The Google Analytics For Website Optimisation Marketing Essay

This report investigates the opportunities for using digital marketing campaign tools to help build the number of new and existing delegates for MGEITF 2013.

Importance of acquisition, conversion and retention tools in digital campaigns:

There are different tools and tactics available when planning a digital marketing campaign. The key to a successful campaign is identifying which tools work better for different stages of the customer lifecycle.

In order to plan a successful digital marketing campaign it is important to understand which digital tools are effective at each stage. This is best defined by Chaffey’s overview of ‘key marketing activities managed for digital marketing’ (Chaffey, 2009, p. V) which identifies three stages;

Acquisition

Conversion

Retention

Acquisition, conversion and retention tools can be used to maximise profit and counteract the “leaky bucket theory” (Egan, 2011). The process of topping up the loss of existing customers with new customers becomes expensive, as acquisition tools are costly and this has a negative impact on a company’s ROI (Kotler, 2010). Retaining customers is easier and cheaper. Reicheld and Sasser state that a “5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of between 25 and 85 percent (in terms of net present value) depending on the industry.” (Chaffey, 2009, p. 685)

Chaffey states “it is the results delivered by technology that should determine investment in Internet marketing, not the adoption of the technology” (Chaffey, 2012) . It is therefore important to evaluate the strategic role and impact of each tool when planning the digital campaign and how effective they are in achieving goals set for each stage of the customer Acquisition, Conversion retention model.

Chaffey’s RACE model updates his model of the 3 stages for key activities. Chaffey’s RACE framework designed to “manage and improve results from digital marketing” (Chaffey, 2010). This report uses the frame work to analyses the possible tools which brands can use to help engage their audiences throughout of the customer lifecycle.

Reach

Act

Convert

Engage

Tools for MGEITF:

In order to plan which tools are most effective it is first important to identify and evaluate the tools available. The following table evaluates 3 tools available for acquisition conversion and retention based on the criteria which are important to MGEITF.

Resource – As a small marketing team of 3 people time is stretched during the festival campaign

ROI – As a charity the marketing budget is limited to £40,000 and any spend must generate an ROI.

Competitor benchmarking

The analysis below supports the key points outlined above, that acquisition of new customers is more expensive then the retention of old. Although email as a tool may be low cost and resource, the hit rate and potential ROI is much lower than that of an existing customer list and therefore the list quantity and subsequent cost grows to achieve the same ROI.

Tools

Pros

Cons

Acquisition (Reach)

Search Engine Optimisation

Highly targeted

low cost

Lack of predictability

Timely

Complexity and dynamic

Pay Per Click

Fast results

Increase brand visibility

Controllable cost

Price inflation

When PPC campaigns end so do the results

Fake Clicks

Email

Little training required

Low cost

Easily measured

Changing data

Timely to manage databases

Conversion (Act and Convert)

Content creation (video)

Communicate key messages and USP’s quickly

Easy to embed and share

Hard to create original and engaging video content

May require editing from a professional / Costly

Design (Web pages)

Split test web pages to determine which designs are effective

Costly to design alternative homepages

Online Purchase tool

Increase in positive user experience

Reduce abandoned baskets

Available via plug-in on social media sites

Increased cost to invest in software

Additional training for staff

Retention (Engage)

Personalisation

Higher engagement levels

Targeted content

Cost for CRM

Time consuming capturing and managing data

e-CRM

Targeted

Achieve mass customisation of the marketing message

Can take a long time to implement fully

Expensive upfront cost

Digital customer loyalty campaign

Low cost

Highly personalised

Data must be kept up to date accurate and clean

Recommendations

Using the analysis above and looking at the acquisition, conversion and retention process as an integrated journey the following recommendations have been made for MGEITF.

Acquisition: email

The first stage of the customer life cycle is to drive new business to the MGEITF website. To achieve this I would recommend sending a Co-branded sponsored email to The Guardian professional database which is MGEITF’s headline sponsor.

Resource: The resource required to create a co-branded sponsored email is very low:

Effective copy to drive opens and clicks

Effective design to drive clicks

ROI: Email marketing is low in cost with the HTML the only upfront cost. If 2 leads convert from 1 email it would mean an ROI of 1400%.

Co-branded email is highly targeted enabling MGEITF to target Guardian contacts who are in the television industry and delegates who have bought passes to Guardian media events previously and are therefore more likely to purchase an MGEITF pass.

Competitor Benchmarking: Both BANFF and MIP, MGEITF’s main competitors use co-branded emailing as an acquisition tool.

Conversion: Google analytics for website optimisation

“Forrester research indicates that the average conversion rate – that is the ratio of orders to overall site visits – is 2.9 percent.” (Gold, 2007) Using Google analytics MGEITF has a low conversion rate of 1.2% and the high exit page of 45% during the registration process.

This suggests MGEITF needs to review their websites ability to deliver service quality. The term service quality has been defined by Zetiaml et al. as “the ability of a website to serve shopping, purchasing and delivering of products and services efficiently and effectively.” (Zeithaml, 2002)

92% of MGEITF delegates book online. To address the low service quality and high exit rates at this stage MGEITF should use google analytics to analyse and make changes for website optimisation.

Resource: The pressure on resource would be during the setup of the new tool and training members of staff.

ROI: Google analytics is free for charities; therefore there are no initial or on-going costs.

Competitor Benchmarking: Websites are many company’s primary selling tool and this is why “51% of fortune 500 companies use google analytics” (Farina, 2012)

Retention: e-CRM / Salesforce

49% (459) of MGEITF paying delegates in 2011 did not return in 2012. Chaffey outlines the importance of nurturing existing customers as they are “on average, five to ten times more profitable.” (Chaffey, 2007)

To build long term engagement, the fourth step in Chaffey’s RACE model MGEITF must build customer relationships over time “through multiple interactions using different paid, owned and earned media touch points.” (Chaffey, 2010) This reinforces that although the recommendation below is one element there must be many touch points to boost customer lifetime value.

The recommendation is the investment in an E-CRM system, Salesforce, to facilitate a customer loyalty programme. This would enable better customer management and mean the ability to reward reoccurring delegates through segmentation and targeting.

Resource: In order for the CRM system to be effective the existing data would need to be cleaned, entered and maintained which would require significant resource.

ROI: Both establishment and on-going costs are small. There is no purchase expense as Salesforce is an online CRM tool which is free to not for profit organisations. The upfront expense would be the setup cost of £2,600 to bring in an external company to switch the database to Salesforce.

Conclusion:

The findings indicate opportunities for using digital campaign tools to help build new and existing business for MGEITF. The research has highlighted recommendations at several stages of the customer lifecycle which demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach between the digital tools as this will drive the highest return for MGEITF.

Work in the structure.