Traffic to the new Mcswain Carpets & Floors web site, available through a number of URLs, has increased nearly 35% since October 2005. In just 7 months, average monthly traffic to the site has increased from 29,000 to 45,000. How did we do it? As part of the new No Hammers Campaign, the web site has been leveraged in its publicity, promotions and paid advertising. We directed those exposed to messages to the McSwain web site where they could print valuable Internet Only offers that not only offered special discounts, but also important information and branding advice. The Shop@Home Feature is also a more prominent fixture on the site, actually driving sales and traffic to the stores.

Separate URLs were purchased for distinct media outlets, enabling us to manage and measure exactly which sections of the paid marketing mix (ie: radio, print, television, direct mail) was drawing the most traffic. The URLs purchased fit the campaign and branding of No Hammers, offering McSwain a distinct competitive advantage over the big box stores. The site can be experienced at www.nohammers.com.

How Can You Apply This Information?

The use of multiple URLs in tracking effectiveness of marketing mix is crucial

Leveraging the paid media in driving traffic to the site for Internet Only Specials that are specifically branded to a given campaign not only promotes the proper branding experience, but offers current and potential customers to frequently return to the site.

If you're not tracking traffic to your site and which pages they viewed, how long they stayed and what the outcome of the visit was, you're not maximizing your web site investment as a business intelligence tool. Web sites should never be static pieces of information waxing poetic about how brilliant your company is, but rather useful tools to your prospective and current clientele, and built in such a way as to give users a reason to return regularly.