In this episode of The Circle Sessions, our host Brett Johnson sits down with Yasmine Robles, a member of The Circle Of Experts from Robles Designs.

Yasmine brings her expertise in website strategy and marketing to discuss the crucial role of analytics in optimizing websites and marketing strategies for small businesses and podcasters.

They explore the benefits of using analytics to track website performance, choosing the right tools, interpreting data strategically, and continuously improving digital presence.

Yasmine shares practical tips and takeaways for leveraging analytics to drive data-driven decision-making, and how it can save time and money in the long run.

Embracing Data Analytics: "Don't be afraid of the numbers just because they look, You might think that your competitor has better numbers, but don't be afraid to regularly go in and check them. Just like you should be checking your financials for a business, you should be checking your numbers for analytics."— Yasmine Robles

Top Takeaways

1. Analytics provide invaluable insights into website performance and marketing efforts, enabling data-driven decision-making.

2. Small business owners and podcasters should align analytics tools with their specific goals and marketing channels, such as using Google Analytics and social media platform insights.

3. Bing should not be overlooked for analytics, especially if a significant portion of website traffic comes from different platforms or operating systems.

4. Interpreting data should start with identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals that can be measured, and then looking for trends, anomalies, and patterns.

5. A/B testing involves testing variations, such as different landing pages or email subject lines, to see which performs better in terms of user responses and conversions.

6. Regularly reviewing analytics and setting benchmarks, experimenting with changes, and continuously iterating based on insights obtained are key strategies for continuous optimization of online presence.

7. Don't be afraid to regularly check and interpret the numbers, as analytics can be a powerful tool for making strategic decisions in marketing, podcast promotion, and online business.

8. Embracing analytics and setting clear goals while choosing the right tools can help small business owners and podcasters interpret data strategically and consistently over time.

9. Even if time is limited, tracking and recording analytics data is essential for future reference and historical analysis, especially as the podcast and business grow.

10. Yasmine Robles of Robles Designs can provide expertise in running A/B tests, explaining jargon, offering freebies, and providing overall design and marketing support for podcasters and small business owners.

Memorable Moments

00:00 Align tools with goals for effective marketing.

04:09 Explore different platforms, track stats, and know goals.

09:07 AB testing involves comparing and testing items.

11:03 Experiment with A/B testing in email marketing.

Yasmine works alongside clients to design a website that's driven by strategy, looks amazing, and that you can actually use to grow your podcast, and your business.

Her website.

Her Instagram.

Click here for the checklist!

Each week, one of The Circle of Experts talks about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, website design, and implementation of all of these to help you make the best podcast possible.

Have a question or an idea for one of our episodes? Send us an email at podcasts@circle270media.com.

The Circle of Experts are:

Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs

Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications

Don The Idea Guy

Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, from Circle270Media Podcast Consultants

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/vince-mcgill/lemon-slice

License code: 2NRNUIV5VG7FU3K5

Copyright 2024 Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy™

Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring The Circle Of Experts. The Circle Of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of The Circle Of Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. This week, Yasmine is here from The Circle Of Experts. Yasmine works alongside clients to design a website that's driven by strategy, looks amazing, and that you can actually use to grow your podcast and then return your business as well. Yasmine, thanks for joining me again today.

Yeah. Thank you for for having me again.

So, you know, I I think we'll in these next couple of episodes, I love the theme that you're you know, our first one, for this week. And looking at it from the aspect, I think podcasters do need to take a look at what they do with their website, and and think of it as a as a business. Think of it as a business. Yes. It's a showcase for what you're doing with creating content, but but take it the next step. Even if you're kinda doing it for fun, who says that they can't go to the next level? So, you know, when you everyone's encouraged. Build a website. Put a website to your podcast, therefore, maybe Tonnisha into a business or supplement your business and such like that.

So but, you know, creating a website, you have analytics. So we wanna talk about using analytics to optimize the website and marketing, and then, you know, let's set the stage. You know, for the listeners who might be new to analytics, let's start with the basic. Why why are website analytics and marketing metrics so crucial for, again, small business, quote unquote, podcaster?

Yeah. So analytics really provide an invaluable insight into how your website is how your website and your marketing is being run, the efforts, and are is it really performing? So as an example, if you are running a social media campaign, whether it's organic or paid, you want to see how that's affecting your website traffic, your website, what the users are doing there. Basically, you can track you wanna understand the user behavior, track those conversions, and really identify what's working and what needs some improvement. Essentially, they really empower you empower the data driven decision making.

Right. And you're not doing this alone, obviously. There are tools that are there that you can put into the website for those analytics. How can, you know, our listener think about choosing the right tools to track that performance for the website?

Yeah. So it's really about aligning the tools with your specific goals. Google Analytics is a great starting point for website analytics. Social media platforms offer their native insights, and it's really crucial to choose these tools that will align with your marketing channels and objectives. There's others out there such as Search Console, which will help you with, tracking keyword research. There's some that are paid, some that are free, but you can usually get a free trial with some rush, like, 7 day free trial if you already have a website and track what exactly is going on in there. If you can afford SEMrush, it's a really nice tool as well that'll give you a comprehensive look at not just what the engagement and followers look like on social, but what your keywords are doing, what your traffic is doing, and how it all blends in together and give you additional insights. But if you're just going for the freebies, I would suggest Google Analytics, search console, and then dive into your social platform of choice and look at those analytics as well.

I had read recently that, you really shouldn't forget about Bing. What what are your thoughts on that? Because you you mentioned Google Analytics. You know, we're so US centric that, you know, that it's that okay. Google is big here. Google is worldwide as such, but Bing has its pockets of use elsewhere. Are you seeing Bing kinda being talked about a little bit more?

A little bit. We it depends on the client. If we start seeing that a lot of the traffic is coming from different o OS platforms, different platforms, operating systems, if we're seeing that the referral traffic is coming from just really depends on the audience. I would say if you have the time, if you are a Google user but you have the time, go ahead and check Bing out and see what analytics it can provide. At the very least, such the same thing Google has, Google My Business, you can create the same thing on Bing and just keep track of them. In addition to Bing, if depending on your business, you might also want to track things like Yelp, Angie's List. These are all dependent on what your goals are, so know those goals first, and then try to see what these free options are to get statistics, and then see what your bandwidth is. So if you're like, I can't I can't go on Yelp every month and check the stats, then you can have a Yelp profile.

But just keep in mind that at least of every quarter, you can go in there, check what's going on, and then pop back out.

Good. Yeah. So now the small business owners, the podcasters, have their analytics set up, but interpreting data can be a challenge. It is a fire hose of information. What because I've seen it in kinda going, okay, I just want small stuff here. I don't need to know. You could it's a rabbit hole, you know, from the stuff I've seen. So, what strategies do you recommend for interpreting that data and then turning it into actual insights? I mean, that's the end goal.

Yeah. So really start by identifying what the KPIs are, and that just means key performance indicators. And this means how are you tracking your Robles. So if your goal is to get, for example, 10 new clients, then you break that goal down into action steps. And is that going to 5 networking events per month, meeting with 5 new people, having lunch with them? How what can you really measure? So KPIs, they're a fancy way of saying goals and goals that can be measured. And then look for trends, anomalies, and patterns. Regularly review that data, and most importantly, connect the data interpretation to strategic decisions. So whether that means tweaking your website design or adjusting your marketing strategy, you could see that perhaps you're spending a ton of time on social media and Facebook barely gets you any people to your podcast or your website, and you see that Instagram is really supporting or maybe it's TikTok.

And so now you can say, you know what? I'm I'll focus on Facebook a little bit, but my key energy will be going towards this other platform that's actually providing, a really good performance.

Wow. That sounds like analytics could be a huge time saver over time. You know where your flow's coming from rather than putting all your efforts into one social media platform. As an example, all of a sudden you see Instagram pull pulling up, then you know, okay. They're there. I have to go play in that field. That's interesting. Wow.

Not just not just time though. It saves you money. Because if you're going once you get to a certain level and you wanna run paid campaigns or you're getting a VA or a marketing or if you hire us and we're your marketing, your fractional marketing department, you want to know exactly you wanna tell us what that history is and say, you know what? In the past, Instagram has been the best growth for us. I'm okay with looking into Facebook again, but this is what's worked. And so somebody like me stepping in and supporting you, it'll just help us instead of kind of going by trial and error and and figuring that out. We already have that historical data, and we can hit the ground running us so much faster.

Yeah. So those strategic decisions are key, just as you mentioned. Okay. You know? Again, whatever choices you make, that that's that's the Sessions. But how can small business owners use analytics not just for one time improvements, but also for the continuous optimization for their online presence?

Yeah. So continuous improvement is really about Tonnisha. Regularly reviewing your analytics, set those benchmarks, and experiment with changes. AB testing, for instance, allows you to test variations and optimize based on the actual user responses, and it's an ongoing process. Just like your website, just like your marketing strategy, it's a continual evolution, but really regularly reviewing those analytics will set you up for success.

Gotcha. So could you go a little bit more into that AB testing? I it's it's thrown out there a lot. Do you have a high level ex explanation of of, you know, how that AB testing works? Because I I I know it come I've seen a lot of examples of it being even testing, seeing different Robles for podcast episode. Maybe, you know, play you keep experimenting Don what's gonna make people follow, make people play, and there's there could be some little testing there too, but what what is AB testing overall?

Yeah. So thank you so much for calling me out on my jargon. AB testing is AB testing is basically, you take 2 different items and you test them out. So, for example, if you have a if you're try if you sell apples and you're trying to see which ones will sell more for the same price, you would have red apples and green apples, and then you would see which one which one sells out. Right? And they could be next to each other, but it could be also that they are on different entrances, so you're essentially testing out what sells out. For a website, that could mean and there's a couple of different ways to do it depending on your platform, but that could mean having 2 different landing pages for a a specific sale that you're running. Okay. And the tweaks that you make on that, it could be the copy, it could be the imagery, maybe one is a really short page, just to the point for that, whatever it is that you're selling, And the other one is a lot longer with more testimonials.

And then you can see which one sold more, which one got, more conversions on what it was, whether it was a freebie or a paid product. The other one that is email, and that one, you can it's a little bit easier because you can split your audience and say, okay. To this segment, I'm going to send this email. Again, it could be a difference between the images, the copy, whether it's longer or shorter, and the other ones get something different. And then you can see when they opened it, what what was the difference? What was the conversion rate? It could also be just a subject line change to split to each of those people. So one has 1 subject line a, one has subject line b. Which one got more opens? And then when you continue to do that, you start finding those gems. And you start saying, okay.

Every time I put an emoji, it gets more Robles. So maybe we should start pivoting to adding emojis emojis to the subject line.

Yeah. I'm glad you brought up email because that came into my mind too when you were talking about that. I I see those options on emails that are the, the software that I use, no matter what it is, they all have always have a b. And that might be the easiest way to kinda go in and experiment. It's like, oh, now I understand a b testing. Let's try it with the newsletter that we put together because it is very simple to do. It it it just change the line, see what goes on. You're not gonna lose anything in the long run, but it is kind of interesting to see what triggers people to open it sooner or later or, you know, that's even if it's, like you said, a simple emoji in there or not, maybe it's that just because it shines a little bit differently in their email list when they get it from you.

Yeah. That's good. That's good. So as we wrap up, what practical tips or takeaways can you share with our small business owner or podcaster, to to make the most of the analytics in their digital journey?

Yeah. So don't be afraid of looking at the numbers. I know some of my clients, they say when they when we're onboarding them, they say, we only get 50 views per month. It's not enough for us to do anything with that data, and it's probably just us looking at our own website. That's still you at least know how many views you're getting per month and you know where that traffic might be coming from, so that's a start. Don't be afraid of the numbers just because they look, You might think that your competitor has better numbers, but don't be afraid to regularly go in and check them. Just like you should be checking your financials for a business, you should be checking your numbers for analytics. And just embrace that the power that analytics provide to you, and it's not really a daunting task.

It might take you a little longer to get used to the platforms and going through, for example, Google Analytics or Search Console. But once you get the hang of it, it should just really be a quick 30 minute task, just kind of overview of what's going on. Yes. You can dive in deeper, but just take 30 minutes, put it on your calendar at least once a month, and and then set those clear goals. So choose the right tools and interpret the data strategically and consistently over time, and just iterate. It's definitely a journey. It's a continuous continuous improvements that really pays off in the long run. It's a marathon, but it will will will will will help you create very important business decisions based off of how your marketing is doing and how your podcast is doing, how to promote.

In that way, if you work with an agency, you come to us, and you wanna work alongside us, you understand exactly when we say, hey, we're gonna do run an AB test. You'll say, okay, that's perfect. I have some analytics to back that up, and then you can play the game in the in the long term.

Yeah. Your advice there is the same as we talk about for podcasters too for their analytics for the specific episodes. You you can you can be, disenfranchised, unhappy, unsatisfied with the numbers on each episode, but it's the long run. It's how do they work in the long run, even even digging into more than just downloads about where are they listening, how long do they listen to. So it it's the same concept. It's exactly the same concept. Just have patience with everything you do because the analytics will eventually tell you a story. It's just gotta wait you have to wait for it a little bit for it to create a story for you, yeah, ultimately.

Yeah. Yeah. And if you don't do if you don't take anything else away from this, if you say, you know what? I just do not have the time to look at analytics, just make sure you're tracking it and that it's all installed. That way, later on in 2 years, when your podcast is a little bit more streamlined, it's booming, you've hired someone like Brett to take care of it, you can now go back historically and say, okay. 2, 3 years ago, what were we doing? How are we performing? And then now that I have more bandwidth to write blog articles, focus on SEO, or go out into the into the networking community. Mhmm. How has it changed? And so even if you take nothing away, just make sure you're recording those numbers somewhere.

Exactly. So our our listener has an interest. They wanna get a hold of you because they're ready. They if nothing else, they wanna do an AB test. You're just excited about, this sounds fun. Let's do it. I wanna I wanna know what's going on with it. How can they get a hold of you?

Yeah. So if you want to run an AB test, want me to explain some jargon, or you wanna download a freebie, you can go to roblesdesigns.com. For that freebie, it's roblissdesigns.com/checklist. You can also find us on Instagram at roblesdesignstudio, where we post Don of funny reels and and things like that. But definitely get in touch with me, even if it's just with a list of jargon that you want explained. I'm more than happy to.

That sounds good. And and and and and if you're you get a podcast going right now and you want someone to to listen to it or you've got a podcast website, you want them to take a look at it, you know, to have a combination of both, we're doing audits. You know, go to Circle 270media.com, and let's let's audit your podcast because it could be a combination of the podcast as well as the podcast website, lots of other things. I mean, that's why we have the circle of experts is because we we all come together, and we offer different pieces to help you get your podcast going where it needs to go, your business where it needs to Guy. And and usually those 2 work together. So you can go to, circle 270media.com to to get that together for you. So, Yasmine, thanks again. Appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you for having me.