A well-founded strategy for web analytics data analysis is key to an organizations long-term success and thriving. Yet, the importance of a clear strategic direction is often underestimated. Without a precise definition of business goals, target audiences, and relevant KPIs, data analysis can quickly become overwhelming or even useless.
The result? Organizations may collect vast amounts of data, but the information does not lead to the desired insights or actions. But what would it look like if everything ran optimally?
Lets talk about this today. Welcome to part 2 of my blog post series “How to get Web Analytics right” (click here to start with part 1).
What you need, is a well-thought-out strategy aligned with your goals from the very beginning. Based upon this, high quality data can be collected, analyzed, and profitably utilized.
Imagine this:
- Your organization will be enabled to make data-driven decisions that perfectly reflect your customers’ needs.
- While efficiently reaching your own business objectives.
- Individual dashboards help you keep key metrics in view at all times, allowing you to immediate response towards any change in market or customer behaviour.
- Regular monitoring will lead to seamless data processing, effective usage and optimization.
The potential of all this? Enormous! So, why not?
Before setting up your technical environment for Web Analytics, and carving the skills to really get the most out of your data analysis: I strongly suggest to get your directions and strategy right. Thus, let’s talk about this today:
We’ll talk about these three pillars (and the bonus tip) now.
1. Identify your main goals
What do you want to achieve with your website or app (for online-shops it’s often quite clear to increase shop sales)? Having a clear objective gives your digital strategy direction and focus.
For instance, if your goal is to increase user engagement, you might focus on content quality or interactive features that keep users on the site longer. Alternatively, if brand awareness is a priority, you may concentrate on SEO and social media visibility. Identifying your main goals early also allows you to measure success more accurately, as you can define relevant KPIs from the start.
Another way to identify your main goals and a corresponding strategy, that leads your users all the way from the very beginning to your reached business objectives, is the RACE framework.
The RACE Framework
The RACE Framework consists of the following components:
- Reach:
Where do users come from? Are there untapped reach potentials? - Act:
What activities do they engage in? How do they behave on the website? - Convert:
Which users achieve goals? And those who don’t achieve goals: where exactly do they get stuck, what doesn’t work? What are the differences between those who succeed vs. those who don’t - Engage:
What do users who are also excited in the long term do? For those who have achieved goals, are there reasons why they later drop off and leave the website again?
These four framework steps are proven to define goals and measure points all along your customers path, giving a good transparency from start to end.
2. Know your customer
To really know your customer involves understanding the core characteristics, needs and behaviors of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
By defining your ICP, you can tailor products, services, and marketing efforts to attract and retain high-value customers.
What that means? Identify this one type of customer that you love most. And who – at the same time – loves your services and products also most.
Define those specific demographics, like age, location and income, along with psychographics, such as values and interests, that aligns with exactly this beloved person, and with your brand.
An accurate ICP enables you to focus resources on potential buyers who are most likely to convert, improving both acquisition efficiency and long-term customer loyalty. Refining this profile on a regular term, based on market feedback, ensures that your strategy evolves with customer trends and preferences, keeping your business always relevant and competitive.
3. Know your customer journeys Main touchpoints
Know your ideal customers journey and his main touchpoints.
It’s especially important to stay focused on your customers’ needs and provide a smooth customer journey. Successful customer acquisition and retention require dedication and attention to detail. I refer to this often as conversions, micro-conversions – and anti-conversions as well. By following the steps below, you build a solid foundation for lasting customer relationships and sustainable success.
- Set Clear Goals For Each Ideal Customer:
Do you want them to click that advertising, reach a sale, join your mailing list or reach that increased level customer satisfaction? Defined goals for your ICPs helps you stay focused on what matters and keep you moving in the right direction. - Identify All Relevant Customer Journey Touchpoints:
Review the entire customer journey on the way to achieving your goals. Identify the main touchpoints between your customers and their goals, from the first contact to the purchase decision and beyond. Act from the customer’s perspective to identify potential challenges. - Measure Those Touchpoints:
To analyze the success of your efforts, it’s crucial to make all relevant touchpoints measurable. Whether through automated data or simple checklists, data collection allows you to track progress precisely.
Hint. You can also take a look at your best existing customers. Who orders from you regularly? Which clients are the most enjoyable to work with? Which customers achieve impressive results with you? Direct your efforts toward these customers with a clear strategy in mind.
4. Bonus Tip: Do it the simple way
Simply formulate all those questions you have right now. Give an example answer – a hypothesis – how you assume it could or should be. With this approach, you make sure that you will exactly implement and then answer those data points you really need. And you don’t waste any time in all those endless possibilities that data and analysis offer to you.
How to keep the course? Let’s talk about Continuous IMprovement!
It’s important to not only get your technical setup and data quality right once in the beginning of a project or with a website relaunch. It es equally important to keep up this quality and these good strategical directions all the way while you’re going.
But how?
Well, I’ve got you covered 😉 I’ve written another article about how to establish a continuous improvement framwork into your organisation. This article covers exactly this challenge. Also you can read here in detail, how to outperform a classical relaunch with the continuous improvement framework.
TL;DR
Now that you went back to your strategy and have this overview of main critical breaking points for setting up flawless analytics – it’s time to implement your measurement to get ahead of the competition! About this next step, we’ll talk in part 3 of this blog posts series. It will be released soon.
With the right strategical and technical setup, you’re ready to transform your data into insights – and insights into accountable action. And if you’re not sure how to get your own strategy, goals and KPI right or simply want to accelerate your results data and facts based, let’s talk:
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