We integrate Google Analytics with Infusionsoft in our online marketing in two primary ways; analyzing our email marketing campaigns, and tracking website conversions. With a planned approach for Google Analytics and Infusionsoft, I am able to answer the following online marketing questions with relative ease:

1. What type of visitor is filling out my Infusionsoft web forms, and where are they coming from?
2. How much of my website traffic is coming from my email marketing campaigns?
3. How effective are my sales funnels on my website?

Who is Filling Out My Infusionsoft Web Forms?

One of our goals as an online marketer is to build a quality list of prospects that may not be ready to buy right now, but may be ready down the road. So, we want to stay engaged with them, and like many other website owners, we have several irresistible “free” offers available for download in exchange for an email address.

I have never heard anyone say, “My list is big enough and I don’t want any more people on it, and I already have enough clients”, so to better understand your website visitors and improve your opt-in rate or contact form submissions, there are three steps to take:

1. When creating a web form inside your Infusionsoft application, select the option “send to a web page”, not “show thank you message”.
2. Create a thank you page as your destination for your web form and on your website.
3. In Google Analytics, set your opt-in thank you page and/or contact thank you page as a goal(s).

After you have completed these steps and have goal completions (opt-ins) in Google Analytics, you can segment your data within analytics and find out several questions about your successful opt-ins including:

1. Are my opt-ins first time website visitors or returning visitors?
2. Which source of traffic is getting me the most opt-ins?
3. What content are my visitors looking at before/after they opt-in?

Once you answer these questions, you will be able to make better decisions on your future list building and lead generation efforts, and make plans based on actionable data and not just guessing to see what works.

How Effective is My Email Marketing?

Like many online marketers, we publish an email newsletter, have multiple Infusionsoft follow up sequences (auto-responders) running from various opt-ins, and use email marketing to help sell our products, services, and programs. Our number one goal with all of this is to get the receiver to click a link.

We are big fans of Infusionsoft and use its many great reporting tools to analyze our marketing efforts in order to try and improve our outcomes, but I can’t get all of the information from Infusionsoft that I want, so this is where Google Analytics comes in.

With every link we place in an email message, I add an extension tag to the destination webpage URL to “tell” Google Analytics where the website visitor is coming from. Without placing the extension tag on the link URL, any website traffic from an email marketing link will show up as “direct” or as a referral from a web-based email provider in your traffic sources reports. When analyzing your Google Analytics data, you will have no idea how effective your email campaigns are.

Every link should have at least three parameters assigned to them:

1. Source-What is the source of the traffic? Ezine, affiliate, social media, etc.
2. Medium-What is the way the traffic is coming? Email, link, ad, etc.
3. Campaign-What marketing campaign is the traffic coming from? Spring Sale, New Product Launch, Email Newsletter, etc.

Some Examples:

If you are marketing new blog posts through your email newsletter to drive traffic to your site, below is an example UTM tag that Google Analytics can read. Everything after the URL, starting with the question mark, is the UTM tag.

http://www.yourdomain.com/newblogpost?utm_source=ezine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EzineTitle

If you are marketing a new product or service through your ezine, below is an example UTM tag. Note that the campaign parameter has changed.

http://www.yourdomain.com/salespage?utm_source=ezine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ProductLaunch

If you are sending an email message only about your new product or service, the following example could be used.

http://www.yourdomain.com/salespage?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=ProductLaunch

Now let’s say that you are using an Infusionsoft follow up sequence to up-sell a program after someone opts-in on your site for your free report. Note the source and campaign has changed.

http://www.yourdomain.com/program?utm_source=FUS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FreeOfferOptIn

The key to using UTM tags is to remain consistent with the parameters you set. I recommend a spreadsheet to keep track. Until you get comfortable writing UTM tags, bookmark the Google Analytics URL Builder, and use their tool to auto-generate your links.

Adding the UTM parameters to your email marketing links will now allow you to analyze your efforts within Google Analytics, and determine your prospect’s behavior after any links are getting clicked on.

How Effective are My Sales Funnels

After you’ve built your list with your irresistible free offer and continued to provide value through useful content, the next step is to go for the sale. Your sales funnels will be determined through your marketing plan, and a little tweaking of Google Analytics and Infusionsoft, will allow you to analyze the process and try to improve your conversion rate.

To integrate Google Analytics and Infusionsoft order forms, three things must be done:

1. Modify your Google Analytics tracking code
2. Add the Google Analytics tracking code to your order forms
3. Set up Goals and Goal funnels inside Google Analytics

Because Infusionsoft is a third-party shopping cart that sits on a sub-domain of another website, when someone clicks a link to make a purchase on your site, they are technically “leaving” your website, and Google Analytics cannot track your visitor’s path without some modifications to the tracking code.

Before we dive into the super-nerdy stuff, Google recently released an update to its analytics code to asynchronous, so the following code examples will be for the newer asynchronous tracking code. If you haven’t updated your site to the new code, I highly recommend it. You can read more right here straight from Google

For the purposes of this post we will use the following Infusionsoft application example https://example.infusionsoft.com.

The standard asynchronous code, with event tracking and download file types also enabled, will look something like this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var analyticsFileTypes = ['pdf,mp3'];
var analyticsEventTracking = ‘enabled’;
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>

(replace UA-XXXXXXXX-X with your actual Google Analytics account number)

For tracking website visitors across Infusionsoft order forms, the following two bolded lines of code must be added to your analytics tracking code and updated on every page of your site and will look something like this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var analyticsFileTypes = ['pdf,mp3'];
var analyticsEventTracking = ‘enabled’;
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'none']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>

Now, when creating an Infusionsoft order form, the same modified Google Analytics code must be placed in the <head> HTML of the order form. After this, and one more step, Google Analytics will treat the order form as a page on your site and track the page view.

Next, on any link or “Add To Cart” button on a sales page on http://www.yourdomain.com, that sends to an Infusionsoft order form the link HTML must look like this:

<a href=”https://example.infusionsoft.com/saleform/example”
onclick=”_gaq.push(['_link', 'https://example.infusionsoft.com/saleform/example ']); return false;”>Add To Cart</a>

Replace https://example.infusionsoft.com/saleform/example with the actual link to your order form and Add To Cart with your desired link text or button source information.

Just like when creating a web form, when you create an Infusionsoft order form be sure to select the “send to a web page” option, and create a thank you page on your website. Set up this thank you page as an additional goal in your Google Analytics account and if you want, you can create a goal funnel too. Now Google Analytics can track buyers across your order forms, to your thank you page, and give you loads of insight to your website visitors that make purchases.

These are just a few ways to integrate Infusionsoft and Google Analytics to get you started, but remember that with any data collected from either software platform, the idea is to use the information to analyze, adjust, and improve your online marketing efforts. Don’t get caught up in “analysis paralysis”. Look at your data, make a decision on what to change, and then implement it. Lather, rinse, and repeat your way to success.

I would love to hear from any other Infusionsoft users on how they integrate Google Analytics into their online marketing, so please leave a comment. Also, if this post registers a little too high on the NERD-O-METER, and you have a question, please ask.

Simply put, marketing is a collection of actions taken to make sure the people who want and need your products, programs, and services know that you exist and can find you quickly and effortlessly… because even the most incredible, meticulously developed brand will fail if no one knows that the business exists.

Your customers will make their decision to purchase when they are ready, not when you are ready. That means your marketing efforts must be diverse, consistent, deliberate, and compelling.

If you want them to buy a product, enroll in a program, register for an event, opt-in to your list, or purchase your services, your marketing materials must make it easy for your audience to take action, and make taking action a complete no-brainer.

Specializing in online marketing and electronic marketing, Bourn Creative combines our online strategies with traditional marketing techniques to propel our clients and their businesses into the spotlight, increasing their brand visibility, expanding their market reach, and helping attract more opportunities, more clients, and more growth.

Bourn Creative partners with our clients to provide both outsourced marketing agency services and a-la-carte marketing services, covering Internet marketing, social media marketing, and traditional marketing.

Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing, Web 2.0 marketing, and online marketing refers to marketing activities that foster relationship building and leveraging the Internet to sell, promote, market, and advertise your business, as well as share valuable information. It includes sales pages, landing pages, squeeze pages, blogging, opt-in marketing, email marketing, teleseminars, webinars, video marketing, information product marketing, web design, article marketing, blog design, press release marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization.

Social Media Marketing
Social networking refers to the online networking that takes place on social media websites. Social media marketing refers to using social networks, blogs, online communities, and any other collaborative, interactive forms of online media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. It includes posting and sharing tips, tricks, links, helpful information, thoughts, questions, and more on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn by written posts, video posts, audio posts or podcasting, micro blogging, and more.

Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing is made up of the many proven, time tested ways businesses have connected with their audiences for years. It includes advertising, public relations, direct mail, graphic design, and print marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, rack cards, and postcards, trade show marketing, web design, and more.

Marketing of any kind isn’t an instant solution. Just as building a solid long-lasting friendship takes time and nurturing, marketing and building relationships with your customers and your audience also takes time and nurturing. Marketing is a process that takes time and dedication. With a smart marketing plan and simple strategy in place, you can over time build a following of loyal customers and fans, which means more repeat purchases, more referrals, and more income.

You just got back from an absolutely amazing workshop or conference. You are pumped because the $3,000 you spent to attend was totally worth all the great networking and fantastic content you received.

You experienced a couple breakthroughs and ah-ha moments at the event and you feel great. You’ve got a lot of ideas that you want to implement, like new services, products, continuity programs. You also learned about some cool new tools you want to add to your business toolbox.

You immediately start working on some of your new ideas yourself. But normal client work flow, business admin tasks, and daily life starts to get in the way. You are really busy juggling your business and your family and your post-event momentum (what I like to call conference crack) starts to wear off. Soon you realize that several months have passed and none of your new ideas have been implemented.

You then decide to hire someone to help you get stuff done! You are embracing the idea of delegation and it feels good. You find a designer, or a programmer, or a copywriter and you get to work. But it isn’t really working. You are having a hard time communicating what you want and why you need it to be a certain way and “they” just aren’t getting it. They don’t understand Internet marketing.

Does this story sound familiar? If it does, I have good news for you. I know Internet marketing. In fact, I have created a complete Internet Marketing Implementation Team of experts that are ready to turn your ideas in completed projects.

My team members and I attend Internet and online marketing seminars, read every bit of online business development and marketing material we can get our hands on, and opt-in for a huge number of ezines, lists, and programs so we can check out and analyze what other experts are doing and what they are saying.

Why? So we can help you. I make it my business to ensure implementing the new marketing strategies and ideas you have is a simple, painless, stress-free process.

So next time you attend a conference or just experience a really big ah-ha moment, please give me a call or email me. I can help you flush out all of the ideas and desires you’ve got swirling around in your head, make a serious plan of action to make them a reality, and then start getting it done for you.

When it comes to Internet marketing implementation and choosing the tools and strategies you are going to use, the key is to do your homework. Research the different tools you are thinking about using, ask current users what they think about the tool and ask people who have switched to another tool why they did so. They key is to ask a lot of questions and think about how you want to use it in the future and if it can grow with your business as it grows.

Here are just some of the questions that you need to ask before committing to adding another Internet marketing strategy or online marketing tool to your business marketing mix:

• How much will this cost me?
• What is the learning curve?
• How much time will it take to set it up?
• Will I be managing it or will I delegate this?
• Am I going to have to make any sacrifices to do this?
• Can this grow with me as my business grows?
• Is it easy to stop or cancel at any time?
• Are other people finding success with this?
• What are the downsides?
• Who is promoting this? is what they are saying consistent with the other information available about the tool, service or strategy?
• Do they actually use it? Do they get a commission if I use it?
• How is this going to improve my life or my business?
• What will change as a result?

Like the well-known phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none,” if you try to add too many new marketing methods and strategies to your business all at the same time, you risk not doing any of the as well as they need to be done and you risk confusing your audience.

Instead, you need to make a list of everything you want to implement in your business. Then you need to prioritize them in three different ways: difficulty, profit, and value.

Once you have made the three lists, evaluate your results and combine the lists into a single master list of implementation priorities. Work on one or two of the items on this list at a time, starting from the top. Do not add another item to the mix until these are completed. This approach to your online marketing implementation will help make sure you dedicate time and effort needed to launch something great and knock it out of the ballpark!

Simply put, Internet marketing implementation is taking action on your big ideas and using the tools available on the Internet to bring those ideas to life and market them to your audience. It is deciding which tools and strategies are the best fit for you and your business, creating an online marketing plan outlining how they will be used, and then putting your marketing plan into play and getting it done.

As the expert, you need to focus your time and effort on:

• Creating valuable content
• Serving your customers
• Nurturing your list
• Marketing your business
• Developing products

You do NOT need to be worrying about:

• Creating your sales pages
• Fussing with opt-in code
• Formatting content
• Laying out your ebook
• Creating squeeze pages
• Designing 3D product images and binder covers
• Optimizing your website

My team and I specialize in Internet marketing implementation, or getting all of the above done! In fact, we want to be your Internet Marketing Implementation Action Team and go to resource for building your brand online.

That means that whether you just need a simple microsite with a sales page, thank you page and downloadable page, a custom Twitter background, a branded WordPress blog, or a full blown online marketing plan, I can get help you get your online marketing done quickly and effortlessly.

The Internet isn’t magic. It may seem magical sometimes, but ultimately it is just a tool.

• It is a place to put your marketing materials – Your domain name houses your website or blog files.
• It is a place to communicate with other people – Email and instant messaging allows you to talk electronically with anyone in the world.
• It is a place to exchange material – Shopping carts and e-commerce allow you to buy, sell, or trade information, services, products, and ideas.
• It is a place to interact with other people – Social networking sites and blogs create communities and groups of like-minded people who engage in conversation.
• It is a place to share, learn, and teach – Free information shared in reports, ebooks, audios, videos, blogs, ezines, and websites to help other people.

Now, what you DO on, and do with the Internet is what is going to make a difference in your business and your life and that is where Internet marketing and online marketing come into play.

Why Is Internet Marketing So Popular?

Internet marketing or online marketing is the marketing of a business and its products, programs, or services using the Internet. It basically refers to entrepreneurs, business owners, and people like you leveraging the global reach and power of the World Wide Web to:

Reach a larger, more diverse, world-wide audience, Communicate your brand message, attract new prospects, and convert more prospects into customers, and Market your brand, products, programs, and services, and increase visibility for your brand.

Another reason Internet marketing is so popular, it that it’s fairly easy and inexpensive to measure your marketing statistics, customer response, and marketing successes online. This is because some type of action such as a click though, opt-in, or download is usually required. Almost every part of an Internet marketing campaign can be tracked, measured, and tested, and by measuring each marketing effort separately, it is easy for you to see which efforts are creating the most results and giving you the most bang for your buck.

Internet marketing also refers to the online marketing strategies and techniques used to support and enhance your business, organization, or association’s overall online marketing goals. It includes web 2.0 marketing strategies and techniques such as:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Blogging
• Social media and social networking
• Article marketing and press release marketing
• Email marketing
• Squeeze pages, sales pages and landing pages
• Opt-in Marketing
• Webinars
• Ebooks and special reports
• Audio and video marketing
• Link building
• Banner advertising
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• And more

There is so much noise online from online affiliate and information marketers that sometimes what is really at the core of Internet Marketing gets lost. You know who I am talking about – those people who promise that you can make a million dollars in record time just like they did if you buy their $247, $197, $147, $77, $27 product. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably tired of that same sales letter that you see over and over and are just ready for someone to give it to you straight.

Here’s the bottom line. In order for other people to do business with you, to buy your products, invest in your services, and join your programs they first have to be able to find you!

Implementing Internet marketing strategies can help you get your business in front of your ideal client, who wants to work with you and is ready to buy more often. The number one goal of every single action associated with Internet marketing is to do just that, put you in your ideal customer’s sight line more often.

Here’s why: People don’t buy when you’re ready for them to buy. They buy when they are ready to buy. That means that you need to consistently be in their minds and on their radar. Yes, some people will buy from you the very first time they see your marketing message. But for others they may need to think about a while. Seeing it a second time will trigger more to buy, but others need to think about it longer. Do you see what’s happening? It may take seeing your marketing materials 7 to 12 times before they are ready to buy.

The Internet marketing process helps you get your brand and your message in front of your audience consistently in several different ways such as:

• Search engine optimization efforts can help you achieve high search engine results page (SERP) rankings for your keywords and long-tail key phrases.
• Blogging can help facilitate regular updating of your website content, build more inbound and outbound links and increase search rankings.
• Commenting on blogs and responding to visitors’ comments on your own blog will help build relationships, build links back to your site, and increase search rankings.
• Social networking on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube can help build relationships with your network, drive targeted traffic back to your website and increase search rankings.
• Article marketing and press release marketing help build your credibility, enforce your expert status, create more links back to your website, and increase search rankings
• Email marketing helps you stay top of mind with your audience, provide a platform for you to share your knowledge, educate, and help you subscribers, and adds more links back to your website.

Are you seeing a theme? Of course! Every single action you engage in with your Internet marketing strategy is to drive more qualified traffic to your website so your more of your ideals clients can access your valuable content, check out your products and services, and take action!

For more information on how Internet and online marketing can help you and your business, check out my blog post on How an Internet Marketing Implementation Action Team Can Help Grow Your Business.

Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative Helps Women Entrepreneurs Gain Valuable Resources for Business

Sacramento, CA – The Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs (AOE), founded by online business development expert, Brenda Rivas, is a community that empowers women to embrace their knowledge, passion and desired lifestyle and leverage those elements into profitable online businesses. Web design and Internet marketing consultant, Jennifer Bourn of Sacramento, CA, has been chosen to serve as one of only twelve on the AOE Expert Panel for 2010 where she will advise and train the membership of women entrepreneurs in Internet marketing.

In her own business, Bourn Creative, Bourn helps successful entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, and information marketers, with branding, web design, Internet marketing, and social media marketing. Her background includes publishing the popular ezine Design and Profit, winning several awards in branding, graphic design, and web design, and being a university Instructor on the subject. Using her expertise can help businesses spend more time following their passion and creating more revenue. Her approach takes the complex systems of marketing and breaks them down into easy to understand techniques. As a 2010 AOE Expert, Bourn will advise the membership, write for the AOE blog and offer teleclasses on Internet marketing, branding, graphic design, web design, blogging, and email marketing.

With a “Go Big or Go Home” attitude, Bourn brings an energetic and fun attitude to the ideas and strategies of Internet marketing.

“I’m honored to have been chosen to be a part of this amazing community of women entrepreneurs,” explained Bourn. “I’m passionate about helping them market their businesses online and I look forward to helping the AOE membership obtain the resources to do so.”

The AOE boasts an attractive, high touch benefits package that includes access to twelve of the industries top experts. “As success stories in their own fields, the Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs Expert Panel is tapping into global reach and 24 hour access of the Internet to give women of every age and race the knowledge, tips, resources and tools to start and grow equity rich online businesses,” Rivas said. “Members receive a copy of The Online Business Navigation Program. In this twelve CD program and accompanying guide, AOE Experts share best practices, and strategies to help you effectively navigate your business through the Internet. The program focuses on the core areas of building and growing a profitable online business”.

“This community isn’t just about making more money. We want women to be able to achieve a work/life balance that includes financial security as a platform that allows them to manifest the life that they really want, “Rivas said. “I want women to imagine what their life would look like if it completely worked and they created an online business as the vehicle to and make it happen.”

About the Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs

More than just a membership community, the AOE places an emphasis on teaching its members to automate their businesses, create systems and leverage their knowledge into a profitable equity rich business while evolving their mindsets. In addition, the AOE connects members with other energetic entrepreneurs with the purpose of creating profitable partnerships, and more!

The AOE is headquartered in Miami, Florida. For more information visit the AOE online at www.aoeconnect.com.

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It’s not about you. It’s about them.

But what does that mean? It’s simple really. It means that you need to stop talking about yourself and stop writing what you want to hear said about you and your business.

Instead, focus on what your audience wants to hear, what they want to learn, and what information they need. Then you need to focus on getting it to them as quickly as possible.

Think of it this way, when someone is searching for something online, they more than likely aren’t just browsing with endless amounts of time. Usually they are searching for a specific piece of information, answer to their questions, or solution to their problem – and they are turning to the Internet to find what they need fast.

Your job as a website owner is to research your target market, find out that they want, need, and desire, learn how you can help them, and then deliver it.

Attract more clients, attract more customers, and attract more prospects.

Once you begin to tailor your content right to your target market and deliver the information they need, you will begin to attract more clients, attract more customers, and attract more prospects.

You will also to see your webiste traffic increase, which means more people are seeing your message, experiencing your brand, and hopefully taking action.

Getting your website visitors to take action is a huge part of why you want to get them there in the first place. Understanding what action you want them to take and focusing on making them want to take that action is the key.

So remember, when developing your website and it’s content, it is imperative that you focus first on delivering quality content your audience that they want and need, and second on making your offer so irresistible that it becomes a “duh” action or a no-brainer.

Also don’t be afraid to test different headlines, page designs, colors, or calls to action to find just the right combination of elements that will maximize your conversions, and in turn, your website profits.

Do you have any other ideas? Let me know below!