Website Statistics to Improve your ROI

It would be great if every penny you spent on advertising and marketing could have a ROI.  Justification of marketing and advertising spend would be easy and every business would be highly profitable.  Unfortunately, we do not live in a world where everything has a ROI, but there are ways to improve strategy through a hard working website. It is acknowledged that some things are difficult to measure, such as the case with branding.  Consider your logo, it is unlikely you will hear a customer say ‘we chose you because your logo is cool’, or the sharp suit you wear to meet a perspective client doesn’t mean you turn up naked because clothing has no ROI!  It is all part of the overall branding of the company; it is the carefully designed set of communication tools to reinforce your business offering.  A carefully designed website that actively promotes your brand is the first aspect of generating targeted online custom. A good website is a very powerful tool that can be utilised to measure your marketing and advertising activity.  It is not just the shop window for your customers to browse; it also provides a plethora of useable data unique to your business.  You cannot buy data this valuable! You have at your fingertips, data that describes consumer browsing and spending patterns, customer demographics, the performance of your website, the most popular products and this is before you really start breaking down the stats. All marketing and advertising campaigns should have a method of tracking built into its strategy.  This allows full justification of the expenditure and a full assessment on the ROI.  Consider a product launch in a new area, your website stats can provide feedback on its uptake further influencing marketing and advertising strategies for that campaign.  You may purchase banner adverting on a website that can be directly monitored for it hit generation.  The website can also be synced with other campaigns such as a coupon promotion in the local paper.  Unique codes can be inputted in the website which will give you a ROI for that campaign where future decisions can be made from it.  Even your email and social media campaigns can be monitored! The point is, ROI for marketing and advertising expenditure doesn’t need be cryptic.  Your website offers a powerful medium to monitor measure and tailor marketing and advertising efforts to reduce waste and inefficiency.  Use your data and make your website work for you.