Google Analytics - Laser focus

Introduction:

This post will take an in-depth look at key reports and measurement tools found in Google Analytics and how they can help the following users:

·      The non-profit organization Children’s Relief International.

·      The small, but growing, e-book publisher Wynn Press.

I will end the post with a few comments on how I plan to use key reports to help me measure social media engagement for a resource I am developing. I decided to take this approach because I have a direct connection to both organizations and I plan to provide advice to each based on the content covered below. The challenge to provide real value to existing organizations felt more appropriate than focusing on my current IMC blog, since its purpose is limited and muted by comparison.  It is exciting to be able to offer this kind of council after just a few weeks of engaging with the content. My hope is that by the end of the term they will be using some of these tools and I will be able to share real results.

Google Analytics and Children’s Relief International.

Children’s Relief International is a small non-profit that helps the world’s poorest children in places like India, Africa, Pakistan, and Burma. They support native leaders in supplying food, medical care and education through a team of dedicated missionaries and volunteers. (Full disclosure, I wrote about CRI in the week 4 discussion post.  I use some of that content in here, but only for set up. The rest is original.) To promote their work they have a decent web site, a half a dozen project blogs, a monthly email newsletter that goes to donors and partners, and an online donate option.

CRI’s main KPI is donor engagement which makes the donate option on their web site crucial to their long-term success. The donate button sits at the top right of the site design. This button stays in the top right no matter what page the user is on. It is always visible. Currently CRI believes the placement of the button is working and easy to engage with.  What they do not know is how long it takes a user to click on donate button and if they actually complete a transition when they are on the donate page.

http://www.childrensrelief.org/

This is where Google Analytics can help. They offer a set of tools that provide a range of reviews options around user flow through the site. Blogger and analytics expert Jim Gianoglio puts provides a more articulate definition, “Flow visualization is a way to understand how visitors flow through your website. It uses intuitive imagery, along with the ability to segment your visitors, to make insightful analysis easier. These reports better help you understand how to optimize your landing pages, navigation, conversion funnels and more. They can help explain the behavior of segments of visitors after they land on a page, and see where there might be commonalities and differences between key segments.” (Gianogilo, 2011)

At first glace these visualization tools feel complicated but they have been put in place to help make the click path analysis process more valuable and user friendly. (Cutroni, 2011)

To begin using these tools CRI will need to identify the pages they want to track. Google Analytics calls these groups of pages nodes. (Cutroni, 2011) It is recommended that CRI group the key pages seen below into a node. As they become familiar with the process they can group pages in more strategic nodes based on key data, which should provide a solid baseline for future measurement and analysis.

Google Analytics offers a wide range of flow visualization tools that could be useful. Two of the more useful reports for an organization like CRI would be the Visit Flow Report and the Navigation Flow Report.

Visit Flow Report.

This will allow CRI to track the navigation flow of a specific segment, which can be traffic source, browser, country, keywords, direct traffic, and a range of other options as visitors move between nodes.  (Waisberg, 2011) This data is useful when trying to analyze the success of a campaign, like CRI’s monthly email campaigns. The report, which is a well designed, easy to navigate flow chart, will show CRI where people came from, what they engage with after arriving on the landing page, and other important details like bounce rate. (Cutroni, 2011)

Navigation Flow Report. 
As CRI establishes their nodes they will need to see how traffic is flowing to and from that node. The Navigational Flow Report will provide that data. (Joe, 2011) This could be used to see trends in visitor behavior and help identify the pages that are better are driving users to the donate page and the pages that have high bounce rates.

If used correctly these visualization tools will help CRI get a better understanding of how their users are navigating their website and how they engage with the donate page. By digging into that data, segmenting it and then identifying key behaviors (are people clicking on the donate button and making a donation) they will be able to manage their content and site design with more precision and efficiency, which may result in strong conversion rates (more donations).

Google Analytics and Wynn Press (www.wynnpress.com)

These tools could be helpful for our next subject too, the small but growing e-book publisher Wynn Press. WynnPress.com creates interactive e-books for web designers. They plan to expand into more design disciplines and marketing tools over the next year. (Photoshop, Illustrator and the love-hate relationship with PowerPoint.)

 

Over the past two years Wynn Press has found success in getting their books adopted by large online colleges. They plan to leverage this success as they roll out new products and try to capture market share among general consumers. Currently the majority of their success has come from word-of-mouth marketing tactics. They have a web site and it is seen as a driver for sales but to they are not tracking or measuring its use. This needs to change. Since a good portion of the site is coded in Flash, and the very important video demos are in Flash, the first step will be to install the Google Analytics SWF so the site can talk to GA and being tracking video views. In the past this was more complicated but now it is a matter of installing some code. (brightcover.com, 2012) Brightcove, the leading online video platform, shares some valuable technical tips on this process. Link below:  

http://support.brightcove.com/en/video-cloud/docs/integration-google-analytics - Measuring demo video views and their bounce rates to purchase rates will help Wynn Press know if their demos are working or need to be reworked. Collecting this data will not be difficult and should provide valuable insight on visitor behavior.

In addition to tracking how many people watch their demo videos and how many views convert to sales Wynn Press needs to understand how visitors are getting to their site. GA offers as set of tools under their Traffic Sources section that can provide this information.  The Traffic Source tools breaks down visitor traffic into three categories:

1)   Direct Traffic – Visits that go straight to their site through either typing in a URL into the browser's address bar, clicking on a bookmark or clicking on a link in an email, SMS, or chat message. (Roggio, 2011)

2)   Referral Traffic – Visitors that click on a link for a different site, like a social media platform, and land on the Wynn Press site.

3)   Search Engine Traffic – Visitors that comes from clicking on links on a search results page for any search engine. This traffic is broken down into two parts, paid and organic. Wynn Press is not engaging in any AdWord campaigns or paid searches so they would be focused on the organic and referral traffic.  (Roggio, 2011)

As the data is collected the report can identify top performing traffic sources and if they fall under four distinct mediums; direct, organic, referral or cpc (cost-per-click). If Wynn Press sees a spike of activity due to Facebook referrals then they can begin to develop a tailored campaign strategy to leverage that platform and be intentional about tracking its success or failure. If there is a steady flow of traffic coming from organic searches then they should dig into which key words are driving the traffic.  Another tactic that can be applied is to measure the bounce rate of each source. If organic searches are driving a lot of traffic to the site but the visitor immediately exists there may be a problem with key words.  

If implemented Google Analytics Traffic Sources will help Wynn Press be competitive and meet their long-term goals as they gain a stronger understanding of who their customer is and where they are coming from.

Google Analytics, social media metrics and me.

As I review these tools and think of my long-term goals a few rise to the top. I am currently working on a series of resources that will help potential design students and their parents navigate the ever-changing and competitive landscape of Colleges and Universities offering art and design degrees. I plan to use a blog and wide range of social media platforms as part of my communication strategy. Google Analytics Social Sources tools will allow me to see which social media sources are doing the heavy lifting. This data can provide a clear path on which platform should get the majority of my time.

To help me understand the data Social Sources will breakdown social media activity into 6 reports:

1)   Overview

2)   Sources

3)   Pages

4)   Conversions

5)   Social Plugins

6)   Social Visitor Flow

Let’s take a closer look at 4 of these reports:

1)   Overview – Provides a mini-dashboard of the social reports and their data. It also includes a social value visualization which will pinpoint how the social networks contribute to website conversions. (Waisberg, 2012)

2)   Sources – This tracks source activity based on social referrers. It will keep track of all of the URL options associated with each social network. An example would be witter.com and t.co. (Waisberg, 2012

3)   Pages – This report shows social activity on each page of your site. (Sharif, 2012) If someone likes my page on how to handle tuition costs and share this on Facebook and LinkedIn it will show up on this report. (Sharif, 2012)

4)   Conversions – This report provides an overview of which social sources drove conversions to the site. It will show the data in comparison to my set goals and ecommerce, providing an overview of which social source is creating the most value. (Waisberg, 2012)

Google Analytics and these Social Sourcing reports are working hard to make it easy for me to track and measure the effectiveness of my social media strategy. As marketers become more familiar with social media platforms and their analytics it should become even easier to understand the true value of the channel. Finding the true value of social media is hotly debated topic by the industry. Dan Zarrella of HubSpot recently released a formula on the value of a ‘like’. This formula (VOLA) combines and crunches numbers associated with Total Likes (L), Unlikes-per-month (UpM), Likes-per-Day (LpD), Average Clicks (C, Conversion Rates (CR) and Average Conversion Rate (ACV). By using Google Analytics and his custom calculator (ValueOfALike.com) he is trying to help us “understand exactly what the value of each social networking connection is to our bottom line.” (Zarrella, 2012) The tool has been met with praise and criticism.

I plan to try it in the future and share it here to reinforce my final thought, which is this; the process of analyzing and measuring digital strategy and online consumer behavior is a living ecosystem.  It is constantly changing due a wide range of variables, tangents, trends and technology. Google Analytics provides an entry way into this wonderfully complicated world of data. Both Children’s Relief International and Wynn Press should make the effort to engage these tools and start measuring the analytics of their sites.  They should start off with clear and simple goals. Find out where the traffic is coming from, figure out what pages have high bounce rates and keep and eye on how social media is impacting traffic. These are not complicated goals and if measured consistently over time they should net positive results. It will be an important step for their long-term success.  I know I plan to use these tools as I develop those resources I intend to share with students and their families. The past 5 weeks has me feeling ambitious and I am ready to embrace the task. Looking forward to seeing what the next 4 weeks will bring.

References:

www.brightcove.com

Cutroni. Justin, (2011, October 19^th) Path Analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://cutroni.com/blog/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/

Gianoglio, Jim. (2011, October 19) Flow Visualization in Google Analytics. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2011/10/19/flow-visualization-google-analytics/

N.A. Joe, (2011, October 19^th) Top 5 Use Cases of Goggle Analytics Flow Visualization. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2011/10/ga-flow-visualization-use-cases/

N.A. (N.D.) Video Cloud Support: Integration with Google Analytics. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://support.brightcove.com/en/video-cloud/docs/integration-google-analytics

Roggio. Armando, (2011, July 18^th) Understanding ‘Traffic Sources’ in Google Analytics. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2916-Understanding-Traffic-Sources-in-Google-Analytics

Sharif. Sayf, (2012, March 29^th) Tracking your social engagement with Google Analytics. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/03/29/tracking-social-google-analytics/

Waisberg. Daniel, (2012, March 20th) Google Analytics Launches New Social Reports To Measure Social ROI. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://marketingland.com/google-analytics-social-reports-8138

Waisberg. Daniel, (2011, October 19^th) Google Analytics Gains “Napoleon’s March” Flow Visualization Charts. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://searchengineland.com/google-analytics-flow-visualization-97066

Zarrella. Dan, (2012, November 26^th) How to calculate the value of a like. Retrieved on November 26^th, 2012 from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/11/how_to_calculate_the_value_of.html

www.wynnpress.com

www.childrensrelief.com

Facebook Ads VS Google AdWords

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Remember that scene in 2001 when David is looking out into to space and he says “its beautiful’ as he tries to grasp the mystery and awesomeness of the universe. I had a similar moment as I dived into this weeks content. There is so much to digest and engage with. It’s intimidating and exciting at the same time. I still have a lot to learn.

This week we had to take a closer look at Facebook ads and Google AdWords.

My research started with Facebook Ads.

Facebook ads. Why do they work?

Facebook ads allow you to target individuals or groups by their profiles. Alumni, Star Wars fanatics, and shopper moms can be targeted with impressive precision. Direct and personalized messaging is created to capture the targets attention.

Why Facebook ads are problematic.

1.              Poor metrics and tracking options as compared to the wealth of data provided by Google AdWords.

2.              Facebook requires ads to do well in the first 1000 clicks or the ad will be pulled from circulation.

3.              Research has shown that Facebook ads require a longer period of time to be effective that Google AdWords.

4.              Facebook ads are a push tactic. The product has to be pushed in front of the audience to be noticed. The audience is not necessarily looking to make a purchase. This makes it difficult to establish ROI and if the correct messaging strategy is being used. The following statistics by insideFacebook shows that only 6.2% of Facebook users actively show interest in ads.  53.5% don’t mind the ads. 43% dislike them. The platform is still a new channel and the kinks are being worked out.

Dan Slagen, head of global marketing for HubSpot offers a short list of what an effective Facebook ad should contain to be successful:

1. High Relevance

2. Compelling call to action

3. Value proposition

Using this list I audited a Facebook ad on my own account.

Relevance: Is Target relevant to me? Maybe. Many of my ‘friends’ on Facebook have liked them. My wife shops there. The connection makes sense. Black Friday is right around the corner so the timing of the ad works.

Call to action: The call to action is clear. Target has a deal for me. 

Value Proposition:

Not much on value propositions other than the promise of the deal. Not much more needs to be said but there is nothing all that special or disruptive about this ad.
I am not on Facebook to shop so I did not click on it. It is this ‘push’ process found with Facebook ads that makes them a challenge.

Google AdWords.

Facebook ads requires the brand to push their message in front of the customer, who is on the site to be social, not necessarily to shop. Google AdWords offers a pull process because the user is actively searching for something. This makes Google AdWords a different kind of animal. Creating a campaign with Google AdWords can be tricky. There are a lot of moving parts. According to Google AdWord expert Tom Demers there are five key areas to lock down before the campaign is launched.

1. Understand the economic fundamentals of your campaign
By defining conversion points, the value of a conversion, if the ROI is attractive, and how the conversions will be tracked, the campaign can be managed and measured with more success.

2. Start Small, Iterate, and Expand
Starting small costs less time and money. As success or failure is measured changes to key words and locations can be made.

3. Understand campaign settings – A useful organization tool provided by Google to help track the campaign. Demer’s suggest you get to know these tools well as they make a difference on how a campaign can be tracked.

4. Pay attention to campaign basics. Demer gives us five key areas of focus:

1.              Search Query Mining – Are the ads in the right place

2.              Account Structure – Do you have the right key words and ad groupings

3.              Ad Creative  - Test a variation of copy options

4.              Landing Page Design – Make this look good!

5.              Bid Management – Is the money being spent in the right places?

5. The final tip is to think about how the campaign might grow. By starting off small, being diligent in measurement and adapting to success and failure the campaign will gain momentum and profitability. The temptation to start off big with many moving parts should be avoided.

Technically these the majority of these tips could work for Facebook Ads as well. Their metrics system is similar, although proprietary, which makes things a little more complicated.  AdWords has had more success because of the pull advantage. Customers are looking. As a marketer I need to know the advantages and disadvantages of both. This exercise in research their functionality makes it clear I still have a to learn!

References:

Demers. Tom, (2012, January 30) Google AdWords: 5 things to get right first. Retrieved on November 11^th 2012 from http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/01/30/google-adwords-basics

Geogieva, Magdalena. (2012, January 19) 20 Facebook Ad Metrics Marketers should http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30895/20-Facebook-Ad-Metrics-Marketers-Should-Know.aspx know. Retrieved on November 11^th 2012 from

Narayanasamy. Selena, (2012, Feburary 8^th) Push Me. Pull Me: Push-ull in Social Media. Retrieved on November 11^th 2012 from http://www.blueglass.com/blog/push-me-pull-me-push-pull-in-social-media/

Slagen. Dan, (2012, June 22^nd) 10 Examples of Facebook Ads that actually work and why. Retrieved on November 11^th 2012 from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33319/10-Examples-of-Facebook-Ads-That-Actually-Work-And-Why.aspx

Content VS Conversation

The Content vs Conversation debate.

Let’s start this discussion with a quick overview of the baseline arguments by Greenberg and Novak.  

Michael Greenberg, chief marketing officer at Loyalty Lab, argues that content is king when engaging customers with blogs and social media strategy. If a regular stream of content is not provided there is not much to talk about. Greenberg suggests that brands put on the hat of a publisher and try to deliver content on a set schedule which would be their marketing calendar. 

(Greenberg, 2012)

Catherine Novak makes the argument that while content maybe king, content that does not spark a conversation is ineffective. Effective content has energy. It has passion and an agenda to spur a response from the reader. It is the energy behind the message that is important because it will drive consumer engagement and that creates a more personal experience with the reader.

(Novak, 2012)

I agree with both Greenberg and Novak.

Content is definitely king and a clear content development system should be in place to provide the customer with consistency and quality. That content also needs to be engaging. Greenberg says this at the end of his article “…you'll find that when you dig down into what makes social media successful, the themes are consistent. Have something to say. Say it often. Be interesting.” 

(Greenberg, 2012) Be interesting is that connection to Novak’s point of keeping the energy of the content engaging. It sounds simple but keeping the content interesting, making sure it has the kind of energy that would spark a conversation can be a serious challenge. It takes time, resources and talent. The effort to meet this challenge is worth it.

There are two clear outcomes to providing content that sparks a conversation.

1.     The conversations between brand and customer can be repurposed and leveraged across a wide range of social media outlets. They become valuable content in the form of reviews, yelps, check-ins, likes, pins, and endorsements. This high quality content can only come from honest discourse and it provides authenticity and credibility to the brand.

2.     Search engines, specifically Google, has set its algorithm to reward quality content, originality and user experience. (Fielding, 2012) In the past brands could provide garbage content and still sit high in search results. Google’s latest update to their AI has changed the rules and quality content and conversations will play an important role in search engine results.

There are a wide range of tools and tactics that can be leveraged to help create and then distill and curate these important conversations and opinions. Some of the tools being used are:

Ratings and reviews:
Leveraging social media platforms like Facebook websites can pull in comments to share customer experiences and reviews.  Brands are starting to provide snapshot summaries and content histograms to help streamline the review process, which in turn can provide a better experience and confidence in the purchase. (Narayan, 2012)

Geolocal:

Using apps like Foursquare brands can leave tips and incentives for customers to engage with. The recently launched local updates option allows brands to target key users with relevant content and updates. Rob Reed of MomentFeed believes the local updates option was a game changer. “For us, it's going to unlock a lot of the value that customers are taking and attaching to venues; you can take the best and push it out as an update." (Delo, 2012) 

Self-Expression:

Shopping has become a form of self-expression and sites like Pinterest allow brands to engage with customers in a more personal way. Brands can show imagery that reinforce the lifestyle and ambitions of the brand promise. Whole Foods has had great success on the platform. Their approach has been smart and calculated. Michael Bepko, Whole Foods online community manager says that Pinterest is “a fantastic way to build connections with people around shared interests.” (Drell, 2012) Content does not always have to be words, it can be visuals and other forms of rich media. Keeping things interesting is a great way to keep the customers coming back.

Sponsored Posts:

Sometimes the classic tactics work best. Sponsorship and endorsements are alive and well in social media strategy. 1-800-Flowers paid Justin Bieber to tweet about the flowers he bought his mom for mother’s day and they saw a huge spike in sales.

Facebook and twitter make their money off of sponsored posts. The social nature of these platforms require the brands to be creative with there messaging, to share stories and provide valuable content.  (Soderman, 2012)

This is just a short list of the many tools and tactics available to marketers and it reinforces that the process is not impossible. It can be complicated, rigorous, time-consuming, but sharing content that sparks conversation is also a lot of fun and can have a positive impact on the brands image.

The take home point is if brands want an effective social media strategy then they need to provide engaging content that spurs conversation across a range of platforms. In the past brands were focused on optimization. This is still important but the emphasis has shifted to customer engagement. The question “how do I optimize my website to better rank with search engines?" needs to be replaced with, "how can I optimize my brand so that it's a sought-after participant in relevant conversations?" (Fielding, 2012)

Answering that question should be a whole lot of fun!

References:

Delo. Cotton, (July, 2012) Foursquare to let brands talk to users who’ve checked in. Retrieved on November 11^th, 2012 from http://adage.com/article/digital/foursquare-brands-talk-users-ve-checked/236097/

Drell. Lauren, (February, 2012) What marketers can learn from Whole Foods organic approach to Pinterest. Retrieved on November 11^th, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/02/23/pinterest-whole-foods/

Fielding, Veronica. (August, 2012) SEO Isn’t what you think. Retrieved on November 11^th, 2012 from http://www.fastcompany.com/3000283/seo-isnt-what-you-think-it

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

Narayan, Sandhya. (August, 2012) Curation is the new black. Retrieved on November 11^th, 2012 from http://digital.anthemww.com/mobile/curation-is-the-new-black

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Sonderman. Jeff, (February, 2012) Ads are out, sponsored posts are in for Twitter and Facebook. Retrieved on November 11^th, 2012  http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/social-media/164915/ads-are-out-sponsored-posts-are-in-for-twitter-facebook/

Vanity metrics and me

As we dive into the jargon and definitions of SEO and web analytics the term 'vanity metrics' has caught my eye. It sounds so scandalous. So what are vanity metrics and do they deserve an uneasy pause? 

Eric Ries’, creator of Lean Startup, states that vanity metrics "are numbers that startups parade around to impress their customers, their venture investors, or (worst) themselves. They are numbers that tell you almost nothing about whether the business is actually succeeding."  

These are the metrics that make you look good but that is about it. Looking good is not all bad but it can be a distraction and it can impact ROI if the wrong data is being collected for the wrong reasons. 

In practical terms vanity metrics are things like downloads, registered users, and raw pageviews. Brad Smith of socialmediatoday.com lists three 'fooolish' vanity metrics that can destroy online marketing:

• Keyword rankings - "When every single person's search engine rankings are unique to them, it really doesn't matter where your keywords rank - because they're different for everyone!"
• Followers and fans - "These numbers are essentially useless…it sounds good in a meeting, but it doesn't translate to actionable metrics that your business can make decisions with." Numbers are empty without a set baseline and a focus on growth rate over a set period of time.
• Email open rates – Technical issues make this highly unreliable and if the data is unreliable it cannot be used to make informed decisions. There are better ways to track engagement. 

Vanity metrics remind me of a similar problem found with young designers.

Design software is full of fancy bells and whistles. Playing with these tools is a lot of fun but it becomes a serious distraction. There is a lot of poor design out there because of overused filters and photoshop effects. It’s not ok. In the same vein there is a lot of businesses out there falling short with their marketing strategy because they are focused on gathering the wrong data.  By default if the data collected cannot be used to impact decisions then it is not useful. All data should be actionable.  KISSMetrics.com states that “at their core, actionable metrics are geared to answer these questions:

• How do you gain or lose revenue?
• How do you gain or lose customers?
• What are the key functions and benefits that people are coming to you for.” (Lofgren, 2011)

The author goes on to state that Google Analytics is guilty of focusing on vanity metrics. He grumbles that their emphasis on visitor’s overview is a ‘data puke’ and if Google Analytics is going to be useful then “you need to enable ecommerce tracking, define goals, and calculate goal values so you have actionable metrics to work with.”

That makes sense. Actionable metrics will produce results. Vanity metrics will make us feel good and waste a lot of beerbuttbubbba's.com (see top image) time if they are not careful. In my opinion there is room for both. Actionable is crucial and the vanity metrics, that keeps things fun, even if it is in limited bursts.

There is a growing number of companies are offering the collection of vanity metrics as a service to their customers. Here is an example. I recently signed up with Vizify, a service that offers me the ability to have  "one definitive, multidimensional, graphical biography on the web. They provide a beautiful interface and fantastic user experience.  It makes me look good, and as a professional in the creative industry this is extremely important.  These guys are my new best friends. 

 Vizify also offers analytics. I can view visitors, page views and clicks on my signature. Awesome, unless no one clicks, then it is hit to the ego, but that is ok too, at least you know none of your contacts are reading their emails. These metrics are vanity metrics. They tell us just enough. The average Joe is just looking for the basics, are people visiting my site? That is all the data they can handle. It has value, even if it is just a boost to the ego or a reminder that no one knows you exist unless you get aggressive with communication strategy.  With only one visit in the month of November, I have some work to do.

Cheers.

References

Lanier, Newman. (2012) Vanity Metrics and Real Beauty. Retrieved on November 4^th, 2012 from http://abetteruserexperience.com/2012/09/vanity-metrics-and-real-beauty/

Smith. Brad, (2011) 3 Foolish Vanity Metrics that Destroy Your Online Marketing. Retrieved on November 4^th, 2012 from

http://socialmediatoday.com/fixcourse/574771/3-foolish-vanity-metrics-destroy-your-online-marketing

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Lofgren, Lar. (2011) Metrics, Metrics On The Wall, Who’s The Vainest Of Them All?

Retrieved on November 4^th, 2012 from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/vainest-metrics/

Web Metrics: I can hear you now

An art director and designer by trade the idea of diving into the ‘metrics’ of anything brings back dark memories of math homework. The horror.  So I stated this course with some anxiety. However once I began digesting the content it became clear that I was mistaken. Sure, analytics is going to have a lot of numbers, but at its core gathering metrics is the act of gathering data about the customer. Capturing key information about their behavior, habits and how they engage with the campaign or site design. Valuable information. The kind of data that can help a design improve and the bottom line increase rapidly.

In week one the course lecture covered three key benefits to web analytics:

·  A company can continually improve its Web site, making adjustments where needed. This encourages visitors to stay longer while optimizing conversion rates (i.e., turning visitors into purchasing customers).

·  Web analytics facilitates the planning of marketing activities, the specification of promising target markets/strategies and a reliable evaluation of them, making Internet marketing less risky from a cost perspective.

·  Web analytics can be linked to other applications on a company’s server, creating an online presence that is more customer-friendly while initiating relevant, successful campaigns that generate customer acquisition, satisfaction and loyalty

The market is practically oversaturated with products that capture this kind of data.

This issues are no longer should we collect it and can we afford it but rather how much do we collect and how do we use the data to make decisions. Things start to get tricky. Human interpretation plays a factor. The overzealous creative director and underwhelming MBA marketing manager may read the data differently. Who’s right? That is what makes this business so much fun. The need for quantitative information is paramount to success but just as equally as important is qualitative decision making, listening to your gut as the data is filtered. Finding that balance can be a challenge but a fun one if you have the right attitude and support.  Unfortunatley designers tend to lean heavy into the ‘my gut says your data stinks.”  This is mostly due to the fact they do not understand the value of the information.

In 2011 Smashing Magazine published an article titled How Metrics Can Make You A Better Designer, by Laura Klien.  She offers up a short but informative list on why designers should consider metrics. Here are some of her key points:

1 - Metrics Tell You Where Design Is Needed Most – Bounce rate problems, metrics can help you figure that out. Metrics can help ensure business problems are solved.

2. Metrics Help You Track Real User Behavior – The better you understand the user the better you can make the experience. Metrics will never drive the design, but it will help inform the team on user experience, the good and the bad.

3. Metrics Tell You Which Changes Are Most Effective – The hard work is paying off, or maybe it’s not, but you will have a good idea of  why either way.

4. Metrics Give You The Freedom To Take Design Risks – The “Pin it” button is alive and well today for this very reason.

Ok, so for all of my design friends who are reading this with skepticism lets end this post with Kline’s final comments on metrics and their role in design;

“Metrics can be an incredibly powerful tool, but they don’t replace design or make it irrelevant. In the end, the designers are still the ones making the decisions. They’re just making them with better information.” There you have it. Designers should embrace this boom in accessible data and leverage it to make even better solutions.

In the coming weeks I am excited to dig into this process. I have some reservations on how web metrics impact the larger integrated marketing strategy campaign process. The collection of data sounds slow and cumbersome. Advertising and marketing strategy is neither. So how do you insert these tools without slowing things down. Looking forward to finding out.

Cheers!

References

Klien, Laura. (2011) How Metrics Can Make You A Better Designer. Retrieved on November 3rd, 2012 from

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/09/20/how-metrics-can-make-you-a-better-designer/

P.I. Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University (2012). Lesson 1: Intro to Web Analytics. Retrieved on November 3rd, 2012, from www.ecampus.wvu.edu.