Website Marketing Metrics
In marketing, we often talk about different metrics and key performance indicators to measure campaign success. After all, we need to go by numbers and concrete data if we are to truly understand how our online presence resonates with our target audience.
Understanding which metrics to track and, more importantly, how to impact them with our content, social media posts, and newsletters, is crucial for digital success. Take a look at our selection of the most important website marketing metrics and tips on how to get that needle to move in the desired direction.
Sales Conversion Rate
Conversion rates are arguably the most important metric for every website, whether it’s an eCommerce store or a blog. Specific converting actions will differ, but either way, your business won’t be able to grow without them.
In the world of sales, conversion equals transaction. And it also happens to be the most difficult of the bunch. After all, you are not asking for someone’s email or time: you are asking for their money.
Some of the typical conversion-boosting actions you are expected to take include:
- using high-quality product images
- pricing your products fairly
- describing products in enough detail
On top of that, you also need to ensure that you clearly address and overcome the most common conversion obstacles.
Using Bay Alarm Medical’s pricing page as our example, let’s examine the biggest conversion obstacles and how to circumvent them.
Source: Bayalarmedical.com
Commitment Fear
Shoppers will often be afraid to commit to a product. What if they don’t like it? What if it turns out they don’t need it?
Our example brand offers a 30-day trial period, which is longer than what most of its competitors offer. This feature is clearly emphasized by the large, eye-catching logo.
The FAQ section at the bottom of the page provides even more reassurance. It addresses both the refund policy and what happens if you cancel early.
Customers are given a clear out, and they don’t have to hunt around the website to discover it.
Product Quality
The more expensive a product or the less frequently purchased, the more important highlighting product quality becomes.
Our example handles this obstacle with a “CNET award winner” badge they display on one of their products. This raises the quality of all products in the range in the eyes of the shopper, as the brand clearly produces valuable and reliable goods.
Their floating Google Ratings widget with star ratings and reviews is a great example of social proof. The detailed testimonials section also helps visitors see the value in the purchase.
Cost
Of course, you can’t actually reduce the cost of your product year ‘round. But what you can do is offer occasional discounts and special prices or plans and highlight them clearly.
Our example has a banner showing their special anniversary price, and they also offer a free month on all subscription plans. This tactic also adds a bit of FOMO to the page, as visitors are aware they can’t wait too long before they make a decision.
Hidden Costs
Hidden shipping, packaging, or installation costs will drastically lower conversion rates. You don’t have to offer free shipping like our example does but do make sure you clearly list what shipping will actually cost.
Shoppers want to make informed decisions. They don’t want to be tricked into getting to checkout only to be surprised by the price of shipping. In fact, hidden costs are the main cause of cart abandonment in the US.
Our example also addresses hidden fees in their FAQ section, so the customer can rest assured they will only pay the listed price.
After-Sale Service
Finally, customers will want to know they can reach you after making a purchase. Our example clearly highlights their in-person availability with a toll-free phone number.
Live chat or clearly, displayed email availability times will work just as well.
Bounce Rate
While there were rumors going around that bounce rate might even be a ranking factor, this myth has most likely been dispelled. Instead, bounce rates serve as a valuable indicator of content quality and relevance. If a page on your website is seeing a high bounce rate, you will want to improve its readability.
For starters, you want to work on the content itself. Use shorter, simpler sentences and terms your audience will understand. Stick to one main thought per sentence, and expand it in a section. Organize your thoughts logically to ensure they are easy to follow.
Design and layout will also play an important role in readability. You want to avoid walls of text and to ensure there are plenty of visual elements on the page to distract from the task of reading through all that content.
Use a sans font and ensure it’s easy to read across different screen sizes. Don’t use more than three fonts on a page, but ideally, stick to just one in your content.
Each Night’s “Best Mattresses of 2022” product breakdown is a good example of how to do it right. There are no long sections of text, there are only two fonts, their size is based on information relevance, and there is enough white space to make you feel like you are reading a book.
Source: Eachnight.com
The information is also segmented intelligently, and they get to their point right away. You don’t have to scroll down and down to experience the value the page offers. This kind of content ensures readers start trusting the brand. That, in turn, makes them more likely to visit another page and learn more about different types of products.
Pageviews Per Session
Ideally, you want every visitor to look at several pages before they leave your website. Even if they don’t make a purchasing decision right now, you want them to keep thinking about it when they leave.
One of the best ways to improve pageviews per session is to align navigation with various customer journeys. This will require you to do some detailed buyer persona mapping first and to truly understand what different customer segments are looking for.
Different customers will have different needs, pain points, and reasons for visiting your website. How they are able to navigate from your homepage needs to cater to a wide spectrum of needs and motivate them to go further.
Let’s see how this KURU Footwear tackles this approach. They cater to three different buyer personas on their homepage and offer each a different path. These are:
- gender-specific shoppers
- shoppers who prioritize comfort
- shoppers who suffer from one of several specific medical conditions
Source: Kurufootwear.com
With this simple design effort, the brand is able to direct traffic and align different messages and offers with the true needs of its audience, ensuring they keep exploring.
The footer of the website even offers more incentives with different category pages. They also engage visitors with different, specific pain points and needs.
It’s important to implement this tactic on your homepage and to carefully consider your CTAs and internal link structure from there. Once a customer has started out on their journey, make sure there are plenty of fresh incentives to keep exploring, matching their pre-selected needs.
Average Order Value
Increasing your average order value means you will be earning more money from fewer customers. And since holding on to a customer is cheaper than recruiting new ones, increasing this metric is a sustainable way to grow.
One way to do it is to implement a free shipping threshold. That way, customers will be encouraged to purchase more items to qualify for the free shipping option and ultimately save money.
Where you place that threshold will be very important. You don’t want to end up losing money while increasing your order value and number of items per sale.
The specialist coffee retailer, Kopi Luwak Direct, has brilliantly limited the risk of their customers selecting the cheapest product they offer by placing the free shipping threshold just above its cost. Their user interface also makes it easy to select larger orders or extra numbers of orders, so customers don’t have to spend any extra time on the extra orders.
Source: Kopiluwakdirect.com
Number of New Email Subscribers
Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing tactics, with a ROI of $36 per dollar spent. However, in order for it to be effective, you need to have a lot of subscribers, as you will never be able to convert all of them. With average email conversion rates at 15%, it’s easy to do the math.
Alongside the most popular ways to improve subscriber rates, like pop-ups and gated content, you can always reach for the new customer discount option. It ensures high subscriber rates, and it also boosts your conversion rates.
Mannequin Mall has implemented this tactic, and they give new newsletter subscribers a discount. The trick, however, is to make your newsletters relevant. Otherwise, you’ll quickly lose subscribers and waste the effort.
Source: Mannequinmall.com
Now, you don’t want to get on your audience’s nerves by asking them to fill out long questionnaires about their shopping habits. But you do want to ensure your emails are as personalized as possible. Keep track of purchases, offer wishlists and the ability to sign up for product-specific notifications, and use this data when sending emails to your customers.
The better you personalize your further email communication, the higher your subscriber retention rates will be.
Cart Abandonment Rate
Finally, you want to do something about your cart abandonment rates. While 70% is standard across all industries, aiming for lower is a worthy goal.
The simplest way to impact this rate is to offer guest checkout. Most online stores offer it nowadays, and it’s easy to implement on both Shopify and WordPress platforms. Case in point, I love parcels makes it very easy to buy one of their products.
What they also do well is offering fast track and next-day delivery. They make it very obvious which products you can get and when, and the checkout process takes less than a minute.
You’ll also need to work on your CTA placement and cart abandonment email copy. The more compelling a reason you give a shopper to reconsider the purchase, the better.
Wrapping Up
By improving on these six crucial website marketing metrics, you’ll ensure your business continues to grow and prosper. Remember that all of these elements are interconnected, so you can’t hope to work on your cart abandonment rates, for example, if you don’t first address conversion obstacles. Adopt a holistic approach and take your time figuring out what works for each segment of your target audience.
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