A Pirate with Goals?

You are probably wondering why I would be dressed as a pirate in our Google Analytics Holiday Greetings video. There is some method behind my apparent madness – other than I am a bit of a pirate fan. I have the pleasure of blogging about setting goals in Google Analytics. For me it is a little ironic (or maybe Freudian) that my piece is the “Five Gold Rings” slot (as well) way too much fun. Why you ask? In case you didn’t know - Pirates always carefully measure the booty before splitting it up.

Who Gets What?

Measuring and quantifying your marketing (pillaging) returns is really essential for any self respecting pirate or business owner for that matter. Knowing your true results is the critical component. That does not mean having an idea or an inkling of what and where your booty came from it means knowing your results precisely. The wonderful thing about the internet is it can be very very precise. Precise enough for even the most cautious Pirate Captain.

Don’t blindly believe what the crew tell you.

To often, as business owners, we get wrapped up (nice Christmas pun!) in our own feelings about what works in marketing (pillaging). I call it the pillage of the month syndrome. You know you make any call or inquiry match the marketing effort you perceive to be working the best. It is amazing how easy it is to forget that we own the business. That means if we believe something, our employees do to. So the tried and trusted ask the “Where they heard about us” thing doesn’t work. It just feeds you what you want to hear.

Count The Booty

You need empirical data, real measurements and the internet provides that. Using Google Analytics is a convenient and effective way to monitor the results of your marketing. So why 5 website goals? Well because it is what is in the song – duh. We changed it from gold rings to 5 website goals for Google Analytics Christmas. Setting up goals in your Google Analytics allows you to monitor exactly what is happening on your website and consequently all areas of your marketing. If you want to know how many people visited a particular page, completed a certain action or contacted you, there is a goal for that. Goals are not only for counting but they help you understand where a conversion originated. Whether you are a Pirate or a business owner you better be setting goals.