There's one tool that can help any communicator get ROI results without breaking the bank: Google Analytics.
Google’s free tool has the power to transform a brand’s understanding of its online presence, which can only lead to a better experience for users. Putting this analytics tool to work within a larger measurement framework has the potential to unleash a kind of transparency to PR work that was at one time unimaginable. This allows communicators to make well-informed decisions backed by data, which can then be used to concretely prove their team’s business contributions to the C-suite.
With all this power, it’s no surprise that measurement continues to be discussed from the boardroom to the break room. But for the typically right-brained PR pro it can seem a little daunting to begin fussing with all this data. Luckily, Google Analytics is a good place for the uninitiated to start.
Louis Gray, senior program manager, Google Analytics for Google and featured speaker at the June 6 PR News Google for Communicators Workshop in Miami, has five tips to help even the most math-averse PR pros get started with Google Analytics.
Learn what your visitors are doing
Your content and site are only as good as your visitors show you it is. Google Analytics will show you how users interact with your site, how long they visit, what path they take through your site and what actions they take—information that impacts your business and future development decisions
Learn how they got there
Beyond knowing what visitors do on your site, pretty much everyone wants to know how where they came from. You can measure marketing impact, whether social campaigns are bringing you visitors, or if sites are sending you traffic.
Set up goals for your website and begin to track against those objectives
What is your business trying to do? Are you trying to drive traffic to content? To an e-commerce store? Are you looking to drive subscriptions? Determine what your main objective is and set up goals in Google Analytics that track your progress.
Set up a custom dashboard that tells you what you want quickly
Every business is different, so what's important to you is different than what's important for others. Create a dashboard with the graphs and charts and information you find most valuable and want to gain updates on each day.
Set up alerts to stay informed
You can set up custom alerts that let you know when there are big changes in traffic, conversion rate, bounce rate or other measurement points. If a large crush of visitors comes to your site, you'll know right away.
To get the latest on everything Google has to offer the discipline of public relations, join PR News for the Google for Communicators Workshop, taking place on June 6 in Miami.
Follow Louis: @louisgray
Follow Mark: @MarkRenfree