Web analytics is not a dot.com buzzword. It is a subject that needs to be increasingly understood by construction product manufacturers. As the construction industry moves to gradually adopt more of the benefits of Internet delivered information, it will be those companies that understand how to gain competitive advantage from their websites that will increase their profitability.
To gain competitive advantage you need to analyse the effectiveness of your website as a business asset, and you cannot manage what you cannot measure.
Doubtless, we have all heard the terms ‘web stats’ and ‘hits’, but have you considered how website visitor information can be analysed in the many ways that is relevant to your business?
For the construction industry, its online presence creates a number of new challenges. We, in the industry, are not selling consumer based products to a mass audience looking to buy online. Indeed, our industry has a very complex mechanism for generating business when you look at the specification sales channel in our industry.
A requirement of a construction product manufacturer's website may be to inform specifiers. It also might need to educate a DIY audience and/or support the merchant channel by convincing the target community.