Web Analytics, a Marketer's Guide

Web Analytics: A Guide for Higher Education Marketers ©Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D. 2008 Adult Students: You Best Option for Enrollment Growth The Aslanian Group Boston, MA November 29-30, 2008

Two approaches to web analytics…
(1) The “beat reporter” approach
Follow everything happening, all the time
(2) The “investigative reporter” approach
What’s important to know? Why is that the case?
The marketing director assigns the story.
Melissa Burdon, http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/04/30/web-analytics-report/
Select “most important” or “need to know” items from everything that’s possible.

Thanks for sharing experiences…
Notes and experiences shared by…
Juniata College
Gabe Welsch, Assistant Vice President of Marketing
Rick Stutz, Coordinator of E-Communications
St. Edward’s University
Carmella Manges, Director of E-marketing
University of Missouri
Lori Croy, Director of Web Communications
University of Richmond
Eric Palmer, Director of Web Services

Why use Google Analytics?
“ Google's products are free, well-maintained, have a great support base, and in this case specifically, way more robust and easy to use than the other options out there.”
“ Google is easy to implement, easy to understand and easy to get others to use because of the name recognition factor. Because the name Google was attached to the analytics, people who received the data also had an immediate ‘trust’ factor that what was provided was valid.”

Problems with Google Analytics…
Concern over Google’s access to your data.
“ The service could go away at any point. Save your log files for in-house analysis.”

Key metrics recommended…
Page views
“ We buck the myth that page views are a dead metric” for key pages that “feed our conversion funnel.”
Average time on a page
“ If you have a 3 minute video on a page, and users are spending only 15 seconds on it, you might consider improving it.”
New visitors vs. repeat visitors

Google is determining key pages…
Graduate
Undergraduate
Admissions
Schools & Colleges
Athletics
Departments
Human Resources
Degree Programs

Track interest in degree programs…

Response to a marketing activity
“ An email is sent out to admitted students encouraging them to join a forum to talk to other admitted students. Did it generate sign-ups? If so, what other pages did those users visit? Where did they come from? How long did they spend on the forum, and more importantly, what percentage of them posted?”

Browser compatibility every 6 months
“ We are starting to notice more mobile browsers (iPhone, blackberry, etc) so this is a trend to watch. It will require a mobile web strategy eventually.”

Major challenge to success…
Separating internal web traffic
Learning curve to translate stats to practical recommendations for admissions, alumni
Getting departments across campus to adopt an analytics program
Good working relationship with IT staff

What does a marketer need to know? Google Analytics has 80+ programmed reports about website data… More data than you need to know

Do you need to know 47 screen resolutions?

Or 30 browser variations?

Marketing information from this page? http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA.shtml

Let’s make a list…
Where did visitors come from?
How many were new?
What did they do?
Watch the video
Print the page
Email to someone
Follow a link?
MBA curriculum
Costs
FAQs
Take an action?
Ask for information
Apply for admission

Check points to start…set goals
Your web marketing goals might include…
Watching a video
Reading a blog
Taking an online campus tour
Completing an inquiry form
Registering for a campus program
Subscribing to a newsletter
Applying for admission

Check point to start… filter out internal use
Data on internal use is always there.
After you set the filter, you’ll never see it.
Essential to get internal use out of your marketing information.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Percent visits by media type…
What’s making people visit your website?
Organic search?
Paid advertising?
Email marketing?
Print advertising?
How does this match with your marketing efforts?

Percent visits by source…
Results for “Organic Search”
Google dominates, more than among use in the general population
How important are other activities to bring people to your website?

Percent of new vs. returning visitors
Are your marketing efforts bringing new visitors to your website?
Where did the new visitors live?
Cities?
Regions (states)?
Countries?

Average time on your site…
Average time on site is 1.38 minutes
Is this good or bad?
Depends on why they visited
These visits were to see Link of the Week page
Bounce rate: 72.9%
Looked at one page and left

Average time by segments… By source of the traffic… By search keywords

Popularity of individual web pages…
What pages are visited most often?
How long do people stay on them?
Do they exit from these pages or move to other pages?
Identify pages you’d like people to visit that are being ignored

Entry pages where people start… Bounce rate is a key metric here

Keyword marketing information…
If you advertise online, segment keywords to show the “non-paid” results.
Compare these to words you use in advertising.
Decide if you should change your paid search terms

What happens with your own search?
Marketing research
What are people looking for on your site?
What words do they use to find it?
Does your “search” give the right answer?
Are your “Quick Links” accurate?

Advice on starting an analytics program… “ Get started - set up a site and start to learn how to read the stats - stats are being wasted for every day you don't try this out.”

Getting up to speed and staying there…

A good place to start…

A book and a blog to continue…

Keeping up to date… ClickZ MarketingProfs

Glossary for reference…

Thank You! Bob Johnson, Ph.D. President and Senior Consultant Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 226 Chauncey Court Marshall, MI 49068 248.766.6425 [email_address] Customer Carewords Research for Online Marketing Success: http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/customercarewords.html

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Web Analytics, a Marketer's Guide

by Bob Johnson on Nov 21, 2008

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Web Analytics, a Marketer’s Guide — Presentation Transcript