Telemarketing Software Featured Article

While shoppers may like to believe they remain anonymous when they surf the Internet, the feeling is an illusion. Most companies – and their sales and marketing departments in particular – find it helpful to track website visitors. After all, when they come to your website, consumers bring a wealth of useful information with them: where they’re clicking over from, what browser they are using, where they’ve visited before and what they’re looking for from you. While the sales team has traditionally tracked information like this to better craft their approaches, it’s worthwhile for marketing to examine these attributions as well.

“With attribution, it’s possible for the marketing team to have accurate and detailed information just like the sales team,” wrote Alexis Getscher for Business2Community. “Having that information helps marketers understand which channels to optimize to grow the company. And, as a marketer, why wouldn’t you be doing absolutely everything possible to grow the business?”

Companies that track Web site data often find themselves surprised by the data they uncover. They may be getting less traffic from the places they believe they are, and far more from unexpected sources. By uncovering and exploiting this information, marketers can concentrate more of their efforts to where their customers are. Examining how customers are using your Web site can also provide more in-depth information about the journey customers are taking with your company.

“Transparency with attribution means that marketers can see the whole funnel,” wrote Getscher. “This is extremely important because, according to a survey done by the Consumer Executive Board (CEB), buyers are at a minimum 57 percent of the way through the buying process before they engage a sales rep. Some even reported being 70 percent complete with their decision-making process before contact with a supplier.”

By helping sales professionals put themselves into the customer’s buying process earlier in the cycle, sales professionals and marketing teams can improve the customer’s experience and have more control over the message. Many companies believe that their marketing efforts begin and end with lead generation, but this simply isn’t true. A better map of the customer journey across the company’s digital assets allows the marketing team to report on the numbers that matter and provide the chief marketing officer (CMO) insight into the business-relevant metrics like revenue instead of just focusing on lead generation.

“Rather than guessing on which marketing efforts are doing well, with attribution, decisions can be made based on actual numbers,” wrote Getscher. “Data will tell you how many people read the most-recent blog post, or clicked the link posted on Facebook (News - Alert). It also shows how long a lead spent on your website and what pages they visited in the process. Attribution holds each team accountable and shows the CMO the channels that should be optimized.”