It sounds like a high-tech crime fighting technology but heatmapping is actually a savvy tool that can elevate your marketing.
It sounds like some high-tech crime fighting technology that picks up the heat of the human body and uses it to detect the whereabouts of dangerous criminals, but even though in reality heatmaps are slightly less exciting, they are a powerful tool.
Only, they are used by savvy businesses wanting to maximise the marketing and sales conversion of their websites, not the FBI.
Here’s a rundown of what heatmapping is and how it can be used to refine marketing campaigns.
What is heatmapping?
Heatmapping is an analytics tool that provides a visual insight into how people use your website and landing pages.
Heatmaps show the areas people are drawn to, those they ignore, and which links they click on.
Importantly, they track the path to sales conversion and inform businesses of which marketing efforts convert an interested visitor to a buying customer, or at what point in the sales process they drop off.
Viewing a heatmap is a little like looking at a weather map. It uses cool colours, such as blues and greens, to show areas where there is little activity, and darker colours, like yellows, oranges and red, to show the most active areas of the page.
Businesses love heatmaps because they show, at a glance, how their website is performing – and being so visual, are a welcome change from trawling through spreadsheets of numbers.
How and when is heatmapping used?
Businesses use heatmaps to create and maintain high functioning websites. Heatmapping allows them to see the most active areas of their website, and identify and rectify any low performing areas.
They also identify distractions – content that is drawing people away from what you want users to do.
Heatmapping provides information about a brand’s audience, which can be used in future marketing campaigns. It tells a business what their customers want and what they are looking for in content.
For example, if visitors are reading right to the end of a long article, or watching a video right through to the end, that tells them there’s a great level of interest and engagement.
When this happens, marketers devise ways to use existing content to convert to sales.
Heatmapping also allows businesses to better target their advertising.
If people are clicking on links but not progressing through the website, it could be an indication that the search engine marketing isn’t delivering visitors who are interested in what you have to offer, and it might be time to rejig the keywords, metadata, or general search engine marketing.
How is heatmapping used to refine marketing campaigns?
Heatmapping can and should be used at every stage of a marketing campaign.
Even before a marketing campaign is created, it’s important to make sure your website is delivering optimum performance. Are there areas that visitors are missing? Is the most important information in the most highly trafficked areas, or is it languishing in some dark corner? Iron out any existing kinks before you begin your marketing strategising.
Once you’ve created your marketing campaign, you can use heatmapping to inform how and where on your website or landing page you concentrate your efforts, so they receive maximum visibility and interactivity.
When rolling out your campaign, heatmapping becomes even more imperative, because it allows you to see how your efforts are performing in real time.
For instance, are people spending a lot of time on your landing page but not following through on the conversion – be it making a purchase or filling in an enquiry form? If this is the case, it’s worthwhile refining your marketing efforts to get customers across the line. Perhaps prompt them with an offer or a discount to entice them to click the ‘buy now’ button.
Curious about heatmapping? Call in the marketing experts
Heatmaps are just one of the data analytics tools that marketing professionals at Assemblo use to maximise the impact of websites and landing pages to increase sales and bottom lines for their clients.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, with years of experience in digital marketing strategies and analytics and delivering proven results.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.