Esther
Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast, I'm Esther and I'm Melanie. Aand today we're talking about analytics and the importance of monitoring them and understanding them in your business.
Melanie
Yes, analytics, it's something that we all should be doing and frankly, a lot of us don't do, analytics can be measured in lots of different ways and we're going to be discussing a few of them today. This is only a 10 minute podcast, so we can't do too much.
Esther
That's right, so, Melanie, what analytics do you use? What do you analyze in your business?
Melanie
Well, it would be the vanity metrics which would be likes impressions, reach that sort of thing. But what really pays to monitor would be like engagement and conversions, depending on what kind of things you're trying to converse. Of course, some people use lead pages through like MailChimp or something along those lines that you can also monitor conversion through. If you've got a shop, you can also monitor conversions through that if you go to like an e-commerce website. But I'll leave that to you to discuss later. So it really depends what kind of business you've got and how you're choosing to monitor it. And you can also natively monitor as well as use third parties. What about yourself?
Esther
Yeah, that's right. Well, on all social media, they've all got their own monitoring and analytics built in. So whether you're using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, it's all got its monitoring right there on page. And you can see all those, as Melanie says, vanity metrics like follows, shares, etc. But what I really enjoy is looking at analytics, some people call me weird because analytics can be boring for a lot of people, but I love Google Analytics. OK, so seeing where people have come in on your website, where they've come in from, whether they're coming in from social, whether they're coming in from referrals, whether they're coming in organically, whether they're coming in from paid ads and what page they're coming into, how long they're staying, what the phone strip is. So all of those things are important to know. And then that way you can update and make improvements to your website based on those results.
Melanie
They're really hard to understand, though, aren't they? Google Analytics. I had a real job when I started looking at my Google Analytics initially because I mean myself and Esther, we come from two different entire worlds when it comes to backgrounds. I've made my own websites using the WordPress program and we'll discuss this another time. And of course, I was doing for the local enterprise office. And so I'm entirely self-taught in that respect. Whereas Esther, you do websites for a living and yet the jargon doesn't throw you, whereas unless you get some sort of intensive training on how to understand, first of all, your website and your channels properly, you're not really entirely sure what each of them are. I freaking have people telling me what's the difference between rich impressions, engagement and I'm sure that be the same with Google Analytics surely.
Esther
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people look at their percentages, for example, when it comes to bounce rate and they think that a high percentage is a good thing to have. But when it comes to bounce rate, it's the lower the percentage, the better, because then that means people are staying on the site longer and they're going to more pages and they're they're staying for more as they call sessions. And yeah, like you say, it's all the jargon is the most difficult thing to overcome at the start. But once you understand the difference between rich impressions, engagement's bounce rate sessions, etc., then looking at it, knowing that, well, if this point goes up or if this number goes higher or lower, then that's good or bad and just take it from there.
Melanie
Oh, I think we're probably losing some of our podcasting already, but there has to be a way of fixing this. And when we all setting up our own business or even when we've been established for a while, it's getting really, really difficult to find time to see through these analytics and understand them. And especially as each flipping platform changes and updates and such a regular basis is renowned for changing the algorithm. And it's devastating on many occasions to businesses. Yeah, but the Google Analytics hasn't changed that much. Although I have to say in the seven years I've been monitoring my Google Analytics, I now find it much easier to understand now than I first did is as a lot more user friendly. So if you haven't looked at your Google analytics in a while, it's worth going back. And how would you help people understand the Google Analytics Esther?
Esther
We would break it down into the different categories, like I said, looking at where people came in from. So what percentage have come in from social and which social platform they've come in from? And that way then that can help you focus more on one platform than another than if they've come in and specifically read a blog post. What blog post was it? And is it worth making more blog posts like that or similar to that? And there's another section where it shows where people have started dropping off stuff. They all come in on the homepage and then click through to another page and click to another page. And all of a sudden out of a thousand people, there's only ten left by page four. Why? What has gone on? What is happening? What has gone wrong to to make them drop off? So we would we would break it down into an easy video and just share a video of, well, this is what's working. This is what's not. These are our recommendations. And we try to keep it to simple five, ten minutes because, yeah, it's confusing. And at the end of the day, people want to know what works and how they can do more of that, because convergence is key.
Melanie
I mean, when it comes to social media, as we were talking earlier on about vanity metrics, people crave likes, people crave followers. And that's our look how many people I've reached in this in this viral video. But nine times out of ten. If you haven't put a call to action at the end or during that video, it doesn't mean anything. It just means that there is a I mean, any awareness funnel. Fabulous. You know, and there is a large percentage of your time needs to be devoted to bringing awareness of your business, whether it's service or product. But it can't all be just about awareness. At some stage, you have to improve the client journey, the customer journey, and move them from being aware of you to learning more about your wanting to learn more about you, perhaps meeting you, coming along to one of your stands and eventually buying. I mean, I find a lot of people forget that there is a funnel. You have to use a funnel for almost every piece of content you put out there.
Esther
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll talk funnels on another episode. But definitely if people aren't buying from you, there's no reason for that publication or that blog or that part of your website to exist. OK, so like Melanie says, cult actions make sure people know how they can get in contact with you. Make sure people know how they can buy your products, how they can hire you for your services. Everything needs to be easily found. And as a lot of people use their mobiles and use their mobile sorry to look for information, it needs to be a thumb click away. OK, so if people can't reach the button with their thumb, so have it on the right side of the phone, then they're not going to click through.
Melanie
They're not very leftist. They are very leftist.
Esther
I apologize to all left handed people. Let's go. But they probably use their right hand to scroll on the phone.
Melanie
But, you know, when it comes to analytics, I find people have got that knowledge at the beginning and then never go back and look again. And that's a real shame because each company is doing their best to improve and update the user experience. And I know you sometimes think, well, at the moment I'm doing so well, I'm really well known or I'm a brand new business. You know, what's more important to me is actually getting the few clients. I've got what they need. But honestly, if you don't have a starting point, you've got no way of measuring your success. So if you haven't started checking your analytics yet or certainly on a regular basis, I'd really like to see that you. Put down a figure today of where your likes are, your followers, whatever channels you're on, and if it was working for you in a month's time, has improved that, then you've got a way of measuring your success or failure.
Esther
Yeah, absolutely. And at the end of the day, your return on investment or your ROI is very important and it's important to keep those measured. Obviously, like we said, social media all have their own individual ones. But you can go to a third party program or platform and see all of them in the one place. So you're not having to jump through four or five different platforms just to check your analytics.
Melanie
I mean, there are platforms like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Buffa, one of my personal favorites would be AgoraPulse, and no, they're not sponsoring for this, but it is one of my favorite platforms because it provides some powerful analytics presentations for you with the click of a button. Yes, I do like AgoraPulse, I really do like AgoraPulse, you know, that that's what works for me, you know, and it's not going to be the same for everybody. Other people really, really vouch HootSuite and frankly, as a startup is so looking forward and the analytics with app and they still are. So you don't have to have a pricey plan to understand your analytics.
Esther
Yeah, absolutely. And if you want to keep it free that you use the individual platforms but definitely use them, understand them, take the time at the end of the month. I like to remind people to do this every month. And at the end of the month, last day of the month, just take a look back at what has worked and what hasn't. So you know what to do for the next month.
Melanie
Absolutely.
Esther
OK, so thank you for listening for today's episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast. We we'll be back next week with more.
Melanie
Bye.