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Bounce Rate is generally defined as single page visits. These are the visits that leave the site without going any further than the landing page.  A very common approach to landing page analysis is to start with Bounce Rate and see if it is a problem before diving deeper into the page/site. However, the number that your tool is providing you might be wrong. Relying blindly on the number provide by your Web Analytics tool might lead you into the wrong direction. Below are 4 reasons why your Bounce Rate might be wrong In Page Actions – If you have certain actions, such as video plays or windows that popup with JavaScript then the chances are that you are not tracking them as valid site interactions. In this case, even though the visitors will take one of the desired actions i.e. watch the video or click on a link to launch the popup window to fill a form etc., your Web Analytics tool will count these visits as single page visit, thus inflating your Bounce Rate. Extern...

Twitter feeds keep flowing with over 9000 tweets every second (Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ ). Unless your followers are constantly watching their twitter stream the chances are that your tweets will not be seen by a lot of them.  Below, I have listed three tips that will ensure that your tweets/content gets noticed and reaches most of your followers. Tweet Same Content Multiple Times in a Day   – There are a lot of people like me who log into twitter few times a day (or after a gap of few days) and then and do a quick scan of timeline (or search).  They go back few hours in their twitter timeline and if your tweet did not happen to be in the timeline or searches at that time then they never see it.  Keeping this in mind, you need to tweet same content multiple times in a day to make sure your tweets are in the timelines of most of your followers when they login to twitter. In my post “Best Time to Tweet” , I suggested follow...

Google Experiments is an A/B testing tool that is available within Google Analytics interface.  This post is not about what A/B testing is, why you should conduct A/B tests and what other tools are available but really to make a case for using Google Analytics as your testing platform.  I am not getting paid to write this or have any affiliation with Google. This post is in response to a question I received from a reader of my blog. Free –There is absolutely no cost for the Tool. You can’t beat Free, it is a great way to start with A/B testing and learn about how testing works. I strongly recommend that you try this tool before moving to more sophisticated paid tools. Additionally, if you are just trying to make a case for Testing within your organization then cost does become a barrier and this tools removes that barrier. Easy To Setup – Easy to use wizard allows you to choose the pages to test and setup test parameters. Easy Implementation – Once you are done wi...

Many old post are still relevant after few years but are hard to find on a blog. So I have gone back and found 9 such blog posts on “Email Marketing” from my blog. Below are these 9 posts: Email Personalization Not Working? Read This This posts explains why the email personalization might not work. The bottom line is that you have update your personalization criteria over time and test it. 3 Techniques for Expanding your Email Reach Email marketers are facing a tough time with growing emails remaining unopened and unsubscribes . Acquiring new subscribers using old techniques is expensive. In this post 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. Are You Depleting Your Email List? Email marketers, in order to maximize short term conversions, often bombard irrelevant emails in subscribers inbox However this short term mentality results in erosion of long term viability of the...

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’...