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So you’re ready to take your online business to the next level and watch some explosive growth unfold in the next quarter. YAY!
Before you start planning next quarter, let’s pause and look at where you’re at right now.Â
all about that data
Future planning for your biz is all about data.
Knowing exactly where you’re at or starting from helps you spend your time and money effectively so you can work efficiently.
By gathering, recording and keeping track of your analytics/data, you will start to see:
- what is working
- what isn’t working
- which trends are starting to play out
All of that starts with recording where you’re at right now.
so what should you record - and how?
First the how.
Your options:
- Write it all by hand in a notebook
- Add to a text document
- Use a spreadsheet
- Keep track on a Trello board
With a spreadsheet, you have the option to calculate weekly and monthly averages and map it out in a graphic to get a clear picture.Â
What to Record:
- Traffic
- List/Subscribers
- Customers
- Income & Expenses
Let’s discuss each.
Traffic
In order to grow, you need to expand your reach by getting more traffic.
It’s also a good idea to encourage visitors to your content to click around and dive into more of your content.
TIP: Place related articles at the bottom of your posts, even if it just a link to other posts under that subheading.Â
What to keep track of:
- Total visitorsÂ
- Unique visitorsÂ
- Bounce rate
- Traffic sources
List/Subscribers
Your next goal is always to get these people on your list.
What to keep track of:
- Total number of subscribers
- Conversion rates for each of your opt-in forms and pages
- Open rates for your emails
- UnsubscribesÂ
As you start to collect/review data regularly, you’ll get a better picture of your subscriber base.
Customers
Subscribers are great, customers are better.
What to keep track of:
- Total customers
- Daily purchases
- Weekly Purchases
- Monthly Purchases
- Total lifetime value of your average customer
- Repeat purchases
- Refund ratesÂ
Income & Expenses
Last but not least, look at your bottom line, your typical accounting data.
Always keep track of both income and expenses.
Subtract your expenses from your income and there’s your profit.
Easy!
Look at profit over a period of time, but always track income and expenses each time they come up.Â
Yes, you can find this data in various different places.
- Google Analytics
- Your shopping cart or shop software
- Email autoresponder service
It’s very important to have it all in one place. This makes it much easier to connect the dots and see the relationships between the different sets of numbers.
Once your initial data is collected, it would behoove you to make it a habit to update the numbers regularly. If you want to experience any kind of growth, you must know what is working for you and what isn’t as you move through the coming months and years.Â
Stock Photos:
resources
Journal prompts to help you discover what’s working and what needs attention in your business.
Doing a quarterly check-in will help your business keep running smoothly.
A fantastic tool/platform that will help you keep your business organized from top to bottom.Â
A WP plugin for share buttons, follows and links to related posts. See the site for details on how it can help you. There are a bunch of other helpful tools on their site, so check them out as well.Â
Explanations of:
- Unique VisitorsÂ
- Visitors
- Visits