Google Analytic Default Channel Grouping often shows data that is not in an accurate grouping. This situation is confusing, resulting in difficult decision making. However, do you know it’s possible to modify this Default Channel Grouping so that it collects the data we want to see?
Yes, in this blog post, I would like to share with you the steps to modify Google Analytics Default Channel Grouping.
What is Default Channel Grouping?
Default Channel Grouping is one of the data presentation metrics of Google Analytics. These data are collected from Google Analytics data and categorized into multiple channels based on default settings. The default channel groups are:
Direct
Organic Search
Social
Email
Affiliates
Referral
Paid Search
Other Advertising
Display
However, this “default” setup sometimes does not categorize the data accurately, especially when you have some customization on your data and tracking method (example: you track your traffic using UTM links, it will alter the tracking result).
As a result, the data we are reading is not exactly the one we wish to look into. Hence, it is crucial for us to edit the Default Channel Grouping to suit our data tracking.
Editing Default Channel Grouping
In this article, I will show you step by step on how to edit the channel grouping so that it reflects the data you wish to look into.
Step 1: Go to Google Analytics Admin Tab at the left sidebar.
Step 2: Choose “Channel Settings” under the View column.
Step 3: Choose “Channel Grouping”.
Step 4: You can click “+ New Channel Grouping” button to create new channel grouping or edit the existing channel grouping setting.
**In this case, I choose to edit existing Default Channel Grouping.
Step 5: Go to the specific channel you wish to edit (in this case, I choose “Email”).
Step 6: Add your desired tracking parameters into this channel.
Step 7: Save your changes.
Step 8: Wait for 1 day before returning to check on the tracking.
*Note: You can select many types of parameters including Source, Medium, Keywords, Search Query, Landing Page, etc. You can also set the conditions of the parameters, including Exact match, contains, starts with, end with and more.
The Bottom Line
It is important that we make sure all of our website data remain accurate and reflect the actual performance. It ensures we get the correct information to make the correct decision for our business. I hope this blog post helps you look clearer into your website performance.
With this article, you can start learning on how to setup a Google Analytics today.
Don’t know how to setup for your website? No worry, let us build a website for you that include Google Analytics setup. We have experts to help you get your website done within few weeks time!
The upcoming SME DigitalFest 3.0 Webinar aims to update your understanding of digital transformation, and most importantly, the OPPORTUNITY that lies in this unprecedented time.
It’s a major shift that fundamentally changes how businesses generate value for business owners, stakeholders, suppliers and customers using digital technologies!
Jerrick Yeoh, Digital Marketing Manager, Exabytes Digital
Nikhil Khandelwal, Founder, MysteryQR
Ashley Ong, Google Certified Trainer, Superanium
#2 Digital Transformation Solutions
This session is going to use your existing infrastructure, manpower, social base to make your business go viral.
Join Nikhil’s session to know-how!
Mr Hussam is going to share you the importance of digital transformation and also the opportunities that you have after digitizing your business!
Don’t miss Hussam’s session to know how-to!
Right CRM system will help you build and scale your business.
Let’s look further on how you can implement a CRM system to your business and the benefits of using CRM.
What can I do now to ready my business beyond COVID-19?
How can I put in place measures to ensure my business’ longevity?
As business transformation experts, The FinLab will show you how.
Hear from Pauline Sim, Co-head of The FinLab, what The FinLab Online (TFO) has, in terms of tech, mentorship and grants, that will be able to address your urgent needs.
Are you ready to learn, transform & grow your business?
Are you frustrated when all your marketing effort ends up in a junk mail folder/spam folder? We know that troubles you, and that’s why we’re pleased to guide you on how to optimize your email campaign and make it to your subscribers’ inbox. Let us share with you 7 effective ways to improve your email deliverability.
What is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability means the ability to deliver emails (including bulk emails) to subscribers’ inbox. It is a metric used to measure the likelihood of our email campaigns reaching your subscribers’ inbox related to actual delivery, such as ESPs, open rate, bounces and spam issues.
Understanding the email service providers or ESPs
To make sure your Email Deliverability is always at a tip top condition, you must first understand how Email service providers or ESPs work. Some of the major email service providers are:
Gmail
Hotmail
Yahoo mail
Other smaller ESPs
Self-hosted emails
These ESPs can be categorized into 2 groups based on the spam filter protection level, namely low and high. Hotmail is the only ESP that has the highest level of spam protection and is being categorized as group 1 by itself. Other ESPs such as Gmail and Yahoo mail have slightly lower spam protection levels and are categorized as group 2. Self-hosted emails vary based on the spam filter software they are using.
Since Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail are the top three ESPs on the market, in this blog post, we shall focus on them.
Important Metrics in Email Marketing
Open Rates
The Open Rate is a metric that measures the rate of every email campaign at which emails are opened. Open rate is a very important metric that determines how well your email campaign performs. It also determines the deliverability of your email campaign. The following are the suggested benchmark of open rates:
Below 5% – it’s very problematic
Between 5% & 10% – it’s very average
Between 10% & 20% – it’s good
Above 20% – it’s considered very good
Click Rates
The click rate is a percentage rate that tells you how many emails successfully get one click from a recipient. It is usually used to determine how good your email content is when it comes to attracting the recipient to click your link to find out more. A good click rate is more than 10%.
Unsubscribe rates
The unsubscribe rate is a metric that indicates the percentage of recipients who have opted-out from the mailing list (do not want to receive your emails anymore) after an email campaign. It is advisable to keep the unsubscribe rate below 1%
Email Technical Keywords:
Some technical keywords that you might encounter when setting up your email marketing campaigns:
SPF
Used to prevent identity theft. Add in your DNS zone the list of IP authorized to send email with your domain name.
DKIM
Used to verify that the message has not been altered. Insert a digital signature to sign to your message. The ISP will verify this signature with an encrypted key located in your DNS records.
DMARC
Act as the third option in case of SPF & DKIM authentication failure. Indicate to the ISP what to do in case of an authentication failure. Allow the sender to be notified when authentication fails.
Email deliverability: How to send your emails right into your audience’s inbox
1. Check Your Contact List
If possible, separate Hotmail contacts from those hosted with other email service providers. Hotmail is relatively sensitive when it comes to spam filters. Some research statistics show that 2 to 3 consecutive emails with “No Open” will cause your next email to reach the spam folder. Hence, we should handle Hotmail clients with more caution.
Make sure your contact list is obtained through self-willingness signup. Some businesses send mass emails to a list that is obtained either from existing customer lists or from offline email collections. These contacts actually do not provide the right for you to send emails to them.
2. Send High Quality Content
Content is king. Make sure you have a high open rate and click rate. ESP’s main focus is to provide the best email experience to their users. If you provide high quality emails that users are willing to open and engage with, your email deliverability will be good!
So what is defined as good content?
Good content is content that is able to create engagement — catchy headlines, beautiful designs, easy to read, interesting and well structured content etc. All these are contents that will get engagement from the users. In other words, the metrics that we mentioned above (open rates, click rates and unsubscribe rates) should be at least satisfactory.
Besides, using a content modifier that will help address users’ names inside the email can also help boost the engagement of that particular email. This makes the email look crafted/ personalized to the particular recipients only.
However, there are content and keywords that you should avoid in your email so that the spam filter will not be triggered to send your email to the junk mail folder. Below are some of the content that you should avoid, especially in your subject line.
Avoid “promotion” “sale” “offer” or other related keywords
Avoid promotion text like “50% OFF”
Avoid making money related keywords: “Extra Cash” “Earn Cash” “Make Money”
Avoid the word: “Free”
Avoid all caps, exclamation points and the use of red fonts
Every email is sent from a specific server that has a specific location or online address. This address is called an IP address. Your Email IP Address plays an important role for email service providers (ESP) to determine whether to send your emails to the inbox or not. There are 2 types of IP Address for email:
Shared IP – IP that is shared among several users Dedicated IP – IP that is used by one specific user only
If you wish to get the best results for your email marketing campaigns, it’s highly recommended to choose a dedicated IP. Using a dedicated IP ensures that your performance and reputation is not shared by others.
With a Dedicated IP, you have full control on your IP, including maintaining and controlling your own IP reputation to make it “welcome” by email service providers.
Below are some of the ways to maintain or enhance your IP reputation:
For Gmail, yahoo mail and other ESPs, we recommend you to perform an IP warm up, which is a slow increase in the number of emails sent out every time. You can send it out with a 30% increase. This is to warm up and slowly let the ESP recognise and accept your IP address.
For Hotmail, you must have a different approach. You should have a list of Hotmail subscribers first and perform the warm up process with a much slower scale. This is because when it comes to Spam Filter, Hotmail is more sensitive compared to others.
*Note: This warm up method is only applicable for dedicated email IPs.
Some email marketing software do not provide such tools for you to warm up your IP. In this regard, Exabytes EBuzzzz email marketing does provide such function for you to warm up. Just fill in the number of emails you wish to send each time and the percentage you wish to increase for the next send, and you are good to go. It’s just that simple.
4. Separate Send Based on Email Types
We should also send emails based on the types of emails. There are 2 main types of emails, namely Marketing Emails and Transactional Emails. They are the 2 different types of emails that should not mix together when using bulk email sending. Let’s have a look at the differences between them.
Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are emails that are used to send important info such as invoices, passwords, account details etc.
Marketing Emails
Marketing emails on the other hand, are emails that send promotional and sales related info.
It is advisable to send these 2 types of email separately using different email IP. This is because IPs that send marketing emails might get penalized by ESP. ESP do not like promotional emails, they take it as spam and will try to send these emails into the spam box. If we use the same IP for these 2 types of emails, it can affect the deliverability of transactional emails. As we know, sending transactional emails is very important to a business and we should try to keep the IP clean and free of promotional items so that transactional emails can go into the recipient’s inbox.
Hence, it is advisable to use an dedicated IP for your transactional email to ensure important emails are sent to recipients.
5. Bounce Emails
Email bounce can cause your IP reputation to drop and is one of the important aspects that you must take care of in email marketing. Generally, there are 2 types of email bounce, namely soft bounce and hard bounce.
Soft Bounce
A soft bounce happens when an email is able to get into the recipient’s mail server but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the intended recipient’s inbox. A soft bounce might occur because the recipient’s inbox is full. It’s recommended to maintain the soft bounce rate below 2%.
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce email indicates a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered such as invalid email, email no longer exists, etc. It’s recommended to maintain the hard bounce rate below 1%.
In order to maintain your email deliverability and protect the reputation of your IP address, you should make sure these bounce numbers are always low. To keep them low, after every email sent, have a check on the bounce rate generated and remove Hard Bounce emails from your sending list.
Make sure you choose a good email marketing service provider, such as Exabytes EBuzzzz Email Marketing that is able to provide you with insights on your bounce rate.
6. Manage Blacklists
There are different entities that determine your IP’s reputation. We will share with you some of the realtime databases that determine whether or not your IP is sending spam emails.
Go to these websites and check your IP to find out if it is blacklisted or not. Checking is simple, just type in your email IP address or your website domain name, and you’ll find out if your IP is blacklisted.
7. Test your emails before send
You can actually test your email every time before you send out. Go to mail-tester.com to test your emails. The steps are very simple, just send your email to this website (a special mailbox is provided) and you will get a score and a detailed statistics, analysing which part of your email should be improved.
This tool is free to use and we strongly recommend that you take this test before sending out your emails.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, the key to improve email deliverability is by “sending the right email to the right person at the right time”. Focus on delivering the best content to your recipients and you are on your way to enjoy good email deliverability.
Because of the MCO, we understand the great importance of digital transformation. Of course, transformation is always hard. But the current situation has once again highlighted to businesses that digital transformation is truly essential.
And that’s why SME DigitalFest is back! The upcoming SME DigitalFest 3.0 Webinar aims to update your understanding of digital transformation, and most importantly, the OPPORTUNITY that lies in this unprecedented time. It’s a major shift that fundamentally changes how businesses generate value for business owners, stakeholders, suppliers and customers using digital technologies!
SME DigitalFest aims to help Malaysia SMEs and emerging businesses with the use of pertinent information, knowledge, techniques, and solutions to propel their growth and development and thrive in an increasingly competitive market environment.
The theme for SME DigitalFest 3.0 is Entering the Shift Age: Opportunities Post Digital Transformation, a great topic that focuses on adaption, execution and strategies. Several eminent experts and solution providers will be there to share their valuable experience.
Some of the exciting topics include:
#1 What’s Next After Digital Transformation?
We know the importance of digital transformation. But what comes next after digital transformation? The discussion will go deeper into adaption, execution and strategies.
#2 Post-COVID19 Payment Trends – Towards A Cashless Society
In this unprecedented time, the use of digital wallets has increased tremendously mainly due to the safety concerns of using public payment terminals. How long will it take for Malaysia to become a completely cashless society? Let’s explore and discuss the current and future payment trends in Malaysia.
#3 Digital Marketing for Beginners: How to Get Started
Digital marketing is getting more and more important, especially in this challenging time. Businesses will need to implement digital marketing strategies to get more leads, sales and branding effect. This discussion will reveal some valuable tips on how you should get started with digital marketing for your business.
It’s now essential for every business in every industry to sustain and grow their business. In the new normal, traditional businesses are seriously impacted.
We are now adapting to the new norm; everything has gone Online, such as Online Transaction, Online Collaboration, Online Meeting, Online Education and more!
303Runcit – A traditional grocery store that started their business 30 years ago selling many different kinds of grocery products.
During these 30 years of time, they have successfully accumulated quite a number of loyal customers from their physical store.
Today, let us show you how a small grocery store (kedai runcit) took their business online and successfully sustain and even grow their business in this challenging time.
An Online Grocery Store That Can Sell All Over Malaysia!
Tell Us about Your Business
I am Kee Keat, the founder of 303 Runcit. I started the business in a small town of Penang almost 30 years ago.
We sold many different kinds of products at our physical store, such as fresh chicken eggs, onion, garlic, cooking ingredients, pickled food like kampung salted fish and canned food like sardines, meatloaf and more.
Why did You Start Your Online Store?
We have a strong loyal customer base back then when we sold at our physical stall at a morning market in Kepala Batas.
Something bad happened without any warning (the COVID-19 pandemic), and we realized that we have to transform our business.
The best way? To create our own online store.
How was the outcome or result in terms of sales upon starting your online store?
Well, surprisingly, not only did our online store receive regular orders from our existing customers, new clients from KL, the Penang Island and more started to order from us.
I think that’s because we provide convenience to clients such as quick delivery services, quality products, reasonable prices, and more.
Not only was my online store ready in 3 days, but they also guided me on getting the best rates for product delivery, product photo shooting, and more.
Plus my online store came with a reliable payment gateway to receive payments online.
Do you think businesses with a physical store should start an online store?
Yes, we are living in this cutting edge era, and as a businessman, we have to be open to new ideas.
I think we should not limit ourself when there is a golden opportunity for us to transform our business.
An online store breaks the physical barrier.
With an online store, now we no longer depend on foot traffic. Orders can come at any time of the day, even during the midnight.
The Bottom Line
In short, starting Business Digitalisation is a must now for every business in every industry.
More and more Malaysians have started practising cashless payment (Credit Cards, Online Banking and also e-Wallet ) to buy their daily products or order food Online.
If your business is still operating from a traditional physical store, it’s time to reconsider your business model and strategy to cope with the new era – The New Normal.
Once again, many thanks to Mr Kee Keat, the founder of 303 Runcit for his valuable time sharing with us his story, which gives another strong assurance to those who are still considering to transform their business to Online.
With great emphasis on employees’ health and safety, Exabytes has installed acrylic sheets and implemented strict Standard Operation Procedure for our employees who come to work at the office.
Every desk is sanitised regularly from time to time and strict social distancing SOP is followed by everyone in our offices in Penang, KL, Singapore and Indonesia.
Although we are currently closed to walk-in visitors, please rest assured that our Online Helpdesk is still available 24×7 to assist you.
We ask for your kind understanding if delays occur in delivery of our services during this period of time.
Should you have any further enquiries, please visit our website atwww.exabytes.my or give us a call at 04-6097888.
Step 3: Your free credits are now in your account and ready to be used.
*This offer is for new signups only.
FAQ You Might Be Interested In:
1. Where can the Credits be Used?
The credits can be used to purchase ANY Exabytes products (new signups only), including Domain Names, Web Hosting, VPS, Server Hosting, Cloud Services, Digital Marketing Services and more.
2. How to Use the Credits?
First, you must ensure that you have claimed the credits.
Next, signup for any products or services with Exabytes.
At checkout, your checkout dashboard will show the option to use your credits.
Choose the option and your credits will be applied.
For mobile app users, the credits will be applied automatically at checkout.
3. Can I Transfer My Credits to Others?
No. The credits are attached to respective users and cannot be transferred to others.
4. Can I Spend the Credits on Other Merchants or Websites?
No. Exabytes credits can only be used to purchase Exabytes products/services.
4. How Do I Know I Already Claimed the Credits?
You must login to your newly registered account and the available credits will be shown on your dashboard.
The credit balance will be updated every time they are used.
We would like to inform you that the promotion offering free credit of RM30 has now ended.
We appreciate your participation and support during the promotion period.
However, we have exciting news to share with you! We invite you to take a look at our current discount services.
We have curated a range of exclusive discounts and offers that you wouldn’t want to miss.
These discounts are designed to provide you with exceptional value for our services, allowing you to save more while enjoying top-notch quality.
To explore our latest discount offerings, please visit our website or contact our customer service team.
Our team is ready to assist you and ensure you benefit from these amazing deals.
Thank you for choosing our services.
We look forward to serving you and providing you with excellent value and satisfaction.
Wish to find out how to register a payment gateway account in Malaysia? Online payment and online banking have changed the way shoppers shop, buy and pay, as well as the way business owners conduct their business. In fact, online payment has revolutionized e-commerce and banking. As more and more companies open their online store, the e-commerce sector in Malaysia is rapidly expanding.
In this blog post, we’re pleased to present a step-by-step guide to registering an account with various payment gateways.
PayHalal will revert with a Business Proposal offering the MDR Rate based on the application form. Merchants should reply with a signed copy of the business proposal.
Step 3: Integration & Sandbox Testing.
Once the application process is done, PayHalal will proceed with integration and sandbox testing (using the registered online account).
Step 4: Ready to Use PayHalal.
Upon successful sandbox testing, merchants should notify PayHalal to activate their account from Sandbox to Live.
We hope this blog post helps you decide on the payment gateway for your eCommerce store. If you need an online store that’s ready with a powerful payment gateway, Exabytes provides web design services that are reliable and affordable, and we can help you deliver your products worldwide.
The best part?
Your online store will be ready in 3 days!
For more info, please feel free to get in touch with our friendly staff at [email protected]
Disclaimer:
Last Updated: 5th June 2020. This Steps to Register a Payment Gateway Account in Malaysia blog post is for reference only. Information may be different from the date of publication and we do not guarantee the accuracy of the information shared.
Are you interested in starting an online business? Wish to kickstart your eCommerce business journey? If you need insightful information and valuable advice from the expert to kickstart, we’re here to help!
Join us for a 3-Day Online eCommerce Fest that dishes out nuggets of wisdom on eCommerce business so that you’re more equipped in your online journey. This event covers eCommerce Strategies, Trends and the Success Story of real eCommerce entrepreneurs.
Mark your calendar, and learn the New eCommerce Normal!
We also invited different local successful eCommerce entrepreneurs to share their experience at eCommerceFest 2020. Let’s check out the speakers below:
Melisa Lim started her career in communications with a major in broadcasting. After being burnt out within a few years, she sought out volunteering opportunities at a local non-profit organization. This led her to see the parallel worlds in Malaysia where the urban rat race is a long way from the world of subsistence farmers and rural communities. She then co-founded Langit Collective in 2015 to improve the livelihoods of indigenous farmers from East Malaysia by creating market access for them. With experience and skills from strong project management and communication organization, she now focusses on marketing and strategy.
Ginz Ooi, the founder of Webqlo & Adqlo, an award winning digital marketing & big data company specializing in integrated digital marketing and big data analytics. Ginz Ooi is also an award winning entrepreneur and have gained recognition in the Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian, JCI CYEA Top 3 winner, Golden Bull Award, SEBA, and more.
Tara Tan is the Chief Marketing Officer of XIXILI where she oversees the lingerie brand’s expansion through marketing and retail developments. Her portfolio includes diversifying and growing the brand’s distribution channels via brick-and-mortar and online strategies – which include e-commerce at the brand’s own webstore www.xixili-intimates.com and social commerce. She also leads the brand’s creative direction and marketing plan. She comes from a design thinking background and has prior retail experience in visual merchandising and ideation development to enhance the store aesthetic and user-functionality of the Armani Exchange webstore, and in monitoring the web analytics at Loreal Paris USA.
Bryce Adams is a former nomad, currently based in Melbourne, Australia, working on Metorik – an analytics and email automation tool for WooCommerce. He loves open source software, building useful products and interacting with the open-source and eCommerce communities!
Helen Tan is the Co-founder of Doublewoot Online Fashion store since year 2006 together with her sister, Heliene. Doublewoot is a Malaysian Homegrown fashion label offering fresh and chic selections of clothing weekly to empower women at work, for women who travels as well as bridesmaid dresses and essential daily wears. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design from USM while at the same time, had a short stint at Vitrox Corporations (as a Marketing assistant ) in the year 2008 and Agilent Technologies (as a Technical Writer) in the year 2012 . Eventually she resigned from the MNC 6 years ago after her business in Doublewoot stabilized , but had already taken charge of the e-commerce, website, marketing and business development related tasks since the beginning.
Are excited to join us to learn and enhance your eCommerce knowledge and skills? Register it now at www.ecommercefest.asia. It is free admission!
Always share some useful tips about hair to your audience. Go for popular topics such as ‘Top 10 Male Hairstyles in 2020’, ‘A Step-by-step Guide to Cut Your Hair At Home’ and more.
You can even create a short video to teach your customers to set their hair.
Remember customers like to engage with sellers who not only sell them the products but also bring value to them (such as giving them valuable advice and tips).
For example, you could share with your audience ‘The 3 Easy Men’s Hairstyles’ and guide them to do it at home.
This is an interesting post which can get the audience’s attention and engage with them.
Customers will like and follow your Facebook Business Page when they think your content is useful and interesting.
If you have your own website, feel free to write some useful tips which your customers might be interested in.
Remember content marketing can help increase your website traffic. Your potential customers can get to know your brand when they read your blog posts.
In other words, by doing so, you are building brand awareness so that more customers know your brand and the products or services you are providing.
5. Build Your Online Store
Why should you build an online store for your hair salon?
As I know, many hair salons are still selling hair supplementary products such as Hair Dryer, Spray, Wax, etc.
If you have an online store, all your regular customers will be able to browse the products you offer, enjoy online shopping, and of course, remember your business.
So don’t wait.
Build Your Online Store today and sell your hair supplementary products to both your regular customers and many, many new potential customers who now prefer to buy online.
Step 4: Click on ‘VERIFY’ in your email.
3. All documents must be valid on the date of application.
