A marketing person needs to understand the data and then apply the data against quantitative marketing objectives to determine if your online strategy is working.
...With ROI often the ultimate metric determining what stays and goes in the marketing department, marketers need to be sure that their ROI methodology is sound not only in its ability to evaluate the past, but also in its power to predict the future.
...Time on site: Sure you want people to spend a lot of time on your site but in an age of multitasking and time stressed consumers too much time on your site could indicate that they had trouble finding the information they needed and had to "dig" into your site to find it.
...Unique page views: Again means nothing because it is estimated that as many as 40% of consumers clear cookies from their computers on a regular basis.
...Cost per targeted action: What was the cost to get people on our site and do what we wanted them to do? ...You need to have an additional service like CRM Metrix that can quantify site satisfaction of your audience.
...Keyword ROI: Is the money I'm spending on keywords providing a good ROI or is it just sending people to my site who spend little time?
...If you're a marketing person you should be asking for a digital dashboard that tells a story, you shouldn't have to spend a lot of time analyzing it yourself. A good digital dashboard tells a story that can be understood by everyone in the organization.
The key is to take that dashboard and consistently look for new areas of opportunity that can increase conversion. Sure engagement is important but engagement that doesn't meat business needs is farting in the wind.
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