Digital Analytics

5 Tips to Jump Start Your Mobile Analytics

July 25, 2014 by Daniel Laws 1 Comment

Danny Laws, our principal owner, senior digital strategist, and chief dreadlocks connoisseur, covers his top tips to adopting mobile analytics*.

Learn to get your strategy in gear, your solutions configured, your reporting streamlined, and more!

Transcript

Hi, my name’s Danny Laws. I’m the principal owner of DaBrian Marketing Group. I’m also one of the co-chairs with Philadelphia Digital Analytics Association. I want speak to you today about mobile analytics. One of the things that we’re talking about mobile analytics right now in the space is that mobile search is on the rise, mobile usage is on the rise, whether it be a
tablet or a smartphone, and we want to talk about how to jump start your ability to collect that information and what you should be considering in order to get you moving down the path.

The first thing that we recommend here is connecting mobile analytics with business value. So what we talk about from a business perspective is, are we looking to increase brand awareness from a mobile perspective; are we looking to cut costs; are we looking to become more efficient. By walking down this endeavor of mobile analytics, is it going to help position the company better in the long run? Those are some of the things you need to be considering from a value perspective.

The next thing that we recommend is is aligning the mobile analytics with the overall strategy, so whether it be a lead generation audit, part of an auditing process, part of discovery or education for internal purposes, you want to align that back to the organization’s high-level goals and objectives to make sure that it’s part of the plan, and that it’s going to influence what’s happening within the plan.

So the next component would be implementation or to implement with best practices. There are number of analytical platforms as well as mobile analytics platforms you can leverage in order to capture the data. What I say to that is “Great, but at the same time we need to configure, we need to implement best practices.” We need to implement the appropriate filters, the appropriate segments and slice and dice the data, get the cleanest possible view that we can in order to better analyze that information.

So you want to make sure that you’re implementing with best practices regardless of whether or not it’s Google, Webtrends, SiteCatalyst, you name it. You want to make sure that everything is configured appropriately or to the best of its ability.

The next thing that I would say is to measure what matters to the mobile audience specifically, so that you can better impact what’s happening to those customers and for what they’re seeing, whether be resolution, whether it be device, whether it be operating system, you name it. You want to be measuring what matters to that audience, and when we speak to that we talk about the journey. So as an example, you might want to take into account the device, the behavior, the outcomes, and then analysis of the information that’s happening from your mobile audience and consider what’s happening, and take that into account.

The last component of this is to make decisions that impact customers. Ideally, user behaviors simplify the process, make it easier for them, make it a better process overall to help impact their ability to download information, to view information, to make a purchase, to fill out a form, whatever it might be.

Once you get to this process, it’s important that you continue to target, whether it be from a device perspective, whether it be from a platform perspective, you want to target and test what you can to improve and continue to impact customers in the way that they interact with your mobile site, with your site, whether be from an informational perspective or from an eCommerce perspective, to be able to impact those components.

With that being said, my final recommendation is just to do it. Pull yourself together, allocate some time, get the ball rolling, and seize the moment while search traffic is on the rise and people are continuously getting access to mobile. If you have any questions, any comments, don’t hesitate to comment on our blog, to hit us up on Twitter, or to reach out to us direct. Thank you very much, hope you have a good day. Good hunting.

A One-Two Punch Approach to Email Analytics

July 17, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 4 Comments

You might think that video, animated gifs, or infographics are email marketing’s best friends. Let’s face it, email campaigns with all that rich content are bound to get you heaps and heaps of…results.

Okay, let’s stop there for a second.

The thing is, email is caught between two really important areas of marketing—technology and audience. On one hand, technology allows marketers to increase the functionality of an email, bringing it to life with animation and beautiful, cutting-edge designs. On the other, email is the marketing medium most susceptible to spam (and has the most universal consumer protection laws associated with it).

Today, many marketers are stuck with what is arguably a necessary marketing tool and the challenge of proving its effectiveness. I’m here to tell you that the amount of opens a campaign receives or the number of people who click through are no longer enough. These are metrics that you cannot directly tie to sales, goal achievement, or anything else that matters to you.

By the end of this post, though, you’ll have a much better idea of what to look for in the way of email analytics. For the purposes of this post, we’ll define analytics as the strategic use of data and measurement to make a certain marketing channel better. Consider what follows a checklist of the most important considerations when proving your email marketing’s worth.

Integration

As far as email marketing platforms go, you’ll be conducting your search among a sea of proprietary platforms. This definitely isn’t a bad thing, as custom solutions give you access to great support and consistent improvements and enhancements over time. The minor downside is these solutions’ inability to “play nice” with other platforms. In order to unlock the true potential of analytics, you’ll need to start by tying your sources of data together. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a mail-order, vegan pastry company decides to begin running email marketing campaigns to support their digital marketing, which predominantly takes place on social media. This company has a website which offers the ability for customers to place orders and process payments. In this case, we have separate sets of data in play:

Analytics data from website sessions (pageviews, bounce rate, etc.)
eCommerce data from the order system (transaction information, popular products, etc.)
Social media data (follower interactions, engagement, etc.)
Email campaign data (opens, bounces, click throughs, etc.)

As far as these platforms go, integrations are the only way to connect them to one another. Integrations most often take place natively or at the API level. With integrations between platforms, the vegan bakery in our example can differentiate email traffic to its website from social media traffic, understand how well a promotion targeted to its social media following performs in comparison to an email blast, or cater offers to past customers via subscription options during the checkout process. And that’s just with a few basic integrations.

With various platforms “playing nice” with one another, data will be more comprehensive, insights will be much more granular, and a clearer picture of your target audience will begin to develop. Once the data begins filtering in, you’ll need to be sure it’s leading you toward better decisions. That’s why the second step is…

Customization

Having readily-available, integrated data is one thing, but actually making it understandable is another entirely. Whether you’re showing progress to your internal team, your manager, or your client, raw numbers will get you nowhere fast. The task of turning numbers and graphs into insights and action can be an imposing one, but here are some quick tips to make the process easier:

Add context to your reporting

With your reports (in PDF format or otherwise), add text that ties the information back to a goal or objective.

Filter and segment data

Grab information that’s specific to a campaign or a particular audience segment. Be as granular as your solutions allow.

Strive for automation

Rather than repeat the same reporting process month after month, look to automate the process. Some solutions provide scheduled reports, shared assets, widget-based analytics, or some other way to access information in a streamlined way.

When in doubt, test and compare

This goes for subject-lines, template designs, and messaging. Once you find what works, do that consistently.

As you consider the email analytics options available to you, there are a few big factors to keep in mind. The first is limitation. No matter your final platform choice, regulations will always dictate the types of information that are accessible to you. But this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to gather actionable insights into the return of email marketing as an investment.

Another item to keep in mind is that successful email marketing is about more than the platform you choose. You could pay hundreds per month, but without a strategy or an ongoing optimization process, it’s likely that you won’t be able to justify the cost. Understanding the “big picture” is vitally important with any digital marketing channel, particularly one as ubiquitous as email. You’d be doing your organization a great injustice if you didn’t decide to take advantage of the latest advancements in marketing tech. You just need the right data to back it up.

What’s your solution to the email ROI puzzle? Shout it out in the comments below!

Why Your Company Needs a Digital Analytics Framework

June 19, 2014 by Daniel Laws 2 Comments

Regardless of how big or small your organization is, you’ve got data (sales, financial, customer, CRM, etc.), and you need a structure to inform how you collect or report on the data. This reason needs to be logical and ultimately impact your bottom line as well as multiple departments or individuals within a company.

What is a Digital Analytics Framework?

According to Webster’s dictionary, a framework is the basic or conceptual structure of something. In the case of digital analytics, it is generally the basic structure of applying digital analytics or web analytics to business goals and objectives. This terminology is popular with digital analytics consulting companies and “enterprise businesses,” but severely lacking outside of the industry. Digital analytics consultants such as Semphonic, e-Nor, and Tatvic have clear examples of digital analytics frameworks.

Data and Big Data Aren't Magical

Simply put, data and big data require a “basic structure” to handle them (i.e. a framework). At some point, your business must apply the digital analytics framework within the business. If you’ve started or manage a business without planning, a competitive analysis, research, a structure, or people, then it’s likely that you’re missing a fundamental framework as well. The analytics framework acts as the guiding structure to data, big data, integration, people, and the results (proven by analytics, obviously!). If the information you capture and integrate, the applications or tools to use, and the personnel you hire aren’t based upon a framework, you don’t have a direction!

But Where’s the Value?

When you’ve got a boatload of data all over the place, but no freaking clue as to how or what to pull together, a framework’s value shines through. For many businesses, this is the equivalent of finding $5 in your pants or shirt pocket every morning. It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up! Here are a few real examples:

Reduce Your cost per new customer, Lead or Sale by $5

With this goal, an analytics framework provides the structure to collect information on new customers, identify the source of each lead, and explore possible integrations to identify trends as well as opportunities to cut costs by $5 per new customer.

Increase lead generation, but with less marketing budget

If you don’t plan to collect the lead generation data, lead source, cost per lead, and have people to analyze the data, then it’s difficult to identify the tactics driving leads and at a lower cost than others.

So, how can you begin to incorporate a framework? Start by leveraging your existing assets. For example, I spoke with a Business to Business (B2B) company last week that has a purchase lead list, telemarketing services, and is tracking the leads in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The scary part is that after the telemarketing department schedules a meeting and the sales reps follow-up, the leads enter a “black hole”! By employing this approach, so does their profitability and growth.

Do you remember the saying, “If I knew what I know now, I would have……?”. The value of a set framework is in cutting costs, identifying opportunities, capitalizing on competitive advantages, and adjusting to shifts in industry-wide trends.

But Data and Big Data Don't Apply to my Business

I’m going to put it in the simplest terms:

Overlooking data will result in a wasted marketing budget
Not evaluating competitors’ marketing efforts will give them the upper hand
Ignoring the industry will negatively impact your competitive position

Steps to Move Toward an Analytics Framework

I would recommend that you start by revisiting your company’s goals and objectives. Then, you should take inventory of all your data points across the company. For example, you should list the tools that you use for the following items: sales, CRM, QuickBooks, email marketing platforms, ecommerce platforms, digital analytics, etc. You should also compile examples of all of the reports that the business is using.

Identify 3-5 business related questions that will help you to achieve your goals and objectives that you don’t currently have insight into. You should review the latest industry privacy and legal requirements regarding data storage for your industry. The goal here is to acquire information, develop a strategy, and streamline the discovery process.

Finally, pick up the phone and call 3 digital analytics professionals for an estimate. In many cases, it will require more than one person to create the strategy, implement the technology, integrate reports, and identify insights. Don’t fall into the trap of asking a marketing professional to build an analytics framework. Think of it this way—you wouldn’t ask an electrician to build you a house!

Have questions about tying your company’s data sources together? Drop us a line or leave a comment!

Sequential Messaging in Digital Advertising

January 15, 2014 by Daniel Laws 5 Comments

Defining Sequential Messaging

If you’re a follower of @DaBrianMarket or @DanielLawsJr, you have most likely seen our past tweets about sequential messaging. Sequential Messaging is generally a technique where messages are recorded in a preset order and executed individually based on the each activation of a device (tablet, smartphone, etc.).

So, What’s the big deal with sequential messaging?

Sequential Messaging has an opportunity to leverage the initial user interaction into a micro-conversion and target high quality leads. As an example, a shopper would click on a banner ad on a newspaper site for a new tablet. This action identifies the shopper as being interested in a new tablet and generates a series of sequential messages specific about the new tablet. The series of sequential messages could be on banners, emails, and perhaps in search engines. In some cases, the ad mix can be modified based on the shopper’s engagement with them.

What are the Future Possibilities of Sequential Messaging?

I think the future of sequential messaging is positive but contingent on the availability of technology to executive effective campaigns. I think there’s an opportunity to “connect the dots between digital advertising, TV advertising, mobile and gaming consoles.” It’s going to get easier to customize messages across devices with online tool-based logins, smart TVs, mobile devices, and gaming consoles offering more functionality and capabilities.

Take me for example. I’ve got a Samsung smart TV, Galaxy S4, Kindle, and more. My cell phone, which is connected to my Kindle, can change my TV channel. Thus, there’s no reason advertisers can’t create customized sequential messages across multiple devices. The capabilities of ad technology will be important to align with customer behaviors across multiple devices in order to customize the user’s overall experience with the brand. More specifically, it’s important that we obtain insights from sequential messaging to increase the effectiveness of marketing budgets and the ability to increase lead generation or sales.

What are the Challenges of Sequential Messaging in Digital Advertising?

In my opinion, one the main challenges will be measuring the effectiveness of sequential messaging in digital advertising and optimizing the process. In addition, the measurement of sequential messaging along with A/B or Multivariate testing across multiple devices. With the increasing importance on customer privacy, it will become increasingly challenging to track prospective customers, and with the recent Target data security breach, customers are becoming aware of the negative aspects of data collection and value their privacy. Furthermore, the tracking of sequential messaging will most likely require the tracking of customers’ unique logins as well as combining the data on their behaviors across multiple devices. Without educating customers on the benefits of doing so, it could be seen as intrusive and encounter a legal backlash from customers.

What about Measurement?

Last month in AdWeek, I read an article from Garett Sloane of Omnicom Digital which spoke of “sequential messaging as digital advertising’s next act.” I agree with Sloane’s point that sequential message could be the next step in digital advertising, but the execution requires powerful technology as well as perfect coordination. I think there will be a few businesses that look at sequential messaging as the next buzzword (right next to “big data”).

No matter the approach, it still needs to solve a business problem. Without measureable ad technology and the capabilities to collect the data, we’re going to have challenges measuring whether or not a message is resonating with the “right” customers. The right message, right person, and right time require the right analytical approach to improve the impact that sequential messaging has on delivering return-on-investment.

Is sequential messaging on your organization’s radar? Share your thoughts in the comments!

3 Considerations to Ensure Desktop UX Doesn’t Take a Back Seat To Mobile

June 12, 2013 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

We live in a world that is increasingly obsessed with touch devices ranging from smartphones and tablets to smart refrigerators. As I write this blog Apple’s Tim Cook is showing off their latest and greatest devices and iteration of iOS at their developer’s conference. It is pretty safe to say that touch devices are not only here to stay, but also account for a sizable chunk of the devices being used to browse the web. But what does this mean for user experience on the web?

Ever since we noticed the first increase in mobile traffic, the analytics industry has had the mobile web experience under a microscope.

The share of sessions on mobile and tablet devices continues to increase month over month.

Insights into mobile usage drove (and continue to drive) organizations to experiment with different strategies, ranging from mobile variations of their sites to full-blown mobile applications. These tactics all led to better user experiences on these smaller devices, with quicker load times, easier navigation, and increased levels of overall convenience.

Even with the increase in visitor share that mobile and tablet devices are demonstrating, it is important to ensure that the user experience for traditional browsing devices (desktops and laptops) is not sacrificed or fall to the wayside. Here’s 3 things to consider when weighing investments for mobile and desktop-friendly web designs:

The desktop environment isn't going anywhere for a long time

Contrary to what Microsoft and Apple are saying, the desktop environment is not dying and will never die off completely. They claim that the sales of tablets are outnumbering those of traditional laptops and desktops. It needs to be understood, however, that these numbers are not apples-to-apples (no pun intended). Touch-based devices have a much shorter useful lifespan before their hardware or software is no longer sufficient. Consumers can’t upgrade them to the level that they did desktops and laptops. A quick $30 investment in RAM for a desktop can increase its useful lifetime by over a year. With tablets, however, manufacturers found a way to eliminate the consumer’s ability to stretch the time between purchases even longer. Now consumers are purchasing new devices sooner.

I own several touch devices, including a tablet. It’s a fantastic device for checking email, basic browsing, and recreational activities. It is not as great for productivity, however. Though it is definitely better than working from a smartphone, the level of productivity from a tablet cannot match that of a desktop environment. That is why most offices and computer labs at universities will not shift most of their technology over to touch. That is also why the desktop user experience should not be ignored when it comes to web design.

Mobile vs. non-mobile ratios may differ between target audiences

The ratio of mobile vs. non-mobile devices used to interact with a website may differ between target audiences and even different segments within each audience. There is an obvious need for mobile solutions for financial service institutions that offer conveniences like mobile banking. But this need might not justify the cost for other industries.

Does a mobile app or site help accomplish your business goals?

This is single-handedly one of the most important questions to ask when determining how to approach the mobile experience. All too often we see organizations that invest so much in a mobile application or website and come to find that they do not actually serve to drive business in any significant way. Just like any other business investment, it is important to weigh it against what the organization is trying to accomplish and see how much it helps to get it there.

Before I wrap this up, I want to provide some clarification: Touch-based devices are here to stay and their usage is increasing with each month that goes by. I am not advocating that mobile should be overlooked anymore than the desktop user experience should. Both are extremely important for the long-term. Responsive web design has also helped to solve the gap that exists between the mobile and desktop experience. It is just a matter of the level of importance depending upon your organization, audience, and business goals. I’m a huge advocate of doing research and assessing situations before jumping into them.

Recognize some interesting patterns with mobile vs. desktop web designs in your industry? Share them here in the comments!

Google Analytics API – Lesson 1: The Basics

May 29, 2013 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Google Analytics provides ample documentation discussing their various code libraries. However, for someone just starting out, this information can be overwhelming. Even a Google subject can yield millions of results. So to simplify things, let’s start at the very beginning.

What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface and is used to describe how one piece of software interacts with others. APIs are generally used by programmers and developers to create applications that can interact with another company’s application or database. For the purpose of this blog, we will be taking a look at the Google Analytics API, its components, and potential uses.

What is the GA API?

The Google Analytics API (GA API) is a code library written in several computing languages that allows application developers to collect and receive information from the Google servers. At this time, a full data dump is unavailable, but developers can pick and choose specific metrics or dimensions to pull from Google and use for further data analysis. In GA terms, metrics are numeric values, while dimensions are strings.

Google’s intention for releasing the API is to give developers free roam to develop new and exciting applications. Since entire code libraries are provided, the possibilities are endless.

The Collection API

Google’s Collection API is used to collect data, generally specific metrics or dimensions. The default code for collecting data is written in JavaScript, and is provided to all Google Analytics users to place on their site. This piece of code links the Google account with the website, and, after verification, will start collecting data. In addition to the standard piece of code, the code can also be customized to collect specific pieces of data.

After the data is collected from the website, Google passes it through a series of functions to produce the data that is in the dashboard section of the account. It also produces a series of graphics in relation to key performance indicators.

The Reporting APIs

There are two different kinds of reporting APIs. The first of the two is the Core Reporting API. Its main purpose is to be used to produce general reports. In addition, this would be how to access most of Google’s stored data about the website in question. Applications can be written in a multitude of languages, and there are more languages and resources being added by developers all the time.

The second API is the Multi-Channel Funnels Reporting API. This API is for specific Multi-Channel Funnel data, rather than the open nature of its counterpart. It can be used to create custom reports based on this data. As with the Core Reporting API, there are many languages available for coding.

How Can I Use This?

There are no set rules when it comes to the possibilities for using the APIs, but there are some general uses that many follow. In the hands of a good team of developers, any number of apps can be created to take and manipulate Google’s data to fit business needs.

Currently, one of the most popular uses of the API is data warehousing. Data warehousing is a practice generally used by large companies to store huge amounts of data, often on a remote server. If Google Analytics is used, the data from Google can be added to a data warehouse via the API, depending on the language chosen.

Many developers also use Google’s code to collect and store specific metrics for analysis. Though Google provides a lot of information about site visitors, most data analysts are looking for key performance indicators, or a combination of specific metrics. Coding to use these specific metrics instead of using the default dashboard allows the analyst to have an in-depth look at specific pieces of data, in addition to the big picture.