Measuring and understanding your website’s success is a critical process that is sometimes overlooked. Many times, marketing efforts stop at getting traffic to the site. The next step is to evaluate results.
When analyzing your online marketing program’s results, evaluate not only whether the initiative succeeded in meeting objectives, but also how well it moved your business toward its goals. One way to evaluate marketing program results is through a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. ROI is a computation that tells you how much you received compared to what you put into a project.
ROI can be expressed in terms of a dollar amount or as a ratio.
The dollar amount formula tells how much you increased profit in total dollars as a result of the project: [Cost savings and earnings as a result of the project] minus [Dollars invested]
The ratio formula tells how much you got back, in dollars, for each dollar you invested in a project:
[Cost savings and earnings as a result of the project] divided by [Dollars Invested]
Re-Setting Annual Goals
Although monitoring the results of your marketing initiatives and fine-tuning initiatives throughout the year is a good idea, no less than once per year, you’ll want to perform a deeper evaluation. Ask yourself:
What was the original purpose of your website? Does your website still meet those goals? If not, identify where you strayed and what steps should be taken to get back on track.
Is the site’s content relevant? Does it engage your visitors? Is your site easy to navigate so people can find what they need?
Are you growing your subscriber list? If your list hasn’t grown in a while, perhaps it’s time to look at your method of getting people to subscribe or find a way to offer a fresh new take on a common subject. Remember that people tend to gravitate towards new information and the more recent and updated your content is, the more likely they will be interested.
Internet marketing involves a lot of networking, which in turn should create fresh opportunities for your business. Has there been an increase in the number of clients or customers you have? If you’re stalling somewhere in the middle, you might be stuck with the same old market. Consider boosting your networking and promotions to gain more traffic and expand your market segment.
Review your goals.
Are you exactly where you want to be right now? Are you effectively targeting your audience? Have there been changes in the market that affects your business?
After your evaluation, it’s time to assess your marketing plan and draw up a fresh one in its place and then use that as a reference for the upcoming year.
By taking this approach, you can better choose marketing programs with positive results:
- Happier customers represent a return on investment.
- Online activities that influenced on offline transactions. For example, a sale leads originating from online programs.
- Online activities that result in long term growth for your brand and access to new markets and customers i.e. extending your reach beyond the city limits.
The Internet is not a level playing field. The Internet marketplace is extremely “noisy” and Internet marketing itself, although not rocket science, is multi-faceted and dynamic. The learning curve is steep for web marketers to learn what works and what does not. In fact, what works today may not work tomorrow.
There is no formula for an effective Internet marketing strategy; it depends on your individual situation. It is important to identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can come up with a great marketing plan appropriate for you. When you find out what you’re able to accomplish with your resources at the moment, you will be better able to level the playing field by creating a great web marketing strategy for your online business.
