| Chris Lund |
| SES 2010 - My Top 10 takeaways for marketers |
| 2010.02.22 14:28:15 | |
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Avinash Kaushik, highly respected analytics guru and "Google Evangelist" Rand Fishkin, highly influential SEO expert and co-founder of SEOMOZ Bryan Eisenberg, website usability expert Not to mention representatives from all three of the main political parties' online teams, plus SAP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and many more. Analytics:1: You don't know how much your opinions are costing youWe are all guilty of making assumptions or assertions based on what we believe to be true. And website owners and designers are arguably guiltier than most for thinking they know what’s going on on our sites. The fact is - unfortunately, we can't second guess our site visitors, or assume that they act in the same way as ourselves. Testing different versions of our landing pages and comparing key metrics like conversion rates, etc. are the only way to make a truly informed decision2: The last click does not tell the whole story!Google Analytics - which many of us use to track the behaviour of our visitors, doesn't always help us make as informed decisions about where to place our ad spend. Unlike some more costly services, it doesn't take into account visitors' previous visits when attributing conversions. therefore, if a visitor makes 3 separate visits in a week to you site, first through a banner ad, then returning later through a paid search link, and then finally via a bookmark he set up after his last visit, only the final, 3direct3 visit is credited with the sale, potentially skewing the perceived effectiveness of our paid campaigns' ROI.3: Make Metrics MeaningfulUsing the data we - as site owners or marketers find interesting, will not always endear us to the money men - whether we like it or not, as marketers, our job is to focus on the bottom line and that's certainly what the MD wants to hear about! Tying visitor stats back to ROI, sales and income targets are key, not only to the success of your site, but to your success in being taken seriously as a part of the business. Visitor growth may make a pretty, upward trending graph, but if you can't tie this back to increasing benefits for the business, where's the value?4: Analysing ROI for Social Media is still a somewhat blurry artA lot of traditional businesses are facing a dilemma - Social Media is undoubtedly a growing channel for PR, Customer Service, Marketing and even sales, but at the same time, it's difficult to clearly see how it affects ROI. Standard web metrics can't do it, so how can we measure it?Possible, by monitoring reductions in Customer service calls, increases in other on / offline channels such as PPC, etc., but still, there's progress to be made. (Though SAP's work with ComScore is an interesting insight into what can be done if you've got a research budget) Newer metrics, such as sentiment, the amount of "buzz" around your brand, and "engagement" are still unreliable, and dangerously fluffy (see point 3) I'm not sure I'm brave enough to tell a client they're social media strategy is working because people are tweeting nice things about them in the Netherlands!) Social Media5: Get your social Media Strategy in placeBefore firing tweets out into the ether, or hastily setting up your company Facebook page, stop, take a breath, and consider the following, as you would with any traditional marketing / comms plan: PeopleWho are you aiming to communicate with? What social demographic best describes them? What interests them, where do can they be reached? What do they respond to?ObjectivesWhat do you want to achieve through social media? Increased sales? Increased brand awareness? Support for an offline campaign? Improved customer service? All of these are valid enough reasons, but need to be definedStrategyHow are you going to go about getting in touch with your audience? What are you going to communicate with them to ensure your objectives are met?TechnologyHere's where you can consider whether it's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BeBo, (or a traditional communication tool) to engage with your customers. Will your planned LinkedIn Group really persuade teenagers to buy your latest soft drink? Or will bebo help you secure those big business consultancy contracts you're hoping to win? If the answer's not clear, then maybe it's time to think again...Measure & TestAs with any comms strategy, Measurement and testing is the only way you'll ever know if the time and effort spent on social media is worth it:Are your objectives being met? How? Can they be improved further, or can you carry on in the same vein? Chances are, unless you're a natural born social media genius, tweaks will need to be made to fine tune and optimise your strategy, so don't let your ego (or anybody else's!) stop you from acknowledging where these improvements can come from. 6: Automating your social media campaignI was firmly anti-automation prior to this session, being of the mind-set that the appeal of social media to both the public and brands was built around notions of trust, transparency and intimacy. Using machines and fake accounts to send tweets is a sure-fire way of destroying any trust you've managed to build up to date in my opinion, but nevertheless, some valid points were made about how automating certain elements of your SM can bring rewards.Twitter is instant - sending tweets only during your normal working hours seriously limits your global reach - therefore re-tweeting a message originally sent at 10am GMT, could feasibly be sent again at 10am EST without upsetting your followers. Similarly, certain ley messages, with a different slant to the text may be acceptable in context Automation need not focus purely on sending emails - enabling others to share content of your site easily with tools like AddThis or Tweetmeme will help your followers spread the word more easily. Analytics tools too can be added to the mix - If you link an RSS feed to your twitter account to automatically tweet new blog pots, ensuring analytics parameters are added to the feed will make it easier to track its impact Search7: Search is evolving fast
Paid ads evolutionPaid ads are increasingly becoming more than just a text box on the right of your search results page – Google is rolling out new opportunities to advertisers enabling them to add images and expandable product feeds to their ads – all of which take up valuable screen space, pushing those natural results ever closer to page 2. This means SEO strategies may well rely on more specific, long-tail results, and niche search areas (local, answers, video and more) Conversion / Landing page design / architecture8: Content is king!Content will always remain an important element for search – After all, it’s this, more than anything that customers are looking for – but it’s also key to conversion. Bryan Eisenberg identifies 4 different types of web visitor, all of whom will be trying to process the information on a page in different ways:
More about each user type’s traits can be found at Bryan’s blog http://www.grokdotcom.com/topics/copywritinghype2.htm, but ensuring you’re able to appeal to all these types in one form or another is key to ensuring that the maximum of site visitors are engaged customers. 9 the mobile revolution is here already!We’ve been promised it for years, but with the iPhone now well and truly part of the mainstream, mobile really is a key channel. Have you checked if your site even works on a mobile device? If it’s too dependent on flash, or built without paying heed to current web standards, you could be in for a shock. 10: Customers get CustomersBeyond Social Media, Social Commerce is a great way of gaining more conversions through your site. There are benefits from an SEO point of view from allowing users to post fresh content to you site, but more importantly, customers trust their peers far more than shops or manufacturers. Adding customer reviews and rankings to you site not only gives them confidence in you / your products, but can also make the navigation of your site and their decision making much easier. Try adding a “top ranked products” or similar tab to your homepage and see what effect it has. For more links and comments about SES London, Malcolm Coles has compiled a great list on his blog Tags:
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