Let’s face it. If you are managing a business and you don’t have access to data regarding how your business is doing, you are essentially flying blind. Without benchmarks and numbers to indicate how you are doing, it’s tough to know what the score is and who is winning. That’s why analytics and data have become so important to business owners and marketers over the past few years. Knowledge is power, and the same now can be said for understanding and being able to analyze and interpret data.
HubSpot understands the need that businesses have to analyze large amounts of data for the purpose of making sound business decisions, and they have recently launched a new Research blog. The HubSpot Research blog provides in-depth insight and information for marketers and business owners that are looking to make data-driven decisions.
Website Traffic
With research and data from over 15,000 customers, Hubspot’s Research blog provides a great look at the numbers behind how their customers’ websites and marketing efforts are going. One of their recent studies involves website traffic and sources of traffic. The reason why this is important for business owners and marketers is that it answers the question, “How is our website currently doing and what can we do better?” Knowing how much traffic competitors in your industry are getting and from which sources the traffic is coming from can provide you with an idea of where you stand. If your numbers are better than industry averages, you're doing something right. If they're not, you have some work to do.
What’s in the Report?
For starters, you can download the entire report by clicking here and see all of the answers to the many questions you have.
Here is a brief overview of what you can find:
- Website traffic benchmarks by industry
- Website traffic benchmarks by company size
- Website traffic by source type
- Website traffic by geography
- Website traffic by geography and source type
How to Use the Data
As an Inbound Marketing and Sales Consultant, I know that my job isn’t just to find great research and provide it to my clients. My job is to find great data and research and help a client understand how it relates to their business and how they can improve. So the first step I recommend for companies looking to take action on this research is to use Google Analytics or the HubSpot Sources Tool to determine where their traffic is coming from and what their monthly visits are.
After you have this information, you can then use it to benchmark each source of traffic as well as to compare your numbers to those of the industry you operate in. After you see how you stack up, it’s then possible to use this information to make some business decisions that can impact your company’s marketing strategy. For instance, if you notice that the average company in your industry with a similar number of employees is receiving 5x as much social media traffic as you are, there might be an opportunity for you to increase the social presence and social visits. The same goes for each source of traffic. If you are finding areas of deficiency you can put a plan into place that addresses each area. Without this benchmark information, it’s difficult to see a full picture of where you are and to make decisions.
This is Just the Beginning
Don’t stop with just analyzing overall website traffic and sources of traffic to your website. Take a look at ALL of the data that is available from the HubSpot Research blog and other sources. Important information to review on a monthly or quarterly basis include conversion rates, number of leads per month etc. After all, the better you understand your numbers, the better decisions and tactical plans you can make to address your specific needs. Understanding what’s happening with your website and lead generation efforts might just be the competitive advantage you need to get a leg up on your competitors.
