Google Analytics - Care to Share Results?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

So, we are at the end of 2010.  I thought I would share my Google Analytics (GA) Results and what it means to me in hopes that you will share yours and we can try to figure out with each other where we need to focus in 2011.  I am no GA expert.  (Feel free to correct me if at any point I spew misinformation!)

From what I believe, GA is a trend analysis tool.  I would not put much stock in the face value of the figures, but I would put stock in the trend analysis - meaning, relationships between figures and also how figures change over time.  (See, even for figures that are wrong, if they are consistently wrong in the same way all the time, then the trend of change over time can still be valuable.)

So, here's what I'm looking at and I will compare this to 2011's results as 2011 progresses to see if I am improving my analytics or not.

First, on the dashboard of your iCraft store report, there is a date range in the top right corner.  That date range is a drop down.  Choose the drop down and type in the calendar year range for 2010 and hit apply.

Now you are seeing your stats for 2010.  Here are mine and what they mean to me:

VISITS
Visits: 4,005
Page Views: 8,424
Bounce Rate: 66.62% (people who landed on your shop and immediately left)

Ew - that's an ugly bounce rate.  I can see from my referring traffic that my Project Wonderful ads are definitely bringing me traffic.  However, since my bounce rate is high, maybe it's not the right traffic.  Maybe I'm not reaching the right demographic.

What does this mean?  In 2011, I must bring my bounce rate down by:
- refining my ads - maybe they are not representative of my shop
- changing my ads - maybe they are not targetted enough.  Maybe I should make an ad for bookmark cards that is different from my ad for wedding cards that is different from... you get the picture and then put each ad on a correspondingly more targetting site.
- continue replacementing for new blogs to advertise on - maybe I'm not not reaching the right audience

TRAFFIC
New Visits: 72.78% - I expected this. iCraft as a whole is still trying to build web presence.
Referring Sites: 30.93%
Search Engines: 55.40%
Direct Traffic: 13.52%
Other: 0.15%

Ok, maybe my high bounce rate is from replacement engines.  I seem to be getting decent traffic from Search Engines, but my shop isn't holding that interest once the person clicks and I'm not gaining the sale.

What does this mean?  In 2011, I must bring my bounce rate down by:
- improving my pictures - maybe my shop is "ugly" once they click here from a google replacement
- finding a way to better organize my shop - maybe they can't find what they were looking for because my listings are organized in no particular order (iCraft, some help here would be nice)

TRENDS
Sales on iCraft: 8 orders (these I counted from my iCraft account)
Visits to sales ratio: 4,005/8 = 501

This is the number I want to watch over time.  That's A LOT of visits to get a sale.  Looking at my trend of daily visits, I get about 10 visits a day per GA (4,005/365).  To get 501 visits, that's 50 days.  50 days for 1 sale. 

Items listed in 2010: 74  (I had to guestimate this one.  I'm going to keep a monthly total in 2011)
Listed to Sold ratio: 74/8 = 9

This is another one for me to watch.  I have to list roughly 9 things to get 1 sale.  Being as I list 1 or 2 things a week (yes, I'm slooOOOooOooW), that's about 1 sale every other month.  Yicky.

So, in 2011, I have to LIST MORE.

SUMMARY - MY ACTION PLAN
- refine ads
- find more targetted advertising
- improve photos
- improve shop organization
- try to list more

If I do these things, my bounce rate should come down and my visits to sales ratio should improve.

What are your results???  What are you going to do about it?

[PillowThrowDecor]

Wow! Excellent job analyzing your data and reporting it here for all of us.  I'll check mine and get back.

Cheers
Christine

very good analysis of your Google stats. Topically click to action percentages are 1-2%. Click to sale can be even lower. What amount of contacts do you get from the site?
The contact list you create can be worth more than the direct sales. When I first started as a SEO I marketed for my own art web site. People who contacted me were added to my mailing list and I updated them whenever new art was added or updates were made. I kept them excited about my gallery and built trust with them. So they might not have brought anything at first but over time the list began looking more and more like a client list. Also, once someone makes a purchase it usually means they might will be a long term client. If they liked the artwork enough to buy it for themselves, they will be probably willing to buy it for gifts for others or to decorate other areas of their home or office. If you get 9 clients a year that is excellent because next year it will be 18 and so forth. It doesn't take many clients to create a stable business. It sounds like icraft has put you on the road to doing so.
I like the ideas you came up with to increase your conversions.

You should also consider ways to drive more people to your icraft pages:
1) link your page on other sites
2) mention it on Twitter...tweet out about new products
3) mention it on Facebook
4) create a youtube video of your crafts and use annotations to link it to your icraft page
5) put a link to it on business cards
6) tell people about icraft that you meet
7) your the web address in your email signature

If all the crafters take this approach imagine the number of people that could be driven to the site and imagine all the potential new clients.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for those comments.  "Conversions", yes that's the techy word I needed!

People who contacted me were added to my mailing list and I updated them whenever new art was added or updates were made. I kept them excited about my gallery and built trust with them. So they might not have brought anything at first but over time the list began looking more and more like a client list.

This is where I fail.  I keep thinking I will make a newsletter of some kind, but every site I've looked at I can't figure it out.  My emails link to my blog which links to my shop(s).  That's the best way I can encourage people who contact me to keep up to date on shop happenings.  I would feel awkward about email updates - UNLESS - I could make them fancy pretty newsletters like iCraft has been sending.  (Tutorial please!)

[iCraft Admin]

Hmm... I wonder how we could help you with the Newsletters, Fairy Cardmaker.

Maybe we could build a few templates for you to choose from and a way to manage your contact list? All you'd have to do is to specify product numbers for products you want to showcase in your newsletter, add your copy, choose mailing list and click send. This could be a new service we offer to iCraft Creators. Not sure how fast we can do it, but just a thought...

Here is another option http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing They allow up to 1000 subscribers and 6000 emails per month for free - Perfect for individuals who don't deal with volume.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Sure, that sounds awesome.  I could see a handful of templates (2 or 3) going up in the resource room (https://icraftgifts.com/banners-widgets.php) where you have that awesome blog widget.

I think it would get a lot of use.

[PetiteTuques]

I'd be interested in a newsletter as well. I haven't checked my google analytics yet- I'm afraid to. When I get a chance I'll see...

[Fairy Cardmaker]

This is the one I've had bookmarked for over a year.... 
Mail Chimp
http://www.mailchimp.com/

Anyone use them before?

*cough* my stats are lonely....

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I just upated my stats from GA for January 2011.  Not encouraging.
 

February is not looking better just because I anticipate not having any time to create this month.

SIGH

[Craft Boutique]

Hmmm, I didn't check my stats in months. That's great Fairy Cardmaker that you are at least checking yours. It's better to know than not to know. Yes, Jan and Feb are probably the slowest months, as people are recovering from holiday shopping... Well, I know I am. Ha ha.... 

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for the encouragement, Craft Boutique.  Thanks also to everyone for all the suggestions in this thread!

I should mention, the reason I will have little creation time to list new stuff in Feb is that I am working on a custom order which I got through iCraft.  (It's my biggest one to date in my 3-years of commercial cardmaking!)  So... I will stop whining (a little).  Hee hee.

[Craft Boutique]

Oh that's a wonderful news, Fairy Cardmaker! I am happy for you. 

[PetiteTuques]

I have a bit of time, so here are my stats for 2010.

VISITS
Visits:     2,292
Page Views: 4,761
Bounce Rate: 63.74% (people who landed on your shop and immediately left)

The one I noticed right away was that on May 27, 2010 I got the most views, 130 and that was when I had a review on My Give Away Today.com. No other day has come close to that.

TRAFFIC
New Visits: 50.48%
Referring Sites: 54.80%
Search Engines: 11.30%
Direct Traffic: 33.33%
Other: 0.57%

I think this is telling me that my SEO is not working, but hopefully that will change- with iCraft's help
I have links up everywhere it seems, I have communities that I belong to, so I'm thinking that is why my referring sites is so much higher than anything else.

TRENDS
Sales on iCraft: 24 orders
Visits to sales ratio: 2,292/24 = 95.5

I get about 6 visits per day, using 2,292/365... not high at all.. something is wrong there.

I'm going to guess that I listed all my products in 2010, since I had opened my shop late 2009.

Listed to Sold ratio: 66/24 = 2.75

That looks good, but most of the people I get sales from are people I KNOW. I've made connections, so people trust me, but not the people are browsing the site everyday. I know that shoppers like to buy from people that are known, that are referred, so maybe my online presence isn't high enough yet.

This is worst time of year for me, right after Christmas. so I either have to advertise like crazy, or tweak my  product line. I've decided to tweak my product line. I'm going to bring in more cotton hats, and booties.. maybe some other things...

I expect to have slow sales for next couple of months, unless I bring in something else, and I find that hard to do, because I love my hats, and wanted to stay with that one product.

So we'll see.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Excellent reflection, Petite Tuques.  I hope it has helped you to solidify your goals for 2011.

If I may...

Visits:     2,292
TRAFFIC
New Visits: 50.48%
Referring Sites: 54.80%
Search Engines: 11.30%

That looks good, but most of the people I get sales from are people I KNOW.

... so I either have to advertise like crazy, or tweak my  product line. I've decided to tweak my product line. I'm going to bring in more cotton hats, and booties.. maybe some other things...

You need more visits!  I think that you need to work on advertising more than product line.  Having a desirable product sure ranks number one, but if no one knows you're there, who's going to buy it?

Referring Sites: 54.80%
Listed to Sold ratio: 66/24 = 2.75
The one I noticed right away was that on May 27, 2010 I got the most views, 130 and that was when I had a review on My Give Away Today.com. No other day has come close to that.

I agree with your assessment that you've built a small but loyal following.  Working on advertising can expand that following and it sounds like the best advertising for you has been word of mouth from people you know.  Leverage your current success!  I think a newsletter would rock for you!  Subscribers can share your newsletter by just forwarding it on.  Especially if you are committed to expanding the product line, then you can announce new launches in the newsletter.  Or if you do another scheduled giveaway, you could announce that too.

Yes, blogs are good for announcements, but you are asking the buyer to come to you.  A newsletter makes you go to them - right to their inbox.  It's effortless for them!  (And those who don't want to be spammed by newsletters simply choose not to subscribe!)

Just my thoughts.  I'm no expert!  I'm just struggling along with everyone else!  I think I will look further in to this newsletter thing too in 2011 (maybe summer/fall, before holidays).

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I have updated my stats.  Looking at my results for Jan 1 - Feb 28, my visits are headed in the right direction!  My views to sales ratio is also, since I had one sale out of the blue on iCraft.  The person bought a newer listing and, with it, one of the very first cards I ever listed on iCraft 3 years ago!

I attribute the improvements to my new lightbox.  I have been working hard on improving pictures (slowly but surely getting there).  I'm happy to announce that my bounce rate has dropped by almost 4% in just these two months!!  Yay!

Play along tracking your stats too - even if privately.  If you track privately, drop us a line to give us a thumbs up or thumbs down message to let us know how it's going for you!

I'd love to hear your story.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

March:  Based on the track record for the first quarter of 2011, visits are expected to be greater than last year.  I am just under half of last year's visits and we are only 3 months in to the year!

I *hope* that translates in to more sales too... but so far not much luck outside of my giant (and very thankful!) custom order.  Where are the sales?  I have a lot of inventory listed in my shop.  I've been working on my photos.  I can't figure out why I don't get more bites.  Either my prices are scary (or the shipping) or my stuff is ugly or I'm a terrible marketer.  I'll keep the wheels turning in the ol' brain on this one.

How is your year going?  It is 1/4 gone already!  Improved over last year?  Proud of any accomplishments thus far?

[PetiteTuques]

My views are gotten a lot better from last year, in March of 2010 I got 73 visits, and this March I got 324. No sales though.

I don't think we are both have terrible products, or that we are terrible marketers... maybe we need over 1000 views in a month to get a sale??

I even got to use Google Adsense for free last month. I got lots of clicks, but no sales.

I'm here everybody *waves

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Google Adsense is one thing I've been reluctant to learn.  I'm glad you've had some success with it, Petite!

I've updated my stats for April.  The short version:
* I am woefully behind in listings.  Part of it is that I already have over 100 products here so I am not really eager to list more.  I am, instead, still working on re-doing photos.

* I'm doing better in sales thanks to my custom order.  I think iCraft has a very easy custom order format.  Sellers can get the query here and handle it entirely off of iCraft.  iCraft can operate like a portfolio that way.

* Without the custom order, I am doing worse in sales volume.  Understandable since I havent' listed as much new as I did last year.

* I let Project Wonderful slide during my day-job busy time.  As a result, my referring sites are down and my replacement engine traffic is up instead.

* I am on track for more visits than last year.

* My bounce rate has gone from 66% at the end of last year to 62% so far.  I'm very proud of that.

I don't think you're far off the mark, Petite.  I do need about 1,000 visits before I get a sale.

Feeling discouraged.  Not sure if it's true discouragement or just day-job busy-time burnout.  The good news is, my sister has upped her crafty-ness and helping her pick stuff for her tool arsenal has inspired me to get cracking on some ideas I've let float in limbo for too long.  I just made the proto-type for a new product.  So, I will be listing something totally new to the lineup once I snag some more supplies.

Before I throw more stuff in the jumble of my shop, though, I am also hoping, wishing and dreaming about the curator collections so that I can organize my goodies for my customers' viewing pleasure.  Well... that's my excuse for now anyway!

(Thanks for allowing me to reflect and ramble.)

-- Lisa.

[iCraft Admin]

FYI, iCraft's overall bounce rate this year is around 55%.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I'm still tracking things.
Visits are way up over the same point last year, but sales haven't budged.  This is true of both my online venues.  So, my combined $60 of blog ads per year are getting me traffic but not the buying kind.  I don't know what else I can do though.
Hrmmm.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

FYI, iCraft's overall bounce rate this year is around 55%.

But, wouldn't sellers coming and spending more time on the site for shop maintenance make the site-wide stat lower?

[iCraft Admin]

It would... though we don't have that many members, especially active members, compared to the number of unique visitors to the site, to lower that number by much.

[iCraft Admin]

As for what else you can do... If traffic is good, but no sales, it's possible, that you are attracting wrong traffic. If your ads on blogs attract other crafters, they are probably not the buying types. I'd also do a Keyword rereplacement to see if you are using good terms that will target right audience.

Did you try free classifieds like Kijiji? Do you use social media? Do you "hang out" in forums, where you could "meet" your potential buyers? Do you know who your Target Audience is and what they are interested in now, this summer etc.?

Speaking of social media, we are very close to releasing Facebook app that will allow you to display your iCraft products  on your Facebook page. That might help you with reaching potential buyers too.

We are also planning to have a series of training sessions with iCraft sellers, especially once we roll out new product categories etc, in how to optimize their stores online and offline.... sort of like an SEO Bootcamp that we had before.
Though, if you have questions now, feel free to ask them here and we'll  try to help you out as much as we can.

[PetiteTuques]

I did a little experiment where I changed my keywords for my etsy shop, and now people spend at least 2 mins in my shop (but no sales) whereas I haven't changed a thing for iCraft,  and people will spend 26 secs on average here. So I know that people aren't replacementing for toques, since that is mostly a canadian term.

I've also spent A LOT of money this month on a business coach, to try to get my online presence larger. I see a bit of difference, but people are still going to prefer etsy to shop from. Is it possible for buyers to not make an account on icraft to purchase? Like maybe have that login as facebook thing-  I really like that.. saves a lot of password memory.

Do you,  fairy cardmaker, spend time on other blogs and leave comments? Follow other cardmakers? I really think you should sign up to facebook, even if you just visit it once per week, it'll get people hooked into you. I know that once I put up my email newsletter link on facebook, I got some sign ups that day! It was awesome!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Both very good points, thank-you.
I seem to come up well in google replacementes when I look for my keywords.  My iCraft site does, that is.  And my blog, but not my Etsy shop.  I think the iCraft one comes up because iCraft tweets and all that.

Petite - interesting experiment.  What about using "beanie" as a keyword too, for the hats shaped like this:
https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/26464/3-6m-hot-pink-cap.php

I have my own blog.  I comment on other crafter's blogs, which is not my target market (but I feel those people will understand how much time it takes to make a card!).  I don't have twitter or facebook and I refuse to.  Besides, my target market doesn't hang out there either.

My market is 30-40+ traditional persons with decent disposable income who are either in a serious relationship or with children out-out-of-the-home or grandchildren who are not within frequent visiting distance or both.

My target market is roughly 80% female 20% male. The males need an card to impress.  Since my cards are designed for mailing, my market wants to demonstrate their efforts to stay in touch in the absence of travelling to visit. They want to *be* there even when they can't *go* there.

My market is more traditional and also methodical (those who can plan ahead), generally the 40+ group.  They are not the last-minute shopper type who need to snag an e-card (or free e-card even) the day before the occasion.

My cards have practical, clean lines.  So, I think they would appeal to people who enjoy logic, organization and tidiness. I like to think the sort of people who are good at or who also enjoy: architecture, photography, engineers, personal assistants, and professional organizers (or their TV shows).  (My quilled cards are the premium line for the more fanciful card seekers.)

As a result, I advertise of photography blogs, a few on social connection blogs.  I've also done some book blogs and some fantasy blogs.  I've tried other crafter's blogs too, hoping their target market (craft buyers) would overlap into mine.

I've actually had some buyers from the UK.  The UK actually appreciates handmade cards and they pay a pretty penny over there ($7-$10) which is what mine work out to after shipping for them.  I'm not sure how else to grab that market.

To be honest, I think my best bet for sales is craft shows.  That's where my 30-40+ traditional market shops.  Not so much online.  I don't see myself doing craft shows though.  Any other suggestions of advertising, besides social media, are welcome.  (My traditionals don't use social media.  What would they need cards for if they were always hyper-in-touch already?)

If there is already some training or introductory info on business advertising, please point me to them!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I have hit my head on the 50 item limit of my package.  My listed to sales ratio was 6:1, so I made sure to list at least 6 new things in July (when I was averaging 4 new per month before).  No sales since June.  GA says my visits are tanking - some days only 1 now.  I have 125 products listed (of which 50 are showing).

To be honest, my views are tanking because I have all but stopped using Project Wonderful.  It brought me views but not sales.  Not the right eyeballs, it would seem.

I know I need to list more new, but I can't decide what to cycle out of my 50!  I'll pick something eventually.  Other than changing up the listings, I don't know what else to do.  The keywords in my GA are relevant, so I think I'm doing okay there.  Plus my replacement engine traffic (of what traffic I get) is also a healthy % of total traffic.

I blog.  I haunt other crafter's blogs.  I haunt scrpabook forums.  I donate product.  I may just have to break down and take some of that excess product to a craft fair to promote myself.  (Maybe next year because I would have to invent an entire display system and all that jazz first.  Sigh.)

Any hints on things you did to test your target market?  How did you experiment?  What did you tweak?  How did you measure market response in order to hone in on your target market?