Aug 28 2009

I love Google Analytics, I really do.  The only issue I have is that some of the information I want is not always easily obtained.  Say you add some external links to your site, wouldn’t it be nice to see how many people actually click them?  Or what if you want to segment your visitors based on the page’s they visit?  This is all possible with a few Google Analytics tips and tricks!

1.  Tracking FULL Referral URL’s

In order to set this up you will need to add the following to your Analytics profile.

Name:  Full Referrers
Type: Custom Filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Referral (.*)
Field B -> Extract B:
Output To -> Constructor: User Defined $A1
Field A Required: Y
Field B Required: N
Override Output Field: Y
Case Sensitive: N

2.  Track Downloads and Mail links

This is really helpful when you’re trying to figure out how many people are actually downloading your product or click your HTML mailto links.

Download Tracking Code:

<a href=”http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/downloads/map’); “>

Mailto Tracking Code:

<a href=”mailto:[email address]“onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(’/mailto/bob’);”>[email address]</a>

3.  Tracking Outbound Links

This is one of my favorite!  Nothing like seeing what external links people are clicking.

<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/outgoing/example.com’);”>

4.  Segmenting Site Visitors

Using the code below you can segment visitors by the pages they visit or actions they take.  This can be useful when determining if the pages on your site are helping or hurting your sales process.

<script type=”text/javascript”>pageTracker._setVar(’Marketing/PR’);</script>

5.  Track Exact Keywords from your AdWords Campaign

The keywords you see in Google Analytics (CPC) are not the actual keywords someone typed in the search box, they are simply the words that triggered your ad.  If you want to see the exact keywords, add the filters below to your Analytics profile.

Name: PPC Keywords 1
Type: Custom filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Referral > (\?|&)(q|p)=([^&]*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Medium > cpc|ppc
Output To -> Constructor: Custom Field 1 > $A3

Field A Required, Field B Required and Override Output Field need to be set to Yes.

Name: PPC Keywords 2
Type: Custom filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Custom Field 1 > (.*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Term > (.*)
Output To -> Constructor: Campaign Term > $B1,($A1)
Well, there you have it!  Hope you find these Google Analytics tips helpful!

- Marko

Designing a home page often reminds me of my wife’s favorite television show, “Income Property” on HGTV.  Each homeowner is looking to renovate their basement with the hope of eventually renting it out and making some money off of it.  In order to do so, they have a list of items that need to be addressed prior to the property being viewed by renters.  At the start of the show, it always seems impossible that they can transform their small, dingy, dilapidated basement into a beautiful and desirable apartment that somehow makes such efficient use of space that it adheres to all renovation best practices and fulfills all the needs of every potential renter.

As it turns out, they always get the job accomplished, but not without the homeowner having to inevitably compromise of some apartment amenities due to space restrictions. This process is very similar to home page design.  When you look at everything the home page has to accomplish you quickly realize that it is impossible to fit every element in.  Most users have a tendency to scan down the home page just far enough to get a quick idea of what the site is. This means that space on the page is very limited and most elements must be squeezed “above the fold”. This is the beach-front property of the site and with such limited real estate to work with, compromises have to be made in order to complete the most important goal of the page, conveying the big picture, while offering additional elements such as impressing and enticing the users, and exposing them to promos, deals, timely content, shortcuts, and registration options (if applicable).

The home page has to also appeal to everyone who visits the site, no matter how diverse their interests are.  According to Steven Krug, author of “Don’t Make Me Think”, the home page needs to answer the following questions as quickly and clearly as possible in order to accomplish its main goal.

1.    What site is this?
2.    What do they have here?
3.    What can I do here?
4.    Why should I be here and not somewhere else?
5.    Where do I start?

These questions seem fairly straight forward and obvious, but in actuality, it takes a very strategic blue print to answer these questions without compromising too much of the design and branding elements. Below is an example of how eBoost Consulting approaches the answers.

As you can see, we try and answer as many questions as possible within a users “glance” so the chances are lessened that the they will misinterpret something, get frustrated, and have a dissatisfying experience. If the user has clarity on who we are and what our value proposition is within the first 30 seconds or so, there is a greater chance that they will become engaged and continue into the interior pages of our site. Establishing credibility and trust is paramount because this may be our only chance to create a good first impression.

So how do you accomplish all of these goals in such a limited amount of space?  First, you put on your interior designer hat, mapping out what page elements need to be included in order to satisfy your target customer segments.  Then you utilize specific methods that are proven to be space efficient while still accomplishing a multitude of page goals.  Below are two examples of proven methods:

The Tagline: The tagline is phrase that sums up the whole enterprise, and what makes it great in about six to eight words.  The tagline should appear right below, above, or next to the site id because it visually connects your message with your brand.  It is the most valuable space on the page and where users expect to find a concise statement of the site’s purpose.  A good example of a tagline is:  “Single Best Resource For Website Music Reviews”

The Welcome Blurb: The welcome blurb is a brief description of the site and its value proposition, visible without scrolling.  The idea is to use as much space as necessary, but not any more than that.   Keep the text just long enough to get the message across, and ensure that this space isn’t utilized to show your mission statement; hardly anyone takes the time to read those.  A good example of a welcome blurb is: You will find thousands of articles on snowboarding, an online community of riders, and a huge store carrying all your favorite brands.

So there you have it.  The questions and answers you need to ensure your income property helps you pay the mortgage.

Kurt Kaufer

I once read that the difference between a weekend fisherman and a professional fisherman is that the professional fisherman writes down things like the date, water temperature, time, size of fish, the exact spot where he dropped the line, the weather conditions, etc…  Whereas the weekend fisherman will move from spot to spot, try new lures, buy new equipment and wonder why can’t catch many fish.  How does this related to a strategic marketing plan?  Simple.  The professional fisherman tracks and analyzes his results and is therefore able to make better decisions the next time out.

Although the example above is very simple, the solution is rarely that easy.  Now, in order for you to really, completely, fully understand how we at eBoost create strategic marketing plans there are three key elements you will need to know:

1. eBoosts Strategic Methodology
2. eBoosts Strategic Concept
3. One of eBoosts Strategic Tools

First up, we have eBoosts strategic methodology, also know as our strategic problem solving methodology.   In order to solve a problem we have to first have a problem, and we always formulate problems in the form of a question.

Problem:  How does our company increase sales?

Before we can even begin trying to answer this question we need information.  Information is the bread and butter of our strategic methodology and until we have enough of it, we keep collecting it.  So, what is enough?  Enough is 70% Data to 30% Critical Unknowns and Assumptions.

Date – Data is anything we can quantify.  Numbers, percentages etc…
Critical Unknowns – Critical Unknowns are always in the form of a question and questions that make this list are things we absolutely have to know before we can even begin trying to formulate a marketing plan.  For the example above,  a critical unknown would be how many sales do we have a month or year.  This is critical because we can’t accurately increase sales if we don’t know how many sales we currently have.
Assumptions – Assumptions are things we feel or think.  An assumption for the example above might be “I feel like our sales team could be closing more deals”.

An important thing to know is that when we quantify Critical Unknowns and Assumptions they become data.

After we have collected enough information we move to eBoosts Strategic Concept, Theory Focused Planning.  TFP uses Data, Critical Unknowns and Assumptions to help bridge the gap between where we currently are and where we’d like to be.  The chart on top of this page illustrates it much better but imagine a dot in the middle of a large circle.  That dot in the middle represents the perfect answer, the only thing is, it’s unreachable.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t get close to it and that is exactly what we are trying to do.  Why do you think that dot is unreachable?  Because of the ever changing Internal and External Factors that influence it.

Internal Factors
-    Strategy
-    Operational Activities
-    Resources
-    People
External Factors
-    Public
-    Micro Economic Forces
-    Customers
-    Competition

It’s also important to note that when we are collecting this information we are collecting it from the past and present so that we can better plan for the future, only makes sense since we make marketing plans for the future.  To illustrate this we use a Time Continuum and the past is 20/20 hindsight, present is 20/20 insight and future is 20/20 foresight.

The last piece to the puzzle is one of our Strategic Tools, the 3C Model.

The 3C Model was discovered by Kenichi Ohmae, a partner of McKinsey and Company in the mid 1980’s and what he did was study successful Japanese businesses to better understand how they worked and what made them so successful.  What he discovered was that each one of these successful Japanese businesses had perfect balance between their Company, Customers and Competition.  This is where we get the 3C’s and the perfect equilateral triangle.  The triangle itself represents complete balance, that’s why it’s exactly 60 degrees on each side.  Kenichi said that when a company has this perfect harmony and balance between the 3C’s, then and only then can they sustain a competitive advantage.

So how does this tie into how we formulate strategic marketing plans?  Since we have compiled a lot of Data, Critical Unknowns and Assumptions up to this point we can now take that information and see where it falls into the 3C’s.  We might find that we know a lot about our competition and we might be doing things well within our company but we don’t really know our customers so then we know what we need to focus on.  We would then collect more information about the customers, we would test those Critical Unknowns and Assumptions to get data.  If for example you are collecting information and you notice a lot of Critical Unknowns related to your customers then that would be a pretty clear indication that the 3C triangle might not look like a perfect triangle at all.

Now that we collected all this information using our Strategic Methodology and Strategic Concept and have evaluated our current 3C Model to find areas where we can improve, we can finally formulate a sound Strategic Marketing Plan to help us achieve our goals and help balance out our 3C Triangle to ensure our business has a sustainable competitive advantage.

- Marko

It’s no secret that the customer is the basis of all marketing and business strategy. A corporation’s largest concern should be understanding the customer’s needs, wants, and demands because in the long run, a company that is genuinely interested in their customers will be interesting to investors. A successful business is built on having a profound perception of the entire consumer driven process highlighting what moves them from awareness, to interest, to eventual action. Having this understanding prefaces the strategic formulation of effective actionable insight. The end result can be a real competitive advantage in your industry.

Consumers can fall into many segments. For example, Gary A. Williams and Robert B. Miller state in their article entitled, “Change The Way You Persuade” that persuasion works best when it’s tailored to five distinct decision making styles. These styles include charismatics, thinkers, skeptics, controllers, and followers. Being able to tailor your messaging based on individual personalities can greatly improve your chances of creating an actionable and loyal customer base. Because each purchase decision is based off of many personal influences, it’s important to have a framework in place to identify what customer values and purchase styles are. One method to organizing this information is to create representative profiles of your customers based on real data. These hypothetical archetypes, or “personas” represent specific customer segments and include valuable information pertaining to their individual purchase behaviors, rationality, and emotions. Having these touch-points mapped out not only helps with marketing and business positioning strategies, but assists in creating alignment internally and externally when it comes to messaging, sales, and customer service. All internal and external parties will be making decisions from the same vantage point, using the same language. The end result can be an accelerated marketing foundation process that is highly effective in driving the consumer into your desired action.

Please click on the image below to see just how truly informative and effective a persona can be.

Kurt Kaufer