Top 3 Tools to Analyze Website Success

After researching web metrics, I have a better understanding of what is important to measure. Some measurements of a website provide less information than other web metric tools.  

One tool that is increasingly important is the conversion rate. Rich Page from makeuseof.com rates conversion rates with an A. Conversion rates are an important tool to measures the quality of the visitor of the site. If the website has a low conversion rate, it means the website is attracting the wrong type of visitors or the website is an ineffective persuader. Through the measurement of conversion rates, we can find the amount of people who performed a desired action from the website. 

If a website is trying to sell something, conversion rates would measure how many people purchased from the website. If the goal of a site was to gain subscribers, conversion rates would measure how many people opted-in to receive information from the creator of that site. Rich suggests you should funnel for each conversion in order to see which lead is coming from which landing page. This will give a more accurate picture of how people on getting to the site.

Another aspect to measure is the amount of unique visitors. Measuring specifically which visitors are going on your site is important. Noah Parsons writes in The 6 Most Important Web Metrics to Track for Your Business Website, that unique visitors are people who visit the site regardless of the amount of times they visited. This gives an accurate depiction of how many physical people are visiting a site versus relying on just a number count of visits per time period. It can also show how many times that unique individual visited a site in a specific amount of time. This especially helpful in seeing how effective a website is by looking at how many times a unique individual visits a website. If they keep coming back, there is obviously a reason they do. You can also compare repeat individuals versus first time visitors to show overall website effectiveness.

Lastly, it is important to measure the bounce rate of a website. The bounce rate measures how many people visit a page a then immediately leave the page. Hartley Brody suggests to look at landing pages with high bounce rates because these pages are turning people away. You should look into why visitors might be immediately leaving and change it to be a more effective page.  Bounce rate will never be zero because we all mistakenly click on sites we didn’t mean to click on, but reducing the bounce rate to as low as possible is important for online success.

These are the top 3 web metrics that are the most important in measuring success of a site. Keeping these aspects of website analytics is crucial to making improvements to websites.

Marketing Scenario: A Hypothetical Marketing Campaign

In this scenario, I work for a marketing company. We target potential customers to come into car dealerships for the events my marketing firm plans and executes. Our marketing scenario includes the firm sending out mailers to customers on our list in the form of a direct mail piece. We use the dealership database of customers to decide to whom we send the direct mail. Based on previous purchases with the dealership, we predict when a customer might be in the market for a new car. In addition to direct mail, we have a blog discussing many different aspects of cars to educate our potential customers. We use this blog to discuss news in the auto industry in addition to explaining certain car myths. In addition, we hope to have followers of the dealership on Facebook. These followers will then be sent invitations to certain events the dealership puts on.  The event will have a coordinator who interviews every customer who walks into the dealership. Using an online survey method, the coordinator will put the customer in different categories based on how they heard about the event and other qualifying attributes of the customer.

The goals of this marketing scenario, is to get the customer to choose a particular dealership that is hosting the event. With the blog, we want to create traffic with potential customers. We want to inform them of all car-buying approaches and knowledge they need to make the right decision for them. In this process, we hope they will think of the dealership that provides them with the best information.  Another goal is to have the followers on Facebook share they are attending the event so other friends will want to attend as well. This tactic will hopefully expand the reach of the dealership past their current limits through the use of social media.

We will use several methods of metrics. We will use conversion rate of direct mail customers who purchased a vehicle the day of the event. We will also use conversion rate of the Facebook event, one for the actual dealership invite, and one for the people who saw the event from a friend’s share on his or her timeline. Using the data collected from the coordinator, we can accurately measure how many customers attended the event based on which outreach method. We will also measure how many people attended who subscribe to the dealership blog. We will ask if they came in because of the event or if they came in just because they were interested in a car. If they say the later and subscribe to our blog, then that will prove our blog might have an influence on consumers. We plan to use Google Analytics as one of the tools used to measure the amount of followers we have on the blog. 

This will help back up the findings of the coordinator on the actual day of the event.

We will measure success of the event based on how many people purchased cars that came in through the blog or social media platforms. We want to compare how many people came in through direct mail versus how many came in from the social media and blog platform. This will help us measure how effectively we are using our web presence. With the ease of the Internet, one would think this would be a better way to reach consumers. However, we would like to test it through this type of data collection. We will run the event several times throughout the year to make sure there was not a fluke with just one event. 

Welcome to the Digital Age of Business!

Social media is a growing resource for businesses. If used well, social media can help grow awareness for the business and increase consumer knowledge of the industry. In order to be successful, you must have a strategy with their use of social media.

As with anything done in business, goals must be set with social media. This will help measure the effectiveness of the social media for the business. These goals must be reasonable and measurable. Set benchmark dates periodically of what you want to see with your social media at each benchmark. When setting up the social media, you have to have a full understanding of who the consumer is. Know the target audience. You have to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes when thinking about what to do. If you do not think like a consumer, you will be thinking like a businessperson. Let’s be honest, consumers are not researching and buying products or services like a business person. They think about themselves. Therefore, in order to reach the target audience effectively, you have to think as they think. Think of all obstacles or challenges they might be facing. If you are selling adhesives that the consumers apply themselves, they might not know how to apply it correctly. Therefore, a blog explaining the application with a video giving a demonstration might be helpful. This will make the consumer be more likely to purchase from you versus the competitor. In addition, it will set you apart from the competition and give you a competitive advantage. In order to increase your competitive advantage, you should be doing exactly what the competition is doing and even more.

In addition to increasing your competitive advantage, you should be monitoring the social media and listening to your followers. This is called social listening. Social listening is imperative to the success of social media. The goal is to build relationships with consumers via the social media. This gives you a opportunity to talk to consumers directly based on what their needs might be. In Bill Tancer’s book, Everyone’s A Critic: Winning Customers in a Review-Driven World, he discusses social listening in a different way. He discusses reviews and how they can drive a business to success. One point he makes in this book is when consumers leave reviews, both good and bad, it is imperative for the owner or employee to respond to the review. If the consumer leaves a review, thank them for doing so and address anything that might need to be addressed. It leaves the reviewer with a good feeling of the business and any future consumers who see that interaction might think good thoughts as well. This is a form of social listening. Social listening can also be in the form of addressing a problem quickly through the social media. See example above.

Social media gives companies a way to talk to their consumers almost instantly. Companies who utilize this feature effectively typically have happy customers. The example to the right is from a personal friend. When she found out this new information about lululemon, she was very happy and never would have known this fact if lulu had not tweeted her back. In addition, this began a digital relationship with lulu and my friend. She tweeted them later that year with another question. They promptly responded with an answer. If lulu had not reached out the first time, my friend would not have tweeted them with her problems later on. Anytime she is curious about a lulu product, she tweets them. More and more companies are beginning to use this type of social listening to aid their business.

In order for social listening to be effective, a business must have a social community. If the previous consumer had not been following lululemon or had not known Lulu had a twitter, she might never have known about the rip off tag feature. Therefore, it is important to build a social community. First, you should find your promoters. The people that are loyal who are avid social media users will pop out easily. Reaching out to those people will be beneficial to both you and those users. My friend above is an avid social media user. She has tweeted at lululemon multiple times and then shares all her new found knowledge with other people who wear lululemon products. Reaching out to her is a good way for lulu to build their community. I did not know about that feature until my friend retweeted lululemon’s reply to her. After that, I followed lululemon on twitter because I wanted to be able to tweet them if I ever needed to in the future. This is a great example of how to start building a social community.

Social media has so many advantages to a business. In order for you to reap the benefits, you have to research and know how to use these tools effectively. Welcome to the digital age of business!

Target Your Audience

Content is key in today’s world. With the many different businesses competing for the consumer’s attention, having the best content that is the most applicable to the audience will set one business apart from the next. In Is Your Content Strategy Guided by Audience Intent (or Just Keywords)? by Laura Lippay, she discusses how companies are creating content focused on putting the most keywords in the page in order to generate page views. She states, “Content is a means of communicating and building a relationship with an audience.” Therefore, companies cannot create pages with an excessive amount of keywords to increase readers. They have to create content that is unique and will interest the prospective audience. Laura Lippay suggests before creating content, one should analyze the goals of the content, the goals of the company, and the audience intent.  Understanding this before creating content should help it be more successful for the company.

Jayson DeMers discusses some mistakes companies make when creating content in 5 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Content Marketing Strategy. One suggestion is to be transparent with the content. Readers know what the aim is for companies. Do not try to deceive the readers by hiding the original motivation of the content. This transparency could help build trust between the company and consumer. This could be the future of a lasting relationship, because trust builds strong relationships. Another mistake companies make that Jayson DeMers points out is the content is not directed towards the right audience. He suggests some possibilities for problematic audience targeting including, reading level mismatch, content that does not address the needs or interests of the audience, and content that does not use the format the audience prefers. The solution Jayson DeMers suggests is to try out different content with different audiences to see what works. In addition, analyzing previous efforts and their success will help guide the future.

John Hall, in Without Tailoring Content to the Buyer's Journey, You're Missing the Mark, gives a great example of how having ineffective content does a disservice to a company. He writes, “Creating content that doesn’t directly speak to your audience is like accidentally gifting your mother-in-law a men’s razor and some aftershave. It’s a waste of resources, and you’re bound to lose a lot more than trust.” I think this is a great example of how content that is not targeted correctly can hurt rather than help a company. This is the third article stating a company has to define the target audience in order to create successful content. Creating content for the different type of consumers at different stages in the buying process will broaden the reach of the company and increase reader traffic. John Hall calls the process of a consumer making a purchase a “buyer’s journey.” I think this phrase perfectly exemplifies that consumers go through a journey when they purchase products or services. Keeping this concept in mind while writing content will help companies write content that is more prevalent to the consumers’ current place in the journey. 

The Rise of Inbound Marketing

I've been finding many articles stating how inbound marketing is becoming increasingly popular and effective. Deciding between outbound and inbound marketing depends on what a company is trying to accomplish.

After reading HubSpot’s article, The Inbound Methodology, I have a clear idea of the process of inbound marketing. “By publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing becomes relevant and helpful to your customers, not interruptive.” This direct quote from the article describes inbound marketing. I believe it perfectly encompasses the best way to gain customers to be supporters and promoters.

The graphic to the left, from Inbound Methodology, shows the process of turning a stranger into a promoter. Brian Halligan writes in Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing that inbound is a way to “get found” by people already learning about and shopping in [a particular] industry.” This is the best scenario for companies who use inbound marketing. To “get found,” companies have to have relevant content. This content should have keywords that future customers might type into a search engine. The more keywords the content contains, the more likely the searcher will find the content. Consumers do research and it is in a company’s best interest to bring those customers in with relevant content.

Online Reviews can be extremely important to companies wanting to gain clientele. While most companies do not want to deal with online reviews because they are afraid of them, (It is true, online reviews can be a massive pain, especially if you do not know how to use it to your advantage) they are important to consumers. Social proof is when consumers look to others to either confirm or deny their feelings about a product or service. Before I go on a big trip, I consult TripAdvisor to see if the location and hotel is as good as I think it will be. If other people rave about it, I will be more comfortable with my decision. If others have bad things to say, I might re-evaluate my trip. In Everyone’s A Critic: Winning Customers in a Review-Driven World, Bill Tancer discusses how negative reviews can help your business, how responding to good and bad reviews is good practice, and how the online reviews can be managed with the right knowledge of how it works. Go check out his book for more specifics. (I will be posting more about his book in a later post.)

Another example is someone who is shopping for a car. Let’s say someone is a car enthusiast. This person constantly keep up with new advances in the car industry. He or she read blogs from several different dealerships and car brands, such as BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and more. The potential customer keeps up with what is happening. Finally, it is time to update and buy a new car. This person gets a direct mail piece talking about an event happening at their local BMW dealership. It reads, “Come on in for our customer appreciation event!” This person decides to stop in and walks out with a car later that day.  Then this person tells all his friends about a great deal he got at the local BMW event. This is an example of inbound marketing and outbound marketing working together. This would be purely inbound if the consumer researched and read blogs. Then if the customer reached out to the dealership without the dealership prompting the relationship directly, it would be inbound. This scenario would change into an outbound situation if the customer received the mail piece without knowing about the cars BMW sells or following the industry. The mailer sent becomes an interruption in some cases and might be seen as an intrusion versus a helpful promotion. However, that does not mean a company should stray away from sending direct mail pieces. The way a customer receives the mailer decides whether it is inbound or outbound marketing.

As you can see, there are many advantages to inbound marketing. Inbound has new technology attached to it, making it more exciting and viral.

Congratulations! from Target

After reading “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” from Forbes, I have gained some insight on how companies can use previous customer purchase to their advantage. Target’s use of customer purchase history to predict what they will buy in the future is a smart business practice. If a customer will end up buying that product, having a coupon will reinforce their want to purchase with that company again.

While I can see how getting coupons specifically for expectant mothers from a company would be slightly creepy, I believe the coupons are beneficial to that expectant mother. I believe changing to a booklet with other seemingly random products was a good idea. This will help alleviate any discomfort that might potentially happen if it was specifically for expectant mothers. They will be more likely to buy the products they were already expecting to buy. This is a great tactic for Target. It is similar to giving coupons to people on school supplies when school starts; however, unlike school women are pregnant at different times.

I do not believe this is a breach of privacy because you buy that product openly in that store. It is similar to getting coupons with the receipt after making a purchase at the local grocery store. This is a tactic used to get customers to come back for their future purchase based on what they previously purchased. Technology is growing and rapidly changing how consumers consume. The world will have to accept that this tactic will be a symbiotic relationship between company and consumer.

Insight is Key to Success

After reading "Where to Look for Insight" from the Harvard Business Review, some ideas became evident. The article states, "We recognize that many people arrive at great ideas more or less serendipitously, but we nevertheless believe that it’s possible for individuals to approach innovation in a more systematic way." I would have to disagree with that statement. I believe more times than not, people do not arrive at ideas "serendipitously.” I believe people do have insight coupled with intuition.

That intuition leads them to analyze what consumers are looking for and create whatever meets those wants and/ or needs.

For example, in #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso, Sophia makes an extremely successful business through her idea to sell vintage clothes on eBay.  She

started it to make ends meet. Sophia knew that the revenue from her sales would cover her costs because there was a need for what she was selling. She also had the right intuition to know what her customer would want and how to market it in a way to attract customers. In the article, confluence is one of the seven insight channels. Sophia saw the online shopping trend and need for vintage clothes, and combined that into a good business. She knew her consumer and knew how to make herself different from her competitors. Customers could relate to the model because they were not real models, Sophia would dress the models head to toe so the customer could see how to style the outfit, and she edited the image in order for them to gain attention from consumers out of the plethora of other image that are out there. There was no luck involved, she simply made smart business decisions.

I think people are caught up with "serendipitously" when they see how successful something has grown to be when that was not the original intent. Sophia had the insight on how to innovate vintage clothing sales, which is why she became so successful years later. She never intended to have that success, but she was smart enough to know how to create it.