Proof that multiple influences work on the buyer: Top Conversion Paths

Conversion paths-StratoServe

If you ever wanted proof that multiple influences work on the buyer (in B2B or B2C) “Top Conversion Paths” in Google Analytics is helpful. It provides   at least partial proof of digital marketing influences that finally convinced your prospect to place an E-Commerce order or  sign up for your newsletter depending on how you define conversions.

In Google Analytics (GA) there is this cool feature that allows you to look at the digital behavior of the customer for up to the last 30 days as they visit your website. They may not be on the “buy page” but GA recognizes past website visits and produces a report similar to the one alongside. In Google Analytics, go to Conversions–>multi-channel funnels–> Top Conversion Paths. Let us consider some insights from the report alongside taken from a period when a couple of campaigns were going on:

  • Organic Search x 2 refers to the path taken by 45 buyers who seem to have searched Google twice in the previous 30 days and then done an ecommerce transaction.
  • Direct x 2 refers to 37  buyers who had bookmarked the page or remembered the URL and did not do a search. These folks would have either a prior relationship with the brand or some off-line communication which worked.
  • Organic Search-Direct involved one organic search and then a direct visit before converting by 31 customers.
  • Referral-Social Network x 2-Direct x 2 yielded 9 customers and refers to No. 5 in the graphic above. This one is really fascinating because the referrals are from a display advertising campaign that also had a social media marketing element. These 9 people had come first through referral then twice through a social network ( LinkedIn) and then got motivated to come directly and convert to buyers and customers.

And the above is only tracking the online visits from the computer or mobile device that was used in the transaction. It’s very likely that there are more off line influences at work . The great thing  is that  you get an understanding of pre-purchase digital behavior of your new customers by some simple analysis using “Top Conversion Paths” in Google Analytics. About StratoServe.

It’s not in Digital Advertising alone: the knowledge vs. data +execution dilemma

StratoServe Knowledge vs Data economy JPEGIt's not in advertising (as Tim
Williams says) or digital advertising alone, but with globalization
organizations of all types need to re-look at their business models to deal with the Data+ Execution vs. Knowledge+ Strategy dilemma. Todays'
organizations need to be great at the data+execution piece and call in that
expert knowledge when required. Ideally, they should have a handle on
data+execution as they deploy knowledge as we illustrate from the US healthcare
later in this post.

As mentioned in the previous post about Google AdWords, there are a plethora
of what Williams calls "factories" who will dutifully churn out PPC
ads and generate traffic to the client’s website. However, you find that the
traffic does not result in sales or conversions or at least you cannot tell for
sure. This because software like Google Analytics is not properly set up. Also
the "factory" is not able to say whether the traffic generated or
even the sales generated is the type of target market the client really wants
to attract.

To illustrate the knowledge vs. data+ execution dilemma, consider US
healthcare.In the US
there is a great shortage of primary care physicians apparently because primary
care attracts less pay for doctors. However, most of the preventive action can
happen at the primary care point and reduce healthcare costs drastically. Think
about the last time you met a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant for a
routine ailment…. and you begin to realize how effective they tend to be. If
it might be serious, they'll get you to the MD /specialist otherwise you tend to
get excellent care and advise. The point is, the doctor's assistant does a
great job of data+execution and knows when to refer "up". They know what they do not know, in part
because of the highly structured US medical profession. And the MD personally repeats
measurements herself/himself although the data is available in the charts.

The trouble with advertising agencies and marketing research agencies
at the factory outsourced end is that they tend not to really
understand the client organization and its marketing goals. Not entirely their fault,
because they are treated like the factory, just follow client instructions
without asking too many questions. As a result from the client's point of view
things do tend to be done much cheaper. Whether the client’s marketing is getting
the bang for the marketing buck, is another question. Contact StratoServe.

AdWords Campaign Management should reflect your Marketing Strategy

Google AdWords Campaign Management should reflect
your marketing strategy… sounds natural but because everyone gets so caught
up in the mechanics of the AdWords platform they lose sight of marketing
fundamentals. So this post is to clarify the structure of an AdWords campaign
in terms of your marketing strategy:

  • Which Product/Service? CMO's should have already
    articulated their marketing strategy in terms of the portfolio of products
    and services they will bet marketing dollars on-in their marketing plan. Channels could include
    traditional media (magazines,TV,radio) as applicable. AdWords applies only for those products/services that the CMO
    believes that there is a significant Internet search component as
    discussed in an earlier post . Do give
    priority to mobile searches if you think your prospects might search on
    mobile.

    • Surprisingly a lot of stuff on the web suggests that you should
      decide products, keywords and Ads based on your website. This probably
      follows from the significant disconnect between marketing folks who are
      trying to do the marketing and the IT folks who are trying to do the
      website  and the digital agency who just want to stay out of the
      drama of the organization and do their own thing! A case of the cart
      driving the horse if you think about it- because it should be 
      marketing objectives—->marketing strategy
      —>website—->AdWords campaign. 
  • Get those product web pages done – should be the CMO's
    mantra no matter how difficult it is in your organization to move things
    internally. The pages should have useful information for prospects, easy
    sign-up or buy options- more information  the merrier. Remember that the key to PPC or
    AdWords success is great alignment between the search terms,what you are
    saying in your Ads and website landing page. Those who click on your ads should feel
    delighted on your landing page and spend time there and not bounce off.
    Such engagement will eventually result in conversions and this high
    quality of the web visit is what is quality score in Google AdWords. 

Just these two steps can help your AdWords Campaign
Management get off to a good start. Contact StratoServe.

CMO’s : Insist on access to your Google AdWords and Analytics accounts

CMO's (Chief Marketing Officers)
must insist on access to your Google AdWords and Analytics accounts from your
Digital Marketing Agency.

Digital marketing agencies coming
from the old media advertising world tend to offer monthly reports from the
AdWords account. That's fine, but the marketing organization is missing out on
a great deal of insight that comes free and requires just a few clicks.

StratoServe differennce between AdWords and Organic Search chocolatesFor example, by simply linking your
AdWords account to your Google Analytics account you start seeing data around:

  • Organic search queries: what people typed into Google and arrived at your
    website. – see the "chocolates" example alongside. You see the "Lindt" chocolate AdWords Ad with the yellow background that is triggered by the keyword search term.  However the same keyword  triggers the "Godiva" search at this particular location ot the No. 1 organic rank.  If someone clicks on the "Lindt" Ad, it costs money for Lindt but the traffic that Godiva gets is free. A study of the free traffic  informs the SEO or Search Engine Optimization piece and
    just needs some diligent looking and revamping your web content. Organic
    search queries and the resulting landing pages drive quality traffic to your
    website.
  • AdWords tracking:
    If you have linked your AdWords account to your Google Analytics Account
    and just spend a few minutes a day you can immediately find advertising
    waste and stop it. For example, yesterday we noticed 4 clicks on a search
    word clicked from Russia and the particular product is not being marketed
    in Russia. Some easy settings on Geo-targeting and reviewing the keyword
    fixed the problem. OK the CMO might say – hey this is what the agency
    is supposed to be doing    !  Sure if the agency person working on
    your account notices this, and is aware of the exact situation with that
    particular product.

The point is that access to these
accounts is easy to set up and is free. Also several folks in the CMO's
marketing team can have access and alert the agency if they see something both
in terms of problems as above and also any opportunities based on the traffic
patterns. Once set up you get to see how many visitors purchased, which social
media was working better and where exactly visitors are dropping off and so
on. The ability to know this and act in real time is a huge opportunity
for the CMO. Contact StratoServe.

How much should I spend on Google AdWords ? – the strategy answer

“How much should I spend on Google AdWords?” is a question that this blog gets asked and this post is an attempt at a strategy answer. For if you searched online , using Google, Yahoo  or any other search engine, you will find a whole lot of guidance about how to go about setting your daily budget in the Google AdWords platform and the mechanics of the software. This post tries to take a strategic marketing view about your budget for Google AdWords.

If you are a business or non-profit that needs to advertise you could be using a whole bunch of media like TV,Radio,Magazines,Newspapers,Internet,Outdoors and Direct Mail. Among these – although there have been huge declines in US Newspaper and Direct mail advertising they are still there and will be always there…

Within Internet you have Google AdWords  and similar pay per click (PPC) offerings from Microsoft -Bing, Yahoo etc.,  Internet Banners and  social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc. OK within Internet you can divide the market by those who access the Internet at kiosks (in many developing country markets), by cellphone, by tablets like iPads and via PC’s and Laptops.

Thus here are the strategy questions to ask about how much you should spend on Google AdWords:

  • Does a segment of our prospective customers search online? The better your answer is to this question the better will be your AdWords spending strategy. If you have younger educated folks that are prospective customers- they do search online. On the other hand if some segments of your customers are non-Internet users, there is no point of search advertising or Internet advertising to that segment. Incidentally, estimates of  non-Internet users in the US is about 13% (2014) according to Pew research.
  • What words (keywords) do these folks put on the Google search bar for my business? You have to understand what your prospects search for to find your business/products. The Google Keyword tool is useful but the ideal situation is that your website has content that answers the search query and clickers of your Ad land on that relevant page. The better the link between the keywords- Your Ad Text – landing page the lesser you pay for the keywords, better your quality score and higher your Ad rank.
  • You pay only if someone clicks on your Ad – most folks not involved in PPC advertising don’t seem to realize this. Unlike all traditional forms of advertising PPC is the only one that assures the advertiser that someone saw the Ad and landed on their website. This is amazing because you never know how many folks actually watched your TV ad  or opened your Direct Mail piece. You pay for estimates of audience in TV and pay for the entire mailing and hope that your mailing list is a good one.
  • Which Ad works better? The ability to learn this immediately and for free is another great thing about Google AdWords. You can actually track the visit by Ad and track those who converted by way of buying or say signing up for a newsletter. And this is free via Google Analytics.
  • Go by what you can afford and track results if you just spend a few minutes every day on a campaign and its metrics you get to know what is working and not working. Set a daily budget that you can afford but track results every day. And tweak your campaign as required. There is no other advertising that can start any minimum amount you decide. OK if you spend a dollar a day you might not get many clicks- particularly  if your competitors are paying more for the same keywords.

To summarize, if you have customers that search for your product/service online – keeping Google AdWords in your digital marketing mix is a must. About StratoServe Digital Marketing Services.

How does a sales person identify the influential members of the buying center?

“How does a sales person identify the influential members of the buying center?” is an important question that sales people constantly wrestle with. While “Buying Centers” have influencers, they may not be the most powerful i.e. influential and it is best to identify potential users of your product or service who will become your advocates because your offering is so appropriate. In other words, remember that those who are “influential” in organizations are so because they champion stuff that is right for the
organization! 

Here is how the B2B sales process tends to play out for the selling organization:

  • You identify a company that could be a potential
    customer.
  • Using a variety of techniques (Social Media, referrals,
    conferences and trade shows and yes cold calling) you somehow get a
    meeting with someone involved in the purchase of the product.
  • This person could be someone in Purchasing (or Supply
    Department), or in the user department ( if you sell equipment you get a
    meeting with say the Manufacturing manager).
  • You get into the meeting and you typically start
    your pitch after a few seconds of small talk    . 

BIG mistake if you think about it.

Because you have not figured out (a) Is there an imminent need for your product
or service ? (b) Is the buy- task a new task that is easiest for you?  or is it a
repeat buy which is the hardest one because of entrenched competitors or is it
a modified rebuy that gives you some opportunity to frame your offering
appropriately.

Once you are in a meeting instead of launching into your prepared pitch it’s far more effective to try and understand where the buying organization is coming from. In the US most managers will directly tell you if you ask them when they meet you. Even in
Asia despite cultural tendencies to be indirect, managers tend to be so pressured for time that they will tell you about the nature of the task and the time frame when opportunities might arise.  This provided you hold your prepared pitch and take the time to understand the task the buying organization is facing.

Depending on what you gather you present your edited pitch trying to focus on what the organization might find of interest. Try to keep the pitch conversational and not in a “lecture” format so that your listener/s is able to interact. Preferably spend less time on the presentation material and more time on understanding the buying center of the buying organization.

Even if you are meeting the CEO -they would not realize that there is an informal buying
center. For example, a CEO will never over ride her/his CIO’s recommendations on a software system. And the CIO might be looking at cues from some movers and shakers in the IT department who will really make things happen after the new software in place. There might be a formal committee but your task is to figure out the informal buying center.

Since B2B purchases are all supposed to help the business of the buying organization- a useful start is the user department (thus IT for software). But then if you have some financial software that finance folks will use, it is worth your time to understand what kind of input the Finance Department might have and which individuals might weigh
in. 

Staying in touch with all members of the buying center regularly in a good move and it’s critical to present yourself personally as things reach a decision point.

About StratoServe.

Why “plugging away” with useful content is so important to digital marketing success

"Plugging away" or just routinely updating
your organization's web presence with useful content is critical to digital
marketing success. Because once created, digital
content is forever!

It does not matter whether it is
your website that is being constantly updated, or blog posts are coming up, new
YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter content is being generated.
Just adding stuff that makes life easier for your customers, suppliers, employees
and all stakeholders and the general public is appreciated and rewarded. That
reward shows in better search engine rankings (SEO), other folks referring to
your site and best of all it gives you that warm  feeling of lighting up
the understanding of your field for the world at large.

Considering that in many
organizations only the marketing folks seem to be interested in putting out
content here are some thoughts on how to get more useful content up. And the
lead for this type of work has to come from the marketing department:

  • To start with identify your outside facing departments
    like Customer Service, Supply Chain, Investor relations, Quality and
    Safety folks whose work immediately impacts the world outside your firm.
    Meet each department head and identify an individual who will be the liaison
    for top 3 key issues that are important for that department to communicate
    with the outside world. Consider Customer Service:

    • For example, customer service calls may be related to
      some recurring problems that customers seem to face with your product.
      Can you create a You Tube help video to help folks along? 
    • Traditionalists might feel really uptight about
      confessing that there are some endemic customer service questions that
      come up. But guess what…. before
      the customer really goes through your annoying IVR phone call system
      they would have tried searching online for the problem. Invariably,
      there would be good folks who have already posted discussion threads and
      Youtube videos to deal with the problem.
    • It is very likely that you are hearing at customer
      service from (a) non Internet users (b) Internet users who are not able
      to resolve their issue based on the content available elsewhere to
      them. The question to ask is:
    • Why would you entirely
      abdicate solutions relating to your product to the outside world? If
      internal folks do the FAQ's for the world … the chances of
      really innovating on the next version/model of your product will
      zoom.
  • Next take up internal facing departments like Production,
    Accounting, Finance, HR and try to facilitate stuff that they can share on
    the open web. Your HR folks might be quite ready to share a whole
    bunch of forms online making life so much easier for employees,
    prospective employees and themselves. HR can take one more step of putting
    out good advice on their section of their website or on the company
    Facebook page. 

With good HR content employees will
be happier and a "best place to work" rating can't hurt your
reputation with customers, suppliers or investors. It may not happen
immediately but consistent "plugging away" will ensure that you have
the most relevant and useful industry content whether it relates to customer
service, HR or finance best practices. Since the content is forever…. you can
be sure of rich dividends for your organization. Contact StratoServe.

Avoiding the Inventor’s bias in Concept Testing for New Products

Avoiding the Inventor’s bias in Concept Testing for New Products is really important. You are an inventor (or the NPD team in a large company) who has come up with a great product idea, clearly there is market need and the idea is pretty clear. You can easily start production, maybe a prototype locally and then large scale globally sourced production at low cost. But please pause and take a deep breath…..

You or your New Product Team is too close to the idea. Because you are too close you cannot see any problems with your idea. And the best part is that the problems are pretty easy to fix if you are willing to look. Here are some thoughts on how to avoid the inventor’s bias:

  • Prefer getting an outside firm to do your concept testing if your budget permits. If you are doing the concept testing in-house, be consciously open-minded to look for feedback that contradicts your own understanding and beliefs about your customer needs. You can fix most problems if you are willing to look!
  • Be clear about your target market and the specific problem or need you are trying to meet through your idea. The clearer the target market and sharper its definition better will be your concept test. OK this is Marketing 101 but why do most organizations do such a poor job of (a) defining the target market and (b) articulating exactly what problem or need is being addressed? A likely reason is the inventor’s bias and too much emotional investment by the team in the project. Keep in mind that the investment so far is not financial- which comes as the product is developed and launched.
  • Start by asking folks in your target market via simple interviews
    • (a) Do they really have a problem?
    • (b) Does your solution idea – solve that problem ?
    • (c) Will they pay for the solution? 
  • Extend your customer survey to focus groups if you need. You will find amazing insights. Incidentally, you don’t need to really do surveys or panels unless you have a consumer product and you are looking for quantitative data of possible sales.

Effective concept testing can make a good idea absolutely great in the market. It also lays out what features, functions and benefits your customers care for the most. And that helps development engineers and later marketing to articulate marketing messages.

The best part of concept testing is that it is not expensive and only requires a willingness on the part of the inventor, to overcome the inventor’s bias.About StratoServe.

The election of Pope Francis of Argentina signals globalization

 

The election of Pope Francis of Argentina ( earlier Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) today signals globalization of the Catholic Church  in several special ways. This despite the ancient smoke signals used to communicate the progress of the Pope's election.

This is the very first time that a Pope is elected from outside Europe. Pope Francis has lived entirely in Argentina a developing country  although a part of the Americas. The name  "Francis"  after  Francis of Assissi  is also seen as significant given the huge orientation towards serving the poor that Francis of Assissi had and that Pope Francis has demonstrated in Argentina.

Quite a remarkable election  at the Vatican and a truly global choice for our times. Contact StratoServe.

 

Dow Jones index at record high today: when will US economy and jobs recover?

The Dow Jones industrial crossed 14,253.77 its
highest ever point and back from the dismal depths of the recession on March 9, 2009 when it
had touched 6,547. Investors and particularly large investors seem to be
feeling upbeat about the stock market and things do seem cheery from a macro
level. The optimism driving the record high stock market includes the following factors:

  • The low interest rates from the Fed have helped. 
  • The housing market has improved by about 10% and sales of new homes rose by 15.6%.
    Sales of new homes encourage a whole lot of spending on appliances,
    furniture and home goods.
  • Companies have become more efficient, more global and
    more technology oriented. The worldwide recession has got all
    organizations trying to do more with less. This includes a) Using
    technology and the Internet (including "cloud computing") as
    much as possible (b) Outsource goods and services globally if the total
    cost is lower (c) find and develop lower end of the market in the US and
    global emerging markets. This time the lower end offerings in the US
    Market finds huge numbers in growth markets like China, India so it is
    becoming possible to truly globalize at the market end.
  • The Stock market seems to ignore the problems of the Federal budget sequester.
    The market believes that companies will find a way despite political
    gridlock.

On this rather cheerful day a sad
note is that  unemployment in the US is at 12.3
million and 47 million are on food stamps. When will the US economy
and jobs recover? Or the other way around- when will US jobs and the economy
recover – for without jobs and income, consumer spending remains subdued.

This paradox of the stock market
zooming while the economy and jobs stagnate is hard to understand. Here are
some thoughts:

  • Companies will hire people in the later part of 2013
    and 2014. Unemployment should reduce but these are for folks with skills
    that are needed in the new economy.
  • Old jobs like in traditional manufacturing that
    are outsourced are not coming back. Same with technology jobs that can be
    outsourced,  are not coming back as well.
  • Folks displaced from the workforce during the recession can
    try and find skills for the US jobs of tomorrow ( e.g. healthcare) or be
    willing to move to manufacturing type trade skill work in the housing
    industry. For new houses do need plumbers, electricians and cable TV
    installers and this segment cannot be outsourced.

Thus, some challenges for older
workers unable to re-train and younger workers who might have training that is
not very relevant for the new economy. All this provided housing continues to
recover and investments continue in US infrastructure to accommodate skilled
manufacturing workers and the right skilled workforce becomes available. Contact StratoServe.