'As large firms embrace the benefits of traditional marketing, they Essay

'As large firms embrace the benefits of traditional marketing, they must also embrace the rigours of Web analytics to measure - Essay Example With big companies spending huge amounts of resources to market their products, it is essential that they make good decisions on how to invest on their marketing endeavors and to measure the returns on these investments. One of the tools used to provide metrics relating to online marketing is web analytics. This paper will discuss the importance of web analytics in measuring organizations’ return on marketing investment. Web Analytics and Its Importance The web has grown to become a very powerful vehicle for communicating and marketing as noted by Burby and Atchison (2007, p1). It makes it easy for businesses to communicate fast and easily with millions of customers spread across the globe in real time. As a result, it has changed the speed at which businesses and their brands can be established and grow. The web has also shortened the distance between the marketer and the customer both physically and emotionally to the period of a click of the mouse Burby and Atchison (2007, p1). With many large organizations appreciating the value of having a web presence, they are prepared to invest if only there is bound to be good returns on their investment (Clifton 2012, p. 1). Organizations have therefore to decide how much to invest in their online marketing endeavours and establish the most cost effective way to market the site and have valuable leads that translate into sales. A few years ago, many organizations with a web presence could not tell who and how many visitors landed on their websites. This is no longer the case today. Many large organizations today have the capability of knowing a lot about the visitors to their websites and the activities that the visitors perform on these sites, thanks to web analytics Burby and Atchison (2007, p. 14). Web analytics involves collecting, measuring, analyzing and reporting data retrieved from the Internet with the aim of understanding and optimizing usage of the web as noted by Peterson (2004, p. 5). Some of the v ariables measured on-site include drivers and conversions. In other words, web analytics is mainly dedicated to generating more leads to an e-business, enhancing brand awareness, and learning more about customers and the business (Loveday & Niehaus 2007, p. 34). The information that the organization in this respect includes how the customers find an organization’s website, how much they spend on each webpage and what they do when they land on the site. An organization, for example, can get to know which of the landing pages on a website lead more customers to purchase its goods or services online. Using this information, the organization can further optimize its web pages or make changes to some of its pages to attract more conversions (Napier 2006, 225). In addition to these, the organization may rely on web analytics to find a clue as to why visitors leave their website or a particular web page (Plaza 2009, p. 478). With this information, an organization can attract more vi sitors to their website and convert them into paying customers. Web analytics can be done on-site and off-site. Off-site web analytics involves the measurement of a websites visibility, potential audience, and buzz on the entire Internet (Farris, Bendle, Pfeifer & Reibstein, 2009, p. 54). On the other hand, on-site analytics involves