Marketing ideas for the shoestring bourgeoisie.
You are here: Home / Archives for Idea Center / Surveys and Determining ROI

Google Analytics 2012 Report Templates (Some Assembly Required)

June 15, 2012 By 15 Comments

Marketing Ideas Google Analytics Report Templates

Thank you, Google.

Thank you for offering us such great value over the years. Thank you, especially, for Analytics. Google Analytics has been a mainstay in our statistical web traffic reporting for years! You were our main constant, Google. You made reporting on client website traffic easy to implement and automate. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

But..

Let’s talk about this new version of Google Analytics (G5) you’ve just blurted out onto the world. No doubt it’s powerful, but I’m wondering–for the love of all that’s holy–why did you put a three year old in charge of the roll-out?

For it must be a three year old at the wheel. Who else could take what was easy (automating scheduled emails of a single, complete web traffic report) and make it ridiculously painful and patchwork to pull together the same information and deliver it to a client?

Who else would send an entire industry scrambling to migrate all their clients’ reports to this same, disjointed cluster of reports?

Who else would miss migrating those email addresses and report schedules?

As a father of four children, I know a thing or two about three year olds and I can tell you none of my three year olds have known how to use Google Analytics. Apparently, neither does the Google project manager who spearheaded this effort, for he or she would have figured out how vital the delivery of these reports are to customers all over the world.

Alas, it is apparent the Google project manager who owns this worldwide debacle wasn’t terribly familiar with this part of the process. Or maybe their Google superiors were asking them to cut corners. Whatever the reason, between this and the ghost town that is Google+, I think Google may be losing their clue. Maybe they’ll get caught up again. I hope they do.

If you saw your traffic reports go away this week, we were warned it would happen. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing (ranting,) it appears there is no solid solution for getting the old, user-friendly reports automated again. Until that is developed, here are some of the “patchwork” reports I referred to earlier. Each has pieces of what you’re accustomed to seeing, but not all of what you were seeing. If you want to have these reports emailed to your inbox regularly, you now set this up on a dashboard-by-dashboard basis.

So, whereas you once received one succinct report delivered to your inbox, now you can receive four or five partial reports, all sent via separate emails. Clever!

I will update the following list of Google Analytics report templates as more become available. If you come across other report templates, PLEASE SHARE THEM IN THE COMMENTS!

Enjoy!

(Andover IT)

(Watson)

(Kaushik)

marketing ideas Google Analytics divider

References

Andover IT. Google Analytics Report Templates. Retrieved from http://www.andover-it.co.uk/tools-tips/google/google-analytics-report-templates/.

Watson, C. Free Google Analytics Dashboards and Custom Reports. Retrieved from http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/002851.php.

Kaushik, A. 3 Awesome, Downloadable, Custom Web Analytics Reports. Retrieved from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-downloadable-custom-web-analytics-reports/.

Filed Under: Articles, Internet Marketing, marketing ideas, Non-Profit, Small Business, Surveys and Determining ROI Tagged With: , , , , ,

Marketing Idea #73: The Casual Survey

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Marketing Ideas Casual Survey

If you aren’t doing so already, casually survey all clients before they cash out. Kindly request their permission to ask them basic questions about their occupation, their use of time, the reason why they’re in front of you, what they like (and would improve) about their experience, and so on. This will give you a better idea of who comes to your store and why. Train your staff to do the same. Ask the same questions of everyone.

Tip: You don’t have to ask a flurry of questions from every customer that walks through your doors. Ask a single question of every customer one week, another question the next, and so on, and you will begin to shape a picture about the people who shop from you.

Filed Under: Idea Center, Small Business, Surveys and Determining ROI Tagged With: ,

Marketing Idea #74: Exit Interviews Are a Must

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Marketing Ideas Exit Interviews Are a Must

Conduct exit interviews anytime you have an employee submit his resignation. In conducting this survey, you begin to determine where you’re falling short in keeping your people. Often, you’ll find that money isn’t the top issue. What you’re looking for is how you are able to improve your internal marketing. How do you craft a culture that keeps and nurtures the best employees? How do you build fierce loyalty and pride among your employees? Among your customers? Your vendors? Begin asking the tough questions. The sooner you get the answers, the sooner you’ll be able to emerge as a company people aspire to work for and with.

Filed Under: Idea Center, Non-Profit, Small Business, Surveys and Determining ROI Tagged With: , , ,

Marketing Idea #75: Mystery Shoppers

March 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Marketing Ideas Mystery Shopper

Mystery shop your competition. Mystery shopping is shopping with your competition, under the cover of anonymity, with the intent of seeing how they perform. Consider this marketplace espionage. While much less direct than simply introducing yourself and swapping stories about successes and follies, this still gives you vital information about what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how you may better leverage your own efforts.

Better: Pay someone to mystery shop you. Look for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Act on what you discover.

Variation: While there are professional mystery-shopping organizations widely available, there is another way. Seek out strategic partners within your network, and arrange to have them shop you. Tutor them on the facets of the customer experience you would like to know most about. This may even be a reciprocal effort, where you shop them in return.

Tip: You must remain open to criticism if you’re going to have yourself shopped. Being closed-minded to the results may render them useless and leave you in the dark.

Filed Under: Idea Center, Small Business, Surveys and Determining ROI Tagged With: , , ,