Chip Jones
How to Measure Online Traffic that Converts Offline
Are you measuring online traffic, with the final purchase being done offline?
As internet marketing consultants, we rarely see businesses that are measuring the entire sales process from the research stage to final conversion or purchase. It’s amazing to us that in the “Age of Web Metrics”, most companies aren’t doing this. If you were a business owner or marketing manager, wouldn’t you want to be able to identify which marketing channels were producing the most sales or conversions?
There’s more to measure than just an online OR offline conversion
When we start discussing internet marketing strategies with clients, early on in the process we will ask the question “Are you measuring your online marketing efforts?” 99% of the time, the client will have some sort of web metrics tool in place, and is measuring online activity and sales. When we then ask if they are measuring online to offline conversions, we find that very few businesses have anything in place that is capable of doing this. The reality is that most business are measuring online activity AND offline activity separately. Very few are measuring cross-channel (online to offline) activity.
Why is this important?
The majority of behavioral studies done over the past few years show that most consumers are conduct online research before they make their final purchase decision. In fact, an ATG study from 2010 found that the majority (78%) are using two or more channels before they make a final purchase. Only 22% of all consumers use one marketing channel (online OR in-store OR ???) to browse, research, and make a purchase.
This is where the disconnect is… most companies have no system in place capable of measuring across channels, and through the entire sales process. In essence, they don’t have data in hand showing what percentage of offline sales were generated from online research efforts. You might be spending money on a web site that isn’t catering to the needs of your online visitors, OR generating enough revenue to maintain it, but you won’t know this unless you are able to track consumers through the buying process.
The Typical Buying Process
We’ve talked about this before (see our article Online Consumer Behavior), but the buying process is comprised of the following stages:
- Customer becomes aware of a need/issue
- They explore options to resolve the need/issue
- Refines the criteria for making a decision (price, color, etc.)
- Narrows the list of choices (based on research)
- Makes the final purchase
Based on the above, you can see that most of the activity associated with consumer purchases is based on doing research. The question begs to be asked… “Do you know if your online marketing efforts is generating traffic to your store and resulting in a sale?” Are you providing the appropriate amount for information on your web site that will produce a sale or conversion online, or within your store?
Identify Your Online to Offline Traffic
The best to find out if your web site is generating enough interest and sales offline is to have a consumer tracking solution in place.
Each business is different, and a one shoe solution won’t fit all, but to get started you need to identify those areas on your web site that are taking customers offline. For example, consumers that call your customer service line via a phone number they found on your web site would be one way they would go online-to-offline. This would create a “dead-end” in terms of tracking your online consumers to an offline purchase.
Additional ways that people would be able to go online-to-offline to make a purchase include:
- Online sign-up for email newsletters that drive consumers into a store or business.
- Social Network channels that drive consumers to your store or business.
The list is likely longer for your business, based on your marketing efforts. Are you tracking this type of cross-channel traffic? Probably not. Should you be? Yes, if you want to determine a ROAS (Return on Advertising Spent) or a return on your investment in your online marketing channels.
How do you Measure Online to Offline Traffic?
There are a number of ways that this can be done. Obviously we can’t provide all of the options here, but probably one of the best ways to track an online to an offline sale is through the use of coupons.
Online coupons with unique tracking codes can be printed and then brought into the store for redemption. This is one effective way to determine how many of your online visitors are making in-store purchases. Another great way to build your email list is to require online visitors to submit their email information, to which you can then send the coupon to.
There are many, many other ways to track online-to-offline conversions and sales. For an assessment of what this would require for your business, please Contact Us.
Are You Ready for the Mobile Device Generation?
It’s a New Dawn
Most of us are aware that Mobile Internet usage is on an upward trend, but recent studies are showing that it is now going mainstream. In fact, a December 2011 report from Nielsen (“The Rise of Smartphones, Apps and the Mobile Web“) showed that the number of smartphone subscribers accessing the internet has grown 45 percent since 2010.
Another report titled “Mobile Shopping Goes Mainstream” by comScore shows that two-thirds of all smartphone owners performed shopping activities on their phones. In fact, this same comScore report states that “retailers without a well-developed mobile strategy are not only missing a tremendous opportunity, but risk becoming obsolete”.
Thanks to faster networks and better devices, we are seeing the dawning of a new age in terms of how we access and use the internet. The days of sitting in front of a laptop or desktop computer to browse the web is decreasing, and although smartphones and mobile devices have been in the marketplace for a while (iPhone was introduced in 2007), what we are seeing today is that internet usage via a mobile device is now entering the mainstream. We anticipate that numbers showing this for the 2011 holiday season will highlight this growing trend.
Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?
Fortunately there’s a couple of quick and easy tests that can be done to see how your web site is performing via a mobile device. Our favorite tool is mobiReady (http://ready.mobi/). This is a free testing tool that evaluates your web site’s mobile-readiness using industry best practices & standards. It basically allows you to see what your web site will look like on different mobile devices.
A second free tool we like is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international community that develops open standards that ensure the long-term growth of the Web. Their test tool is available at http://validator.w3.org/mobile/. Although this tool is more targeted toward web developers, it will highlight specific areas that need to be addressed in order for your web site to be more mobile device compliant.
What Are the Consequences of Not Having a Mobile-Ready site?
What we are seeing – firsthand – is that a majority of online businesses and organizations do not yet have a mobile friendly web site. What are the consequences of this? Well, the number one consequence is that you could be missing out on a tremendous opportunity to capture new customers. If your competition isn’t providing a mobile solution, and you are… well guess what? You stand to benefit.
Secondly, you risk becoming obsolete in the minds of your current or future customers if you don’t have a mobile solution. All of those dollars that you’ve spent throughout the years to attract new visitors could be lost if you don’t keep up with the upward trend with mobile internet usage.
Okay, So Where Do We Get Started?
First of all, you should remember that not all web sites attract the same types of users. You may have a business that attracts a smaller percentage of mobile device users. What we suggest is that you look at your web metrics reporting. Check to see how many web site users (to your site) are using mobile devices. If your mobile device visitor percentage is small (less than 3-5%) and you don’t yet have a mobile-ready web site, then you’re probably okay… for now. If the percentage of mobile device users is higher, then you really do need to start looking at some solutions for those visitors. Your future business could depend on it.
Web metrics reporting will provide some useful insights. Determine what pages mobile device users are looking at, and more importantly – exiting from. If all they are looking at is the home page, and the Bounce Rate is high, then you really need to start addressing your mobile device readiness.
Conclusion
The solution doesn’t need to be an expensive or time consuming undertaking. At a minimum, we suggest that you review your home page to see if it’s mobile device friendly. You’ll want to make sure that your company name, address, phone number, etc. are visible and easy to see. You can also provide links to content that’s already available for mobile devices like Facebook or Twitter (both have mobile-ready apps), etc.. Keep it simple, but have something for mobile device users to reach you through. The last thing you want to present is a blank web page because it won’t load into their mobile device correctly (or quickly).
UPDATE: Beginning in December 2011, Google now provides a mobile device publishing solution via their Google Currents platform. It’s easy to use, and you can publish all of your feed enabled content via this channel for all types of Mobile Devices. For more info check them out at the Google currents web site.
In closing, we certainly don’t believe that you need to create a completely new, mobile-ready web site. What you should do is some basic research and analysis to uncover areas on your web site that are in need of attention. There are many options available, and we can help you with your mobile device makeover for your web site. Please contact us to discuss some options.
Prevent Your Twitter Account From Being Suspended
Many Internet Marketers today include Twitter in their overall Internet Marketing Strategy. It’s proven itself to be a great platform for reaching out to consumers and clients, and is an effective communication tool.
What many Internet Marketers don’t realize is that Twitter accounts can be suspended and permanently terminated if the system is abused. In fact, the Twitter rules state that they reserve the right to immediately terminate any account, if that account is violating their rules or terms of service.
Why Does Twitter Have Rules?
Twitter basically wants to provide an open network where users can share content with others, and have a great experience doing so. Their usage guidelines and rules are meant to discourage spam and other types of abusive activity that would negatively impact the Twitter experience.
What Is Twitter Spam?
Twitter considers the following activities to be spammy or abusive:
• Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites.
• Posting the same tweet over and over again.
• Aggressively following and un-following other accounts.
• Updates that consist mainly of links, and not dialogue or useful updates.
There are many other rules and guidelines that Twitter considers when making a determination as to whether an account is creating spam or being abusive. You can find the complete list of Twitter Rules at:
https://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-violation/topics/121-guidelines-best-practices/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules
How About Automated Tweets and Follows?
Many Twitter users use automation tools to tweet at scheduled times, or to grow their list of followers more quickly. Twitter doesn’t state that you can’t use an automation tool, but they do strongly discourage the use of them, and have adopted very strict rules and guidelines concerning their use.
The most common automation practices discouraged by Twitter are:
• Following and un-following large number of users over a short period of time.
• Posting the same tweet over and over again.
• Mass promotion of affiliate offers or advertising.
Before using any type of automation tool, you should carefully read the Twitter Automation Rules and Best Practices article. In fact, we’ve found that one of the most popular Twitter automation tools available today actually provides features that are in violation of the current Twitter rules. If you do decide to use an automation tool, be sure to review the Twitter Rules, and proceed with caution!
What To Do If Your Twitter Account Is Suspended
Fortunately, Twitter is willing to work with you if your account is suspended, and as a result, you’ll have an opportunity to appeal their decision. In fact we’ve heard that they will re-activate an account if the account holder changes the behavior that resulted in the initial account suspension. For more information about the appeal process, please checkout the article My Account is Suspended.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember that Twitter is keeping a close eye on activities that impact their primary goal of providing an open network for freely communicating with others.
If you use Twitter in a spammy or abusive manner, you risk account suspension and eventual termination. BUT, as long as you use Twitter to have an open dialogue with others, and you’re providing useful information, you should be fine. Happy Tweeting!
Google+ : Follow The Links
In late June 2011, Google announced their latest plans for a social media network with the launch of Google + (also called “Google Plus”). Many are asking if Google has the ability to take on a social media giant like Facebook. We see the motivation behind this launch in a different light.
This is not Google’s first foray into the social media space. Their past efforts with “Buzz” and Google Wave were not successful, and one wonders why they continue trying. In fact, many so called “experts” are hinting that if Google fails in their social media efforts, it may mark the beginning of the end for Google. We just don’t see this happening.
The Online Goliaths
Google’s domination of search is well documented and they currently control about 65% of the search marketing space. Facebook, on the other hand, surpassed Google as the most visited website in the U.S. in early 2010, and has not looked back. In spite of this, Google still owns the “Search” world where most online conversions take place. Facebook, on the other hand, owns the “Friends” world, where fewer online transactions happen.
Recent revenue estimates indicate that with Search and Social combined, Google had over four times the projected revenues of the social networks; Facebook, Twitter and Groupon – combined. This alone makes one wonder why Google would be working so hard at capturing a share of the Social Media space. The return on investment for Google to capture 23% of the social media world seems like small potatoes for Google. It just doesn’t make sense for the “experts” to say that “overtaking Facebook” is Google’s primary objective here.
What is Google’s Motivation?
Google is likely looking at social media circles in order to keep up to date with conversations taking place in the Social Media world, and most likely so that they can continue to track conversations related to current topics, as well as maintain visibility into who the experts (influencers) are in the social media circles. Social media has become more and more about current topics, social influence and subject matter experts, and Google seems to understand this well.
How Does Google Measure Relevant Content?
Historically, Google has followed links and content in order to locate and measure the most relevant content and subjects discussed today. They also look at the credibility of links connecting to that content (Page Rank) in order to identify content experts and influencers.
How Social Media Has Impacted Google
In order for search to work, Google must be able to freely access all web content and links, including social media. Unfortunately, for Google, most social media sites have now implemented tighter security measures due to privacy concerns. These types of security measures ends up placing Google outside of the social media fortress, with no way to get inside and “crawl” the content, links and influencers. (Google has no ability to crawl a password protected web site without the permission of the site).
The Social Media Fortress
Without access to password protected social media sites, Google has been forced to reinvent itself and do one of two things: the first being to develop long lasting relationships with social media networks like Facebook (which they have had little success doing); or secondly, to create their own social media network and drive more traffic to it via Google applications.
Google’s Social Media Solution
Google has apparently decided to create their own social media network through with latest initiative, Google +. With Google+, Google has a social network that they can measure topic relevance and influencers in order identify links to the most socially relevant content online. For Google, this initiative seems to be more about improving their search algorithm, and less about the dominance of Social Media. We’ll see how this works for them in the weeks and months to follow.
Is Your Web Metrics Tracking Accurate?
Remember the original “Set-It-And-Forget-It” rotisserie oven advertised on television? You know, the one promoted by Ron Popeil as the “delicious alternative for those people with limited counter space, or simply on a budget.” In the 30 minute infomercial, the tag line “Set-It-And-Forget-It” gets repeated over and over again. It becomes a mantra that’s been ingrained into our subconscious.
“Set-It-And-Forget-It” Web Metrics
Unfortunately, many online businesses take a “set-it and forget-it” approach when it comes to their web metrics tracking. We’re talking about the web tracking that is used to provide valuable, executive level web metrics reporting for important online performance indicators like how many people are reaching your web site, what online campaigns they responded to, what are they buying, what web pages are they looking at, etc..
The downside to taking a “set-it and forget-it” approach in the web metrics world is that the required tracking codes tend to break or become outdated without anyone even being aware of it. Many times there are no warning errors or similar that that would alert someone of a web tracking issue. The result is inaccurate web data that a costly business decision could be based upon.
How Often Does This Really Happen?
We’ve seen this happen on most (80% or more) of the online initiatives that we get involved with. It’s happening in companies of all sizes and shapes, from the Fortune 50, to the mom and pop retailers.
Why Does This Happen?
Often it’s the result of a change in the underlying web tracking code, or some sort of change made by the web hosting company. For example, a web developer making an update to a web page that either breaks the tracking code, or a change to the logic flow that ends up by-passing the tracking tag. In either case, it’s very easy to end up with broken tracking tags that result in inaccurate web metrics data.
We recently did a web tracking audit for a client who was using Google Analytics as their web tracking solution. The client was dismayed that their online sales were not higher than they were after spending money on a variety of campaigns. A quick audit completed by us showed that the web hosting provider had not updated their tracking tag in over two years. Basically they had “set-it and forgot-it”, but were still collecting hundreds of dollars in site management fees per month.
Our audit showed that the online sales being reported by Google Analytics were 10% of what they actually were, and that the tracking code for this client had been out-of-date for almost 18 months. Again, the reporting had been inaccurate for almost 18 months, and no one knew. No wonder they thought their online sales were on the low side.
The Solution
If you use a web metrics tracking tool to provide executive level reporting to the decision makers, make sure that your web metrics tracking is accurate. We recommend a monthly audit that compares the actual vs. the web reporting. If you don’t know how to do a monthly audit, make sure that you have someone in place that can tell you how this is done.
If you don’t do this, your executive team may be making costly business decisions, which may reduce revenues. The bottom line is that you need to ensure that your web metrics are accurate so that your executive team can make effective business decisions in regard to your online efforts.
Mobile Search Becomes More Localized
Most hand-held mobile device users realize how hard it is to search the internet. It’s slow and difficult depending on how many characters you need to use to find what you’re looking for. Yesterday, Google announced a search feature for U.S. mobile device users that will make searches with Google much easier on Android powered devices or iPhones.
With this feature, once you start typing a search term on your mobile device, Google will provide a list of search suggestions that match your entry. Most importantly, these search suggestions will be based on your location. This feature will reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to submit a search to get relevant search results. What they are basically doing is providing optimized search suggestions using your location.
For search marketers that rely on search traffic this is actually a very interesting announcement for a couple of reasons. For one, Google is basically adopting and implementing a business rule that assumes that Google searches on a Android powered device or iPhone should be more focused toward local listings.
Secondly, the impact to search rankings is an unknown at this point if your business is dependent on nationwide search traffic. The question is, how will these search suggestions impact search traffic to your web site? Obviously localized search suggestions will take precedence, but will your listing drop down in the rankings if you are not a local business or organization.
Using the example in the Google Mobile Blog post about this feature, let’s say that you are a museum in Boston, but the search takes place in San Francisco. If the Google search suggestion feature is emphasizing local search phrases for museums in San Francisco, will it still be easy to find your museum if you’re located in Boston?
It may turn out that localized mobile search has no major impact to national search listings, but it’s still too early to tell. This is obviously something that should be monitored and considered when discussing search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for your company or organization in the near term.
Google Updates Personalized Search
Without much fanfare, on December 4th 2009 Google announced an update to Google Personalized Search. Although this didn’t attract much attention in the business world, it’s an important update that web site owners should be aware of. It’s a further indication of the direction that Google is moving in terms of their online search tools.
What is Personalized Search?
Google Personalized Search was first launched in 2005 (announcement). With Personalized Search, Google search results are more personalized to your specific interests, based on your prior search history. In effect, web sites that you had visited in the past, through a Google search, will show up higher in the rankings for a related search.
Prior to the latest update, personalized search was only available to those that were signed into their Google account. With the most recent update though, everyone’s Google search results will be personalized by default, although you can opt-out of this feature.
How Does Personalized Search Work?
Lets say that you’ve used Google Search in the past to find recipes for dinner. You’ve been able to find some great recipes on much lower ranked web sites, but now you can’t remember what they were. You do a Google Search, and lo and behold, the web sites that you had previously found now show up toward the top of the search results page. In essence, the search results page has been personalized based on your search history and location.
Each and every time that you do an online search with Google, your search keywords and the links that you clicked on are saved as your search history. Future searches on Google will refer to your search history so that your search results are more personalized to your interests.
How Does This Impact Web Site Owners?
Although Personalized Search is great for online users, this is not always the case for web site owners. The reason for this is that web sites are now ranked differently per each person. For example, your web site may show up at #1 for one person, but at #11 for a different person. The search listings will now be dependent on search history, location and more for ALL Google searches.
There’s not a great deal known in terms of what impact the Personalized Search update will have. Some of the early testing done does not show much difference yet. But the cookie that stores search history can keep up to 180 days of data, and so it may take more time to find out what the impact of this will be.
What Should Be Done Next?
In the meantime, there are some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) steps you can take to ensure that your web site is optimized as much as possible. These are a few of the best practices that you can do at this point in time. These are:
- Ensure that your web site is using page titles that identify the overall topic or content of each web page. Use as few words as possible, but make sure that they are relevant to each web page.
- Make sure that you are using the description meta tag. The meta description tag does not have an impact on your page ranking, but it does make a difference in terms of getting people to click on your listing in the search engine results page. Basically you want people to click on your listing because it will tell Google that your listing is more relevant than the others for that search term. This description should contain a description of features and benefits relevant to the page content.
- If you rely on local business, make sure that your web page includes information about your location. This can be something as simple as a brief mention of “Serving the city of…” in the page footer.
- If you don’t have a Social Media Marketing strategy in place, now would be a great time to get started. Make sure that your have at least a Facebook page for your company. Most importantly though, start creating a strategy to tap into the social networking world.
In addition to the steps above, you’ll want to have an SEO expert review your web site to make sure that your web site architecture, site maps, and other SEO related elements are in place and working correctly.
If you are a web site owner, keep a close eye on future changes to Google Personalized Search. This feature will likely change more often in the future and you’ll want to make sure that your web site is optimized and ranking as high as possible. You don’t want your web site to get lost in the Google Personalized Search results page shuffle.
Online Shopping Influencers
The topic of “Influencers” has been getting a lot of attention in the Social Media Marketing world. In fact, the marketing firm razorfish has apparently trademarked the term “Social Influence Marketing”, but that’s an entirely different story.
So What are Influencers?
We’ve always had Influencers around us. As toddlers, our parents influenced how we behaved and responded in different social situations. In our teens, we kept a close eye on what our friends were wearing. In essence, our friends would have influence on our clothing styles and brands. As we mature, our buying decisions are formed in many different ways.
When it comes to internet marketing though, Influencers of the virtual type have become an extremely powerful force because they can shape and influence the buying decisions of large numbers of consumers and customers online.
Who are the Online Shopping Influencers
A September 2009 study titled Web Shoppers Trust Customer Reviews Most from Ripple6 and the e-tailing group, found that online shoppers are influenced by both online social networking sites and face-to-face conversations with friends. Most importantly though, this study found that online shoppers put more trust into online product reviews from strangers, rather than the recommendations of their friends.
A December 2009 press release from comScore reports that 28 percent of holiday shoppers said that social media had influenced their holiday purchase decisions. Of the types of social media cited in this story, the most influential were consumer-generated product reviews (13 percent of respondents), followed by expert product reviews (11 percent). Only 6 percent were influenced by a friend’s Facebook status update that referred to a particular product.
Although Social Networking is still relatively new (ca. 2004), it’s becoming apparent that online Influencers are playing an important role in terms of how shopping decisions are made. This is one reason why today’s marketers need to pay closer attention to the discussions that take place online about their products or services.
Steps for Today’s Marketers
Influencers can shape both online and offline perceptions. Online though, Influencers have the most impact because they can impact the buying decisions of a larger audience. So, what can Online and Offline Marketers do to become more engaged with their online Influencers? You may want to start out with the following steps:
- Search for your product, brand or company name online with a Blog or Group search on Google or Bing. Search Twitter as well using their search feature. Try to find out what sites or platforms people are using when they mention or discuss your products.
- Start listening to the overall discussions about your product, brand or company. You may need to do this for a week or so until you become more familiar with the overall discussion.
- Try to locate anyone who frequently talks about your product and determine what type of influence they are having on the buying decisions made online.
If you find an Influencer who likes your products, you may want to reach out to them and simply say “Thanks”. If the Influencer is NOT a fan of your products, try to figure out if anything can be done to remedy the situation and take the appropriate action as soon as possible. Online issues left without a quick resolution could hurt sales because they may show up in the search engines for a very long time.
Conclusion
It’s a new day and age in online marketing and the steps above are only a starting point. Overall, you’ll need to learn how to engage with your Influencers and customers because they may have a significant impact on your sales and the overall perceptions about your brand or product.
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