© COPYRIGHT 2013 SAPIENT CORPORATION & AZZARD CONSULTING
Positioning Content for Success: A Metrics Driven Strategy
REBECCA SCHNEIDER, PRESIDENT, AZZARD
CONSULTING
KEVIN P NICHOLS, DIRECTOR AND GLOBAL
PRACTICE LEAD OF CONTENT STRATEGY
@ SAPIENTNITRO
AZZARD CONSULTING
AZZARDCONSULTING
Today’s Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Content Personalization
4. Taxonomy and Metadata
5. Production and Content Lifecycle
6. Content Effectiveness
7. Governance
8. Mobile
9. Pitfalls
10.
Feedback and Contact Info
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1. Introduction
AZZARDCONSULTING
Introduction
Rebecca Schneider
President, Azzard Consulting18 Years experience in Information ManagementIndustries: Retail, Auto Manufacturing, Financial Services, Technology
Kevin Nichols
Director, Global Practice Lead, Content Strategy, Sapient/Nitro17 Years experience in the Web Development IndustryKey Clients: MIT Open Courseware, Hewlett Packard, Sprint, Intel
AZZARDCONSULTING
ROI for Content Strategy is one thing. . .But, how do we leverage metrics for content development??
We will answer which metrics are necessary to: Measure content efficacy
Refine personalized content experiences and ensure future success
Develop useful metadata and taxonomies
Measure what’s important for publishing and content lifecycle
Ensure effective content governance
Capture the important information specific to mobile
And, avoid metrics and analytics pitfalls
Why do this presentation?
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2. Definitions
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MetricsTangible measures of inputs and outputs.
Key Performance IndicatorsA set of metrics used to quantify success of an organization’s activities.
AnalyticsConclusions drawn from metrics.
Metrics Definitions
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Quantitative measurements: numbers, facts. It’s the “What.”
Examples:Web & Mobile
Conversions
# Visits
Time on Site
Media
Click-through Performance on Advertisements/Banners
Search
Internal, Organic, Paid – keyword usage
When to useThere is a need to demonstrate a quantifiable return on investment.
Too much anecdotal information is being used to make decisions.
Hard Metrics
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Soft Metrics
Qualitative: stories, feelings/motivation. It’s the “why.”
ExamplesPrimary Research
Focus Groups
Secondary Research
Marketing Trends
Social Listening – Digital Anthropology
Online Behavioral Analysis
Surveys
Customer Satisfaction
When to useTrying to understand customer behavior (needs, motivations, perceptions).
Further understand the hard metrics data.
Warning: do not use qualitative measurements to the exclusion of all else.
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3. Content Personalization
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Tailoring the online experience to a specific user:
Terms to describe aspects of personalization:
Content Personalization
Targeted offers
IntelligentCustomersegments
Business Rules Dynamic Pages
Contextual Ads
Ad Server
Relevant
Guided Selling
RecommendationsPersonas
Targeted Messaging
Targeted Content
User Generated Content
Cross-Sell
Intent-Based search
Up-Sell
User Types
Counter Offer
Need Based Shopping
Social Marketing Behavioral Targeting
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Content Personalization
Favorite Metric:
Click stream (customer journey through site)Clearance Page > Men’s Coats > Shearling Coat > Add to Cart > Purchase Completion
Other Metrics:
Length of Visit Per PageDecision/Compare: Snow-blower Comparison
Depth of VisitResearch: Samsung 50” Flat Screen TV (Product Specifications)
Where does the customer go? Where can content be personalized?
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Content Personalization
What is the customer interested in? Their reason for coming to site?
Favorite Metric:
Customer Interaction History (profile or cookie-based)
Accessories for previously purchased item: bracelet charm
Similar products (artist, genre): music, books
Other Metric:
Top Keyword Searches
“Clearance”
“Earphones for iPod”
Photo from Pandora
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Content Personalization
Favorite Metric:
Purchased Product
Product as part of series: Game of Thrones Season 1, Season 2 to be released, etc.
Other Metrics:
Site registration
Register for special content: Whitepaper
Viewed Product Information
Product/Brand Blitz: Car Promotion Microsite
Where and when does the customer convert (e.g. filling out user profile, adding item to shopping cart, purchasing product)?
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4. Taxonomy and Metadata
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Improving taxonomy (navigation, search) metadata (filters/facets) and to further enable findability.
Taxonomy & Metadata
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Taxonomy & Metadata
Favorite Metric:
Top successful searches
My Little Pony, iPad Cover
Other Metrics:
Organic, Paid search keyword ranking versus conversion (which keywords yield higher conversion rates)
Notebook vs. Laptop
Click-stream to specific product category. Are users going down the right path?
Homepage > Furniture > Children’s
Homepage > Children’s > Furniture
Photo from puuikibeach.
What’s working for users? Are they finding what they need?
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Taxonomy & Metadata
Favorite Metrics:
Bounce rates (entered a page from outside the site, then immediately left)
More useful than exit rates.
Luxury hotel page, but looking for a B&B (“breakfast in bed”)
Other Metrics:
Exit rates (looked around the site, then left from a particular page)
Exit rate can be considered successful (when leaving after accomplishing a task)
Product purchase: iPad Cover
Product non-purchase: Wrong item? Wrong size? Stock availability?
Previous page prior to search (potential navigation problems)
In home décor page, but then search for floor lamp
Photo from Valencia Bed & Breakfast
What’s not working for users? Where’s the breakdown?
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Taxonomy & Metadata
Favorite Metric:
Search terms used frequently that return no results
Bathroom plunger (toilet plunger)
Other Metric:
Search terms used often in ad hoc description fields
Mutual fund distribution, Roll-over
What terms should be added to taxonomy or metadata to enable better findability?
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Taxonomy & Metadata
Favorite Metric:
Refined searches
kitty toy > cat toy
Other Metrics:
Search terms that are variants of a preferred term
soda vs. pop; bubbler vs. water fountain
Terms used in taxonomy, but not in SEO metadata. Does the SEO metadata need to be updated?
bed lifters, bed risers, bed storage
Organic, Paid keyword rankings
manila file folders, green hanging folders
Photo from taiyofj
What terms do users employ in search? Have they been leveraged?
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5. Production and Content
Lifecycle
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Entire end-to-end process in which content is acquired, created, managed, published and optimized or retired.
Publishing & Content Lifecycle
ManageContent
PublishContent
EnhanceContent
Acquire/CreateContent
Governance
EvaluateContent
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Favorite Metric: Time (cost) saved in optimizing (refining content)
Revision pushed to web.
Other Metrics:
Time (cost) saved in all other steps of the content lifecycle
Acquiring
Third party content.
Creating
Original content
Maintaining (content review cycle)
Current , Redundant, Outdated Content
Publishing
Push to web.
Publishing & Content Lifecycle
What is the benefit to improved content lifecycle processes?
Image from FreeDigitalPhotos
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What is the benefit to new product introduction?
Time reduced to take product to market (due to content bottlenecks)
New Surface Windows 8 Pro to purchase website.
Publishing & Content Lifecycle
Photo from SpicaGames.
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Publishing & Content Lifecycle
How can content quality be improved?
Favorite Metric:Drop in number of errors in content.
Tagging: outfit vs. welding kit
Other Metrics:Decrease in content redundancy (also reduces cost)
Sales vs. Marketing
Decrease in time necessary to respond to user feedback, errors in content and/or changes to published content.
Alert to correction (spelling errors, etc.)
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Publishing & Content Lifecycle
Favorite Metric:Increase in internal organizational satisfaction due to better findability, ease of content creation, maintenance, etc.
Survey Tool (Foresee)
Other Metric:Number of users in organization using CMS.
Ratio of users vs. total number
What is the ROI of robust localization processes?
Reduction in localization costs due to streamlined CMS processes
Cost per word reduced for localized content.
How can internal user satisfaction increase?
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6. Content Effectiveness
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Content Effectiveness
WWW.COMPANY.COM IN-STORE
She clicks the e-spot to view more She clicks on the product to view more
details.As she adds to her
“favorites”, recommended
products become even more relevant.
As she approachesher local store, she
receives a push notification on her
phone, letting her know about new accessories.
Entering the store, Michelle is greeted by
Ken, a sales associate. He has Michelle’s
“favorites” ready for her to view, which he pulled up
on his tablet.
Using her iPad, Michellevisits .com to
look for new products.She notices an e-spot on
the homepage for a featured product that is
her favorite brand.
Michelle saves product to her “favorites” and
continues to browse the product catalog.
Michelle has saved 6products to her
“favorites.” Michelle updates her customer
sends her “favorites” to the nearest retail
location.
Using the sales associate tablet, Ken
is able to pull up Michelle’s profile,
where he accesses her store loyalty
coupons.
Michelle, an existing
customer, receivesa text message
from retailer.
SMS
Mobile Web
Desktop
MobileApp
Tablet Web
Tablet App
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1
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2 4 653
Focus on the content journey, content quality and overall fit for the user.
TRIGGER
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Content Effectiveness
How is content relevance measured to determine the most effective messages?
Favorite Metric:A-B Test of one message versus another.
Test two different value propositions, headlines or product images to see which performs the best.
Shopping Cart Icon vs. Shopping Bag Icon
Image from Pixabay.Image from BizzBuzzMedia.
vs.
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Content Effectiveness
How is content relevance measured to determine the most effective messages? (cont.)
Other Metrics:
Rate at which content is viewed (frequency and duration)
Product specifications vs. Product “quick look” – which results in a conversion?
Multivariate testing of content on high-priority pages.
Test placement of various items on a page, various messaging and/or several different labels or headings.
Should filters be listed at the left or on top?
Determine the most popular content: Content that is ‘trending’ with traffic and engagement time:
Use a trends app to measure which content is most used.
Popular whitepapers, Investor relations information, Cat videos!
Know the most successful content– in the eyes of the customer:
Rate at which a specific piece of content will result in a conversion.
Product videos that generate a high rate of purchase.
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Content Effectiveness
Favorite Metric:
Number of visits to convert (E.g.: purchase a product) and time to convert
Customer returns after completing research
Other Metrics:
Actual browsing path versus assumed (pre-defined browsing path)
Home > Support > Drivers
Home > Product > Support > Drivers
Where and when a customer exits prior to conversion
When forced to register on news site after viewing several articles, is conversion completed?
Bounce rates
Where and when a customer jumps to search from navigation and key terms used in search
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Purchase
Retension
How do you determine an effective content journey and if the customer arrived at a desired destination?
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Content Effectiveness
Favorite Metric:
Rate at which content is being shared via social
email, post to facebook
Other Metrics:
Rate at which content is downloadedUser Manual/Instructions
Survey the user on site or page performance with user feedback tools
Foresee
Determine problematic areas through bounce rates and exit rates
How do you determine user satisfaction with site or experience?
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7. Content Governance
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Operational and organizational models needed to manage and ensure the continued success of content.
Content Governance
Governance Committee
Working Groups
BrandAccessibilit
yLegal Taxonomy ContentStrategy
Operations Technology Marketing Publishing TaxonomyStrategy
Executive Sponsor
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Content Governance
Favorite Metric:
Time to implement content changes based on governance decisions.
Major taxonomy change (structural shift) vs. minor taxonomy change (label change)
Addition of information to support new product set
Other Metrics:
Time for governance committee to review content requests.
Time to complete a content review cycle.ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial)
Is there governance structure in place, with defined governance workflows? Is it effective and successful?
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Content Governance
Is the content up to governance standards?
Favorite Metrics:
Accuracy/Error rates
Other Metrics:
Currency
Effectiveness – based on testing, web statistics, surveys.
http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm
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8. Mobile
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Mobile (Smartphone)
Metrics captured for mobile can be very similar to those captured for other form factors. However, the analytical perspectives will differ because of the physical nature and practical constraints when dealing with smaller form factors. Also user tasks are different from Web behavior. For example*:
68 percent mobile searches result in a map look up
61 percent of local mobile searches result in a phone call
59 percent of mobile users interact with businesses via social media regularly.
*Source: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/4-myths-of-mobile-metrics
Image from William Hook.
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Mobile (Smartphone)
Is the content experience delivered effectively?
Favorite Metric:
How long does a user spend on page?Time spent on pages optimized for mobile
More time may indicate user cannot achieve or find information.
Image from thebarrowboy
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Mobile (Smartphone)
Is the content experience delivered effectively? (cont.)
Other Metrics:
How is search used?
Taxonomy/metadata related metrics – with a focus on mobile OS.
Low search utilization may indicate user cannot find search functionality.
How do users interact with form fields?
Track interaction with Form fields
On mobile sites, one field is recommended per page
How often does the phone orientation change (switching from vertical to horizontal)?
Generally, higher rates will correlated to higher exit rates. Exception: functionality requires orientation change (e.g. viewing a video)
How is social media being used?
Survey amount of traffic entering from social media.
How are Smart Phones being used in-store?
Track user behavior – bar code scanning
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9. Pitfalls
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Pitfalls
Avoiding metrics and analytics pitfalls:
Statistics and damn statistics
Not all data is good data
More data does not equal better data
Ignoring common sense
Ignoring indicators (you can’t pick your favorite)
Image from Robbie1
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10. Feedback and Contact
Information
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Questions
What else did you want to learn?
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Keep the conversation going.
Rebecca [email protected]
azzardconsulting.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaschneider
Kevin P [email protected]
kevinpnichols.com
Twitter: #kpnichols
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-nichols/0/b50/160
THANK YOU !