Entries by Darren Stevens

How much do you know about people that are visiting your website?

In this day and age for many businesses the first port of call for a potential customer will be to look at your website. But how much do you know about the people that visit your website and how much time are you devoting to looking at this?

There is a an old and much used saying that “there is no such thing as a free lunch”, but when it comes to understanding more about the visitors to your website there really is – Google Analytics. Hopefully most of you reading this blog will already know that you have Google Analytics on your site. But if you are at all unsure, then we would urge you to check straight away. The firm that set up your website will be able to check this for you.

So what can Google Analytics tell you about your visitors? Over any given period that Google Analytics has been in place on your site, it can give you a wealth of information. It will tell you how many visitors in total your site has had. If possible it is good practice to overlay this over enquiry or sales figures to establish the degree of correlation between web visits and these figures. This is important, because if there is a correlation the argument is more compelling for you to try and drive more traffic to your website.

Google Analytics (or GA for short) will also tell you how many of your visitors are unique and how many are repeat visitors. It will tell you how people came to arrive at your site – organic search (search engine), direct (where they keyed in the address – often a good reflection of offline marketing), social media and referral (via a listing of your site on another website – which may also include spam). If you are doing any paid for activity like adwords or you are doing any email marketing or e-newsletters, then these will also show up. You should be looking at these figures on a regular basis, particularly when you see spikes or peaks in visitors to understand what has driven them there. Each one of these categories of source is at least to some degree under your control. Let’s take social media for example, you might be active on social media but to what extent is it driving traffic to your site. Post too frequently on social media with blatantly promotional posts and you will use followers, but an occasional post where you highlight some content on your site is usually acceptable.

GA will also tell you how many pages on average a person visits, how long they spend on the site and what the bounce rate is – a bounce is where they arrive on one page and leave the site immediately before going on to another page. It will also tell you what country the visitor is from, what type of device they use and the behavioural flow. The flow diagrams will give you a good idea of where people arrive on your site, where they go once they arrive, which pages are most popular and where they leave. GA used to tell you what people are keying in to find your site in search, but the bulk of this information is now cloaked i.e. not visible.

It is a good idea to log some of these key stats in an excel spreadsheet and chart them, so that you can detect month on month changes, seasonality and year on year comparisons. Reviewing this information on say a monthly basis can be a good motivator to drive other activity and impact on these figures. Also when people do make an enquiry or a purchase, make sure you ask where they heard about you and that you log this as well.

Once you have got to grips with the basics then it is worth looking at the information in greater details. For example, if you accept that the number of pages viewed is a good proxy for gauging engagement with a site, which method of driving traffic to your website brings the most engaged visitors. Or, which page are most people leaving your website from and what can you do to stem the tide e.g. signpost them to other content.

You can also set up goals in GA. A good one might be to set a goal for completion of the contact form on your website (which can be done provided completion of your contact form results in a thank you page). GA will then tell you which forms of traffic are most effective at driving traffic that completes your contact form.

How much of what we have outlined in this blog are you doing? Most firms invest a lot of money in their websites, isn’t it then worthwhile investing some time in understanding how it is performing? If you think you could do with some help interpreting this information or planning activity to affect these figures – then of course you could get in touch with us by completing our contact form.

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Is there such a thing as too much marketing?

It might come as something of a surprise to hear a Marketing business say this, but in our opinion the answer to this question is most definitely yes.

The most obvious reason for this is a business or organisation’s ability to service the business or level of business that marketing has generated. If you cannot supply whatever demand marketing has generated then there will clearly be wasted effort and expense. If customers cannot get through to you or fail to get a response then not only do you lose out on that business, but you are also putting at risk your reputation and repeat business if the enquirer was an existing business.

Many businesses have excellent sales processes that when you view them, have a faultless process for handling enquiries, logging them and following them up appropriately. But ask yourself the question, is this always the case or when volumes pick up, do you ever fail to log the source of an enquiry or do enquiries fall through the cracks.

It is by no means easy, but in an ideal world Marketing should be aiming to deliver exactly the right amount of business (particularly difficult in markets that are seasonal). Generate too little interest and you might fail to meet your targets, generate too much and there is the wastage already referred to. A good starting point here though is to ensure that your targets are broken down into monthly targets for leads, enquiries, opportunities and sales. That way you have a sound basis for tracking projected versus actual performance and you will detect changes in overall levels, but also in conversion rates and average transaction levels.

So there really can be too much of a good thing, even marketing ……

If you would like us to review your Marketing to determine whether or not you are doing the right amount, then please contact us.

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Doing good is good for business

When did you last take stock of what and how much you spend as a business on charity and community involvement? If you include financial, practical help and volunteering the answer might surprise you. But how much good is this doing for your business and is there a smarter way to go about this – possibly.

One of our favourite phrases is “doing good is good for business”, but this can sometimes not necessarily be the case if your charity and community involvement is not well structured and thought through.

We have listed below some considerations that you might want to consider when reviewing your charity or community involvement or perhaps embarking on it for the first time.

– Budget. Like any other form of marketing, it is a good idea to set a budget and stick to it. Otherwise expenditure can run away and you have no framework for decisions when you are approached.

– International, national, regional or local. This can depend on where you operate and the size of your business and there is nothing wrong with adopting a mix. For us though as a small to medium sized, predominantly local business we like to stick to local causes, where we can make a difference and the work that we do can get noticed.

– Decide what you want to get out of it. Are you entering into this simply to put something back or you looking to benefit from good PR or make new business connections. Do you want to raise money for a cause or do you have time or skills that you and your employees can contribute. If you are clear on all of these considerations, it makes it easier to make an informed choice of who to partner with.

– To adopt or not to adopt. There are significant advantages to adoption, whether that be for a one, two or three year period. You can develop a good understanding with your partner and from a PR perspective there is a beginning, a middle and an end – all presenting publicity opportunities. Open ended support can also sometimes lead to disappointment at one if not both ends, when you draw matters to a close.

– Policy, policy, policy. It can be a good idea to document what you will or will not do into a short and punchy policy. Making this publicly visible might cut down on the inappropriate or badly matched approaches you get and it also gives you a valid and reasonable reason to say no, when you are fully committed.

– Involve your staff in the decision process. If staff fundraising or volunteering is a key part of what you intend to do, then try and make sure your staff are involved in the decision process in some way. This can be through nominating causes for a shortlist or voting on a shortlist to choose the eventually successful partner.

– Communication is key. Start as you mean to go on. Establish clear lines of communication with your partner and agree nominated contacts and preferred methods of communication. Outline what you intend to do for them and what you are willing to be approached about and equally importantly the things you won’t consider. Make sure you communicate clearly to your staff why you have chosen the partner, what they do and the benefits to the community. As things progress, keep your partner, staff and other stakeholders advised.

We hope this doesn’t make it all sound too complicated, as ultimately doing something is usually better than doing nothing at all. If you want further help we have extensive experience in charity and community involvement, helping firms adopt charities and introducing charity and volunteering policies. We also regularly get asked to publicise charity initiatives. Feel free to contact us if you would like more information.

You may also be interested in our pages on Corporate Social Responsibility or Charity Adoption.

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Prestbury Marketing renew sponsorship of Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s Rugby Club

Prestbury Marketing have renewed their sponsorship of the Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s Rugby Club. Established in 2014 the joint Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s side have previously won the Women’s National Junior Cup. They finished in second spot in National Championship Midlands Two in their first season in that league and their ultimate ambition is to compete in the Women’s Premiership. Darren […]

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Questions to ask yourself if you think your marketing is not working

When we meet new or potential clients, we more often than not hear a list of marketing “things” that a firm has done, swiftly followed by the comment that “none of them worked”. We thought in the light of this we would share some questions to ask yourself if you find yourself in a similar position.

1. Are you sure that it did not work? Do you measure and track enquiries and sales and religiously ask where somebody heard of you and log it. If you have physical premises do you track footfall or have you reviewed your google analytics to see if there has been any impact i.e. a spike in visits or an increase in direct traffic if your marketing was offline.

2. By what measures are you evaluating the success? What had you expected to achieve and on what basis was this figure arrived at? Were your expectations reasonable and rational – say perhaps based upon past results?

3. Were you targeting the right customer? Have you defined your target audience and did the marketing you are reviewing reach that audience?

4. Was there an appropriate call to action? For Marketing to work it needs to take the potential customer through the four steps of AIDA (getting Attention, creating Interest and a Desire and then taking Action). If your marketing “only” took the potential customer through the first three of these steps there may be a residual benefit in that you have raised awareness.

5. Was there sufficient repetition? It is a big ask to expect one form of marketing to lead to a sale, when the recipient hasn’t heard of your business before.

This list is not exhaustive, but hopefully it has given you food for thought. If you would like us to explore this in some more detail with you, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Or alternatively you may find our page on Marketing Audits to be of interest.

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Highlighting our wares

The Gloucestershire Business Show is here a second year and Prestbury Marketing are excited to be heading to the racecourse this Wednesday and Thursday to speak to local businesses.

‘The show is a great local event to network and meet local companies just like us’ said Darren Stevens, Marketing Consultant and Managing Director of Prestbury Marketing. ‘It gives us the opportunity to show how we work and what an impact we can actually have to your bottom line. It’s also useful to talk to businesses from Gloucestershire to see what issues they are facing and if the challenges are similar to ours, it’s an enjoyable although long couple of days’.

Alongside the exhibition there is also a number of seminars and workshops, networking and meeting hubs so plenty going on.

If you are in the area, come and meet Darren and the team on the stand and enjoy a chat and perhaps a coffee with us!

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Practicing what we preach

Prestbury Marketing are excited to be launching their new website today. The site is the result of months of hard work and hours of writing content, establishing the SEO, case studies and trialling different options. It highlights the successes of Prestbury Marketing, offers hints and tips to support customers and demonstrates how they offer an innovative way to resource your marketing and to grow your business.

Jenny Jervis, Marketing Consultant at Prestbury Marketing said ‘We’re really pleased to have the new site up and running, it finally feels like we can showcase the business more effectively. The site has needed a revamp for a while but we’ve struggled for time, like most SME businesses. Now it finally feels like we’re practicing what we preach and have got our own house in order, like we tell clients to!’

With an expanding team at Prestbury Marketing, the site is another step forward as the company grows and the number of businesses they are supporting is increasing rapidly. The team are now looking forward to meeting local companies at the Gloucestershire Business Show this week.

We would like to thank the team at AM PM for all their help with the website.

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Prestbury Marketing to sponsor Cheltenham Challenge

Prestbury Marketing is to sponsor the running bibs for this year’s Cheltenham Challenge.

Since being taken on as an event by County Community Projects, the event has gone from strength to strength, attracting thousands of participants who complete a variety of distances. The event raises money dozens of local and national causes.

Darren Stevens from Prestbury Marketing explained why they had chosen to sponsor the Cheltenham Challenge. “The Cheltenham Challenge is a great event. I took part last year and will be doing so again this year. Thanks to companies like ourselves sponsoring different aspects of the day, it means that more of the proceeds can go to County Community Projects who do amazing work in the county.

Cordell Ray, Chief Executive of CCP, commented on Prestbury Marketing’s support. “We are hugely grateful to Prestbury Marketing’s support of Cheltenham Challenge. Last year’s event saw a record amount raised from the event and we hope to improve on this further this year. Each and every day we face difficult decisions about what help we provide, with the needs greatly outweighing our resources. Events like Cheltenham Challenge help bridge that gap”.

You can find out more information about Cheltenham Challenge here.

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