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WVU IMC, Week 6 post

How Chewy.com May Use Web Analytics to Lead the Pack As a strictly e-commerce retailer, Chewy.com has been a trailblazer not only in its industry of pet supplies, but in the e-commerce industry as a whole. They are often compared to the online retail giant Amazon, and even beat Amazon in pet supply sales as of a 2018 Forbes article. Chewy has the advantage of being a leader in a growing industry. According to NYC Data Science Academy , pet industry growth   “feeds on factors such as the multi-generational appeal of pets, the positive correlation between good human health and pet ownership, and a pet culture that spawns spending on luxury goods for animals” in the U.S. (2017). While the industry is a growing one, there also must be a number of web analytics strategies and tactics that Chewy.com uses to keep growing its beast of a business. Although we can’t get inside their analytics and marketing departments to find out what, there are several websites dedicated to dissec...
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WVU IMC 642, Week 5 post

What's the Most Important Data for a Business? (Hint: It's not data.) For any company in existence, both qualitative and quantitative data are essential. Qualitative data is based on feedback, usually of a target audience. It turns the target audience’s attitudes, interests and opinions (AIO) into (hopefully) usable data, through research methods like focus groups, surveys, ethnography, and reading through customer comments on social media or relative websites. This type of data takes a lot of effort to collect and dissect.    Quantitative data, quite simply, is based on numbers. It’s reflected by numbers themselves, percentages, ratios, graphs, etc.   It allows for tracking progress or trends because it incorporates statistical analysis. This type of data is more readily available than ever thanks to analytics programs and software that compile it nonstop from websites, apps and other hosts.   When companies combine qualitative and quantitative data, they...
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WVU IMC 642, Week 4 post

Online Data Reporting: Take it from “What a mess!” to Whatagraph I’m going to be up front with you: I am not a data fan. I don’t like studying numbers, I don’t like comparing them, and I certainly don’t like reporting on them. I am a language person. My main strengths are writing, editing, and creating whatever form of messaging my company or client needs. Ask anyone in public relations or communications and they’ll tell you the same thing: I don’t do numbers. However, we language people can’t live in a bubble of denial, either. Our roles are becoming more integrated with marketing, sales, content producers, development, website SEO, etc. Many of us already perform in roles that incorporate two or more of these discplines. Even job titles of these professions are changing as skill demands grow to keep up with the ever-widening digital landscape and content mountains companies must conquer.   That means it’s essential for everyone in a company who has a hand in producing...
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IMC 642 Week 3, post 3

Determining How Social Media Works for Your Business A case-based example on the differences between popular social channels Social media is indispensable for most businesses in this fast-paced digital era.  Companies that have been around since before social media may get by OK if their customer base is late Generation X, Baby Boomers and Matures.  Those generations are digital immigrants and probably became regular customers before social media took a dominant role in human culture. But if a company is just starting out, getting set up with at least a couple social channels is pretty much a requirement, if only to grow brand awareness and mark a place within your industry’s competition. Here are some charts from Statista that show data on social media usage in the United States.  The first chart shows which age groups are using social media, and the second shows which platforms those age groups are using: Now, the four social networks listed are not th...
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IMC 642 Week 2, post 2

Return visitors: Who are they and why don’t they buy your stuff? One of the easiest website metrics to track is return visitors . Return visitors cleanly show up on the website analytics dashboard as a topline metric.   But one of the hardest things to do with return visitors is turn them into customers. Having return visitors is great. It means they like a website or brand, they help keep the traffic up, and maybe they’re even engaging with the brand through email or on social media. But, if they’re not buying anything (or, for nonprofits, donating), why are they really there? Many companies struggle with this reality. They’re trying to figure out, “What’s the key to conversion for returning visitors?” The blog post from shopifyplus lists these three essentials for understanding and converting return visitors: According to shopifyplus, for ecommerce, most website traffic is return visitors. This means there’s a ton of potential customers, but companies can’...
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IMC 642 Week 2, post 1

How Neil Patel uses referral traffic to create surges in his own website traffic & build his brand Neil Patel is a dominant leader in the entangled world of search engine optimization (SEO). He has proven strategies for every aspect involved in managing a website that achieves a business’s online goals. Through his web analytics expertise, he manages to untangle everything to produce clear, actionable strategies and tips for every way to optimize a website and reach whatever goals brands set forth. In one of his very detailed, example-rich blog posts , Neil Patel explained how to leverage a variety of sources of referral traffic to boost one’s own website traffic, and consequently, the brand. Referral traffic is that directed to a website from another internet source. Examples of referrers are social media posts, press releases, review websites, and others. This is so valuable that there are actually companies dedicated to researching the best ways to boost referral traffi...
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