Designs on Marketing: All About Those Analytics

What should you know about bounce rate and referral traffic? And what is a good open rate for a newsletter? Jacqueline Stone answers these questions and more in her latest jewelry marketing column.

Jacqueline Stone jackie@totemsandtarot.com

I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of what I do in my new job as a marketer is akin to cooking pasta; I’m throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. It’s a constant experiment to find ways to break through the noise and reach my clients’ target audiences.

However, the one thing that every marketer needs is analytics.

While I can’t guarantee extra money in the bank (read: marketing is NOT sales), I better be doing a good job at driving traffic to your site and increasing your digital footprint. I let my clients know up front that this process usually takes about 3 to 6 months, sometimes longer.

Jacqueline Stone has a background in finance, marketing, advertising, product development, fine jewelry manufacturing, design and sourcing. She can be reached at saltandstone@gmail.com.

Marketing is an aspect of your business that needs consistent time and effort. Just when you are at your wit’s end about your progress is, ironically, when the needle starts to move.

Case in point, I’d like to give a huge thank you to Nomad Beads for sticking with me. We didn’t see a significant bump in growth until we actively starting adding SKUs to the company’s website each week. It took about a year of our time together until they started to see online sales and an increase in traffic to the shop. Even though they didn’t see things change as rapidly as they’d like, I know they appreciate my hustle. I’m very grateful for them letting me experiment, and it’s fun to watch them finally reaping the fruits of all our hard work.

Put Your Website to Work
First things first: Let’s take a look at your website. Do you have a Google Analytics account set up? If not, I highly recommend this service. It’s free, and the data Google provides is so insightful.

Here are the key indicators that I’m looking at when I’m crafting your marketing plan.

Audience
Users: No. of people who are looking at your site
New Users: No. of people who landed on your site who had not visited previously
Sessions: No. of times users viewed your site (one user can visit the site several times)
Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who come to your site and leave after viewing only one page (usually want to keep this under 50 percent)
Average Session Duration: How long someone is staying

Banner will be right here …

on/interacting with your site on average

It’s great to look at this once a month. You can use the date filters in the top right-hand corner of the Google Analytics Audience > Overview page to compare time blocks to see if your audience is growing or decreasing over time.

It is particularly important to take time to review the percentage of new users over time as well to see how many new people are landing on your site each month. A marketer’s goal is to keep that number constantly increasing.

Acquisition
Direct: What percentage of your audience landed on your website by simply typing in your URL (no way to track where they came from)
Organic Search: What percentage of your audience found your website based upon key search terms you have embedded in the website’s back end (essentially search engine optimization or SEO)
Social: What percentage of your audience found you through social media
Referral: What percentage of your audience found you through mention on other websites; be sure to click on the word “Referral” on the Acquisition > Overview page so you know what external websites are pushing traffic to your site.
Paid Search: How many people landed on your website due to Google AdWords

It’s good to look at this over time periods (use the date filters in the top right-hand corner of the Acquisition > Overview page) to see where your traffic is coming from and if your social media initiatives are working.

Email Marketing
Believe it or not, there’s more to study than just your website.

Research shows that while social media is an essential part of the formula, email marketing still reigns supreme. Some things for you to think about while getting started are below.

--How many people are on your contact list? I find that online sales are directly proportional to this list. I find a list of 5,000 to 10,000 vetted contacts is effective.

--Don’t buy lists! Find inventive ways to have people sign up for your newsletter or email blasts. You don’t want to send your notes to people who never asked for them as they’re likely to report you as spam.

--What type of content are you providing? Is it a value-add to your customers? Why would they be excited to get a note from you?

--What is the frequency of your email blasts? Your newsletters? What is the right frequency that’s consistent but not annoying for your customers?

Analytically speaking, we are looking at your open rate. Industry average is about 23 percent. You want to shoot for that number or even better if possible.

The more engaging the content, the more likely they are going to take a look. You truly want to think about the user experience. I’m sure you get email blasts from some of your favorite retailers. What motivates you to click on the ones that you open?

You also want to look at your click-through rate, which is monitoring how many people are opening your note and taking action. Digital marketing is about driving as many people to your website as possible to potentially make a purchase. How many people clicked on your images? Your hyperlinks? What links fared the best? It’s useful to look at this to refine your strategy moving forward.

Social Media
Are you still with me? Good, because we also have to take our social media presence into consideration.

I’ve promised Michelle (Graff, the editor-in-chief of National Jeweler) and you that I will take a deeper dive into each of the below platforms. I plan on chatting it up with industry leaders such as Third Coast Gems to help me craft best practices guides.

In the meantime, I ask you to look at the analytics of each of these channels:
-- Facebook;
-- Instagram;
-- Pinterest;
-- Twitter;
-- LinkedIn; and
-- Snapchat.

How many followers do you have? What is your audience’s behavior? Are they actively engaged? What conversation(s) have you started?

While the word “analytics” can be daunting to some, I find it fun. I hope the tips shared here today break it down for you in a way that feels manageable.

Anyone can start to become more strategic in their marketing moves as long as they have the data to guide them in the right direction.

Do you have a marketing question? Please comment below or email me at saltandstone@gmail.com.

A recovering jewelry designer, Jacqueline Stone was the chief creative officer of her company, Salt + Stone, and now is the CEO of her own marketing consulting and coaching business. Stone can be reached at saltandstone@gmail.com.

Jacqueline Stoneis a recovering jewelry designer who now works in marketing and runs her own e-commerce site, TotemsandTarot.com.