Red Door Interactive's president explains how B2B companies not engaged in e-commerce still should be using analytics to measure their site's online success.
The big internet news of the moment is each day's record-breaking online sales performances. Terms like "Cyber Monday" are making the news daily.
While many of the recently reported growth statistics focus on the year's e-commerce sales, many business-to-business, non-e-commerce companies are also experiencing growth by using the web. Although many of those companies may not participate in classic e-commerce, the web is still a critical tool in their ability to drive sales through lead generation, brand development and retention activities.
The point is, you don't have to be an e-commerce company to benefit from a compelling internet strategy or the tools of the big e-tailers; analytics, as one tool, is a critical foundation of a good internet presence.
One of the excuses we hear most often from B2B service companies on why they opt not to install analytics is that they're not an e-commerce company. They don't see what benefit they'd get from analytics. From that perception, we quickly realize that they may not view their web presence as an acquisition channel and that they don't know what metrics to track.
These companies definitely understand that most B2C tactics don't work with B2B customers; the buying cycle, for one, is more complicated and business buyers typically are less likely to gamble with their company's purchase decisions. But, usage of the web as a research tool is pretty consistent with both consumers and business buyers. In either case, the web will definitely influence purchase decisions, help people form opinions and eventually lead people to put a product or company into their consideration set. Closing the deal, however, is often a different process between the two business categories.
Identify what success means
Not all of the metrics are different between e-commerce and non-e-commerce companies; however one key place is how we define "conversions." A conversion metric can be different than a simple e-commerce transaction and can be basically any point at which a user enters into a desired outcome. For example, a conversion event for a retention campaign can be a customer filling out a form to join an affinity program.
Within the B2B purchase cycle, other points of conversion can be much more subtle where we guide users through the buying cycle from awareness, to consideration and then to purchase. Each step, such as downloading a whitepaper, leaves footprints in a web presence and analytics are there to read the tracks. Reading those tracks and reacting to their meaning can mean that your salespeople can expend less effort to close leads, or that you can replicate tactics that are being successful to maximize resources and budgets.
Before engaging in this process, understand that success metrics will mean different things to different people. Marketing and sales will likely have differing perspectives on the definition of "qualified leads," whereas the finance people may care more about metrics such as "cost per lead."
How you're going to measure success may be a critical factor in whether or not your analytics implementation will be successful in the long term. It is imperative that you define, at least broadly, what the company hopes to gain from analytics. It may be goals such as reducing the cost of leads, getting more leads, or reducing the cost of retaining a customer; in any case, you can define key performance indicators to monitor your success in achieving these goals.
Useful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Many marketers who are unfamiliar with the power of site analytics typically see analytics as a way to view what pages people visit on the site, however there are a number of other useful metrics to monitor that will help ensure success. Without going too deep in the myriad of options, some basic metrics can be found within basic ratios and percentages, such as cost per lead or conversion ratios.
On the customer-support side, KPIs that can be monitored are customer-resolved support cases and time spent in support. In any case, the site can be used to reduce support costs by enabling customers to self-serve. A by-product of this can be increased customer retention, which can lead to an increased customer lifetime value. By virtue of this metric increasing, the ROI on marketing can increase greatly because your expected revenue will increase as well.
Once analytics are implemented and measurement efforts are in place, the tool will also serve to support other initiatives not represented on-site. For example, closely monitoring the key phrases prospects are using to enter the site will help you understand where you are deficient in tactics such as search engine optimization. Being discovered via search engines through broad category search terms are an indication of your perception within the industry. The higher you rank within a category, the more relevant you are to the user within that category. This rule applies to any type of company, not just e-commerce.
Understanding your site's sources of visitor acquisition will greatly affect the content you present in order to push them into your buying cycle. When your site begins to truly drive qualified traffic, your job will turn into cultivating that traffic and improving on many of the aforementioned ratios, all of which will dictate your internet presence's success.
As a non-e-commerce company, to feel that your investment in analytics is going to return your investment, it will all be in how you intend to maximize your learning from the tool. In most cases, your customer is online researching you or your product category and you not only want to show up when they search for you, but you also want to make the best use of their visit to your site. The only way to do that is to make an educated assessment of your site's performance on an ongoing basis.
Reid Carr is president of Red Door Interactive. Read full bio.