Wordsmith for Marketing

One of the hardest things I struggle with in the workplace is trying to present data to my coworkers in an easy but meaningful way. I personally know by looking at the data that things are either going great on our website, or not doing so hot. I know what all the key terms are like, pageviews, unique vistors, sessions, and bouncerate mean to the overall well-being of the website, but my co-workers do not. Trying to get my point across in a fast, but efficient way is something of a personal flaw I need to work on. I already have gotten a lot better through out the years. (I tend to talk fast which I don’t think helps either.) But everyone has their struggles and I know mine and work on them as best as I can.

At my company, we have weekly marketing meetings that are held Monday and Friday, 30 minutes each. Monday is to go over the hopeful goals to be accomplished, and Friday is what actually got accomplished, and if something didn’t, why not. I have personally taken on the revamping of the meeting to be structured like this, and I think it is working out pretty well so far. Sometimes meetings can go on and on. I believe the more organized you are in a meeting, the better results you will get from that meeting.

However, prepping for an organized meeting takes time in and of itself. I have learned that being organized in your daily work life, helps you to not have to “waste” so much time preparing a meeting. We use Asana at my company as an organizational tool. It is a great place to keep all of your company projects and tasks organized. It still takes time and energy to prep for a meeting, that let’s be honest, I could be spending on getting more “actual” work done. There is nothing more I can’t stand than going into a meeting and feeling like nothing is accomplished and thinking to myself  “well that was a total waste of my time.”

The first Monday of the month, is when I present to the company the web analytics from the previous month. The CEO, CFO, and Operations Manager are all apart of this meeting. They all want to know how the website is operating and it is my job to show them in a quick but real way the overall results of the website for the previous month. Although this information is critical to be reviewed, they truly don’t know exactly how it all works as it is not their job to fully understand, it is mine. Giving them an overview of the website that they can get a quick summary of what is going on, and then dive into it a little bit more if they need to, is just what they are looking for. But this takes time for me to develop.

So how can I come up with a great but simplistic overview of the web analytics for a whole month without spending my time? Wordsmith for Marketing looks like a good resource to rely on that will take my data and convert it into an overview that I could use at my monthly meetings.

Wordsmith for Marketing is company that has personally been vetted by Google Analytics to use in conjunction with GA (Partners, 2017) Wordsmith automatically creates weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports that explain companies ROI based on Google Analytics data (Technology, 2017) It is used mainly for marketing agencies, but according to it’s statistics, it would save me 4-6 hours per report. That adds up to 72 hours out of the year that I could be using my time elsewhere. Developing a report is important, but it is really not value added time. Once the report is developed and decisions are made based off the reports, this where the real value is seen. The building of the report is just making something you already know presentable for everyone else to know.

Below is an example of the overview that is given. The overview talks about this current month’s stats compared to previous months and why they are different. It explains what marketing tactics like social networks or campaigns were involved in the rise in stats for the month. This is a great and easy summary to understand.

(Technology, 2017)

Wordsmith for Marketing also gives an overview of paid searches. Below is an example of what impressions led to clicks, and what clicks led to conversions. Great bulleted information is given in simplicity like the one that states “for the second month in a row, there was a rise in the number of conversions via Paid Search.” (Technology, 2017) The information is key, but short and to the point.   

(Technology, 2017)

What is fantastic about Wordsmith for Marketing is it only takes five minute to set up on my end. After my initial set up, they then pull the data, mine for insights, and write an analysis. (Technology, 2017) They then turn over the written analysis to me for any edits or comments. After my comments are made and changed, Wordsmith provides me with a polished pdf of their monthly review.

I have not found a cost for the use of Wordsmith for Marketing. I assume you have to fill out some contact information first, and then they will provide you with a quote. This company really seems to reach out to marketing agencies, but I am sure they do customized quotes for individual companies.

Wordsmith for Marketing is just one of many partners that Google Analytics has vetted to help with reporting. A few others include, Report Garden, Whatagraph, Teacup Analytics, Megalytic, and so on. I chose Wordsmith for Marketing because it has the most reviews with the best rating. The other solutions might be worth looking into as well. Teacup Analytics has a free and paid version. Free is always nice to start out with if your budget is not high. You can get more of a feel of what you like and do not like, than expand to a higher paid version. After, glancing over the other reporting companies, besides the ratings, I did like the overall look and feel the best for Wordsmith for Marketing.

References:

Google Analytics Partners. (2017) Find A Partner or Solution. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/analytics/partners

Google Analytics Partner. Technology Partner. (2017) Wordsmith for Marketing Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/analytics/partners/company/5089120976109568/gadp/5629499534213120/app/5707702298738688/listing/5639274879778816