Web Analytics for Success

I’m a fan of quick-hit online marketing tactics that deliver instantaneous results. Did you know, there’s one simple web analytics metric that can improve a variety of performance indicators simultaneously?

What if you could reduce abandonment, improve Depth of Visit, Time on Site, and conversion metrics while driving up return on ad spend (ROAS), too? You might think the answer is buried under multiple layers of data sliced this way and that. Not so. The data are right out there in the open and just about any web analytics platform can provide the answer in seconds.

Landing Page Abandonment is a crucial and often overlooked metric that can do wonders for driving quick improvements in more than one key performance indicator (KPI.) This metric is often referred to as Single Page Visits. While this may seem obvious, and I believe it is, most online marketers would spend their time investigating ways to improve individual KPI’s.

Before researching methods for improving conversion rates, CLV, or CPA, I recommend peeling the onion one layer at a time. Focusing on KPI’s will certainly deliver results; however, I believe we’re only as strong as our weakest link. And, if our first customer interaction fails 65% of the time, then it seems logical to begin the process at this point.

There is, without a doubt, a cause-and-effect relationship that links the rate of single page visits to the combination of landing page design, content, and messaging to traffic source, campaign, keyword, etc.

Site traffic from paid search, organic search, email, banner ads, and social media varies greatly in terms of intent and expectations. Visitors arriving at your site from active campaigns might be more motivated and open to offers and calls-to-action on your landing pages. In contrast visits from organic search tend to be more passive. Our research has shown these visitors to be focused on gathering information, inspiration, or guidance.

The key is fine-tune your campaigns and optimize your landing pages. When you find that magic formula you’ll find that your ad dollars go further while other key metrics also improve. At this point, you can begin to turn your attention to downstream metrics such as clicks to purchase, conversion path analysis, and average order volume/size.

Learn more about WorldLink Marketing and how we might help you achieve greater success with your online marketing efforts.

Google Online Marketing Challenge

For the 2nd year in a row, Google has sponsored a global Online Marketing Challenge. Entrants from colleges and universities from around the world created online marketing programs aimed at helping small businesses grow and prosper.

Each of the participants received the equivalent of $200 USD worth of Google AdWords advertising and three weeks to develop the small business online marketing strategy before submitting to judges for evaluation. Over 2,100 teams took part in this year’s competition.

The grand prize winners, from Deakin University in Australia, were each awarded a trip to Mountain View, California for a tour of the Googleplex, and each will also receive an Apple MacBook Pro. Not bad, huh?!

Read more about the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge and the winners.

Google-Microsoft-Yahoo… put all the politics and maneuvering aside and we can evaluate the program at its core. Is the program self-serving? Sure. But, I was impressed that the ‘strategies’ were judged – not just the interesting and creative uses of Google products.

All-to-often I see recently college grads enter the workforce without a clue as to what marketing means or how it works. All of the courses and ‘finals’ and papers and presentations in a typical bachelors degree program aren’t preparation enough to enable kids to hit the ground running. The leap from the Google competition to college graduates with marketing degrees is necessary in this context:

There is an entire generation of kids in highschool and college that understand Google AdWords Editor, Yahoo Search Marketing (to a lesser degree), and they’re certainly social media mavens; however, most don’t know marketing from advertising. If these students and graduates are to enter the workforce and assume their place in marketing departments and advertising agencies, then they should be more capable than they are after 4-years of college education.

I appreciate the Google Online Marketing Challenge for what it teaches – critical and strategic thinking in a marketing application. Its one thing to know the difference between objectives, strategies and tactics; it’s quite another to know how to develop each according to the problem at-hand. I believe that more competitions like this, possibly with other corporate sponsors, would further drive the point home that colleges and universities need to offer more courses that provide practical marketing discipline to help their graduates seamlessly enter the workplace.

PS – Three teams from Penn State were ‘Semi-Finalists’ in the Final-15 judging round. Congrats to Professor Jim Jansen and his students.

Using Twitter for Marketing?

Take notes from Twitter Veterans

Corporate marketers are not early adopters, typically, nor are they laggards. Of course we’re painting with extremely large brush strokes; however, there are exceptions to every rule.

Home Depot has successfully used Twitter to stay in touch with customers pre- and post-purchase. The retail giant has long been criticized for post-sale customer service but that seems to have changed with the way they’ve used Twitter to make themselves available, participate in Tweet conversations and to respond (quickly) to customer concerns. Here are some example posts exchanged between Sarah in Corporate Communications at Home Depot and customers who’ve used Twitter to voice an issue:

• Claire – Glad to hear Melissa’s been in touch. Keep me posted.
• ‘Top notch customer service last night at Hyannis, MA store, thx to Liz and her team’ >>thx Marcia, I’ll pass that along
• Hi Jason – what happened? I would like to help if I can, if not would love to hear your feedback.
• Sorry we let you down. Mind DMing more info? Try us again!

Well-done, Sara @HomeDepot!

And, not to be out-done, check out similar Tweets on Lowes‘ Twitter page:

• Sorry about that. DM me your info, I’d like to get Customer Care involved.
• Hey, Nate, sorry you had a bad experience. DM me you info…I’d love to get customer care involved.
• @LowesRecruiting: Welcome to the Torrington, CT store which opened on Friday, 7/10/09 adding about 175 jobs to the area.

Notice the tone from both of these companies: “We heard you. Sorry that happened. Let us make it right. We’re working on it – just an update.” And so on. Very well done. As consumers, can we really ask for more than that?

Give YOUR Twitter Advice to Corporate Marketers

As an expert Twitter user, what advice do you have for corporate marketers who wish to utilize Twitter for business purposes (marketing, advertising, PR, customer service, etc)? Surely you’ve had bad experiences and some really good experiences (like those above) while using Twitter. Let’s help corporate America better utilize Twitter to connect with and serve customers online.

What advice do you have for Marketers using Twitter?

Please post a reply with your (one) point of advice for corporate marketers using Twitter. Let’s get at least 100 posts to help corporate marketers use Twitter the right way.

Post your reply to offer your thoughts, ideas and advice today.

3 Simple Measures of Website Satisfaction

Are your visitors satisfied with your web site? Hmmm. Let’s explore.

At 30,000-feet, this question has the potential to spin into a million others. So, let’s pare it down a bit.

In our experience, there are a just few questions – 3 to be specific – that are true indicators of website satisfaction. They are:

Online Marketing in a Down Economy

Role of Online Marketing in the Media Mix

Each of us has our own perspective on the economy. However, we realize as marketing executives that a more prudent use of company and personal finances is the order of the day. Let’s consider the implications to advertising and online marketing.

In marketing and sales we’re still responsible for delivering results – revenue. So, as some people begin to pull-back on, or completely eliminate, their advertising and marketing budgets, there will be others that move to the beat of a different drum. They zig when others zag. However, I assert that these marketers who turn to and even increase their utilization of online marketing during these times are not geniuses, but rather they’re pragmatists.