If you’re in the middle of growing an online business, you probably know that you need to grow an email list.
So, it’s won’t come as a surprise to hear that you NEED to track your subscriber metrics.
I don’t mean logging into your email marketing system whenever you remember to because not only is there no structure to that, you miss the bigger picture of your business when you don’t have all the metrics in one place. You might be asking yourself what specific metrics I’m referring to?
Metrics like website traffic, source, time on site and pages visited, which you can use Google Analytics (GA) to track.
That’s why you need to start capturing your email subscribers in Google Analytics too so you have everything under one roof.
What You Need In Place Before Setting Up Google Analytics
There’s a few things you need in place before we start setting up your Google Analytics account.
1. Email Marketing System
Sounds obvious, I know, but you need to start capturing your subscribers somewhere.
I’ve used Aweber and Mailchimp in the past, and both don’t come anywhere close to my favourite, ActiveCampaign.
The reason I love ActiveCampaign is because of the ability it gives you to create automatic funnels.
It’s actually fun doing it. (I’m a digital marketing geek like that! 🙂 )
Check this out:
Beautiful!
2. Create A “Thank You” Page
A “Thank You” page is simply a page on your website, where you can redirect someone who signs up to your email list to.
Take a look at my “Thank You” page:
There’s two main reasons why you need to have a “Thank You” page:
1. Tell them what to do next: You can use this page, to start, by thanking them and instruct them on what they should do next. For example, check their email inbox or spam folder and get their download.
2. Track the number of people visiting: A “Thank You” is a page on your website that people can only visit once they have signed up for emails, which means by counting the number of visitors, we know how many people have signed up.
Once you’ve setup your page, make sure you connect your new page to your email marketing system so it redirects users to the “Thank You” page, rather than a default page.
Now, if you don’t ask subscribers to confirm their email address after subscribing (i.e. single opt in), you can skip point number 3 below, as that is for websites that require double opt ins.
3. Create A “Confirmation Page”
If you ask subscribers to confirm their email address after signing up to your emails, then you also need to setup a “Confirmation” Page.
Again, it’s another unique page you send users to after they have confirmed their email address from their inbox.
This way you can count how many people who initially signed up for emails and the number of people who actually confirmed their email address.
Ok, I know I’m at risk at making this entire thing more complicated than it needs to be, so let me draw this out for you:
If there’s a drastic difference between the number of people signing up for emails versus confirming their email address, there’s probably a good reason to investigate it with your email marketing provider.
Starting to see the benefits of having this data in front of you?
4. Install Google Analytics
If you’re not currently tracking any metrics, go to Google Analytics and START.
I love seeing where my website traffic is coming from, the posts people engage with and how they go through my website.
There’s some serious insights you can gain when you have the right data in front of you.
7 Steps To Track Your Email Sign Ups In Google Analytics
Before we get into the steps, I wanted to introduce you to the concept of a “Goal” in Google Analytics.
What Is A Google Analytics Goal?
At the simplest level, a goal is a way for you to track how users interact on your website.
- That might include tracking:
- Filling out a form on your website
- Downloading a PDF
- Clicking a call-to-action
- Visiting a specific page
The last example is basically what we’re using to track how many people sign up for emails.
Essentially, the following steps will show you how to setup a goal in Google Analytics that tracks the number of people signing up for emails.
The steps below shows you how to track the number of people visiting your “Thank You” page.
Again, this is the page people are redirected to once they have signed up for your email list.
If you have double email optin in place, then follow these same steps to track the number of people visiting your “Confirmation” page.
Step 1: Login to Google Analytics
Go to the website profile you want to start tracking email sign ups.
Step 2: Click Admin
Step 3: Click on “Goals” in the right hand column
Step 4: Click on “New Goal” button
Step 5: Choose Custom
Step 6: Complete Goal Description
Recommend naming your goal something obvious like: “Email Sign Up (Thank You)”
Choose “Destination” in the Type field.
Click “Next”
Step 7: Complete Goal Details
Add the URL for your “Thank You” page in the field.
Your goal is complete.
Like I said earlier, repeat the above steps if you ask new subscribers to confirm their email address and therefore need to track the “Confirmation” page as a separate goal.
Prefer To Watch A Video?
I got you covered.
(Did you really think I was going to leave you with screenshots!?!),
All setup?
Ok, time to go out there and get some more subscribers.
After all, you need something to track. The more data you have to track, the more targeted your content promotion can be, and the more engagement you can have! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by,
Neil Sheth