Best of Web Analytics Guide

Best of
Web Analytics
Guide
12 Timeless ArTicles & insiGhTs
from mArkeTinG experTs

1-877-WeBTrends
(1-877-932-8736) sponsored By
pd10914cZG

www.webtrends.com

12 Timeless
ArTicles & insighTs
from marketing experts

foreward ....................................................................................................... 04

1. Web analytics Data: share it to maximize Value ........... 06

2. Breaking Down a Conversion funnel ................................. 10

3. How to improve a/B testing .................................................. 16

4. Defining key performance indicators ................................. 20

5. Web analytics: red (and green) alert ........................... 21

6. Calculate Your online Conversion rate .......................... 28

7. measuring personas for success ......................................... 34

8. audit Before You redesign ................................................... 40

9. Beyond Conversion rates ...................................................... 44

10. Create Landing pages that Convert ................................. 50

11. Don’t Be afraid to fail ............................................................ 54

12. rewarding profitable Behavior .......................................... 58

additional resources .......................................................................... 63

about the experts .............................................................................. 64

about ClickZ ........................................................................................ 66

about Webtrends ................................................................................ 66

© 2005 Webtrends inc. articles: © 2005 incisive interactive marketing LLC. all rights reserved.

FOreWOrD provements can be realized on a daily basis. Because of these advan-
by brenT hieggelke, Vice President of marketing, WebTrends inc. tages, companies are investing more in online marketing. in fact, ac-
cording to a Cmo magazine survey, interactive marketing will achieve
the largest increase in spend (71%) of any marketing area over the next
Web Analytics is the marketer’s 12 months. in addition, the internet advertising Bureau and pricewater-

bridge over the confidence gap houseCoopers reports that online advertising spend is up 26% in the
first half of 2005, and shows no signs of slowing down.

There is a significant confidence gap in marketing today.
With increased pressure from executive management to show tangible so, as the Web continues to develop into a more strategic channel and

financial returns, there’s no question that marketing is in the process of secures its position as the hub of marketing. and as online marketing

maturing into a more results oriented discipline. However, few market- continues to earn a greater share of the marketing mix, measurement

ing organizations have a comprehensive view of their performance to becomes a more critical component of every marketing initiative that’s

be fully confident in the decisions they make. launched. Web-smart marketing professionals are leveraging the full
power of web analytics to prove and improve their overall contribution

in a recent Cmo Council study, Measures + Metrics, nearly 90% of senior to their organizations.

marketing executives said measuring marketing performance is a top
priority, yet fewer than 20% of them have developed a meaningful, com- Better measurement. Improved results. Increased confidence.

prehensive metrics framework within their organizations. Consequently, the Cmo Council’s research shows that companies who establish

50% of Cmos are under a direct mandate to provide better metrics and comprehensive measurement achieve greater financial returns and

measurement for the marketing department, according to iDC. higher Ceo confidence in the marketing function. so as you’re reading
through this guide, consider your organization’s use of web analytics

in our own 2005 Web Marketing Confidence Report, we surveyed over toward improving your web channel and overall marketing results. it

250 marketing professionals and learned that only 5% are currently can have a dramatic impact on the success of your organization. for

“very confident” in the measurement of their results. in fact, 26% ad- t-mobile, it’s meant a 27% increase in conversion. for Volvo Ce, a

mitted to “flying blind”. Why? Because less than one out of four had 700% increase in leads. for La Quinta Hotels, a 63% increase in online

a complete view of their performance metrics—including conversion, revenue. What can it mean for you?

revenue, roi—to gauge the success or failure of their marketing initia-
tives. the majority, a combined 52%, are still relying on clickthrough
rates or have no campaign metrics at all.
enjoy the guide.
What are savvy marketers doing to bridge the gap? Major trends Webtrends is a proud sponsor of the ClickZ network and we share in their mis-
point to the Web. sion to help interactive marketers do their jobs better. We’ve combed through
in no other medium is optimization as achievable as the Web. testing the rich archives on ClickZ spanning the last two years and pulled together
is easier. measurement is more comprehensive. and incremental im- twelve timeless articles and insights from the authors of these two relevant
columns: Analyzing Customer Data and ROI Marketing.

like a diamond in the rough, web analytics data
may have great volume, but they don’t display
their true worth until in an expert’s hands. cut

1.
for maximum brilliance, data can bring light and
value to an organization’s many different facets.

many people within an organization – from executives to developers
and merchandisers – can benefit from the insight analytics data
have to offer, if staffers are given data they can act on.

When designing your analytics reports and defining the data you
intend to capture, consider the following teams’ needs, and how
they might use the data to improve their work:

Web Analytics Data:
Web product managers/business leads. these managers can
evaluate the effectiveness of their site sections and outcome
of site changes. they can also use analytics to identify
share it to maximize Value improvement opportunities.

by Jason B urBy Designers. site designers can evaluate different designs’
march 15, 2005 performances. they can also conduct a/B or multivariable
design tests.

Executive/management team. Until recently, executives and
management teams didn’t pay much attention to Web analytics.
now, some of our most successful clients use Web data to set
corporate or group goals, as well as to evaluate the success of
different groups or individuals. many of our clients even use
this data as part of their bonus distribution plan, especially
for their Web teams, tying specific metric goals to individual
performance evaluations.

0

Developers/technical. Developers can use analytics data to the key to getting different people to use Web analytics data
evaluate performance issues such as Web server loads, content is to help them focus on the aspects that can help them do their
delivery speed, and uptime. jobs better. once you help people access relevant information, the
data’s value, along with your teams’ intelligence, can really shine.
Merchandisers. merchandisers can use analytics data to learn
which products drive the most interest, which sell, and which
drive repeat purchases. online retailers are taking what they’ve
learned online and using it to drive offline behaviors, such as in-
store merchandising and pricing.

E-marketing. those driving traffic to the site through banner
campaigns, e-mail, search engine optimization (seo) and search
engine marketing (sem) can quickly learn which campaigns
drive the most value. they can also gain insight on how to
optimize campaign landing pages to better induce people to
take desired actions.

sales/business development. sites that generate leads for
offline sales can give a sales rep more than just contact
information. analytics data can provide information such as the
number of times the prospect visited the site. a good system
can tell the rep what the lead looked at on the site and what
enticed her to make contact. if you hand this information to a
rep before he makes contact, he can more easily start an
educated conversation.

Information architects (Ias). Web analytics information can
help ias understand how people navigate the site, what they’re
interested in, and what drives people to convert on the desired
behavior. this information can help ias better tune their
recommendations to drive visitor behavior on the live site, rather
than just employ best practices.

0 clickZ: besT OF Web AnAlyTics guiDe 0

so you’ve identified the most important
behaviors on your site. One of them is some sort
of conversion funnel. now what? The conversion

2.
funnel could be five steps to purchasing a pair
of shoes or booking a trip. it may be a lead
conversion funnel that drives people to request
more information or sign up for a Webinar.

the key is breaking down the conversion process to determine
where opportunities are and why people don’t continue to the next
step. When analyzing a conversion process or funnel, you must
understand the overall conversion is made up of a series

breaking Down a of microconversions.

conversion Funnel
at each step in the funnel, site visitors make one of three
decisions:

by Jason BurBy Continue to the next step in the funnel. this is the desired behavior.
may 24, 2005
Leave the funnel and go to other content on the site. in many
cases, these people seek more information, often to support
their buying or conversion decision. most will end up leaving the
site without converting, but some may reenter the funnel process
and complete it successfully.

Exit the site altogether. obviously, we’ve lost our chance to
convert or cross-sell people on this visit. in addition, if they leave
the site, we can’t get them to convert on secondary goals or
other desired behaviors outside the primary funnel.

10 breAking DOWn A cOnVersiOn Funnel 11

Handholding intends to purchase just then. the same can be said about someone
Visitors have a choice to make at every step in the process. for going to a product detail page, or even adding an item to the cart.
them to complete that process, we must help them make the right He may simply be browsing products and adding them to the cart
decisions along the way. to keep track of them, with no intent to buy.

When we analyze conversion processes, we find it helpful to break as people start the checkout process, we can assume they’re
the funnel into different steps, then categorize those steps into a getting a bit more serious. after they’ve begun to submit personal
few key areas. information, they’re even more serious. often, the “money step”
comes next. Will they enter their payment information?
Here’s an example of an eight-step conversion process:
Commitment and acceleration
1. User visits site.
Commitment level increases as people move through the process.
2. He clicks to a product detail page. it starts with zero, or very low, commitment when they arrive
3. He clicks to add the product to his cart. at the site and builds slowly as a product is added to the cart.
Commitment picks up quickly as people begin to enter personal
4. He clicks to check out.
information and move through order confirmation. it’s imperative
5. He enters his address. to continue to sell the decision, even on the order-completion and
6. He enters his billing information. thank-you pages. a buyer can always cancel an order or return
the product.
7. He clicks to an order-confirmation page.

8. He clicks to an order-complete/thank-you page. since the commitment level grows through the different key steps,
we also want to see the abandon rate drop as we move through
Tracking the Conversion Process the steps. in the above example, it would be very worrisome to see
most top analytics tools can set up funnels to analyze processes a high abandon rate from order-confirmation or order-complete
such as these. each tool is different, and some are better than pages. Visitors have gone through the entire process, entering
others, depending on what you want to analyze and how the site is personal and payment info. they’re the visitors we can’t loose.
set up. Webtrends calls its tool “scenario analysis,” while omniture they’re so close! they made the decision to continue on at each
calls its “fall-out report.” step in the process, up until the last one. this is an obvious area to
focus attention on.
now analyze the different behaviors you may see throughout the
process. as you analyze behavior at each step, consider what the What Do They need to Decide?
visitor did to reach that step as well as how he may view the site as you analyze your conversion funnel, determine at each step
visit. Just because someone comes to your site doesn’t mean he


which of the three choices visitors make (continue, visit other site
content, or exit the site) and why.

one of the most informative things to look at is where people go
on your site when they leave the funnel. Do you cross-sell other
content too much in the wrong places? are people questioning
their decision and seeking more information to help them decide?

it can also be insightful to understand what content visitors look
at when they leave the funnel, then return. By understanding
what people seek when they leave the funnel, you can understand
common questions that cause people to leave the process. By
understanding what does or doesn’t drive people back into the
funnel, you can determine where to focus efforts to help answer the
questions that keep people from converting.

Fine-Tune for your audience
each conversion funnel is different, and visitor behaviors within
each process are different. But approaching each in this manner will
help identify how to improve your overall conversion rate as well as
microconversion rates. once you look at the conversion rate for all
visitors, explore different behaviors based on new versus returning
visitors; repeat buyers; traffic from different campaign sources;
weekday versus weekend visitors, and so on. You can often tune the
flow for different audiences and significantly increase conversion.

14 clickZ: besT OF Web AnAlyTics guiDe

A/b testing is a proven means to increase
conversion rate. it’s not as simple as it appears.

3.
it’s more than simply testing two or more
versions of Web pages, banners, search ads, or
whatever persuasive element you can imagine. it
also has limitations.

a/B testing, unlike the intuitive creative process, must be treated
like a true scientific experiment. many clients come to us frustrated
by the results of their tests. almost without fail, we discover their
tests don’t conform to experiment design. most just heave two
versions of an element at the wall to see what sticks.

Unless you’re one of those learn-the-hard-way types, benefit from
our experience. Here’s what we’ve learned from seven years of trial
and error.
how to improve one Change at a Time
A/b Testing When beginning an a/B test, establish a control and baseline for
whatever you’re testing (e.g., Web page, landing page, banner ad).
by Bryan E IsEnBE r g put your best creative effort online first. monitor its performance
April 2 , 2005
over an established period.

once a baseline is established, start optimizing the page by making
one change at a time. more than one makes it impossible to
determine which change actually made a difference.

a client wanted to change the way the box for their lead-
generation form appeared. they thought they were testing just the
form box. i pointed out changing the background color, headline,
copy, and box position amounted to multiple variables and should
therefore be conducted over multiple tests.

1

this is a limitation of a/B testing; conversion improvements can the form. the problem isn’t the form; it’s the scenario visitors
only be made incrementally. participate in.

Clicks Don’t Exist in a Vacuum small Changes, Big Differences
Customers participate in scenarios on your site or in your marketing never assume a seemingly inconspicuous change will bring
efforts whether you plan them or not. each page or touch point inconspicuous results. the day of the week, a font, or a color
exists in the context of what visitors saw on a previous page. When palette shift can dramatically affect test results. Just moving a
conducting an a/B test, consider all scenario elements. often, a few buttons around on a checkout page can mean deep decreases
change to another element affects test page results. in conversions.

a page with high exits or a call-to-action form with high there are really only 20 design principles that can affect
abandonment may not actually be problems. Consider the page conversion. Don’t take any of them lightly.
visitors viewed prior to the test page. How many of us have clicked
a “free ipod” banner, only to find a landing page detailing the Testing Two Very Different Creatives
painful process of getting a free ipod? We could optimize and many conduct an a/B test on two significantly different offers or
a/B test the landing page ad infinitum, but the real problem is the two significantly different creative efforts.
misleading banner.
if effort a returns a conversion rate of 3.0 and effort B returns a
recently, to increase an e-mail open rate, we tested a new “free conversion rate of 2.5, many will abandon effort B for the seemingly
offer” subject line. the e-mail body remained the same. though the more efficient a. this could be a colossal mistake.
open rate went up, conversion rate and total conversions dropped.
instead of returning to the original subject line, we modified the e- that’s not a true a/B test. there’s no way to determine if effort B
mail copy. test copy conversion strongly outperformed the original. were optimized if it perform better than optimized a. think of this
as two different tests rather than as one.
the new subject line changed the e-mail’s context. Until we often, we’ve found the two efforts speak effectively to two very
changed the body copy to echo the subject line, we were losing different audience segments. Both may be worthy of further
momentum. Users in the first test of the new subject line were optimization, and their cumulative conversions would go well
simply not seeing the free offer in the original body copy. beyond effort a alone.

in complex selling scenarios, many sites successfully funnel high a/B Testing Is real Work
amounts of traffic to a call-to-action form. Yet they test different true, effective a/B test is not for the impatient. You must be
versions of the form with little success. Usually this is indicates committed to true scientific application. next time you move into
prospects don’t have enough information or resolve to complete the a/B laboratory, remember that a/B testing is science, not art.


On my daily view of the yahoo! Web Analytics

4.
Forum, managed by eric Peterson, i ran into
an interesting question. An individual wanted
to know about common key performance
indicators (kPis) for a specific industry.

it got me thinking about what the right metrics are for an individual
company. some materials cross industries or may be more
pertinent to specific industries. Yet i struggled to post a response
to the question, even though we’ve done analytics for nearly a
dozen companies within the industry he was asking about.

i kept changing the kpis in my response as i thought through
the different companies we’ve worked with. it forced me back to

Defining key Performance where we begin when defining metrics or kpis for a client: kpis
shouldn’t be driven by what others are doing in your industry or in

indicators other industries; they should be driven by the overall goals of your
business and the role the Web site plays within your organization.
by Jason BurBy
August 16, 2005 Webopedia.com defines a KPI this way:
kpis, or key performance indicators help organizations achieve
organizational goals through the definition and measurement of
progress. the key indicators are agreed upon by an organization
and are indicators which can be measured that will reflect success
factors. the kpis selected must reflect the organization’s goals,
they must be key to its success, and they must be measurable.
key performance indicators usually are long-term considerations
for an organization.

21

a few key components in this definition: kpis? What effect will they have on the kpis? You’ll most likely want
to monetize those initiatives’ potential effect based on the kpis,
organizational goals. it’s imperative kpis aren’t set to standard then reprioritize those initiatives. You’ll be surprised how having
industry goals but to your goals for your business and Web well-defined kpis can change your current initiatives and priorities
channel. the second-to-last line speaks to this again: “the kpis in a very positive way.
selected must reflect the organization’s goals, they must be key
to its success, and they must be measurable.”

Measurement of progress. We want to look at kpis over time
as we make changes to improve the overall site performance
based on those kpis. after a change is made to the site, did it
drive kpis in the direction we expected?

agreed upon by an organization. this is imperative so
everyone is on the same page, and the kpis are constructed by
people with different functions within the organization.

in the past few years, a number of analytics tool providers have
approached me about what “standard” kpis they should build into
their tracking tools. i tell them they can create some basic kpis,
such as “visits to lead conversion” and “visits to sales conversion,”
to get people started. more important, they must allow each
company to define its own kpis based on what’s important to each
one’s business. some providers have built this function into their
tools, based on similar feedback from many other people.
Don’t worry about the kpis your competitors use; in many cases,
they don’t have well-defined kpis and success metrics for their
Web channel. instead, focus on what will make your overall business
successful based on the Web site’s role.

once you’ve defined your kpis, make sure you share them with the
Web team and people driving site traffic. Look back at your current
online initiatives. How many of them truly support and drive those


it’s two days before Thanksgiving, which means
it’s three days before the holiday shopping

5.
season officially kicks off. What have you done
to maximize your online conversions and
reduce shopping cart abandonment in the
coming weeks?

if you’re an online retailer, you’re likely poised to make or break the
year based on this holiday season. You set up ad campaigns for
the coming weeks, stocked up on inventory, determined the last
possible order time when you can guarantee delivery by the special
day. now, you must ensure customers complete their transactions.

in a recent study, Webtrends predicts $63 billion in sales will be lost
in the U.s. alone in 2004 due to shopping cart abandonment. What
if you could convert just three more visitors into buyers out of every
Web Analytics red thousand who visit your site?

(And green) Alert if your conversion rate is 3.0 percent, those additional three visitors
would increase conversion to 3.3 percent. that may not sound like
by Jason Bur By
much, but it’s a 10 percent increase in revenue. plus or minus 10
november 23, 2004
percent could make or break many e-tailers’ holiday season.

abandonment Issues
Where’s that estimated $63 billion going? more important, why
do those people abandon a site? according to the Webtrends
study, the four most common contributing factors leading to
abandonment are:

additional costs, such as shipping and handling, or lengthy
delivery times (35 percent)

24 5. Web AnAlyTics reD (AnD green) AlerT 25

too much consumer information required to make the purchase strongly recommended for the long term. Consider a targeted
(30 percent) expert review by a usability specialist to generate ideas. or, after
reviewing the data and seeing where people go, what’s causing
Lack of product information (17 percent)
the problem may be obvious.
Decision to purchase from a brick-and-mortar store rather than
set up a simple a/B test. Explore different solutions against an
online (14 percent)
existing page. as it’s the prime shopping season, you may only
want to filter off a portion of site traffic.
there’s still time to redeem Your site
How well does your site combat these issues? Looking at the roll out the best-performing solution to all visitors based on
calendar, is it too late to reduce abandonment this shopping your conversion goals.
season? many of our clients have locked down their sites and don’t
anticipate making changes during the holiday season. most have Depending on your organization and willingness to work to
already fine-tuned their sites through a/B testing in preparation for maximize online revenue over the coming weeks, these ideas may
the holidays. or may not be feasible. many of you are reading this and thinking, “i
should have done this in september or october. it just isn’t possible
others will use the next few weeks to test a few minor site to react this quickly to make these types of changes.”
adjustments to capture the extra three or four out of every 1,000
visitors. You can, too. Done correctly, you’ll reap rewards in the You’re right. ideally, this would have occurred a few months ago! if
coming weeks. you can’t fine-tune your site over the coming week or two, make it
your new Year’s resolution.
I’m not talking about wholesale site changes, but small When you get back to the office on monday, January 3, what
adjustments that help people complete the purchase process. steps will you take to maximize conversion, revenue, and profits
Where do you start? Here are a few quick tactics to consider: for 2005? You invested in that powerful analytics tool; this is how
you should use the data. Begin January 3 and continue to use it
Create a conversion funnel. Look at visitors from the time they
throughout the year, so next year at this time you’re not saying, “i
enter the site and view a product all the way through purchase.
wish i’d tested this or that before the site freeze. now i’m out in the
Where do they drop off? the further down in the process, the
cold, waiting to see the numbers.”
lower the drop-off rate should be at each step, as visitors are
more invested in the process.
remember, even small, quick changes can make all the difference
Focus improvements on a selected area. in a good holiday sales season for your commerce site.

Determine what causes the drop off. at this time of year, a
survey or usability study may not be reasonable, though it’s


how do you determine the natural online
conversion rate for any product?

6.
We’ve developed a formula to calculate this, as well as other key
performance indicators. We won’t divulge the formula, but here are
the factors we consider when making calculations.

Common logic is to set a site profitability goal while striving to
achieve a conversion rate equal to or greater than the “universal
average.” Yet in our experience, this formula leaves dollars on
the table.

in every case we’ve observed, this approach results in conversion
goals that are far too low to realize a product’s potential or even to
inspire a Web development team. another undesired result is other

calculate your Online critical top-line metric goals are typically left undetermined or, at
best, very vague. there’s simply no greater enemy of business than

conversion rate unclear goals and objectives. When you don’t know where you’re
going, as the Cheshire Cat told alice, “it doesn’t matter which way
by Bryan EI sEnBE r g you go.”
August 13, 2004
the purpose of setting a baseline conversion rate is to maximize a
product’s income and potential. there’s no way to accomplish this
other than to evaluate every possible factor that affects conversion
rate and to score each. Doing so will provide a big-picture, realistic
overview of what level a Web site can be expected to perform at.

FAcTOrs FAll inTO Three PrimAry cATegOries:
confidence and intent; the personal experience factor (pef);
and environmental and conditional factors.


Confidence and Intent and persuade him to take action? Can you capitalize on up- and
these factors occur before a visitor lands on your site and measure cross-sell opportunities?
the confidence buildup that occurs prior to that event:
Communications. Does your site content convey your message
unqualified. How much traffic on your site belongs there? a effectively, and is the copy persuasive? is it unequivocally clear
certain percentage of traffic doesn’t belong on your site simply where visitors are, and why, based on their goals?
because the visitor arrived by mistake. another set of visitors
Value. Does the Web site communicate the value not only of
needs a product or service you don’t offer.
your products and services but also of doing business with you?
Customer intent. What are your customers’ intentions toward are the benefits clear?
your site and products? Will they buy today? or do they intend
service after the sale. How do you support customers after the
to research a product online, then purchase it offline? keyword
transaction? Do you find ways to exceed their expectations? Can
research can help determine intent.
customers find their shipping and product questions on the site
Brand confidence. How much confidence do visitors have in easily, or at all?
your products or brand before they arrive at your site? this,
in a nutshell, is customers’ prior knowledge of your brand. it’s Environmental and Conditional Factors
learned through word of mouth and the impact quotient of your these factors exist largely outside of a company’s immediate
marketing efforts, both online and off-. control:

Product relevance. Do your products deliver on the promise
PEF
made to the customer? How relevant is your offering?
this is the actual experience a visitor has during and after a visit to
your site. the following factors contribute to a site’s pef: Conversion type. is your site’s objective to sell products or
services, sell content, or generate leads? We know a significant
Planning. is there a comprehensive, focused understanding of
percentage of all traffic on an e-commerce site won’t convert.
target-visitor buying models? How well do you communicate
your unique value proposition in regard to what’s in the visitor’s Product buy in and buying cycle. How complex is the sales
heart? process? Does your product require endorsement from another
person, in addition to the visitor? (Common for many B2B sites).
structure. Do the design, information architecture, and
How much time and effort is a visitor willing to devote to the
technology aspects of the site support the requirements of the
conversion process?
buying and selling process? Does the visitor become disoriented
or lose interest due to site flaws? Market potential. this is the total dollars available in a product or
service category. keyword research can help determine this.
Momentum. Does the site’s conversion process channel visitor
activity and motivate action? Does each page engage the buyer


Competitive environment. What are your competitors doing,
and how does it affect your sales?

each of these factors must be taken into account and individually
scored. our formula also calculates the effect each factor may have
on another one.

for example, all factors being equal, a Web site with strong
brand confidence might expect the same conversion rate as a
lesser-known site with a stronger pef score. When Citrix online
introduced a new product, gotomeeting, we scored these
factors using lessons gleaned from our experience with its more
established gotomypC site. Being able to compare and contrast
made some factors easier to measure. others, like market potential,
required more research. finally, we determined a natural baseline
for conversion that will allow Citrix to realistically project the site’s
performance.

an added benefit of the formula is it reveals potential weaknesses
in a product offering and serves as a guide for recommending
improvements. think about these factors. they’ll help with
your planning.


Just six months ago, personas were little more
than an industry buzzword. At the recent

7.
AD:Tech conference, i surveyed the room a
colleague was speaking in and was pleasantly
surprised to find 30 percent of the audience
claimed to use personas in site design.

now that persona use is more widespread, the questions are
different. no longer do people ask if they should use personas.
instead, they ask if their personas are effective.
How do you know if a persona is good or bad?

Evaluating effectiveness boils down to two things:

How well does your Web team empathize with your personas?

Can your personas be used to create persuasive scenarios that
measuring Personas can be measured and optimized?

for success Empathy, Empathy, Empathy
Write tamara adlin and John pruitt in their upcoming “the persona
by Bryan EIsE nBE r g
Lifecycle: keeping people in mind throughout product Design”:
August 5, 2005

You walk down the street and you see gorgeous people,
nondescript people, and everything in between. Which are good
people? are the gorgeous ones good and the nondescript ones
bad? Who knows? to know, you’d have to ask people who are close
to each individual. You’d have to watch how they behave.

the same is true of personas. is a gorgeous persona — one with lots
of pretty posters, tons of details, gobs of included data — a good
persona? is a persona that’s not much more than a name sitting on

35

top of a bunch of assumptions a bad persona? the only way to find Information to help your team relate to your personas:
out is by observing how they’re used. What makes a persona “good”
What's the persona's life mantra?
or “bad” isn’t the way it was created, the way it looks, or the richness
of its details. What makes a persona good — what makes a persona What are her hot buttons in this product category and others?
a persona and not an interesting segmentation experiment — is a for her life? Her work?
persona must live in your team’s minds.
How does she define value?
empathy isn’t a touchy-feely, cry-with-those-who-cry type of action. What are her pet peeves and turn-ons?
in business, particularly selling, empathy is the identification with and
understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives. personas What kind of car does she drive? Why?
should evoke clear, focused customer empathy in the team, otherwise
What are her hobbies, pastimes, and favorite tV shows?
they’re little more than a thin voice whispering in a loud room.
a persona should have a strong character diamond and be more
More from The Persona Lifecycle:
than a average caricature of your demographic research. there are
the classic mistake people make with personas is to assume that
certainly some things you can include in a persona description that
the personas are done once the details are written and the
will sharpen its identity, reveal its motivations, and humanize it.
posters are printed -- because personas can't be good or bad until
after they are created. if company a has an ad-hoc persona named
Techniques we’ve seen used successfully: Bob that they created in 15 minutes, but everyone on the team
knows and can describe Bob, and thinks about Bob when making
Use a quote from a persona stating her attitude or view of the decisions, then Bob is a much better persona than the expensive
product or service: persona gail who hangs ignored on another company's wall in all
“i want a state-of-the-art home theater system. Bottom line: what’s her color-printed, data-driven, expensive glory.
the best DVD player i can get?”
Don't get us wrong — we're all for creating personas from data.
“i’ve been looking for a DVD player, and everyone keeps trying to But if you're trying to figure out if your persona is good or bad,
sell me things i don’t care about. Just give me the facts. i want to walk through the halls of your company asking folks to describe
see how each player works, so i won’t have to pay a penny extra who they are trying to help with the work they are doing. if they
for something i don’t need.” immediately start talking about your personas, congratulations!

take a snapshot. What does this persona do on a daily basis?
Don’t Forget your Business goals
empathy is the critical first step. only after can you begin to
uncover how your personas experience your company, products,
and Web site.


When you know and understand personas, you can begin to
discover why your customers do what they do:

What's this persona's unspoken question regarding this product?

What does she expect from this product?

What's her experience with your company? Will it fall short of
her expectations? of your competitors?

What information will this persona need to be persuaded to take
action?

Does she prefer to collect information slowly and methodically?
Does she take a personal approach? or does she want a bottom-
line summary?

Why is she motivated to take this action?

What actions do you want this persona to take, and how will you
persuade her to take them?

now you can begin to plan persuasive scenarios that will entice
people to participate in the conversions that are critical to your
business success.

though your personas evoking empathy in your team is critical,
empathy remains somewhat subjective. What isn't subjective
is personas' real-world effect on your conversion and key
performance indicators (kpis). these are things that can be
measured, tracked, and optimized.


The word “audit” usually scares people.
in the context of Web development and

8.
interactive marketing, however, an audit helps
you understand where the biggest return on
investment (rOi) potential is. As it’s still the first
quarter and everyone’s prioritizing their projects
for the rest of the year, now’s a good time to
talk about what to do before that prioritized
project list is finished.

an audit (usually qualified as a “site audit,” an “e-mail marketing
audit,” etc.) is a nonbiased look at your company’s Web site, e-mail
marketing, loyalty program, or any other part of your business that
needs improvement. You know the better you design and plan a

Audit before you
project, the easier that project will be to execute. that same logic
holds true here. instead of jumping into a project because it’s been
on the backburner or is relentlessly internally championed, you
redesign must set priorities based on their anticipated lift to the business.
many companies spend millions of dollars based on the whims
by JaCK aaronson
of executive management or on projects it thought were “cool,”
January 2 , 2005
though the projects’ actual value was questionable.

in a nutshell, an audit should inventory what’s good and bad with
your current marketing efforts and Web site. Depending on the
expertise involved, an audit should list problems with current
initiatives and suggest solutions.

We once audited a large electronics store’s site. its higher-end
product line wasn’t selling very well. the site had a lot of problems,
but most were symptoms of a larger one: lack of differentiation.

40 AuDiT beFOre yOu reDesign 41

this store carried at least four different products per line, each in the example above, the company’s project list included “get
with a different price point. the products’ textual descriptions all better photography” and “make our descriptions easier to read.”
sounded the same (unless you were a tech geek and understood those definitely were problems, but solving each one individually
the differences between technical components). the product wouldn’t have improved roi or the bottom line. Both were part of
photography was also bland and undifferentiated. every computer a larger, unidentified issue: the people buying their products didn’t
looked like a grey box. Why would an uninformed user choose the understand the fine print, and no amount of clarity around technical
expensive one when all looked and sounded alike? components would help. they needed to be sold to differently. the
company had to think about user needs more and be less product-
a good audit identifies the problem and suggests high-level centric.
solutions. in this case, the solution wasn’t just to have better
descriptions or photos. the company had to realize that to an Plan Before you Build; audit Before you Prioritize
uneducated computer buyer, computers are all the same. the as you prioritize your projects this year, take a closer look before
difference is in how people use them. the differentiation, then, you start development. more than likely, many of the projects are
should be in how the computers are positioned. the low-end really symptoms of larger problems.
“everyday” computer might be positioned for a person who
uses the computer mainly for writing papers and checking e-
hopefully, you aren’t too close to your business
mail. the “gamer’s” computer has the best video speeds, and
the “programmer’s” computer has the best number-crunching to see them. Whether you do it internally or
capabilities for compiling code. Looking at the product line like this externally, an audit of your current e-mail
changed the landscape from “How much money do you want to
marketing campaigns and Web site usability is
spend on a grey box?” to “We’ll guide you toward the right solution
based on your needs.” essential to understanding (and solving) the real
problems effecting your bottom line this year.
the difference between doing this kind of upfront strategy in an
audit and doing it during the project’s development is huge. the
audit not only suggests a high-level solution, it also prioritizes
the problems based on how important the solution will be to the
bottom line. the audit should be both a problem identifier and a
mini strategy paper. Whereas a normal development list is based
on individual problems, an audit has the advantage of being able to
identify symptoms of an overarching problem, then prioritizing the
problem as a whole, not just its underlying symptoms.


in that first second at midnight on January 1,
something nearly mystical occurs. Though the
only thing that really changes is the calendar,

9.
we somehow feel we’re making a fresh start. We
begin plotting things in our lives or work that can
be different and better. Allow me to challenge
you to think afresh about the opportunities 2005
offers you and your Web site.

The Conversion rate game
Before the dot-com implosion, we were a small, lonely voice
shouting about conversion rates from every rooftop we could climb
up. Back then, few seemed interested in submitting themselves to
conversion rate accountability. We knew sooner or later, the piper

beyond conversion rates would show up and demand payment.

by B ryan EIsE nBE r g now, conversion rate optimization is almost mainstream. Welcome
January , 2005 to the conversion rate ballgame.

a Low-scoring game
Depending on whom you ask, average conversion rates are
between 2 and 4 percent. By today’s standards, you get bragging
rights and the full dose of hero treatment if you can maintain a
conversion rate of 5 percent or above. You have deity-like status if
your conversion rate approaches double digits. the world’s finest
players sport double-digit conversion rates of somewhere around
12-14 percent.


of course, i’m referencing top-line conversion: the number of Put the Ball in the air
visitors who take the macro action you want them to divided by the if all your visitors were exactly the same in personality, product
total number of site visitors. need, and buying preference, you could use this simple conversion
strategy and theoretically achieve as close to a 100 percent
a double-digit conversion rate seems unimaginable to some, but conversion rate as possible.
experience demonstrates it’s certainly possible. We’ve seen it
happen time and again. Current conversion rate optimization deals with and measures what
is. it can tell you what’s going wrong, and where. in some cases,
it can indicate why things happen on your site. But you must also
Of course, it takes a lot of work.
take into account what could be.

88 Percent still Don’t Convert
take a more inclusive, holistic approach to converting more visitors.
even with an awe-inspiring 12 percent conversion rate, it’s a little
in other words, instead of trying to drag a 12 percent conversion
painful to consider 88 percent of visitors still don’t convert. that’s
rate, kicking and screaming, up to 13 or 14 percent, put the ball in
quite a mound of traffic. But it’s understandable why many feel
the air and aim to convert all your potential customers.
content with these conversion rates. even when a dismal 2 percent
conversion rate is elevated to 4 percent, that constitutes a 100
even if your site is among the best performing, 88 percent refuse to
percent increase. this usually leads to profitability. one hundred
tread down the same, tired conversion path you’ve been optimizing
percent growth tends to make people fat and happy.
for a year or two. if that path were the one they wanted to click
through, don’t you think they would have by now?
that’s one reason why the conversion rate game is only played
on a portion of the playing field. most sites optimize and test
Persuasion Vs. Basic optimization
paths leading from the home page to the shopping cart (or lead-
Clicks are people. each has different needs, capabilities,
generation form). many have milked their Web analytics dry
preferences, and expectations.
and can only squeeze out another few drops of conversion here
the same conversion goal, or a singular conversion path, for
and there. others have a/B tested everything they can think of,
everyone is foolproof recipe for mediocrity in site performance.
with only incremental improvements. still others see so many
instead, use scenario design to help create, define, and measure
opportunities, they don’t know how or where to start or, more
more effective conversion paths.
important, how to manage multiple conversion paths.

Different visitors are in different stages of the buying cycle. they
if conversion rate optimization were a football game, most teams
need different volumes and types of information. Does your site
have been trying to get to the end zone only with a simple,
account for these variances? Do you even have the answers and
straight-up-the-middle running play offense. no wonder they can’t
information each type of visitor may seek?
move the conversion football more than a few yards at a time.


some visitors have drastically different motivations for buying.
Have you addressed each motivation in your copy and trigger
words?
some visitors require multiple visits before they’re ready to convert.
Have you planned proper first, second, and beyond visit conversion
scenarios and strategies for them?
Have you sorted out the types of hyperlinks you should include on
pages? Do your point-of-resolution links create resolving doors for
point-of-action links?

then, there’s audience segmentation. Visitors enter your site from
several channels, carrying different expectations based on the
channel that got them there. Have you planned appropriate paths
(not just landing pages) for those who enter your site organically?
for those who enter from banner ads, e-mail, or media campaigns?

many companies establish conversion funnels for measuring
performance for these channels but put little thought into how
a conversion path may need to be planned differently based on
context. in such cases, scenario design will rationalize all on- and
offline sales efforts into a seamless whole, consistently relevant
across all channels. persuasion isn’t site-wide. it applies to outside
elements, such as pay-per-click (ppC) ads, e-mail, banners, and
offline collateral.

Explore every possible question or issue. architect those
persuasive paths to a close.


buying site traffic costs more every minute. long
term, the online business battle will be waged over

10.
conversion rates and return on investment (rOi),
not traffic acquisition. Those landing pages you
pay for so dearly are a logical place to begin your
solid commitment to better conversion rates.

Each successful landing page answers the following questions:

What's the offer?

Who's interested?

Why are they interested, and why should they take further action?

How do they get started?

Before you address these questions, think about the context in

create landing which prospects land on your site.

Pages that convert Before They Land
customer-data guru Jim novo conducted a three-part test:
by B ryan EIsE nBE r g
march 1, 2005 1. Visitors were sent to a home page containing content address-
ing three different offers in a generic, high-level manner. promi-
nent links to more information were readily visible on the page.

2. Custom landing pages were developed and written to match
each search term used.

3. google traffic was separated from other search engines’ com-
bined traffic to compare results.

When visitors landed on the generic home page, they stayed
longer and visited more pages. Yet a larger percentage left without
converting. When visitors landed on custom pages, they stayed for

51

less time and viewed fewer pages. But these visitors converted two Why are They Interested?
to three times more than the visitors to generic landing pages. When we know who our prospects are and what makes them
When a prospect sees your ad or paid search result, one of two tick, we can begin to answer the big question: why should they
things happens: she will click on it, or she won’t. a click-through buy from you? Lead with benefits, not features. Don’t skimp on
reveals a certain degree of visitor intent. the search term and the the persuasive punch of your copy. take this as far as necessary,
relevance of the term that brought her to your landing page should employing personas and a persuasion architecture system that
be reflected in the header and copy. this gives your prospect a maps the customer’s buying process to your selling process. the
stronger scent trail. more you commit to persuading, the sweeter the fruit.

assuming your product or service offering is what that prospect How Do They get started?
needs, you have a recipe for better conversion. What action do you want visitors to take? make it prominent on the
page. Let the visitors know by taking that action, they’ll understand
avoid using home pages or all-inclusive, multipurpose landing pages. what happens next.
Create specific landing pages for every ad and paid search term.
on an online service site recently, i clicked to view what i thought
What’s the offer? was a flash demo, only to watch the download progress indicator
this is the foremost question in your prospect’s mind as she clicks pop up. needless to say, i canceled the download.
through. she’s hunting for relevant scent and determines within
seconds if your product or service meets her needs. Don’t beat Test, Test, and Test again
around the bush on your landing page; tell prospects what you You could test everything on your landing page, but that would be
offer up front. Don’t over qualify or try to lead them into the offer. a waste of time. focus on the most important items, such as:

Bonus gifts
Who’s Interested?
When you know more about prospects; their motivations, needs, Coupons
and preferences, you can provide the information they need to pull p.s. messages
themselves into a conversion. referring keywords and banner ad guarantees
copy will reveal intent. ask these questions:
opening sentence images
How are keywords and banner copy related to how each visitor is Closing sentence images
trying to solve her problem? Calls to action

How do keywords and banner copy relate to the visitor's stage in Headings
the buying process?
so Many Clicks, Too Few Conversion
What would the visitor consider a success based on keywords as novo says, “not all traffic is created equal.” traffic you pay for
and banner copy? deserves extra time and attention to ensure roi.
53

On a recent business trip, i read “celebrate
Failure” in American Airlines’ in-flight magazine.
The president and ceO of sygate Technologies,

11.
John De santis, provided a number of great
quotes that got me thinking about Web site
optimization.

My two favorites:

1. i’ve been known to say that we’re not making mistakes
fast enough.

2. there’s no way to be innovative and entrepreneurial without
taking risks.

some of the best site optimization lessons come from failed tests.
Don’t be afraid of trying something in a test. Do be afraid if you
aren’t using a/B or multivariate testing to improve your site. Unless
Don’t be Afraid to Fail you measure, test, and tune, you have no idea if changes you make
improve or harm the site.
by Jason BurBy
August 2, 2005 the number one problem in Web analytics is getting people to
take action on the data. assume you use analytics to identify
opportunities, forecast the potential outcome of site changes, and
monetize those potential changes to prioritize them. now it’s time
to act on those opportunities. Here are your options:

talk about improving things but don't ever make changes.

roll out a new page, new content, or a new call to action.

Conduct an a/B or multivariate test.

55

obviously, the first option isn't effective. though the second option i’ve been involved with a number of tests in which the option that
of just rolling out a new page, new content, or a new call to action ultimately performed was very different from the original design
may sound good, you have no way of knowing if it's effective. even and was considered risky. if the client had only gone with a single,
if you look at how it performs the first week or two after it rolls out safe option, it'd never have realized the performance benefits of
as compared to the previous week or two, it's not an apples-to- the riskier option. if you find one of your risky attempts is failing
apples comparison. miserably, you can easily tune the test to exclude that version. Just
make sure you don't pull the plug too soon. You can always pull
User behaviors frequently differ throughout the month. new it out of the test if you want. Having it there can help you expand
campaigns, competitive pressures, and other external factors your and your organization's comfort zone.
can influence behavior. this makes it difficult to know if your new
content or promo is truly outperforming the original.
There's no way to be innovative and
the biggest problem with the second option is having to guess entrepreneurial without taking risks. Take those
which design or option you should use. in a recent client meeting, risks in a measurable, safe environment by
we presented three comps designed to improve a product detail
testing different ideas on your live site. learn
page. the designer, copywriter, project manager, information
architect, interactive head, and Web analyst were in the room. from the wins. learn from the failures. you're
guess who picked the design to be used. the most senior person: only truly failing if you aren't attempting to
the head of the Web group. instead of going with the design that
optimize site performance through live testing.
pushed the envelope, he chose the one with minor changes; the
safer option.

groups that only select one option to roll out to the site are
less inclined to try something extremely different or considered
unsafe. they don't want it to fail, kill the conversion rate, and ruin
their numbers. Don't worry about that. take some chances. it's
the only way you're truly going to get the performance lift you're
looking for.

the easiest way to do this is through a simple a/B or multivariate
test. You can try some safe ideas and explore some riskier ones.
You can use a simple a/B test on your own or a multivariate test
using a tool such as offermatica.


We’ve talked a lot about customer loyalty and
retention strategies over the last few months.

12.
We focused on understanding how various
reward programs work, but we haven’t discussed
what we should reward.

should we reward users for purchases (with points or free
shipping), or are there smarter ways to structure a reward
programs? if rewards train our users to act a certain way (to get
rewards), are we training them to be more or less profitable?

training users to only shop when you have a discount leads to less-
profitable users. training them to expect free shipping all the time
almost guarantees they’ll look elsewhere once you stop offering it.
there must be a better way to structure rewards to actually breed
profitable customers.
rewarding Profitable
rewarding Better Behavior
behavior many online companies structure free-shipping promotions to
require a minimum purchase amount. this accomplishes two goals:
by JaCK aaronson
it stops the free-shipping promotion from occurring with every
August 12, 2005
purchase, and it modifies user behavior. smart companies set this
minimum purchase to be higher than their average order amount.
this technique attempts to coerce customers into the next bucket
of customer segmentation: more profitable customers.

this is one of several techniques that push users into being more
profitable. the hope is these customers’ behaviors will be altered
forever, and they will routinely buy more, even when not rewarded
to do so.

5

But this coercion treats the symptom, not the cause. these people By rewarding users based on behavioral changes, eBay hoped
aren’t in the “low order amount” segment because they’ve been to accomplish several goals. it educated users about new or
waiting for a reward that will entice them to buy more. they’re in misunderstood features, such as the “Buy it now” button. it
that segment for other reasons: they don’t know the full breadth of encouraged more profitable multi-category behavior and extended
your product offerings. they don’t feel the site’s user experience is its brand into product categories some customers don’t associate
personalized enough. or, they don’t feel an emotional connection with eBay. it trained users to be a better community by rewarding
with your brand and use you only for price comparison. them for submitting feedback and performing other good-
neighbor tasks.
Understanding why these users don’t shop more frequently (or
spend a lot of money) will help you structure a better reward Your company can do this, too. rather than a simple points-based
program or promotion. for instance, many companies we work reward program, offer promotions based on customer behavior.
with have a multi-category problem. Customers use the site to buy eBay’s promotion ended a while ago, but users who shopped
jewelry but not clothes; electronics but not books. for some reason, for electronics for the first time because of the multi-category
these customers don’t think of the company’s brand for these other promotion now think of eBay for electronics, not just for
items and instead shop at competitors’ sites. antique cameras.

multi-channel customers are more profitable than single-channel
if you couple these types of rewards with
customers. Customers who use your Web site in addition to your
store or catalog are more profitable than Web- or store-only better onsite features, such as cross-category
customers. instead of rewarding single-category shoppers based on promotions and personalized product
purchases, reward them for discovering new categories. try offering
promotions, you treat the cause of the problem,
free shipping to single-category shoppers if they purchase an item
from a different category. not just the symptom. This is a far more
effective way to reward someone than simply
eBay did this with its “Camp eBay” promotion. it awards merit
saying “buy more and you’ll get free shipping.”
badges based on various activities users perform on the site. the
badges aren’t based on simple purchases. they’re based on how That reward certainly works, but it doesn’t affect
purchases are made and what’s purchased. merit-badge-worthy user behavior beyond the promotion itself. it
behaviors include using the “Buy it now” button instead of bidding
on an item, shopping in several different product categories, and
doesn’t get to the actual reason these users
posting feedback. aren’t more profitable.


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62 63

AbOuT The eXPerTs

JAsOn burby
JAck AArOnsOn
Jason Burby is the director of Web analytics for ZaaZ, a Web
Jack aaronson is the Ceo of the aaronson group as well as a
business consultancy implementing data-driven business initiatives
corporate lecturer. the aaronson group works with companies to
for long-term clients across the U.s. Using performance scorecards,
increase the loyalty and satisfaction among their customers, increasing
a/B testing, tool reconfiguration and other techniques, Jason helps
their profitability. focusing on multi-channel user experiences, Jack
companies better use Web analytics data to improve site business
and his team makes sure that your users have a fulfilling and enjoyable
results. He’s worked with Washington mutual, e*trade financial,
user experience across all of your touch points. as a corporate
reuters, t-mobile, Converse, alaska airlines, microsoft, sprint, Levi
lecturer, Jack also travels around the world teaching companies how
strauss, Qwest and ae television networks. Jason speaks frequently
to effectively implement personalization, loyalty programs and multi-
at conferences and seminars helping spread the word on the effective
channel Crm. He also publishes a newsletter about personalization,
use of Web analytics. in addition he is the co-chair of the metrics/kpi
User experience and other related issues.
committee of the Web analytics association.

For more information, visit: www.aaronsongroup.com
For more information, visit: www.zaaz.com

bryAn eisenberg
Bryan eisenberg co-founded marketing consulting firm future now
with his brother in 1998. future now applies persuasion architecture to
increase online and multi-channel conversion rates so prospects make
more purchases, subscribe, register, make referrals and/or accomplish
other goals that can be measured and optimized. Bryan helped invent
and develop mapsuite, a suite of software applications that allows
non-experts to apply persuasion architecture to their businesses.
Bryan is chairman and a founder of the Web analytics association
and has authored several books; his latest is the new York times, Usa
today and Wall street Journal bestselling Call to action.

For more information, visit: www.futurenowinc.com


AbOuT us

AbOuT clickZ
the ClickZ network is the largest resource of interactive marketing
news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and
reference in the world, online or off-. from search to e-mail,
technology to trends, their coverage is expert, exclusive, and in-depth.
its mission is to help interactive marketers do their jobs better.

For more information, visit: www.clickz.com

AbOuT WebTrenDs
thousands of web-smart organizations worldwide, including more
than half of the fortune and global 500, rely on Webtrends to
improve their web site conversions and optimize their marketing
performance for maximum return on investment. as the worldwide
market leader for web analytics, Webtrends has become the trusted
standard not only for award-winning technology, but also for a full
range of consulting services and unmatched industry expertise. By
delivering accurate and actionable metrics through both on-demand
and software options, Webtrends ensures that its customers are
positioned for both immediate and long-term success with a solution
that can adapt to ever-changing business and technical requirements.

For more information, visit www.webtrends.com.

Webtrends, Webposition, Webtrends on Demand and Webtrends smartreports are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Webtrends inc. in the United states and other
countries. all other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

66

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