The three steps you NEED to take before setting up analytics
No one wants to set up a new tool twice, especially something as technical as an analytics platform. Before you get too excited to just go in and set up analytics, there are some conversations you need to have as a business that will help set you up for success so you don't have to go in and re-configure any dashboards.
First step: Set your business goals
The first thing you need to do is discuss business goals. I know this sounds like something you have probably already done at the beginning but now repeat the process through an analytics point of view. Think about the purpose and goal of your business' website. These goals will help identify the metrics that you will track. There is so much data that analytics provides that this exercise will allow you to get specific and find the information that you need for your business.
When people start thinking of business goals, engagement comes into mind. Most people say their goal is to increase downloads, increase product sales, etc. These are more of the outcomes you want to achieve not the goal itself. Notice how for these goals, there is only one metric to track, either engagement on pages or revenue. Business goals should be more vague and around the actual purpose of the website. Some examples of goals with their aligned metrics are:
Goal: I want to be an authority figure/content king in the fitness space
Metrics: how many people looked at my blog posts, what was the bounce rate for these posts, did the viewers continue their shopping journey after, how many returning visitors do we have, etc.
Goal: I want to create a better user experience by providing an enhanced shopping experience for my customers.
Metrics: what is my bounce rate (specifically off the home page or product pages), how many people completed the full journey of getting on your website to completing a transaction, where in the process are people dropping off your site, what audience is your website more optimized for, etc.
How to choose the best goal for your business
Choosing a business goal can be a daunting process. Where do you start? How do you know you have chosen the right goal? What about some of the other goals that also align with your business?
To get started on this process, really dig down and think about why you started this business. Ask yourself the following questions:
Why did I create [business name]?
What value did I want to provide for consumers?
How am I different from my competitors?
What is that unique factor about my business?
These example goals speak to a larger purpose of the website and allow you to get a holistic view of your viewer's journey, not just one interaction such as a product purchase. Measuring the entire customer journey will allow your business to optimize/modify your website to increase customer loyalty. At the end of this post, you can find an example of a company going through this process beginning to end.
Step two: Align metrics to business goals
Once you have these goals on paper, the next step is to align the proper metrics to measure. The best way to do this would be to write down the customer journey alongside the goal and see exactly what you will need to track. As there are a multitude of metrics to track, it is impossible to write them all down, but feel free to send over a note to sailusha@unicorncx.com and I am happy to discuss goals and metrics for your business!
Step three: Determine which custom dashboards to create
After having your goal and metrics listed out, the next step is to determine which dashboards you will need to create once you setup Google Analytics! The main thing to keep in mind when finalizing these dashboards, is the roles of those who will be checking the metrics. The data that the CEO would want to look at will be very different than that for a marketer. The CEO will want to know the overall health of the business, such as new user rates, e-commerce conversion, etc. while the marketer would be more interested in the acquisition channels and how the viewers find the business. Once created, they will be located under "customization" in the right-hand navigation. You can create one from scratch or to import one from the solutions gallery and edit those. Creating these dashboards will allow you to quickly go in and check on the metrics you discovered above and have them right at your fingertips. This is a beast on its own so all this information will be in an upcoming post about customizing Google Analytics to fit your business needs!
