faulker046

I am a big believer in targeting and personalization and have written extensively about it in this blog. However, targeting and personalization is not “set it and forget it” strategy. It needs to be continually tested to make sure that it is working and driving value. Sometimes you have to test and see if “no-personalization” will yield better results than personalization. To make my point, let’s take an example: I get a weekly promotional email from a prominent marketing company. They personalize the email subject line (good so far). Here are few subject lines How [XYZ Company] Should Kickoff New Clients  Ensure that [XYZ Company] delivers great PPC campaign The rules of online branding that [XYZ Company] needs to know Note: Instead of [XYZ Company] they use the name of the company I used to work with. However there is an issue with the way they do personalization. Do you see the issue? The issue is that they use the name of the company I USED TO WORK FOR . I left that c...

Let’s face it, Web Analytics data is pretty limited when it comes to visitor analysis .  Many of you might have some data on users who have registered or purchased from you and some of you might be connecting the onsite activity of visitors with the other data you have in your database. However, considering that you have less than 10% conversion rate (or registration rate) there are over 90% of the visitors on your site that you have no information on. Image Source: imnmarketer.com This is where 3rd party data providers come to your rescue. These data providers can provide a lot of valuable missing data and bridge the gap. Companies like BlueKai and iBehavior can augment anonymous cookie pool or known customer base with additional attributes that you don’t have. For example, say you have a segment called “Engaged Users” that is all based on anonymous cookies visiting your site and taking certain actions e.g. downloading a whitepaper.   Since it is all cookie b...

Promotional Codes also know as Promo Codes, Discount Codes, Coupon Codes, Offer codes etc, are supposed to drive sales, right? However they can have a reverse action and can actually kill your conversions, if not properly used. Here two examples of discount code implementation that can disrupt customers flow and possibly kill conversion . Pomo Code Box:  A customer who does not have a discount code but comes across a text box/button that asks for one during the checkout process is likely to stop and think.  If a customer does not have any kind of urgency to buy the product, he/she will likely try to look for a discount code online.  If he/she does not find one then chances are that you might lose that conversion. Pomo Codes that are not applied automatically: If you advertise a discount code on your site then go ahead and apply it automatically during the checkout process. Do not ask the customer to fill in the discount code manually.  Many customers don’...

Hashtags (keywords that follow #) are a great way to jump to topic and join the conversation on twitter. Below I have complied a list of 25 commonly used hashtags by Digital Marketing and Analytics community that you might want to track as well. Follow me on @anilbatra #measure #msure #bigdata #analytics #insights #data #emetrics #trend #reports #segmentation #segment #seo #search #ppcchat #cro #landingpages #webdesign #custexp #mktg #marketing #ecom #ecommerce #ecomchat #ux #smdata Other tags that were provided by the readers of this blog #attribution   Let me know if I missed any. Follow me on at @anilbatra Other Twitter Posts: Best Time to Tweet? Twitter Analytics 3 KPIs for Measuring Twitter Success All of my posts on Twitter Analytics Jobs Marketing Analyst – Mobile (Zappos.com) Henderson, NV – Zappos.com Inc. Or ITS Affiliates Senior Web Analyst Las Vegas, NV – Zappos.com Inc. Or ITS Affiliates Books that I am reading or have read recently You Should Test That: Convers...

These days most of the marketing solutions are provided as a service. These solutions send emails on your behalf, server ads on your site , serve your ads on other sites/networks, collect your web Analytics data, collect your social media data, collect usage of customer on social media platforms, trade your cookies etc. You get the idea. As a result, most of your marketing data resides with 3rd party vendors and outside your company’s environment.  In some case you might have an explicit agreement with the company that allows you to have ownership of your data (e.g. Omniture, ExactTarget etc.) while in other cases you might implicitly assume that you have the ownership of data (e.g. Google Analytics, Facebook etc.).  Either way the data resides with someone else.  This lack of direct ownership of your data could potentially pose a threat to your data driven culture .  I am not saying that all of sudden you will lose all your data (though that is also poss...

Email marketers are facing a tough time with growing emails remaining unopened and unsubscribes . Acquiring new subscribers using old techniques is expensive. Below I have listed 3 techniques that you can use to spread the word of your emails/newsletters beyond the email list that you are sending the emails to. Add social sharing in your emails – Let your loyal email subscribers help you. Add easy social sharing links/buttons to help them tweet, share on Facebook, linked in etc. If they like something in your email they will share it with their followers and friends. This will not only spread your messages but also will provide you with new subscribers. Segment differently – If you are doing segmentation to send emails, it is possible that you might be able grow the list of people in your segment by thinking beyond your current segmentation criteria. For example if you are sending a particular emails to who have listed their title as “Web Analyst”, you can extend the lis...

This is a one of those questions that keep coming up during conferences, the classes I teach at University of Washington, client conversations etc. The default answer by most of the people is along the lines of “Oh they don’t …. It is the quality…. What really matters is the impact on revenue/cost… “ and so on. I do not deny that ultimately the impact of business in terms of revenue/cost is what matters but saying that Likes/Followers don’t matter is flat out wrong.  It is equivalent to saying Visits to your site do not matter, potential customers in your store do not matter, subscribers of your email list do not matter etc. Likes/Followers are the foundation that is required to make your social media efforts successful. Without Likes you don’t have anybody to put your messages in front of.  Without them you have nobody to amplify your message and help attract others like them. If you are posting random stuff that has nothing to do with your business then you will attract...