Check Out Your Competition’s Web Analytics

 Sorry about another quick post this week, but I came across a service that has me very excited.    It is called Compete.

Compete is a website that allows you to not only track your company’s web analytics but also check your competition’s web activity.  It does so by gathering information based on IP traffic.  

Compete’s subscription service is pretty robust and can run anywhere from $200 – $500 a month , but even using its free tool you can still get a lot of information like:

• monthly visitors
• monthly unique visitors
• average page views
• average time per visit

This is not a perfect science but it is pretty close.  I compared the web analytics of some of my clients with the data received by Compete and it was off by about 5% – 10%.  So while it is not the end-all in web analytics, it is a great tool to help you monitor trends.

For example, if your competition launches a new ad campaign you can track any upticks in its unique visitors to measure the impact.  More important you can see what type of comparative impact it has on your site.

Compete also provides you frame of reference.  You may think having 5 web page views per visit is a good number, now you can see if it really is and map out your plan accordingly.

Understanding your competition and having an industry frame of reference are key tools to being a better marketer and now Compete.com helps you market smarter.

Woopra

This is not some college cheer, Woopra.com is a new web site analytics program still in its beta stage.  I’ve enrolled to have it track some of my sites and when I am approved, I’ll let you know what it can do.  

From its web site it looks very promising, but so do a lot of things.  Stay tuned.

Marketing = Sales?

If sales aren’t improving then marketing must not be working.  It seems like this is the simplest equation in business, but business is never that simple.

Marketing’s role is to drive leads by changing perception, creating desire, communicating a point of difference and enhancing a brand. 

Marketing’s job is to get a positively predisposed audience to call for more information, look for your product on a shelf, walk in your store or visit your web site.  From there it is up to you.

So how do you know if marketing is doing its job?  Set up a tracking system. 

Today there are many tools available to help you set a benchmark and track your marketing efforts.  Here is a list from typically least expensive to most expensive;

Asking how a person heard about you

• By formalizing this process you will be able to gain significant insight on what marketing tools are working

Online Question

• When people request more information from your web site have a question that prompts them to tell you how they heard of you

 Web Analytics

• Google has a free web analytics product that provides you good insight into how people are coming too your web site
• More robust analytics products exist, but these can get costly

Discreet URL/Phone Number

• Track activity of a specific marketing tactic by driving it to a specific URL or 800-number

Clipping/Tracking Services

• If Public Relations is a tactic you use often, using a clipping service to track stories is useful in justifying the expense
• Conducting online searches also help track where your company has been mentioned in the news

Promotional Offers

• Use promotional offers tied to specific marketing tactics
• Offer will determine the expense of this endeavor

Quantitative Research

• Annual tracking surveys will identify changes in awareness, perception and usage

Over the next few weeks we will discuss how to implement these tracking programs.

Warning:  If you find out marketing is doing its job then have to look at your operations to see why sales aren’t meeting your goals.

Happy Marketing.