The information you get will give you indications of how you can improve your website to increase visitor rate and sales such as redesigning your homepage to make it more user friendly or ensuring it’s mobile friendly if it appears most of your visitors are using a mobile device.
 
How does it help with each marketing channel?
The information you get from your website analytics data will give you great insight into where your visitors are coming from such as an organic search using a search engine, paid search (Google Ads etc), referral from blogs, social media or email. You’ll be able to see the biggest drivers of website traffic and it will also tell you which channels you need to focus on to see improved traffic flow.
 
In order to get a real understanding of the numbers you need to look at each marketing channel's analytics as well as your website analytics. Understanding how well a certain email campaign has performed compared with a blog or social media post can help you see where you need to focus your attention.
 
How can you find out this information?

• Google Analytics With this fantastic free tool you’ll find valuable information about all your website traffic and find out how your marketing channels are performing.
• Website reports
• Social media insights - most social media apps have their own free analytics so you can see how well they’re performing where you can make improvements.
• Email marketing insights - use this data to help you produce effective email campaigns. Insights will tell you what your readers are interested in so you know what to focus on in the next campaign.
• Collect your own data - trade shows, events and networking are fantastic opportunities to find out more about your customers and what they’re really interested in.

 
It’s really important that you use all the analytics tools available and measure everything you do. Focus on one marketing channel at a time, really get to understand it and build on this. Make it manageable for you and your business - if you find it tricky to get your head around or you lack the time and patience, get support from your web designer.
 
Understanding your numbers
If 100 people visit your website how many of those turn into a call, enquiry or an order? If you’re finding the number of conversions is dropping it’s worth reassessing your website. Perhaps your homepage isn’t clear - is it obvious what your products or services are? Or maybe your Contact Us form asks for too much information. If a customer is taking those first steps you don’t want to scare them off with lots of questions. Fundamentally you need to understand your customers so that all your marketing and content is relatable and relevant to your potential customers.
 
Contact Creative Remedy for further advice or to take advantage of a Free Website Audit

What does understanding the customer journey help you achieve?
Before a customer makes a purchase through your website they will first go through many interactions with your brand/business starting with when they first become aware of your brand right through to making a purchase. The route each customer takes to get to the final sale is varied and personal to them. We call this the customer journey.

Finding out about the customer journey is important if you want to help build a strong, loyal customer base. Knowing each stage the customer goes through helps you identify weak points in your communication strategy which you can then be improved to create a better customer experience and increase brand loyalty and sales.
 
How to track your customer journey
To understand the customer journey you need to analyse all the data from your marketing channels:

• Paid Advertising Basically any type of advertising you have to pay for ie. Google Ads or social media ads such as Facebook 
• Offline Activity Business cards, leaflets, networking, trade shows etc
• SEO All the channels you use to improve your website ranking in search engines such as Google  
• Social Media  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs etc.
• Email Marketing

 
The different marketing channels all have the same aim - to lead the customer to your website. But, as you know, just getting the potential customer to the website isn’t enough, what you want is for the customer to take the next step:

• A phone call

• An enquiry/contact us form
• An order/purchase

 
There are ways to measure how all the marketing channels are performing using various apps:

• Website Analytics 

• Google Analytics 
• Mailchimp Stats
• Social Media Insights
• Collect your own data from questionnaires, trade shows, events and networking

 
These websites and apps will collect all the data you need and help you get a better understanding of your audience so you can then adapt your marketing strategy to try and turn those visits into sales and in time increase brand loyalty and keep customers returning.
 
Get to know your customer
For any of this to work it’s important you really get to know your customer at every stage of their journey. This will help you develop content and services that are relevant to your customer. Find out how the customer feels at each stage of their journey - what made them take the next step? What stopped them from making a purchase?
 
To get the most out of your data you need to understand your numbers then you can see where improvements need to be made in order to boost traffic, increase loyalty and get more sales.
 
For help understanding the customer journey and making sense of it all contact Creative Remedy

A marketing funnel is basically a way of mapping a customer journey from awareness of your brand/business through to the final stage (purchase/sign up). There are different types of funnels focusing on specific areas of marketing (social media marketing funnels, video marketing funnels, email marketing funnels etc) but they all have the same role - to follow the steps a customer takes before fulfilling the final stage.

Why do you need a marketing funnel?
Having a marketing funnel will give you great insight into your customer journey. The data you will get from the funnel report will highlight if you are losing customers along their journey and help you focus on the weaker areas of your marketing plan. You will see which areas are strong and which areas you can build on. It will help you focus your marketing to your target audience which will ensure a better conversion rate. Understanding your customers and their needs makes it much easier for you to guide them through the ‘funnel’ and hopefully bring you more sales through your website/leads.
 
It may seem like a lot of data but it all makes sense once you understand your numbers and can see where you can improve brand loyalty or increase conversion rates.
 
How can a marketing funnel help your business?
A marketing funnel is a great way to build brand loyalty which in turn leads to recommendations, new customers and further sales. The marketing funnel is made of stages your customer goes through before making that purchase:

• Awareness - Attracting new customers
• Attention - Make your brand stand out from your competitors

• Action - Encouraging your new customer to make the purchase
• Engagement - Keeping in touch with your new customer through social media channels
• Loyalty - Building trust with your customers so they recommend your business to others

 
The information you will get from a marketing funnel will help you gain understanding of your audience and ultimately help you convert them into loyal customers.
 
If you need help with your marketing plan and would like more information, why not get a FREE Health Check

What can you do to get more sales through your website?
If your goal is to increase the amount of sales you are getting through your website then there are a few simple steps you can take. Try looking at your website as if you’re seeing it for the very first time. Is it inviting? Does it encourage you to find out more about the products or services available? Does it look tired and in need of an update?

We’ve put together a helpful list of tips to get the most out of your website and hopefully increase those online sales:

• Homepage - keep it simple and easy to navigate. Don’t be tempted to cram as much as possible on your homepage, this will just overwhelm visitors and could lose you sales.
• Try adding videos for product demonstrations and information - we process visual images much faster than reading text making video a great way to communicate with your audience!
• Call To Action - a simple yet effective ‘Buy Now’ button could be all you need to turn that enquiry into a purchase!
• Marketing - is an integral part of any business. From digital marketing to the more traditional, offline channels, they all have a part to play in helping your business to grow and be successful. For your marketing to be a success you need to have a plan to follow strategically rather than just a knee-jerk reaction to changes in the business climate.

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Once you’ve ticked all those boxes the sales will come flooding in, right? Well no, unfortunately it’s a bit more complex. Once your website is fine-tuned and your marketing plan is updated there's still more work to be done to improve customer engagement to ultimately increase sales. This is where a marketing funnel can really make a difference.
 
What is a Marketing Funnel?
It might surprise you to learn that only a small percentage of sales happen the first time a customer visits your website. Just being aware of your products and services isn’t enough and all customers will go through a personal journey before they finally decide to make a purchase. A marketing funnel is simply a way to analyse this customer journey and understand how and when you can help convert the sale.
 
Your many and varied marketing channels all have the same aim... to lead the customer to your website and bring customers on-board.
 
Every customer or potential customer that visits your website goes through their own unique journey before they engage with you for a service or make a purchase. Understanding that journey is difficult and sometimes the only way to find out is to ask the customer through research eg. feedback questionnaires, emails and speaking to your customers.
 
This marketing funnel infographic gives an example of a typical customer journey.
 
Attracting customers to your website
There are many ways to draw customers to your website, such as email marketing, social media and Google Ads but it’s also important to remember that customers are heavily influenced by other aspects of your website such as design, user experience (make sure it’s easy to navigate), call to actions, relevant content and mobile optimisation.
 
But, as you know, just getting the potential customer to the website isn’t enough, what you want is for the customer to take the next step:

• A phone call
• An enquiry/contact us form
• An order /purchase

 
What you can do to help a potential sale
Get yourself acquainted with the granular details with your print and digital marketing, know your numbers! You can do this through understanding the data in your Google Analytics account or social media insights. To really improve your customer experience you need to put yourself in their shoes, start simple, take a look at your website - what can you change on your home page or a landing page to pull more customers in?
 
Need some support to understand your Google Analytics data or social media insights? Book a FREE Health Check.