Who is visiting your website?
Did you even know that Google Analytics could track this stuff for you? Sure it can! It tracks age, gender, affinity categories, in-market categories, and other types of categories. Affinity categories are a very broad sense of a users lifestyle or interests. In-market categories are individuals that are "in the market" for specific product categories. Finally, other categories defines a persons interests based on the types of content that they check out and how frequently that happens. Pretty cool stuff huh? You might be thinking, actually that scary. Sure, but think like a marketer. This is GREAT DATA!
How Can You Use The Data
First, you can determine if in a general sense you are capturing the right audience to your website. You probably already have a general idea of what your buyer is like, or even better you've already created your buyer personas. Are the types of people that are coming to your site in-line with what you expect your customer to be? Now take that a step further...if they are in-line and your website generates leads and conversions, great! You probably have a good understanding of your buyer and are actually getting those people to your website. If your website is under performing and you think the "right" people are coming to your website, maybe what you think the "right" people are is actually wrong. This data is a great way to understand and align those things!
Second, you can use this data to actually create your buyer persona. I know I said in the other paragraph that you may have already done this, but let's be serious. You probably haven't completed it yet. Don't rely solely on the data provided by Google Analytics, but if you get enough data where you can determine the age, gender, and interests of your best buyers from previous website experiences, this data should absolutely be used.
Finally, use the data for future marketing. This could be bid boosting or targeting interests via AdWords for your top performing "person". You've got the info and it nicely aligns with whats available in AdWords as well. You can also use this data to target that person via social media. Facebook sponsored ads would allow you to serve an ad to someone that specifically meets the criteria that you provide. Just a bit of advice...don't attract them there just to disappoint them. Make sure you are actually doing something with your Facebook page. Using the data you have is an awesome way to target ads to get your brand in-front of your best people.
We'd love to hear if you are using this data in other ways as well. Yes, it might be scary to some, but it's also wonderful information. The more data you can compile as a marketing person, the better!
