Why the Internet Is a Tracking Nightmare: Connecting the Revenue Dots

If one of the strengths of the internet is that you can track everything, why is it such a challenge to have that data actually be valuable to a business owner?

Tracking response online is easy, right?

Yes, tracking response is easy. But interpreting the response is not so easy.

Because, right now, we don’t have a lot of tools to bring the tracking data together so we can make real decisions about how best to run our business.

It’s Not About Knowing Your Numbers, It’s About Knowing What Your Numbers MEAN

I don’t just want to know what a lead costs…

I don’t just want to know how many leads an ad generates…

I don’t just want to know which email got the most clickthroughs…

And I don’t just want to know what actions my prospects and customers are taking today… or even tomorrow…

Here’s What I Want to Know

What happened to my reader, Tom, who subscribed to my blog last year? What happened to him along every step of the way from being a stranger to a reader to a customer to a repeat customer?

What did he read?

What did he buy?

What didn’t he read?

What didn’t he buy?

Why is it such a challenge to tie all of that data together in one place so an internet business owner can make smart (and fast) decisions?

Making decisions without this big picture understanding can be risky.

With only some of this information you think you know reality. But with all the information, the picture might be quite different.

And depending on how expensive your decisions are (for example, like choosing to spend $30,000 per month on PPC), you really want to have your stuff together.

The Problem With Email

And here’s where we come to the main crux of the issue – what I think is one of the main obstacles to getting accurate data.

In old school direct marketing, there weren’t that many ways to reach a person. And it was fairly easy to uniquely identify a prospect or a customer.

The unique identifier was maybe the address and/or the name.

And I would imagine that most people only had one. One name, one address. One primary way to reach them.

But marketing online doesn’t really use the snail mail address as a unique identifier right?

Instead, we are marketing to folks with 4, 5 or more email addresses. Some they use often, some they just use to receive junk.

So it’s a whole lot more difficult to accurately see how any one person is acting as they move through your business.

At least it’s hard when you’re piecing together a bunch of third-party tools and services – which is what most businesses marketing online are doing.

I Hear NOTHING… I See NOTHING…

Here’s one example:

The average internet business uses a combination of tools like this:

• Email/Autoresponder Service – Services like AWeber, Lyris, iContact, 1Shoppingcart, etc.
• Shopping Cart/Order Taking Software – 1Shoppingcart, Paypal®, etc.
• Tracking Software – Google® Analytics, Hypertracker, Google® conversion tracking etc.

What do all of these systems have in common?

I think the only thing they have in common is that they have very little in common.

And that’s the problem.

All of your data (which you could be using to make decisions for marketing, sales, service, etc.) is “locked” in isolated funnels that have nothing to do with each other.

It’s a little bit like running a company where no one inside the walls of the business ever talks to each other.

How long would that work?

Why Most Internet Businesses Don’t Track Stuff

Accurate tracking can create huge results in your business. I don’t think that many people would have a problem with that statement.

So if that’s the case, why don’t more people do it?

Because it’s a royal pain in the butt. It’s hard work and it’s messy (not to mention boring) and it can take forever.

How Do You Overcome This?

Here’s the part that is just plain hard work.

Because often times it takes a lot of grunt work and duct tape to get your data to make sense.

Of course, you could have someone write custom code to do all this. That would help to fix this problem, but your current revenue might not support an investment like that.

A system like Infusionsoft.com does this. But the learning curve is fairly steep and it takes some work (and commitment) to implement it.

Plus, switching can be a pain… and depending on the complexity of your current organization/traffic flow/lists/marketing strategy, it can mean a long, long list of details… (I know, I’ve tried this. Not the easiest thing in the world.)

So here’s something to consider. It’s not perfect, but it might be an improvement over what you’ve got.

Spend some time retooling your business systems so that (temporarily):

Each traffic source receives its own funnel, all the way through the sale (this is how you can figure out what a lead really costs and whether or not the COST is worth it).

Do your best to not contaminate the funnel with leads/customers from another funnel.

So basically, you are separating tracking by traffic source and/or marketing media – and you’re doing it from the generation of the lead all the way through your sales.

This might mean duplicating products in your shopping cart solely for tracking purposes.

Or it might mean create a duplicate autoresponder sequence for each traffic source.

Or sending out multiple broadcast messages with different links.

If you’re using ONLY ONE system like 1Shoppingcart.com to run your business, this is much easier using AdTrackers, etc.

But no one system does everything perfectly. And I think that’s why most of us end up using a hodgepodge of different technologies (plus our email lists can end up getting held hostage because of the double opt-in thing – that makes switching a huge hassle).

You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

The point here is not to be perfect. It’s just to get a better idea of what’s really working in your business than you have now.

And if you only have one traffic source, this is far easier. Since it reduces the variables and makes virtually all of the revenue coming in the door very easy to track.

But when you go to all this trouble with a multi-million dollar business, it can really pay off.

Sure, you might make a lot more money that way, but in my opinion, the bigger benefit is that you won’t be flying blind any more.

And that ability to see can be darn profitable.

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