|
|
|
Leveraging Key Performance Indicators To Determine The How And Why Of User Behavior
ou just invested your (visits that go beyond the
entire interactive landing page), visits to key
marketing budget on a content, online campaign
complete overhaul of your performance and several others
website. Even better, you have a depending on your site
marketing strategy in place and objectives.
have a killer web analyst to
report website behavior mapped Without a doubt, KPI reporting
back to your business objectives. allows analysts to really
The site launches and everyone is quantify the activity on your
anxiously awaiting the first website. It does not, however,
analytics presentation. Let the provide a clear picture of the
web analysis begin! "why" or the "how" behind the
"behavior". You may be scratching
Wait! Not so fast. your head…that's okay, I'll
explain.
The basis of many web analytics
programs these days is the KPI Take a step back for a moment and
scorecard. Short for key ask yourself this:
performance indicators, KPIs are
metrics that are tied directly to • Do you know who is coming to
your business objectives. These your website?
are very powerful tools for • Do you know why they are there?
communicating visitor behavior • Do you know for certain what
and gaining executive buy-in when your visitors are trying to
major changes are needed on your accomplish?
website. Your KPI scorecard • Do you know how their online
likely has some of the basics experience affected their
like traffic volumes, conversion perceptions of your brand?
rates, landing page "stickiness" • And, do you know when they will
follow through on the call to touting the benefits of saving
action? money by using an online
financial institution.
Yes, interactive campaigns do
enable you to get a better Thinking this is an extreme
understanding of your customers example? Maybe.
more so than any other medium
today. You probably have some The bottom line is that website
answers to these questions in the (behavioral) data is only going
form of "X% of visitors access to give you half of the story.
the site directly, another X% Your next step, to fully leverage
from search engines and another the power of interactive, is to
X% from another site. 60% of understand the other half. Here
visitors seek us out by using a are a few ways you can get
branded term and look at product started.
information during their visit."
It would be a real stretch to say Attitudes, Attributes, and
"60% of visitors are young adults Perceptions…Oh My!
with moderate to high income for
their age, who are willing to The marketing mix is evolving to
take risks with their money, but be multi-channeled and
will only do so if they know they multi-directional and so
are getting something in return naturally brand building is
like an exceptional rate with low extending to online. At a very
banking fees, convenience of no basic level, successful brands
restrictions on money transfers, are reflections of positive
etc. This is much different from customer experiences. The truth
the double income households with of online is that visitors will
college-bound teenage children form opinions of your entire line
that you have been targeting by of products, services,
characteristics and brand site. Looking at this information
identity in a matter of seconds. as part of your monthly KPI
analysis will help you identify
Adding pre-visit and post-visit shifts in attitudes so that you
surveys to your website will help can proactively respond with
you determine the degree to which refreshed features.
the experience supports your key
branding elements. Ask the same Experience the Difference
questions of both visitors who
are just entering your site and For more than 10 years, the
of visitors exiting your site. American Consumer Satisfaction
Identify the differences. Index (ACSI) has found there to
Ideally, you will find the online be a significant relationship
experience supports your between customer satisfaction and
branding, in which case your pre- financial earnings. In
and post—responses will be the particular, the research shows
same, if not higher. Consider that companies have benefited
including questions to address most from improving customer
your brand positioning, satisfaction relative to the
personality, imagery and competition by concentrating on
attributes. improvements that lead to the
greatest marginal increase. These
Then, tie your survey responses improvements may not always be
back to website behavior to see what customers state are most
which content or features important.1 Whether you choose to
contribute to the experience. For implement the full blown ACSI
example, a visitor who thought instrument or ask a few site
your site was particularly experience questions of your own,
engaging may have spent some time the benefits are obvious.
with an interactive tool on your
To get started on your own, the "why" question that senior
identify strengths and areas of executives always ask.)
opportunity by surveying visitors
on their experience with content, Give It Another Shot
functionality, navigation, etc.
Then, compare this experiential Your web analytics tool will help
data to visitor expectations and you understand the top paths that
intent to convert. This data will lead to conversion. These paths
help you identify the primary represent the pages and
drivers of satisfaction. activities that visitors engage
in during a visit in which they
Not all visitors are alike, so convert. For visitors who leave
ask questions to understand the without converting, find out why.
reasons for their visits, what
they are looking for, and what The key here is to keep your
other sites they have visited. As questioning very brief, while
you begin to segment visitors, trying to understand ways to help
you will begin to find ways to prospects find their way. You'll
make incremental gains. Always want to drop questions at
integrate website behavioral critical points where visitors
data. This is where you will see fail to take the call to action.
the real power of this (This is where you should consult
methodology. Not only will you with user experience experts on
understand what visitors are the most appropriate way to
looking at, but you will begin to implement this type of
understand why. Together, this questioning so it seems
will make a powerful mechanism integrated into the experience.)
for understanding and building
loyalty. (Not to mention that you Your objective here is to
will finally have an answer to understand what visitors are
looking for, if they found it, questions in your online survey
why they didn't convert, if they where appropriate. This is your
intend to come back, and if their opportunity to acquire additional
experience was one worth information to help with your
mentioning to a friend. Create targeting. Include qualifying
another opportunity to convert questions to determine if
these prospects by offering a visitors are likely prospects -
call to action at the end of your your target audience may not
questioning. For a lead always be the audience who is
generation site, this may be actually accessing your site.
offering a link to an application
or contact form or perhaps a There are many ways to approach
phone number for customer website survey research. When in
service. For visitors who didn't doubt, start small. Use your
find what they are looking for, experience and learning from each
offer a link to take them there. survey to build the next.
Optimize the site based on your Interactive marketing gives you
findings and watch your an opportunity to develop a
conversion rate on your KPI greater understanding of your
scorecard improve. customer than any other medium.
Understanding the complete
DFD – Don't Forget the Demos picture will help you improve
your bottom line.
Always ask a few demographic
About the Author:
Lisa Mazzarese writes about SEO, SEM and search engine optimization
Read more articles by: Lisa Mazzarese
Article Source: www.iSnare.com |
|
