When you have a clear picture of who comes there, when, why, and how, you can make smarter marketing decisions. Here are some of things you can find out with a web tracking system.

1. Number of page views and unique visitors your web site gets on an hourly, daily or monthly basis.

2. A live count of who’s on your site at any given moment.

3. The date and time a visitor came, their IP address, and what web page sent them to yours.

4. What search engine they used to get there.

5. What keywords they're entering to get to your website.

6. How many visitors have returned to view your site a second time, and how long they waited between visits.

7. What operating systems they have.

Managers Need Basic PR

True, because department, division or subsidiary managers for a business, non-profit or association really DO need a dynamic yet workable blueprint for reaching those key outside groups of people who have a big say about how successful those managers are going to be.

Unfortunately, a primary emphasis on communications tactics does not take place of a well thought-out public relations plan for persuading your most important external audiences to your way of thinking, then moving them to take actions that lead to your success.

For example, a basic public relations blueprint like this one: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving- to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

Save communications tactics for later when you need something to carry your message to right external audience.

For now, think about an impactful public relations plan that can deliver behavior results you want. I’m thinking of behaviors that produce real increases in capital gifts, new inquiries concerning joint ventures or strategic alliances, new waves of prospects or, especially, repeat purchases.

First step on this journey is one of discovery – just how do those key, outside audiences perceive your operation? This is vital, of course, because perceptions often morph into hurtful behaviors. Which suggests that you and PR team assigned to you begin by interacting with members of those audiences, then prioritize them according to impacts on your unit.

Here, you have a choice: you and your PR team can personally handle perception monitoring and data gathering for your target audience because your PR folks are already in perception and behavior business. Or, a large budget permitting, you can retain services of a professional survey firm to do job.