Are You Focusing on the Right Metrics? What Really Matters in Web Marketing

What Really Matters in Online Marketing

Your online marketing should act like a sniper rifle – not a machine gun.

Sometimes, we get so obsessed with metrics that we forget to focus on the ones that really matter. On the web, popularity certainly brings visitors, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into leads, or our ultimate goal – sales. Focusing your marketing on the right market will generate more leads and sales for your marketing dollars.

Sure, likes are great. Shares are even better. A viral video may spike traffic for you, which could lead to higher rank on google and greater visibility, but the chances that a random viewer will convert to a customer are tiny. With that in mind, you may want to begin focusing on strategies that puts your target market in the crosshairs, rather than using the machine-gun approach of viral marketing.

Why Viral Marketing Isn’t Worth the Effort

Going viral with a piece of content is very, very uncommon. According to Slate, a video has a 3 percent chance of getting more than 1,000 views. Being that video is the fastest growing type of content consumed online, that’s saying something. Sure, you can try to be funnier or more creative, but it doesn’t guarantee success. You’re shooting in the dark.

Viral marketing is a smart strategy if you’re looking to make money from ads on your website. For the rest of us, it doesn’t make sense to invest in making popular content that sprays the entire landscape of demographics, hoping to pull in a sale or two. You’re much better off using that budget to target the customers most likely to buy.

The approach, if you’re lucky enough to succeed at it, generates huge numbers of “leads” that don’t mean anything, throwing off all of your other metrics. When conversion ratios start with visitors and views, and those numbers are off the charts, your conversions look abysmally small. It’s mathematical proof that viral marketing isn’t efficient.

So, What Metrics Matter?

Okay, so if getting a lot of page views and shares isn’t so important, what is? Conversions, my friend -- conversions to leads and conversions to sales. It’s no different from the old days where you targeted your efforts at finding qualified leads and then worked to close the sale. You want to focus most on the following:

• Visits Generating Leads – How many visits to a given page and clicks on a given link create a lead? Analyzing the most effective pages and links can help you optimize the less effective.
• Leads Generating Sales – Finally, how many of those leads generate a sale? Just as with your other important metrics, the most successful pages and links will reveal how you can improve the less successful.

We Can Help You Generate More Qualified Leads and Sales

Of course, there are many other useful metrics, but the above should be the ones that matter to you most. If you don’t have enough visits, you can’t generate many leads, but no visits are little better than lots of the wrong kind of visitors. Let efelle creative help you focus on the web marketing metrics that matter most. Call us at 206.384.4909 or use our online contact form to arrange a free web marketing consultation.