Sara Fraser, Director of Business Development at EnVeritas Group, tries to ease concerns about conducting analytics by breaking down an excellent way to view it and actually put analytics into action. #MMI2013
What I am going to talk about is what causes very smart people a whole lot of anxiety. Or fear. Or loathing.We’re going to talk web analytics, and what defines success, particularly with b2b non e-commerce site. Analytics are for many a very demoralizing process. Doesn’t have to be. How we measure the success of our websites.Typical measurementNon ecommerce site (manufacturers)What that means and what we do about it.
There’s a lot of fear tied up in the idea of analtyics. I’m no different. I still have some fear. Analytics mean that your work is tested. Analytics hold us accountable for our work – for our content and our web design and our marketing.Without failure, there is no learning process.If there is no learning process, there is no point in analyzing, is there?It is undermined early in our lives (usually as a result of Mathematical anxiety).It is frightening to start doing it.Analytics is not fun for most people.
So the question is how we can find a happy place, a comfortable place with web analysis. I would argue that starts with being honest about where you are with your website and your efforts and applying a lot of common sense.For b2b marketers this can be especially challenging, but I think the key here is to look beyond the idea of conversion.
The key to that happy place is the willingness to experiment. To set goals and see how you measure up. But for many this is a data dump, and doesn’t mean much of anything. Data dump doesn’t work.It’s not enough to measure page views, traffic, and click-through rates. Bounce rate – find those pages, analyse those pages, fix those pages
What is conversion? Conversion online happens when a user takes the big step we want them to take. For some, this means they click buy. For those of us who don’t actually SELL anything online, it’s a little different. How we measure the success of our websites.Typical measurementNon ecommerce site (manufacturers)What that means and what we do about it.
How do you define web success?Answer this question in 15 words or less.Once you nail down the purpose of you site in relation to bus goals, you can move with some confidence toward analytics that make sense for you.
Common Answers:Education or entertainment (videos, pdfs, product info)Engagement with potential and existing clientsThought leadershipSalessupport – brochures, white papers, case studies
Let’s dig a little deeper into what that means.Traditionalsuccess model of conversion2 % conversion rate is considered good. Most of us in the room probably are closer to 1%. Or .5%The problem with this model is that if you don’t reach that one goal that you’re calling conversion, you’re failing.But when we look at the other visitors that don’t convert, we realize those aren’t useless. The peoplewho don’t meet your primary goal are still people ON YOUR SITE.
What are those “other reasons” for visiting?Depends on your market and your product, service or solution. For us at EVG:Education– people downloading white papers, case studies, product informationContacts- via the above engagementCustomer insight – surveys, return visitors,
Every download of white paper, case study, survey Every return visitor (loyalty) and recency of visits (someone coming back over and over in same period of time)These people are consuming your content – they’re important. And when you think that in b2b sales, 70% of the sales cycle is DONE before a salesperson is contacted, these non-buying actions become crucial.
Things are are not actually conversion (buying)These are pre-buy activities. These are people researching or learning more. This examples shows: account creation as a goal, software downloads as a goal, and filling out contact form as a goal.Yours may be different – contact, download white paper, video view.
Caterpillar site – b2b, can’t buy product online. So how do they measure success. They are measuring through engagement, which sounds like a vague marketing word, but it’s tied to economic value:How many people register to win a machine, return to read their news, download application information, request a quote?