GatorMail utilises Google’s API to integrate seamlessly, and with a simple extension to the Google tracking codes on your site, GatorMail is returned invaluable data about which individual web pages were visited once contacts had clicked through, generating 100% accurate conversion reporting.

The nature of a free piece of software is such that most people, although having it switched on, don’t really utilise it to its full potential. Google Analytics is certainly no exception to this rule, but as an online marketer, it should part of your core toolset. As well as watching daily traffic you can utilise the advanced segments functionality to visualise in any time period what the key contributors to site traffic were, or whether one channel (say Email) was performing better than another (say PPC or SEO).

In addition to this you can set up conversion goals, then review by campaign type, or even name, to see whether or not the site traffic you are generating is the type you want i.e. the converting type! For example, a series of campaigns designed to drive traffic to our own hosted solutions page may be created. The majority of visitors may then exit (bad traffic), whilst others go on to view other pages on the site, but a number will convert by going through the “experience” we wanted them to.

So, now imagine that we could not only can Google Analytics provide you with these vital statistics, but that we could also tell you exactly who these people are. By extending the Google tracking code GatorMail is able to record who they are as these were people we put on that site from our email campaigning. Run a Campaign conversion report in your campaign results and you will automatically generate a group with all these people in. Brilliant!!

So, how does it all work?

In GatorMail you can turn on Google integration either globally or at a campaign specific level. Once activated all you now have to do is tell us which links you would like to track as you insert them, it’s as easy as that. Once it’s all turned on every time someone clicks on a link in your email which drives them to your web site, Google Analytics is passed the following data through its API:

• utm_source=referring URL e.g. communigatormail.co.uk
• utm_medium=type i.e. email
• utm_campaign= campaign name i.e. Google Analytics
• utm_term=subject line i.e. Hints and Tips on Email Marketing
• utm_content=email address i.e. [email protected]

Once Google Analytics is aware of your campaign name, your subject line and your type you can use its advanced features to filter, report, split test and alert.

GatorMail will now refer your clicks into Google Analytics as if Google had generated it themselves. This means all the functional areas available to you in Google Analytics filtered for specific email campaigns, giving you true visibility of the outcome of your email campaigns and metrics of how they perform against other digital channels.