Working remotely has its perks. No commute, no traffic jams, and most importantly, no bad weather. If you’ve ever tried to work in the rain, you know that going digital is the perfect excuse to ditch the excuses and get some work done. That’s why when the Australian town of Townsville decided to host a digital marketing symposium, they asked me to help out.

The goal of the event was to discuss ways that businesses can use digital marketing to grow their businesses and how remote workers can play a part in that strategy. My role as online marketing consultant was to create a schedule of speaking engagements from which the marketing teams at local businesses could choose, and to create online resources that they could use to pull in leads and increase sales. The results were successful, and I hope this article will help other businesses see the value in hosting similar events.

Why Digital Marketing?

Let’s be honest, most businesses aren’t equipped to handle their marketing, sales and customer service themselves. No matter what industry you’re in, you’re going to need an expert to help you navigate the digital waters.

One of the things I love about working remotely is that I get to know the executives and decision makers behind the brands I work with. Brands like Tropiq, Bonjoro and Hello Fresh have incredibly specific buyer personas and target audiences, and it’s my job to help them understand how to engage with these people via social media.

In addition to helping businesses understand their target audiences, I also get to educate them on the various metrics and analytics that can help them track the success of their marketing efforts. In other words, I get to help businesses become more digital.

How Can Digital Marketing Be Measured?

I think most businesses understand the importance of measuring the success of their marketing efforts, but not many know how to go about it. Luckily, with the aid of a tool like Google Analytics, this is a task that’s a lot easier to accomplish.

Google Analytics allows you to track the success of your marketing strategy in a few simple steps. First, you’ll need to set up a free account. Then, you’ll need to add a tracking code to the header of each page on your site. Finally, you’ll need to point Google Analytics at your website.

From there, you can use the Analytic interface to identify key performance indicators such as:

• The average time on site
• The number of page views
• The bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who navigate away from a website after visiting only one page)
• The percentage of users who open multiple tabs or windows while on your site
• The most popular pages on your site

All of this information can be used to determine the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy, and it can help you determine what areas of your site need to be improved upon.

You can also use Google Analytics to track the performance of your social media strategy. On this front, you’ll need to create a new account, then follow these simple steps:

• Login to your Google account
• Click on ‘+ → Analytics’ in the top right corner
• Click on ‘New Campaign’
• Type in your website’s URL (without the http:// or www. before it) and click on the ‘Create Campaign’ button
• Give your campaign a name and description
• Choose the social platforms you’ll be using for this campaign (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube)
• Choose the countries you’ll be targeting (optional)
• Choose the languages you’re fluent in (optional)
• Check the box that says “I’ve been verified” (optional)
• Click on the ‘Create Campaign’ button

From there, you can use the Analytics interface to find your social media’s performance, including the following metrics:

• The number of followers (i.e., people who have expressed interest in your content)
• The number of people talking about your content (i.e., engagement)
• The average number of times users click on your links (i.e., click through rate)
• The number of times users engaged with your content (i.e., likes, shares, and comments)
• The total number of times users clicked on your content (i.e., total reach)

To wrap this up, let’s discuss how businesses can leverage digital marketing into a profitable opportunity. First and foremost, make sure that you have a clear picture of what you’re trying to achieve. Having a clear goal in mind when designing a marketing strategy helps you structure your work and measure your progress. Next, make sure that your strategy is backed up with data. Without data, your strategy is simply an opinion.

With that, I want to remind you of something valuable that I’ve said a few times already: make sure that your online marketing strategy is positioned to drive business growth, and that you’re measuring the right things to tell you whether or not it’s working. If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, I strongly recommend using a tool like Google Analytics to get an idea of how well you’re doing and what needs to be changed.