Archive for the 'Analytics & Visitor Intelligence' Category
Written by billyfischer | December 1, 2011 9:56 am
We’ve been asking marketing & sales managers the following question: ”What’s your top marketing goal in 2012?”
The most popular response? “Drastically increase the number of leads we receive from our website.” Sound familiar? As you start to see more and more potential sales opportunities from your website it’s common to wonder, “How can I get more?”
3 ways to increase your web leads in 2012
1. EXPLORE
Try a new marketing method and put the measurement tools in place.
Raise Awareness With Remarketing
Set up a display ad campaign in Google using their remarketing system. This causes your ad to display much more than your competitors’ ads when the visitor has been to your site in the past. This is a great tool to raise awareness about your brand.
Keyword “Tasting”
Set up a landing page and try 5 keywords. Change the 5 keywords each week. Only run your campaign during business hours. Utilize Google’s keyword tool to help you identify some great keywords to test. Watch your analytics closely to determine which keywords work the best.
2. Measure
One of the strengths of search marketing is its extreme measurability. Beef up your tracking in 2012 so you know exactly what’s working.
Measure URLs & Phone Numbers
You can easily measure your campaigns using Google Analytics and Google’s URL builder for creating tracking URLs. For phone calls, we suggest IfByPhone. The URL builder is free, and IfByPhone is fast to set up and very inexpensive.
Multivariate Landing Page Testing
Design multiple landing pages (we suggest using UnBounce to help). Utilize different imagery, messaging and offers on each. Split the traffic evenly between the two and identify which elements work the best. Then, utilize those elements throughout your entire campaign!
3. Adjust
The key to a high-performing search marketing campaign is to be constantly tweaking activities based on the large amount of data received.
Use SEO & SEM Together
Once you identify which keywords work best in the SEM environment, take those keywords and optimize your website for them. Publish new articles, update content pages and write press releases integrating your newly discovered keywords.
Make Your Design Work
Don’t be afraid to adjust some of the design elements of your website based on what you’ve learned from your search activities. Simplify pages, highlight conversions, change images and continue to evolve your design.
What are you planning to do in 2012 that will increase your web leads in 2012?
Written by crystalolig | July 16, 2010 1:49 pm
Oxiem welcomed small business owners and marketers from around central Ohio for a two-hour workshop on search engine marketing and website optimization on June 29 at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. Attendees needed help learning the basics of search, as well as tips, tricks and techniques they could implement on their own sites.
After a quick intro to the basics (fueled by a little caffeine and carbs – a.k.a. coffee and bagels – just to get brains revving to go), a series of roundtable sessions hosted by Oxiem’s search experts allowed attendees to ask questions and learn from each other.
Roundtable topics included:
- Conversions: Connecting with your customer, with Lindsay Malone
- Organic Search: Grabbing growth gradually, with Bill Sterzenbach
- Technical: Build it (right) and they will come, with Angela Trego
- Paid Search: I want traffic now!, with David Kragel
At the end, each attendee had the opportunity for an individual consultation with Oxiem experts on his or her own site, including the opportunity to examine in-depth functionality, ask questions and make notes for improvement.
Here are a few comments from attendees:
- “I enjoyed being able to talk/learn more about all the different aspects of web marketing and even social media. I understood the content & didn’t feel like it was something that was over my head! And everyone was fun & personable!” – Megan Stengel, President, Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)
- “This is my second trip to an Oxiem [workshop]. There is a reason why: The professionals of Oxiem know how to deliver knowledge and value in their educational seminars. Just imagine the results they can deliver their clients.” – Jason Veliquette, Marketing Director, Peer Assist, LLC (www.PeerAssistLLC.com) (Wow, thanks Jason! We sure try!)
- “Oxiem makes search engine marketing easy to understand, with specific suggestions and ideas I can use today. My head is swimming with the possibilities, rather than confusion.” – Heather Dicianna, Owner, Rewondered (www.rewondered.com)
- “Great use of time with good amount of information.” – Deonna Barnett, Increase CDC (www.increasecdc.org)
- “This was wonderful! I learned more here than in several months of research. I appreciate the straightforward answers and willingness to help. Thank you!” – Anonymous
- “Maybe break out sessions could be a bit longer. Or it could be set-up as a 2-part event. I learned so much and had a wonderful time!” – Mandy, Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)
- “Really good introduction and lots of helpful tips and advice. Thanks for sharing your knowledge & experience.” – Bethia Wolf, Columbus Food Adventures (www.columbusfoodadventures.com)
“The areas of focus and time spend at each [roundtable] was perfect! The outside perspective was really helpful.” –Bethany Skaff, Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)
More photos from the event are live on the Oxiem Marketing Technology Facebook page. Check ‘em out, tag yourself, and please give us a “like” while you’re there!
Follow up surveys indicated that attendees were pleased with the session, and gave us a few pointers for subsequent workshops the Oxiem team will host. The most common feedback said we needed to make each roundtable its own session — so much to teach and learn, so little time! We’ll definitely be back with more focused sessions in the future.
Our primary goal for this and other similar sessions is simply to give back to other small businesses by sharing our expertise. When the Ohio business community and economy grows, we all win. As a whole, the team is so pleased we had the chance to meet all the entrepreneurs and marketers who attended, and are thankful they gave us a few minutes to help de-mystify the world of search marketing. THANK YOU!
Check back here often for more tips on Columbus search engine marketing, local website optimization and events from the Oxiem team.
Written by crystalolig | June 7, 2010 3:03 pm
Oxiem Marketing Technology Presents:
Search Engine Marketing & Website Optimization Workshop for Businesses
Tuesday, June 29
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Dublin Entrepreneurial Center
7003 Post Rd., Dublin OH 43016
4th Floor Training Room
Google’s the big kid in the sandbox, and he’s hungry. Are you feeding the beast? The right content, keywords and structure can dramatically impact the success of your business online. On Tuesday, June 29 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., you can find out how you’re doing in a free workshop-format session with the experts in search and SEO from Oxiem Marketing Technology. One lucky attendee will WIN a free search marketing campaign from Oxiem. Register now!
First, we’ll discuss key website features like overall structure, links, title tags and keywords. You’ll learn best practices and theory behind search engine marketing, and walk away with tips you can implement now to:
- Convert lurkers into potential clients
- Painlessly collect contact information from visitors
- Better understand online metrics and measurement goals
- Make sure your site is performing well with key quality measurements
- Consistently grow online traffic
Next, the first 15 pre-registered attendees will have the opportunity to discuss your existing website with an expert from Oxiem one-on-one, and get recommendations about content, structure, keywords and more.
Fill out the form here to register today!
Questions? Call 614.787.6676 or e-mail Crystal at colig(at)oxiem.com.
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About the Presenters
David Kragel
David is the lead search marketing analyst at Oxiem and manages the
day-to-day operations of their search marketing campaigns. David’s
responsibilities include market and keyword research, developing and
optimizing search advertisements, and implementing unique, visitor-driven
conversion opportunities. He also develops organic search marketing
campaigns, analyzing websites for strengths and weaknesses and integrating
content and technical changes to fully optimize client websites.
Bill Sterzenbach
Bill is co-founder of Oxiem and is the company’s technology director. His
professional career spans web site architecture, online marketing,
technology application, website development and hosting for a range of B2B,
manufacturing and consumer clients. With more than 20 years of IT
leadership experience and a decade’s worth of online marketing expertise,
he’s a recognized expert in search marketing and search engine
optimization, specializing in driving real, measurable business results
through savvy and insightful search strategy.
Post-Event Recap
See our intro presentation slides below, with a quick capture of the basics of search and topics discussed at the workshop.
Written by bsterzenbach | December 9, 2009 3:39 pm
Let’s face it – your website is probably one of many things you are tasked with each day. Logging in to analytics and checking stats may not be #1 on your list of priorities, and why should it be? If we look at Analytics as we would a human analyst, we can find some ways to better use this valuable resource.
Push, pull, whatever – just give me the answers!
So often analytics tools are used in a ‘pull’ model. Every time you need an answer, you go to the tool, and ‘pull down’ some sort of data, chart, etc. It does not need to be this way. If you had a person doing this job, would you tolerate this situation? Imagine that – you need a report each month, but they don’t provide anything until you walk over to their desk and say (as if it has never been asked before) “hey, can I get the number of sales from the website for last month?”. This would be just silly. You would ask your analyst to provide this info on a regular basis. Of course analytics offers this feature. In fact, you can customize your reports and have them sent at any frequency in many different formats. Done – that just happened.
Wait wait – don’t tell me – until it matters
So, we’re getting closer. We now have our analyst providing regular information to us so we can monitor the success of our website. We can do better. Why don’t we also ask them to watch the site and let us know when something interesting happens? Yes – with Google’s Intelligence Alerts we can setup email alerts to inform us of interesting or alarming activity on the website. For example, has our “page not found” page been visited way more than usual on a given day? Are more people than usual abandoning our shopping cart this week, this month, or today? How about some good news? Are sales up? Are leads up? Why? Now we’re getting somewhere.
If you haven’t checked this feature out yet – take a look – it’s a great way to get Analytics to finally start reporting to you.
Written by bsterzenbach | November 17, 2009 1:13 pm
Looking at the ‘real’ numbers
If you’ve had the opportunity to use Google’s Analytics tool, you probably already love it, but this tip should seal the deal and bring you even closer to a state of infatuation.
Todays tip: Using Advance Segments to remove bounced traffic.
You have probably noticed one metric that is always present on your dashboard report – Bounce Rate – this is the number of visitors who arrive at your site and leave immediately without looking at another page. We’ll call this metric ‘People Who Hate You’. OK, maybe they don’t hate you, but they might hate your site..for a variety of reasons. We’re not going to focus on why folks bounce from your site in this post – we’re going to focus on how to ignore them so you can focus on those who actually like you – er – I mean those who really like your site. Looking at non-bounce traffic helps you to see the numbers without the bounced visitors ‘pulling down’ all of your numbers.
I’m not advocating that you ignore your bounce rate – but you have to remove this from your other numbers if you want to glean helpful intelligence from your stats. My recommendation is that you acknowledge your bounce rate, file it away in your mind, promise to revisit it and make it better, then move on.
How do we move on?
Advanced Segments
If you want to focus on “Of those who stick around on my site, what do THEY do”, you will want to explore ‘advanced segments’. This feature is not complicated, but it is a bit hard to notice.
You’ll notice the advanced segments button at the upper-right section of your website. Click this button and you’ll see the options that are available by default. Select (from the left pane) “Non-bounce Visits “. This will create another metric for those visitors that did not bounce.
Now, start poking around a bit. You’ll see the stats for ‘overall’ traffic as well as the stats for those who did not bounce. You will find this info much more actionable. For example, for the keywords below, notice that the overall page per visit was 4.35 while the page per visit for those who did not bounce is 5.69. This lets you judge the quality of a keyword relating to those who are inclined to use your site.
Enjoy and don’t hesitate to ask any questions that you may have: bsterzenbach@oxiem.com
