Post Click Marketing: Optimizing Conversions

Post Click MarketingPractical Methods for Conversion Optimization

Adam ProehlManaging Partner, NordicClick Interactive@adamproehl

6/22/2011

About Me

• 14 years of online marketing experience

• Principle at NordicClick Interactive – a full service Digital Marketing Agency based in Minneapolis

• Spoken at Pubcon, SEMPO, eMetrics, B2B, OMS, DMA, BMA

• Instructor at the Online Marketing Institute

• All around “Data Driven Kinda Guy”

• Unapologetic Minnesota Viking Fan

Topics

• What is a Conversion?

• What Conversions Matter to Your Business?

• Measurements

• Optimizing Poor Conversion Rates (Tools & Methods)

• Post Conversion – Now What?

What I want to leave you with

• Practical takeaways

• Useful Best Practices

• Useful Tools

• Hope

What is a Conversion?

?


$$


The Obvious Ones:


Commerce Transaction:


Free Trial:


Request a Quote:


Contact Us Form:


Phone Call:


Whitepaper Download:

What is a Conversion

The “not always so obvious”


Types of Conversions: A simplified lame sports analogy

Assists Points


Watch a video


Read Case Study


View Site Content


Email Us:


Social Links


Email Signup

Conversion Types

Hard Conversions (Points - Kareem)

Lead Form Order Request literature

Webinar Signup

Free Trial (with name

capture)

Soft Conversions (Assists - Magic)

Whitepaper download View video Read case

studySite

EngagementNewsletter

signup

•You get the name•Follow up action/deliverable required• Varying degrees of value

• May not capture name• Might not be an immediate follow up action• Possibly set them up for a return visit/hard conversion

What is a Conversion?Understand conversion metrics

What is Not a Conversion?

…Any “conversion” that doesn’t translate into $$ (earned or saved)

What Conversions Matter?


How do you determine?


• What is your business’ reason for existence?

• Where does digital marketing support it?

Starting Point: Business Objectives

Revenue

Acquisition

Retention

“Win back”

Operations

Support

IT

Production

Finance

Stakeholder

Employees

Customers

Shareholders


Company Objectives 2011

Starting Point: Business Objectives

Revenue

Acquisition Retention “Win back”

Sub initiatives


What Conversions Matter? Map your external stakeholder touch points

Trade Show Booth

Web Site Visit

Video/ white paper

view

Lead Generation

Form

Qualification Follow Up

Sales Call

Triggered email

Presentation

Signed Contract

Support

After market accessories /

add ons

Renewal Inquiry

Simplified Example

Start Here

• Business Objectives

• Success Measurements

• Benchmarks

• Get Stakeholder Buy-In

• Understand the value of your conversions (coming up)

What Conversions Matter? Involve Stakeholders & Define Success Early


Determining conversions that matter - who needs to be involved?

Measurements

Web Analytics

Measurements

So My Site Conversion Rate is:

Who Cares?

Measurements

Site Conversion:

Without context, it’s a useless stat

Measurements

The Flaw of Averages

Measurements

Making Conversion Metrics Useful: Adding Context

•Segmentation

•Assigning Value

Measurements

Segmentation – let’s start simple

Measurements

Traffic Segmentation – “Points” ConversionAverages

Broken out

Measurements

Traffic Segmentation – A level deeper: keywords

Measurements

Traffic Segmentation – Understanding Behavior

New Visitor

Returning Visitor

“Assists” are paying off

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – Understanding Behavior

New Visitor

How do specific campaigns convert my returning visitor?

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation: understanding what your content is being viewed on

Measurements

What volume is mobile?

One of several ways to segment

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – Mobile & Landing Pages & Search

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – Mobile & Landing Pages & Search

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – B2B Example - User Platform (Mobile)

Overall

Just Mobile Conversions

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – Some Basic Things to Look For

• Traffic Source

• Campaign

• User Systems

• New vs. Returning Visitors

• Keyword Phrase

Measurements

- Shorten URL (bit.ly, ow.ly, etc)

- Make it trackable in GoogleAnalytics

-All in one interface from a Firefox sidebar

http://addons.mozilla.org

Free Tool: Snip-n-Tag (Firefox Add on)

Measurements

Assigning Value – Not all conversions are created equal

Measurements

Doing the Math: Simple B2B ExampleNumber of Leads: 1,000

x% that Sales can close: 15%

xAverage Value of close lead: (annual) $10,000

Number of Leads: 1,000

=Average Value of a Lead Form Submission:

$1,500

Balance averages with granularity

Measurements

Assigning Value (Google Analytics Example)

• Document method for assigning value

• Have buy-in from appropriate stakeholders

• Acknowledge your unknowns & “educated guesses”

Measurements

Assigning Value: Assists (back to lame sports analogy)

Career leader in points

Measurements

Assigning Value: Assists

Where would he be without these guys?

Measurements

Events (Google Analytics Example)

• Videos• Downloads• Links out• Case Studies

Measurements

Assigning Value: Understanding Assists

Free Downloads

Measurements

Deeper Segmentation – Type of Event

Measurements Optimization

Befriend a Geek• Special Tagging Needs

• Business Requirements

• Tracking Vigilance

• Code Updates / Enhancements

Measurements Optimization

Switching Gears – “What’s a Marketing Report?”

More to it than just data, statistical significance, and confidence levels

Big (1988)

Optimizing Conversions

Convergence of Art & Science

Image Credit: Elaine Strosberg, UCLA


User Experience


Review click patterns by source

Crazy Egg

• Click based heatmapping tool• Segmentation capabilities (source, geo, date/time, OS, screen, etc)• Simple java script code• Cheap – Starting at $9 a month


Cheap (maybe) Tool: ClickTale Heatmap

Some Key Metrics:

• Hovers• Hover Conversion• Time to Click• Hesitation

www.clicktale.com

Cheap (maybe) Tool: ClickTale Form Analysis


www.clicktale.com

Other ClickTale Features:


• Session Recordings

• Conversion Funnels

• Other Heatmaps

Price: Free for 400 pageviews / mo$99/mo for 20k pageviews/moBigger plans for bigger sites


5 Seconds

Optimizing Conversions: The Landing Page

Free Tool: Clueapp

www.clueapp.com

• Displays landing page for 5.5 secs.

• Pick your users

• 48 hour time limit from start

• One Simple Task: “The most remembered words and phrases for your webpage”

• Price: Free

Three tools in one: Usability Hub

www.usabilityhub.com

Price: • Starts at free, but $20 a month would be recommended for most SMB’s• Earn freebies by particpiating in tests• Can also have your own group of users perform tasks


Tool: Five Second Test (from Usability Hub)

www.fivesecondtest.com

• Displays a screenshot for 5 secs.

• Ask follow up questions after image removed

• Select number of responses you want

Task: Imagine you own a small retail business or restaurant. You are looking at vendors to service your business operations and you come across this site.


Tool: Five Second Test (from Usability Hub)

www.fivesecondtest.com

Keyword Cloud Responses


Tool: Clicktest (from Usability Hub)

www.theclicktest.com


Cheap Tool: Navflow (from Usability Hub)

• Have users test your ideal vision of a navigation flow

• See how many get it right (according to your vision)

• Find holes in your design flow

www.navflow.com


Tool: Navflow (from Usability Hub)

• Success/failure report

• Identify holes/gaps

• Retest

www.navflow.com


Cheap Tool: Attention Wizard

www.attentionwizard.com

• Predictive Heatmap• Predicts eye movements

Price: From $6 a test, also subscription option


Free Tool: Mobile Phone Emulator

www.mobilephoneemulator.com


Cheap Tool: UserTesting.com

www.usertesting.com

Optimizing Conversions: Site Usability


Follow up questions after site review

Standard demographics

www.usertesting.com



www.usertesting.com

Video

Follow Up Question Answers

Can also pick your own users

Price: $39 per test


Cheap Tool: Feedback Army

www.feedbackarmy.com


Cheap Tool: Feedback Army

www.feedbackarmy.com

Price: $15 for 10 answers


Optimizing Conversions:Survey Data

Free Tool: 4Q Survey Designed by Avinash

www.4qsurvey.com

• Free for first 100 responses

• 4 basic questions

• Simple java script implementation

• GA integration

The Three Click Rule: Forget it

Optimizing Conversions: Practical Methodology

Make Crumbs


Always allow time for testing


Testing & Segmenting: Start Simple


• Buyers & Non-Buyers (on your email list)

• Product Line

• Traffic Source / Initial Touch


5 1 2

• Automated = Best; Manual = Can Work

• Not rocket science – start simple

• Learn & adjust

• Buy in from Stakeholders

Web Pages

Email links

Comments

Conversions

Downloads

Source

Frequency

More……..

Score Everything

Post Conversion

Congratulations! You got the conversion!!!

Post Conversion

How it may look today (if you haven’t yet done what I’ve talked about)

06/22/2011

Post ConversionYour view of the web based leads

Post ConversionSales’ view of web leads

Post Conversion

Close the Loop

Lead

Score

Sales Process

Sales Close (or

not)

Feedback

Post Conversion

Dollars & Margins (where you can)

Phone Order E-Commerce Order

Post Conversion

Reporting

Have a dashboard that tells your story (but that’s another session)

Takeaway Points

• Understand what a conversion is• Determine what applies to your

business• Measure• Test• Post Conversion: Close the Loop

Thank You

Practical Methods for Conversion Optimization

Adam ProehlManaging Partner

[email protected]@adamproehlwww.linkedin.com/in/adamproehl

Post Click Marketing