How the right analytics will rock your world

When most people hear the word analytics, they probably don’t jump for joy. The majority of business owners are focused on the day to day of running their businesses. Analytics probably reminds them of their dusty old high school math teacher droning on about data and algebra and blah blah blah…

However, there is a certain—albeit nerdy—subsection of the population that LOVES the words analytics. Gherkin Media for example. Yes, we are data nerds. And that’s how we’re able to help businesses grow, flourish, and dominate their respective niches.

The right data points in the right hands can set the world on fire. Not literally, of course. Typically, data analytics have to be combined with a healthy dose of creativity and market research to be properly ingested, and turned into strategy.

We’re going to go over a few important data points, how to treat and analyze them, and how they can turn a struggling website or business around.

The Good Kind of Traffic

The data point that is going to provide the biggest impact on a particular strategy is traffic. No, not the kind where you sit in your car and swear at strangers for no reason. The kind where people visit your website, and hopefully buy your products or services. Traffic is a clear indicator of whether or not your business is showing up in search engines. If you’re not getting any traffic at all, poor SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and perhaps poor written content could be the culprit. Do you have a social media strategy? If the answer is yes, and your traffic is minimal, then you may want to think about rethinking it.

Ultimately, the end goal of any strategy is to sell, and grow your business. Can’t do that without traffic. Having an integrated analytics dashboard is almost a must for any business that is serious about dominating their market online. That being said, a Care Plan with Gherkin takes the burden off of the business owner and puts it in the capable hands of professionals that are truly results focused. Not only do we track your analytics, but make strategy suggestions and implementations that will jumpstart your traffic.

Who’s visiting?

Now that you’ve got the traffic flowing in, the next question is: Who the heck are these people? Without a deep knowledge of your audience, your customer base, their habits, what makes them tick—it’s impossible to put together a content and marketing strategy that they’ll respond to. Here are just a few analytics that are important to know:

Who are they? (age, income, gender, etc)
Where are they from? (referral source)
Where do they live?
Search Terms Used
Search Engine Used
Length of Stay (on website)
Pages Visited

With this information in hand, a professional should be able to begin painting a clear picture of your current visitor profile. For some products and services, this will be a very broad swath of the population—for most though, it will likely fall into a tight niche. The key to dominating that niche is to give them the content that makes them want to make a purchase.

What are the neighbours up to?

If you’re getting your butt kicked by a competitor in your market, it’s always a good idea to have a look at what they’re doing in order to kick said butt. It’s important to get a feel for their branding first and foremost. Try and pinpoint what may be resonating with the market. Is it their logo and colours? Is it their marketing language?

For example: if the target niche is Gen Z, is the copy written in a style and format that would be palatable to the customer? If the target is baby boomers, have you referenced the Rolling Stones enough (just kidding!!)?

Once you’ve discovered a few things that may be working for your competitor, try and improve upon them. Evolution of business is nothing but incremental improvements by trial and error.

Secondly, there are tools available that help you track some of your competitor’s data. This will give you valuable insights into the keywords they are using to show up at the top of google rankings. Sometimes, SEO and keywords are the ONE thing that separates you and your competition. Discovering their keywords, and using well crafted content to leapfrog them in search rankings will instantly give you a major lift.

Tracking Growth

What are we tracking analytics for, if not to grow our traffic, sales, and business? Once you gather all necessary analytics, develop a marketing strategy based on that intel, and implement it—it’s time to figure out if the work is paying off. Tracking growth is just as important as every other step in the analytics process. If you’re growing at an exponential rate, week over week, then your strategy is on point and will only need monitoring to ensure it stays on point. If however, your traffic and sales are still stagnant, then that is a CRUCIAL data point. That allows you to eliminate certain aspects of your strategy that aren’t working, while improving upon the ones that are.

Staying Motivated

Running a business can sometimes feel like a very lonely existence. Your blood, sweat, and tears go into your online presence—and without proper analytics, it’s impossible to know if the efforts have been worthwhile. Staying on top of data and trends can help keep you motivated and in a growth state of mind. When you implement a change to your branding, website, or design—and you see massive positive results—it can be that motivational boost you need to keep striving for excellence. This creates a positive feedback loop that pushes a business to continue striving for excellence.

At Gherkin Media, we see it everyday. A client comes to us because their business is dipping, lagging, or non-existent. We help them get on track with wicked analytics tools that allow them the insight needed to make necessary pivots. The pivots work, and the client is thrilled. They then strive for even greater sales targets.

Agency Analytics

Agency Analytics has made tracking analytics simpler than ever before. In fact, the Agency Analytics dashboard is completely integrated and tracks data points that go beyond traditional Google analytics. As an added bonus, the Agency Analytics dashboard is super sleek, and very easy to read. With Agency Analytics, you’re able to track ALL of your marketing channels in one spot—and comparing one against the other allows you to better meet your niche where they interact with media. With Agency Analytics, you can access the dashboard directly from your domain, making it the simplest and most effective analytics tools on the market today.

We’ve got your back!

After breaking down why data and analytics are so important, you’re probably pretty pumped to get started. You may also have analysis paralysis (see what I did there??) and may not know where to start. Don’t worry. Your pickle pals at Gherkin Media have got your back, Jack!

Gherkin Media provides Website Care Plans to our clients that are affordable, comprehensive, and customizable. With EACH website care package, we offer Agency Analytics for FREE. Yep, you get the power of the best data analytics tool—in your hands.

Let’s get started on a Website Care Plan!

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