Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

March 19, 2015 · 11:46 am

The Right Cure

You would never dream of going to the emergency room and telling the staff to remove your appendix. I mean, there are a lot of organs nearby and it could be diverticulitis or even a stone in your urinary tract. Probably not a good idea to show up demand that they start cutting. Instead, you’d go in and explain what your symptoms were and let the experts do the diagnosis. In order to get to a cure you first have to accurately identify the problem.

Bilateral kidney stones on abdominal X-ray. No...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’re thinking that’s an absurd example – who would do that? – but the odds are you have seen something very similar in your business life. Sales are a little slow and the boss comes in and announces that the ads stink – change them.  Sure, changing the creative or maybe even the media plan will have an effect – it will be a cure of sorts – but is it the right one?  That’s where data comes in.  The media plan may be delivering the planned impressions, the resulting traffic to whatever landing page you’ve designated might be fine – but conversions are low.  Analytics can tell you if it’s a landing page issue (bounce rates!) or a funnel issue (where aer they dropping out?).  The cure for those things – redesign or maybe some remarketing – isn’t to change the ads.

Some of us spend way too much time implementing the wrong cure.  We should be spending time looking at the symptoms and figuring out all the possible “diseases” they can indicate before we start demanding that someone removes a perfectly healthy appendix.  It’s not always easy when the one demanding is a higher-up but if they’re any good at what they do they’ll welcome someone who points out that there are many other potential issues the perceived problem can be.  While it’s not really a good idea to point out that you are more expert than the boss in your particular area (they should know that and think it’s a good thing!) part of your job is to protect whomever is driving the team forward from sending it off a cliff.

Cutting out an appendix isn’t a cure for kidney stones.  Changing a media plan isn’t a cure for a crappy website.  We need to find the right cure, not just any cure.  You agree?

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March 17, 2015 · 9:38 am

Staying In Second Gear

Imagine you’ve purchased a brand new Ferrari 488GTB.  You are now the proud owner of a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission which is in a vehicle said to be capable of 205 mph.  I don’t know about you but I would for damn sure want to find a place where I could get it out of second gear and let the machine perform to its abilities.  It would be a waste to leave it in second gear all the time.

English: Ferrari 458 Italia, pictured in London

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I thought about that as I read about the Relevancy Group’s 2015 version of the email service provider study.  What struck me was how many of those companies that rely on email marketing are underutilizing the wealth of data they have. Instead they relied on less advanced customer data attributes to segment audiences for email marketing campaigns.  As the eMarketer summary stated:

General demographic and geographic data were the most common metrics used for segmentation, and the only ones used by more than 35% of respondents. Meanwhile, other easily measured data points such as email clicks and open rates were used less frequently—especially the latter—and most marketers were unable to leverage metrics beyond the email realm such as past purchases and spending habits.

How very 2001, although I’m not surprised.  The sad reality is that many companies have no plan, no system, no KPI’s, and no ability to mine and utilize the bulk of the data they already have.  Just over a quarter of marketers have some sort of ability to create a single customer view across channels.  I suspect those of you who aren’t marketers have some of the same issues.  Data can live in silos or be fragmented across reporting lines.  A big problem which gets bigger every day.

How can we get the rest of the email marketing world out of second gear? Part of it is understanding.  It’s nice that many of the marketers surveyed planned to focus more on segmentation and targeting, ranking it the top email marketing priority for 2015.  But unless there is a better understanding of what’s being collected and a commitment to a single repository from which all stakeholders can draw, I don’t see them reaching  top speed in their marketing.  You?

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March 10, 2015 · 10:48 am

Dark Social

I will admit upfront that today’s screed is a little wonky.  You might want to stay with me though – you might just figure something out about your business as we go.  Ready?

The topic today is what’s been called “dark social” traffic.  No, these are not teenagers cruising Main Street late at night.  It refers to people coming to your website based on a link that’s been shared to them socially.  In other words, when I see an article I like and share it with a friend via email or messaging, most web analytic systems don’t really get how the recipient got to the website (although some are beginning to).  Since they clicked on a URL and went directly to the site (not from another website), it’s reported as direct traffic which is a big dumping bin of mostly unknown sources (even though it’s supposed to be users who came by typing the URL or via bookmark).  With me so far?

I did a little exercise on one of my client’s site traffic.  I looked at direct traffic which didn’t enter the site on the home page, an indicator to me of dark social traffic since people don’t generally type in long URL’s.  11% of their traffic was dark social.  With another client it was 34%.  I did some research and it turns out that those numbers are pretty typical – The Atlantic Monthly, which receives 5M monthly uniques, reports 60% of traffic from dark social.  Smithsonian Magazine realized it was 82% of their shares. Why is this important to you?

If you’re spending time analyzing your data to make better marketing decisions – which audiences to target through which channels, which content is socially relevant, etc – knowing what’s being shared and by whom is important.  The client I checked usually has a somewhat older skew and we use that in marketing.  The dark social traffic, however, demonstrates not only a higher rate of sharing of content among younger (18-24) people but also a higher conversion rate.  Very interesting and actionable data point.

The broader point is one you’ve heard before.  We need to spend time thinking about how our customers and potential customers come to and interact with our brand.  We need to formulate good questions and try to answer them with the data.  Data for data’s sake is useless.  Using data to drive actionable business decisions is where we are right now in marketing and business, at least where I and my clients are.  You?

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