Tag Archives: analytics

06.07.13
by

Engaging and Converting the Mobile User

Obviously, mobile web visitors makes up a widely growing base of overall visitors for many websites in many fields. Over the course of the last 12 months or so I started to pay close attention to mobile traffic on my website. I was watching the analytics closely, looking for sources, looking for conversion trends, looking at multi-channel attribution conversion trends, looking at overall conversion. I found nothing too stunning to say the least, except for these things.

1) The traffic looked very similar to traditional, non-mobile traffic. Sources, keywords, channels, landing pages, paths, etc., all very similar.

2) The traffic converted into a lead at approximately 50% the rate of traditional, non-mobile traffic. – WHOA, OPPORTUNITY!!!!

Item number 1 above has much to do with the industry I’m in. I have read reports to the contrary in many fields, but the industry I operate in and the way I choose to acquire my traffic leads to a user with a little more cut and dry purpose.

Item #2 is clearly the piece that grabbed the heck out of my attention and made dig in, much much more. I love discoering new opportunities for more leads, it excites me. Clearly, we could stand to make that number significantly better.

I immediately started my research and reached out to friends who I thought knew a thing or two about mobile marketing. Turns out, mobile marketing is pretty stinkin new in the grand scheme of all things marketing channel related. There aren’t many that know a whole lot about it. A friend of mine from college, however, is an expert in the field, and a bit of a thought leader in the space. In fact, he was one of the creators of Google’s Mobile Marketing Playbook, his name is Mark Hendrix. Mark was extremely helpful [Thanks man!].

Through my research I found many things that looked similar but different about the user interface and conversion strategy.  The mobile user needs different mechanisms laid out slightly differently with different methods of access than the traditional user. Creating the user interface on the mobile side of your site requires you to segment the mobile users even further than norm. Obviously, I can’t get too in depth about this because my competitors may be reading, but engaging the mobile user requires more than just a mobile responsive website (some people choose the mobile subdomain for their website, that’s way lame these days).

Engaging the Mobile User
– Take a brand first and foremost approach.
– Engage with calls to action / lead gen assets that are more comfortable in a mobile environment.
– Tell the mobile user more with easy access videos that define your product and your brand.
– Reduce copy on the mobile side that appears on the desktop side.
– Make related blog posts more accessible and make sharing via mobile device front and center (especially Twitter).
– Make following your Twitter (the most mobile friendly major social platform) account way easier!

Converting the Mobile User
– Reconsider your lead gen assets conversion approach (I basically took a whole new, internal, simplified approach and am rolling it out to both mobile and non-mobile visitors). Since the mobile user is much more likely to be turned away by multi-step conversion mechanisms, simplify the process, remove the opt-in email or off site second steps. Again, you are talking about a new non-traditional approach to conversion on your lead gen assets, it may be more difficult to set up, but worth the conversions.
– Choose lead gen asset / CTA’s that both fit the segment of the viewer based on landing page qualifications and fit your mobile segment. Not all assets will apply in the same manner as they do to non-mobile traffic. Easy targeted white papers, infographics and high value quick download videos are great here.
– Present a lead gen asset / CTA at the start of your landing page and show the simplicity of accessing the asset. Presenting the asset at the start of your content, before the body, makes it more visible to the viewer and is likely the first impression it leaves. Ideally you have a mobile responsive site, so from a cell phone, the content of the landing page is viewed in a singular column (in most cases), give them 1) the header, 2) the lead gen asset and then 3) the body.

Mobile conversion is optimized when you present a clear lead gen asset / call to action immediately in the hot zone without scrolling and  you do so with simplicity. That process is obviously a little more complex for non-mobile traffic, more conversion optimization techniques like trust building etc. can be added to that equation. However, in mobile, you don’t often have that luxury in many cases. If you take that approach, even as the user scrolls, they will know where to find what they want. Since a mobile responsive site pushes everything in one column, your call to action may get lost at the very bottom and that simply won’t cut it (unless you are my competitor).

So there you have it, engage and convert mobile users requires a little different thinking. Until next time!

Advertisement
04.06.13
by

The Emerging Role of the Chief Marketing Technologist

As we all know, technology changes fast in the modern world. This is particularly true in business and marketing where the tools used to promote a product become more advanced every day. Many businesses have assigned the tasks of utilizing these new technologies to an emerging position starting to be referred to as the “Chief Marketing Technologist”, aka CMT or CMTO.

The Chief Marketing Technologist role is not a simple one. The person holding the position is usually responsible for a wide range of marketing tools and tactics from SEO to Marketing Automation to Social Media Strategy. The CMT usually needs to have a firm understanding of a variety of skill sets such as IT, finance, marketing, sales and more.

Digital Marketing
Digital marketing and inbound marketing are key terms in the role of the Chief Marketing Technologist. In fact, according to most definitions, digital marketing makes up the majority of the role. Things like video and delivery networks, content marketing, webinars, white papers, PPC, SEO, social media, content marketing, mobile marketing, web analytics, online lead generation, email marketing, website CMS etc. are all things that a Chief Marketing Technologist must be a Subject Matter Expert in.

A Chief Marketing Technologist also has the know how to plan the design and functionality of a company’s website. Layout, contact capture strategy, UI, URL structure, conversion optimization and more.

Mobile marketing is an emerging aspect of digital marketing. Google Analytics makes it pretty easy to pick through your website’s traffic data and see how well or not well your website is performing when it comes to mobile traffic. In general, mobile traffic requires a slightly different approach in order to optimize conversions. A successful CMTO has experience implementing the various best practices around mobile traffic conversion.

Social Media
Social media is still so under-utilized by many organizations. Even many great marketing organizations have yet to figure out what it takes to be successful in social media. A CMTO has experience in social media success. Define the company’s social media goals (all of which are pretty similar no matter the industry), identify the tools, identify and train the talent, educate the entire organization on do’s and don’ts (yes, an entire organization, each employee should play a role in social media for business, but that’s another post entirely), implement the strategy and succeed. There is so much that social media can do for a company, a good CMTO knows what is out there for the taking and has the knowledge to go and get it.

Analytics
Big data, website analytics, multivariate testing, business analytics etc. are key terms to a CMTO. Marketing has always been about tracking and analyzing data to be able to improve a campaign’s effectiveness. Today, more data is available and greater metrics are able to be utilized. A CMTO has deep experience mining data and using it for improved ROI and revenue performance management.

Sales
Its no secret that marketing and sales go hand in hand. A strong Chief Marketing Technologist has experience and strong knowledge in the role of the sales staff. The lead pipeline is perhaps the most essential element to this. lead nurturing, lead scoring, CRM and marketing automation are knowledge points essential today’s lead marketer.

Social selling is the next aspect directly relating to the CMTO. This is an emerging area for sure. Some would classify this under the actual sales department, some would classify it under social media, but it requires a strong Chief Marketing Technologist’s leadership to truly champion social selling. Along with the actual social selling tactics and strategy are the tools needed to be successful. There are many social media tools out there, which ones are essential to your sales staff in order for them to be successful? You better ask the CMTO.

Information Technology
IT now plays a key role in marketing. Everything from application development to web development to video hosting platforms requires a somewhat firm grasp of information technology principles. In order to now implement the full set of marketing tools needed by a successful digital marketing organization, the Chief Marketing Technologist needs to know how the IT resources behind them work.

Perhaps the Chief Marketing Technologist is simply a redefinition of the CMO. Maybe this is where marketing is headed. Either way, its a really cool role that requires completely unique experience. For more information and to see my inspiration behind this post, check out what Scott Brinker is doing here. He has some great stuff on his blog!