How do you know whether your efforts to retain clients are paying off? The only way to do it is to use an analytics program that will give you hard data. This is how you objectively monitor your progress and get a realistic picture of how well your retention efforts are working.

There are premium analytics programs available, but start with solutions that are simple and low-cost. Google Analytics is a robust program that’s free for anyone to use. Check the systems you already have to see if there’s an application you’re not using. If you feel that you need something more complex, you can upgrade.

New Vs. Returning

Most metrics programs let you measure new vs. returning visitors to your website. A new visitor is someone stopping by for the first time. A returning visitor is someone coming back for more, which means they’re interested and like what you have to offer. 

You can measure the results of a marketing campaign by measuring the percentage of new vs. returning visitors. Marketers often look at new visitors to determine whether their SEO strategy is working. For client retention, look at how many people are coming back. 

Session Duration

Analytics can tell you not only how many people visit your site, but how much time they spend there. A good program will tell you how long people stay on each individual page. This measures engagement. 

The key to client retention is engagement. The more people interact with you, the more likely they’ll be to buy from you repeatedly and turn into lifelong brand advocates. If you give them something to do – anything from content to read, to games to play, or surveys to take – you’ll keep them engaged. If people are spending a great deal of time on certain pages of your site, this tells you there’s something engaging there for them. Try to replicate this on your other pages.

Segmentation and Personalization

It’s important to segment your clients so that you can make offers that are perfectly targeted to them. Your audience members have many things in common, but there are specific issues individual members are facing. For your marketing to be effective, you have to address these on a personalized level. Your email service provider will offer you several possibilities to tag and segment your lists.

You can automate segmentation with some analytics programs or with a CRM (client relationship management) system. You can segment your clients by factors such as responsiveness to emails, demographics, purchase behavior, preferences, and more. This enables you to track your results using metrics for slices of your market, as well as make offers that are tailored to them.

Getting Ahead with Analytics Automation

Tracking analytics used to be a major undertaking for marketers, but it’s much easier today with automated systems. Automation is a natural solution today, when much client activity is carried out online and thus easily trackable. It can also analyze data immediately, making tracking behavior much faster.