Goals and measuring success on your website

If you’re running your own business or have several “hats” in your workplace, chances are you will find setting realistic goals and objectives fairly intuitive. The main issue people tend to struggle with is making sure to review your goals at the right time, don’t rush making new objectives for future projects and most importantly don’t take ‘higher traffic’ or ‘better search rankings’ as success, what these give you as an end result is your success factor. 

Now, you may have a good idea of where you want your website to go in the near future and what you want it to do for your business. Keep in mind that a simple goal is a good thing, something like “Sell more XYZ to ABC by the end of the year” will be much easier to communicate to staff than a very specific goal that may need to be altered during its course. Simple goals are a lot easier to come back to whenever you make any website decisions.
 

Below are some examples of typical goals and objectives. Remember, the goal is the end outcome of your objectives not the other way around. Don’t have “Get the highest search ranking” as a goal if the main reason why you’re doing this is to achieve something else – site activity, leads, subscriptions, then sales. You can use the simple table below to fill in the blanks to give some grounds to achieving these later on.

The first example is already done and relates to Mr. X who has good conversion rates and low exit rates but has noticed a small decline in his page views.

Goal	Objective	How	Outcome and Rating	Notes and changes
Eg. Increase sales from people who have purchased before	- Increase returning site visitors by 15% over the next 2 months - Increase newsletter subscriptions from previous purchasers and leads	- Show benefits of subscribing on site - EDM: Email people who haven’t bought in over 3 months - Social Media: - link to site when new products are available	- 10% increase in returning visitors - Several more subscriptions 7/10, good outcome for time spent but would like more consistency from previous purchasers	- Need more current Social Media users engaging with our updates - On site benefits of subscribing looks good but hard to find
Eg. Reduce service cancellations and abandoned carts	- Reduce exit rates on key pages by 10% by the end of next month - Reduce abandoned carts and cancelled appointments by 20%	- Usability / Aesthetics: make browsing options more natural and remove any unnecessary elements. - EDM: Maybe we can email or alert people who don’t finish their checkout?	-	-

In this table, it is important not to put too many options in the ‘How’ section, as it will then be more difficult to trace what when wrong (or what went right) later on. When running tests, it is always important to keep things simple. Changing just one element is the best way to measure whether a change has had a positive or negative effect.

To Do For My Business

        I have a Primary Goal that is the purpose of my website’s existence

        I have Primary Actions that I want my visitors to make

        I have Secondary Goals that may lead to Primary Goals and Objectives being fulfilled (eg: registration, subscription, download, phone call)

        My objectives have a timeframe and will be straightforward to measure in the future, they relate directly to my primary and secondary goals

In Practice

Depending on whether you are selling a "billable hour" or a product the sale amount maybe anything from $20 for a product to $300 for a billable hour. Either way you can still get a strong value indication from online goal achievement...

Let’s say you receive 100 phone calls from potential customers a month:

-          On average, around 10 of those calls result in a conversion (i.e. Booking, appointment, treatment or sale)

-          On average, each conversion that originated from a call receives a dollar value of $50

-          Now we know that each incoming phone call has an average value of $5 (10x$50/100)

Now you know the value that each click on the ‘contact us’ part of your website brings, and can incorporate it into your goals! So don’t forget, to really support your ‘goal outcome’ always ask how a caller or visitor found out about you.

Web Marketing Basics

An important notion that should stick throughout all of your web-learning and online efforts is that marketing online doesn’t depend on just aesthetics, usability or search engine optimization, customer management or traffic analysis. Rather it is a culmination of these which influence each other, so no element should be overlooked when trying to measure success, thinking up new ideas or making lasting changes.

For a straightforward reference point, below is a table of some common areas necessary to develop and maintain an effective site. You can use this as a ‘shopping list’ when considering site changes or wish to measure the success of just about anything of yours online. It is also handy to keep these in mind when figuring out how well your competitors do things. Don’t worry if you’re not 100% sure on what all of these mean as we will go over them soon!

Inside your website
Usability	How easily visitors can find and use what they’re looking for on your site. How straight forward the information is and whether the traffic is going where you directed it.
Aesthetics	Whether or not visual assets of your site fit together well and are attractive. Where the user’s eye is attracted to. How memorable your site is, how well it reflects your business and brand. Ties in with usability.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)	Effects the likelihood that people will be able to find your site (mostly through Google) when they are looking for your business / industry / products / services or anything else related to what you want to offer them.
Analytics	Tells you what has happened on your site. See statistics on who visited, what they saw, when and where they left and how they got to your site in the first place all according to a chosen timeframe. This way you can track the success of changes shortly after they are made and substantiate new ones.

Outside your website
Community Management	Helping users with questions, complaints or queries whilst representing your brand and voice. Building a strong and visible rapport.
Social Media	Extending the reach of any campaigns and creating discussion. Ties in directly with community management. Relatively quick and cost effective. Most popular examples are Facebook and Twitter.
Electronic Direct Marketing (EDM)	Direct Marketing efforts via email. This is predominantly used to communicate offers and new products /services but also includes newsletter updates about any changes, sharing or commenting on industry news and any automatic mail that helps people use your site and services.

To Do for my Business

        Taken note of the above areas that I have / haven’t considered or used before.

        Do a 20 minute search on my main competitors, how do they compare with their Social Media, Aesthetics and Usability?

Online Marketing Guide

We often hear similar problems that our users are having with their websites. “I’ve tried social media but it’s just not getting anywhere,” “My site looks messy and I’m not sure what to work on next,” or even “no-one is visiting or using my site!” For these people and many others we are putting together a series of articles to help your internet marketing, whether you are a part of a small to medium business or have limited time available these steps and tips are for you.

Let us begin!

There is no point in attempting a social media marketing campaign, sending out a newsletter or any other online effort if your website is not up to standard. The main goal of Social Media, blogs and other digital marketing efforts should be to get people engaged and get them to your website where you can then drive conversions. 

Essentially it would be like seeing an advert for a new theme park in the newspaper, driving all the way there with your family and then having to go home as it is still under construction. Your chances of getting people to come back after an experience like this are pretty slim. So do it right the first time.

If you’re still unsure, have a think about whether any of these apply to you:

• People rarely ever find out about my business from the internet
• Typing in my business name or something very similar into Google doesn’t get the right results
• I tried changing things on my site and made Social Media accounts, but it didn’t get me anywhere
• I don’t think I’ve made any lasting contacts or mutually beneficial relationships through the internet
• My site doesn’t look or feel good, I’m not sure who goes to it and what they do, I’ve seen many tips and advice but don’t know what really applies to me...

…you get the picture.

We will provide you with a series of fortnightly lessons designed to give you some down to earth direction on how to best move forward with your web marketing, if you’re just a beginner or want to get things up to scratch. We will combine our expertise in SEO, Social Media, Digital Marketing and more. Many websites we come across have fantastic intentions for their customers but miss out in some key areas. With a little bit of effort and some time put aside in your normal schedule you can get a lot more out of the net (where your potential clients and competitors already are!). 

Next issue: Web Marketing Basics - Understanding links between Aesthetics, Usability, SEO and more

The results are in: costs of poor employee engagement and it's not pretty. 

A recent study by Gallup, examining the level of employee engagement of over 1.5 million employees in 50,000 businesses, from more than 34 countries have found the cost of low employee engagement to be in excess of $370 billion annually!

According to the study, employee engagement is absolutely essential to company performance, with those companies scoring in the 99^th percentile for employee engagement reporting a success rate four times that of those companies with lower employee engagement.

High employee engagement has been shown to significantly impact job performance in the following critical ways: 

• 37% lower absenteeism
• 25% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
• 65% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
• 28% less shrinkage
• 48% fewer safety incidents
• 41% fewer patient safety incidents
• 41% fewer quality incidents (defects)
• 10% higher customer metrics
• 21% higher productivity
• 22% higher profitability

Companies reporting job satisfaction in the upper half of employee engagement results are predicted to have doubled the chance of KPI achievement to those scoring in the lower half. With the study now in it's eighth year, and results remaining consistent to date, the importance of job satisfaction is not one to be taken lightly.

While simply asking your employees, “Are you satisfied in your job?” may appear to address any concerns, neglecting to explore the factors that contribute to this does not provide management with the tools to properly address these specific issues. It is up to you to the employer to investigate how to best engage, but if you need help getting started have a look at 5 Ways to Keep Employees Happy.

Source: Gallup

Reducing staff turnover by keeping your workers happy

The concept that ‘happy workers are hard workers’ is not a foreign concept in any workplace.


Nevertheless, too many businesses struggle to retain their staff and suffer from high turnover rates. 


Ensuring that your workers are satisfied in the workplace can greatly reduce the costs associated with recruitment, training and reductions in productivity due to introducing new staff into your workplace. 


Here are some simple tips to keep your staff where you want them.

• First understand why staff are leaving and address these issues promptly
•  Assess your staff benefits compared to those offered in different companies. If your staff aren’t receiving a similar package, it’s time to re-evaluate
• Increase the flexibility provided in your workplace, particularly for working parents
• Let staff bring their own devices to work and allow them to access social media while on the job. Believe it or not, flexible IT practices have been associated with  increased job satisfaction and workers who use social media are up to 75% more  productive.
• If your industry can allow it allow options for staff to work from home
• Provide workers with responsibility and allow them to use it
• Show your staff respect

By outlining a clear path to performance growth, job promotion, listening to your staff and responding to issues they raise should enable your staff to feel respected and valued.  All key factors when ensuring your staff are happy!

5 tips for giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates 

A candidate has taken the time to apply for a job advertised at your workplace and perhaps attended an interview but you have decided the person-job fit just wasn't right and they have been unsuccessful.  It's hard to do, but it is common courtesy to let them know the outcome.  But if you do this right it doesn't have to be a negative experience! It can actually have some long term benefits for your business; 

• You can save time later-as you won’t have to take any number of calls from candidates trying to follow up at any given time

• You can establish your employer brand in a positive light 

• You also leave the opportunity open to hire the applicant for the future!

One of the most common mistakes employers make during recruitment is giving out generic or impersonal feedback to unsuccessful candidates or failing to give out feedback altogether, due to the inherent difficulty in organising and delivering such feedback. The following information will make giving interview feedback easier.

5 tips on how ensure you are delivering quality and constructive feedback:

1. The feedback should be delivered by the person who conducted the interview. Show that a serious and adequate amount of time and deliberation went into the decision and that the final answer is coming from the person most involved.
2.  Include specific examples of the candidate’s responses and how these responses lead to your decision. Did they discuss experiences that didn’t show strengths required for the role? Did they seem only somewhat vested in the role’s tasks when you need someone extremely dedicated?
3. Try to tie feedback into the job specification. Feedback certainly shouldn’t only be about how they carried themselves during interview, link what they included in a cover letter or resume to the outcome.
4. Think about your tone of voice and the words you use. This can be the major aspect they take away with them that affects your employer brand and their future opportunities.
5. Be prepared for the candidate to disagree with you, in this case remain calm, polite and stick to the facts. Take notes on your key reasoning. 

As part of the constructive and fair feedback, common reasons candidates are rejected are:

• Preparedness: the applicant did not appear to know much about the company or the position they were applying for
• Punctuality: Arriving late for the interview without a valid reason
• Direction: Having a lack of career goals or career plan
• Motivation: Appearing unenthusiastic due to their vague and unelaborate responses or failing to provide useful information about themselves or their perceptions of the role
• Honesty: Lying or being evasive about qualifications and previous work experience
• Duration: Stating that they are only interested in working in the position for a short period of time
• Qualifications: Being overqualified or under-qualified for the position advertised

By completing this process in a courteous, constructive and positive manner you not only promote positive sentiment towards your company but are also contributing understanding to the applicant about how they may approach the hiring process more effectively.

And who knows? Perhaps in the future, you'll be calling to accept them into a different position they are better suited to!