| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
What You MUST Understand About Your Web Numbers
Two years ago, when I first started selling online, I focused on doing what I did best: generating useful content that people would want to pay for. But I quickly learned that selling a product online required me to have to learn about ... ...my Web statistics. "Yuck! Why should I have to do this?" I thought. "I'm not a numbers person. Such small details! I want to spend time on big ideas." Then after a few months of poor sales, I realized I needed to learn more about my numbers so I could learn how to improve my results. (You can't improve something that you can't measure.) After getting acquainted with my statistics, I not only realized that this information would help me immensely, but I was relieved that it wasn't so hard after all. It was just unfamiliar. There are four types of basic "Web numbers" I want you to understand. Don't worry - if I can handle this, you can too! 1. Sales HOW MANY SALES are you making? This should be easy to determine on your end. 2. Unique Visitors HOW MANY PEOPLE are visiting your site? To know this, you'll need to know your number of unique visitors. Do NOT confuse unique visitors with "hits," which refers to number of graphics downloaded. (For example, if you have a Web page with 10 graphics, 10 hits would equal one visitor.) Your Web host may already provide some stats you can access, but many of these programs are hard to understand and only track hits. If this is the case, it's well worth it to use a low-cost outside tracking service such as WebSTAT (www.WebStat.com) that will show you your number of unique visitors. 3. Sales Conversion Rate Here's where we start with some math. Take your number of sales during a given time, and divide it by your number of visitors during that time. We'll walk through this in a minute. 4. Value per Visitor This tells you how much each visitor is worth to you. It's basically your selling price times your conversion rate. Let's Walk Through It Together Say Suzy Q runs a site that sells a special report on how to teach your dog to do a back flip. The report sells for $20. Last month she had 50 online sales. Her Web stats show that during that month she had 1,500 unique visitors. First let's figure her sales conversion rate - sales divided by visitors. 50 / 1,500 = .0333. We'll round it down to .03. (If we're talking about percentages, that's about 3%. Or 3 sales for each 100 visitors.) Now, let's determine her value per visitor. The report sells for $20, and we now know that her sales conversion rate is .03. So .03 x $20 = $.60. That means each visitor is worth 60 cents to Suzy, whether they buy or not. (Here's a longer way of doing this but it may make more sense to you: Based on Suzy's current conversion rate, she makes an average of 3 sales per 100 visitors. 3 x $20 = $60. So for every 100 visitors she makes an average of $60. $60 / 100 visitors = $0.60 per visitor.) This number tells Suzy how much it's worth spending to get a visitor to her site. For example, if she decides to advertise on a pay-per-click search engine, she knows that $0.60 is the maximum she'd want to bid. (For a beginner's guide to pay-per-click search engines, see my article at www.ezine-queen.com/payclick.htm) FR*EE Calculations Template Would you like a free fill-in-the-blanks template to help you make the calculations above? I've put one together for you! Send a blank e-mail to ali-39796@autocontactor.com and you'll receive it automatically. What to DO With Your Numbers First of all, look at your unique visitors. If your numbers aren't as high as you'd like, work on attracting more prospects to your site via your e-zine, search engine listings, advertisements, articles, etc. Then look at your sales conversion rate. If it's around 2-3%, you're doing pretty well for online sales, according to what many Internet experts share. Some months my conversion rate has been as high as 6%, but it typically hovers around 4%. Some marketers with hot products have reported conversion rates up to 10 or 20%. (Hey, it gives us something to shoot for!) Aim to continually improve your sales copy and your sales offer to boost your results. Keep a log of what changes you make and when you make them so you can see which factors help or hinder your sales. (There's a place for these notes in that template I created for you.) Don't Sweat It This may seem foreign to you right now, but once it becomes familiar, you'll actually have fun with it. And there's more where this came from, once you're ready! (c) 2003 Alexandria K. Brown ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Your Ideal Client A lot of small businesses make the mistake of thinking that their product or service is good for just about anyone. The logic is "why should I limit my market to a smaller segment of the whole and sacrifice a sale. SWOT Analysis -- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats When conducting strategic planning for any company -- online and/or offline -- it is useful to complete an analysis that takes into account not only your own business, but your competitors' activities and current industry happenings as well. A SWOT is one such analysis. How Do I Define My Market? Your market is who you want to reach. Your customer. The Forgotten Market There are a great many online business people who are forgetting the potential that this particular forgotten market can be providing them. The forgotten market I am referring to is the off-line market and as for the potential, it could prove to be quite profitable for you. Why Doubling Your Fees Can Increase Business: How Pricing Affects Buyers Decision Making Process Want to know the simple way to get all the business you could ever handle? Charge almost nothing.That's the approach employed by busy fools anyway. Whats Your Marketing Weak Link? Your marketing weak link could be undermining the rest of your marketing. It is vital that each link in your marketing system supports and builds upon the previous link. When The Stars Align - Choosing the Right Entertainment Savvy event producers follow the Golden Rule: know thy audience. When they set out to create a special event, the first thing they do is slip into the shoes of a typical guest. Why Surveying Matters What is the single most important thing you can do as a business owner? That is a question that this week I think I have found an answer to. The answer? Keep your ear to the marketplace by listening to your customers. Marketing to Women -- Can I Buy You A Clue? A while back a small business owner paid me a visit. He wanted help marketing his fitness business to women. Niche And Grow Rich Unless you've been living under an Internet rock, you've probably heard the buzz about Niche Marketing. Right now it's the hottest marketing topic online. Coupons that Work Turn a coupon into a business card (or vice versa).Coupons are seen everywhere; you clip them from the newspaper to save on groceries, you get them in the mail to save on brand name items, you even get packages in the form of booklets delivered to your door. Focusing Your Marketing Efforts One of my favorite quotes is often used to describe goal-setting -- but it applies equally well to your marketing efforts. We start with Alice lost in the woods in Wonderland, where she comes upon the Cheshire-Cat. One-Two-Three Punch Marketing Printed material is just as important today as it was before the Internet. With sp*a*m getting out of hand, it's a wise choice to rev up, update or create printed material, ads, catalogs, direct mail, press releases, letters, templates and the like. How To Use Humor Successfully In Your Business Communications For generations people have been saying that laughter is good medicine. And now the scientists have taken an interest it turns out great-grandma was right. A Simplified Marketing Plan that Works! When I started my first business in 1981, I researched business plans and marketing plans. I looked at all of the formats and read a lot about the purpose of creating a business plan. The Silver Bullet For Success: Revealed Looking for the magic formula or the whiz-bang approach that will unlock your business success? Are you willing to pay hundreds for it? How about thousands? Guess what, you are not alone. Just as people, for ages, have searched for the fountain of youth, entrepreneurs and small business owners around the world are looking for the silver bullet for success: that one sure-fire way to achieve the success that they want without doing a thing. Loan Officer Websites: Your Marketing Hub to Magnetize Realtors Too many loan officer websites look like congested intersections, information running every which way. Fancy gadgets, like calculators, online application submission forms and loan programs filled with jargon that customers don't understand. The Marketing Secret Every Child Knows Little Kids Ask Until They Get What They Want.Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, can I have an ice cream? Can I, Can I, Can I, Can I? Please, Please, Please, Please. 9 Highly Effective Marketing Tips Here are 9 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help you boost your sales and profits fast.Tip 1: Look for some low-cost ways you can enhance the perceived value of your product or service. Postcard Direct Mail Marketing Tips And Ideas Postcards are perhaps the least expensive way of reaching a large number of people with your sales message. Although they have their drawbacks, they are cost-effective at attracting new customers.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
