Today marks a huge milestone — GoSquared is 20 years old.

Just two short decades ago we set out on a journey without knowing where it might lead.

We knew we wanted to build nice things for nice people, on the internet.

Today, I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, and genuinely more excited than ever about what’s next.

If you’re curious about how a software business can exist for 20 years, here’s our timeline from 3rd February 2006 through to today.

What have we been up to?

A few years ago, we simplified GoSquared — back to doing what most people know us for: beautiful, real-time, privacy-focused web analytics.

We split out our email marketing product and created EcoSend — where we’re building the best email marketing tools for charities and purpose-driven organisations.

For as long as we can remember, our goal has been build tools that are simple, elegant, and useful — and today that same spirit continues to drive everything we do.

2006 — the year of Casino Royale, the iPod nano, and the Nintendo Wii

The internet looked very different back in 2006 — no iPhone yet, CSS rounded corners were still a novelty, and “web stats” meant loading up some log files on your PHP server.

Over 20 years, we’ve seen entire technologies rise and fall. We’ve witnessed businesses thrive or fail depending on their reliance on data. And we’ve felt part of internet history as we’ve ridden the wave of advances in cloud computing.

Back in 2009 we launched LiveStats, our first real-time analytics tool — it showed live visitor activity without waiting for batch processing or cumbersome queries. Over the years we’ve added historical reporting, powerful APIs, email reports, integrations, and countless refinements to make analytics feel like magic, not a chore.

But as the digital world has grown, complexity has grown too — and we’ve learned a lot from our customers about what really matters. That’s why, as we celebrate 20 years, we’re as excited about the future as we are proud of the past.

Looking ahead: what’s next for GoSquared?

If you’ve been a customer of GoSquared for some time, we feel you. There are aspects of the platform that you’ve been desperate to see some improvements to for a while. There are things you have been asking for for months.

We use GoSquared every day, and no one feels the pain of current inadequacies like we do.

We’re incredibly excited to say we’ve got some updates in store. In fact, some of our biggest updates in years.

Here’s a peek at what we’re building next.

 GoSquared for iOS

We know you want easier access to your insights wherever you are. Soon you’ll be able to access GoSquared analytics right from your iPhone. Real-time data and trends in your pocket, in an app. Not a web app — a real, native app. We’ve wanted this since day one, and we finally have something we’re getting proud enough to ship.

Want early access? Sign up as a beta tester via TestFlight

 Improved look and feel

We’re working on an updated user experience across GoSquared — a more serene and clean interface, more intuitive navigation, and faster workflows, so you can focus on insights without any distractions.

 Many more updates

From faster performance and more robust foundations, to smarter reports and new ways to visualise your data, there’s a lot in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share. To start with, as a little taster, we’ve given a little love to our homepage, and simplified our signup pages so they’re less laborious to fill out.

Thank you

As always, this milestone isn’t just about years — it’s about our community of customers, partners, and supporters who’ve been on this journey with us.

Thank you for continuing to believe in us, telling us what you think, and for using GoSquared.

Here’s to 20 years of building great software, and to the next chapter…

We’re (still) just getting started.

James and the team at GoSquared

The post GoSquared turns 20 appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

But what if you could not only have your cake and eat it, but have an artisan baker come in and make that cake for you? 

Fractional hiring is the name of the game here. As an alternative to the traditional hiring process, fractional hiring allows companies to access the talent they need without having to commit to a full time or long-term role. In doing so, businesses can reduce costs not to mention risk.

From startups to trying to get off the ground to established businesses wanting to boost profitability—here is why fractional hiring could just be the secret to your success, especially when it comes to keeping those overheads in check. 

What Is Fractional Hiring?

As the name suggests, a fractional hire is an individual who only works for a company part of the time. 

There’s a little more to fractional hires than this though, as they are also specialists who deliver expertise exactly where it’s needed within a business. Offering essential support to key areas of operation, fractional hires make it possible for companies to scale or navigate complex challenges. All without having to pay for a full time salary or even commit to a long-term role.

Fractional hires work as many hours as the business needs for as long as they need. Typically, fractional staff are self-employed though can also work on behalf of an agency. They will usually perform the same role for several companies, dividing their time based on how many hours each business hires them for. 

For example, a 40 hour work week could like so for a fractional worker:

Company A – 10 hours

Company B – 10 hours

Company C – 20 hours

In some cases, people also become fractional workers as a side hustle in addition to full time employment. Though, it’s more common for someone to work purely on a fractional basis for several companies at once.

Fractional Talent Role Examples 

• Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
• Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
• Fractional Chief Operations Officer (COO)
• Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Fractional Human Resources (HR) Director
• Fractional Product Manager
• Fractional Sales Director

While fractional roles have traditionally been associated with C-suite level positions, in today’s world, fractional jobs are getting increasingly broader. 

Now, it’s possible to hire practically any specialist on a fractional basis, whether you need help with your company accounting or want to perform technical SEO improvements to your website. 

It’s also good to note that while there are some overlaps with freelancers or part time employees, fractional hiring is a different type of working arrangement.

The Cost Efficiency Of Fractional Hiring For Businesses 

The bottom line is always top of the agenda in business, and the decision to opt for fractional rather than full time hiring is no exception. 

If you want to scale a team but don’t have the resources to bring everyone in full time, fractional is the way to go. Giving you another option than creating a full time role or having to sacrifice company performance, a fractional setup means you only pay for the hours you determine your business needs.

This means employers don’t pay for:

• A full time salary
• Payroll taxes
• National Insurance
• Paid time off
• Pension contributions
• Health insurance
• Other workplace benefits

There can also be lower costs associated with things such as HR and recruitment, since the way that fractional hires are brought in and interact with your business is also different. 

In terms of what these savings look like in tangible terms, Forbes published an article in which it estimates that the fractional business model saves 30%-40% compared with the cost of hiring a full time employee. 

The cost savings and overall benefits for businesses have proved to be so beneficial, it has led to one company announcing that ‘the future is fractional’ in a recent LinkedIn post. 

Additional Benefits Of Fractional Hiring 

Fractional hiring means your business calls the shots about the exact expertise needed and to what degree.

Many of these additional perks can also subsequently lead to reduced costs and ultimately higher ROIs for businesses. 

Expertise On Demand 

When you are trying to scale or solve a problem in your business, sometimes a full time hire isn’t necessary or even affordable. Fractional hires bypass these issues by only giving you the time you need to get the job done. As specialists in their field, they cut right to the skills or knowledge your business needs to reach its goals.  

Flexible To The Needs Of The Business 

As a business, you might need a certain specialism for two days a week or only while a project is taking place. Since you can determine the ‘fraction’ of a fractional hire in terms of days or hours per week, this makes fractional staff not only affordable but also fully flexible to the requirements of your business. Over time, you can increase the number of hours they work so long as the individual has availability.

Remote Fractional Hiring Removes Geographical Talent Barriers 

It used to be the case that if your business is based in a city such as London then all of your staff would be too. But with many fractional jobs able to be done remotely, geographic restrictions no longer apply. Instead, the focus is on finding the very best talent based on the needs of your business. In some cases, expanding your talent search to other areas can also save your business money too. 

Exposes Your Business To Diverse Business Models

Whatever expert you bring in as a fractional hire, they offer the same expertise to your company as they do several others simultaneously. With that, they bring all of the experience they are constantly learning elsewhere into your company too. As a result, a fractional hire can supercharge your business with an unrivalled level of insights and specialisms that are industry wide rather than just company wide. 

Fast Onboarding

Fractional hires are parachuted into your business with a specific purpose in mind. They know exactly what you need from them, and they are ready to get straight to work. Forgoing lengthy onboarding, training and anything else non-essential to their specific role speeds everything up and also cuts costs. 

Reduces Risk

According to GrassGreener Group, the cost of a bad hire is upwards of 3x of the original salary. These costs relate to aspects such as lost salary, wasted training, recruitment agency fees, lost productivity, loss of business and reputation damage.

If that sounds bad enough, they add that poor hires typically happen 30% of the time.

Since fractional hires are vetted experts who also have limited attachment to your business, this reduces the risk of a bad hire from multiple angles. 

The Fractional Support Staff That Have Been Instrumental To Our Success 

We couldn’t write about the many benefits of fractional hiring without giving a special shout out to those who have helped us grow at GoSquared, as well as our new climate-conscious email tool EcoSend. 

As a casual reader of this post, you might also find it insightful to see fractional hiring from a real case study point of view. 

JamPot

Based in the UK, GoSquared has relied upon JamPot for various areas of expertise over the years. 

The fractional talent hire agency gives business owners access to top-level specialists in areas including administration, EA and operations, finance, human resources, legal, marketing, sales, strategic development and web design. 

After all, most businesses can relate to the fact that it’s impossible to do it all alone. With so many specialists to choose from, JamPot enables business owners to leave the stress of trying to be a one man band behind in favour of a more harmonious tune, thanks to the specialism of each respective expert. 

Our CEO James adds that JamPot “continues to be one of the highest ROI spends we make at GoSquared” which is very high praise indeed. 

Bruno Scott From B Consultant Collective

In our quest to become a B Corp, we have valued the insights of industry professionals who have held a guiding light along the path to becoming a better business.

One such individual who was able to share their insights was Bruno Scott from B Consultant Collective. 

When striving for B Corp certification, it’s not always a given that as a business owner you happen to know how to make the biggest impact. Experts such as Bruno ensure that businesses can access this important yet highly niche area of specialism with ease.

Tim Maiden From Green Small Business

Another person who has been helping us on our mission to be a business that looks beyond just making a profit is Tim Maiden who founded Green Small Business.

Green Small Business offer a wealth of services for businesses wanting to track and lower their carbon footprint. This includes carbon scoping assessments, environmental management systems, environmental certification, training and building energy assessments. 

Given many companies want to be greener but often don’t know where to start, these types of services can be used to make a genuine impact to drive real change on the climate issues we’re all trying to navigate as businesses. 

Fractional Hiring FAQs

Still have questions about fractional hiring, and why it’s so cost-effective? We’ve got you covered with some of the top queries, which we’ve answered below. 

What Is A Fractional Role?

A fractional role describes when a position in a company is either project-based or is limited to a number of hours per week. Someone working in a fractional role can either work for several companies at once or only work a reduced number of hours to fit around other commitments. However, the main difference between a fractional hire and a full time hire is that the fractional hire is usually self-employed or works on behalf of a fractional agency. They are their own entity rather than being an official employee. The reason for hiring someone on a fractional basis is so that the company can access the talent they need without facing huge cost barriers of a full time employee. 

How Much Does Fractional Hiring Cost?

There is no set fraction staff cost, since it really depends on what you’re willing to spend, along with what the professional charges for their services.

However, a major benefit is that the costs of a fractional hire tend to be far more transparent than a regular employee. That’s because there are no employer contributions, taxes, benefits or other hidden overheads to consider. 

What Are The Potential Challenges Of Fractional Hiring?

When someone comes into your business on a fractional basis, it’s not the same as hiring a regular employee. Namely, the individual is self-managed rather than having the same contractual obligations as your employees. For example, they aren’t bound to anything set out in your company handbook. This isn’t inherently a bad thing since a fractional role is by its very nature designed to be different, though it can require some adjustment from employers in terms of being open minded and also respecting different processes. 

Fractional hires can require onboarding as well as additional team building initiatives since they don’t spend the same amount of time in your company or working alongside the rest of your employees as full time hires. 

On the flip side, embracing the differences in the ways of working can bring new perspectives and insights into your company. This can actually strengthen your team as a whole.

How Do You Find And Recruit Fractional Hires?

At GoSquared, we highly recommend using a purpose-built fractional hire agency such as JamPot. Making it effortless to cherry pick the exact expertise you need on their website, using a dedicated provider can help avoid the pitfalls of hiring external talent. 

Whichever avenue works for your business, we’d always recommend vetting the potential hire just as you would a regular employee. That said, the benefit of using an agency is that much of this legwork is done for you, allowing your business to literally hit the ground running with your chosen specialist. 

How Do You Determine The Right Fractional Hours Or Days Per Week For A Role?

As a business, you should factor in your budget, along with how many hours you are comfortable committing to. However, if you’re new to fractional hiring, it can also be helpful to explain to the professional what your needs are, so they can advise on how many hours might be needed to achieve your goals. Since fractional hiring can be flexible, there is always the potential to scale up the amount of hours someone works for you if required. 

How To Vet Fractional Hires? 

Using a reputable agency such as JamPot can remove much of the risk for businesses in terms of being sure you are accessing high quality levels of talent. Whenever we’ve required more hands on deck, we have an established relationship that we not only trust but know we can count on. For us, this really removes the stress of bringing in new team members, since every new hire can just slot right in. 

If you don’t plan on using a similar agency, there are a few things we can suggest to look out for. This includes conducting video interviews and having hires sign NDAs along with any other applicable documentation. Having any kind of certification as well as professional indemnity insurance are also signs you are dealing with the right people. 

Can Fractional Hires Transition Into A Full Time Role?

Technically, this is possible if it’s something that works for both parties. However, it’s worth noting that fractional hires do not come into the business with an expectation of a role expansion. Instead, their agreement is that they work a set number of hours for several companies. 

As fractional hiring also has a degree of flexibility, companies can also scale up or down their requirements as needed. For instance, if there is a big project to complete, extra time could be added to the fractional hire contract to fulfil any requirements, so long as the individual has the availability. 

What Are The Benefits For Fractional Workers?

Those who choose to become fractional hires also do so with intent, given the job flexibility it provides. Working fractionally also gives the unique ability to work for several companies at once, which can be hugely beneficial for professional development. Fractional workers set their own rates and also choose the projects they work on based on the requests made to them. Another advantage is that by selecting the area of specialism and also the services they want to provide, fractional workers can enjoy greater job satisfaction.

Fractional Hiring: In Summary

Fractional hiring was born out of a need to offer a cost-effective way of accessing talent, as it allows companies to avoid paying for more hours than they realistically need or can afford. Swapping full time for fractional hires creates limitless potential for companies wanting to scale or solve specific challenges with the business. 

With the ability to hire talent remotely for most job roles, it has never been easier or more affordable for companies to grow thanks to the power of a fractional team.

The post How Fractional Hiring Can Save Your Business Money appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

On all Apple platforms

For the first time, GoSquared customers can view their analytics data natively on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro. That’s all Apple platforms.

With the GoSquared integration for Numerics you can:

• See if you’re experiencing a traffic spike by glancing at Apple Watch.
• Check your top performing blog posts today while commuting, on your iPhone.
• View your monthly visitor trends while on the sofa, with your iPad.
• Share your dashboard in the boardroom, with Apple TV.

You can even view your GoSquared metrics while on the moon, with Numerics on Apple Vision Pro.

View GoSquared alongside other business insights

You can now build beautiful dashboards with all your key business metrics in one place — GoSquared for website analytics, Salesforce for sales insights, Trello for tasks, and over 90 other integrations.

About Numerics

Numerics is the number one data visualisation app for all Apple platforms. We’ve been working closely with the team to bring GoSquared integration to Numerics, and we hope you’ll enjoy using it as much as we’ve enjoyed testing it.

When collaborating with the Numerics team, we realised quickly how much our values align — we both are passionate about building great software that’s beautiful, intuitive, private, and accessible. We know many of you choose GoSquared because of our focus, so we think you’ll love Numerics.

We couldn’t be happier to share the Numerics integration with you. We’re excited to see customers find new and innovative uses for their GoSquared data, so let us know what you discover!

Don’t have GoSquared yet? Learn more about GoSquared and get started today.

Learn more about Numerics and Download Numerics for free.

The post Numerics integration — bring GoSquared with you everywhere appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

Namely, a tool which was once easy to set up, use and understand is now ultra complicated. 

But did you know that other powerful and GDPR-friendly website analytics tools exist? 

One such tool is one we built ourselves: GoSquared Analytics. 

GoSquared Analytics has been around for many years, and it could just be the alternative to Google Analytics you’ve been searching for. 

Why It Matters To Be Using The Right Website Analytics Tool

The whole point of using a tool such as Google Analytics (also known as GA4) is that you can see what people are doing on your website. Namely, how many visitors you are getting, what content users are landing on and their overall behaviour on your site.

From there, you can make better marketing decisions that will ultimately lead to more sales across your business. 

However, none of this will be possible without the right analytics tool that your team not only understands but is actively using regularly. 

Read more: Struggling With Google Analytics 4? No, It’s Not Just You

What Is GoSquared Analytics, And How Can It Replace GA4? 

GoSquared Analytics offers you a simplistic analytics dashboard to track the activity of your website visitors. 

Having been launched almost two decades ago, GoSquared Analytics has long offered an alternative to Google Analytics.

At GoSquared, we’re also big on data privacy. Beyond being GDPR-compliant, our analytics tool doesn’t make money from advertising on our site. We also don’t sell your data.

Oh, another handy point we know you’ll appreciate is our lightweight code. This means you can easily integrate GoSquared Analytics on your website without slowing it down. 

What Will GoSquared Analytics Tell Me About My Website Traffic?

A whole host of goodies, including: 

• Bounce rate
• Browser type
• Custom date range visitors
• Daily visitors
• Device type
• Engagement time per visit
• Monthly visitors
• Pageviews per visit
• Traffic sources
• User language
• User locations (country/city)
• Weekly visitors
• Yearly visitors

All of this data can also be exported into a CSV. From there, you can build tangible reports about your website analytics and overall marketing performance. 

We Also Have Some Amazing Endorsements! 

From big names to regular business owners, we appreciate the vast number of kind reviews that have been written about GoSquared Analytics.

Forbes

Search Engine Journal

Semrush

How Much Does GoSquared Analytics Cost?

As you might expect, the price of GoSquared Analytics will depend on the number of websites you wish to track, along with your typical page views. But we think you’ll find there’s something for everyone, from small start-ups to global enterprises. 

Starter – £9 per month

Standard – £24 per month

Pro – £49 per month

Scale – £99 per month

P.S. Not from the UK? You’ll also be able to view the prices in USD.  

You’ll also be pleased to know that we offer human customer service for GoSquared Analytics. Unlike Google who often refer you to a forum to ask other users for an answer, we’re always here if you need us! 

Start Your Free Trial Of GoSquared Analytics Today

Don’t waste another second trying to get to grips with Google Analytics, especially if like many others, you’ve found it’s now too complex. 

When you’re in search of simple yet solid website analytics, GoSquared Analytics is the tool of choice.

But don’t just take our word for it—try it for yourself! 

We offer a free 7 day trial on all our plans. Simply head over to our pricing page, choose your plan and select a free trial. 

We look forward to welcoming you, whether you are just curious or are serious about finding a GA4 alternative that works for everyone in your team. 

The post Is There A Simpler Alternative To Google Analytics? appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

GoSquared is now 18 years old.

The internet, and the world, has changed a lot in 18 years.

Aside from anything else, it’s easier to do rounded corners in CSS now .

As in previous years, we’ve updated our timeline so you can see the major milestones we’ve achieved since we started the business back in 2006.

Today we’re sharing an update on both EcoSend and GoSquared.

We’re more excited than ever about both.

In particular, we’ve got big news to those of you who have followed GoSquared for a while — let’s dive in!

GoSquared: the original real-time website analytics

Back in 2009 we launched the first true real-time website analytics tool — easy-to-use, easy-to-sign-up, and with an affordable range of plans for customers of all shapes and sizes.

Over the years we refined our analytics tools to be ever more capable (prepare for some links to take you down memory lane), introducing historical charts, multiple redesigned dashboards, an extensive API, email reports, and integrations.

Google Analytics and the need for a simple alternative

People have always loved GoSquared for web analytics. And as the big beasts of the industry like Google Analytics have grown in usage, so has the frustration of their users.

Rather than getting simpler, tools like GA have only become more complex and convoluted.

The need for simple, easy-to-use web analytics is greater than ever.

The new, analytics-focused GoSquared

At one point the easy answer to “what’s a good alternative to GA?” was easy: GoSquared.

But lately, GoSquared hasn’t been so simple any more, either.

Over time, we turned GoSquared from a simple web analytics tool into a suite of products, catering an ever growing list of needs for users.

From hundreds of conversations with customers it became clear to us: we needed to change. We needed to simplify again, and get back to basics.

So the GoSquared product is going back to its roots — rather than being a platform of multiple products, GoSquared will be focused on Analytics again.

This is a transition, and our top priority is to look after every single one of our customers as we make it.

Transitions like this are really difficult. In the short-run it’s easier to not do them, because there are a multitude of questions they raise with no simple answers. But in the long-run, if left unchecked, these questions and problems start to grow.

We’re not short-term thinkers. Our goal is to simplify, and to build world-class software that our customers love.

We know, in the long run, this will pay dividends to everyone.

For most customers, you’ll start to see GoSquared evolve as a better analytics tool again.

For customers who were using GoSquared for email sending, you’re not losing anything. In fact, quite the opposite — you’ve now got EcoSend, and every day we’re helping customers get set up to send there.

Live Chat’s bright future

For customers using Live Chat, we’re still working on a great path for you. We’ve simplified the GoSquared marketing site to focus on our analytics proposition, but there’s a bright future ahead for live chat. We’ll have more to share here in a future update.

Check out GoSquared

If you haven’t seen GoSquared in a while (or if this is your first time), you’ll find a beautifully simple set of tools for understanding website.

Learn more about GoSquared

EcoSend: the planet’s favourite email marketing platform

Over the last 18 months we’ve been busy turning EcoSend from an idea into a full-featured email marketing platform for purpose-driven businesses.

EcoSend is more popular than ever, and we’re incredibly grateful to the pioneering customers who have chosen to trust us with their email sending — folks like B-Lab Europe, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Springer Nature, and Wholegrain Digital, to name a few.

We want to see a world where everyone is conscious of their environmental impact — in everything they do, buy, and interact with.

We believe email has the potential to change the world.

Check out EcoSend

Want to send better email? Learn more about EcoSend

18 years, and we’re just getting started

If you’re interested to learn more about the history of GoSquared check out our timeline of 17 years.

We couldn’t be more excited for the year ahead, turning GoSquared into a truly great analytics tool again, and furthering our mission with EcoSend.

Thank you for sticking with us, and see you soon for more.

The post GoSquared celebrates 18 years in business, returns to being a loveable analytics tool appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

With email marketing offering a phenomenal ROI, generating $8.5 billion every year, email remains one of the best ways to get customers. 

That said, email marketing platforms can be expensive. Add in poor marketing techniques, and your campaigns will cost even more to send.

But things don’t have to be that way! 

Cut your email marketing costs today with these 5 top tips.

Tip #1 – Compare Email Marketing Providers

You can’t look to save money unless you know where things stand.

Therefore, your first step is to compare other providers within the email marketing space. 

If you’ve been with your current email marketing provider for some time, you may not have the best deal going. Likewise, if you’ve only researched the Mailchimps and HubSpots of the marketing world, you may not know what else exists.

We know it takes time to research different email marketing providers. But even a little time spent comparing each tool can help you make a more informed decision.

After all, why put up with constant price hikes, to the point where your current package just isn’t affordable anymore? 

This is a common problem with other email providers at the minute. For you the customer, this just won’t do.

Psst: Don’t have time to research? We’ve done all the work for you for free!: Every Email Platform Ranked From Cheapest To Most Expensive In 2023

Tip #2 – Only Choose The Features You Really Need

Like with any kind of software you need to purchase for your business, it’s easy to over-egg things.

The simple fact is that if you’re not actively using or benefiting from certain features within your email marketing platform, you’re paying too much.

To save money, you can either downgrade your subscription or stop paying for any non-essential features. 

Some examples of email marketing features you may need the most include:

• A/B testing
• Abandoned cart prompts
• Automated messages
• Contact lists
• Forms
• Integrations
• Newsletters
• Reporting
• Segmentation
• Templates

Before you make any final decisions, ensure a lack of product knowledge is not the real reason you aren’t getting the most out of the tool. 

Remember, email marketing offers a typical $36 for every $1 spent.

In addition, the email marketing industry will reach $17.9 billion by 2027, up from an expected $10.8 billion in 2023.

So if a boost in email ROI could solve the cost of your email marketing from being so expensive, some simple product education to get you there would be the cheapest solution of all!

Tip #3 – Try Free Template Builders

There might not be such a thing as a free lunch, but there are definitely free email template builders out there including the one we made here at GoSquared. 

Other free email template builders & general tools to try:

• Email automation for SaaS businesses (e-book)
• Canva newsletter templates
• Typeform email sign-up form template
• Email subject line tester

Use free email tools to get started with your email marketing campaigns, or quit paying for costly tools that just don’t make good business sense.

Are there any free email marketing platforms too you ask? Why yes there are! 

Our new email marketing tool EcoSend by GoSquared has a free version, along with free trials available on all paid plans. 

Tip #4 – Segment Your Lists

How email marketing software works is that you pay for the number of contacts you have, plus the number of email sends you need. 

Needless to say, sending a message to EVERY subscriber for each campaign can soon eat away at your send limits. Plus, it’s going to be way more expensive to market your products and services this way. 

What we know about send-to-all email blasts is that they actually don’t work. Instead, A-grade marketers segment their lists by sending the right message to the right person at the right time.

Segmentation is one of the easiest ways to save money on your email marketing without having to switch providers or upgrade. It will likely earn you better conversions too! 

Tip #5 – Clean Your List (Remove Inactive Contacts)

Emailing anyone who never opens your emails is pouring money down the drain. 

Cleaning up your email list with a bit of email scrubbing will instantly save you cash in the email marketing department. The trouble is, nobody thinks to do it, or even realises they need to! 

That’s not going to be you now you’ve read this post.

What you need to do is go into your email marketing platform and filter out disengaged subscribers. These are going to be any contacts who haven’t opened at least one email of yours in the last 6 months. 

You’ll send a re-engagement email just to see if they are interested in hearing from you after all. If you get nada back, those contacts need to be removed from your list.

Having a clean email list ensures only those most likely to read your emails, and also convert from email are left on your list.

All of which avoids you paying to send emails which will never provide a return on that investment. 

GoSquared – Start Your Free Trial Of Our Email Marketing Platform 

Having an email marketing platform which is catered to your exact needs is how to stop wasting money on email marketing. 

Let us help you with that one! We have two email marketing tools GoSquared Engage and EcoSend by GoSquared. 

Engage is our original email marketing tool, and EcoSend is our new sustainable email marketing tool. Both are available with a free trial on all plans, and a free plan geared towards smaller usage needs over on EcoSend.

Both of our tools are packed with a range of features to help you send beautiful, intelligent email marketing campaigns. 

Need any help with all things email marketing and your business? Drop us a message and one of our team will be in touch. 

The post Email Marketing Costs: 5 Ways To Save Money In 2024 appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

As of July 1st 2023, the previous Google Analytics will cease to exist. So if you don’t go through the migration process to the new GA4, your website data will stop tracking.

But wait! Did you know that you can track your website analytics on so many other tools other than Google?

Also, that trying to figure out GA4 might not even be necessary, depending on the data you actually need about your website?

In this post, you have the makers of GoSquared Analytics to tell you more and hopefully ease that tension headache of yours.

Why Is Google Analytics 4 Causing So Many Issues?

Google Analytics has over 28 million users.

So it’s fair to say that each user wanting to switch to the new GA4 will have a unique experience. Some may find it a breeze. Though for most it’s been a huge hassle.

Going on our own experiences, and that of other web users, here are some of the reasons why Google Analytics 4 might not be the right fit for what you actually need out of an analytics tool.

GA4 Is Difficult To Use 

Starting with the obvious – Google Analytics 4 is far from a walk in the park. 

Even to set up the demo account watching a couple of YouTube tutorials is required. Having to consult external sources to understand a tool is never a good sign, especially when the previous tool was fairly user-friendly.

For high-level data analysts, we imagine GA4 will be no trouble at all. The only problem here is that realistically, most people using Google Analytics are everyday website and business owners. 

So while most users may know their customers and products inside out, that doesn’t automatically mean they will understand a complex analytics tool just like that – especially when GA4 is clearly aimed at experts.

Has Google even thought about this?

Users Require Google Analytics 4 Training & Certification

We found one provider offering a one day course to learn GA4 at £475 per person. Add in the time taken out of your business and erm. That soon adds up, especially when you multiply this for every business that uses Google Analytics around the world. 

As we mentioned above, for those who really need the extremely complex range of features GA4 can provide, we’re sure that cost will be more than worth it. But on the flip side, does that apply to all 28 million users of Google Analytics? No, it does not.

So why struggle with GA4 or pay a hefty price tag to learn how to use it, *if* you can find what you’re looking for within another tool? 

Ultimately, it’s about thinking about what you need as a business or website owner, and matching these requirements with your analytics tools.

You Weren’t Given A Choice About The Move Over To Google Analytics 4

As Google Analytics is a free tool, Google doesn’t have to consider its paying customers when making seismic changes to its products. Therefore, Google can change or remove products as it pleases.

For you, a website owner, you can’t decide you don’t want to migrate over to GA4. Either you do, or you lose your existing data. 

Sure, all products evolve over time. There are some genuine reasons as to why Universal Analytics (the current product) is changing. For instance, the increasing shift towards mobile vs desktop use, and similar advances in technology meaning any analytics tool needs to be able to keep up. 

But still, even if GA4 has better capabilities, the fact that manual migration is needed, and the existing tool will no longer exist is a bit of a hassle, especially when GA4 is very complicated to use.

Google Terminology Can Be Insular Making The Learning Process Even More Stressful

As SEO professionals, we can jump to practically any tool from Semrush to Ahrefs or even Surfer SEO and instantly get to work. 

That’s because most of the terminology and features are kept the same, no matter what tool you happen to use. 

But with Google, a major reason why their products are complicated is that they contain many terms and features not found on other platforms. This means you can’t bring knowledge of another tool in an attempt to flatten the GA4 learning curve.

So yes, while you will find some common terms such as ‘engagement’, ‘users’ and ‘ad revenue’ –  you’ll also see a lot of terms and features that require individual training to grasp because you’ll only find them on GA4.

So Have You Thought About Using GoSquared Analytics Instead? 

If you’re new to GoSquared, hi, hello and we’ve actually been here since 2007. 

GoSquared Analytics is one of the many Google Analytics 4 alternatives on the market. We’ve been lucky to have some recent endorsements from the likes of Capterra, Hotjar and Semrush to name just a few.

We’re currently remodelling our Analytics page so we can focus more on your needs as business and website owners. However, the product itself remains absolutely ready to go. 

So we hope that you’ll join us, especially when you see how simplistic website analytics can be when you just have the right tools by your side.

What Can I Do On GoSquared Analytics? 

In a nutshell, GoSquared Analytics is one single dashboard. It connects to your website (very easily we should add!), and will tell you the following about your website visitors:

• Actions taken by user
• Average pageviews per visit
• Bounce rate
• Browser information
• Campaign source
• Device type
• Engagement rate
• Engagement time
• Language spoken
• Location
• New visitors
• New visitors
• Operating system
• Screen size
• Total pageviews
• Total visitors
• Traffic sources
• User journey
• Weekly reporting

It’s worth noting GoSquared Analytics isn’t designed to be a like-for-like dupe of GA4 (for one, we were here first ). Rather, our tool will give you the information we know matters most to website owners. 

Namely, simple, accurate data about who is on your website, how they found your website, and what users do once they are on there. 

You can then use this information to understand the impact of your marketing campaigns. Plus, make more informed decisions about your products and services.

As we offer real-time analytics, you can also see traffic spikes and dips so that you can react accordingly. 

GoSquared Analytics Takes Seconds To Install 

That’s what we like to hear, right?

There’s several ways you can install GoSquared Analytics, depending on how your site is built. 

But for most of you, it’s simply a case of pasting some code into the Head Tag of your website. Ironically, if you’ve ever had to do that for Google Adsense, the process works much the same. 

If you haven’t made that cup of tea we advised you to at the start, we promise connecting GoSquared Analytics with your website can be done in the time it takes for the kettle to boil.

Watch a video of the GoSquared Analytics installation process.

Have A Play With Our Demo Account

We have a demo account so you can see how GoSquared Analytics works. 

Compared with GA4, you’ll notice how refreshing it is to have just one dashboard to navigate. So there’s no trying to remember where a particular feature is. 

At the top, you can toggle between different ranges to see your traffic data by the hour, day, week, month or year. It’s a simple single click to return to your real-time analytics, and that’s about it! 

P.S: Our traffic calculators are extremely accurate, with no ‘guesstimates’ as you’ll find on other tools.

GoSquared Analytics Pricing

GoSquared Analytics has a free trial, with our paid plans starting at £9 per month.

Consider all of the costs involved in GA4 certification, and even lost productivity, and GoSquared Analytics could actually save your business money. 

If you’re located in another country such as the United States, our pricing will automatically be shown in your currency.

Connect Your Website With GoSquared Analytics Today

If Google Analytics 4 just isn’t for you, GoSquared Analytics could be the answer you’re looking for.

GoSquared Analytics has been used by thousands of businesses to improve their websites. So whether you’re a start-up, or have millions of website visitors every week – GoSquared Analytics could just be your secret weapon. 

All that’s left for you to do is to sign up for your free trial of GoSquared Analytics. This will give you a week to familiarise yourself with all the features.

In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss switching your analytics over to us, we’re all ears. You can drop us a message or follow us on Twitter.

The post Struggling With Google Analytics 4? No, It’s Not Just You appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

A CRM with email automation can help you keep in contact with your best leads, your new customers, and your long time customers using custom messaging and smart triggering. That way, you’re reaching out to the right people with on-point email copy.

With over 4.3 billion users of email, there’s a good chance that your ideal audience is checking their email inbox weekly or daily.

In this post, we’re covering:

• Why you would want to use a CRM that includes email automation
• Top email automations to setup

Why you would want a CRM that includes email automation

Email automation is pretty incredible.

With GoSquared, you get the power of email automation on top of website analytics so you can send messages based on actions people are taking in your website.

Keep in mind that most CRMs with email automation don’t include website analytics. They help you keep track of all of your leads and customers in one place and store all of their purchase data and marketing data so you can target them with the right messaging at the right time.

Automated lead follow up

One of the smartest things you can do with CRM that includes email automation is to follow up with your leads without anyone on your team having to remember to do this.

Over 75% of the revenue generated by email comes from triggered campaigns. This means that campaigns based on triggered events or properties are more successful than large broadcasts.

Multichannel experience

Using a CRM with email automation can also help you create a multichannel experience. Customers want to feel like you understand them, their needs, and the level with which they already interact with your business. Your CRM can help you send a different coupon to your biggest supporters than to your one-off customers.

And when combining your CRM with website analytics, you can bring your website activity into the picture too (not just purchases or email activity). That way, you can target fans of your blogs, frequent website visitors, and infrequent website visitors in different ways.

Top 11 email automations to setup

Now that we understand the value of combining email automation with your CRM, let’s look at the top 11 automations to trigger.

1. Welcome email

One of the simplest emails to setup is when you gain a new customer or subscriber. You might want to give them a friendly welcome and let them know what available resources can help them get the most of this new relationship.

2. Welcome back email

A welcome back email can be effective too. There are a lot of different triggers that can inspire a welcome back email:

• A customer made a purchase after not purchasing for over a year
• A lead visited your website after not being on your site in over six months
• A previous customer re-subscribed after stopping their subscription

The event that you choose will affect the targeting criteria you select as well as the email copy that you write.

3. Freemium user email

When users sign up for a freemium version of your software, you want to help onboard them. Otherwise, they aren’t likely to convert to a paying customer. You might want to give them tips and tricks for getting results from your software.

4. Email nurture sequence after download

When someone downloads an on-demand webinar, guide, tutorial, or whitepaper, you’ll want to email them automatically and immediately with a link to access the free resource. You may also want to set up a simple automation sequence for a few weeks or months following that event.

5. Win back email

A win-back email is used to try and get a previous customer or subscriber to sign back up again or make a purchase. Imagine how annoying it would be if you sent these to the wrong customers! You would get a flood of support questions from people wondering if their subscription accidentally got cancelled.

This is one of many examples that can be really effective when sent to the right person (I bought what the below email was offering), but way off base when sent to the wrong audience.

6. Repeat purchasers email

When someone continually purchases from you, they’re loyal. You might want to treat your best customers to something special. Maybe a private event, or exclusive digital content, or a great one-time offer.

7. Repeat purchase reminder email

If you have a product that is intended for repeat purchase, say every three months or every year, it would be smart to remind customers at the exact right interval so they can go ahead and make that repeat purchase. You could also suggest related products.

8. Bottom-of-the-funnel email

There are a lot of different ways to determine that a prospect is at the bottom of your funnel and getting ready to buy, and they all depend on the type of business you have. You might be able to detect this with:

• Prospects that have been on your pricing page recently
• Prospects that have been on your product page more than three times in the past month
• Free users that are very engaged with a specific feature in your software

Whatever the criteria, you’ll want to send out a well-written email as soon as someone meets it.

9. Long time customer email

While some of the other ideas have been about the amount or frequency of purchase, this one is all about the length of the customer relationship. On your 10th anniversary in business, wouldn’t it be nice to send a different email to customers who were with you in the early days than those who just signed up? Maybe you could offer them a more personal thank you message, or a special deal.

10. Long time lead email

When a long time lead takes any action whatsoever (something smaller than your bottom-of-the-funnel criteria), you’ll want to reach out to them. Maybe someone who downloaded your ebook one year ago and didn’t do anything since is all of a sudden visiting your website. Automating email to a long time lead can help you move people farther down the funnel when they are finally ready. You might offer a 1:1 strategy call or an additional resource or a limited time offer to help them take action quicker.

11. New customer follow up email

A one-time welcome email is great, but it’s not enough. You need to follow up with new customers to make sure they’re getting the most out of your product or service. You might want to offer them additional resources, insight, or 1:1 support. You might also set up more complex automation to tailor new customer sequences. So, for example, the third email might have different copy for people who have viewed an important page on your website than for people who have not yet done so.

Do you sell products or subscriptions digitally? Sign up for a free trial of GoSquared and start messaging customers based on transaction history and website history. Simply and easily.

The post Guide to using a CRM with email automation: the best triggers for the biggest impact appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

Global Metrics gave a valuable sample of global website traffic — showing trends such as browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, etc), operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc), and platform usage (e.g., phone, tablet, and desktop adoption).

Despite being a hugely popular part of the GoSquared site, we recently decided to hit pause on Global Metrics, though.

We thought it’d be helpful to share our reasoning, as it’s never easy saying goodbye to something.

Good for privacy, bad for accurate reporting

The primary reason for us ending Global Metrics in its current form: it’s getting harder to accurately detect the kind of metrics we wanted to show.

Browsers are locking down the information they allow to be surfaced, for good reasons: a lot of attributes that used to be freely available to analytics tools have been used nefariously for unwanted tracking and privacy-encroaching purposes. We’ve always stood for privacy is everything we do, and we certainly would have no intention of working against these measures merely to report a different number.

The data for Global Metrics was becoming less accurate, and we didn’t want to provide a misleading resource for others. For example, reporting on the latest browser versions is harder to report now — so showing a report of the adoption of the latest version(s) of the Safari web browser would be far less accurate than we’d feel comfortable with.

Less code, more focus

Another key attribute in our decision making around Global Metrics was the sheer number of projects we have running.

We serve thousands of businesses with millions of customers, with a suite of software tools used all over the world.

Every line of code, every server, ever project is another area we must think about, update, maintain, and support.

Right now, Global Metrics isn’t core to our business, and it’s a small but meaningful area of our codebase that we can switch off in order to focus our energy elsewhere.

Our goal is to make the best software in the world, and we know we’ve been spread too thin at times to achieve this.

We had a lot of fun building Global Metrics, and its been a valuable resource viewed by many thousands of people and utilised by countless journalists for reporting on web trends.

Thank you for your service, Global Metrics, we will miss you!

Another article you might find useful: A beginner’s guide to web analytics and privacy

What’s new at GoSquared?

The end of Global Metrics certainly doesn’t mean the end of new GoSquared features or even products.

Alongside our original core product Web Analytics, we recently launched EcoSend, which is the world’s first sustainable email marketing tool.

If you’re as interested in all things GoSquared, then please follow us on Twitter or sign up for our free newsletter.

Have anything else you’d like to talk to us about?

If you’d like to start a free trial of one of our products, or receive a product demo please drop us a message and we’ll be with you shortly.

The post Saying Goodbye to Global Metrics appeared first on GoSquared Blog.

You’re also putting time and effort into an email strategy, along with designing graphics and writing email copy.

Only, to get email subscribers to even see your campaigns, you rely on users entering their information into an email signup form.

There’s just one problem here that we’re seeing time and time again (even with major companies). That is a lack of email signup form visibility. 

It doesn’t matter how amazing your email marketing campaigns are if nobody sees them. That just won’t do if you want to make money with email marketing. 

Is your email signup form more of a hidden asset instead of a revenue boosting asset?

Stick with this post like grilled cheese on a toastie, and we’ll get your email marketing ROI maximised without having to spend lots of time or money to do so.

Why Does Your Email Signup Form Require High Visibility?

To improve email ROI – Email marketing can offer up an ROI of up to $45 per $1 spent. Statista also predicts email marketing will generate $17bn globally by 2030. But if you aren’t getting enough subscribers due to a hidden or even non-existent email signup form, your business won’t be getting a slice of the pie. 

To reduce churn – Email marketing is how to keep your customers engaged with your business, products and services. If the value of your product isn’t being highlighted to them on a regular basis, this could increase the risk of churn. 

To make future product launches and updates a success – How businesses build anticipation or keep in contact with customers is mainly through email, since email lands directly in inboxes. This can’t happen without a solid subscriber list. 

To build a valuable email list over the long term – It’s a simple fact that not encouraging sign-ups of your emails and newsletter is missing opportunities to create a valuable list. Lists will not only be smaller but may have less engaged contacts on them. 

How To Fix Your Email Signup Form Issues

If you don’t bring the issue of a lack of email signup form visibility to the relevant people’s attention on your team it will never get fixed.

So if this applies to your business, make the following steps something you prioritise without delay. 

Make Sure You Have An Email Signup Form (And Check That It Works)

It sounds simple enough, but when was the last time you tested that your email signup form works? Or that you even have one?

Just like the rest of your website, things can break all the time without any notice. It’s unlikely a potential customer will contact you to let you know your signup form is broken. All the while, you’re losing out on gaining new email subscribers. 

Similar to scheduling SEO audits, perform regular audits of all growth strategies including your email signup forms. 

Place Your Email Signup Form In All The Right Places

If a lack of form visibility is the reason your email list isn’t getting enough subscribers, it makes sense to focus on said form visibility.

Some common places to put an email signup form include: 

• Website footers
• Exit popups
• Social media
• Blog post links
• Dedicated landing page
• QR codes placed in any physical spaces/event literature to capture in-person signups

Plus any other logical places that may apply to your product, service or industry type. Don’t be shy! You have to both ask and prompt users for them to take action. 

It’s also a good idea to use heatmap tools (such as Hotjar) to see how users navigate your page. As you might expect, it doesn’t make sense to have any important website features such as a signup form in inconspicuous places.

That’s why pop-ups and other strategies may be needed in addition to placing a form in a footer. 

Also, work together as a team to ensure there’s a solid effort going on to increase email signup form visibility. This includes any designers, developers, marketers etc. 

Continue To Test Your Forms & Monitor Their Location On The Web

Your email signup form might look great now. But as we all know, it only takes one bug in the code to derail things.  

In the above image, you can see a lack of metadata makes even the Chanel newsletter form look less than enticing on the SERPs.

Use email marketing software such as GoSquared Engage to measure new email signups. If you suddenly notice a drop in new users, you need to investigate the cause. We recommend checking each email signup form source or location regularly. 

Keep your website updated regularly, and don’t let your form slip to the back burner again.

Maintaining a sharp focus will ensure your email ROI is as high as it should be, especially if you pair lots of engaged subscribers with beautifully tailored campaigns! 

Discover GoSquared Forms

GoSquared Engage – Try Our Email Marketing Platform For Free Today

Now you have highly visible signup forms, you should hopefully see those subscriber counts soar.

Dazzle your subscribers with unmissable email marketing campaigns when you try GoSquared Engage. As you can see in the above image, you can also create amazing custom forms with Engage too!  

Sign up for GoSquared Engaged and start your free trial today.

Or want to chat with us about your email marketing requirements? Drop us a message and we’ll be right with you.  

The post Stop Making This Major Mistake With Your Email Signup Form  appeared first on GoSquared Blog.