The job of your Preheader is like envelope teasers – get the darn thing opened!

Bad news, friends. According to Christopher Lester in Target Marketing Magazine, subscribers spend less than three to four seconds deciding whether or not to open your email.

And because up to 75 percent of folks first read email on their mobile devices, it's all too easy for them to swipe and delete without a second thought. The good news? Email marketers have another tool to grab subscribers' attention: preheader text.

What are preheaders and why should we care?

Lester explains that Preheader text is the slightly grayed-out text that shows up after the subject line when checking emails in your Gmail account or on your phone. It's common to put a lot of thought into what's inside your email, but you also need to pay the same level of attention to your preheader text because:

1.      People increasingly preview your emails in a browser setting so the preheader is the first thing they will read after your subject line.

2.      Up to 30% of business people have their images turned off, so having a preheader allows you to have a compelling message, even if the images do not load.

In other words, the preheader can act like the “teaser” on an envelope – and its entire job is to get the recipient to open the email!

Repeat after me:  The preheader is not an excuse to repeat the subject line.

Too often, marketers make the mistake of using preheader text to repeat or restate the subject line. This doesn't add value for readers, so use the preheader to give them something fresh that will catch their eye.

Below are some great preheader tips shared by Preheader tips from Target Marketing Magazine:

1. Tease the Content of Your Email
Sometimes email subject lines are less than perfect. The nice thing about preheader text is that it gives you another chance to encourage readers to open your email. Use it to capture the main point of your email with some compelling, eye-catching copy.

2. Provide a Strong Call to Action
Your preheader text can be a great place to include your call to action and create a sense of urgency. It will encourage your subscribers to open right away, before they get distracted by the compilation of cat gifs their friends just sent.

3. Elaborate on the Subject Line
In general, the shorter the subject line, the better it performs. Preheader text allows you to add some context while keeping your subject line length in that attention-grabbing sweet spot.

4. Write a Personal Message
A personalized note in your preheader text mirrors what your readers see when they get emails from friends and family. Plus it's subtle, so it's less likely to offend those folks who might be turned off by personalized subject lines.

5. Give an Incentive to Open
It's no secret that people sign up to email lists because they expect to get something valuable in return. Hit them with that deal or exclusive content right away and watch your open rates soar.

6. Keep It Short
The length varies depending on the email client, but to be safe, we recommend keeping it under 75 characters.

7. A/B Test
Every audience is different. Test variations of your preheader text to learn what resonates best with your subscribers.

In a MarketingSherpa case study, Edible Arrangements used customer service to increase sales.  The e-commerce team increased same-day delivery orders on the Web 8% with simple promotion in a handful of channels (Sutton, 2013).    Who is Edible Arrangements? Edible Arrangements (www.ediblearrangements.com) has been offering same-day delivery for its fruit baskets, fruit bouquets and other sweet gifts for more than a decade. While they had extended the deadline for same-day orders to 5 p.m. a few years ago, only to the people knew about it. "It's kind of our hidden gem," said Kaitlin Reiss, Vice President of E-commerce, Edible Arrangements International. "A lot of people don't realize that we have same-day delivery, even though it is not something new for us, so we realize that we still need to do even more to promote it." (Sutton, 2013) Same-day service is not an option for every company or even every franchise location. Edible Arrangements has more than 1,100 storefronts worldwide, which makes it easier to expedite local deliveries. Most stores offer the 5 p.m. deadline for same-day orders. Some go even later, Reiss said, but the extension was impossible at some locations. The team chose to make 5 p.m. the standard to attract business from commuters who might want to pick up an order on the way home (Sutton, 2013). Because their consumer is changing, there are a lot more last-minute orders, so the company wanted to make sure that they were available when consumers needed a last minute birthday, anniversary, or any other special occasion gift (Sutton, 2013). When the ecommerce team decided to focus on promoting this offer, they achieved the following impressive results as reported by Sutton of Marketing Sherpa:  · 8% increase in same-day orders on its website since promoting the service · Slightly higher open rate and average order value for emails with same-day messaging The MarketingSherpa case study provides an excellent case study of how the team raised awareness and increased their orders and highlights 2 major contributing tactics:

1.  Promoted the Offer on the website

Before Edible Arrangements spread the word, it promoted the service on its website to reinforce the message to visitors. This was done primarily on the homepage with a countdown timer. The timer ticks down the hours and minutes each visitor has left to place an order for same-day delivery. The counter adjusts for each visitor's time zone and uses 5 p.m. as a universal deadline. 

They used a timer and not a clock. The timer is expressed more in words than digits. Below the top portion of the homepage — which has a logo, navigation bar and search box — visitors are greeted with large text that clearly expresses the offer:

"Want it in today? Order in the next [X] hours and [X] minutes."

The image below shows the countdown clock and can be found at: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/heap/cs/ediblearrangements/1.htm

 2.      Provided Instant Gratification

Edible Arrangements also incorporated a display ad on their own home page that hovers over the right portion of the homepage's "hero shot" shows a graphic of a speeding truck and the words "Instant Gratification" in large capital letters. Below in smaller text is this message: "Same-day delivery is our specialty." The image below shows the “hero shot” and can be found at

 http://www.marketingsherpa.com/heap/cs/ediblearrangements/1.htm

 Testing the ads

The timer and the graphic have been tested to help optimize clickthrough rates, Reiss said. For example they tested a textual format of the timer against a digital format (i.e., "12:00"). In additional, the "Instant gratification" message was tested against copy that emphasized the company’s refrigerated delivery trucks (Sutton, 2013).

Promotion off page helped raise awareness as well

While the promotion on the homepage helped Edible Arrangements connect with current customers and prospects, they went one step further and included social media as well. The team has active profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest. It occasionally mentions the same-day service in posts, hoping to catch the interest of someone who has put off gift shopping for too long. They also run ads on search engines and websites. Soon, the team will test messaging to promote the same-day service in the PPC and display ad networks it uses (Sutton, 2013).

Using Web Analytics
The headline conveys a clear deadline and message. It creates a sense of urgency for the consumer that can overcome inertia and gets the prospect to act immediately. Seeing the tangible time available in a simple headline is enough to get your attention. Providing the “Instant Gratification” image and offer on the right side of the homepage also helps reinforce the service as a differentiator in the market for gifts and arrangements (Sutton, 2013). 

Edible Arrangements understands that transaction data is a vital piece of information when analyzing online business performance (Wells, 2013). They also appreciate that while promoting customer service is a vital differentiation, revenue is much more tangible to many business owners and being able to report an 8% increase in same day sales is a solid metric. In order to report this revenue and order metric, Edible Arrangements must be utilizing ecommerce web analytics on their website. Having the e-commerce data in your web analytics application makes it easier to perform the analysis and also provides quantitative results on their testing. This has allowed Edible Arrangements to test different ads and ad copy, and optimize the offer that provides the best results in terms of click throughs and ultimate orders.

Visiting the web site at www.ediblearrangements.com showed that the Immediate Gratification “hero shot” was still present, but the time clock was no longer there. Using their metrics, Edible Arrangements would be able to see if the 8% increase in same day sales held up over time, or if the offer turned out to not have staying power. The fact that it no longer occupied the main headline would infer that they had used their web analytics to test out of this offer. 

In researching their website, I spent a considerable amount of time on the home page and after approximately 2 minutes the following prompt below appeared from http://www.ediblearrangements.com/fruit-baskets.aspx?ArrangementID=2174:

This shows that Edible Arrangements is tracking time on site for visitors and is prompting consumers who linger for a specific amount of time to provide additional information that can be captured in their database, while also promoting the next step in the conversion funnel. It could be assumed that through web analytics, the company has found that consumers who enter their Zip Code and the Date that they are looking to send their gift is a logical path to conversion. By providing this prompt, Edible Arrangements can capture higher ecommerce conversions. Additional web metrics tools to consider

Edible Arrangements also provides an “order by phone” option on the site. They should consider adding a call tracker tool that allows them to track phone orders that originated from their website such as Easy Call Tracker.This would be an excellent way to add additional analytics and measurement to their ecommerce results. Jane Clinton, WVU IMC Master’s Student provides a few of the Easy Call Tracker options as including:

Dynamic Call Tracking: This is the basic, traditional way of tracking phone calls. It uses a specified phone number for a campaign and integrates reporting data to Google Analytics

Visitor ID Tracking: This option can use existing phone numbers. You must add a widget to the website to display a six-digit Visitor ID. When a person calls, the call center asks the caller for the Visitor ID number and connects the transaction with the visitor profile in Google Analytics. As a result the order can be tracked through the entire transaction process.

Click to Call: Visitors click a link on the website to have a customer service representative call them. The unique visitor ID can be tracked.

Attribution Solution: This is for companies that require an offline (phone) purchase with an online confirmation.

Lastly, Edible Arrangements could incorporate retargeting tools to help them with consumers who leave the site without making a purchase, by serving up a banner ad to get them to return and place an order.

References:
Clinton, J. (2014, February 21, 2014) Easy Call Tracker. Discussion Week 7. Retrieved February 24, 2014 from: www.ecampus.wvu.edu
Countdown headline. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/heap/cs/ediblearrangements/1.htm

Edible Arrangements Retrieved February 23, 2014 from: www.ediblearrangements.com

Hero Shot web page. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/heap/cs/ediblearrangements/1.htm

Sutton, A. (2013, October 24) Ecommerce: Edible Arrangements Countdown Ad Lifts Same Day Orders 8%. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/countdown-ad-ecommerce-same-day-orders

Wells, M. (2013, October 21) Lesson 7: Advanced Google Analytics. Retrieved February 22, 2014 from: www.ecampus.wvu.edu

Is Google the Evil Empire or a Benevolent Monopoly?

Wells reminds us that Google owns

• The top-ranked search portal
• A wildly popular e-mail service
• A leading feed reader
• The top-ranked feed management system
• The top-ranked analytics product
• The largest distributed ad network
• The most widely-distributed traffic monitoring toolbar 
• The largest video content hosting site

With the ubiquity of Google in all of these forms across the digital world, they now collect data from millions of its accounts every day (Wells, 2014) which creates a double edged sword for this behemoth that can be summed up in these two quotes:

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton)

and

Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals. (Robert Caro)

Whether we view Google as the evil empire or the benevolent monopoly depends on your perspective, and can be argued both ways. But it does beg the bigger question:

Since Google has ultimate power, are they capable of protecting consumer privacy and can a private enterprise be held to a higher standard in society?

THE EVIL EMPIRE

Recent news stories would suggest that Google may not be conducting business for the common good. According to Eric K. Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School Google definitely falls into the camp of abuse of power:

“Power corrupts. I don't know if absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it certainly provides the opportunity for some pretty spectacular abuses. Absolute power also provides mechanisms for hiding your abuses, or at least provides some mechanisms for avoiding significant punishment. Bank robbers go to jail; after the major DOJ "drug smuggling scandal" Google was allowed to return the profits it illegally obtained in exchange for having all the DOJ's evidence sealed. This is a much better deal than the treatment offered others who might be guilty of repeated felonies (Clemons,2011)”.

Professor Clemons states that Google Analytics (GA) violates EU laws on the privacy of data regarding individuals since the product reports back to Google the IP address of all visitors to these businesses, allowing Google to track the Internet traffic of individuals all over the world, regardless of whether they, or these businesses, had agreed to this tracking. This practice has been ruled illegal in Germany, and there is also other functionality within GA that utilizes behavioral tracking without obtaining prior consent from all visitors to their website (Clemons, 2011).

However; Professor Clemons goes even further in his concerns over Google and its overreaching strategy:

“The company's new privacy policy goes beyond anything the world has seen before, in which Google asserts the right to combine all the information it can obtain from any sources, including those never authorized by the provider, like the sender of email to a Gmail account … Somehow, the combination of no adult supervision, unlimited access to private information, and a sequence of questionable behavior causes me to wonder if Google's present governance model may simply be unacceptable” (Clemons, 2011).

Mike Schuster, writing in the USA Today, also expressed concerns regarding Google’s intentions after the recent acquisition of Nest saying “If you were already worried about the scope of Google's data mining, news of a recent buyout may have you ready to rip that glowing thermostat from your wall” (Schuster, 2014). But there may also be more disconcerting behavior beneath the surface. Privacy advocates are concerned about Google's involvement with devices that already monitor consumer behavior and presence. For example, Schuster says that the Nest thermostat has a motion sensor which activates the screen and changes temperature settings when it registers someone walking past. This has caused some privacy advocates to worry about what Google could potentially do with this kind of personal information that has been stored in the Nest product (Schuster, 2014).

THE BENEVOLENT MONOPOLY

On the other side of the argument are those who feel that with supreme power comes the opportunity to do great things. In addition, society’s definition of privacy has changed vastly in recent years. We live in an age increasingly shaped by our attitudes to, and our definition of, privacy and in many ways our changing relationship with technology is at the heart of this. In reviewing the privacy controversies of the last few years, Jemima Kiss reclassifies the argument as an "inversion of privacy" and not an “invasion of privacy (Kiss, 2014).  Writing in The Guardian, she states that the boundary between the public and the private is porous and one person might be happy to over share baby photos publicly, while another person would be loath to being included in a Facebook semi-public "friend" discussion (Kiss, 2014).

As privacy and our willingness to share in a connected world is being redefined, Google is simply acting as a facilitator of consumer behavior. When challenged, Eric Schmidt of Google reassures us that Google relies on trust and when you lose that trust, Google stands to potentially lose the consumer (Kiss, 2014). But just as privacy is no longer absolute in today’s age, neither is trust. We find different levels of appropriate privacy and, as consumers, we need to decide for ourselves if we can trust a company enough to give it precious data about ourselves.

So, certainly, if absolute power provides both the ability to commit spectacular abuses and the ability to hide them, then absolute power demands absolute integrity (Clemons, 2011). It may however be too much to ask our institutions to protect public interest while forwarding private gain. When this happens and the lines become blurred, we will need serious oversight including internal corporate governance matched with governmental or regulatory overview.

THE BOTTOM LINE

While Google Analytics itself may not fall within the guidelines and EU restrictions, companies using Google Analytics can still stay within the EU laws by being more transparent to their end users. Optanon provides ICO guidance that says: "If the information collected about website use is passed to a third party you should make this absolutely clear to the user.  You should review what this third party does with the information about your website visitors." Therefore in the instance of "benchmarking" it is clear consent must be achieved for a website to pass information to Google”(http://www.cookielaw.org/google-analytics-eu-cookie-law).

When an all-powerful company acts honorably, then regulation can be done without a heavy hand, and without being especially intrusive. But if the company demonstrably has failed in its own oversight, by demonstrably violating cultural, ethical, and legal norms, then it's time for more serious government intervention (Clemson, 2012).

Google sits at a fulcrum in their history where they need to choose which side of the great divide they want to embrace. Battling the Department of Justice in a flagrant violation of privacy violates our trust, but they can also use their power to do tremendous good for society in the name of freedom of speech and knowledge sharing.  

I hope that Google will take the advice of the sage Bob Dylan:

"But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree"

Want to learn more? Visit these references:

Optanon. Google Analytics EU Cookie Law. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from: http://www.cookielaw.org/google-analytics-eu-cookie-law/

Clemons, E., Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School "Say It Ain't So, Joe, Again, and Again, and Again ...": A Legacy of Continued Bad Behavior at Google. from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-k-clemons/google-privacy-case_b_1522874.html

Clemons, E. & Wilson J. (2012, October 9) Can Google Influence an Election? Retrieved February 17, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-k-clemons/google-election-2012_b_1952725.html

Bob Dylan, "Absolutely Sweet Marie," Copyright © 1966 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1994 by Dwarf Music. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-k-clemons/google-privacy-case_b_1522874.html

Kiss, J. (2014, February 8) Worried about your privacy? Wait until the drones start stalking you. Google's Street View and Facebook push the private into the public. Now watch out for tiny flying cameras. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/09/privacy-concerns-google-streetview-facebook-drones

Lord Acton Quote. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/power_corrupts.html

Mike Schuster (2014, January 16). After Google's acquisition of Nest, privacy advocates are weary of what Google will do next. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/16/google-acquires-nest-privacy/4518317/

Robert Caro Quote. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/power_corrupts.html#LhtFCb3LDfWZApux.99

The Google Analytics Vs. Adobe SiteCatalyst Smackdown

Web analytics is neither child’s play nor impossible to learn, but like most things in life, it is a complex journey (Kaushik, 76).  Getting analytics right requires that you start with basic tools and then you can move on to more sophisticated analytics. With experience and practice, Kaushik states that even a novice can become a powerful analytical Ninja! (Kaushik, p. 76).

Whether you’re looking to boost sales, capture more visitors or identify a new market segment, data analytics software provides a near endless supply of information and insights to help you maximize your marketing ROI.

If you are new to web analytics, it is important to understand what the key dimensions and metrics are and how they will help you understand how analyzing and tracking behavior will help you meet your business and marketing goals. Web analytics can help you to understand both the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and provide deep insights into your target audiences.

Figuring out how your website is being used, and using that knowledge to make it better, starts with knowing who is coming to your site, how long they spend on the site and each page, and how many pages they look at before leaving or buying can give valuable insight into improving your subscription or checkout process” (Hill, 2011). Because they are foundational to all web analytics, there are six key metrics that any tool needs to be able to provide robust reporting. Kaushik states that these metrics include:

• Visits
• Unique visitors
• Pages per visit
• Average time on site
• Unique visitors
• Bounce rate

Overview of Google Analytics and SiteCatalyst

Two of the most commonly used analytics software programs are Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst. Each has benefits and drawbacks, but deciphering between the two and choosing the best tool is essential to getting the best visibility into your key metrics.  Both if these tools can do an excellent job in providing the foundational analytics above, but they do it in different ways.

Google Analytics is a common tool that is free and will process up to 10 million hits per month. There is a Premium version that offers a number of enhanced features such as processing 1 billion hits per month, more customization, and strong technical support which can cost a flat $150,000 annually; but for most marketers, the free tool can provide you with plenty of insight without paying.

Google describes their Analytic services as follows:

“Google Analytics shows you the full customer picture across ads and videos, websites and social tools, tablets and smartphones. That makes it easier to serve your current customers and win new ones”  (www.google.com/analytics) and since no two customers or companies are alike, Google Analytics helps you analyze visitor traffic and paint a complete picture of your audience and their needs, wherever they are along the path to purchase (www.google.com/analytics).

Site Catalyst is offered by Adobe and they state that their tool, like Google Analytics, can “create customized dashboards and reports and share them in a variety of formats and channels. Using Adobe® Analytics, you can quickly identify the most profitable paths through digital assets, determine where visitors are navigating away, and identify critical success metrics for online marketing campaigns (http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-analytics/marketing-reports-analytics.html). You can learn more about the Site Catalyst tool and view 6 short video demos at: http://success.adobe.com/en/na/programs/products/digitalmarketing/amc/1310-22066-digital-analytics-solution-featurettes.html?s_osc=701a0000000ngd0AAA&s_iid=701a0000000nXVRAA2

Unlike Google Analytics, SiteCatalyst does not start out with a free model and is estimated to cost well over $100,000 per year. Cost varies according to traffic volume and the service level, and depends on the needs of your company (Chianis, 2013).

 

Start by Understanding their Business Models

Brian Katz, Senior Web Analyst at Cardinal Path tells us that to understand which tool is best for you, you need to start by understanding each of their business models. He explains it as follows:

The Google Analytics business model has always been to encourage the use of Google AdWords. The notion was that if website owners could measure the success of their websites and marketing efforts, they would optimize them and advertise more. Rather than being a free tool, Mr. Katz considers Google Analytics to be a tool made available free of charge in order to support and promote AdWords. Google Analytics is easy to implement, giving you more than enough functionality to measure and gain insights into your website to figure out how to optimize your AdWords spend. It’s also an effective conduit through which AdWords may be advertised to a highly targeted segment of Internet users.

Adobe’s SiteCatalyst is powered by Omniture (Adobe acquired Omniture and its suite of products in 2009). The Adobe/Omniture business model is to maximize revenue by selling a customer at least one product from a suite of products, and then up-selling additional products, features, tools and processing, as well as professional and engineering services. The power of this Software as Service model (SaaS) is in the very wide scope of activities and attributes it can track and the sheer volume of data that Adobe’s Omniture division collects. Omniture data supports other tools, including Warehouse, Discover, Insight, Recommendations and SearchCenter. Your data, as stored by Omniture, translates into revenue potential for Adobe.

Let us look at some specific functionality and dig deeper.

Ease of implementation

Google Analytics is easily implemented on your website, and requires no IT skills. Even a marketer can add Google Analytics to any website by copying a simple Java Script to their site. You can get started right away by visiting www.google.com/analytics and choosing “access Google Analytics” in the top right corner.

The Adobe SiteCatalyst solution demands the skills of a trained professional and requires a significant amount of upfront work (Chianis, 2013). This might be a better solution for the sophisticated marketer in the long run since implementation is highly customized and the data SiteCatalyst gathers can be tailored to their specific metric needs.

Dashboard Reporting

Availability of dashboard reports is critical to providing real time and longitudinal analysis for the marketer. An excellent Slideshare presentation from www.jimmypad.com compares the two solutions and shows the strengths of each solution across different functionality requirements. Based on the needs of the analyst, both solutions can provide strong support. 

Google Analytics can email daily reports in PDF, XML, CSV, and TSV however, the tool limits each user to one default dashboard/report per site while SiteCatalyst provides much greater flexibility by providing hourly email reports in a wider selection of formats including Excel, PDF, HTML & Word

Custom Variables

Google Analytics allows you to set custom variables, but only allows up to five per page. Variables can be set to expire at different times, such after a page view, completion of an event, or at the visit level.

The Adobe SiteCatalyst product has much more robust customization and also allows for up to 75 traffic variables, plus 100 event variables, and 75 conversion variables. Similar to Google Analytics, variables can be set to capture whatever data you want and can expire after a specific time but they can also be stacked on top of each other, giving you the chance to identify a sequence of events (Chianis, 2013).

How long can you keep your data?

Google analytics will keep your data up to 25 months while Adobe SiteCatalyst keeps your data indefinitely, as long as you are a customer.

What is the bottom line?

At the end of the day, choosing the platform that works best for you depends on your business goals and matching those goals to the individual tool. If you are a novice at web analytics, or if you are a marketer in a small department with no analysis support, Google Analytics provides an exceptionally powerful solution that is easy to use and free of charge. As your company grows and includes more sophisticated strategies and analysts, an investment in a tool such as Adobe SiteCatalyst may provide the enhanced solution required.

Would you share your experience with these tools?

 

Want to learn more? Visit

Chianis, A. Google Analytics vs. Adobe SiteCatalyst — Which Data Analysis Platform is Better for Business? Retrieved February 8, 2014 from: http://www.businessbee.com/resources/news/operations-buzz/google-analytics-vs-adobe-sitecatalyst-data-analysis-platform-better-business/

Jay, Jimmy (2011, May 20). OMNITURE VERSUS GOOGLE ANALYTICS. February 7, 2014 from:  http://www.slideshare.net/JimmyJay/google-analytics-vs-omniture-comparative-guide

Katz, (2011, June 22) SiteCatalyst and Google Analytics comparison, conceptually speaking: Part 1. Retrieved February 9, 2014 from: http://raventools.com/blog/sitecatalyst-vs-google-analytics-part-1/

Kaushik, A. (2010) Web Analytics 2.0. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana

Hill, C. (2011, October 28) 3 Metrics Google Analytics Beginners Should Watch. Retrieved February 4, 2014 from: http://searchengineland.com/3-metrics-google-analytics-beginners-should-watch-98663

Wells, M. (2014, January 6) Lesson 5: Google Analytics. Retrieved February 1, 2014 from: www.ecampus.wvu.edu

 

Know your KPI’s before you chose web analytic tools

Avinash Kaushik tells us in his book Web Analytics 2.0 that often analysts do not get the respect that they deserve because they do not adequately measure one golden concept: outcomes (Kaushik, 2012). In fact, he believes that many of us spend so much time in the “weeds” reporting on detail data such as visits and time on site that we often forget to actually analyze the data and see what it means (Kaushik, 2012).

What is Outcomes analysis? Outcome analysis asks the question “Is my website getting it done?” “It,” of course, is the goal of your website’s existence (Herr, 2012).

This can create a real challenge for the web analyst. Since there are so many social media platforms available to the marketer, can a web analyst truly rely on one primary platform to provide the outcome metrics they need, or do they have to mix and match platforms based on the web media channels they are using?  Ultimately, the tools an analyst needs is going to depend in large part on the unique strategies and goals of their business.

In order to decide whether to use one or many platforms, we should revisit the concept of outcomes. If the ultimate purpose of analytics is to inform the business and to provide meaningful direction based on outcomes, then first the analyst needs to understand what is key to the business and what KPI’s need to be measured. Using these KPI’s, the analyst can then work backwards to which tools and platforms are going to provide the most meaningful data to analyze. For example, Chris Lake from eConsultancy states that “What you're ultimately looking for is a wide range of tools to help people interact. It doesn’t matter whether this interaction happens onsite or offsite, but only that it happens. You can measure it either way” (Lake, 2009).

Chris believes that the web is all about engagement, and the goal of any social engagement strategy needs to provide the right tools that allow people to make that engagement happen with a brand. Catherine Novak agrees with him and says that “Conversation is king, Content is just something to talk about” and conversation puts “human interaction at the centre of the picture” (Novak, 2010).  It is conversation that explains the rise of social media on the web and the growth of multi-user games on all platforms. To Novak, content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising (Novak, 2010).

Chris Lake takes it one step further and provides a list of 35 social interaction metrics and KPI’s that an analyst can use to inform the kinds of tools and platforms that they need to have in place. A complete list of these KPI’s can be found at: http://econsultancy.com/blog/4887-35-social-media-kpis-to-help-measure-engagement but include the following;

1.   Comments

2.   Downloads

3.   Email subscriptions

4.   Fans (become a fan of something / someone)

5.   Favourites (add an item to favourites)

6.   Feedback (via the site) 

7.   Followers (follow something / someone)

8.   Forward to a friend

So, if a company’s outcome measures and KPI’s include engagement, then there are specific tools and platforms that will be essential to use for capturing metrics and ultimately analyzing these outcomes. Which social platforms are best suited to their needs and the resources they allocate will depend on knowing the ultimate outcomes that they are trying to measure but should include reporting on behavior and experience. According to an article in Communications Network, Herr explains this further:

Behavior - Behavior reports ask the question “What can we infer about visitors based on data yielded during their visits?”

Experience - Experience analytics ask the question “Why are visitors behaving in this way”

Behavior and experience data can come from clickstream reporting that is available through free tools such as Google Analytics or Yahoo! Web Analytics. However; for this general reporting to be most useful, Kaushik suggests drilling deep into reports and, for example, analyzing site search keywords to determine what visitors look for when they visit, or viewing site overlays for a better understanding of how visitors navigate the site.

In his article, Herr provides an important side note that clickstream data can only generate inferences, and different inferences can be drawn from the same data set. This is important to consider when reviewing this data with your team (Herr, 2012). Clickstream data can be considered part of traditional analytic tools and will only take you so far. If a company’s KPI’s include behavior and experience on their website for example, they may want to combine a traditional analytic tool with tools from Tealeaf, Clicktale, or RobotReplay that record all sessions on the website and can provide video playback of the entire customer experience (Kaushik, p. 136).  These specific tools now allow the company to combine baseline data with super rich data for a deeper picture into the behavior and experience of their customers as they engage with the website.  

There is also a school of thought that is more focused on conversions, goals, and Return on Investment. Professionals in this camp have a different set of outcome measures that matter to them. Kaushik has many excellent ideas for companies that are tracking these KPI’s. For example, he states that you can analyze a lot of ecommerce outcomes by measuring organic search. Although organic search makes up a small percent of a website’s overall traffic, Kaushik states that it accounts for a much larger contribution to multiple conversions (Kaushik, p. 108). If a company’s primary KPI’s were focused on conversions on their ecommerce site, then they could continue to use the same traditional analysis tools of Google Analytics or Yahoo!, but then combine them with more robust SEO tools to capture and analyze revenue, average order, products sold and bounce rates. These additional metrics will allow the company to see if they have lost sales opportunities, or if they are maximizing the revenue potential of search for ecommerce.

Bottom Line? While there appear to be many platforms that a web analyst can implement to help create the most robust toolset, the best place to start is with Google Analytics or Yahoo! Web Analytics which provide an excellent baseline regardless of whether your outcome KPI’s are based on transactions or engagement.

From there, an analyst should determine the top set of management and business KPI’s and overlay unique tools to capture the metrics necessary to gain deeper and wider picture of these specific behaviors and outcomes.

It is easy to get caught up in the myriad of tools available today, so take this last word of caution and implement the Kaushik 90/10 Rule: Spend 10 percent of your web evaluation budget on tools and 90 percent of it on people. Deriving meaningful insights from the mass of reporting noise requires a skilled mind, so make sure you find one (or cultivate one). (Herr, 2012)

Want to learn more? Visit these sites:

Herr, L. (2012, September 11). Moving from Web Analytics to Web Evaluation. Retrieved January 26, 2014 from: http://www.comnetwork.org/2012/09/moving-from-web-analytics-to-web-evaluation/

Kaushik, A. (2010) Web Analytics 2.0. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana

Lake, C. (2009, October 30). 35 social media KPIs to help measure engagement. Retrieved January 21, 2014 from: http://econsultancy.com/blog/4887-35-social-media-kpis-to-help-measure-engagement

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. Retrieved January 21, 2014 from: http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

 

 

Why Opens and Click Web Metrics Are Worth Caring About

Avinash Kaushik tells us in his book Web Analytics 2.0 that the world of Web metrics has changed a lot in the past 10 years. The most important foundational metrics in the 1990’s used to be website hits, but today “in a world where every home page sends 50 or 100 hits and rich experience dominates, hits mean nothing” (Kaushik, p. 36). So if we won’t care about hits, should we care about visits, click throughs or click through rates?  

These visitor characterization metrics are defined as:

• Click-through: Number of times a link was clicked by a visitor
• Click-through Rate: This is the number of click-throughs for a specific link divided by the number of times that link was viewed
• Visits: An interaction with a web site by an individual consisting of one or more requests for a page

(Wells, 2014)

Metrics and KPI’s keep evolving as marketers have an increasing arsenal of tools that measure every interaction on the web that go beyond click streams. In fact according to Kaushik, we have evolved from hits to page views to visits but now what really matters is outcomes (Kaushik, p.36).

So, what has changed and how do we as marketers understand what the measuring stick of KPI’s should be and what web metrics should matter?

Visits and Visitors are still the foundation of all web metrics and essential to understand more complex metrics that help us understand engagement and conversion. Different metrics help you as a marketer measure what it meaningful to your business, and as such, one size does not fit all.

But we can all agree that the best metrics support business objectives, are simple to understand, and easy to implement. Metrics form the life blood of all measurement we do, and the reason we call the web the most accountable channel on the planet (Kaushik, 2010). And based on this fundamental purpose of metrics, there is still a place for visits, click-throughs and click-through rates (CTR) in web analytics.

Here is an example of why Click Through Rate Matters When Marketing an Event

An event’s date, time, host, and contents is very unique to that event.  It is practically impossible to replicate an event, even when two hosts are competing in the same niche. People who attend events are usually optimizing for three things: Date, time, and contents.  So unless you have two events happening on the same date, at the same time, delivering the same contents, they are not competing with each other.

When event hosts cross-promote their events using cooperative email marketing within their niche, click-through rates go up just because it makes it easier for event prospects to do what they already love to do: browse events in their niche by checking out the date, time, and contents.

Another Reason to Consider Click-Through Rates

When we target cold prospects with email communications, we usually see lower open rates than communications sent to customers. Marketers who only look at the low open rates could make a lot of assumptions including; that the targeted audience is not interested in the communication; that the creative was weak; that the call to action was not compelling; or that they are the wrong target audience altogether. The key with open rate is not necessarily the number itself, or how you compare with other businesses or organizations, but the trend. And when you combine it with click-throughs, you can get real reporting gold provided that you're including calls to action and links in your campaigns (Kahill, 2010).

Constant Contact, an email service provider, explains that click data shows exactly what information people are interested in and can be used to further segment your list for better targeting of subscribers.

For example, if you're writing about multiple topics in each newsletter, click-through information can be used to determine which topics are of most interest to readers. As an example, a business consultant may think readers are interested in leadership tips, but find they're clicking most on articles relating to marketing. Does this mean the consultant stops writing about leadership all together? No, but he may want to change the mix of article topics to favor marketing, since that's what readers are clicking on most often.

Bottom Line? Don’t be so quick to throw the traditional tried and true in favor of the new and shiny metrics. When you combine them together, that is when you will have your best overall measurement that will allow you to meet your business objectives.  

 

Want to learn more?

Kahill, P. (2010) What Do Your Email Results Mean? Retrieved January 19, 2014 from: http://www.constantcontact.com/learning-center/hints-tips/ht-2010-06b.jsp

Kaushik, A. (2010, April 19) Web Analytics 101: Definitions: Goals, Metrics, KPIs, Dimensions, Targets. Retrieved January 16, 2014 from: www.ecampus.wvu.edu

Kaushik, A. (2010) Web Analytics 2.0 . p.36. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana

Wells, M. (2013, October 10) Lesson 2: Basic Web Analytics. Retrieved January 16, 2014 from: www.ecampus.wvu.edu

 

 

Will Gmail Tabs Improve Legitimate Visit Metrics?

Since Google launched its new Gmail inbox featuring the Tabs functionality in May 2013, the email marketing world has been scrambling to understand the impact on visitor characteristics and web metrics.

According to eConsultancy, this is what your tabs would contain:

·        Primary: Messages from friends and family, as well as any other messages that don’t appear in other tabs.

·        Promotions: Your deals, offers, and other promotional emails.

·        Social: Messages from social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services, gaming platforms, and other social websites.

·        Updates: Notifications such as confirmations, receipts, bills, and statements.

·        Forums: Messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists.

The impact on promotional email marketing

Of course, this introduction of Gmail’s tabbed layout caused a lot of worries among email marketers. What does this new layout mean for commercial and promotional email campaigns?

Does this mean a decrease in opens, clicks and eventually revenue? The introduction of this new feature has upsides and downsides and can be seen differently based on what your goals are and what you are measuring. In fact different browsers and clients show very different results as seen from Litmus:

Silverpop is beginning to see changes in Gmail subscriber engagement, but it’s not clear whether or how much Tabs is driving this. Return Path and Litmus (both Silverpop partners) found mixed results when studying Tabs’ effect on email engagement.

ReturnPath’s study from August 2013 said “read rate” in the first week or so after Gmail Tabs went into general rollout went up 2.1 percent among highly engaged readers. Inbox placements rates also went up both for medium- and low-engaged customers. However, the read rate plunged nearly 80 percent among lowest-engaged readers, from 2.2 percent before Tabs to 0.42 percent after. Litmus’ study found that Gmail opens fell 18 percent from mid-May to mid-August 2013.

However, Litmus also found Gmail opens had declined overall by 13 percent since July 2012. In the approximately six weeks following the Gmail Tabs announcement, Litmus saw a 7.8 percent decrease in Gmail opens as percentage of total opens across all email clients. Further, its study revealed that Gmail opens accounted for only about 4 percent of total email opens across all email clients. Also, 41 percent of those opens (roughly 1.6 percent of all email opens) occurred in Gmail clients that support Tabs. 

What does it mean for my email campaigns?

An email that gets placed in the Promotions tab faces different types of competition. First it competes with other email marketing campaigns.Second it also competes with Gmail’s native inbox ad placements. Which is kind of a set back, as these inbox ads are placed above “normal” promotional emails, pushing these campaigns even further down the folder.

The main worries for email marketers are the following. Firstly, recipients will spend less time reading emails in the Promotions tab, than those in the Primary tab. Secondly, triggered and transactional emails might lose their effectiveness with this new feature.

These emails are highly effective for ecommerce professionals because they are timely and relevant. In fact, abandoned shopping cart emails have the highest return on investment when sent within the first few hours after the abandonment. If these messages appear in the Promotions tab, it could reduce their effectiveness and the revenue they generate. 

In fact, Return Path sees this as a positive development and believe that Gmail users who matter most to marketers appear likely to continue reading their email at the same rates they always did, and the most engaged may actually read more. The impact of Tabs and similar inbox organizers may vary widely among brands, though. Those with higher concentrations of less engaged subscribers may indeed see sharp drops in email marketing response, while the ones who succeed at engaging their audiences actually enjoy a lift thanks to Tabs.

Bottom Line? If you are sending relevant email communications to an engaged audience, Gmail tabs may actually improve your visit metrics and your marketing effectiveness.

Want to learn more? Download the white papers from the following sites:

Linthorst, M. (2013, October 13). The effect of Gmail Tabs on email marketing. Retrieved January 19, 2014 from: http://econsultancy.com/blog/63569-the-effect-of-gmail-tabs-on-email-marketing

Silverpop (2013, December) Gmail Tabs: Impact on Email Marketing and Strategies to Respond. Retrieved January 19, 2014 from: http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/white-papers/all/2013/Gmail-Tabs/

Return Path, (2013) Gmail Tabs Don’t Stop Shoppers: So Far So Good for Email Marketers. Retrieved January 19, 2014 from: http://landing.returnpath.com/gmail-tabs-marketing-impact-analysis-report-thanks