Orders are easy; you get the money, you give some of it to your supplier, the supplier handles the rest. It is very simple, very straightforward. Analytic reporting and analyzing is something that is our personal responsibility as the website owner. No one is going to twist our arm and make us do anything, like a supplier would for a delinquent payment, yet this is something far more important to the success of your business.
Always Keep a Log
The way in which you log is not as important as it is that you are logging your results. Be it in a spreadsheet that you will track results, or in a notepad, the important thing is you find something that works for you. The spreadsheet is the ‘normal’ answer, but if you’re not comfortable with it, don’t use it! Write by hand if that’s better for you, write it in a simple word processing document. This has to be something that is easy for you, or you are going to think of excuses not to do it.
A lot of marketing is going to boil down to running PPC campaigns, changing text on your homepage, and a host of other seemingly small, similar things. If we do not take the time to analyze what our efforts are actually doing, then there is no point in doing it. We cannot throw money or time into a machine, and expect results. We have to see in what areas our advertising is succeeding, and where it is failing, and change things accordingly. There are no hard or fast answers that can be given; your market is unique, and you have to work within it to be successful.
But with a little bit of extra planning, and weekly due diligence, we’ll be able to take full advantage of all that advertising gives us. Running a business is work, but if we take that little extra effort day to day, we’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!
And you know what, they’re right. If you’re trying to offer something to your customers online that they can buy at a big chain store that’s ten minutes away, why are they going to wait a few days for it to ship? You’re not going to compete if you’re trying to go toe to toe with a bruiser like that. They don’t have decades of experience and billions of dollars in their corner doing nothing.
The concept is simple, but often it does not translate fully into the smaller aspects of the principle. We want to convey well to our visitors, or our friends what the site is about, when it comes down to describing what it is we’re selling to our prospective buyers.
