(The
first part of this article is available online for those
of you that can't remember it - CLICK
HERE)
Part
1 on how to justify your Web efforts offered ways
to calculate the direct value of your website. But
direct value measurements like sales, lead generation,
and customer service efficiencies, are only part of
the story. Time now to focus on the indirect value
a site can add and how to claim credit where credit's
due.
Granted,
charting indirect value means focusing on visitor
behaviours that are harder to track, value and quantify.
Many site owners don't even try. They often say, "Oh,
we don't sell products on our site, so we can't really
come up with a dollar value for our website."
Or they do sell online, but only take credit for the
direct revenue dollars they generate, not taking into
account the influence they likely had on purchases
made via other channels.
They're
short-changing themselves. If direct value is the
only valid value, what's the point of all those glossy
car sites? They don't sell cars, they only display
them. Bettycrocker.com doesn't sell cake mix. Pampers.com
doesn't sell nappies, but it does generate high value
in the business-to-consumer (B2C) world. Even when
you're not selling or capturing leads online you can
still quantify your site's indirect value. Here are
three ways to start:
Referrals. Many organisations use their sites to steer referrals
to stockists or resellers who will handle the ultimate
transaction. (That is actually what all those car
sites are up to.) Are you getting credit? Site managers
often tell me, "Our site is there to educate
potential customers about our products and answer
any questions." On further examination, the site's
real role is to propel people to partner sites.
Track
this action through redirects, count handoffs to stockists/resellers
sites, then work with those partners to learn what
percentage of those leads end up buying. That's revenue
driven by your site.
Offline
sales. People regularly use websites to research
products or services, whether they buy them online
or not. (Many businesses that conduct a very low percentage
of sales online gain a large percent of new customers
who conduct online research before making a purchase)
A persuasive website obviously helps your business
well beyond the "web". Your job is to find
out how much. Ways to track your site's true influence:
Dedicated
email. Perhaps you promote email contact in numerous
channels, including stationery and advertising. The
address you provide on your website shouldn't appear
anywhere else, so that you can separate website leads
from the others.
Dedicated
phone number. Same tactic. Consider offering
a special toll-free number on your site. That, too,
breaks out website leads. Businesses are often surprised
at how many phone leads really originated online.
Web-only
offer codes or coupons. Give customers an exclusive,
nominal premium offer and see how often it's redeemed
in other channels.
Customer
satisfaction. A good website can help improve
overall satisfaction with your organisation. A bad
one can throw satisfaction scores into a nosedive.
If you regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys
after the sale, add a couple of website specific queries.
Consider running surveys or questionnaires on the
site itself, although the data won't be as accurate
with self-selected respondents.
Combined
with the direct-value metrics offered in Part 1, these
simple tactics should help you to add up the real,
total value of your website.
