Digital marketing analyticsby chuck hemann & ken burbary

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Fundamentally, we still want the same things that weve always wanted:

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whats best for ourselves and

those we care about,

the need to be heard and the desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves so that we can make a lasting impact on the world.

If we as marketers and communicators can grasp that reality and ensure that were thinking about the needs of consumers in this digital age,

well find that awareness will be repaid by more attention, trust, and loyalty.

The rise of social media has granted us access to unfiltered consumer data in real-time, or near real-time,

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that can influence the direction and even the creative elements of campaigns.

Rest assured that this is the very type of marketing expertise that will be highly valued in the future.

The geeks shall truly inherit the (marketing) earth.

Todays digital media landscape is more complex than ever before.

The continuous and rapid introduction of new platforms, tools, data sources, and media consumption devices (such as mobile devices and tablets) have created an environment that can make any marketers head spin.

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The challenge now lies in identifying which unique composition of all those choices is required to produce the outcomes needed to achieve your digital goals and objectives.

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Specific questions to ask:

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1) Which audience segments are competitors reaching that you are not?

2) What keywords are successful for your competitors?

3) What sources are driving traffic to your competitors websites?

Your website exists for a reason. More specifically, it exists for a set of specific conversion events.

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Leading web analytics platforms provide insights regarding this key area and answer questions about how onsite user behaviors lead to conversions.

Do not get stuck in the trap of trying to measure everything just because the data is available.

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Cutting through the clutter and positioning your brand, your digital outposts, and your brand content in the best possible way to be discovered is more critical today than ever before.

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In order to successfully do that, brands need to first understand how they are currently positioned,

how consumers are currently behaving in terms of searching for relevant content and experiences, and

what competitors are actively doing to capture consumer attention first.

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Its not obvious on the surface, but creating successful, personalized user experiences can happen only with a keen understanding of the audience and their needs, expectations, and behaviors.

This requires pulling in digital data from a variety of sources and performing rock-solid analyses.

The end result is a clear picture about what makes an audience tick, and it is something that you can begin to align against as you develop your marketing and advertising plans.

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We call this process audience analysis.

The term AUDIENCE itself can be used as an acronym for remembering this technique:

Analysis - Who is the audience?

Understanding - What is the audiences knowledge and attitude toward the brand?

Demographics - What is the audiences age, gender, education, location, and so on?

Interest - Why is the audience reading, sharing, and interacting with your brand content?

Environment - Where does the audience spend time online?

Needs - What are the audience needs associated with your brand, product, or service?

Customization - What specific needs and/ or interests should the brand address in order to add value for the audience?

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Social data analysis is a big area of focus these days. Brands are trying to get answers to audience questions such as these:

What conversations are taking place about my brand?

What topics and/or themes are most talked about?

How does my audience feel about specific brand, product, or service attributes?

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For marketers, the Good News is that its never been easier to produce and distribute content to an audience.

The BAD NEWS is that as a result, it has never been more difficult to get noticed.

More competition puts a bigger emphasis on making sure you know that your content meets the needs and expectations of the target audience.

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The riddle that marketers need to solve involves understanding the content needs of the audience,

how the audience consumes content,

and how to deliver on that!

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Often, marketers believe they understand what consumers want to hear from them.

Often, marketers are wrong.

The brand might want to talk about its products, services, or latest deals or promotions.

Consumers dont necessarily have an aversion to that content, but they are looking for a shared value exchange- something in it for them.

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They are voting either for or against a brand with their time and attention, and

consumers give either a direct or implied endorsement in the form of likes, shares, retweets, favorites, ratings, and reviews.

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Social media conversation data is powerful and provides a window into consumer behavior in a way that marketers have never seen.

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It is also a real-time source of information that shows how a program is performing.

Receiving negative feedback from a customer is a little more challenging. Following these steps can help you handle this situation:

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1. Acknowledge the feedback publicly and suggest that the conversation be taken offline.

2. Note to the angry customer that you care about the feedback and are constantly listening.

3. Ensure resolution (as best as possible) of the matter quickly and professionally.

4. Customers are aggravated by unresolved issues, especially if a resolution was promised.

5. In whatever software solution your company is using, document all the elements of the situation. You never know when that issue may come up again.

Understand what kinds of content your competition
is producing online:

1. Examine content engagement (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)

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2. Post frequency (how often and when?)

3. Paid vs. earned

4. Is YOUR target audience participating?

After you have identified the keywords people are using online, it is important to cross-reference those words against the words you are using on all your properties.

Do they match the words you are tagging on your website? If not, why?

The goals should be to customize your content to what the community is looking for and also to make it as visible as possible.

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Are these words the same words you are using in social media posts? If not, why?

Again, you need to ensure that you are giving the right content and that it is very visible.

What about on your blog? The same idea fits.

Conduct an inventory of the words you are using in tags versus the words you have identified that match these issues.

Who is the customer?

Its a simple question, but its difficult to answer based on the data sources and research you use.

Dont guess who the customer is; know!

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Think about it for a moment:

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If you do a Google search for your name, what typically appears?

By this point in the book, you have probably guessed that we think digital media is important.

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Were not the only people who think so. According to a recent report from Econsultancy, 68% of companies report that they expect increases for their digital budgets over the next 12 months.

Anecdotally, we have heard from several client-side marketing professionals that digital spending is going up, while television spending is decreasing.

This is not a trend that is likely to slow, especially as brands attempt to continue to capitalize on a new channel that allows them to more frequently communicate with key stakeholders and drive new business leads.

What is also not going to change is the abundance of data available to communications professionals.

In fact, the amount of data is likely to go up from here as social media becomes more mainstream.

The fact that 25% of your fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter are engaged with your content does not necessarily translate into sales.

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Potential Tactics

Build a Facebook brand page Establish a Twitter account Launch a YouTube channel

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Outreach to mainstream news outlets to further a particular message Activate bloggers to grow the share of conversation

Because using mobile devices to consume information has become so common, more marketers are trying to

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understand how they can reach consumers on the go.

Companies are developing apps and new websites in order to capture consumers wherever they live.

One of the things that most of us who work in some sort of marketing-related profession take for granted is the use of a smartphone device.

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Many assume that all those who utilize mobile technology are doing so from a smartphone device.

But that could not be further from the truth.

There are still many people using older cellular technology, like flip phones.

Marketers need to consider how their content is going to be viewed, consumed, and shared on a smartphone.

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Although some people are still utilizing older technologies, a smartphone growth rate of 42% needs to be taken seriously.

Android devices are still growing more quickly than iOS devices worldwide.

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In fact, Android devices are growing six times faster than iOS devices.

Android devices are taking more of the market because Android is a more open platform for developers, has greater device security, and has more widespread availability.

The bottom line is that marketers need to consider all platforms when building new mobile-optimized content.

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Just in the past two years, the amount of traffic Internet sites has received from mobile devices has exploded. According to StatCounter (see Figure 20.4), 1% of site traffic came from mobile devices as of December 2009.

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As of December 2012, that number had climbed to 13%.

This is a staggering increase, and the trend line is only going to go higher as mobile device and smartphone adoption continues to rise.

In some markets, the amount of traffic coming from mobile devices has surpassed the amount coming from desktops.

Interesting Statistics

Gartner predicts that by the end of 2013, more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies will actively engage customers with Facebook marketing, up from 20% in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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Only 25% of business-run social media accounts are defined by meaningful customer engagement and consistent content distribution (Altimeter Group).

In the past year, 17% of customers have used social media to get a customer service response (American Express 2012 Customer Barometer).

Customers who engage with companies via social media spend 20% to 40% more money with those companies than other customers (Bain & Company).

More than 20% of consumers use social media to seek information or to find deals or recommendations (J.D. Power and Associates).

One survey found that 60% of customers feel companies have generally improved their response times over social media channels (American Express 2012 Customer Barometer).

Content is the lifeblood of any marketing program, digital or otherwise.

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If your content is not appropriately tailored for the audience you are trying to reach, the program will fail.

It really is that simple.

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