Business metrics management for Internet strategies

Business metrics management in your Internet strategy will turn the realm of pony-tailed web designers into just another business channel familiar to you.

This page will help kickstart your understanding of what websites should aim to produce, and how successful or not your website is measured against these business metrics.

Metrics calculator

Start to get control of the metrics in your business with this simple calculator. Put in whatever information you have available, and you can see right away aspects of your current position.

If you cannot supply all of the information, make your best estimate and work towards being in a more informed position.

You must enter figures in each box for an equal time period, ideally a month, but you can do multiples of months, or even a year or more. Ask appropriate personnel like your web designer, marketing director and accounts manager to supply you with web stats and sales figures for a really good idea of what's happening with your website.

total website & marketing costs
total no. of homepage hits
total no. of unique orders/leads achieved
total no. of unique buyers/sales prospects
total cash value of website orders/leads
total no. of buyers who have bought before
   
Netscape users click calculate
(IE users don't need to)

Specific sales & marketing metrics
Below is a list of the metrics most useful to you. Time frames measured in monthly periods most usefully indicate tactical assessment, annually indicates strategic assessment.

  • Visitor acquisition cost
    • Total website and e-marketing costs divided by the number of unique visitors to the site.
      It is costing you £ to get every visitor to your website
  • Customer acquisition cost
    • Total website and e-marketing costs divided by the number of unique buyers from the site.
      It is costing you £ to acquire an actual customer through your website
  • Conversion rate
    • Total of visitors to your site divided by the number of orders/sales leads you take.
         % of your website visitors are persuaded to buy or provide you with a sales lead
  • Average order value
    • The total monetary value from sales and lead closures originating from your website divided by the number of visitors who actually bought and purchased
      Your website achieves an average sale of £ per customer
  • Visitor purchase average
    • Total revenue generated by web activity divided by the total number of visitors to the site.
      £ is the average value of a visitor to your site, giving you a good indication of the traffic qualification value that your search engine strategies and keyword targeting is achieving
  • Customer retention rate
    • Number of unique buyers divided by the number of repeat buyers.
      Your website leads to a % retention rate of customers, possibly indicating aspects of your company's CRM efficiency and/or the frequency of demand that your value proposition generates

It should be starting to become clear to you that business metrics management puts you in the position of being able to confidently make the type of decisions that have an impact on the company's bottom line:

In your mind, you know that some areas of your Internet activity need more attention (e.g. customer attrition rates). Establishing business metrics management allows sharper profiles to be formed in your thinking, and consequently better focus of your management and executive efforts (e.g. carpeting the guilty!)

If you would like to take the next step to improving your company's Internet efforts, then simply ring us on 07815 771810 for a no obligation chat...how much of a risk is that?