Do you check your website and stats daily? Does your tracking software give you everything you need? Do you know home many people are on your site right now?

Previously, we had 2 choices: Use a log analyzer (or some other analytics package) that we usually hours, if not days, old. Or use something like Prosper 202, or some equivalent to get that info. They cannot all furnish you the vital statistics and data needed to assess your site status and success at any given moment.

When you launch a marketing or advertising campaign, it increases over time and as expected, we hope that a large amount of traffic will make it to your website and ultimately convert. For websites that have a steady stream of traffic how can you monitor the real time users visiting the site? What if your server goes down, will you know about it? Are there any tools which can reliably give you exact real time statistics?

Website owners regularly check their website numbers on regular basis because they want to know how many visitors are browsing their websites. As owners, you want to witness the sources of traffic and what visitors do on your site. You need to periodically analyze where traffic came from and what changes are needed to boost the recent traffic you have. Apart from increasing traffic, it is also vital to identify key trends on your website to know which areas need concentration and enhancement. Most often, when you publish new information or content on your website, you expect to see rise in visitor numbers as this contents is relevant to your users and you hope that the search engines will notice this. For example, if social media is where most of your traffic comes from, then it gives you a clue and an indication of which suitable method to adopt to generate the traffic you want. If this is the case, then you focus your attention on online social media networks like Twitter or Facebook. Apart from source of traffic, you should also assess suitable keywords which generate the traffic.

Is your tracking software powerful enough to give you all of this? Is it providing you the statistics needed to bring you the success of your website? If your answer is a big “NO,” then you are note using the right analytic software to lead you to success. What you need is a powerful, efficient and effective analytics system like Google Analytics (or something similar).

Author’s Note: Google Analytics is not the silver bullet for every website out there. However it is free to use and can help the vast majority of websites and businesses. If you would like us to help you decide, feel free to contact Alon Cohen to see how to improve your online presence.

With Google Analytics, you will see the power of using analytics. By familiarizing and discovering how it works, you can do more with it and you will find more perks which will help you better your website.

What is Google Analytics and what’s so special about it?

It’s free software as a service (SaaS) from Google Inc. aimed at helping website owners understand and boost their traffic and visitor actions. It was originally developed by Urchin Software Corp. which ideas are were from Adaptive Path’s Measure Map and later acquired by. Since its inception, it has helped countless websites in evaluating their analytics, sources of visitors and in achieving their objectives.

If you are new to Google Analytics, you may be asking yourself as how it can help you with your website. Well, Google Analytics can help you in lots of ways. One of its perks is its ability to track website visitors. It has the ability to find out which websites they previously visited and how they ended up visiting your website. Much more, it can track different types of referrers, such as display advertising, search engines, email marketing, pay per click marketing or digital collateral.

If you want to grow you online business, then you really should learn how to use Google Analytics. Remember that visitors come and go and once they go, they rarely leave any comments. This is where the analytics comes in to play, providing you the insight you need to give them a better experience on your site. Even by looking at your top landing and exit pages you can see where to focus.

With the data and statistics gathered, you can improve the quality of your webpages, you can write powerful adverts to strengthen your marketing strategies and you can find suitable keywords that attract potential visitors. Moreover, you can assess different types of advertisements which attract more responses and what effective content is suitable to boost visitor conversions in your landing pages.

With Google Analytics on your side, you can analyze, measure, report, optimize and assess different types of marketing mediums and channels. With it, you can develop series of metrics, benchmarks and goals which will let you see how your marketing strategies are performing in real time. It removes the guessing game or the trial and error strategies because you can exactly pinpoint which areas needs improvement, thereby giving you more time to maximize your profitability and marketing efficiency.

The best part of all, Google Analytics is free to everyone, thus you can benefit from it for as long as you want with the worry of spending millions on marketing and web analytics. More so, this analytics platform is user friendly and scalable, thus it suits to whatever size, type of business that you have. Regardless of how big or small your company is, you are sure that it consistently provides quality and consistent service.

Because of its power, consistency and breadth, it is growing in popularity and dominating the market. By understanding its power, proficiency and efficiency, you can develop customized statistical reports and take your Internet marketing and advertising to a new level.

Part on Online Marketing (and offline as well) is not only convincing your web site visitors that your product or service is exactly what they need, but also that it is in the same price range they are looking for. It is easy to overlook how customer expectations can influence the outcome of a sale.

During the last 2 years we have seen a dramatic increase in the price of gas, especially during the first half of 2008. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of various reports on how this has affected various industries. People are not buying.

They don’t buy trucks & SUV’s like they used to.
They don’t drive as much as they used to.
They don’t fly as much as they used to.

 
Gas chart by http://www.massachusettsgasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx

Now that prices are starting to drop, people are more eager to buy gas for those long, and even shorter, weekend trips. Those same trips that many people put on hold due to the high gas prices earlier this year.

As a result there are now these ridiculously long lines at the pump. All the people, that just a couple of months earlier were not so eager to guy/use gas unless they absolutely had to are now filling up. I filled up my tank a few days ago at around 1 PM, thinking that in the middle of the day the line would not be too bad. In the end I had to wait about 10 minutes in line just to fill up the tank of my little Focus.

What does the price of gas have to do with the sales on my website?
When customers come to your site and they see the price they were expecting, or better yet lower ones, they are more likely to open up their wallets & pocketbooks. If you sell a high end product or service, make sure that the online marketing effort that got them to your site and the user experience on your website reflects that high end value want to sell to them.

When you go to a fast food place for lunch you don’t expect the same price and feel of a 5-star restaurant. Imagine going to a McDonalds or Burger King, and paying $50 per person. You would likely take your business elsewhere. Is your website doing the same thing to your potential customers?

Originally posted by Jenifer Underwood, C.P.S.M. Market29, Inc.
http://www.market29.com jen@market29.com at www.alon-cohen.com

Marketing is all about understanding human behavior. Although there are many risk takers out there, the majority of consumers are risk aversive. Since the Internet is a mysterious and intangible medium, consumers need to feel comfortable they are dealing with a reputable business entity when purchasing online. Anyone can pop up a web site and start selling their products. There is little if any governance and licensing of these activities. Consumers know this and have increased feelings of skepticism and reluctance when it comes to purchasing online as opposed to a physical bricks and mortar channel. As a marketer, it is your job to gain their trust and credibility electronically to be able to turn web prospects into online sales.

Let’s face it. Consumers are timid when it comes to purchasing online. Despite the fact the product or service can not be touched, the brand or company may also be an unknown. People want to feel assured they are going to receive a quality product or service. They also want to know who is getting their identity and credit information. No matter what medium is being used, consumers will look for clues to evaluate and judge credibility and quality before purchasing.
There are a few simple things you can do to increase trust and improve perceptions of quality. This holds true for the web and for your brick and mortar channel.

Improve corporate identity and visuals.
People visually evaluate quality. They just do – it never ceases to amaze me! I’ve seen people short-list unqualified firms because they had a “pretty proposal” and overlook technically fantastic firms that just didn’t do a good job presenting their qualifications in an appealing manner. It seems shallow but I have seen it time and time again in a variety of marketplaces ranging from high-ticket item services to low cost physical goods. Some owners and high level executives dismiss the imagery and identity activity as a ‘nice-to-have’ when in reality – it is a ‘need’. To gain credibility for your web storefront, invest in professional quality logos, graphics and templates. There are a few good resources for quality templates. One such source is http://www.1magez.com. Establish an appealing corporate image and consistently display that image in all your activities. You’ll be shocked at how persuasive it is in gaining new customers!

Quickly respond to all types of inquiries.
Don’t ever forget the marketing mantra…attention – interest – desire – action. The consumer has taken action, now it is up to you to make the sale! Don’t miss that fleeting moment of opportunity. At that moment in time the buyer is emotionally thinking about your offer. Give them immediate response and gratification. Make it easy for them to purchase from you. Employ auto-responders in your marketing arsenal.

Auto-responders are the email responses sent when a prospect submits a form or email expressing interest in an offer. You develop can create auto-responders using email program rules or you can purchase third party tools. The auto-responder can be initiated by clicking a simple hyperlink or by filling out a form. I know it is tempting to get every last bit of detail you can from a prospect during the sales process but remember this is online marketing, the quicker and easier it is for the consumer to purchase, the less time they have to abandon the online inquiry. I am talking seconds here – not minutes or hours. Keep thinking “fleeting moment” when you are designing your online strategy. Categorize the auto-responders by type of request. Personalize them as much as possible. Also reward them for taking action. Include a special offer in the response to motivate them to take further action.

Include client satisfaction guarantees, references and licenses.
Eliminate perceived online purchase risk by demonstrating your confidence and previous client’s satisfaction. You can demonstrate your own confidence by offering a money-back guarantee. If you don’t believe in your own product – why should they! Display client testimonials when possible. A simple one or two liner stating your company met or exceeded their expectations goes a long way in building perceptions of quality. Finally, if you are formally licensed to provide goods and services, include that with the firm contact information. This could be a sentence in a company introduction or a number placed discreetly with your address. Since I mentioned it – include your address and contact information. If you don’t want people contacting you then you obviously don’t want sales! Additionally, many firms’ financial systems require street address and phone number entries. Don’t lose sales because you didn’t post this information. This little point assures new clients that your firm is legitimate.

By incorporating these practices, your fleeting moment prospects can quickly evaluate your online presence and determine your firm to be trust-worthy!