© COPYRIGHT 2013 SAPIENT CORPORATION & AZZARD CONSULTING

Positioning Content for Success: A Metrics Driven Strategy

REBECCA SCHNEIDER, PRESIDENT, AZZARD

CONSULTING

KEVIN P NICHOLS, DIRECTOR AND GLOBAL

PRATICE LEAD OF CONTENT STRATEGY

@ SAPIENTNITRO

AZZARD CONSULTING

AZZARDCONSULTING

Today’s Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Definitions

3. Content Personalization

4. Taxonomy and Metadata

5. Production and Content Lifecycle

6. Content Effectiveness

7. Governance

8. Mobile

9. Pitfalls

10.

Feedback and Contact Info

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1. Introduction

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Introduction

Rebecca Schneider

President, Azzard Consulting18 Years experience in Information ManagementIndustries: Retail, Auto Manufacturing, Financial Services, Technology

Kevin Nichols

Director, Global Practice Lead, Content Strategy, Sapient/Nitro17 Years experience in the Web Development IndustryKey Clients: MIT Open Courseware, Hewlett Packard, Sprint, Intel

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ROI for Content Strategy is one thing. . .But, how do we leverage metrics for content development??

We will answer which metrics are necessary to: Measure content efficacy

Refine personalized content experiences and ensure future success

Develop useful metadata and taxonomies

Measure what’s important for publishing and content lifecycle

Ensure effective content governance

Capture the important information specific to mobile

And, avoid metrics and analytics pitfalls

Why do this presentation?

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2. Definitions

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MetricsTangible measures of inputs and outputs.

Key Performance IndicatorsA set of metrics used to quantify success of an organization’s activities.

AnalyticsConclusions drawn from metrics.

Metrics Definitions

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Quantitative measurements: numbers, facts. It’s the “What.”

Examples:Web & Mobile

Conversions

# Visits

Time on Site

Media

Click-through Performance on Advertisements/Banners

Search

Internal, Organic, Paid – keyword usage

When to useThere is a need to demonstrate a quantifiable return on investment.

Too much anecdotal information is being used to make decisions.

Hard Metrics

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Soft Metrics

Qualitative: stories, feelings/motivation. It’s the “why.”

ExamplesPrimary Research

Focus Groups

Secondary Research

Marketing Trends

Social Listening – Digital Anthropology

Online Behavioral Analysis

Surveys

Customer Satisfaction

When to useTrying to understand customer behavior (needs, motivations, perceptions).

Further understand the hard metrics data.

Warning: do not use qualitative measurements to the exclusion of all else.

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3. Content Personalization

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Tailoring the online experience to a specific user:

Terms to describe aspects of personalization:

Content Personalization

Targeted offers

IntelligentCustomersegments

Business Rules Dynamic Pages

Contextual Ads

Ad Server

Relevant

Guided Selling

RecommendationsPersonas

Targeted Messaging

Targeted Content

User Generated Content

Cross-Sell

Intent-Based search

Up-Sell

User Types

Counter Offer

Need Based Shopping

Social Marketing Behavioral Targeting

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Content Personalization

Favorite Metric:

Click stream (customer journey through site)Clearance Page > Men’s Coats > Shearling Coat > Add to Cart > Purchase Completion

Other Metrics:

Length of Visit Per PageDecision/Compare: Snow-blower Comparison

Depth of VisitResearch: Samsung 50” Flat Screen TV (Product Specifications)

Where does the customer go? Where can content be personalized?

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Content Personalization

What is the customer interested in? Their reason for coming to site?

Favorite Metric:

Customer Interaction History (profile or cookie-based)

Accessories for previously purchased item: bracelet charm

Similar products (artist, genre): music, books

Other Metric:

Top Keyword Searches

“Clearance”

“Earphones for iPod”

Photo from Pandora

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Content Personalization

Favorite Metric:

Purchased Product

Product as part of series: Game of Thrones Season 1, Season 2 to be released, etc.

Other Metrics:

Site registration

Register for special content: Whitepaper

Viewed Product Information

Product/Brand Blitz: Car Promotion Microsite

Where and when does the customer convert (e.g. filling out user profile, adding item to shopping cart, purchasing product)?

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4. Taxonomy and Metadata

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Improving taxonomy (navigation, search) metadata (filters/facets) and to further enable findability.

Taxonomy & Metadata

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Taxonomy & Metadata

Favorite Metric:

Top successful searches

My Little Pony, iPad Cover

Other Metrics:

Organic, Paid search keyword ranking versus conversion (which keywords yield higher conversion rates)

Notebook vs. Laptop

Click-stream to specific product category. Are users going down the right path?

Homepage > Furniture > Children’s

Homepage > Children’s > Furniture

Photo from puuikibeach.

What’s working for users? Are they finding what they need?

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Taxonomy & Metadata

Favorite Metrics:

Bounce rates (entered a page from outside the site, then immediately left)

More useful than exit rates.

Luxury hotel page, but looking for a B&B (“breakfast in bed”)

Other Metrics:

Exit rates (looked around the site, then left from a particular page)

Exit rate can be considered successful (when leaving after accomplishing a task)

Product purchase: iPad Cover

Product non-purchase: Wrong item? Wrong size? Stock availability?

Previous page prior to search (potential navigation problems)

In home décor page, but then search for floor lamp

Photo from Valencia Bed & Breakfast

What’s not working for users? Where’s the breakdown?

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Taxonomy & Metadata

Favorite Metric:

Search terms used frequently that return no results

Bathroom plunger (toilet plunger)

Other Metric:

Search terms used often in ad hoc description fields

Mutual fund distribution, Roll-over

What terms should be added to taxonomy or metadata to enable better findability?

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Taxonomy & Metadata

Favorite Metric:

Refined searches

kitty toy > cat toy

Other Metrics:

Search terms that are variants of a preferred term

soda vs. pop; bubbler vs. water fountain

Terms used in taxonomy, but not in SEO metadata. Does the SEO metadata need to be updated?

bed lifters, bed risers, bed storage

Organic, Paid keyword rankings

manila file folders, green hanging folders

Photo from taiyofj

What terms do users employ in search? Have they been leveraged?

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5. Production and Content

Lifecycle

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Entire end-to-end process in which content is acquired, created, managed, published and optimized or retired.

Publishing & Content Lifecycle

ManageContent

PublishContent

EnhanceContent

Acquire/CreateContent

Governance

EvaluateContent

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Favorite Metric: Time (cost) saved in optimizing (refining content)

Revision pushed to web.

Other Metrics:

Time (cost) saved in all other steps of the content lifecycle

Acquiring

Third party content.

Creating

Original content

Maintaining (content review cycle)

Current , Redundant, Outdated Content

Publishing

Push to web.

Publishing & Content Lifecycle

What is the benefit to improved content lifecycle processes?

Image from FreeDigitalPhotos

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What is the benefit to new product introduction?

Time reduced to take product to market (due to content bottlenecks)

New Surface Windows 8 Pro to purchase website.

Publishing & Content Lifecycle

Photo from SpicaGames.

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Publishing & Content Lifecycle

How can content quality be improved?

Favorite Metric:Drop in number of errors in content.

Tagging: outfit vs. welding kit

Other Metrics:Decrease in content redundancy (also reduces cost)

Sales vs. Marketing

Decrease in time necessary to respond to user feedback, errors in content and/or changes to published content.

Alert to correction (spelling errors, etc.)

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Publishing & Content Lifecycle

Favorite Metric:Increase in internal organizational satisfaction due to better findability, ease of content creation, maintenance, etc.

Survey Tool (Foresee)

Other Metric:Number of users in organization using CMS.

Ratio of users vs. total number

What is the ROI of robust localization processes?

Reduction in localization costs due to streamlined CMS processes

Cost per word reduced for localized content.

How can internal user satisfaction increase?

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6. Content Effectiveness

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Content Effectiveness

WWW.COMPANY.COM IN-STORE

She clicks the e-spot to view more She clicks on the product to view more

details.As she adds to her

“favorites”, recommended

products become even more relevant.

As she approachesher local store, she

receives a push notification on her

phone, letting her know about new accessories.

Entering the store, Michelle is greeted by

Ken, a sales associate. He has Michelle’s

“favorites” ready for her to view, which he pulled up

on his tablet.

Using her iPad, Michellevisits .com to

look for new products.She notices an e-spot on

the homepage for a featured product that is

her favorite brand.

Michelle saves product to her “favorites” and

continues to browse the product catalog.

Michelle has saved 6products to her

“favorites.” Michelle updates her customer

sends her “favorites” to the nearest retail

location.

Using the sales associate tablet, Ken

is able to pull up Michelle’s profile,

where he accesses her store loyalty

coupons.

Michelle, an existing

customer, receivesa text message

from retailer.

SMS

Mobile Web

Desktop

MobileApp

Tablet Web

Tablet App

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1

7

2 4 653

Focus on the content journey, content quality and overall fit for the user.

TRIGGER

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Content Effectiveness

How is content relevance measured to determine the most effective messages?

Favorite Metric:A-B Test of one message versus another.

Test two different value propositions, headlines or product images to see which performs the best.

Shopping Cart Icon vs. Shopping Bag Icon

Image from Pixabay.Image from BizzBuzzMedia.

vs.

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Content Effectiveness

How is content relevance measured to determine the most effective messages? (cont.)

Other Metrics:

Rate at which content is viewed (frequency and duration)

Product specifications vs. Product “quick look” – which results in a conversion?

Multivariate testing of content on high-priority pages.

Test placement of various items on a page, various messaging and/or several different labels or headings.

Should filters be listed at the left or on top?

Determine the most popular content: Content that is ‘trending’ with traffic and engagement time:

Use a trends app to measure which content is most used.

Popular whitepapers, Investor relations information, Cat videos!

Know the most successful content– in the eyes of the customer:

Rate at which a specific piece of content will result in a conversion.

Product videos that generate a high rate of purchase.

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Content Effectiveness

Favorite Metric:

Number of visits to convert (E.g.: purchase a product) and time to convert

Customer returns after completing research

Other Metrics:

Actual browsing path versus assumed (pre-defined browsing path)

Home > Support > Drivers

Home > Product > Support > Drivers

Where and when a customer exits prior to conversion

When forced to register on news site after viewing several articles, is conversion completed?

Bounce rates

Where and when a customer jumps to search from navigation and key terms used in search

Awareness

Consideration

Preference

Purchase

Retension

How do you determine an effective content journey and if the customer arrived at a desired destination?

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Content Effectiveness

Favorite Metric:

Rate at which content is being shared via social

email, post to facebook

Other Metrics:

Rate at which content is downloadedUser Manual/Instructions

Survey the user on site or page performance with user feedback tools

Foresee

Determine problematic areas through bounce rates and exit rates

How do you determine user satisfaction with site or experience?

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7. Content Governance

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Operational and organizational models needed to manage and ensure the continued success of content.

Content Governance

Governance Committee

Working Groups

BrandAccessibilit

yLegal Taxonomy ContentStrategy

Operations Technology Marketing Publishing TaxonomyStrategy

Executive Sponsor

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Content Governance

Favorite Metric:

Time to implement content changes based on governance decisions.

Major taxonomy change (structural shift) vs. minor taxonomy change (label change)

Addition of information to support new product set

Other Metrics:

Time for governance committee to review content requests.

Time to complete a content review cycle.ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial)

Is there governance structure in place, with defined governance workflows? Is it effective and successful?

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Content Governance

Is the content up to governance standards?

Favorite Metrics:

Accuracy/Error rates

Other Metrics:

Currency

Effectiveness – based on testing, web statistics, surveys.

http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm

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8. Mobile

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Mobile (Smartphone)

Metrics captured for mobile can be very similar to those captured for other form factors. However, the analytical perspectives will differ because of the physical nature and practical constraints when dealing with smaller form factors. Also user tasks are different from Web behavior. For example*:

68 percent mobile searches result in a map look up

61 percent of local mobile searches result in a phone call

59 percent of mobile users interact with businesses via social media regularly.

*Source: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/4-myths-of-mobile-metrics

Image from William Hook.

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Mobile (Smartphone)

Is the content experience delivered effectively?

Favorite Metric:

How long does a user spend on page?Time spent on pages optimized for mobile

More time may indicate user cannot achieve or find information.

Image from thebarrowboy

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Mobile (Smartphone)

Is the content experience delivered effectively? (cont.)

Other Metrics:

How is search used?

Taxonomy/metadata related metrics – with a focus on mobile OS.

Low search utilization may indicate user cannot find search functionality.

How do users interact with form fields?

Track interaction with Form fields

On mobile sites, one field is recommended per page

How often does the phone orientation change (switching from vertical to horizontal)?

Generally, higher rates will correlated to higher exit rates. Exception: functionality requires orientation change (e.g. viewing a video)

How is social media being used?

Survey amount of traffic entering from social media.

How are Smart Phones being used in-store?

Track user behavior – bar code scanning

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9. Pitfalls

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Pitfalls

Avoiding metrics and analytics pitfalls:

Statistics and damn statistics

Not all data is good data

More data does not equal better data

Ignoring common sense

Ignoring indicators (you can’t pick your favorite)

Image from Robbie1

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10. Feedback and Contact

Information

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Questions

What did you want to learn that you still have questions about?

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Keep the conversation going.

Rebecca Schneiderrschneider@azzardconsulting.com

azzardconsulting.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaschneider

Kevin P Nicholsknichols@sapient.com

kevinpnichols.com

Twitter: #kpnichols

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-nichols/0/b50/160

THANK YOU !