But where do you start?

Get started with analytics
In this module...

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Hi there! Web analytics tools can give you a mountain of data, straight out of the box - and that’s a great opportunity for businesses. But in order to really make use of all that data, it’s important to make sure you’re measuring progress toward your own particular goals. That means you’ll want to customise your analytics a bit, to make sure you’re tracking things that really matter to you.

Seeing some examples of goals and conversions, and looking at why it’s important to create them, will help you figure out what yours should be.

So, you’ve taken your business online for a reason, right? Well, just about anything you hoped to achieve with your website can be tracked and measured with web analytics as a goal you hope to achieve.

“Conversion” is the word commonly used to describe what happens when a website visitor completes a goal. And by now, you know that web analytics tools have the ability to break down loads of data about your visitors and what’s happening on your site to give you information that can help you get more of those conversions. Let’s use the example of a guest house to see just how important goals and tracking conversions can be.

Say you sign in to your web analytics tool and start looking at numbers. First, you notice that the guest house website had 10,000 visitors last month. You compare that number to the past, and see that your visitor count is up from 5,000 during the same month last year.

Great, right?

Well, not necessarily. Visits alone don’t help your business move forward, and without understanding the value of those visits, it’s really hard to figure out what to do with this information. So let’s try to figure out a little more about the value of those visits. Maybe you look at some reports and notice that the average visitor spends two minutes on your website, about the same as last year.

We’re starting to learn a little more, but we’re still not really getting to the business value of those visits. Is two minutes enough time to make a valuable visit? Is it too little? The truth is that we don’t know.

Just looking at stats like these really limits our ability to make any decisions. What we need is data that can very clearly show the value of these visits to the business. With that data you can start to really use your web analytics tool to show you things you can do to constantly improve.

And that brings us back to the very basics of what it is we want to achieve online.

One reason you’d create a website for a guest house is so that people could reserve a room online. So a completed reservation is definitely a goal that you’ll want your analytics tool to be tracking. That’s one down! But what other goals might your guest house have? What else can people do that is valuable to your business? Well, maybe you want people to know where to find you.

How would you set up an analytics tool to measure that? Well, maybe visiting the page on your site with a map and directions would be something you could consider a goal and configure that as a conversion.

Or maybe you want people to sign up for your email newsletter so that you can send them special offers and keep them up-to-date with improvements you’re making. If they sign up, they’re signaling that they’re interested in your guest house and giving you an opportunity to reach them, so that’s really valuable!

And that means completing the signup form could be another goal that you track.

There are all kinds of goals you can find that can be tracked as conversions inside web analytics and show you the real value of what’s happening on your website. Once you’ve figured out your goals, you’ll need to configure them in your web analytics tool. While the processes for doing that can vary, it’s usually pretty painless.

Once it’s done, looking at the reports in your web analytics tool becomes much more productive.

Instead of simply looking at how many visitors you’ve gotten or how long they spend on your site, you can start seeing reports showing the things you actually care about. Like maybe only 2% of your visitors coming from social media sites are signing up for your email newsletter.

So what can you do? How about putting out some social media posts offering a 10% off coupon when people sign up for the email newsletter? Or maybe you find out that your reservation rate jumps from 3% up to 6% on weekends. Your next step? You adjust your advertising campaigns to advertise more heavily over the weekend, when people are more likely to take action. If you’re thinking this is all starting to come together, then you’re getting the hang of what web analytics tools can do for you.

Just remember: you’ll get the most out of these tools when you use them to measure your specific goals.

Now go forth and analyze!

Let’s talk about e-commerce. We’ll help you learn what it is, discuss the different ways it’s used for business, and help you choose the best e-commerce option to match your needs.

Sound good? Let’s get started.

So first, what is e-commerce? Well, it’s really just a fancy name for selling things online.

People have been making online purchases on websites and mobile applications for a while now. And all kinds of businesses are finding ways to make use of e-commerce to achieve their sales goals online.

These goals vary, depending on the business. You might start with a simple goal, like “I want to offer customers the ability to send payments through the web.” Or, maybe you want a lot more—a website that allows people to view and search your inventory, create customer accounts, and set up recurring orders.

The sky’s the limit. So how do you get started with e-commerce for your business?

Your first step might be to simply offer a way for customers to transfer money to your business through the web. You can easily add payment services like PayPal to your website that make online payment easy. In many cases, your customer doesn’t even need to setup a PayPal account and can pay through credit card or direct debit.

If you’re starting to sell online from scratch, you might try an “off-the-shelf” service that includes e-commerce, like Squarespace or Wordpress. These services not only accept payments, but they usually offer templates so you can easily add product pages to your website.

If you’re going for the gold, you might decide on a customised e-commerce service like Magento or Shopify. There are many options available, with feature like product search, inventory management, checkout, customer accounts, order management and more. E-commerce often brings to mind a sort of retail or shop-like experience. Any business that sells products in a physical shop can also sell their products on a virtual shop online.

Offline customers can walk through the door of your furniture shop and browse the couches, bookcases and beds on display. While online, customers should be able to see those same products by clicking around the pages of your online shop. Even though customers won’t be able to sit on that couch for sale or feel the fabric, your online shop can bring your products to life. You should include lots of photos, detailed descriptions, customer reviews, and even videos of the products.

This high-quality imagery and well-written content is like your online “product display”. Done well, it can help narrow the gap between a customer’s retail and online shopping experience. After you’ve sorted out how to sell products on your own website, you want to sell more products, in more places. So, your next step might be to look into other online marketplaces.

For example, you might also sell your furniture through sites like Amazon and eBay. If this is one of your goals, and you haven’t yet selected an e-commerce provider, make sure that they support your multi-channel selling. To sum up, whether you plan to offer a full-blown virtual version of your physical shop, or you’re just looking to accept payments online, e-commerce can be a really powerful tool for your business.

Next we’ll be helping you take those first steps into e-commerce. We’ll be examining your different options in more detail so you can know which one works best for your business. We’ll also be showing you how to re-engage with customers after their initial connection with you.

Hello there. We’re now going to talk about how you can accept payments and manage orders as part of your e-commerce activities. And we’ll show you how this can help your business. One of the primary features of your e-commerce shop is being able to accept payments online. There are many options that can do this for you, and they range from relatively simple to fairly complex. Let’s say you’re a furniture craftsman who offers limited edition artisan pieces, such as bookcases, tables and chairs. You have a website that showcases a gallery of bespoke furniture. But as it stands, customers have to ring, or visit your shop, to make an actual purchase. Of course, you want to make things easier for your customers, by accepting payments online. You can do this using any number of online payment solutions, or what’s known as third-party payment processing, with services such as PayPal and Nochex.

These types of payment solutions let you add a button to your website, which customers can click to make a payment. This takes them to a separate payment website, which takes care of the transaction for you. Then after the order is complete, the customer is sent back to your site.

As transactions occur, you will receive all the information you need to fulfill the actual customer orders. So this approach means you can just focus on your business, while someone else takes care of the complex electronic transactions. At some point, you might want to integrate the transaction experience into your website, such as offering online payments and a shopping cart that lets customers buy multiple items in one session. Despite the additional costs, this integrated process provides very real benefits. One way to start is to use an “off-the-shelf” service, like Squarespace. These services give you more control over the shopping and checkout process and let you make changes and improvements.

For example, you might want to customise the thank-you page with specific offers. Or promote other furniture designs relevant to what the customer has already purchased. Another benefit? You can track the entire customer experience, including the digital marketing campaign that brought visitors to your site. You can get more information about these people and see what website content they interacted with. And, you can learn what the most likely prospects tend to do on your site.

Now, let’s say your furniture design business has grown. And now you want to expand and offer furniture sets for every room, in every possible wood finish, to customers throughout the UK.

When you have loads of products to sell online to a broad audience, it’s probably time to consider a full e-commerce solution. There are many on the market— such as Shopify, Volusion or Magento.

Some are free, others you’ll need to pay for. And they all offer a wide range of features. But one common thing many of them offer is the ability to create and manage a fully functional online store. A fully functional online store has a big benefit: a backend system with order management.

Let’s take a closer look at how a backend system can help you.

Well, first, your customers can create accounts and manage their personal information, billing preferences, and shipping addresses. You can offer them coupon codes, integrate multiple payment options, and even customise the checkout process.

And rather than program all of this yourself, you can use these e-commerce services to upload and manage product and inventory details, create and organise category, subcategory and product pages, and offer advanced product search.

Many solutions manage orders, track shipping and fulfillment details, and integrate with your financial and accounting systems. Let’s sum up.

As an merchant growing your business online, you’ll need the right tools to accept payments and manage orders. Depending on your needs, a variety of options are available: from simple, third-party payment processing services to a fully developed e-commerce platforms.

Whatever option you choose, selling online is a great way to grow your business.

Hello. You’ve heard people talk about the global marketplace, and today digital advertising makes it easy for almost any business to think beyond borders when seeking new customers.

We’re going to look at the opportunities and realities of international marketing, focusing on how to evaluate international markets for your product and which practical and cultural issues you need to be ready for.

Let’s say you have a vintage record shop with a stellar reputation. Your high-end equipment and expertise have helped you stand out and attract an elite customer base. Business is good, but you want to reach more of those customers. You’ve eyed some of the markets abroad and reckon it’d be a good move to sell your products in Europe—and beyond.

So where do you start? First, you need to learn about the target market in each area you’re considering, and find out how best to reach them.

For instance, with digital advertising, look at search traffic, competition and pricing. This will give you a clear view of your potential markets, so you can decide where your products will be well-received.

You can use search trend reports, geographic data in your web analytics, and marketing insight tools to help determine which markets would be the best place to start expanding your business.

Once you know where you want to go, you may need to overcome language barriers. How do you communicate and market to customers and prospects without losing anything in translation?

You might need to translate and localise your website’s content. Automated translation services are rarely 100% accurate, so it’s probably a good idea to have a native speaker who can help you confirm the content has the right tone.

Your new customers and prospects from different cultures and languages will need to communicate with you, too. Be ready from the start with a plan to support those customer service needs. Next, think about your infrastructure and the systems you’ll need to properly support your expansion into international markets.

Don’t forget about packaging considerations for fragile components, VAT, and any legal or regulatory issues. Once that’s resolved, it’s time to review your e-commerce and payment solutions.

Although many e-commerce systems are able to set up multinational transactions, you’ll have to customise payment options and other settings. We’ll discuss this further in a later video.

Even with great cross-border e-commerce systems, you’ll still want to think ahead to the next step—getting your products to your new international customers.

What’s required to ship and deliver your orders? What about refunds? Customer service and support?

Marketing to new customers in international markets is an exciting prospect and one that could expand your business tremendously. Mapping out your plan in advance sets the stage for success. Are you ready to fully explore international expansion?

In the next videos, we’ll explain how to research and validate the market for your product in new countries. Then we’ll help you handle translation and localisation, and discuss the infrastructure and support you’ll need.

Finally, we’ll go over adapting your e-commerce and delivery processes for an international market.

Stay tuned, and your business will be positioned for success in these exciting new markets!

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL MARKETING: MODULE 26/26