You've got your perfectly curated website up and running after meticulously choosing each image, video, and line of copy. So now what?
Millions of entrepreneurs and individuals build their brands with a personal website, but how do they know what's working and what's not?
That's where the numbers come in. Analytics give you insight into how your site is doing through reports on statistics like page views, sales, and popular content. That way, you can learn about your visitors and what they're responding to.
To learn more about how analytics can help grow a personal brand, we chatted with jeweler and business owner Issa Mars, who designs wearable metal objects in her studio in Buffalo, NY.
As a business owner, Issa uses Squarespace's own metrics platform to track revenue, conversion, and cart abandonment data to keep up with her business' progress and identify opportunities for growth.
Below, Issa discusses her favorite Analytics features and how they have helped her measure and grow her brand.
1. Getting Started
Once you have your Squarespace site set up, getting started with Analytics is easy. Like, really easy. Simply click on a panel, such as sales overview or traffic sources, to see the report Squarespace has prepared.
Issa checks in bi-weekly and reviews each feature to get a picture of how her business is doing and what changes she needs to make. “It's a great tool because you can work so hard on your site or a product, and not know if people are seeing it. Analytics gives you solid feedback and lets you know things aren't going into the abyss."
No more wondering how your brand is doing. Just click and review.
2. Where Do They Come From?
There are so many marketing tools at our fingertips—Facebook, Instagram, email, ads—it's hard to know where to focus your energy. Are people seeing your site? Where are you getting the most traffic from? The Traffic Sources feature tells you exactly where your visitors are coming from.
Which is why it's one of Issa's favorite features. With Traffic Sources, Issa learned that a large majority of her visitors were coming from Instagram, which helped her decide where she should dedicate her time spent on marketing. Now, Issa says, even if she is feeling overwhelmed with social media, she stays present on Instagram and continues to post because she knows it's generating traffic to her site.
3. Popularity Contest
So you have your site up and running and you know your top traffic sources. But what pages on your site are the most popular? You may have a hunch that most people visit your blog page over your About section, but do you really know for sure?
The Popular Content report shows you just that—your top content by page views so you know what your visitors are more interested in.
Issa actually used Popular Content to reorganize her site. Her report revealed that the Shop page was her most popular, but initially it wasn't accessible from her home page. So Issa changed her site navigation and connected that page to the home page, so visitors can find it with minimal clicks—and get shopping sooner.
Minor adjustments like this can make a big difference. With so much out there on the internet, you want to maximize every second visitors spend on your site.
4. Abandonment Issues
Data. We are flooded with it. But how do you sort through it to make it useful?
Well, Analytics does the sorting for you so you can focus on turning data into profits or a boost for your personal brand. One of Analytics' key features for businesses is the Abandoned Cart panel. This feature provides reports on how often customers add products to a cart and leave without making a purchase.
Issa uses this information to assess her price points. For example, if a certain product is repeatedly left in a cart without being purchased, it's a good time to reconsider the price. And knowing what's been abandoned provides an opportunity to send reminder emails about the products left in the cart.
Putting your personal brand out there can be painstaking, but checking in on where your traffic is coming from, what people like, and continually optimizing can help move your brand forward. And you don't need to be super data-savvy to do it. So start putting your data to good use today. Your brand will grow in no time.
