take advantage of opportunities that social media bring, so having an established presence on Twitter & Facebook means you were way ahead of the competition.
Needless to say, times are changing and having a web presence and “doing a little bit on Facebook” may no longer be good enough. Your customers are using the digital space more than ever and the competition for their attention is fiercer – so ensuring your website stands out from the crowd is paramount if your business is to thrive in the digital space.
We talk a lot about the importance of having an online strategy at Key Multimedia because we believe having defined goals and objectives to follow make it easier to decide where to focus your attention (and more importantly your resources and spend). The digital space can be quite a complex one so having even a simple plan to follow will help you achieve your online goals in 2015.
Setting some online objectives
The secret to online success is first creating a list of goals and objectives and then ensuring your online presence is specifically targeted to deliver the results you expect. You wouldn’t build a house without an architect and plans, and you shouldn’t build a website without a digital equivalent.
The one of the main things to remember is that a website is not just a marketing tool it is a business tool as well therefore it needs to be aligned with your business goals and objectives. It is perfectly okay to have a small “brochure” type of website that simply contains contact information, but why settle for that when your site can do so much more? Even the smallest businesses are now using the power of the Internet to be more efficient. Once you start thinking about it, it’s easy to get excited about the potential for your website.
If you are a larger business, it is important to get all of the parts of your business involved. Start by listing the challenges facing each department, and determine whether or not the web can play a role in solving those issues.
Once you have an idea of what you need the website to do, it is important to agree on some measurable goals. Too many people think traffic is the goal of a website. But perhaps think about conversions to enquiries and bookings or sales – think about it; would you rather have 1,000 people visit your site and do nothing, or have 100 people visit your site and make a booking or make a purchase?
What is more important are the goals like new online enquiries, an increase in average customer satisfaction, more sales, increased newsletter subscriptions or engagement on social media. These are all measurable goals that DO mean something to your company.
Six steps for establishing Online Goals and Objectives
Key questions to ask yourself when establishing some goals and objectives for your website:
- Website Objectives – What are your key objectives for your website / social media presence / online newsletters / apps? How do these align with your business objectives?
- Target audience – Who are the target audience and what characteristics help profile them?
- What is your Unique Selling Point (USP) – List the characteristics of your business that make you different from your competitors
- Competitor Analysis – Who are your key competitors both online and offline?
- Outcomes / Targets – What do you want your website to achieve? Number of enquiries, conversions to sales, Facebook likes and engagement.
- Measures – How do you measure the success of your website?
Establishing a set of goals and objectives is the starting point for any online campaign. However, regularly reviewing the performance of your online presence is also crucial to ensure you meet your online objectives. Have you thought about adding your digital performance as an agenda item for monthly board meetings? – if you haven’t we would thoroughly recommend it.
Tools
There are a number of tools to track your activity online, allowing you to see the progression of your site and social media channels over time. Here are some of the tools you can use to measure your performance
- Google Analytics
- Google Webmaster Tools
- Social Media Analytics – Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics
- Search Engine Results Positions
And with measures in place, it becomes easier to see where things can be improved. Reviewing them alongside your original objectives will help you refine your approach to making your online presence a great success.
Key Performance Indicators for your website – Google Analytics
- Number of Unique Visitors
- How many visits do you have?
- Have you gained any new visits?
- How many people returned to your site?
- Check your visits against last month / year by ticking the ‘compare to’ box
- Find at: Google Analytics>Audience overview
- Ratio of organic , referral and direct
- How many of your Visits are ‘direct’, i.e. user comes to your web page via typing in your URL.
- How many of your visitors are ‘referred’ by clicking links to your Page from another website.
- How often does your website show up when searched in Google.co.uk ‘organic’.
- Find at: Google analytics> Dashboard> Standard Reports> acquisition> all traffic.
- Bounce rate
- What’s the bounce rate % of total visits?
- Does this increase or decrease?
- Find at: Google Analytics>Audience overview
- PPC vs Organic
- Which one is most affective for your page?
- Is paid traffic leading to sells?
- Find at: Google analytics> Dashboard> Standard Reports> acquisition> all traffic? Paid & Organic.
- Time on Site
- Average time the user spends on your site
- Is this increasing?
- Find at: Google Analytics>Audience overview
- % of visits from non-business related search terms
- What are people typing in the search to find your webpage?
- Can people find your site without mentioning your business name?
- Find at: Google analytics> Dashboard> Standard Reports> acquisition> Organic Search Traffic – Then advanced >tick “exclude” then type in your Park name
- Number of pages visited
- How many pages do people visit, is this increasing
- What are their interests?
- What browser are they using?
- Find at: Google Analytics> Standard Reports> Audience> and Overview.
- Range of landing pages
- Is your home page appealing to the customer?
- Does your home page have all the relevant information on it?
- Find at: Google Analytics> Behaviour> Site Content –Landing Pages
- Ratio of mobile to desktop users
- How many people are visiting your site through a mobile platform?
- What’s the biggest mobile visit?
- Find at: Google analytics Dashboard >then Standard Reports> Audience> Overview, Mobile > Overview
- Social (subset of referrals)
- How good is your social media coverage?
- Are they talking about your business and referring back to your website?
- Find at: Google analytics> Dashboard> Standard Reports> Social Media
