Show Me The Tracking!

Even the smallest local businesses can benefit from having an online presence. A landscaping company can gain customers from having a Facebook page that targets people in their area. A golf instructor can promote themselves with instructional videos on YouTube. There is no limit to the ways you can promote your business with the tools that are available to you online. However, the question that always comes up for small business owners is which method works the best for them and how do you track it? Tracking is important because it shows you what’s working, what’s not working, what you need to improve on and what you need to back off from. Here are just some of the advantages to tracking your internet marketing efforts:

• Email: Tracking for email has become more detailed with specifics. The numbers of recipients who open the email is tracked along with the number of people who click to your website. The clicks can even be broken down based on different links so that you know which area of the email got the most attention.
• Social Media: Finally! Social media has stepped up to the plate when it comes to tracking. There are many services available that allow you to see likes, follows, interaction, impressions and more. This is a great tool to be able to see how many people are really interacting with your company on social media. For example, if you are boosting a post on Facebook for a sale you are having next weekend you can see how many people saw the post, liked or commented on it and even how many people clicked the link to your landing page.
• Google: The king of keeping track has always been Google. They want to know how many clicks you got each day, where they came from, what time of day you received them, why you received them and more. Whether it’s an organic or paid lead, Google makes sure you can see everything so that you know which areas to improve on and which areas you are strong in.

So what do all these numbers mean?

The goal of any website is to get traffic. Based on what you are selling, you may get thousands of hits a day or less. For example, if you are selling MRI machines you are not going to get thousands of clicks a day. However, if you are selling cars you will probably get a lot of traffic. The value of tracking is that it shows you where you are getting your visitors from so that you can make a more effective marketing strategy.

If you are getting more leads per $100 spent via email than you are for Facebook and Google adwords, it tells you that email is your most effective form of marketing. It doesn’t mean you should abandon the other platforms, but gives you an idea of where you need to put your money when you are ready to promote a big sale.