This is a transcript from episode 56 of the OMGrowth podcast
I’m Lanie Lamarre and I love ice. I have many different ice trays in my freezer, it makes me feel very rich to have a selection of ice – especially the big ice cubes because for some reason, big ice cubes are definitely rich people stuff for me – and if you have a degree in psychology that can edu-care me as to why this is, I’d welcome your insight.
But the riches we’re talking about today have to do with all the elements that contribute TO your riches and results for your online business so without further ado…
When you aren’t seeing the results you’re looking for… well, have you considered looking somewhere else?
It sounds like I’m kidding but I’m really not because a lot goes into getting you the results you’re looking for. If you’re only looking at the results, you’re actually missing the big picture of what’s going on.
It’s like the iceberg analogue where what you see at the top – in this case, the top are your results – and that leaves out everything that sits below the surface on which those results are built on.
But the thing is that you CAN see what is below the surface when you’re collecting data as to how your people are behaving and how your website is performing. The more intentional you are about HOW you’re collecting this data, the deeper you can go with what your results are built on.
So if you aren’t seeing the results you’re looking for, I want you to think about the traffic sources you’re targeting with whatever campaign or strategy you’re running. Then, I want you to hone in on how THAT area is performing and what results you ARE getting from where you’re investing your time, energy and/or money.
Let’s talk about what those areas are, how your different traffic sources work and what questions you can start asking yourself about how you’re performing in those areas:
ORGANIC SEARCH
Your content has many jobs, one of which is to help you get found by the people who are searching for exactly what you have to offer and speak about.
You get found through ORGANIC SEARCH by people who know what they want; they clicked on your content because what you were offering spoke to their needs.
Bringing free traffic to your content and offers is totally possible, and investing your efforts into Search Engine Optimization – or what the cool kids like us call SEO – is how you improve your chances of being found by search engines like Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo, to name just a few.
WHAT DATA TO LOOK AT
If you’re using privacy-compliant analytics like Fathom or Plausible, which we discussed in episode 54, you will segment under “Source” for the different search engines you’re seeing in your analytics (to see traffic coming through on Google searches, you’d filter “Source: Google”) or if you’re using Google Analytics, you can take a wide view by segmenting “Medium: Organic”.
Some questions you can ask yourself to better understand how your search traffic is performing include:
- Landing Page/Content/Top Pages: What are people searching for when they find me? What was it that made them choose to check out what I had to offer?
- Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate: How engaged are they when they find what they’re looking for? Are they picking up what I’m throwing down?
- Goals/Events: Is this segment of visitors doing the activities I’m most interested in seeing them engage with? Is there something I can do that would improve how they’re engaging with my goals/events?
REFERRAL TRAFFIC
There’s an old expression about “word of mouth” being the best advertising but even if word about you is spread on a screen, the saying holds true. You’ll typically find that your referral traffic is some of your best performing traffic in terms of conversions: these are people who came from somewhere else – usually another website where your content was referenced or shared – and these visitors are therefore quicker at building relationships with you because someone else has vouched for you.
A little #protip about being the kind of person other people want to refer: when you see who has been sending you traffic, thank them! Slip into their DMs, make them a video, send an email – whatever works for you and your brand – but do SOMETHING to show that you see them and you appreciate their vote of confidence in you and the voodoo that you do (shoop!).
WHAT TO LOOK AT
As you look through your “Source” traffic, you can segment specific sites that are sending traffic to you or if you’re using Google Analytics, you can take a wide view by segmenting “Medium: Referral”.
Some questions you can ask yourself to better understand how referrals are working for you include:
- Landing Page/Content/Top Pages: What are people being sent to look at? Which content or offers are people recommending from me?
- Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate: How engaged are they when they find me? Did this referral meet their expectations?
- Goals/Events: Is these referrals doing the activities I’m most interested in seeing them engage with? Is there something I can do that would improve the chances of them engaging with my goals/events?
DIRECT TRAFFIC
When you’re seeing direct traffic, it means someone typed your URL into the web browser and therefore, they already knew about you from somewhere or something else, or they were told to check you out.
Either way, it’s hard to hone in on and improve this type of traffic because you don’t know much about how they got there and there isn’t much you can do to change that.
That’s A-OK, though, because what this traffic source DOES help you figure out is what are people are thinking about when they tell themselves, “I know where to go for that!”
WHAT TO LOOK AT
When segmenting for traffic Source/Medium as “Direct/None”, some questions you can ask yourself to better understand what your direct traffic is saying about how people think about you:
- Landing Page/Content/Top Pages: What were they looking for? Which content or offers are people thinking about when they think of me? What am I known for or recognized as being an expert in? What subject am I “top of mind” for with others?
EMAIL TRAFFIC
You’ve likely heard “the money is in the list” and it should come as no surprise that your email list subscribers are some of the most motivated segment of people you’re engaging with in your marketing efforts. When you see people coming from email, it means they clicked-through on a link in an email you sent in order to see more or access what you were talking about.
Your email subscribers will likely be your most engaged traffic source and that makes it extra-valuable for you to track and identify what your people want more of and what they respond best to.
WHAT TO LOOK AT
If you’re not yet tracking your own email traffic, your email marketing service probably has some type of tracking in place and you’ll want to figure out how that’s being identified in your reports.
Once you know and can segment for your email traffic, some questions you can ask yourself to better understand how your subscriber traffic is performing include:
- Landing Page/Content/Top Pages: Where did I send people? Which content or offers are my subscribers most interested on clicking-through to?
- Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate: How engaged are they when they reach my site? Did this referral meet their expectations?
- Goals/Events: Is this segment of visitors doing the activities I’m most interested in having them engage with? Is there something I can do that would improve how they’re engaging with my goals/events?
You’ll also want to look at how many people you actually sent the email to versus how many of those people clicked-through on your email. This is what is called your click-through rate and it is useful to compare which of your emails have the highest click-through rates as it helps you better understand what content your subscribers respond best to.
SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC
The captions, images and videos you hit PUBLISH on for your various social media accounts are all content as well, even if it doesn’t live on your website.
If you’re rocking socks at your social media strategy, each post you publish serves to either reinforce your message, other pieces of content or your offers.
When people click through from the things you publish on social media, it’s because what you shared was interesting enough for them to slow their scroll, stop what they were doing and pick up what you were throwing down on your website.
I believe social media to be one of the hardest traffic sources to acquire because you’re asking people to leave the place they logged onto in the first place. If they do that, it means that whatever you’re offering on the other side is more attractive than what everyone else is publishing on that platform – and holy heck, is that impressive!
WHAT TO LOOK AT
As you look through your “Source” traffic, you can segment social media platforms that are sending traffic to you or if you’re using Google Analytics, you can take a wide view by segmenting “Medium: Social”.
Some questions you can ask yourself to better understand how social media traffic is working for you include:
- Landing Page/Content/Top Pages: What is my social media traffic looking for? What was enticing enough for them to leave the platform and click-through to my site?
- Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate: How engaged are they when they find what they’re looking for? Are they picking up what I’m throwing down?
- Goals/Events: Is my social media traffic doing the activities I’m most interested in seeing them engaging with? Is there something I can do that would improve the chances of them engaging with my goals/events?
This is where I need to insert a record scratch because understanding your social media performance isn’t as easy as seeing what they’re doing on your website when they get there.
When it comes to measuring your social media engagement and performance, it’s just like Vegas: what happens on your social media platform stays on your social media platform.
The story you see playing out on your website analytics will comment on what people are doing once they enter your universe. However, there’s a totally different story to account for that is taking place in your likes, your comments and your DMs. Your website analytics can’t report on or capture these interactions because they aren’t taking place on your website, which is what YOU are tracking; meanwhile, your social media platforms are each collecting and tracking their own data – their own ways – and you get no control or say over what they’re collecting or how they’re tracking.
What you DO get, though, is access to the insights that each platform shares and I encourage you to ask yourself a similar vein of questions as to what your social media followers are picking up from what you’re throwing down, and to try, test and track things over there in the same way as you would on your website.
PAID TRAFFIC
While paid traffic is obviously people coming to your site because you spent money to have your brand, your content or your offer in front of these people, what is less obvious is how these show up in your analytics.
For instance, you may be seeing “cpc” (meaning cost per click) or “cpm” (meaning cost per mille, or per thousand impressions), and all of this will depend on how you’re using ads and what platform you’re using to advertise.
Once you figure out what that looks like in your reports, the questions you’ll ask yourself about your paid campaigns will depend on HOW you’re using paid advertising in the first place.
Sometimes the goal for your paid campaign was to ATTRACT new audience, maybe it was to BUILD relationships, you may have been advertising to CONVERT to sales or perhaps it is a combination of the three. The questions you ask yourself will depend on the intent you had for those ads so focus on your goal and start exploring whether that was accomplished, as well as how and why that happened.
And look, if there’s one take-away from all of this is to ISOLATE your results as much as possible. It’s like making a holiday meal – you’re going to whip the potatoes and you’re going to baste the bird, but each will have to be done one-at-a-time… even though we’re enjoying the resulting meal as a whole.
That’s how results work: a lot of individual elements contribute to the outcome you get and it’s by investing your TLC into each of these elements individually that the whole of your results will improve.
If this is speaking to you and you want it to speak a little more loudly to you, there’s a link in the shownotes for you get more with my new book called Results On Repeat. We get in-depth with how you’re publishing, tracking and improving on all those individual elements that contribute to your overall marketing picture and I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d love for you to be proud too so check that out in the shownotes and make sure you’re subscribed so we can check each other out next week.
Talk soon – baiiiiieee!