2010 is shaping up to have a number of tight political races.  The Wisconsin Governor’s race will likely be one of them.  A very important component of any political campaign these days is how well the web is utilized.

In this post, I take a look at the websites of each of the three candidates, Scott Walker, Mark Neumann, and Tom Barrett, and evaluate them based on their homepage performance, promoting email signups, usage of video, and available supporter tools and resources.

First, a quick overview of the candidates’ domains:

• Scott Walker: ScottWalker.org – Has held and used this domain since 1999.  Announced run on April 28, 2009
• Mark Neumann: MarkForGov.com – Announced run on September 8, 2009 with traffic data for the site showing as starting in July of 2009.
• Tom Barrett:  BarrettForWisconsin.com – Launched February 18th, 2010 (very late) – Announced run on November 15, 2009.

Compete.com Data

Barrett clearly has some catching up to do, however the data indicates the race (at least in terms of site unique visitors) is narrowing.

Unique visitors in month of January

• Walker: 4,052
• Neumann: 3,651
• Barrett: 1,251

HOMEPAGE
In this section I take a look at the homepage of each site and outline positives and negatives.

Walker

Positives

• On entry, an overlay prompts the user to sign up for email updates.  A cookie is placed on your computer and the site remembers you so you aren’t bothered every time you visit the site with the signup form.
• High up on the page is a list of the ways a supporter can take action and a call to create your own “spot” (more on supporter tools and resources below).
• The “What’s Your Take?” section highlights recent comments from site visitors.  This is a good way to grab the attention of site visitors.  See the “Negatives” section below for more.

Negatives

• The prominence and size of the callout for “MyScottSpot.org” does not match its importance.  This is one of, if not the most important call to action of the site.
• Within the video/presentation area, there are only three frames and each includes a quote and a photo of a citizen with a concern.  Upon clicking these, a page merely reiterates the quote and presents you with another link to “See what Scott says about [topic].”  One would think that there is a video associated with these callouts featuring the citizens concerns.  The actual content is a bit underwhelming.
• There is a video player integrated within the homepage, however it is too small to expect someone to watch the video in this space.  It would make more sense to incorporate the videos in the main presentation area above.
• The “What’s Your Take” section only displays three handpicked comments.  It initially appears as if your comment may immediately be submitted to the site, however this is not the case.  It’s understandable why the campaign wouldn’t want comments posted directly, but the site shouldn’t give the impression that it accommodates this action.
• There’s a “Breaking News” section, however it’s very far down the page in small font.  Easy to miss.

Neumann

Positives

• The site elevates where you can find the candidate across the major social media properties very high on the page.  They take the most prominent position of all the candidates’ sites.
• The main presentation area on the homepage is well-designed and does a great job of calling out the key areas of the site and the tools available to supporters.  A much better job is done here than on the Walker site.
• Next to the presentation area, the site includes a photo of the candidate and a quick summary of why he’s running.  The Barrett site takes a similar approach.  More effective than the hand/card graphic on the Walker site.
• The “How Can I Help?” section in the right column clearly and succinctly summarizes available features coupled with recognizable icons.
• Instead of a pseudo comments section, Neumann showcases the latest from his blog.  This is a good approach, however see the Negatives section below.

Negatives

• The sign-in form for the user account area should be much higher on the page, perhaps as a permanent spot in the header.  Yes, there is a “Login” link up there, but it’s easily missed.
• Even though “Contribute Now” belongs in a prominent place, it should be preceded by at least a sentence or two enticing the user to take that step.  Clickthrough rates would likely increase.
• The blog section shows the entirety of each post.  This limits the ability of the user to scan the posts, read a quick summary and then decide which is worth clicking through to.  It’s easy for other posts pushed far lower on the page to be overlooked.
• Perhaps it was decided to show the full content of each blog post so some content was alongside the overly long series of callouts in the right column (8 in all).  If the blog posts were reduced to a title and summary, more room would be available to present these callouts in a more effective grid form.  Removal of redundancies would also help such as the “Endorse Mark Neumann,” which could be integrated within the “How Can I Help?” section.

Barrett

Positives

• The main navigation on this site is large, clear, and obvious.  Each button feels like a call to action in itself.  A strong point for a political candidate’s site.
• An email list is the lifeblood of any candidate, and the Barrett site calls out the signup form most prominently of the three sites.
• The initial frame of the presentation window includes a welcome video from the candidate.  Unlike the other two sites, you can watch this video right from the homepage in a window large enough for comfortable viewing.
• The presentation window’s frames are easily navigated and each includes a summary of call to action destination.
• The blog area lower on the page features each post’s title and summary, with a link to the detail.  This is better for presentation’s sake as well as for tracking of most popular posts.
• In general, the site is well-organized and easy to scan.  The homepage doesn’t attempt to cram in every conceivable callout.

Negatives

• Similar to Neumann’s site, the “Contribute” button would be more effective moved underneath the candidate’s photo and intro paragraph giving the user more of a reason to take action.
• The site does not summarize or callout the ways a supporter can get involved.  This may be because in general the options are limited compared to the other candidates (a rather big negative).  More on this in “Supporter Tools & Features” section below).

EMAIL MARKETING

Each candidate site is relatively similar in that they prominently call out the email signup form.  The Walker site is the most up front about this as mentioned previously, by greeting first-time users with an overlay.

After entering your email address, however, each takes a different approach in terms of gathering more information.

Walker

The Walker site requires confirmation of your email address in order to start receiving updates.  Obviously this was implemented to limit the amount of junk accounts created, but it creates an unnecessary level of friction for the user.  A better practice would allow the user to finalize their subscription and begin receiving messages right away.  The campaign could utilize behavioral targeting to force those who never open emails to validate their address later on.

Neumann

• Neumann smartly combines the email signup process with the ability to create an account at the same time.  The screen reiterates the email address.  The email address functions as the user name and a password can be selected and confirmed to create an account.
• It may not be clear to some however, what the, “publicly support and endorse” checkbox is actually for.  What will the campaign do with your information should you check this box?  A simple “What’s this?” which reveals an explanation would be helpful.
• After submitting the form, you’re directed straight to your account dashboard.  An email is sent to your address asking you to validate your email address; however this doesn’t prevent you from using the system.
• From the user account, you can specify in-depth the types of emails you want to receive. These range from general campaign updates to specific activity within the community such as friend requests, event and blog postings, and comments.

Barrett

The Barrett site unfortunately doesn’t prompt you to create an account, however it does introduce one feature the others don’t.  A check box at the bottom of the form reads, “Sign me up to receive text messages on my phone.”  Surprisingly, this is the only campaign utilizing mobile notifications.

VIDEO
Some observations regarding the candidates’ use of video:

Walker

• The tiny homepage video mentioned previously, is definitely a negative, and the main video page isn’t much better.  This page is simply a scrolling list of embedded YouTube players with a .wmv file at the bottom.  There is no way to share to easily share or bookmark individual videos other than the default embed/URL YouTube features.  The entire page can be shared via email but this is only moderately useful.
• Despite being able to boast the longest-lived website, there are only five videos.

Neumann

• Best practice dictates publishing videos on your site directly and integrating the content within the user account area.  When not possible, a fully-branded YouTube channel is a good second choice.
• The Neumann campaign’s YouTube channel integrates the website’s graphics as well as key calls to action such as to contribute or visit other social media profiles.  The channel’s profile information is filled out in detail and includes a “Why I’m Running for Governor” intro.  Well done overall.

Barrett

The Barrett site is sort of a hybrid between the other two in terms of video.   A single page on the site highlights only three videos with many of the same faults as the Walker site.  They do have a YouTube channel (pictured above), however little thought was given to integration of brand or overall look and feel.  The channel lacks an overview statement and calls to action.

SUPPORTER TOOLS & FEATURES
Each site featured tools and resources for supporters; however these differed significantly from site to site.

Walker

The Walker site offers tools both outside and inside the login.  Outside the login there are a series of universally accessible pages on the site under “Get Involved.”

• Volunteer: A simple signup form with check boxes for ways to help
• Social Networks: Basic directory of the social media profiles the campaign maintains
• Attend Events: This is a great feature which offers a detail page for each event and often a link to registration or more details.  Each event can be mailed to yourself or a friend
• Scott Walker Store:  Not a bad idea to make it easy to buy T-shirts, stickers, signs, and other merchandise to show your support.  This ecommerce store even handles paid event registration

The ability to create a “MyScottSpot.org” also exists and offers a very full-featured experience with innovative tools.

• Similar to LinkedIn’s “profile completeness” MyScottSpot measures “impact points” and plots where you are on the scale from being a new “Recruit” to becoming an “Operative.”  A page summarizes how their “Personal Impact Engine” is calculated.
• Your to-do items are summarized on the dashboard with each one displaying its potential score getting you closer to “Operative” status.
• Recent blog posts are summarized neatly in the right column.  The main site would benefit from this approach as well.
• Lower on the dashboard are recent comments separated by official comments and user comments.  You can post a comment any time, however there is a 500 character limit.
• You can form or join a team (by county) or recruit friends or create groups (no groups at time of review).
• You can RSVP for events or invite others (import contacts from your email system or select friends on Facebook).
• Repository of all media including documents, images, videos and audio
• Built-in feedback submission form available on any page

Neumann

The Neumann “Personal Dashboard” area is also very advanced and similar to the offerings of the Walker campaign.  From here a supporter can manage their profile, interact with other supporters, and learn of ways to get involved.  Features include:

• Invite friends: Includes pre-populated verbiage to make it easy to send.  Contacts can be selected via your own online email account, uploaded file, or manually added.
• Full profile management and summary including your recent blogs and events, groups you belong to, a summary statement of why you support the candidate and important issues.
• The ability to create a blog, share your posts, read others’, and search.
• Events are integrated within the account area along with RSVP capability, social media sharing tools, and even Google Maps integration!
• Groups:  None exist yet, however the system allows you to create one based on a variety of issues and start inviting your friends. (UPDATE: Some groups do exist however I missed this in the interface.  See comment thread below to read my recommendations for improvement.)
• Send and receive messages to/from the campaign and other supporters
• Fundraising: Create your own fundraising page, set financial goals and manage its content.  From there you can choose friends to invite and ask for their support.  Very impressive.
• Ability to search blog posts, team members and groups separately

Barrett

The Barrett campaign doesn’t offer an actual account, however there are dedicated pages under, “Take Action.”

• Contribute: A succinct and well-designed form allowing a supporter to quickly donate in pre-set amounts or “other.”
• A basic volunteer form which actually lacks suggestions for ways to participate.  Not good for those who want to help but need some specific ideas in order to convert.
• A separate “Join Our Campaign” form which doesn’t explain itself and is too similar to the “Volunteer” form.
• “Intern With the Campaign”:  A lot of details are provide here in terms of responsibilities.  This much thought should have been given to the “Volunteer” and “Join the Campaign” forms as well.

MY PICKS

Each of the three sites has strengths and weaknesses; some subtle, some glaring.  Of course, there are a number of other criteria one could review the sites by but are beyond the scope of a single blog post.  Here’s my take at scoring the sites based on the criteria discussed above (1-5 with 5 being highest):

YOUR THOUGHTS

As always, comments are encouraged.  In what ways do you think these sites excel or fail?  Please play nice, and keep the discussion focused on digital features and tactics, not politics.

Expert Review, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media Competitive Analysis, Internet Marketing, Mark Neumann, Political Website, Scott Walker, Social Media, Tom Barrett, User Interface Design, Wisconsin Governor's Race

By now, you’ve probably seen all the top-rated ads either during the game itself or afterward online and picked your favorites.  Most of the ads had some sort of mention of their web address, but not all of those sites greeted you with anything special upon arrival.  Here are four that went the extra mile to create experiences to make the most out of their massive Super Bowl ad expenditure.

Boost Mobile - boostmobile.com/shuffle

Right or wrong, Boost brings back the 1985 Bears in an odd (to put it mildly) spot featuring McMahon in a motorized chair getting a spray tan and other antics.  The site is in all Flash for which it loses some points from an analytics perspective, but at least it’s a unique URL which makes it easy to segment their traffic.  There’s also an ever-present banner that calls out Boost’s unlimited mobile plan so users can take the next step toward conversion.

Among the fun features are:

• An extended version of the ad as well as behind the scenes clips.
• Downloads and Fun Stuff including wallpapers, ringtones and a Ditka-shaped waffle currently for sale on Ebay!
• McMahon’s Headband: links to McMahon’s Twitter accounts
• Mike Singletary Party Police:  During the game and soon after you could rat out your friends for their faux pas during the game (asking what the score is, touching all the wings, etc.).  You pick a message and a recorded Mike Singletary would call their number (after the friend approves this via an email link).  The feature is no longer live, but here’s a screenshot.

You might have the shuffle song stuck in your head along with some weird imagery for a while, but it’s still a fun and engaging site and does a good job of integrating the brand.

Dove Men Care - DoveMenCare.com

While not as entertaining as the Boost Mobile campaign, a vanity URL directs you to a well-designed, targeted site which features the ability to play the ad along side prominent links to product, overview information, and special offers.  The site is a nice blend of Flash and XHTML/CSS to maximize both look and feel yet still provide quick page load times and easier tracking of key metrics such as product pages view, social media sharing, and offer signups.  It’s clear you’re in the right place if you visit the site as a result of seeing the ad, but the Dove smartly doesn’t allow the ad to take up all of the valuable screen real estate.  There’s also a nicely done shower curtain effect and a Drew Brees cameo.

Volkswagen PunchDub – VW.com

The automaker’s call to action in the ad is to play PunchDub on VW.com.  Sending  traffic straight to VW.com/PunchDub would have helped them with entry page analysis to segment ad-driven traffic, but that’s a minor negative compared with the overall quality of the site’s execution.  Upon arriving at VW.com, the normal site remains intact, but the presentation/branding area showcases the PunchDub game and a video player to watch the commercial.  VW dealers are getting into the act with “PunchDub Days” special offers and deals that are “So good it hurts.” Ouch.

In a new twist on share with a friend, the game lets you “punch” a friend by selecting a model, choosing a photo, and then picking your attack type and reaction sound.  You then connect with Facebook and send the pain on to one of your friends.  Give it a try, it’s well done, and you might find yourself up on the “Leaderboard” which is a stock ticker-style run down of the most punches, weekly winners, and top vehicles.

For back story you can learn from Sluggy Paterson, the outspoken man who started the whole punching tradition (it was initially the face, not the shoulder!) and even follow him on Twitter.

Overall, VW offers a seamless integration and a great user experience.

HomeAway - HomeAway.com

Everyone remembers the Griswolds and HomeAway brings them back with gusto.  A prominent callout on the homepage leads to an immersive experience that still keeps the site’s main navigation easily accessible.  You could spend half a day watching videos and playing with all the features but here are some of the highlights:

• Of course, the ad itself, but also a newly-created, 2-part short film (with smartly-placed quick 10-second pre-roll ads from HomeAway), as well as clips from the classic films.
• Win a Dream Vacation contest by submitting your own hotel vacation stories.  Entries from others are featured on the site which can be rated.
• Impressively designed Flash video game featuring the Griswold’s Truxter station wagon.

These are just a few examples of good executions tied to the Big Game.  Which ads do you feel were best supported on the web and took customer engagement to the next level, or were just plain fun?

Expert Review, Flash, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics Flash, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Super Bowl, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Graphic Design

Martha Coakley’s failed Senate run has led many to review the key differences in strategy between her campaign and Scott Brown’s.  It’s pretty clear that Brown took the web seriously and Coakley seemed to largely ignore many of the social media and web analytics strategies and tactics that swept Obama into office.

Ad Age and Social Media Today have taken a look at (and criticized) Coakley’s overall digital and social media’s approaches.  This post narrows in and serves as a reminder of web analytics best practices which can mean the difference between coming in first or a distant second.

The Obama campaign tracked digital metrics obsessively yet ingeniously with great success.  The techniques they used are just as applicable today as they were over a year ago.

Dan Siroker was a Google employee, who in December of 2007 decided to take a leave from Google and assist the Obama campaign in setting up a web analytics methodology.  He was there for a month, came back to Google for a stint, then in July quit permanently to join the campaign full time through to the general election as director of web analytics.

As a measure of their success, of the $656 million raised by the Obama campaign, $500 million of that was raised online compared to $201 million the McCain campaign raised overall. ($201 million does not include the federal campaign funds McCain accepted).

In November of 2009, Siroker gave a presentation at Google about his experiences and the campaign’s web analytics wins.  In it, he outlined five key lessons learned, which are excellent guidelines for any web analytics initiative be it for a political campaign or business marketing.

Lesson 1: Define Success with QUANTIFIABLE Success Metrics

Setting goals such as, “drive traffic via PPC” or “use the email channel to maintain a dialogue with our audiences” are not specific enough to gauge success.

Instead, Siroker’s team set quantifiable goals related to cost per click, signup rates, money raised per email recipient, and many more.  He said, “We always had more to do than we had man hours to do it.”  As such, having very targeted goals was essential to ensure time expenditures could be justified.

Lesson 2: Question Assumptions

The team utilized Google Website Optimizer to determine which landing pages and creative content pulled its weight.  As an ad-hoc survey, Siroker asked the audience of a series of images and calls to action, which combination they thought was best received by splash page viewers and resulted in the most sign ups.  It turns out the audience’s assumptions were wrong (so were the analytics team’s originally) and it required multivariate testing to get to the truth (“Learn more” and the “Family Image” were the winners).

Getting the version right meant over 4 million more people signed up for the email list between the time they ran the experiment and the election!

Lesson 3: Divide & Conquer

This lesson demonstrates the power of segmentation.  As Avinash Kaushik puts it, segment or die!  Data takes on a whole new meaning when you can know as much as possible about the people who generated it.

This was illustrated by the team’s donation button experiment.  In it, they sent donation solicitations and tested different donation button verbiage (Donate Now, Please Donate, Why Donate, Donate and Get a Gift, and Contribute) with each audience (never signed up, signed up but never donated, previously donated). The results varied significantly based on who the visitor was when they got there.

Winning combinations:

• Never signed up: Donate and Get a Gift
• Signed up, never donated: Please Donate
• Previously donated: Contribute

Monetary results: tens of millions of dollars in additional donations.

Lesson 4: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

This lesson goes to show that it’s not how much you spend on technology; it’s how much you invest in talent.  One would think that a presidential campaign which broke all sorts of war chest records would use its means to select the most robust and most expensive analytics tools on the market.  In fact, Siroker’s team used many free and open source tools.  These included Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Trends, and App Engine, TextMate, Open Reports, and DbVisualizer.

Lesson 5: Take Advantage of Circumstances

After Sarah Palin made a remark at the Republican National Convention in an attempt to undermine the perceived value of being a community organizer, the Obama campaign immediately sent out an email to their list protesting this notion.

The recipients responded.  From that one email the campaign raised $10 million.

Think of your own organization.  How close are you to putting these lessons into practice?  Do you have examples of challenges or success stories?

Don’t pull a “Choke-ley” and underestimate the power and benefits of digital marketing, social media, and web analytics.  Know where you stand before you’re passed up by a Brown blur.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Email Marketing, Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Website Testing

With all that can be learned from clickstream web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics, and Omniture Site Catalyst, it’s important to remember those tools reveal the “what” of your site visitor sessions, but not much about the “why.” Did your visitors see the pages they wanted to see? Were they able to complete their tasks? Is a high page-per-visit rate a result of an engaged visit, or visitors unsuccessfully browsing through pages not finding what they’re looking for? Voice of customer tools are an important component to any website and web analytics initiative and can provide valuable “Aha!” moments.

In this post we’ll take a look at some of the most popular tools and the best ways to utilize them.

SURVEYS

We’re all familiar with surveys, however they come in all shapes and sizes and selecting the right one can be challenging. Some do a great job of collecting and segmenting results, others are annoying and drive your visitors crazy! It’s very important to evaluate not only the technical capabilities of your survey tool, but its user experience as well.

When redesigning a site, ensure survey integration is part of the overall technology set. The benefits of making surveys readily available include:

• They can be always on and serve as a continuous listening methodology. Surveys don’t always need to be sent out. They can be prominently featured on the site so visitors know they can leave feedback if they’re so inclined.
• Both qualitative and quantitative data can be collected
• Feedback can come in real-time so you can evaluate the positive or negative impact of newly-added site features or content
• A small sample size of responses can still yield valuable insights
• Surveys have evolved beyond the simple pop up to use cookies and conditional logic as well as integrate with clickstream data

Site-Level Surveys

You’ve likely come across these types of surveys that often fall under the “annoying” category. They are presented either as a popup, or pop under window and ask general questions about your overall experience using the site. Another option is the permission based survey. Upon entering a site, you’re presented with an invitation to take a short survey at the end of your visit.

If you use this approach, be sure to select a vendor that utilizes cookies so that repeat visitors are not invited each time they come to the site. For instance, visitors should only be invited to take the survey once every three months.

iPerceptions offers a great free site-level survey tool called 4Q which asks only the following four crucial questions:

1. What is the purpose of your visit to our website today?
2. Were you able to complete your task?
3. If you were not able to complete your task today, why not?
4. Based on today’s visit how would you rate your site experience overall?

With answers to these questions, you get a great macro-level view of your site’s performance. Also, you can calculate a valuable metric: Task Completion Rate by Purpose of Visit. There’s almost no clearer indication of whether your site’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

Also, consider prompting users to take the survey from locations other than just the homepage. Be contextual and get segmented data by creating surveys for specific sections of the site. You’ll be more likely to get responses from visitors who have a vested interest in the quality of content and/or features that they use regularly. Used this way, site-level surveys can function closer to (often preferable) page-level surveys.

Other great site-level survey tools include:

• Survey Monkey
• CRM Metrix
• ForeSee

Page-Level Surveys

Page-level surveys courteously sit in not-too-obtrusive places waiting for a user to take advantage of them. They often sit at the end of a browser, either on the right or left side or in a bottom corner. They are less likely to annoy visitors and provide the excellent benefit of highly contextual feedback which is the key to actionable data. You’ll hear from your most engaged or upset visitors and will be able to directly attribute their comments to specific elements of your website. This is a great compliment to A/B and Multivariate testing (another form of “what”).

An important thing to remember whether you’re using site-level or page-level surveys is to keep them short! The longer your survey, the less likely your visitors will complete it. Value your users’ time and only ask the questions they need in order to submit feedback.

Great page-level tools include UserVoice and Kampyle.

POLLS

Polls are essentially mini page-level surveys. These are great for quickly taking the temperature of your customers and visitors. They can be easily embedded in a sidebar or even within an email. The best polling tools allow someone to see the results of the poll after taking it. For example, a poll can be displayed in a user account area to solicit votes on which potential features would be most appreciated.

Polling tools:

• PollDaddy
• Constant Contact
• MicroPoll

RATING SYSTEMS

While most commonly featured on ecommerce sites in the form of product ratings, these tools can be used on non-transactional sites as well. A simple YES/NO answer to the question, “Did this [article/FAQ/video] help you?” can quickly let you know if certain content isn’t pulling its weight. More sophisticated sites use this information to dynamically sort content so the best rises to the top of lists.

A nice and inexpensive rating tool is RatingSystem.

Whatever tool or approach you select, make sure it’s appropriate for your site visitors and takes users, content, and context into account. Balance the “what” of your data with the “why” for truly actionable insights.

Let your voice be heard here! What tools, methods, and approaches have brought you success or challenges?

Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Development Polls, Surveys, User Interface Design, Voice of Customer, Web Analytics

Continuing to tread on the territory of the major paid analytics vendors, Google Analytics just announced a number of new features that raise it to yet another level. These powerful, time-saving additions allow you to spend more time analyzing and interpreting your site’s performance, and less time foraging though the data.

Among the major additions are; automated and custom alerts based on significant changes in your data, advanced table filtering, expanded mobile reporting, the ability to share advanced segments, and more.

What do these new features mean for your business? Quite a bit. Read on for the details.

Engagement Goals

You’ve always been able to set goals for transactions such as purchases, downloads, leads and so on, and then determine which traffic sources or site content are top performers. However, sometimes a site’s goals are simply to increase engagement with the site and are not transactional in the traditional sense.

Now you can measure the engagement and branding success of your site by setting thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit.

Example: For your software product marketing site you determine that a Page per Visit rate of 10 or more indicates high engagement with your content and significant interest in your product. With this Page per Visit threshold set, you’re now able to monitor whether recent content cross promotion efforts are positively or negatively affecting this new and important metric.

View the Google video:

Expanded Mobile Reporting

With mobile marketing maturing rapidly, and applications growing in number exponentially, this is a very timely addition.

Google Analytics has allowed you to track visits to your main website from mobile operating systems, but now you can track the performance of your mobile-optimized sites on any mobile device regardless of the device’s ability to run JavaScript.

iPhone and Android app developers, rejoice! You’ll be able to use your favorite free analytics tool to gauge your apps performance as well.

Example: You’ve just launched a new location-based app, which makes restaurant recommendations. Until recently, you could only track downloads and general feedback. Now you can uncover usability issues, and the most popular screens and features within the app to guide its improvements.

Advanced Analysis Features

Want to know which organic keywords are your top performers? The introduction of the advanced segments feature made this task easier, but the new Advanced Table Filtering makes narrowing down a lot of data on the fly a snap.

You can now filter any table of data by custom parameters, quickly narrowing down the results and removing the noise.

Example: When viewing the Network Locations reports, you want to see which organizations sent visits but filter out all the telecommunications companies which don’t help your analysis. Further, you want to see which organization showed high engagement and are repeat visitors. While it’s possible to set up an advanced segment to accomplish this, this type of filter can be done on the fly from any list report.

View the Google video:

Unique Visitor Metric

Good news for custom reports. Now “Unique Visitors” has been added so you can see how many actual visitors (people) are represented in each report as opposed to just overall visits.

Sharing Segments and Custom Report Templates

Very convenient new feature! Formerly, if a new advanced segment were created it would only be available via the profile it was originally created for. Now, just click the “Share” button and a URL is generated which you can easily send to a colleague. Advanced segments can also be copied so you can build upon existing ones rather than starting from scratch. This is also a huge plus for agencies, which utilize the same rough segments for multiple clients.

Analytics Intelligence

Here’s the big one that many were waiting for. Google Analytics is now much smarter! It proactively monitors for events that are significant and then issues alerts. The events could include a spike or drop in traffic, or any major change in goals or behavior patterns.

There is even a slider control that lets you adjust the sensitivity. Move it further to the right and more events will be flagged. Move it to the left and events will need to be more significant to register.

Example: Your site experiences a 250% increase in average referrals from Facebook on a given day. This is logged in Google Analytics automatically and is retained so you can look back overtime for patterns or responses to campaigns. You can also elect to have this alert emailed to the appropriate people.

Custom Alerts

As the title suggests, you can tell Google Analytics to watch for the events that are important to your business. Daily, weekly, and monthly alerts are possible and can also be viewed in the interface or emailed directly.

Example: A hardware ecommerce site manager wants to be alerted when the average order size for lumber drops 20% or more for the contractor segment. Once set, the manager can be alerted of this event instantly.

View the Google video:

Some of the features are live now, others will be rolled out in the coming weeks. It’s great to see Google Analytics continue to mature. These features offer more actionable and meaningful data with powerful options analysts will appreciate.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

Website testing and optimization involves the utilization of software to compare the performance of two or more versions of a page or process to determine which version is the most effective in driving desired user behavior.  Tools such as Google Website Optimizer and more robust options geared toward the sophisticated enterprise such as SiteSpect, are available to automate (as much as possible) the process of conducting A/B or multivariate online tests.

Web analytics expert, Eric T. Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified and website optimization software creator, SiteSpect, recently teamed up to release a white paper entitled, “Successful Web Site Testing Practices.”  This must-read document provides a road map for setting up and leading a web testing team within an organization and leveraging it to yield definitive and dramatic results.  Below is our take on some of the highlights of their recommendations.  However, we strongly recommend you read the document in its entirety and take full advantage of case studies, testimonials, and direct examples including a sample test plan approval form (highly useful)!

Best Practice #1: Form a Great Testing Team
Your testing team must have a mandate for improvement.  This means they need to be charged with improving the website’s condition in a measureable way and be able to clearly demonstrate and communicate results to stakeholders.  It’s crucial to include your organization’s top talent in this team; those folks with the clout and track record to spark enthusiasm and buy-in throughout the company.

Eric T. Peterson labels the project manager and the executive sponsor as the two most important roles within the team.  We couldn’t agree more.  Without a carefully managed process and unwavering support from executive management, objectives can be unclear and the powerful force of entropy can take hold quickly.   Of course, without a key executive at the helm of this initiative, team members will find themselves, as Eric puts it, dead in the water.

The author also values the ability of the project manager to think from the perspective of an end user.  After all, it’s the user interface that’s being optimized, and without a firm grasp of user’s needs and the distinct problems or challenges they face when using the site, tests will be misguided and ineffective.

The efforts, updates, successes and even failures of the testing team should be broadcasted throughout the organization.  Allow for a platform for team members to showcase their results.  Ensure this is not merely one-way communication.  Follow the lessons of social media and allow for comments and suggestions in a structured way.  Demonstrating top-level commitment of both time and critical resources communicates the importance of the initiative.  The changes that incrementally occur to the site as a result of testing won’t be alarming to departments.  They’ll appreciate being informed and involved, and will be far more likely to lend their support.

Best Practice #2: Get Your Stakeholders On Board
Like any website redesign, web analytics, or social media endeavor, without management’s support for your testing initiative, you can essentially guarantee failure.

Be sure to work with management from the very start.  Illustrate to them exactly what you wish to achieve and the results you can expect, communicated in bottom-line financial predictions.  Communicate that a data-driven culture is one that strives to make web improvement decisions based on performance and demonstrated merit rather than assumptions.  As a result, an organization is better able to compete in the marketplace.

Best Practice #3: Write a (Formal) Testing Plan
There needs to be a structure through which requests for testing are considered.  Without this, individuals may try to “skip in line” to push their desired updates through based on their own agenda. They need to understand that a prioritized queue exists and suggested tests must be justified by answering the following questions:

1. What is being tested?
2. Why is it being tested?
3. What are the expectations for the test?
4. What are the measures of the success for the test?
5. What are the risks associated with running the test?
6. What internal resources are required to run the test?
7. Who is requesting the test?
8. By when are the results needed?

As mentioned earlier, the white paper authors have included a valuable sample test plan intake form that expands on the above questions.

Best Practice #4: Think about Measurement
Your web testing program should integrate and collaborate closely with your overall web analytics efforts.  This takes extra consideration and possibly technical expertise to ensure data available through analytics tools (such as audience segments) can be applied to tests.  Metrics and KPIs that have been established within a web analytics program should dictate to a large extent which tests should be undertaken.  Make sure one hand is talking to the other.

Also consider how your tests impact more complex measurements such as “return visitation rate” and “lifetime customer value” beyond just clickthrough metrics.

Best Practice #5: Clearly Define “Success” and “Failure”
Success means different things to different stakeholders.  It can range from obvious financial gains, to user engagement, to fewer support calls.  An important point that the author points out is that even a “failed” test yields some measure of success.  That is, you now know more about what doesn’t work thereby narrowing the field of possible creative or interface options getting you closer to the winner.  Don’t view missing the objective as a failure, but rather a learning experience which has actually moved the process forward.  The only real failure is a test that is not properly designed, carefully executed, done within a vacuum, or without executive buy-in.

Best Practice #6: Test Your Test
With this best practice, the author reminds us that while testing is absolutely worthwhile and a potential boon to any company, it’s also “hard.”

Be aware that expectations must be set.  This isn’t going to solve all the issues of the website in a month, quarter, or even year.  This is a long-term shift in the thinking of the company to become data-driven.  Certain technical implementations of tests may be trickier than others and will involve the IT department.  Legacy systems can affect the types of tests that can be conducted.  SEO initiatives can be impacted.  Other departments may push back due to perceived technical or business risks.

Be aware of these challenges, but don’t let them discourage you.  Things of great value don’t come easily, yet are worth the effort.  Set expectations to mitigate disillusionment.

Also, make sure testing periods are long enough to yield a statistically significant sample size.  Isolating factors (individual changes) sufficiently so one can determine which is responsible for better results is crucial as well.

Best Practice #7: Clarify Your Testing Timeline
Testers often forget to take day parts and weekends into account.  To ensure you’re not giving too much weight to lunchtime, early morning, late night, or weekend visitors, allow for enough time to collect a representative sample.  The author recommends a 7+1 strategy so you test over an entire week, but also add one day at the beginning of the test before you actively track results.  This allows the test versions to take hold online across the sample and for any last-minute changes.

Those with more time available can opt for a two week test, in this case a 14+1 timeline.   Good things come to those who wait.

Best Practice #8: Communicate Your Test Results with Actionable Analysis
Some great points here.  As always, it’s best to customize one’s report based on the audience.  When communicating the results to the stakeholders who originally requested the test, go into significant detail.  Reiterate the purpose of the test, the timeline, resources used and extensive information on the results.  If external events occurred during the test such as a major news mention or campaign, illustrate how the results were affected.

The rest of the organization should receive a broad overview.  A big picture, clear summary of the results and the impact on the website and company is sufficient to foster a sense of involvement and ongoing support.  Whenever possible, communicate the financial impact of the test.  As Mr. Peterson puts it, a phrase like, “and we expect this change to result in an estimated $20,000,000 in incremental revenue every year” is hard to ignore.

Also, check out the white paper to see a ready-to-use email example of how to broadcast test results to the organization.

In addition, in-person presentations are always best.  Follow these meetings up with postings to your communication platform be it a blog, wiki, online project management tool, or even Google Wave.  Allow enthusiasm for the results to go viral.

Above all, include actionable recommendations along with your results.  Clearly state what next action steps should be taken to capitalize on the success of the test.  Use this opportunity to suggest additional tests to keep the optimization ball rolling.

Best Practice #9: Test Different Audience Segments
The most revealing tests will be those that utilize targeted audience segmentation.  Knowing that a certain change increased conversions by 5% for all visitors is somewhat helpful, but knowing that same change resulted in a 20% increase for a key target audience is far more valuable.  Next action steps are more obvious in light of this information and those steps are more likely to have greater impact.

Directly reference audience segments when presenting test results to stakeholders to better grab their attention.

Best Practice #10: Mine for Deeper Opportunities
Once the testing program is up and running, and the team has a few wins under its belt, in-depth data analysis and statistical modeling is the next level to strive for.  Companies that are already utilizing robust applications such as SAS, or SPSS have an advantage, but this is not an absolute requirement.

Analysis and comparison of offline data or qualitative voice-of-customer data alongside test results can yield insights that are not immediately obvious through the testing or web analytics tools alone.  The author points out that a significant competitive advantage will be had by those companies who truly leverage their online data.

Your Experience?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on web testing and optimization.  Have you recently formed a team or are you considering it?  What methods and/or tools have brought you success?  What real world challenges has your organization overcome (or is still struggling with)?

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Google Website Optimizer, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Website Testing

Podcasts remain one of the best ways to keep up with the latest trends and to learn new methods and approaches.  Whether listening while getting ready in the morning, during commutes or business travel, or even while working, there are more options than ever before as the medium has truly matured.  Even better, the vast majority are free.  Make the most of your downtime (in this economy, there may be more than usual), and never stop learning.

Below are some of the best podcasts that we “keep an ear” on:

INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY

Boxes and Arrows (Site | iTunes)
As the preeminent website for information architecture and user experience design professionals, it should come as little surprise that their podcasts are highly valuable as well.  Regular interviews with IAs, authors, and a variety of professionals can be heard along with full recordings of conferences and keynote speeches by some of the best in the biz.  Save money on air fare and conference fees.

CNET News Daily Podcast (Subscribe options)
Daily updates on all things tech.  Get insight on the latest Google inventions, what Apple is up to next, Twitter news, the top gadgets, and much more.

Marketing Edge (Subscribe options)
Albert Maruggi, a 25-year marketing veteran from Provident Partners has been publishing this podcast since 2005.  Each episode is around 30 minutes and features a combination of interviews, insights, and analysis related to internet marketing and social media in particular.  Recent topics include, Is there money in Communities? and Using Experts to Get Better Media Coverage.

Internet Marketing (iTunes)
Hailing from the UK, Andy White of Wire World Media hosts this monthly podcast which goes into a fair amount of detail on specific tools and tactics.  You’ll benefit from latest SEO trends, Google Analytics tips, and blog and podcast promotion to list a few.  We’ve only recently picked up this one, but it’s becoming a favorite.

Boagworld Web Design Advice (Subscribe options)
Another British podcast, Boagworld is info-heavy with minimal fluff.  Episodes tend to lean more toward development topics, but marketing strategies and tactics are also regularly covered.  Prepare yourself for some pretty heavy accents.  It’s a bit like Spinal Tap delivering the latest interactive news and tips.  This podcast goes to eleven!

Internet Marketing This Week (Subscribe options)
Mostly informal, this podcast requires a bit of sifting through conversational chatter, however there are always some good nuggets to be discovered. Four marketing experts scattered across the country Skype and conference call in each week to review the top stories.

BusinessWeek: CEO Guide to Technology (Blog | iTunes)
With varying frequency (most often monthly), this podcast highlights important technologies affecting business, with only the details top management needs to know.  Rachael King, the regular host, is by-the-numbers, and a little stale, however the guests she interviews spice things up and and are knowledgeable experts from a variety of industries.

BusinessWeek: Technology and You (RSS | iTunes)
Steve Wildstrom has been publishing this column in BusinessWeek since 1994 and every week offers this engaging podcast.  Steve puts all the latest gadgets and software to the test and his breadth of experience yields some great reviews.  The iTunes page for this podcast shows some bad reviews, however these are old (from 2007) and the issues they raise (mostly in terms of production quality) have since been resolved.

NPR: Technology Podcast (Subscribe options)
A handy-dandy summary of all related technology coverage across NPR over the last week.  It doesn’t get any more convenient than this.

Marketing Yak (Marketing Sherpa) (iTunes)
Most of us are aware of the great tutorials and reports from MarketingSherpa.  Here’s its closely related podcast.  They seem to be on hiatus right now (last publishing from November of 2008), but the past episodes are still available and worthwhile.  Hopefully they’ll ramp things up again soon.

BUSINESS & PRODUCTIVITY

Here are a couple general podcasts that are worth your time.

BusinessWeek
Behind This Week’s Cover Story with Executive Managing Editor, John Byrne offers in-depth interviews with the writers of the latest cover story.  If you read BusinessWeek, this is must-listen material.  Also, The Business Week hosted by Assistant Managing Editor, Jim Ellis, give you a summary of the week’s major business events along with interviews with the publication’s major columnists.  The Business Week is available in both audio and video.

David Allen Company Podcast (Subscribe options)
Getting Things Done personal productivity guru, David Allen serves up highly actionable tips every week to help you organize your hectic life.

HUMOR

All work and no play…  Be sure to throw some laughs into your podcast mix:

Car Talk (Subscribe options)
Resist the urge to set your car on fire and blow off steam with Click and Clack.  Test your brain with the weekly puzzler and laugh along as the two brothers poke insults at one another, read hilarious fan emails, and occasionally help people with their car troubles.

The Onion Radio News (Subscribe options)
America’s Finest News Source is hilarity at its finest, now in podcast form.  Don’t miss hard hitting stories such as “McDonald’s Unveils New All-Beef Bun.”

The above list is a just small sampling of what’s out there.  What’s on your iPod?  We’d love to hear about your favorites.

Information Architecture, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Development, Web Graphic Design, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Information Architecture, Internet Marketing, Podcasting, Social Media

Released in October of 2008, advanced segments for Google Analytics did more to bring the free tool up to speed with established paid tools like Omniture and Web Trends than any other single previous feature.  It gives users the ability to define audience segments quickly and easily, and then apply those segments to any report in Google Analytics.   The result is vastly more actionable reports.

Now you can quickly know:

• The percentage of “branded” search engine traffic (visitors who reached your site by searching for you by name) and their specific activities
• The traffic sources that are delivering quality traffic such as those that demonstrate engagement or directly convert
• The top content viewed by members of a specific audience segment such as visitors from California or New York, new visitors or repeat visitors, paid search or organic search visitors, or those driven via a specific email blast.
• The behavior of visitors who access your site via an iPhone or other mobile device
• The most common actions taken by those who access the site directly
• The most popular products across each key audience segment mapped to traffic source or landing page

The above is just a small sample of what can be revealed.  Examples of criteria used to set up a segment might include, page title, organic keywords, paid keywords, internal search terms, network location, campaigns, entry page or exit page, product categories or even individual product purchases.

Fully utilizing advanced segments provides true context to your data so you can easily evaluate your site’s ability to communicate to and convert specific groups.  It should be among the first steps of any web analytics initiative.  Your segments should be regularly reviewed and updated to take into account new abilities to more clearly identify a segment.  However, when updating segments, be sure to keep track of when those updates took place and factor this in as data totals may shift up or down.  For instance, adding a new traffic source to a segment can markedly increase visit totals.

Start using advance segments today and watch your reports take on a whole new meaning.

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

APIs (Application Programming Interface) have a way of turning things on their head and shaking things up.  When you open up a major platform to developers, very interesting things can happen.  Think about the Google Maps mashups, or the iPhone app store.

Google’s changing the game again, and giving paid analytics vendors a serious run for their money,  this time by releasing an API for Google Analytics.

Many companies have already leapt on this integrating Google Analytics data within their tools.  Using campaigns in Google Analytics to track email marketing performance has been possible, but requires separate tagging of URLs.  Using the API, MailChimp (great email tool), now allows for a single checkbox selection to add tracking code to all email links.  Clickthoughs of these links are tracked using Google Analytics, and then sent right back into your Mail Chimp account reporting.  If you’ve also setup Google Analytics ecommerce features and/or goal tracking, Mail Chimp will be able to report on email marketing performance in terms of ROI for the campaign, revenue created, average value per visitor, goals completed, and conversion rate.

ShufflePoint is particularly impressive in that they’ve already integrated Google Analytics with Excel and PowerPoint.  This takes things one step closer to creating truly custom dashboards and custom calculations (major differentiating features within Omniture) with very little financial investment.  Using ShufflePoint, you define the custom calculations, pulling specific metrics straight from your Google Analytics profile(s).  Then, each time you open the Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation, a simple click of a refresh button updates all data instantly.  A massive timesaver in terms of data entry, as well as a professional presentation to stakeholders with automatically updated data.

Other integration examples include, mobile phone apps, a variety of apps from YouCalc, content management systems, and more.

Many developers currently feel like kids in a candy store and are getting started by diving into Google Code, joining the developer community and keeping updated via the email list.

We look forward to integrating these new methods and tools into our own services and plan to blog about the best-in-class inventions as they spring up.  Stay tuned!

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics API, Web Analytics

The Old Way
Web design in small, medium, and large companies alike has traditionally been driven by the loudest voice or the highest-paid person’s opinion (HiPPO).  The Big Cheese steps into the meeting, and lays down the law, dictating what the next month’s web development priorities will be.  Websites can also driven by committee with the end result resembling a camel when the original design called for a horse.

While these approaches can keep things moving, it usually does little to ensure that an organization is directly responding to the needs and wants of its customers and enhancing the website with the express purpose of advancing key performance indicators (KPIs).  Today, with sophisticated web analytics tools (including inexpensive and even free ones), companies have more access than ever before to the data that reveals customer behavior and very specifically, how the website is performing.

The Better Way
Yet, even with these web analytics tools, information overload is a common experience for companies.  Their first foray into the tool, finds them wandering from report to report and thinking, “This is nice, but what do we DO about it?”

The key is to formulate a methodology around that data which is informed by organizational goals and guided by KPIs.  With a plan in place, you’ll have a specific agenda as you review, and even customize the reports to give you exactly the numbers you need to gauge performance.  This becomes especially important when a company has multiple tools in their internet marketing arsenal such as, blogging platforms, video websites, Twitter account, Facebook account, email marketing tools, RSS feeds, and more.  Each of these tools may offer crucial data in relation to a KPI, but if that KPI isn’t specifically in mind when accessing the reporting, insights can easily be missed.

For each key business goal, consider across all your tools which ones can offer insight for a specific KPI.  For instance, how many email sign-ups are we getting off of a specific landing page?  How many views and/or shares are we seeing for relevant blog posts?  What relevant terms are being searched for via our internal search?  What is the bounce rate for our key landing pages?  Which external marketing campaigns are driving quality (not just high quantity) traffic?

Map business goals, to measurable business activity, to appropriate metrics.  Group all related metrics together and track them month to month.  Be sure to keep notes on how these metrics are devised, which tools they come from, and what configuration needs to occur to coax out the right figures.

Then, each month, review your web analytics data and KPIs, and use this data to identify the low-hanging fruit.  For instance, from your membership page, you notice that there have been a large number of internal searches related to membership renewal. It’s obvious that page doesn’t make it clear how to renew your membership and doesn’t provide clear calls to action.  You now have a top-priority task for the month.  Review the metrics around each conversion event on your site and continually optimize.

Your web analytics efforts will only be successful if someone owns the process.  Someone needs to ensure on a regular basis, that KPIs are reviewed and adjusted according to organizational goals, the data is properly collected and analyzed, and insights are summarized and clearly communicated to stakeholders and implementers.

Effective web analytics requires a fundamental shift in the way companies approach website updates and internet marketing efforts, but the process has a wonderful way of keeping everyone aware of, and focused on, key organizational goals, drastically reducing internal arguments, and increasing conversion rates across the board.  That’s something even the HiPPOs can appreciate.

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Internet Marketing, Web Analytics