Fresh off my recent attendance at a WebTrends web analytics and marketing performance seminar in Seattle, I figured Id blog a bit about the teachings and my takeaways on how integral web marketing and tracking is to the success of a web site.

The science of web promotion and attracting consumers online has progressed so far that those in the web analytics industry are now calling traditional, billions-of-dollars-a-year advertising (TV, radio, print, billboards, etc.) “indirect marketing.” As funny as it is to think about these established marketing techniques (and billions of dollars spent using them) as “indirect,” it’s true; using these traditional techniques are a bit like being tied up in the middle of the forest, bound, blindfolded and unable to hear. You can yell and yell for help (i.e. attempt to appeal to customers), but you don’t know if your yelling is really doing any good (whether people are coming to your store because of your ads), whether you should yell more (whether increasing spending will increase profits) or if your yelling is even helping the “right” people find you (that is, does your advertising appeal to your most valuable customers). But, the fear that it might be working is strong enough that you’d never dare stop.

On the internet however, all of your marking and promotional tactics can be tracked. Your engagement with visitors and potential customers can be tracked, your promotions can be monitored and tweaked based on previous response rates, your site’s traffic can be analyzed and your content can be shifted to be more appealing to visitors. The ability to test and optimize on the fly has never been so easy! All of these things can be done to guide and help your visitors find what they need to find on your site and encourage them to do what you’d like them to do (whether that is buy something, register, sign up for a newsletter, send you a message, etc.)

On the web, it’s also easy to dialog and communicate with your visitors. Blogs, comments, contact forms, surveys, and community forums all help visitors communicate with each other (and the business). Where traditional advertising pushes a message out there and expects it to be read, the internet allows businesses to pull interest in where it springs up on their sites. Where traditional advertising is a monologue (of course, you could talk back to a TV ad, but no one will be listening!), the internet lets businesses and customers dialog with each other.

The benefits of implementing a focused web marketing campaigns are real. U.S. companies lose about 50% of their customers every 5 years. That fact alone goes a long way in keeping traditional advertising companies making millions of dollars every year. After all, if you lose a customer you have to replace him if you want your company to grow. But what if you could lower the amount of customers you lose? A mere 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits anywhere from 25% - 95%. That means a slight increase in retention can drastically increase your bottom line.

The absolute best way to keep customers loyal is to not treat them like customers at all, but rather treat them as an integral part of the organization. Give them the information they need, let them communicate with likeminded people about your business or organization, let them contribute content, and make sure you are giving them everything they need online by tracking and analyzing your web site’s effectiveness.