Marketing Communications

536 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATION

may be expected. Including a feedback form may provide more detailed feedback and more

direction as specifi c questions and categories of information can be included in the feedback

form.

To fi nd out who really visits a website and what his or her evaluation of the site, the brand

and the sales eff ects are, visitor surveys (online or offl ine) are necessary. Surveys may give

socio-demographic, psychographic and webographic (with regard to the use of the Internet)

profi les of visitors. Th ey can also measure attitudes, satisfaction and intentions, and are a good

way of tracking the eff ectiveness and success of a website. InSites Consulting ( http://www.insites-

consulting.com ), a leading European Internet research agency, developed a model to evaluate the

performance of a website using scientifi cally tested questionnaires and constructs, adaptable

to specifi c research questions and needs (see Figure 15.1 ). In pre-testing, usability testing and

post-testing of websites, qualitative market research techniques such as focus groups and

in-depth interviewing can be used in conjunction with quantitative Internet panel surveys to

add research insights to the website visitor surveys. Website users’ input should be integrated

with the design process to ensure targeted and eff ective website building.

Even without any research budget there is a possibility to gain insights into how many

(unique) visitors your site has per day/week/month/etc., how visitors use your site, how they

arrived on your site (from which site, using which searching words, etc.), from which countries,

how you can keep them coming back by using Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a

reporting platform where the user can decide which parameters are of interest. Content

reports give insights into which parts of the website are performing well, which pages are

most popular, how much time the surfer is spending on these pages, in order to create a better

experience for the visitor, your prospect or customer. Even social media (what your visitors

are sharing and where) and mobile (know which mobile platforms work best, see where mobile

traffi c comes from) are now incorporated. You can analyse how visitors interact with sharing

features on your site. Conversion parameters give insights into the number of customers that the

brand or the company attracts, how much it sells and how users are engaging with the site.^235

Also, Google Analytics can be used for analysing an online advertising campaign. Advertising

Analytics is providing detailed insights to know if the advertising programme is working. All

digital channels such as search, display, social, affi liate and e-mail can be included to see the

eff ect on conversion rates and return.^236

Apart from these measures, the most important issue for marketers is what happens aft er

users click through an online ad or visit a website. Does the online marketing strategy lead to

conversion? What is the eff ect of the e-marketing campaign on brand equity and purchase

intention? For e-commerce sites, purchase behaviour is easy to link to e-marketing tactics

Figure 15.1 Assessing website marketing performance: the InSites Consulting model

Source : Developed by InSites, http://www.insites-consulting.com.

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