Simply put, your website must be about impacting business performance and success. Although SEO and SEM are important to attracting new visitors to your website, it’s often viewed as the only metric in many executive meetings. In addition, although important to the brand and user experience, design can also distract website owners from what’s important to the business objectives.
The problem we see is companies oftentimes embark on a new website and fail to align the direction of the website to the strategic objectives of the business. Their motives and decisions are weighted too much on a new design with better content without considering the measurables that the website will have on the company’s profits. Don’t get me wrong, design and content are critical to the success of the website. These two areas are essential to attracting an audience, giving them a favorable experience and converting them into paying clients. But if design and content are the only success factors of the website then you have a very good chance of your competition out-performing you online.
The Company with the Better Data Wins
In a recent blog post, I described how data is the new natural resource for many companies. Between content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation tools, we are presented with better metrics that allow executives to evaluate the success of their website and make adjustments quickly. Data should be gold to marketing and eBusiness executives. If your data is not measured effectively then you are simply guessing at what needs to be done to your website.
Over the past year we have seen a major difference between companies that have average websites and companies that have great websites. That difference is how they evaluate the analytics of the website. Average websites have a tendency to launch first, and then track the basic analytics. Whereas great companies capture data points on their website visitor’s profiles, and thus have the ability to clearly understand what they deem as important.
No longer should companies only track basic analytics such as page views and bounce rates. Additional measurables should be:
- Strategic Business Objectives
- Revenue Increases
- Cost Reduction
- Customer Acquisitions
- Lead Generation
- Brand Awareness
- Increased Performance
In order for your website to provide the value to your visitors and ultimately the profits to your company, you need to understand what your web visitors find as valuable instead of what you think they should value. With the right CMS in place, your website will provide you with data points and reports showing the activity of your website visitors and how they value the information provided to them. Examples could be: where they spend time, what they download, and any personal contact information they share with you. A website that provides value and gives visitors information they want, will continue to collect more data points on its visitors.
As you track the performance and the metrics of your website you need to evaluate if it’s giving enough value that keeps them returning. You need to review these data points on an ongoing basis to ensure visitors continue to not only return but engage with your website. With more data from repeat visitors, in turn, you will be able to create a better strategy.
In conclusion, your website needs to focus on strategic objectives and its impact on profits. Once you are able to implement a strategy for using different types of data, you are in a much better position to move them through the sales and marketing funnel. This customized information will allow you to understand a wider range of unique users and what they value.
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Gary Galvin is the president and founder of Galvin Technologies. Gary Galvin started Galvin Technologies in 2003 and has grown the company from a one-person company to one of the largest web development companies in Indianapolis. He started the company with the vision of having a web and software development company that set the standard for how projects are to be properly run. By focusing heavily on building robust software project processes and ensuring on-time and in-budget delivery, Galvin Technologies has been able to become a leader in the industry by building client services that continue to grow revenue and a senior level team.
