Benefits of Google Analytics for Small Businesses
By Oxana Martynova
As it was
once said by Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is power” and this is most
definitely the case when it comes to Digital Marketing.
In this day
and age, it is difficult to find a business which doesn’t utilize the internet. As
such, those who clearly understand the importance of analytics have been
using it for some time now. Analytic tools help businesses understand how
websites are performing and give essential information about the visitors
who come to a site.
So, what
are the benefits of Google Analytics to a small business?
Firstly, it
is free. Small businesses generally don’t have a huge budget lying
around to reach marketing goals, so a free tool like this is crucial to have in
their arsenal.
It is easy
to use and simple to imbed on your website - making it an attractive tool to take
advantage of.
You can generate
a lot of useful information by tracking demographics such as their age, gender,
interests and location. Essentially, it allows
you to build a customer persona which you can then target.
Google Analytics can also provide information such as time spent on website, products browsed and useful data points for building your customer personas.
You can
find out whether a desktop, tablet or mobile device was used and improve
your website accordingly.
Finally, you will be able to see how you acquired your visitors i.e. was it an organic search, social media link and so on.
With
the above in mind, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of an analytics
tool? In a world
where data is increasingly a prized commodity, business owners should take advantage
of Google Analytics to help build customer personas which they can then tap into and target with succinct digital marketing.
If Bacon was right when he said, "Knowledge is Power" then data is the life blood of that power and businesses who do not grasp that risk falling behind and missing a very lucrative opportunity.
Really interesting point on how Google Analytics can help track demographics and build customer personas. So important to know what people are doing on your site, some groups of people wanting to know loads of information about a product or service or others simply wanting to get straight to the 'Contact Us' page
ReplyDeleteOnce you know what your personas do on your website, you can begin to experiment and optimize your website to make it easier for your personas to do what they want.
For a small business to be able to utilize such a great analytics tool and for free is brilliant. I completely agree with your thoughts that “Knowledge is Power” and Google Analytics allows small business to perform the same analytics as businesses with huge marketing budgets. Being able to track where people came from to your website and then what device they are usually will allow great improvements to be made to a website. Will definitely be paying attention to this and it might even allow dropping some paid ads and save even more in the marketing budget or spend it somewhere else where the return will be better. Thanks for the great tips.
ReplyDeleteGreat insights on how effective Google Analytic is for small businesses. Yes you are right it is very hard to find a business that doesn't use the internet now a days. I know when I am in the market for a commodity the first thing I do is go onto Google and research whats out there. I think knowing what devise was used when viewing your page is important because the business can modify how the website may look on a phone, tablet or desktop. The key is to make it as convenient as possible for the consumer and with the knowledge you can learn from Google Analytics anything is possible!
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, Oxana - it would be hard to find a business today that doesn't take advantage of the internet and all that is within arms reach. Knowledge is definitely power and small businesses need as much power as they can get to keep up with competitors and give their customers what they want. Having access to the data that Google Analytics gives you and being able to react to this and make changes as necessary is power in today's world! You summed it up perfectly: if "Knowledge is Power" then data is the life blood of that power. Great article!
ReplyDeleteKnowledge is power, and Google Analytics has a wealth of knowledge about website visitors. Many small businesses think Google Analytics is hard to set up and manage when in fact it's free and relatively easy to use. Small businesses should make the most of the data received by Google Analytics to distinguish their target audience by creating personas to understand their customers better. I like how you clearly labelled the benefits of Google Analytics in bold, it makes the article very easy to read.
ReplyDelete