Any business owner knows that data can be a powerful thing. Tracking sales can help you optimize inventory, find upselling opportunities, and companion items to increase your average order value. Research data following customers' eyes as they peruse store aisles informs on what shelf real estate is more valuable for brands. Tracking customer movement in and out of the store can help you determine what hours are best to stay open, and what hours are best to schedule additional staff.
The same can be said of your digital marketing presence. If all you do is post occasionally on a Facebook page or sending out emails to your list of clients without checking the data first, you might be leaving a huge source of potential revenue untapped.
Using Web Analytics
Web analytics tools are some of the most valuable tools available to a digital marketer. Similar to conversion rate tracking in a physical store, web analytics can help business owners see which pages are visited the most often, how long users tend to spend on those pages, and which pages or web elements lead to that ever-important conversion to customer.
Some analytics tools have robust cross-device tracking as well, which will allow you to see data from users who visit your website using a variety of devices. This data can help identify pages that are of high importance to potential customers, as well as identify issues with your website's design. If a button isn't being clicked as much in mobile, for instance, the button might be too hard to find, or might be too hidden away to be noticeable.
Tracking Social Posts
Posting to social media is massively important for any business but posting at the wrong times could leave your hard work unseen by many social media users, even if you're posting regularly. Social media analytics can help you target interest groups that relate to your business, can help you find the best times to post, and can help you identify at a glance what posts seem to resonate with your customers.
Tracking Marketing Emails
Marketing through email is one of the oldest ways to market digitally, but it is still an extremely important aspect of any digital marketing campaign. Email allows you to stay in contact with your clients to keep yourself at the front of their mind. Additionally, you can directly communicate deals, promotions, and events happening at your business that clients may wish to take advantage of. Email takes the happenstance out of shopping in person by convincing a customer that they should come back and make another purchase, but the emails that do the best are the ones that are the most optimized.
Email analytics can be extremely powerful for a business owner. They not only tell you exactly what users are engaging with your content, but also which buttons they clicked, how often they open your emails, and what emails do the best in general. Pair the data you receive from emails from the data you get from your website, and you can create a very detailed picture of how people browse your online storefront.