Web Analytics

Audace Mpoziriniga

Web Analytics

Definition and Meaning

"Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.” Web analytics is a strategic internet tool used to collect data and provide a report that allows its users to detect problems so that they begin the process of resolving them. It is a key tool for implementing effective business strategies such as Marketing, Budgeting and financial operations. Also companies use web analytics when they need to introduce customer loyalty program and increase sales.

For a company to reach its goals, marketers must use a web analytics to monitor customer behaviour, value marketing campaign performance and improve marketing decision making accordingly.

By analysing different metrics, marketers should identify the best product categories for their clientele, which elements of their website were most popular, and how well marketing campaigns and product promotions were working.

Different areas to monitor

Enterprises software firms provide database, analytics, and mobile solutions to customers for their analytics oriented. Every company selects specific aspects of its business depending on what they want to improve.  By following the most important measurement to your business, you can improve the results and grow your business, which is ultimately the goal of reading metrics.

Examples

·         Sales

An ecommerce storefront is supported by how many sales are completed. A great metric to track for an ecommerce site is how many people drop off without finishing their purchase. While you might think that visitors would be the most important metric, if you notice that there is a huge difference between visitors and customers with completed sales, you will realize that getting the people who come to your site to finish their purchase is more important.

·         Marketing

 With marketing analytics, you have a good, solid look into the direct relationships between your marketing channels. It's great to be able to see how each of your individual channels (e.g. social media, blogging, email marketing, SEO, etc.) are performing, but the true power of analytics comes into play when you can easily tie the effect of multiple channels' performances together.

For instance, let's say you did an email send to a segment of your leads. Marketing analytics can not only tell you how many people clicked through from your email to your website, but also how many of those people actually converted into leads for your business when they got there. Furthermore, you can compare the impact of that individual email send with other marketing initiatives. Did that email generate more leads than the blog post you published yesterday? What about compared to your social presence?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31705/Why-You-Need-Marketing-Analytics-Not-Web-Analytics.aspx#ixzz2CpfvtKYI

http://online-behavior.com/analytics/definition

http://webdesign.about.com/od/analytics/qt/what_to_track.htm

Student Post- Website Evaluation Tools

Website Evaluation Tools

              The internet serves many purposes, such as an instrument for communication and as an entertainment device but at its most basic level it is a way for many people to obtain information. The internet is a growing part of the business world, an important one too and not all websites are created equally, so marketers and website programmers have website evaluation tools to help them designing better websites.

                                                    

A websites usability is of the upmost importance to its success. A websites usability has to do with how easily the user can navigate through the site, the sites ability to deliver to the user what they need and the overall user experience. One of the main tools used to evaluate a websites usability is a usability test. To sum up usability testing, it is a measuring aid to see how the website measures up to the expectations of those in the websites target market and how ‘user friendly’ the website is.

                                                                             

Usability testing can be broken down into three steps:

Concept testing is the first step of usability testing and it does not actually deal with the site’s content, but rather the general idea or theme of the site and how it will be presented to the end user. At this stage in the usability testing the website has not been designed and marketers are only interested in people’s opinions on how practical they feel the website setup would be. Marketers will use general ideas and themes at this point in the testing because the website itself has not been programmed yet.

Prototype testing is the second step in the usability testing. At this point the site will have been designed and the programmers will be taking steps to making the website functional. At the prototype testing stage marketers and researchers are able to get some feedback about the site, what people like and dislike. Prototype testing is when many changes to a webpages visual appearance will be altered.

Full usability testing is the final stage of usability testing and it takes place when the website is complete and fully functional. This part of the usability testing only takes place once a website has been uploaded to a server and is the last step before the website is opened to everyone. At this point the website will be setup in a way that the programmers and marketers feel the user would like it to be, and how they would expect the site to be.

                                                   

The general performance of a website is also important, people want information and they want it quickly. There are several tools that monitor websites and record how long a user was on the page, what they clicked on and even if they hovered over a link and did not click on it. An example of one of these website evaluation tools is ClickTale. www.clicktale.com

Sources:

·        http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html

·        http://sixrevisions.com/tools/useful_web_analytics_tools/

·        Internet Marketing: Integrating online and offline sources

·        http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=website+evaluation+tools&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1W1ADFA_en&biw=1344&bih=721&tbm=isch&tbnid=xVgLq1gVf3XokM:&imgrefurl=http://www.w3.org/Talks/wai-components/all.htm&docid=h3suH_vT5vi1TM&imgurl=http:/

·        http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=website+evaluation+tools&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1R2ADRA_enCA492&biw=1344&bih=721&tbm=isch&tbnid=Gnopa7MeqaAorM:&imgrefurl=http://prwt2

 

Mike Rizzetto #000124208

 

 

Customer Service & Technology

by: Robbie J Halloran

As all business owners should know, customer service is a crucial and necessary part to any business operation. With multiple products competing in a given category, reducing any cognitive dissonance in the consumers post-purchase will be essential for marketers hoping to retain their current cliental from switching brands.

With the growth in web-based technology, using the internet as a customer service medium has become more and more appealing to businesses than traditional methods. Its popularity is a result of the wide reach and 24/7 accessibility to consumers with mobile and computer systems, as well as the innovative and cost-effective programs available. The internet has also helps businesses better anticipate their consumer’s needs. By monitoring their usage and patterns on the brands webpage, these businesses can tailor the web-page to increase satisfaction with the interface and populate it with more desired information. An opportunity to collect valuable feedback exist through forums and online service centres. Businesses that collect this kind of feedback from consumers can use it to optimize products and marketing communications to accurately suit the needs of consumers in various markets.

With the combination of database technology, web-self-service (see: Techtarget.com definition of web self-service) has become the most popular form of e-based customer service. Frequently asked questions can be compiled into Q and A formats under a section of the webpage - increasing the consumers’ empowerment and ability to solve their own problems - all in way that increases the businesses savings (opposed to telephone calls to service representatives).  Using e-mail is also an effective customer service application. Through this service, businesses can directly solve consumer problems when a personal touch is required and self-service methods fail.

(5 ways online businesses can satisfy shoppers)

Lastly, the quality of these online strategies is important. Regularly updated help sections need to implement to ensure newer and current problems are fixed, as well as to ensure that the business appears to be actively servicing the consumer. Communicating the support available will increase assurance with your customers purchases, just by having them know that your business still cares about the consumer post-purchase.

Websites - The Next Generation

Hello fellow classmates. Today I would like to discuss Websites, but not just websites. Websites are the next generation of marketing. How? Allow me to tell you.

Since the internet bubble burst, companies have found that the internet is a vital way to market their products or services to consumers. Through the rise in popularity of the internet, more websites have changed and more and more companies have hopped on the bandwagon of changing their websites.

Through drastic changes to their websites, companies can change their company sales and customer traffic. To be successful companies must be aware of the following:

-Is the website easy to use?
-Is it easy for a visitor to get lost?
-Is it user friendly?
-Does it have too much or too little information?
-How does the website suit our brand?

It is important for companies to be aware of these because if a website is difficult to use, or visitors are getting lost it may not have the desired effect that you would like. The world is changing, our society is all about the next generation- websites.

If a consumer wants to know more about a brand they expect to be able to do a fast web search and be able to locate that brand's website. By finding that website, they are going to learn more about that brand and this may lead to more sales.

In the ever expanding world of the internet a good website is vital to almost any company. It increases consumer awareness which turns into a more competitive company. In the 21st century, websites are the next generation. We have said good bye to tools such as phonebooks, and research books. We have said hello to online phonebooks and online encyclopedias. Technology continues to grow and that means websites will continue to grow.

Websites are the next generation.

Brand Evaluation - Task #8

For this task, create a site map schematic for your brand using word or excel.  How many layers deep is your site? (5 marks)

Next, what is your site objective?  Is it informational or transactional? (3 marks)

Last, what features is your site using to create a positive customer experience?  Tell me what changes you would recommend for your site?  Remember to think about the structure/function of the site as well as the content.  (7 marks)

This task is worth 15 marks total

Websites, the customer experience.

Hello fellow classmates, my topic to be discussed is websites, the customer experience.

Since the coming of the Internet age websites have been evolving immensely. In the beginning a companies priority when it came to their website was simply having contact information and a few graphic elements. Today companies/teams/individuals who create a web page understand that much more is expected.

On a typical website there are basic elements that a consumer expects to experience. A web page will generally have several  tabs for easier browsing. I will go through a list of typical tabs on a company web page that give the consumer the ultimate and easiest experience possible.

First a company or individual will have basic contact information including location, phone number, email, and possibly links to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. With the development of technology many of these contact outlets are more then just text. With the address many people use Google location services which provides the consumer with an actual map and direction to their location. The email is usually a link which will send you directly to your mail box to set up your message. As well if using the website on your phone the telephone number is usually able to call directly from the site. The ease of these features makes it a much simpler experience for basic information.

Next a company should and usually do offer a current news section. This is to keep consumers updated on all information happening within the company. This is a good outlet for companies to post about events, community involvement or items related to what is happening with the company.

More and more companies are realizing that consumers want more individual attention. To give the consumer the best experience possible many websites have member only sections which require you to sign up via the website. This gives a consumer access to discounts, contests, newsletters and exclusive emails sent to them personally.

Online shopping has become the current way to get products. It allows a consumer to shop from the comfort of their home. This is a standard expectation of all websites to have this option.

Lastly to give the consumer the best experience possible companies will use videos, links, photos and information about products and services. This allows the consumer to be interactive with  their company.

Listed below are companies websites I have found that include all or basically all of these features and have great success with their audience.

http://www.muchmusic.com/
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/
http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/home.aspx


Thanks for reading!

Do's and Don'ts of E-Commerce Websites

When a company or business is considering developing an e-commerce website, there are many “Do's and Don’ts" that one should take into consideration.  Whether its products or services being sold locally, or nationally, here are some key elements that should be taken into account in order to insure success and positive feedback from customers that are using your e-commerce website. 

Do’s:

1)      Security: You should definitely have a security certificate, which is called a SSL Certificate, on display throughout all the pages of your website.  This will help grow trust and confidence amongst consumers that their private information is safe and protected.

2)      Test, Test, Test : When designing and running e-commerce websites, companies and businesses must remember to always make sure to test and maintain their sites consistently, in order to insure that they are running smoothly and up to expectations. This includes while you’re designing the website and also includes making it a daily responsibility while it is running.  Consumers will get frustrated and possibly not trust your website, and if that happens; No purchases, no sales.

3)      Word is Your Bond: Nothing kills a consumer’s motivation to repeat buy from your website if you do not deliver on your delivery promises.  When delivering many websites over exceed the time promised to the customer, which will result in angry emails and comments direct at your service or product.  Many websites are over selling the time frame to customers, so when the product shows up a few days earlier, it generates a feeling of reliability between the consumer and the company.

Don’ts

1)      More Than a Sale: After the sale, don’t ignore customer reviews or questions.  Customer service is just as important as the sale itself, and is a huge part of the customer’s decision process whether they will return and purchase again.   

2)      Don’t Sell Everything: Don’t sell your customers information! They have trusted you with their private information and user privacy is very important to people.  If you get caught selling information to a third party, a bad reputation will be the last of your worries, because you will no longer have any people willing to purchase through your website and/or company.

3) Left in the Dark: Don’t leave out important information and links on your website.  Some Companies and businesses make the mistake of not posting contact information for the customer.  You should always have your linking information visible and easy for the user to use and locate.

 

These are just a few “Do’s and Don’ts” to follow when creating and running an e-commerce website.  If you would like to know about business and e-commerce websites, you can watch the videos of Matt Winn on Matt Winn's business Tips.

Chris Haney - Web Developer

Top 100 Do's and Don'ts of E-Commerce 
IMPACT Branding & Design