Sunday, December 22, 2013

Web analytics, Social, and SEO interdependence


Traditional marketing through demographic research and analysis attempts to reach a target market with a specific message in a campaign like fashion. Digital marketing on the other hand is more focused on one-to-one messaging in real time based on a consumer’s location, buying behavior, and social connections. Marketers can deliver even more personalized messages on social channels based on what consumers share. “Now more than ever, company marketers are charged with improving performance with fewer resources and shifting marketing budgets from traditional to digital tactics like SEO and social media. There are significant benefits from combining search engine optimization and social media marketing tactics ranging from increased social network discovery via search to the ability to attract links for improved SEO.” (Odden, 2009)  The following pages will seek to explain this digital world and how our digital social interactions impact web analytics and SEO.

Web Analytics

            Web analytics, which is the process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a Web site, should really sit at the core of all web marketing. Without analytics, marketing decisions are made on gut instincts rather than data. Without analytics, you never really know exactly what works and what doesn’t, how visitors interact on your site, how well ads perform, and where website traffic is coming from. “You wouldn’t be able to test, tweak and improve things to deliver the biggest impact and highest Return on Investment. For this reason analytics is important in every strand of internet marketing from SEO to PPC, from brand monitoring to measuring social media engagement.” (Digital, 2012) Some would argue that digital marketing is more of a science and traditional marketing is more of an art.

            Web analytics provides data with regards to a website visitor and the effectiveness of the website. Foundational metrics include page visits and unique visitors, and visit characterization metrics include visit duration, landing page and exit page as well as information about the referring site, click-through rate, recency, and frequency. Additionally, metrics are available to describe the amount of engagement of a site visitor and if a conversion took place. All of this data results in a pretty clear picture of a visitors experience on a website.

            “The use of Web analytics is said to enable a business to attract more visitors, retain or attract new customers for goods or services, or to increase the dollar volume each customer spends. This analysis can also include determining the likelihood that a given customer will repurchase a product after having purchased it in the past, personalizing the site to customers who visit it repeatedly, monitoring the dollar volume of purchases made by individual customers or by specific groups of customers, observing the geographic regions from which the most and the least customers visit the site and purchase specific products, and predicting which products customers are most and least likely to buy in the future.” (Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, 2013)          

            Google Analytic goals might be the most powerful and underutilized tool in the web analytics toolbox.  Many businesses track foundational metrics like site visits, page views, and bounce rates, but too few invest their time in trying to answer the bigger questions or in creating goals aligned with their website objectives. Goals will clarify how many visitors came to the site and performed the desired action. It’s important to also set a value to those goals to help with the data driven decision making. Without taking these steps up front, you won’t be able to see if web visitors do what you expect them to do on your website or what the value of their visit to your website is to your business.           

            Before being able to track conversions, one must first identify the objectives of the website to understand what and why you are measuring. Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) like page views, bounce rates, and site visits are helpful but the real power of Google Analytics Conversions is to identify and work with metrics that have a deeper impact on the performance of your business, and to translate your website KPI’s to Google Analytic goals. Understanding how to interpret the trends that appear, gives you the potential to achieve business results and gain a competitive advantage. Goals are especially beneficial for those brands that have longer conversion cycles. Goals in these scenarios can give you the extra insight needed to track how and where your users are “converting” on your website.           

            With the use of goals, filters, and funnels, Google analytics provides actionable information for EMBA marketers to improve their website to reach their objectives. Also when tying goals to website objectives, results are more manageable metrics and more clearly defined tasks for improvement. One doesn’t need to get overwhelmed with all that google has to offer.

            Particularly in an era when marketers are being pushed to show bottom line results, web analytics solves a number of concerns. Metrics are readily available to help marketers justify their digital marketing spend and provide invaluable insights as to consumer behavior on the website. Insights gained can guide marketing decisions which ultimately result in increased revenue.

Social

            Social is playing an increasingly important role in marketing efforts as its drives an increasing amount of traffic to the web. Engagement is instrumental in getting customers to perform in the way that you want and providing quality content will keep them engaged. Countless analytical tools are also available for social data.  According to Google, there are 4 key areas to review when assessing the impact and effectiveness of social initiatives.

·         “Network Referrals: As your content is shared and people come to your site, it's important to understand how visitors from different social sources engage with your site.

·         Conversions: Shared content URLs become the entry points into your site, driving traffic from social sources. Measuring the conversion and monetary value of this traffic will help you understand the impact of Social on your business.

·         Landing Pages: People increasingly engage with, share, and discuss content on social networks. It's important to know which pages and content are being shared, where they're being shared, and how.

·         Social Plugins: Adding Social Plugin buttons to your site (for example, Google "+1" buttons) allows your users share content to social networks directly from your site. Your social plugin data shows you which content is being shared, and on which networks.” (unknown, Social, 2013)

            “Social is infringing upon the traditional realm of SEO as a major factor in how people find information, convert, and interact with the Internet.’ (DeMers, 2013) There are several factors that impact SEO, or more specifically search engine visibility, rankings and traffic. “The number of people liking the page, the number of shares, the number of followers, the number or retweets, the quota of followers/following, can impact the organic SEO (particularly the referral traffic). Additionally all these social signals generated by the abundance of social media (like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter etc.), can increase significantly brand awareness and online visibility.” (admin)
Let’s look more closely at a few social factors that impact SEO.

1. Personalized search results.

Search engines personalize the order of their results based on a number of factors including social connections and activity. Google, Yahoo, and Bing all use social content in aggregate as well to evaluate the popularity or relative importance of content and the authority of both sites and authors. As a result, SEO has clearly lost some of its influence.

2. Search engines now allow for highlighted authors with a thumbnail headshot, and a “More by” link that surfaces more of their work. Other social annotations are available as well that provide extra exposure and potentially increase click through rates. Being socially connected through Google+ also has its benefits as we are beginning to notice. Click through rates are substantially higher for authors with Google+ profiles.
                                                                                                          (DeMers, 2013)  
Search engines now factor in an individual’s social popularity and engagement into their ranking algorithms just as they have for websites and pages in the past. “Ultimately it is about establishing things like trust, credibility, popularity, influence and topical authority, all of which are good for both SEO and social media marketing. It is still early days in terms of the impact of AuthorRank but it is something that is worth experimenting with.” (Sherk, 2013)
3. Social has also transformed local searches as results are now based on interactions with social from Foursquare check-ins to Yelp ratings, and weighted social profiles. Rather than a Google search, consumers now often search a local business Facebook page for information about hours, directions, and sales. “Google+ is the single most powerful social force on the Internet today. Facebook may have a bigger market share, but Google+ has a bigger ownership of search power. Facebook doesn’t write the algorithms; Google does.” (DeMers, 2013)
4. Blogging is also powerful from an SEO standpoint. Strategic and active blogging can help:

Increase crawling by practicing good pagination
Add a list of related articles
Add ‘previous’ and ‘next’ post links
Use categories to organize like posts
Add sharing buttons

            In a recent study by search Metrics, URL’s at the top of the search results have corresponding high social activity including: likes, shares, tweets, and +ones which signifies that frequently shared content increasingly correlates with good rankings. (Metrics, 2013) “One of the most powerful effects of a social network is the way it transforms customer decision-making. Search Engine Land’s 2012 study stated, “72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.” More than half of consumers agreed that positive online reviews increased their likelihood of using a local business. E-consultancy declares that 88% of customers will consult reviews before finalizing an online purchase. Even conversion rates are affected by social.” (DeMers, 2013) The impact of social on SEO is still evolving, but it is clearly changing the digital marketers’ landscape. Social plays a significant role in building effective links which result in higher SEO rankings, increased website referral traffic and ultimately higher revenue.

SEO

            “SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization.’ It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.” (Media, 2013)  The science of SEO works to improve a websites ranking in the search engines so that the website will be listed ultimately at the top of the first page of results. The higher a website naturally ranks in organic results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

            Many tactics are recommended to improve SEO but no one really knows the true algorithm that Google and other search engines use. Just when you think you are getting close, the algorithms can change so some think it’s best to plan your strategy around what Google wants. Below are some common suggestions.
  • Implement social media tactics
  • Build mobile pages and/or mobile apps
  • Build local pages
  • Maintain proper site maps with local landing page URLs
  • Publish across a variety of media
  • Avoid link spam
  • Create fresh and awesome content

Conclusion

            This is a truly exciting time to be in marketing as we have never had this much data about our customers at our fingertips. Not to mention the real-time data now available. Analytics, social, and SEO are not only interrelated but also interdependent in that social strategy directly impacts the results of search strategy and vice versa. Both can be optimized when working together as social media can increase SEO rankings and discovery while SEO can provide exposure to social opportunities.

            Awesome social content from blogs, videos, and images that aren’t discovered via search really aren’t so awesome if they never reach the intended audience. On the other hand, that same awesome social content can leverage keywords that improve search traffic to the site. The social interactions and sharing that result, can improve a brand’s visibility within the search results. In other words, if attempting the above listed SEO tactics without leveraging the content distribution and linking benefits of social web participation, progress becomes much more difficult. Social encourages participation, sharing, voting, commenting, and linking which all increases exposure to your site and SEO. An integrated approach will reap the most optimized results. (Odden, 2009)

References:

admin. (n.d.). Can social media affect SEO? Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Webseoanalytics: http://www.webseoanalytics.com/blog/can-social-media-affect-seo/

DeMers, J. (2013, April 13). How Social Media is Changing the SEO Industry. Retrieved December 21, 2013, from search Enginge Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-social-media-is-changing-the-seo-industry/63060/

Digital, J. (2012, June 26). Web Analytics and SEO: ten questions and answers. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Web Analytics World: http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2012/06/web-analytics-and-seo-ten-questions-and-answers.html

Media, T. D. (2013). What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization? Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo

Metrics, S. (2013). SEO Ranking Factors – Rank Correlation 2013 for Google USA. Retrieved December 21, 2013, from Search Metrics: http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-2013/

Odden, L. (2009, April 15). Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/04/15/social-media-seo/

Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism. (2013). Lesson 1: Intro to Web Analytics. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from IMC 642 Web Metrics & SEO: https://learn.wvu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_1678_1%26content_id%3D_102543_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue

Sherk, A. (2013, Augsut 21). 5 Ways that Social Media Impacts SEO. Retrieved December 21, 2013, from Adam Sherk: http://www.adamsherk.com/seo/how-social-media-impacts-seo/

Thurow, S. (2007, February 12). Web Analytics, SEO, and Site Usability. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Clickz: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1710287/web-analytics-seo-site-usability

unknown. (2013). Social. Retrieved December 22, 2013, from Support Google.com: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1683971?hl=en

unknown. (n.d.). search engine optimization (optimizer) - SEO. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from Webopedia: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SEO.html

 

Monday, December 9, 2013

A Brand using Data Analytics to Improve the Customer Experience across channels


       Nordstrom started modestly in 1901 as a small shoe store in Seattle, and has since expanded to over 225 stores doing over $10 billion in annual sales across the country. “The art of retailing has changed dramatically over the last century and retailers today are concerned with understanding customer behavior and preferences both in the physical world and online. Today’s customers expect a unified, relevant experience across all touch-points: online, in-store, and on mobile devices.” (Shellman & Von Lehman, 2013)  For example, with catalogs in the 80’s, consumers expected to have a very different experience from their brick-n-mortar store experience.  Today, online and offline experiences need to be consistent with the same pricing, same inventory availability, same promotions, and same return policies, and to make online experiences relevant, big data analytics is required.

Data Collection & Analytics

            Recognizing that their future growth will be online, Nordstrom has committed over $1 billion to e-commerce and big data over the next five years. The goal is to determine which products to promote to whom, when, and via which channel. An immense amount of data is collected from their website, point of sale, “2 million likes on Facebook, 4.5 million followers on Pinterest and 300.000 followers on Twitter. In addition they generate vast amounts of data from their Fashion Rewards Program as customers that want to enjoy the large amounts of benefits provided in this program will have to use a Nordstrom credit card that tracks shopper spending and reward points.” (Rijmenam, 2013)

            Nordstrom has even gone so far as to try and track customers in their brick-n-mortar stores to gain insights. In 2012 with full disclosure, Nordstrom test marketed a system that tracked customers as they entered and shopped in their Dallas-Fort Worth store. In essence, Nordstrom tried to apply google analytics to a physical retail location based on customer cell phone wi-fi signals. Needless to say, it was not well received and soon discontinued. 

            Nordstrom also has an innovation lab comprised of techies, designers, entrepreneurs, statisticians, researchers, and artists who continually experiment with the future of retailing. One of their experiments with developing an app can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY&feature=youtu.be  The goal of the Nordstrom Data Lab is to create products that rely on a wide spectrum of data resources from within the company and social media to reinforce a unified face to their customers. This includes emulating aspects of the customer-centric store experience on the web, and applying novel data analyses to augment and enhance the in-store experience. Three examples of unique systems they are using include:

·         A recommender system powered by the collective fashion expertise of  personal stylists

·         Engaging, interactive visualizations powered by d3.js

·         Clothing color trend visualizer  (Shellman & Von Lehman, 2013)

Nordstrom also uses data analytics as part of their rigorous customer segmentation process. Promoting the right products to the right customers is an important piece of their branding strategy. “Statistical tools help marketers make sense of their customer segments to deliver personalized messaging.” (Puri, 2013)

            Mobile is definitely Nordstrom’s fastest growing platform in terms of traffic.  Although this traffic is conducting product research rather than product purchases, the retailer is satisfied with results. Remembering the retailer’s goal of engagement across touchpoints, this platform makes its contribution. According to Jill Murray, senior digital analyst at Nordstrom Direct, the company puts in a lot of time to track these mobile consumers through their experience to further understand their behavior.” (Borison, 2013)  Through regression and sentiment analysis, the retailer ties together what the customer’s intent actually was (research or purchase) and then follows their path all the way to the store.

             “Nordstrom is trying to enhance its analytics to really be able to address the omnichannel experience and measure across all of the different channels. To do so, Nordstrom integrates a wide variety of data using Coremetrics, Teradata, Foresee, OpinionLab, reviews and ratings. The retailer also uses multi-varient testing and A/B testing to experiment with new features and innovations.” (Borison, 2013)

Results

            Nordstrom uses analytics across channels as their shoppers often move across channels: from mobile and online research to in store-purchase. Analytics captures data from purchasers and is used to make recommendations to future purchasers. For example, customers are offered various options when viewing a product for other items to complete a look, and/or similar products to the one they are currently viewing based on historical data. They can look through trending items or best-selling items. The website also offers advanced search engine capabilities which evolved from traffic flow data. 

            Nordstrom is also able to acknowledge specific shoppers when they first enter the website. Customers can be targeted with specific interests and recommendations. The website is able to record previously viewed merchandise when a customer is signed into an account. It can locate a customer's profile in the database, and then display the customer's past purchases and offer new product suggestions while the customer is still visiting the site. The customers' account page will also provide them with a history of their past orders. Product pages now also include social media icons to simplify sharing with friends.

            Nordstrom recently invested in a new gift e-retailer, Wantful.com, and opened a co-branded online store with the company. “Wantful made last year’s Hot 100, an annual list from Internet Retailer that showcases innovative e-retailers and cutting-edge e-commerce capabilities. Shoppers using Wantful—and the new venture, The Nordstrom Gift Collection by Wantful—go online and enter personal data about the gift recipient. That data includes the occasion (such as a birthday), gender, relationship to the person (friend, son), spending limit and lifestyle preferences.  The service then returns product recommendations. The recipient then chooses the gifts he wants.” (Rueter, 2013) This new relationship is consistent with Nordstrom’s commitment to using data to unify the shoppers experience across platforms. It’s also a smart move for the brand to use their current customers as a way to reach new customers. Most recently, Nordstrom has used Pinterest analytics to capture ‘most pinned’ items to then highlight those particular items in stores with Pinterest signage. This is yet another example of how the brand uses data analytics to tie the customers experience together.

Conclusion

            Nordstrom is clearly an old company that is embracing new technologies. One prevailing characteristic that Nordstrom maintains is the brands quest for innovation and customer data and then implementation of the analytics to improve and unify the customer’s experience across platforms. They strive to understand the customer’s journey beyond just the touch points. (Borison, 2013)

References:

Borison, R. (2013, November 1). Nordstrom exec: Mobile Web not as sticky as apps. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from Mobile Marketer: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/16507.html

Giannopoulos, N. (2013, October 29). Nordstrom Gets Real with Decision Making. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from RIS: Retail Information News: http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/Nordstrom-Gets-Real-with-Decision-Making89135

Puri, R. (2013, July 10). How Online Retailers Use Predictive Analytics To Improve Your Shopping Experience. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from SAP Business Inovation: http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/analytics/how-online-retailers-use-predictive-analytics-to-improve-your-shopping-experience-0108060

Rijmenam, M. v. (2013, August 26). How Fashion Retailer Nordstrom Drives Innovation With Big Data Experiments. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from Smart Data Collective: http://smartdatacollective.com/bigdatastartups/140826/how-fashion-retailer-nordstrom-drives-innovation-big-data-experiments

Rueter, T. (2013, June 25). Nordstrom buys itself an e-commerce gift. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from Internet Retailer: http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/06/25/nordstrom-buys-itself-e-commerce-gift

Shellman, E., & Von Lehman, D. (. (2013, October 30). How Nordstrom Utilizes Human Intelligence to Blend Brick-and-Mortar with Online Commerce. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from Strata Conference: http://strataconf.com/stratany2013/public/schedule/detail/30707

 

 

 

 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Goals, Funnels, and Filters


             Google analytics provides actionable information for business leaders when goals, funnels, and filters are used in conversion metrics. In fact, “Google Analytics goals might be the most powerful and underutilized tool in our web analytics toolbox.  According to the 2012 State of Social Media and Web Analytics in higher education report, 97% of those surveyed use Google Analytics.  According to the report, 31% of respondents don’t track any conversions. However, it has been our experience that even fewer are doing this sort of advanced analytics measurement.” (Zquta, 2012)  Most universities track foundational metrics like site visits, page views, and bounce rates, but too few invest their time in trying to answer the bigger questions or in creating goals aligned with their website objectives. Goals will clarify how many visitors came to the site and performed the desired action. It’s important to also set a value to those goals to help with the data driven decision making. Without taking these steps up front, you won’t be able to see if web visitors do what you expect them to do on your website or what the value of their visit to your website is to your business.           

            Before being able to track conversions, one must first identify the objectives of the website to understand what and why you are measuring. Considering the fact that in higher ed., a website might have a number of different constituents, namely prospective students, current students, and alumni, the needs of each group need to be defined and then prioritized. Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) like page views, bounce rates, and site visits are helpful but the real power of Google Analytics Conversions is to identify and work with metrics that have a deeper impact on the performance of your business, and to translate your website KPI’s to Google Analytic goals. Understanding how to interpret the trends that appear, gives you the potential to achieve business results and gain a competitive advantage. Goals are especially beneficial for those brands that have longer conversion cycles like higher ed.. Goals in these scenarios can give you the extra insight needed to track how and where your users are “converting” on your website.

            Goals can be broken into two types: macro and micro. For higher ed., a macro goal may be ‘increased inquiries’ and a micro goal may be a click on a student profile. “If you don’t have much time to spend on analytics, focusing on these “macro conversions” is the best bet. With a bit more time, you can also define some micro conversions—the steps usually taken by web visitors on the road to the big goal—to your mix.” (Joly, 2013)

            Websites in higher ed. programs may want to track: URL Destinations, Visit Duration, Pages/Visits, and Events and may set up goals like:

·         Outbound clicks to information request forms or applications
·         Engagement goals of 1 minute or longer around feature stories, videos, and other content that requires a significant investment of time to create
·         Event promotions via visits to webinar sign-ups, information session registrations, etc.
·         Number of pages or visits to conversion
(Zquta, 2012)

            Ultimately, the college or program goal may be to increase the number of applications, so the next step is to examine the ‘funnel’ or the traffic flow of your site visitors on their way to the application page. Looking at the funnel visualization report in google analytics will reveal where prospective applicants get distracted or leave the site and what route they typically take to the conversion goal.  Say for example that after examining the traffic funnel, it is determined that prospective students who register for a webinar, usually apply. Therefore, the Google analytics goal may be set to increase the number of webinar registrations by 10/month.  Another example of a program website goal may be to increase engagement with the video about residencies. The analytics goal may therefore be to increase ‘clicks’ on the video by 10%.

            With Google analytic reports, you can also apply filters to the information coming into your account.  You can choose to include or exclude visits from particular page URL’s. Say for example that you just wanted to look at the traffic coming from another feeder program on campus.

            Once goals are established, you can now monitor website performance against the goals and continue to make improvements to the site to reach the specified goals. “As traffic flows through your site and your goal is tracked, your analytics reports begin to reveal the insights you need into your visitor traffic and behavior to better serve the searcher’s intent (and reach the institution’s business objectives). Maybe you begin by adjusting your architecture to get visitors to that page more efficiently. Maybe you update the page copy to be clearer. Maybe you optimize your “Request Information” button to attract more clicks.” (Taza, n.d.) Redefine goals as necessary until you are comfortable with the KPI’s that produce the results sought.         

            Let’s look at an example.  Say the EMBA program looked at ‘conversion path length’ and ‘time lag’ in consideration of setting a goal to decrease the conversion time of a prospective applicant. “Conversion path length is the number of times students interact with the institution across all tracked digital media before completing one of our goals.
Time lag is similar, but instead of measuring interactions, it measures days between the first interaction and the interaction that led to a goal conversion.” (unknown, 2013)

            Looking at this data helps identify prospective student behaviors when they're at key points in the decision making process. So we may determine that the largest percentage of students interact with us five times before clicking on the ‘apply now’ page. So we could try placing the “Apply Now” link earlier in the funnel to try to decrease this time period.

            We may also determine that a high percentage of prospects ‘request further information’ on their first visit to our website. This means that first impressions are critical and the link for further information had better be prominent. It also may mean that if a visitor returns four or five times to the website, they may not yet be a serious applicant.

            Additionally, we may determine that visitors referred from the RBA webpage continue through the conversion funnel at a particularly high rate. This means that the EMBA program needs to make certain that a prominent link is provided on the RBA site as referrals from this site have a high conversion rate. (unknown, 2013)

            With the use of goals, filters, and funnels, Google analytics provides actionable information for EMBA marketers to improve their website to reach their objectives. Also when tying goals to website objectives, results are more manageable metrics and more clearly defined tasks for improvement. One doesn’t need to get overwhelmed with all that google has to offer.
 
References:

Joly, K. (2013, March). Three Steps to Data-Driven Decisions with Web Analytics. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from University Business: http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/three-steps-data-driven-decisions-web-analytics

 Taza, P. (n.d.). Tips on How to Develop Google Analytics Goals for your Higher Ed Website. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from EDUniverse: http://www.eduniverse.org/tips-how-develop-google-analytics-goals-your-higher-ed-website

unknown. (2013, May 31). Google Analytics says you should care about your info request form. Retrieved November 30, 2103, from U of Admissions Marketing: http://www.uofadmissionsmarketing.com/2013/05/google-analytics-says-you-should-care.html

Zquta, G. (2012, October 19). The 5 Google Analytics Goals I Wish All Institutions Tracked. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from mStoner: http://www.mstoner.com/blog/technology-and-software/the-5-google-analytics-goals-i-wish-all-institutions-tracked/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

You have to know why you're blogging


         
           Determining the success of your blog depends on the ‘why’ and ‘what for’ of your blog. Metrics can provide a sense of what’s working, where readers are coming from, and what keywords are driving traffic to your blog, but you need to have a sense of what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog. You need to define your KPI’s. Learning not only how to understand the metrics but also how to apply the results will put you in a clear advantage. If you’re blogging for content, goals and metrics should be focused on areas that reflect traffic and SEO results. If you’re blogging for commerce, metrics should be focused around conversion and success of a call to action button to send traffic to register or purchase on another site. When you’re blogging to increase a community, metrics should be focused around readership and interaction.
            Many programs and colleges within higher ed. have blogs that are used for recruitment and community purposes. Bloggers may be students, faculty, staff, and/or administration. Metrics that reveal more information about readership and interaction center around repeat visitors, RSS subscribers, comments, referrers, and shares.  Kaushik suggests “Six Recommendations For Measuring Your Success” and I’ll add a few more to the list.

            Initially, author contribution should be considered as in: the number of posts divided by the number of months you have been blogging and number of words in the post divided by the number of posts.  Do you have enough content to get noticed? Regardless of what your audience desires, consistency is the key. Expectations should be defined and communicated particularly when different contributors are representing the community blog.
            Next, you should track visits and returning visitors. The latter is a great metric to watch because it gives you an idea of the kind of loyalty that's developing within your audience. Similarly, you may want to watch your RSS/Feed subscribers as a measure of your audience growth.  Subscribers are the ultimate goal as they are visitors who have given you the permission to push content to them. They want to be part of your community.This segment allows you to “expand the top of your funnel,” and draw people back to your website consistently.” (Liubarets, 2013)

            To determine how people found your site, review the ‘keywords’ and ‘referrers’ reports. You can then use these keywords within your blog text or titles to gain even more traffic. Referrers can greatly increase your organic search, so you want to determine if they found your blog as a result of a Google keyword search or from another site. Thinking about other related programs/ departments within the university that could link to your blog should not be overlooked as it could develop into a mutually beneficial relationship.

            I also like to track conversation rates after setting up goals in my analytics. This is a calculation of the number of visitor comments divided by the number of posts. For me, this is the ROI of the blog. Getting visitors engaged enough to actually comment puts meaning into the term social media. Comments with more than a few sentences are of course most rewarding, but just the fact that you are engaging the audience into conversation is rewarding.

            ‘Page Views’ is another report that provides clues as to popular content ideas. A visitor may come to your blog and see a new post about GMAT prep tips. If they then look in your blog index for additional test tip articles, you know that this is a topic of particular interest. Which blog posts are getting shared? In contrast, a visitor may click on the most recent post and then click to four other unrelated posts before leaving the blog which may indicate a need to spend time creating more quality content that your target audience will find value in. Over time, you can also get a sense of timing for different topics. Is there a correlation to trending topics relative to application deadlines? This report can be reviewed along with ‘visitor flow’ to get a clear picture of how and why people are exploring your blog site.

            Perhaps most importantly, look at ROI. Is your blog referring visitors to your website or to your ‘request for information’ form? Goals can be established and measured under conversions. There is also the unquantifiable value. Giving the students a voice, getting free content, having an opportunity to listen to your constituents concerns and viewpoints is difficult to put a dollar value on but is invaluable from a marketer’s perspective. Never before have we had such an opportunity to hear what our customers actually want and think.

            All of these metrics are interesting, but without defined goals to measure against, the metrics aren’t nearly as useful as they could be. Probably the main goal for blogs in higher ed. is to get individuals to ‘request further information’ by completing contact information into a form. Google analytics is a bit limited when it comes to metrics for content. Plug-ins can be added to supplement information. Google Page Value is useful in this scenario as the decision to return to school can take a year or two which may equate to many page visits before the actual call to action. What Page Value does it attribute a value to each page visited on the site during the course of a user converting. Between the content report and the Page Value, one can determine which content is driving conversions. (Norris, 2013)

          “If you create consistently good content, and promote it vigorously, your blog should eventually succeed. But, to ensure you aren’t disheartened in the meantime, select success metrics that are appropriate for your goals.”  (Baer, n.d.). Evaluate metrics in relation to other metrics as if they were each just one piece of the puzzle to get the best analysis.

References:

 

Baer, J. (n.d.). How to Match 10 Key Success Metrics to Your Blogging Strategy. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from Convince & Convert: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/web-site-analytics-and-metrics/how-to-match-10-key-success-metrics-to-your-blogging-strategy/

Gunelius, S. (n.d.). 10 Blog Metrics Bloggers Should Track Through Web Analytics Tools. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from About.com: http://weblogs.about.com/od/addonsandplugins/tp/10-Blog-Metrics-Bloggers-Should-Track-Through-Web-Analytics-Tools.htm

Kaushik, A. (2007, November 19). Blog Metrics: Six Recommendations For Measuring Your Success. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from Occam's Razor: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/blog-metrics-six-recommendations-for-measuring-your-success/

Liubarets, T. (2013, July 23). Blogging Metrics: How to Find and Apply Actionable Intelligence. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from Writtent.com: http://writtent.com/blog/blogging-metrics-how-to-find-and-apply-actionable-intelligence/

Norris, D. (2013, March 18). Using Google Analytics to determine if your content is generating leads. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from wp curve: http://wpcurve.com/content-marketing-for-lead-generation/

 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

AdWords vs. Facebook Ads


        
             When choosing between Google AdWords or Facebook advertising for your higher ed marketing, referring to your clearly defined advertising goals will make your selection easier. Are you trying to increase awareness of your program or school or sell a specific product or service? Secondly, knowing your target market will also make your selection easier. Recent findings with regards to Google vs. Facebook indicate that on a global scale, Google dominates, but if your target market is just domestic, Facebook Ads are actually a better choice. Facebook is considered to be a more social platform and hence visitors spend more time on the site looking around and chatting with friends which may be preferred for building brand awareness. Facebook also offers a more targeted advertising approach as a result of the immense psychographic data collected on the site. Data concerning favorite movies, books, and tv shows can benefit advertisers as they hone in on their specific target. “Facebook also allows advertisers some unique targeting options such as creating a `message specifically crafted for college alumni groups for example.” (unknown, n.d.) Facebook ads essentially target groups of people whereas Google AdWords target users as they are looking for a product.  So for example, if a recruiter wanted to attract prospects to an information session, they could target females in the geographic region, with a bachelor’s degree who are over a certain age with a Facebook ad. On the other hand, after the school rankings are released in the beginning of the year, Google AdWords may be the best choice as visitors will be seeking an EMBA program by a specific name. When an ad appears for that school, they will be more likely to click on it.

            Facebook’s extra psychographic data may not be an advantage for much longer though as Google+  now allows Google to collect more data as well from users who stay logged in as they surf the web and check email. Visitors on Google typically have a specific intent in mind which makes it an ideal platform for driving clicks and conversions for specific products. Google actually has an average click through rate of 2% on its ads, whereas Facebook struggles at .05% which indicates that Google may be a better choice for selling a specific product or service. (Sarah, 2013)

             Both Google and Facebook have massive audiences, but it’s important to know of course where your market spends its time. Both platforms have paid options as well as free online marketing tools like Facebook Fan Pages and Google+ Business Pages which will probably suffice if your goal is to increase brand awareness or develop messages for specific markets. Google does offer more when it comes to advertising specifically when it comes to remarketing. This feature allows advertisers to display ads based on what the users past web activity was on the site. AdWords also offers geo-targeting which is invaluable when it comes to mobile marketing. All kinds of metrics are available from Google to gather information about the effective ness of a campaign which is another reason to work with Google to some extent when designing a social media plan. Besides, Google goes to great lengths to ensure that ads shown are relevant to the users. Adwords unlike Facebook Ads will increase a site’s SEO. (unknown, n.d.)

             Google AdWords and Facebook Ads each have a place in your marketing plan and should be used to produce different results. How do you use each of these platforms for advertising your school?

References:

Sarah. (2013, May 9). Google AdWords or Facebook Ads? Some Interesting Insights [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from Pagemodo: http://www.pagemodo.com/blog/google-adwords-facebook-ads-interesting-insights-infographic

unknown. (n.d.). Facebook vs Google. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from Wordstream: http://www.wordstream.com/facebook-vs-google

 

Content vs. Conversation




             What better place to learn how to use social media than in a learning environment such as higher ed.  Although I am travelling two different paths currently, that of an IMC professional and that of an Executive MBA recruiter, the paths thus far have been nicely parallel. As I plod through the Audience Insights course, I survey my students to determine their motivations for returning to school and the resources used in selecting a graduate program. As I develop my skills with Direct Marketing, I plan a direct mailing for a ‘Friends refer Friends’ campaign. The same is true while learning social media use from a business perspective. I have experimented with new platforms for student recruitment and retention.

            The following is an important lesson that I am discovering. ‘Content alone does not guarantee success.’ There is much written about the importance of good content and the frequency and consistency of content posting, but there is little emphasis on the actual implementation of the content plan. How do we get an audience engaged naturally in a conversation about the information we are providing? My current informal research is with the EMBA program’s closed LinkedIn Group.  After gaining membership through direct invitations, my next step was to actually provide content for the students to engage through.  About once every couple weeks, I posted something about the program’s success; new rankings, new donation, etc. As you might expect, there were no comments, shares, or anything else. Content seemed to be falling on deaf ears. Just as no one likes the supposed friend who is always bragging about themselves and steering the conversation towards them. I then ran across a statistic that indicated only 1 in 10 posts should be about us or in my case about the EMBA program. Entirely askew, I changed content to be primarily about topics I thought the students would be interested in; negotiations, leadership, ROI, etc. I now began to see a few comments here and there. The most engaging post to date; however, was initiated by a student about a controversial issue. There were real conversations as opposed to polished politically correct posts. Some were short, some long, few cited references, and most revealed emotion.

            I now believe that in addition to consistently posting good content, I need to act as if I am speaking with students face to face. “Perhaps people also liked to hear something that wasn't polished, edited and produced – a raw form of communication.” (Rose, n.d.) I returned a few days ago from a student residency whereby our online students gathered together for experiential learning. I was filled with rich conversations about pregnancies, and weddings being planned as well as job losses, class struggles, and career promotions. We commiserated about deadlines and expectations and laughed so hard, we cried. Yet, as each of us returns to our designated role of student and administrator, the conversation diminishes. Friendships resolve to professional relations. 

            My plight as administrator and marketer is to keep those same ‘conversations’ going. And I’m referring to those face to face conversations with emotion and interest. Those conversations that talk about how the Negotiations class helped them purchase a new car, or how they had 15 of their classroom peers at their wedding because they had become so close over the course of the program. Those conversations that exude excitement over their success in the business plan competition or their personal struggles with juggling work, life, and now school. Those are the rich conversations that will provide the community support needed by an online student. These are the conversations where the EMBA program surrenders a bit of control, but the conversation is more earnest. The student begins to shape the experience with the brand to some degree to fulfill their personal needs. (Schaffer)
 
            We’ve all seen the blogs that end with a question, “What do you think?” Do they compel you to answer or were you compelled by the previous paragraph that you related to in some way. Did the content make you frustrated enough, proud enough, or make you laugh out loud to the point that you wanted to post a common story or share it with a friend?  These are the real conversation starters that engage your audience. “Our world is shaped by the relationships and conversations we have with other people – by the emotions we feel as well as the information we receive.” (Novak, 2010)

What propels you to comment on a post as opposed to just quickly clicking the “Like” button?

References:

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why Conversation, not Content, is King. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from Social Media Today: http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Rose, J. (n.d.). Content vs. Conversation. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from Traces: http://www.t-r-a-c-e-s.net/component/content/article/7-openzone/190-content-vs-conversation
 
Schaffer, M. (n.d.). Content vs. Conversation. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from The Buzz by Mike Schaffer: http://thebuzzbymikeschaffer.com/2010/11/15/content-vs-conversation/

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Does Higher Ed need Web Analytics?

           Still relatively new to the world of academia, I continue to be amazed at my previous misconceptions. I guess I anticipated cutting edge philosophies, independent thinkers, experts in fields, and real inspiration and yet hindered by the pace of beaurocracy, ideas and inspiration seem to be old news compared to what is being produced in industry. This is particularly evident in a rapidly changing industry such as marketing.

            While universities are scrambling to move from ‘product centric’ marketing to ‘customer centric’ marketing, industry is already shifting to ‘human centric’ marketing.  The State of Online Analytics in Higher Ed confirms that higher ed. behaves no differently when it comes to using web analytics to make marketing decisions.  Slow to react and engage higher ed. currently uses “web conversions centered around admissions inquiries and applications. Although universities and colleges use their websites to interact with and provide services to their constituents, 35 percent of the survey respondents indicated they didn't track any conversions at all. This shows there is still a big gap between the possibilities offered by online analytics in terms of data-driven marketing decisions and the current practices in higher education.” (Joly, 2010)

            This is particularly alarming considering the growth of online programs. A recent study released in January of this year, reports that 6.7 million students are taking at least one class online.  Wouldn’t it make sense then to shift resources to digital marketing to reach the consumers?  Particularly in an era when marketers are being pushed to show bottom line results, web analytics solves a number of concerns. Metrics are readily available to help marketers justify their digital marketing spend and provide invaluable insights as to consumer behavior on the website. Web analytics are well understood in the business world, but in the world of academia, the process and purpose are still a bit fuzzy. 

            Essentially, web analytics is the process of analyzing prospective student behavior on your website. Metrics can reflect how prospects are finding your site whether it be from another program website on campus, a Google search, typing in your address directly, or other source. Metrics also reveal how much time prospects spend looking at different pages and in what order they look at these pages. How many times a visitor comes to your website before they convert and what path they take to your CRM template is also helpful information to extract. Which pages repeatedly result in visitors leaving your site may reveal areas for improvement. Learning more about the prospective student, what information he is seeking, and his intent can guide marketing decisions with regards to content and placement on the website so as to better guide the site visitor to the ‘call to action’.  In this case, it may be “Apply here” or “”Request further information”. The ultimate goal is to guide prospects to conversion not just drive web traffic and web analytics provides the information to determine which features of the website are actually returning results. In the case of higher ed., some sample key performance indicators are reflected below.


Source: SEO Moz

Web analytics clearly has a place in the realm of higher ed. in translating marketing efforts to the bottom line. Insights gained can guide marketing decisions which ultimately result in increased student applications.

 

References:

Joly, K. (2010, September). The State of Online Analytics in Higher Ed. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from University Business: http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/state-online-analytics-higher-ed