The Big Marketing Round Up: Tracking, Analytics, and ROI

By April 26, 2016September 27th, 2018ROI in Marketing, Social Media Marketing

cowgirl lassos money signsInternet marketing has been around for a few decades now, and while experts believe that the Net offers the best return on investment (ROI) for advertisers, most small businesses don’t invest time and energy in tracking data. How many non-robot visitors does your website get each month? How many people email or call you after visiting your website? On what page do visitors leave your site? On what page do they stay the longest? All of this information and more is not only available, but it’s being tracked by Google, and you can access it for free.

The stats say:

  • 45% of marketers still don’t formally evaluate their analytics for quality and accuracy or, even worse, don’t know if they do or not. (Contently)
  • Less than 30% of small businesses use website analytics, call tracking, or coupon codes.
  • 18% of small businesses admit to not tracking anything at all. (MediaPost)

Cowboy Up, Web Companies

All website companies, whether serving dentists and physicians or retailers and auto mechanics, should offer to add Google Analytics Tracking Code to your website at no additional cost. You can use the online tutorials to learn how to interpret the data, or you can pay a fee to your web company for giving you just the facts, ma’am. The key is not the data itself, though. The only way that data is useful is if you regularly massage your marketing program to take advantage of your findings.

For instance, let’s say that your most popular blog post talks about the cost of braces. This should tell you that by upping the amount of quality content on your website about “cost of braces,” you could attract even more folks, or even keep visitors on your site longer – long enough to convert to a booking patient. (Conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors that call your office to book an appointment.) Someone has to make sure the data is being tracked, assessed, interpreted, and put to good use, though, or else the whole analytics tracking process is a major FAIL.

Statistics also tell us that 25% of marketers don’t have any idea of their conversion rates (B2B Technology Marketing Community via PureB2B). This means, they don’t know whether their website, social media efforts, email marketing, and other advertising are producing leads. I say this with all due respect… Seriously? Get it together, folks! You spend thousands and thousands of dollars to advertise. Purposefully find out what’s working, and leverage the info to make your investment even more profitable.

Along the same vein of crazy, one-third of marketers say they don’t know which digital marketing channel has the biggest positive impact on revenue (MarketingProfs). You can lead a Facebook user to a website, but you can’t make them convert. But, wait. Did you even lead the Facebook user to your website? How do you know? Analytics. Google Analytics will tell you where your visitors originate, meaning you’ll know how many clicks to your site came from Facebook, or Twitter, or Google+, or LinkedIn, or an emailed newsletter. You have to do a little work to make sure all the tracking is set up properly, but again, using Google Analytics is free, so why not?

Find Out if the Horse is Breathing Before You Decide to Keep Beating It

Question: Is posting on Facebook working for your practice?

You’re not the only one who does not know the answer. Ninety-two percent of small business owners believe that that social media should be part of a marketing plan, and they use Facebook for business. However, most of them do not have a clue whether what they do on Facebook is having any impact on their marketing (Social Media Examiner).

You’ve heard a lot from me, about my opinions. Let’s look to another marketing expert who works with dentists, to answer this question.

David Blide, Owner / Easy Street Social (http://easystreetsocial.com) says:
“First things first, you really have to define what ‘is it working’ means. Most business owners I speak with do not have a defined social media strategy when it comes to Facebook. Sales, Customer Support, and Brand Awareness are just a few examples of how you can use Facebook. Once you have a defined strategy, Facebook provides you with all the data you need in their version of analytics – Facebook Insights. Take some time to explore this section of your Facebook page and see if it matches your social media strategy. Then you can see what is working (and repeat it) and what is not working (and eliminate it).”

Get a Trail Boss

You have patients to see, staff to manage, continuing education and seminars to attend, and a business to run. Just like you did not paint your own sign or lay the hardwoods in your lobby, you should not be expected to know how to market your dental or medical practice. What you need is a trail boss. A good trail boss has been on more than a few cattle drives, and he (or she) knows how to handle the herds, as well as the drovers who manage the herds. What you need is a trail boss for your marketing; someone who understands the ins and outs of online marketing, who can handle not only your website and analytics, but your content management and social media; someone who has experts in place to track and interpret the data. What you need is someone to deliver facts and plans, then execute them on your behalf.

For a complimentary assessment of your brand, website, social media marketing, and online presence, call me – Shauna Duty – at 940-395-5115 today. I’ll spend a half hour gathering data about your current online presence, then spend another half hour talking with you about ways to improve your efforts, for better ROI. This initial phone conference is provided at no cost, because I want to get to know you and see if we are well suited to work together. If I cannot help you, I’ll tell you. If I can help you, you’ll increase your profits by booking more new patients. Rest assured, this is not my first rodeo.

Quick Order Form