Online analytics for B2B business

Success of web strategy in a B2B environment depends on generating “qualified” leads for the sales teams. Although, growing brand awareness, increasing user engagement, drawing qualified applicants, etc. are also equally important, yet ignored, aspects that require increased focus. However, the data trends may not be as apparent as is the case with B2C online analytics. Hence, online analytics for B2B organizations need to be organized around the 3 guiding principles of Measurement, ROI and Management Communication.

In one of my recent engagements, I was working with a client to build an effective web analytics strategy and framework - the key was to monitor and achieve positive results on the above goals. The project success was mainly achieved by addressing the above 3 guiding principles; in that, once the metrics were identified that tracked the progress towards the established goals, it was a question of building frameworks for models that could define ROI and management commitment to effectively communicate the need and benefits of an effective online strategy.  

Measurement – Google Analytics is one of the more popular analytics implementations among B2B businesses, which helps measure the key metrics that most organizations would need to understand their consumers and site usage. The key is to identify process of lead conversion between traffic to the site and a successful sale (read customer conversion). For this reason, it is important that the scorecard shows the traffic, engagement and sales metrics, from web and sales analytics packages, respectively. I have also recommended revenue metrics, such as, revenue per visit, revenue per lead, etc., based on average sales to quantify web traffic.

ROI – models and business analysis capabilities help establish the value of traffic to the site, prioritize investments and measure returns.

Management Communication – effective scorecards and metrics reporting helps senior management see the value web strategy drives for the business, however long the lead conversion process takes. Metrics showing engagement growth, positive reviews, more applicant inquiries, etc. are all good indicators of a successful web strategy, and should be included as part of regular business updates.

Also, important is for the business to build data management tools such that web traffic and sales success can be correlated for clear measurement, ROI and management communication. Last, but not the least, hiring the right skill set and assigning the team to the right organization will be critical factors in achieving success with B2B goals.

Succeeding with business analysts

Every organization employs business analysts through different titles, business units, reporting structure, etc. What I often found was a significant disconnect among the duties, organizational goals and qualifications of the employees involved. Here I am not referring to individual qualifications, instead how they fit in with the management’s vision of applied analytics to achieve organizational goals.

I have had financial analysts performing the tasks of a marketing analyst, a web analyst performing the task of a business analyst and so on.

I believe there are 3 key considerations in improving the effectiveness of a business analyst to an organization:

• Qualifications – a business analyst should be numbers savvy, have keen business acumen and be able to visualize and theorize (this is often the most ignored). However trivial this may sound, it is more common than one would imagine.
• Clear goal definition – business unit heads should clearly define the business analysts’ roles, More importantly, they should resist the temptation to “take on more” because the organization is budget constrained and analyst is the “closest fit” to the functional skills needed for say, a tech analyst, tagging/implementation/Q&A analysts, etc. This only helps to dilute the impact a pure thinker and data expert can provide to analyzing and improving the business operations.
• Direction from management – managers should provide continuous direction and help channelize the theories on business performance that analysts come up with based on their continuous interaction with data. The challenge is to stay focused on organization goals, identify high-impact analysis/recommendations and prioritize projects with clear ROI and benefits.

Being in a large organization, I have struggled with all of the above, which resulted in not being able to hire/retain good talent, and/or generate and apply good analytical insights to test our theories. 

The issues in achieving the maximum efficiencies are sometime genuine, but without a qualified analyst, clear goals and leadership, we are not giving ourselves a fair shot at tackling them. Have a story? Share your experiences of how these hurdles were overcome in your organizations.

Website optimization OR portfolio planning

Web experience depends on a wide range of variables that are more conflicting than complementing to each other. For instance; to drive content consumption we tend to place a greater number of links on a page, in turn getting more clicks and page view depth. However, this user behavior may not drive the highest contribution (revenue per user) value for the business, since page view inflation tends to diminish CPM rates from advertisers. For such hybrid models, which most websites tend to be, optimizing the website experience then becomes a science that can be tackled by applying portfolio planning mindset across the variables.

The chart below illustrates different variables that may influence portfolio analysis approach to website optimization - product, design and UI, marketing, partner metrics, etc. Each of the variables are critical for meeting consumer, industry and organization goals however, lack of both, a well-defined web strategy and a portfolio approach may result in poor investment decisions and diminished returns.

So how do we tackle the “portfolio of variables” for maximum return on our website investments (I am only going to speak to the internal metrics, not the ones controlled by external partners)? First of all, we need to define the goals and build the revenue model that is based on key variables and estimates the common measurable denominator - $$. Then we need to look at each variable as a part of the larger model and determine what site features are critical for their success, respectively. For instance, traffic into the site could depend on the promotion type, promotion source, etc. Once the user lands in the experience, it is the content, user interface, navigation, etc. that will drive user satisfaction. Finally, as the users leave the site, we need to ascertain that their needs were met – did they click out to make a purchase or a lead, did they find the content satisfactory, did the search results return what they were looking for, did the partner promotion lead them down the conversion funnel, etc.

We need to further define and understand what traffic sources (SEO, SEM, online promotions, etc.) work best for driving new users to the channel. Here a useful approach can be to determine the value of each traffic source which helps in optimizing the return on investment (here’s some more on this topic from an earlier post …. http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/04/higher-marketing-roi-with-traffic.html).

Alternatively, our business may need to focus on optimizing the value each user delivers to the business. In this case, we will need to focus on conversion metrics. How can we drive more ad revenue (if that’s or business model) by improving consumer engagement on the site and growing RELEVANT page views, which in turn, improves CPM revenue.

In other instance, our business model may need to be optimized for driving qualified traffic to our partners (read CPC and/or Lead Gen revenue). Here, the focus should be on measuring and refining search results, product details and description, research tools to facilitate purchase, design and user interface to encourage purchase, etc. The business model helps to quantify each of these metrics, either through single variable or multiple variable analyses.

Equipped with this level of detail, general managers can ask the right questions of the functional units (Design, Product, UI, Marketing, Sales) and drive focus on the critical areas for overall business success. The success achieved through such portfolio approach to business optimization is more manageable and highly sustainable, as operational efficiencies are achieved through clear focus and optimum resource allocation.

Your turn - would love to hear from the strategic planners and analysts on other lessons learnt!

Value of social media – grow offline “Influencers”

A visit to a doctor’s office almost always starts with a finger on the pulse. I liken "net promoters" as that starting point to learn about the health of a business, before diving into a wide array of tables and charts, and making recommendations to optimize website and/or business operations. 

Harvard Business Review talked about “net promoters” as one metric businesses should measure – the idea being that if the user is talking about your product/service to friends and family, he/she is most likely to return and bring new traffic to your store; which brings us to the concept of one metric that can be used as a “pulse” of the business. I promoted a concept of “repeat visitation” as that one metric to define your website’s performance. Another one that I have believed strongly in is the “bounce rate” that is a good indicator of our success at engaging our users the moment they set foot in our experience.

Interestingly enough, all these metrics tend to define user satisfaction with your product or service, implying that the users are willing to talk about it – think “social media.” I found that a recent eMarketer report talked about influencers in the same vein. Here’s the quote “Marketers trying to boost their earned media online are on the hunt for influencers, those customers who are ready and willing to spread the word to others about products and services … they looked for new experiences, liked to know about new products first and told their friends when they had problems with a brand …” 

The study noted that word-of-mouth happened offline, however, it all starts online and we can employ some of the following tactics to build differentiated social media plans in our online marketing strategy.

1. Identify the target audience in your social media mix that can be categorized as “influencers.” These are typically the ones who are most engaged with your products/services/brands.
2. Build a company blog, if you already don’t have one, which speaks to this user segment.
3. Target the influencers through both social media and company blog with product information and updates, relevant offers, etc.
4. Sustain their interests through polls, surveys, offers that offer them a forum to speak and also talk about your product/service - this will drive new users to your site through the word-of-mouth.
5. Offer special sales and promotions designed for this group to thank them for their loyalty and support.

Improving lifetime value, high engagement, and brand loyalty never sounded this easy … all the more relevant in B2B environment.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the topic, things that worked in your business, new ideas!

Social media strategy and ROI ... again!

A recent eMarketer study highlighted that an ROI driven social media strategy was needed before businesses can actually start to invest in and reap the rewards. It was pointed, based on the 2 facts below, that social media users are not seeing the profits as anticipated and that there was a lack of data to support investments:


*  Only 35% are reported to have profited from social media through increased leads – these are also the ones who would invest in a social strategy and have staff dedicated to analyzing social media efforts.
*  The biggest hurdle to social media strategy is the lack of data to measure the ROI and a subsequent executive buy-in for greater investments – nearly 60% cited these as primary reasons for implementing social media strategy.

These are telling facts!

I maintained in this blog that measuring social media can be challenging purely in terms of an ROI model (net of revenue and cost), simply because the scale is not there for a typical business (in my experience). Instead, we need to utilize social media as a means to other insights (users and product) that may contribute to improving ROI through more traditional media – ones where we can easily setup a model to quantify revenue and cost for a net return (my earlier post on this topic:  http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/03/measuring-social-media-user-vs-product.html). 


I believe the social media efforts need to be looked at as pure investment into the future. The immediate benefits can be had from sampling and testing approach I proposed in the above post. Let’s look at social media data to learn more about our products, consumers and competitors, so we can make better decisions about our current marketing efforts. Hint - the consumers may tweet about a certain product feature they don’t like; certain types/demographics of consumers may be more interested in the brand/product; there may be a buzz about the competitive offerings that may need more attention; and so on.

Building the intelligence model from social media may be a simpler way to look at the ROI than trying to build an ROI model which, as the report highlighted, may not be easily done due to lack of data and appropriate mathematical model. 


Other insights, ideas ... please share!

Higher marketing ROI with traffic source contribution

Users find multiple ways to come to our website and represent different interests. But if we are treating them equally, then we are doing ourselves a disservice by not capturing the optimum value of each of our traffic sources. I have talked about targeted landing page experience, in this blog, for traffic from search, navigation, etc., as a means to improving stickiness and engagement. However, to please our finance folks, we also need to assign a value – an ROI or contribution (revenue/visit) – to each of these traffic sources to fully understand the potential and impact of our site improvement efforts.

As an example, one of my projects was to understand the contribution value of traffic from each of our traffic sources. The biggest hurdle to achieving this objective was the fact that we did not have any tracking to follow the user from the time it entered the experience to the time it left the experience. Depending on the size and scope of your web traffic, it could be a daunting task to collect that kind of data. However, if we tag each campaign appropriately, we can come fairly close to isolating the path. Of course the analytics software we employ will be crucial to achieving the goal (we were using Omniture and an in-house tracking solution to marry traffic and revenue data and build the user path).

Once we are able to follow the user through our site, we measured the revenue points in the path and aggregated to arrive at composite revenue/visit from a particular traffic source. Consumer centric tracking is one approach that may be useful (http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/04/tracking-make-it-customer-centric.html).

For instance; revenue/visit from content promotion was more dependent on user navigation and hence advertising revenue. However, search driven revenue/visit was driven more by user clicks to purchase and hence CPC revenue and/or Lead Gen revenue. We found wide variation, more than 100% between the low and high contribution values, among all our promotion vehicles. But, now we were able to employ targeting and relevant cross-sell/up-sell to grow revenue and contribution from each traffic source. Imagine the possibilities for your marketing ROI, if you were equipped with traffic source level contributions as you make decisions about where to promote, how much to spend, etc., on your campaigns. Listening to our customers and utilizing continuous feedback to update our content and products should help drive a favorable trend in traffic source contribution: http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/01/customer-is-always-right.html). This can be a competitive differentiator and a valuable tool in marketing portfolio planning.

Tracking - make it customer centric!

Knowing what your customers want or need, I believe, is the type of intelligence that is best obtained from internal data, rather than market studies. While the latter are a good source of market intelligence and trends, a more focused “consumer centric tracking” will ensure that we are better prepared to serve our consumers’ needs. The possibilities could be endless, from right targeting of offers, to lower acquisition costs, to greater conversion and monetization. I spoke about the customer focus (http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/01/customer-is-always-right.html), and now we need to ensure that our tracking is helping us achieve some of the benefits identified in that approach.

Achieving this level of granularity may be tricky, given consumer privacy issues, but we can aggregate user data in the right buckets to define our unique segments, design a scorecard to monitor appropriate metrics and create a process to quickly supplement our offerings to changing user needs.

While I talked about measuring the value of web traffic by promotion source, here the theory is that we build an understanding of user segments. For instance, if we are a content site, we may want to learn about the browsing behavior of our sports readers, segmented into say, MLB/NBA/Olympics/Soccer fans, etc. Metrics such as, time spent on the site, navigation pattern to other site sections, number of pages per visit, frequency of visits per month, shopping tendencies, awareness towards brands, etc. Following these segments may yield better returns per marketing dollars spent than a wide targeting of content and offers through the generic sports page.

What this data does is that it helps define our user experience, site navigation and product offers that are truly unique to this user segment. And we need to respect the findings to an extent that if our sports readers tell us that they are not interested in shopping (hypothetically), then we make the experience richer by showing them more content and leaving out the “useless” product ads from their pages – talk of a no-frills attached user experience. How else does one define relevance and targeting?