You can do this with a variety of tools including:

• The website statistics provided by your web host.
• Services like Google Analytics that give you detailed data about your visitors behavior.
• Services like Crazy Egg that create a heat map that shows where your visitor are spending more time and clicking.
• Try click tracking services like Your Ad Tracker or your own shopping cart may include some click tracking.

Statistics like this help you understand a whole lot about how your website is performing for example:

• How many visitors you have in a given month, particular day, etc.
• Which days and times are most popular.
• Where your visitors are coming from.
• How long they are staying on your site.
• How many pages they view before leaving.
• Whether or not they’re coming back.
• How many new and repeat visitors you’re receiving.
• Which keyphrases they are entering into search engines to find your site.
• Which pages are most popular.
• Which products they spend the most time on.
• Which pages they enter from most frequently.
• Which pages they exit from your site most frequently.
• Geographic location of your visitors.
• Which operating systems and web browsers they are using to access your website.
• Which links they are clicking.

This information allows you to make many adjustments including:

• Knowing which pages are most popular allows you to maximize your selling opportunities on these pages.
• Knowing where your visitors are leaving your website allows you to plug any possible links (of course, if they’re leaving to click and Adsense ad or visit an affiliate site, that’s a good thing).
• Knowing where on a page the majority of your visitors are drawn to, you can readjust and maximize your results.
• Knowing how long visitors view a page can help you analyze the effectiveness of the page itself.
• Which links are being clicked on can tell you what offers your visitors are interested in and gives you a chance to test different approaches to making offers.

…and the opportunities are endless from what you discover.

Finally, I took the plunge, and while I think the technology behind the program is rock solid and looks really good. The structure really misses the mark in my opinion.

Every purchase counts as 1 star… To get to the top tier you need 30 stars. Sounds easy enough. The downside is that there is no distinction between drink types, sizes, cost, etc. Actually even drink quantity. So as I buy my Trenta Black Tea, or even a Venti Frappacino, I get the same credit as someone who buys a tall coffee.

Loyalty programs are obviously built to encourage repeat purchases and higher retention rates. But they should also be profitable as well. Is a customer who buys a small coffee worth the same as someone who buys a drink worth almost $3.40 more? Is someone who buys 10 drinks for the office the same as someone who buys a small tea? In Starbucks loyalty program, all orders are equal.

The goal of any loyalty program should add to the business objectives of the organization. Increasing the revenue per sale, or quantity per order should really be a goal of Starbucks, but they don’t reflect that in their loyalty program.

It’s time to actually decide if Social Media is working for you. No longer is it acceptable to just say its “cool to be one Facebook”.

If your Social Media efforts aren’t driving customer value you are wasting money.

“But Wait! Social Media is Free!”

I hear the screams now. Get over it. Social Media doesn’t cost money, but it does cost Time and Energy. And as a business owner, often times those are more precious than money.

Start Driving Customer Value.

If you’re not driving some form of measurable customer value from Social Media you’re wasting time and energy. Start measuring your results. Whether that’s an increase in sales, or an increase in repeat business, or even a decrease in customer support issues, you need to have a goal for your Social Media.

Define your strategy, and measure your results. That’s the only way you’ll know you’re successful.

But what about Branding? Facebook has 650 Million users!

I’ve yet to meet a business that can provide a product or service for all 650 Million users… Don’t get mislead by the large numbers. Focus on your niche. Drive loyal customers to your business. Worry about branding later. If you don’t have measures and metrics in place, worrying about your brand means nothing.

Novel concept… Make it easier for your customers.

Stop being selfish.

Check it out and get a 30 day free trial.

There are two ways to draw traffic from Facebook to your businesses website
1. Create an Ad Campaign
2. Create a Fan page.

Facebook Ad Campaigns
Unlike a majority of marketing mediums such as print, TV, Radio or even search engine pay per click programs, Facebook offers the ability to nail down the exact demographics that you are targeting. When users sign up for the Facebook accounts, they also complete a full profile which lists their location by town, city and country, their birth date, their age group, their interests and hobbies, their educational background, etc. Further more once they become fans or members of Facebook groups this information is added to their profile.

What does this mean for you as a local business owner?  If you run a plumbing business in Charlotte, North Carolina and want to launch an ad campaign, you can set the parameters of your ad settings to target Facebook users who are in Charlotte, in North Carolina, in the age bracket that serves you best probably such as over 30 years since they will often have family homes and need plumbing services and who have particular interests such as real estate or interior decorating. Your ads will then be featured on the Facebook pages of those within your specific target market. When they click on your ads, they will be taken straight to your sales page on your business website

Facebook Fan Pages
It’s relatively easy to increase the numbers of your fans.
* Just by creating a fan page, it will be indexed in the Google search engines where you can draw in visitors.
* Also you can create ad campaigns that direct prospects to your fan page.
* You can also invite people to your fan page from fan pages run by other people by entering your keywords into the Facebook search box and looking up fanpages with a good following. When you arrive at that fanpage, you can click on the link written “6765 people like this” and a new box title “People who like this page” will appear and you can click the tabs next to each fan to add as a friend. However do not invite more than 20 people per day as Facebook will slap you with a ban.

The amazing thing is that Facebook does the rest of the legwork for you. Every time someone joins your fan page through any of the above methods, Facebook automatically tells that persons friends and when they join, Facebook tells their friends too hence the viral nature of Facebook. Done correctly, you will be raking in fans in no time and through your content will be able to direct them to your website sales page to buy your products and services.

Download our Free Report on Maximizing your Facebook Fan Page

Positive word of mouth advertising happens when a client or colleague recommends you and your business to another person. Of course, negative word of mouth advertising can happen, too. That is when someone dissuades another person from using your services. There are several things you can do to generate positive word of mouth advertising.

Of course producing and providing quality products and services will set you up to greatly increase your chance of receiving positive word of mouth. If you do a great job on a project or service for someone, they will definitely let others know about it. Plus, they’ll want to hire you again for any upcoming projects they have. Performing quality work is definitely the first step in generating a solid customer base.

But along with your great service, you will want to provide excellent customer service.  Average and even good customer service will not stop your clients from hiring someone else to do the work they originally hired you for. Taking the time to respond daily to emails, quote requests and phone calls is very important. When your business is too big for you to do this by yourself, outsource this function to a virtual assistant.

Past and current clients are not the only ones who will refer you to new clients. Networking with other, non-competing business owners who can pass your name out to their own clients will help too. A virtual assistant, graphic designer, and ghostwriter can all share the same clients.

If you haven’t taken the time to brand your business, you may want to consider taking the time to do that now. When you brand your business, people will automatically associate you with that brand. When they meet someone in need of your products or services, they will easily remember your business, and therefore be more likely to refer you.

Some examples of branding strategies include Nike, Apple, and even Rachael Ray. You know that when you want athletic shoes, Nike has them. Apple is known for having the best, most cutting edge Mp3 players. And if you want a speedy 30 minute meal, you don’t have to look any farther than one of Rachael Ray’s television shows, books, magazines or DVDs.

Word-of-mouth advertising can be very effective. If used correctly, you’ll be reaching many new customers, and you won’t have to pay a dime for it.

This 90 day challenge is turning into a great opportunity to test theories and create new methods of operation. In a pseud0-scientific marketing kinda way, I am making progress for all of mankind. Or something like that.

I’ll report more later. Now off to sleep a little.