You’re killing it on social media and your website traffic grows consistently. You’re posting quality content and it’s getting good engagement. You’re posting Reels, TikToks, LinkedIn posts, and the like, and you take time to engage with people on those platforms. You’re doing all the things.
So why doesn’t your traffic convert to sales?
You look at your social media insights and your Google Analytics dashboard, and everything seems good to go—but you still aren’t seeing the sales.
The problem? Most of the time, people evaluate vanity metrics. You know, those the Internet says are important, so they make you feel good—metrics like followers and likes. But are they the numbers that really matter? Maybe not.
Use these steps to dig deeper into your analytics and realign your strategy with your goals.
Get back to the basics
Is your traffic qualified? If traffic rates are up but you don’t see resulting sales, the problem may be the people visiting your website. Most of your website traffic should look like your ideal client.
Use the Google Analytics Audience report to check three key indicators: location, age, and gender.
For example, if you own an event business in Atlanta, GA, but most of your traffic comes from Chicago, you need to take a deeper look at the source of those leads.
However, if you run an event space for destination weddings in Hawaii, traffic from Chicago makes more sense! In that case, age and gender demographics are better indicators of whether you see the right traffic.
Once you’ve found the issue with your traffic, it’s time to take action.
If location is the problem, focus on building location-based SEO. Make sure your website and Google My Business account list the city you work in, as well as your radius of service and any feeder cities.
Also, consider writing location-based blog posts to help build your authority with Google. For example, if you’re a florist in North Carolina, get specific and write about the best North Carolina flowers for a summer wedding rather than a general summer floral guide. Write to your audience, and you will attract people interested in your location, rather than just the topic.
If you’re struggling with the age or gender of your viewers, evaluate your top traffic sources. For example, if you run a wedding rentals company but your traffic is mainly over 40, you need to diversify your marketing efforts.
Make sure you’re engaging on the right platforms. If you have an Instagram business page but haven’t taken the plunge into TikTok yet, why not now? Likewise, if you only promote your corporate event space on Facebook, consider expanding to LinkedIn. Find out where your ideal clients are spending time, then dedicate your marketing energy to that platform.
Start at the bottom (i.e., where the money lives)
Once you’ve determined who visits your site, it’s time to follow the money. While vanity numbers look at basic traffic and engagement, you must focus on what brings in the revenue. A business cannot survive on Instagram comments!
Evaluate where people spend the most time on your site. Ideally, you should see high rates on your “About” and “Contact” pages, as well as any landing pages. Engagement on these pages indicates your leads are interested in booking with you. But, if most of your traffic lands on your blog and promptly leaves, your website isn’t doing its job.
With that said, if you have a blog post that’s performing well, use it! Add a call to action at the bottom with a link to your “Services” or “Contact” page. Once you understand what brings people to your site, optimize that content to drive traffic beyond the blog post to inquire about working with you.
Look for quality over quantity
Where do you get most of your conversions? If you get a ton of hits from Pinterest, but they all visit your blog and leave, it isn’t valuable traffic. On the other hand, perhaps only a quarter of your traffic comes from Instagram, but if they are more inclined to purchase your services, you’ll want to invest in Instagram first.
That’s not to say your Pinterest traffic isn’t valuable...yet. After you’ve leveraged your Instagram traffic, focus on fixing conversion rates in your Pinterest traffic. Learn what’s driving them to your site and work to optimize those pages for that audience.
Avoid seeking marketing opportunities on new platforms until you are confident that your existing efforts are effective.
Google Analytics data can seem overwhelming to many. However, if you spend the time to dig past vanity metrics and truly understand your traffic, you will save time and money while taking the necessary steps to grow your business.
Christie Osborne is the owner of Mountainside Media, a company that helps event industry professionals and brands develop scalable marketing strategies that bring in more inquiries and leads. Christie is a national educator with recent speaking engagements at NACE Experience, WIPA, CS+TSE, and the ABC Conference. Christie regularly shares industry insight in her Special Events column, Wed Altered, Rising Tide Society, WeddingIQ and NACE’s industry blog.
