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• A Guide to Bank Customer Segmentation

  18 juillet 2024, par Erin

  Banking customers are more diverse, complex, and demanding than ever. As a result, banks have to work harder to win their loyalty, with 75% saying they would switch to a bank that better fits their needs.

  The problem is banking customers’ demands are increasingly varied amid economic uncertainties, increased competition, and generational shifts.

  If banks want to retain their customers, they can’t treat them all the same. They need a bank customer segmentation strategy that allows them to reach specific customer groups and cater to their unique demands.

  What is customer segmentation ?

  Customer segmentation divides a customer base into distinct groups based on shared characteristics or behaviours.

  This allows companies to analyse the behaviours and needs of different customer groups. Banks can use these insights to target segments with relevant marketing throughout the customer cycle, e.g., new customers, inactive customers, loyal customers, etc.

  You combine data points from multiple segmentation categories to create a customer segment. The most common customer segmentation categories include :

  • Demographic segmentation
  • Website activity segmentation
  • Geographic segmentation
  • Purchase history segmentation
  • Product-based segmentation
  • Customer lifecycle segmentation
  • Technographic segmentation
  • Channel preference segmentation
  • Value-based segmentation

  

  By combining segmentation categories, you can create detailed customer segments. For example, high-value customers based in a particular market, using a specific product, and approaching the end of the lifecycle. This segment is ideal for customer retention campaigns, localised for their market and personalised to satisfy their needs.

  

  Matomo’s privacy-centric web analytics solution helps you capture data from the first visit. Unlike Google Analytics, Matomo doesn’t use data sampling (more on this later) or AI to fill in data gaps. You get 100% accurate data for reliable insights and customer segmentation.

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

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  Why is customer segmentation important for banks ?

  Customer segmentation allows you to address the needs of specific groups instead of treating all of your customers the same. This has never been more important amid a surge in bank switching, with three in four customers ready to switch to a provider that better suits their needs.

  Younger customers are the most likely to switch, with 19% of 18-24 year olds changing their primary bank in the past year (PDF).

  Customer expectations are changing, driven by economic uncertainties, declining trust in traditional banking, and the rise of fintech. Even as economic pressures lift, banks need to catch up with the demands of maturing millennials, Gen Z, and future generations of banking customers.

  Switching is the new normal, especially for tech-savvy customers encouraged by an expanding world of digital banking options.

  To retain customers, banks need to know them better and understand how their needs change over time. Customer retention provides the insights banks need to understand these needs at a granular level and the means to target specific customer groups with relevant messages.

  At its core, customer segmentation is essential to banks for two key reasons :

  • Customer retention : Holding on to customers for longer by satisfying their personal needs.
  • Customer lifetime value : Maximising ongoing customer revenue through retention, purchase frequency, cross-selling, and upselling.

  Here are some actionable bank customer segmentation strategies that can achieve these two objectives :

  Prevent switching with segment analysis

  Use customer segmentation to prevent them from switching to rivals by knowing what they want from you. Analyse customer needs and how they change throughout the lifecycle. Third-party data reveals general trends, but what do your customers want ?

  

  Use first-party customer data and segmentation to go beyond industry trends. Know exactly what your customers want from you and how to deliver targeted messages to each segment — e.g., first-time homebuyers vs. retirement planners.

  Keep customers active with segment targeting

  Target customer segments to keep customers engaged and motivated. Create ultra-relevant marketing messages and deliver them with precision to distinct customer segments. Nurture customer motivation by continuing to address their problems and aspirations.

  Improve the quality of services and products

  Knowing your customers’ needs in greater detail allows you to adapt your products and messages to cater to the most important segments. Customers switch banks because they feel their needs are better met elsewhere. Prevent this by implementing customer segmentation insights into product development and marketing.

  Personalise customer experiences by layering segments

  Layer segments to create ultra-specific target customer groups for personalised services and marketing campaigns. For example, top-spending customers are one of your most important segments, but there’s only so much you can do with this. However, you can divide this group into even narrower target audiences by layering multiple segments.

  For example, segmenting top-spending customers by product type can create more relevant messaging. You can also segment recent activity and pinpoint specific usage segments, such as those with a recent drop in transactions.

  Now, you have a three-layered segment of high-spending customers who use specific products less often and whom you can target with re-engagement campaigns.

  Maximise customer lifetime value

  Bringing all of this together, customer segmentation helps you maximise customer lifetime value in several ways :

  • Prevent switching
  • Enhance engagement and motivation
  • Re-engage customers
  • Cross-selling, upselling
  • Personalised customer loyalty incentives

  The longer you retain customers, the more you can learn about them, and the more effective your lifetime value campaigns will be.

  Balancing bank customer segmentation with privacy and marketing regulations

  Of course, customer segmentation uses a lot of data, which raises important legal and ethical questions. First, you need to comply with data and privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA. Second, you also have to consider the privacy expectations of your customers, who are increasingly aware of privacy issues and rising security threats targeting financial service providers.

  If you aim to retain and maximise customer value, respecting their privacy and protecting their data are non-negotiables.

  Regulators are clamping down on finance

  Regulatory scrutiny towards the finance industry is intensifying, largely driven by the rise of fintech and the growing threat of cyber attacks. Not only was 2023 a record-breaking year for finance security breaches but several compromises of major US providers “exposed shortcomings in the current supervisory framework and have put considerable public pressure on banking authorities to reevaluate their supervisory and examination programs” (Deloitte).

  Banks face some of the strictest consumer protections and marketing regulations, but the digital age creates new threats.

  In 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned that digital marketers must comply with finance consumer protections when targeting audiences. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said : “When Big Tech firms use sophisticated behavioural targeting techniques to market financial products, they must adhere to federal consumer financial protection laws.”

  This couldn’t be more relevant to customer segmentation and the tools banks use to conduct it.

  Customer data in the hands of agencies and big tech

  Banks should pay attention to the words of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra when partnering with marketing agencies and choosing analytics tools. Digital marketing agencies are rarely experts in financial regulations, and tech giants like Google don’t have the best track record for adhering to them.

  Google is constantly in the EU courts over its data use. In 2022, the EU ruled that the previous version of Google Analytics violated EU privacy regulations. Google Analytics 4 was promptly released but didn’t resolve all the issues.

  Meanwhile, any company that inadvertently misuses Google Analytics is legally responsible for its compliance with data regulations.

  Banks need a privacy-centric alternative to Google Analytics

  Google’s track record with data regulation compliance is a big issue, but it’s not the only one. Google Analytics uses data sampling, which Google defines as the “practice of analysing a subset of data to uncover meaningful information from a larger data set.”

  This means Google Analytics places thresholds on how much of your data it analyses — anything after that is calculated assumptions. We’ve explained why this is such a problem before, and GA4 relies on data sampling even more than the previous version.

  In short, banks should question whether they can trust Google with their customer data and whether they can trust Google Analytics to provide accurate data in the first place. And they do. 80% of financial marketers say they’re concerned about ad tech bias from major providers like Google and Meta.

  

  Matomo is the privacy-centric alternative to Google Analytics, giving you 100% data ownership and compliant web analytics. With no data sampling, Matomo provides 20-40% more data to help you make accurate, informed decisions. Get the data you need for customer segmentation without putting their data at risk.

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  Bank customer segmentation examples

  Now, let’s look at some customer segments you create and layer to target specific customer groups.

  Visit-based segmentation

  Visit segmentation filters audiences based on the pages they visit on your website and the behaviors they exhibit—for example, first-time visitors vs. returning visitors or landing page visitors vs. blog page visitors.

  If you look at HSBC’s website, you’ll see it is structured into several categories for key customer personas. One of its segments is international customers living in the US, so it has pages and resources expats, people working in the US, people studying in the US, etc. 

  

  By combining visit-based segmentation with ultra-relevant pages for specific target audiences, HSBC can track each group’s demand and interest and analyse their behaviours. It can determine which audiences are returning, which products they want, and which messages convert them.

  Demographic segmentation

  Demographic segmentation divides customers by attributes such as age, gender, and location. However, you can also combine these insights with other non-personal data to better understand specific audiences.

  For example, in Matomo, you can segment audiences based on the language of their browser, the country they’re visiting from, and other characteristics. So, in this case, HSBC could differentiate between visitors already residing in the US and those outside of the country looking for information on moving there.

  

  It could determine which countries they’re visiting, which languages to localise for, and which networks to run ultra-relevant social campaigns on.

  Interaction-based segmentation

  Interaction-based segmentation uses events and goals to segment users based on their actions on your website. For example, you can segment audiences who visit specific URLs, such as a loan application page, or those who don’t complete an action, such as failing to complete a form.

  

  With events and goals set up, you can track the actions visitors complete before making purchases. You can monitor topical interests, page visits, content interactions, and pathways toward conversions, which feed into their customer journey.

  From here, you can segment customers based on their path leading up to their first purchase, follow-up purchases, and other actions.

  Purchase-based segmentation

  Purchase-based segmentation allows you to analyse the customer behaviours related to their purchase history and spending habits. For example, you can track the journey of repeat customers or identify first-time buyers showing interest in other products/services.

  You can implement these insights into your cross-selling and upselling campaigns with relevant messages designed to increase retention and customer lifetime value.

  Get reliable website analytics for your bank customer segmentation needs

  With customers switching in greater numbers, banks need to prioritise customer retention and lifetime value. Customer segmentation allows you to target specific customer groups and address their unique needs — the perfect strategy to stop them from moving to another provider.

  Quality, accurate data is the key ingredient of an effective bank customer segmentation strategy. Don’t accept data sampling from Google Analytics or any other tool that limits the amount of your own data you can access. Choose a web analytics tool like Matamo that unlocks the full potential of your website analytics to get the most out of bank customer segmentation.

  Matomo is trusted by over 1 million websites globally, including many banks, for its accuracy, compliance, and reliability. Discover why financial institutions rely on Matomo to meet their web analytics needs.

  Start collecting the insights you need for granular, layered segmentation — without putting your bank customer data at risk. Request a demo of Matomo now.

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• 7 Benefits Segmentation Examples + How to Get Started

  26 mars 2024, par Erin

  Every copywriter knows the importance of selling a product’s benefits, not its features. So why should your marketing efforts be different ?

  Answer : they shouldn’t.

  It’s time to stop using demographic or behavioural traits to group customers and start using benefits segmentation instead.

  Benefits segmentation groups your customers based on the value they get from your product or service. In this article, we’ll cover seven real-life examples of benefits segmentation, explain why it’s so powerful and show how to get started today.

  What is benefits segmentation ?

  Benefits segmentation is a way for marketers to group their target market based on the value they get from their products or services. It is a form of customer segment marketing. Other types of market segmentation include :

  • Geographic segmentation
  • Demographic segmentation
  • Psychographic segmentation
  • Behavioural segmentation
  • Firmographic segmentation

  Customers could be the same age, from the same industry and live in the same location but want drastically different things from the same product. Some may like the design of your products, others the function, and still more the price. 

  Whatever the benefits, you can make your marketing more effective by building advertising campaigns around them.

  Why use benefits segmentation ?

  Appealing to the perceived benefits of your product is a powerful marketing strategy. Here are the advantages of you benefit segmentation can expect :

  

  More effective marketing campaigns

  Identifying different benefits segments lets you create much more targeted marketing campaigns. Rather than appeal to a broad customer base, you can create specific ads and campaigns that speak to a small part of your target audience. 

  These campaigns tend to be much more powerful. Benefits-focused messaging better resonates with your audience, making potential customers more likely to convert.

  Better customer experience 

  Customers use your products for a reason. By showing you understand their needs through benefits segmentation, you deliver a much better customer experience — in terms of messaging and how you develop new products. 

  In today’s world, experience matters. 80% of customers say a company’s experience is as important as its products and services.

  Stronger customer loyalty

  When products or services are highly targeted at potential customers, they are more likely to return. More than one-third (36%) of customers would return to a brand if they had a positive experience, even if cheaper or more convenient alternatives exist.

  Using benefits segmentation will also help you attract the right kind of people in the first place — people who will become long-term customers because your benefits align with their needs. 

  Improved products and services

  Benefits segmentation makes it easier to tailor products or services to your audiences’ wants and needs. 

  Rather than creating a product meant to appeal to everyone but doesn’t fulfil a real need, your team can create different ranges of the same product that target different benefits segments. 

  Higher conversion rates

  Personalising your pitch to individual customers is powerful. It drives performance and creates better outcomes for your target customer. Companies that grow faster drive 40 per cent more revenue from personalisation than their slower-growing counterparts.

  When sales reps understand your product’s benefits, talking to customers about them and demonstrating how the product solves particular pain points is much easier. 

  In short, benefits segmentation can lead to higher conversion rates and a better return on investment. 

  7 examples of benefits segmentation

  Let’s take a look at seven examples of real-life benefits segmentation to improve your understanding :

  Nectar

  Mattress manufacturer Nectar does a great job segmenting their product range by customer benefits. That’s a good thing, given how many different things people want from their mattress. 

  It’s not just a case of targeting back sleepers vs. side sleepers ; they focus on more specific benefits like support and cooling. 

  

  Take a look at the screenshot above. Nectar mentions the benefits of each mattress in multiple places, making it easy for customers to find the perfect mattress. If you care about value, for example, you might choose “The Nectar.” If pressure relief and cooling are important to you, you might pick the “Nectar Premier.”

  24 Hour Fitness

  A gym is a gym is a gym, right ? Not when people use it to achieve different goals, it’s not. And that’s what 24 Hour Fitness exploits when they sell memberships to their audience. 

  As you can see from its sales page, 24 Hour Fitness targets the benefits that different customers get from their products :

  

  Customers who just care about getting access to weights and treadmills for as cheap as possible can buy the Silver Membership. 

  But getting fit isn’t the only reason people go to the gym. That’s why 24 Hour Fitness targets its Gold Membership to those who want the “camaraderie” of studio classes led by “expert instructors.”

  Finally, some people value being able to access any club, anywhere in the country. Consumers value flexibility greatly, so 24 Hour Fitness limits this perk to its top-tier membership. 

  Notion

  Notion is an all-in-one productivity and note-taking app that aims to be the only productivity tool people and teams need. Trying to be everything to all people rarely works, however, which is why Notion cleverly tweaks its offering to appeal to the desires of different customer segments :

  

  For price-conscious individuals, it provides a pared solution that doesn’t bloat the user experience with features or benefits these consumers don’t care about.

  The Plus tier is the standard offering for teams who need a way to collaborate online. Still, there are two additional tiers for businesses that target specific benefits only certain teams need. 

  For teams that benefit from a longer history or additional functionality like a bulk export, Notion offers the Business tier at almost double the price of the standard Plus tier. Finally, the Enterprise tier for businesses requires much more advanced security features. 

  Apple

  Apple is another example of a brand that designs and markets products to customers based on specific benefits.

  

  Why doesn’t Apple just make one really good laptop ? Because customers want different things from them. Some want the lightest or smallest laptop possible. Others need ones with higher processing power or larger screens.

  One product can’t possibly deliver all those benefits. So, by understanding the precise reasons people need a laptop, Apple can create and market products around the benefits that are most likely to be sold. 

  Tesla

  In the same way Apple understands that consumers need different things from their laptops, Tesla understands that consumers derive different benefits from their cars. 

  It’s why the company sells four cars (and now a truck) that cover various sizes, top speeds, price points and more. 

  

  Tesla even asks customers about the benefits they want from their car when helping them to choose a vehicle. By asking customers to pick how they will use their new vehicle, Tesla can ensure the car’s benefits match up to the consumers’ goals. 

  Dynamite Brands

  Dynamite Brands is a multi-brand, community-based business that targets remote entrepreneurs around the globe. But even this heavily niched-down business still needs to create benefit segments to serve its audience better. 

  It’s why the company has built several different brands instead of trying to serve every customer under a single banner :

  

  If you just want to meet other like-minded entrepreneurs, you can join the Dynamite Circle, for example. But DC Black might be a better choice if you care more about networking and growing your business.

  It’s the same with the two recruiting brands. Dynamite Jobs targets companies that just want access to a large talent pool. Remote First Recruiting targets businesses that benefit from a more hands-on approach to hiring where a partner does the bulk of the work.

  Garmin

  Do you want your watch to tell the time or do you want it to do more ? If you fall into the latter category, Garmin has designed dozens of watches that target various benefits.

  

  Do you want a watch that tracks your fitness without looking ugly ? Buy the Venu. 

  Want a watch designed for runners ? Buy the Forerunner. 

  Do you need a watch that can keep pace with your outdoor lifestyle ? Buy the Instinct. 

  Just like Apple, Garmin can’t possibly design a single watch that delivers all these benefits. Instead, each watch is carefully built for the target customer’s needs. Yes, it makes the target market smaller, but it makes the product more appealing to those who care about those benefits.

  How to get started with benefits segmentation

  According to Gartner, 63% of digital marketing leaders struggle with personalisation. Don’t be one of them. Here’s how you can improve your personalisation efforts using benefits segmentation. 

  Research and define benefits

  The first step to getting started with benefit segmentation is understanding all the benefits customers get from your products. 

  You probably already know some of the benefits, but don’t underestimate the importance of customer research. Hold focus groups, survey customers and read customer reviews to discover what customers love about your products. 

  Create benefit-focused customer personas

  Now you understand the benefits, it’s time to create customer personas that reflect them. Group consumers who like similar benefits and see if they have any other similarities. 

  Price-conscious consumers may be younger. Maybe people who care about performance have a certain type of job. The more you can do to flesh out what the average benefits-focused consumer looks like, the easier it will be to create campaigns. 

  Create campaigns focused on each benefit

  Now, we get to the fun part. Make the benefit-focused customer personas you created in the last step the focus of your marketing campaigns going forward. 

  Don’t try to appeal to everyone. Just make your campaigns appeal to these people.

  Go deeper with segmentation analytics

  The quality of your benefit segmentation strategy hinges on the quality of your data. That’s why using a an accurate web analytics solution like Matomo to track how each segment behaves online using segmentation analytics is important.

  

  This data can make your marketing campaigns more targeted and effective.

  Benefits segmentation in practice

  Let’s say you have an e-commerce website selling a wide range of household items, and you want to create a benefit segment for “Tech Enthusiasts” who are interested in the latest gadgets and cutting-edge technology. You want to track and analyse their behaviour separately to tailor marketing campaigns or website content specifically for this group.

  1. Identify characteristics : Determine key characteristics or behaviours that define the “Tech Enthusiasts” segment. 

  This might include frequent visits to product pages of the latest tech products, site searches that contain different tech product names, engaging with tech-specific content in emails or spending more time on technology-related blog posts.

  One quick and surefire way to identify characteristics of a segment is to look historically at specific tech product purchases in your Matomo and work your way backwards to find out what steps a “Tech Enthusiast” takes before making a purchase. For instance, you might look at User Flows to discover this.

  

  2. Create segments in Matomo : Using Matomo’s segmentation features, you can create a segment that includes users exhibiting these characteristics. For instance :

  • • Segment by page visits : Create a segment that includes users who visited tech product pages or spent time on tech blogs.

  

  • • Segment by event tracking : If you’ve set up event tracking for specific actions (like clicking on “New Tech” category buttons), create a segment based on these events.
    • Combine conditions : Combine various conditions (e.g., pages visited, time spent, specific actions taken) to create a comprehensive segment that accurately represents “Tech Enthusiasts.”

  3. Track and analyse : Apply this segment to your analytics data in Matomo to track and analyse the behaviour of this group separately. Monitor metrics like their conversion rates, time spent on site or specific products they engage with.
  4. Tailor marketing : Use the insights from analysing this segment to tailor marketing strategies. This could involve creating targeted campaigns or customising website content to cater specifically to these users.

  Remember, the key is to define criteria that accurately represent the segment you want to target, use Matomo’s segmentation tools to isolate this group, and effectively derive actionable insights to cater to their preferences or needs.

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  Track your segmentation efforts 

  Benefits segmentation is a fantastic way to improve your marketing. It can help you deliver a better customer experience, improve your product offering and help your sales reps close more deals. 

  Segmenting your audience with an analytics platform lets you go even deeper. But doing so in a privacy-sensitive way can be difficult. 

  That’s why over 1 million websites choose Matomo as their web analytics solution. Matomo provides exceptional segmentation capabilities while remaining 100% accurate and compliant with global privacy laws.

  Find out how Matomo’s insights can level up your marketing efforts with our 21-day free trial, no credit card required.

  Try Matomo for Free

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  
  

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• How to Track Website Visitors : Benefits, Tools and FAQs

  31 août 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  Businesses spend a ton of time, money and effort into creating websites that are not only helpful and captivating, but also highly effective at converting visitors. They’ll create content, revise designs, add new pages and change forms, all in the hope of getting visitors to stay on the site and convert into leads or customers.

  When you track website visitors, you can see which of your efforts are moving the needle. While many people are familiar with pageviews as a metric, website visitor tracking can be much more in-depth and insightful.

  In this article, we’ll cover how website visitor tracking works, what you can track, and how this information can improve sales and marketing results. We’ll also explain global privacy concerns and how businesses can choose the right tracking software. 

  What is website visitor tracking ? 

  Website visitor tracking uses software and applications to track and analyse how visitors interact with your website. It’s a vital tool to help businesses understand whether their website design and content are having the desired effect.

  

  Website visitor tracking includes very broad, non-specific data, like how many times visitors have come to your site. But it can also get very specific, with personal information about the user and even recordings of their visit to your site. Site visits, which may include visiting several different pages of the same site, are often referred to as “sessions.”

  Although Google Analytics is the most widely used website visitor tracking software, it isn’t the most comprehensive or powerful. Companies that want a more in-depth understanding of their website may need to consider running a more precise tool alongside Google Analytics, like Matomo.

  As we’ll cover later, website tracking has many important business applications, but it also poses privacy and security concerns, causing some states and countries to impose strict regulations. Privacy laws and your company’s values should also impact what web analytics tool you choose.

  How website tracking works

  Website tracking starts with the collection of data as users interact with the website. Tracking technologies like cookies, JavaScript and pixels are embedded into web pages. These technologies then gather data about user behaviour, session details and user actions, such as pageviews, clicks, form submissions and more.

  More advanced tracking systems assign unique identifiers (such as cookies or visitor IDs) to individual users. This enables tracking of user journeys across multiple sessions and pages. These detailed journeys can often tell a different story and provide different insights than aggregated numbers do. 

  All this collected data is transmitted from the user’s browser to a centralised tracking system, which can be a third-party web analytics tool or a self-hosted solution. The collected data is stored in databases and processed to generate meaningful insights. This process involves organising the data, aggregating metrics, and creating reports.

  Analytics tools process the collected data to generate reports and visualisations that provide insights into user behaviour. Metrics such as pageviews, bounce rates, conversion rates and user paths are analysed. Good web analytics tools are able to present these insights in a user-friendly way. Analysts and marketing professionals then use this knowledge to make informed decisions to improve the user experience (UX).

  Advanced tracking systems allow data segmentation and filtering based on various criteria, such as user demographics, traffic sources, devices and more. This enables deeper analysis of specific user groups. For example, you might find that your conversion rate is much lower when your website is viewed on a mobile device. You can then dig deeper into that segment of data to find out why and experiment with changes that might increase mobile conversions.

  3 types of website tracking and their benefits

  There are three main categories of website tracking, and they each provide different information that can be used by sales, marketing, engineering and others. Here, we cover those three types and how businesses use them to understand customers and create better experiences.

  Website analytics 

  Website analytics is all about understanding the traffic your website receives. This type of tracking allows you to learn how the website performs based on pageviews, real-time traffic, bounce rate and conversions. 

  For example, you would use website analytics to determine how effectively your homepage drives people toward a product or pricing page. You can use pageviews and previous page statistics to learn how many people who land on your homepage read your blog posts. From there, you could use web analytics to determine the conversion rate of the call to action at the end of each article.

  

  User behaviour

  While website analytics focuses on the website’s performance, user behaviour tracking is about monitoring and quantifying user behaviour. One of the most obvious aspects of user behaviour is what they click on, but there are many other actions you can track. 

  The time a user spends on a page can help you determine whether the content on the page is engaging. Some tracking tools can also measure how far down the page a user scrolls, which reveals whether some content is even being seen. 

  Session recordings are another popular tool for analysing user behaviour. They not only show concrete actions, like clicks, but can also show how the user moves throughout the page. Where do they stop ? What do they scroll right past ? This is one example of how user behaviour data can be quantitative or qualitative.

  Visitor information

  Tracking can also include gathering or uncovering information about visitors to your site. This might include demographic information, such as language and location, or details like what device a website visitor is using and on which browser they view your website. 

  This type of data helps your web and marketing teams make better decisions about how to design and format the site. If you know, for example, that the website for your business-to-business (B2B) software is overwhelmingly viewed on desktop computers, that will affect how you structure your pages and choose images. 

  Similarly, if visitor information tells you that you have a significant audience in France, your marketing team might develop new content to appeal to those potential customers.

  Use website visitor tracking to improve marketing, sales and UX 

  Website visitor tracking has various applications for different parts of your business, from marketing to sales and much more. When you understand the impact tracking has on different teams, you can better evaluate your company’s needs and build buy-in among stakeholders.

  Marketing

  At many companies, the marketing team owns and determines what kind of content is on your website. From landing pages to blog posts to the navigation bar, you want to create an experience that drives people toward making a purchase. When marketers can track website visitors, they can get a real look at how visitors respond to and engage with their marketing efforts. Pageviews, conversion rates and time spent on pages help them better understand what your customers care about and what messaging resonates.

  But web analytics can even help marketing teams better understand how their external marketing campaigns are performing. Tracking tools like Matomo reveal your most important traffic sources. The term “traffic source” refers to the content or web property from which someone arrives at your site. 

  For instance, you might notice that an older page got a big boost in traffic this month. You can then check the traffic sources, where you find that an influential LinkedIn user posted a link to the page. This presents an opportunity to adjust the influencer or social media aspects of your marketing strategy.

  

  Beyond traffic sources, Matomo can provide a visual user journey (also known as User Flow), showing which pages visitors tend to view in a session and even in what order they progress. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of the customer journey.

  Sales

  Just like your marketing team, your sales team can benefit from tracking and analysing website visitor information. Data about user behaviour and visitor demographics helps sales representatives better understand the people they’re talking to. Segmented visitor tracking data can even provide clues as to how to appeal to different buyer personas.

  Sales leadership can use web analytics to gauge interest over time, tie visitors to revenue and develop more accurate sales forecasts and goals. 

  

  And it’s not just aggregated website tracking data that your sales team can use to better serve customers. They can also use insights about an individual visitor to tailor their approach. Matomo’s Visits Log report and Visitor Profiles allow you to see which pages a prospect has viewed. This tells your sales team which products and features the prospect is most interested in, leading to more relevant interactions and more effective sales efforts.

  User experience and web development

  The way users interact with and experience your website has a big impact on their impression of your brand and, ultimately, whether they become customers. While marketing often controls much of a website’s content, the backend and technical operation of the site usually falls to a web development or engineering team. Website analytics and tracking inform their work, too.

  Along with data about website traffic and conversion rates, web development teams often monitor bounce rates (the percentage of people who leave your website entirely after landing on a page) and page load time (the time it takes for an individual web page to load for a user). Besides the fact that slow loading times inconvenience visitors, they can also negatively affect your search engine optimization (SEO).

  

  Along with session recordings, user experience teams and web developers may use heatmaps to find out what parts of a page draw a visitor’s attention and where they are most likely to convert or take some other action. They can then use these insights to make a web page more intuitive and useful.

  Visitor tracking and privacy regulations 

  There are different data privacy standards in other parts of the world, which are designed to ensure that businesses collect and use consumer data ethically. The most-discussed of these privacy standards is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was instituted by the European Union (EU) but affects businesses worldwide. However, it’s important to note that individual countries or states can have different privacy laws.

  Many privacy laws govern how websites can use cookies to track visitors. With a user’s consent, cookies can help websites identify and remember visitors. However, many web visitors will reject cookie consent banners. When this happens, analysts and marketers can’t collect information from these visitors and have to work with incomplete tracking data. Incomplete data leads to poor decision-making. What’s more, cookie consent banners can create a poor user experience and often annoy web visitors.

  With Matomo’s industry-leading measures to protect user privacy, France’s data protection agency (CNIL) has confirmed that Matomo is exempt from tracking consent in France. Matomo users have peace of mind knowing they can uphold the GDPR and collect data without needing to collect and track cookie consent. Only in Germany and the UK are cookie consent banners still required.

  Choosing user tracking software

  The benefits and value of tracking website visitors are enormous, but not all tracking software is equal. Different tools have different core functionalities. For instance, some focus on user behaviour over traditional web analytics. Others offer detailed website performance data but offer little in the way of visitor information. It’s a good idea to start by identifying your company’s most important tracking goals.

  Along with core features, look for useful tools to experiment with and optimise your website with. For example, Matomo enables A/B testing while many other tools do not.

  

  Along with users of your website, you also need to think about the employees who will be using the tracking software. The interface can have a big impact on the value you get from a tool. Matomo’s session recording functionality, for example, not only provides you with video but with a colour-coded timeline identifying important user actions.

  

  Privacy standards and compliance should also be a part of the conversation. Different tools use different tracking methods, impacting accuracy and security and can even cause legal trouble. You should consider which data privacy laws you are subject to, as well as the privacy expectations of your users.

  

  Some industries have especially high data security standards. Government and healthcare organisations, for example, may require visitor tracking software that is hosted on their premises. While there are many purely cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) tracking tools, Matomo is available both On-Premise (also known as self-hosted) and in the Cloud.

  Frequently asked questions

  Here are answers to some of people’s most common questions about tracking website visitors.

  Can you track who visited your website ?

  In most cases, tracking your website’s traffic is possible. Still, the extent of the tracking depends on the visitor-tracking technology you use and the privacy settings and precautions the visitor uses. For example, some technologies can pinpoint users by IP address. In other cases, you may only have access to anonymized data.

  Is it legal to track someone’s IP address ?

  It is legal for websites and businesses to track someone’s IP address in the sense that they can identify that someone from the same IP address is visiting a page repeatedly. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), IP addresses are considered personally identifiable information (PII). The GDPR mandates that websites only log and store a user’s IP address with the user’s consent.

  How do you find where visitors are clicking the most ?

  Heatmap tools are among the most common tools for learning where visitors click the most on your website. Heatmaps use colour-coding to show what parts of a web page users either click on or hover over the most.

  Unique tracking URLs are another way to determine what part of your website gets the most clicks. For example, if you have three links on a page that all go to the same destination, you can use tracking links to determine how many clicks each link generates.

  Matomo also offers a Tag Manager within the platform that lets you manage and unify all your tracking and marketing tags to find out where visitors are clicking.

  What is the best tool for website visitor tracking ?

  Like most tools, the best website visitor tracking tool depends on your needs. Each tool offers different functionalities, user interfaces and different levels of accuracy and privacy. Matomo is a good choice for companies that value privacy, compliance and accuracy.

  Tracking for powerful insights and better performance

  Tracking website visitors is now a well-ingrained part of business operations. From sales reps seeking to understand their leads to marketers honing their ad spend, tracking helps teams do their jobs better.

  Take the time to consider what you want to learn from website tracking and let those priorities guide your choice of visitor tracking software. Whatever your industry or needs, user privacy and compliance must be a priority.

  Find out how much detail and insight Matomo can give you with our free 21-day trial — no credit card required.