DigiKnow is a medium-sized web development/interactive agency. While our client websites get tens of thousands of visitors each day, DigiKnow’s own traffic is much more modest. Our site is designed to connecting with potential clients and partners that are looking for a great agency to help them navigate the muddy waters of digital communications.
Because our website focused on lead generation, our sales team was curious to know who was coming to the site, both to see who is following up after an initial contact and who is potentially looking at us for an RFP distribution. They did some research and looked at several commercial services (Demandbase, VisitorTrack, LEADSExplorer, or LeadLander) that will provide insights into who is visiting your site.
I caught wind of this conversation and suggested that we could produce a similar solution with Google Analytics, for FREE! The commercial solutions are not expensive (a few hundred dollars pre month), but it’s hard to argue with free. Here’s what I setup for them:
1. First, I created an Advanced Segment that I called “Exclude Major ISPs”. One of the big advantages the commercial products have is that they have established a database of large internet service providers (ISP) that are filtered out of their reporting. Building this segment in Google Analytics is a big pain, but fortunately because of the new sharing feature, I can share the work I already did and link to it here:
Google Analytics Advanced Segment: Exclude Major ISPs
(I update the segment regularly, and this link will always provide you the latest version, but if you really want to stay on top of this, stop back and download it monthly. If you have improved my segment, please put your link in the comments!)
2. Second, I setup an email alert that sends the sales team a PDF each day of the visitors from the previous day. To do this, go to Network Location (under Visitors, Network Properties) and I chose to sort it by Pages/Visit. Be sure to have the “Exclude Major ISPs” segment active at this point.
3. Then click Email, then pick the Schedule tab. In the schedule, enter the email address(es) desired, put in a subject line (like “Website Leads”) and select a date range of “Daily”.
Now you’ve created your own lead analytics system.
I will say, that the commercial products do have advantages, including deeper reporting and more timely report generation. But if you are looking for a free solution and already running Google Analytics, this might be a great place to start.
