Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
they visit a microsite. The only difference is that you are looking
at a virtual trail of actions they left behind. Although tracking the
sections a user has visited in a Flashsiterequiresalittlehelp
from another language outside of Flash (JavaSript, PHP, and so
on), the benefits can be very rewarding in terms of knowing what
steps you need to take next in your efforts to bring even more
visitors to the site.
What Do Users Like?
You can build your own custom-tracking scripts or you can do it
through one of several companies like Omniture (http://www.
omniture.com) who actually specialize in this field. Using either
your scripts or the products these companies have to offer, you can
get various reports on items like which areas of the site were visited
more. Once you know which particular areas of the microsite inter-
est users the most, you can apply that information to the next
banner campaign by highlighting those sections in the creative.
Where Do Users Come From?
Another highly valuable piece of information is to know where your
visitors actually come from. A lot of Web-hosting companies will
provide you with site statistics that give you a list of referrers
for your site. Those referrers have a link somewhere on their Web
site that directs their visitors to your microsite. If your hosting
company does not provide site stats or if you (or your company)
are hosting the microsite yourself, you may need to look into other
ways of getting your referrer reports. There are many options out
there ranging from expensive solutions that need to be installed on
your server to free solutions like Google Analytics. And just as
there is a range of cost for the different solutions, there is also a
range of features and details with each solution (which should not
actually be judged by the cost).
Regardless of which direction you use to get your list of refer-
rers, that list can help you enhance and fine-tune your next (and
even current) campaign. By reviewing the list, you can find new
referrers as soon as they appear. As a kind gesture, and to open a
new relationship with a potential future referrer of your work, it
s
not a bad idea to send certain new referrers an e-mail thanking
them for linking to your microsite. Of course, this depends on the
kind of site it is, what they had to say about the site, and a few
other factors that you
'
ll have to judge for yourself. Additionally, if
you find that one of two sites are sending a much larger number of
visitors than any of the other referrers, you may want to go ahead
and plan on contacting them in the future to see if they would like
to promote other projects.
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