I’m lucky enough to live in a home surrounded by citrus trees. They require a fair amount of work, but collectively, they provide oranges and grapefruits every winter in abundant supply. However, I don’t care for each tree equally.

This tree (lower left) is my least favorite. The couple dozen oranges it gives us every year are barely worth the space it takes up in my front yard. It’s small and weak, despite being well beyond the sapling stage. In total, I probably dedicate two hours a year to maintaining this tree, and one could debate whether that is time well spent.

In contrast, this tree (above right) is a well-tuned, premium fueled navel orange machine. While having the same amount of sun exposure, water and micronutrients throughout the year, it blows the first tree away. Every second week in January, this tree pops off 200+ oranges. Throughout the spring, summer and fall, I trim its withering branches, tear away wayward shoots at its trunk, and fertilize this tree regularly. I likely spend 20 hours annually with this beauty.

Once presented with this scenario, one may ask:

Why do you give so much more time and effort to the second tree?

It is not like the second tree has not had a fair shake. I spend more time on the larger, more productive tree because it gives back. It actually produces. If the first tree gave any indication that an added effort would make a difference, I’d give more, but there’s really not much more I can do. It gets water, fertilizer and Arizona sunshine. If it can’t make more oranges now or later, why bother?

Which Tree Bears Fruit?

Similar to my citrus trees, content marketers have productions they must maintain and grow. No matter the mode (blog, infographic, webinar series, online library, etc.), some of that content produces a desired result, and other content does not.

Marketers who continue to throw time and money at outstanding creations that deliver awareness, revenue and/or loyalty are wise to continue doing so. Those content productions that can’t deliver must be left behind.

Objectives, Standards and Growth Plans

It is no mind-bending task to determine what tree warrants more effort, but the content marketer’s task of judging her productions can be a little more difficult.

Every content production should have a corresponding objective, measurement standard, and growth plan.

Content Objectives: Quantify what your content should provide to your brand. Are you looking to achieve heightened awareness, new leads, loyalty from customers or something else? Establish the purpose of each content production even before creating and promoting it.

Content Standards: Given your objective, what measurement threshold can you define to gauge success? With my trees, if they don’t produce at least 150 oranges, I give more time and attention to other trees that do.

For your content, how many new visits, shares, downloads, leads, inbound links, etc. must it produce before you know it is worthy of added exposure. More importantly, over what time period must the content meet its standard before the content marketer knows she has a “winner.” Content that reaches its standard quickly and convincingly deserves added marketing support.

Growth Plans: Once you have spotted a fruitful piece of content after preliminary promotion efforts, accelerate it. Dedicate more funds and resources to expanding the audience and resulting impact of the content.

Further, divide your content promotion budget into two separate buckets. Some budget should be dedicated to promoting all content post launch. Secondary funds should go toward fertilizing content that has met its standard.

Do you treat all your content marketing productions equally? What standards are utilized to measure new content? How is successful content nurtured by your organization?

Here you will find a quick review of three tools any email marketer can use, regardless of her chosen send software. The tools below can give email marketers a leg up with inspired design, clean lists and improved relevance.

InboxVision

Visit InboxVision.com

What Is It?
InboxVision provides a healthy database of emails sent by brands across the globe. Users can garner inspiration and design ingenuity from competitors, top email marketing brands or separate industries altogether. The service allows us to create a search query that will pull in relevant email messages and provide alerts when new emails are added. We can collect our favorites in a lightbox to save them for later or share them with colleagues, clients and team members.

How Does It Work?
InboxVision builds and maintains its massive collection of industry-agnostic emails by pulling from a few sources: 1) they rely on a panel of helpers who send along emails as they are received, 2) they themselves sign up to receive emails from major B2B and B2C organizations under different names and addresses, and 3) InboxVision users can seed their own collections with an email address provided by the service. InboxVision maintains multiple profiles to beat out any sending caps, multiple domains to ensure receipt, and they wisely click on images to give the impression of an active user.

Potential Use Cases

• Monitor competitor activity
• Prepare for new business pitches
• Elevate creative and email aesthetics by sampling what others are sending
• Keep a watchful eye on affiliates or franchises who are representing your brand

How Much?
InboxVision offers pay as you go or monthly/annual plans. Get access for one month for $147. The annual rate is $885. Each account includes five search queries to gather relevant emails and five lightbox folders to collect your favorites.

LeadSpend

Visit LeadSpend.com

What Is It?
LeadSpend ultimately helps email marketers protect sender reputation. The tool validates emails to improve delivery rates to near 100%. This validation process can happen at the point of email capture or with a list that has been dormant for some time. Validation is a critical process for email marketers as it allows us to protect our sender reputations among internet service providers and get more of our emails to the inbox. As data reliability and quality present daunting hurdles for email marketers, LeadSpend can ensure the cleanliness of your lists.

How Does It Work?
Customers can upload a list to LeadSpend for validation. The process entails checks against spam traps, disposable emails, misspellings and bogus addresses (e.g. test@test.com). Within seconds, LeadSpend can update the list by providing detail on those emails that were validated or not validated with the reasons why. This same process can be applied to lead generation forms which utilize the LeadSpend technology. While LeadSpend works with customers through partners like BlueHornet, Eloqua, Silverpop and others, they can also handle clients directly.

Potential Use Cases

• Improve a shoddy Sender Score
• Verify email addresses at the time of collection
• Clean a list before reengaging a sluggish group of subscribers
• Ensure “abandoned cart” messages make it to their desired recipient

How Much?
Pricing starts at 1¢ per email. There are no contracts or long term commitments. LeadSpend requires a $100 minimum fee regardless of list size.

RapLeaf

Visit RapLeaf.com

What Is It?
RapLeaf is a service email marketers can utilize to improve list quality. The product will not help you acquire more email contacts, it will improve the knowledge and information you have about current contacts. Users can upload a list, select desired data points including age, gender, marital status, interests, purchase data, etc. From there, RapLeaf scans its data records to find additional information about your contacts and append your list. The service enables marketers to deliver more relevant, personalized messages.

How Does It Work?
Rapleaf is able to gather more information about your email recipients by teaming with well known and reputable data partners. They pull from census data, public records, surveys and other data aggregators. Their service scans for email address matches across a host of records to improve the quality of your list.

Potential Use Cases

• Segment your lists based on distinct data points (e.g. location, income, education, etc.)
• Garner additional information about sales prospects during the conversion cycle
• Acquire necessary intelligence without having to ask or require it from prospects at sign-up
• Determine how many of your subscribers would find a specific product/service promotion of interest

How Much?
Pricing scales based on the quantity of records and the number of fields you would like appended. For instance, a list with 5,000 records can be updated with age, gender, zip and home owner status for $102.00. See and play with the pricing scale here.

Outside of email delivery tools, what are some of the email marketing utilities you rely upon?

If this is all our analytics embody, we are simply providing a heap of meaningless pulp. Website analytics reports should not be judged on their aesthetics nor their ability to regurgitate figures. They should answer questions, uncover potential pitfalls or opportunities, and guide our processes, campaigns and content to greener pastures.

However, there is a nasty and prevailing itch analytics professionals must continue to scratch: How can we convey actionable insights at every reporting interval?

One of the biggest challenges with any analytics project, new or repeat, is the ability to find something new and meaningful with each report. Sometimes the data can look the same from week to week or month to month. Knowing where to look and what questions to ask can be the key to culling valuable insights.

To help overcome this potential dilemma, I use a list of baseline questions. They assist me in the initial analysis of a website, and I refer to them often for recurring engagements as a way to show something new to my clients each time out.

When to Employ 52 Questions

• Initial Analysis – Provides a handy check list of items to observe and report with a one-time analysis.
• Ongoing Analysis – Allows us to go back to several questions at every reporting interval and continuously deliver sage understanding and valid recommendations.

 
While I recommend creating a custom list of questions for each client project (based on client goals, market and desired relationship with the audience), this list of 52 should serve as a universal baseline for most websites.

• A – From where (geographic) are visitors coming?
• 2 – Based on website behaviors, are certain places more important to us than others?
• 3 – What percentage of visitors use a mobile device to access the site?
• 4 – How does mobile traffic differ from tablet and desktop?
• 5 – What devices are visitors using?
• 6 – How has traffic from different devices changed over time? What is the trend in device usage?
• 7 – What browser do visitors prefer?
• 8 – Is our site compatible for the most common (all) browsers and screen resolutions?
• 9 – What is the likelihood a visitor will see our website just once?
• 10 – What percentage of visitors return?
• J – What is the average visit duration?
• Q – Are there pages or traffic sources that correlate to an extended visit?
• K – What are the most common visitor pathways or flows?

♣ Sources

• A – What is the relative split between referral source categories (direct vs. search vs. referral vs. email, etc.)?
• 2 – Does one traffic source category dominate disproportionally?
• 3 – What percentage of traffic comes direct to the site, and how has that number been impacted by offline efforts?
• 4 – What is the trend for organic search traffic?
• 5 – What keywords have the greatest impact on conversions?
• 6 – What is the comparison between traffic from branded search and non-branded search (i.e. keywords that include our brand name)?
• 7 – What are the most important referral sources with respect to visits/traffic?
• 8 – Are there any referral sources that are exceptionally great or poor when evaluated by quality of visit (time on site, pages per visit, bounce rate)?
• 9 – Are all of our marketing campaigns tracking correctly?
• 10 – What impact have individual campaigns had on site traffic and conversions?
• J – What roles do social channels play in generating traffic and conversions?
• Q – What is the most common method for sharing website content?
• K – Does email play a significant role in driving traffic, and how can that be improved?

• A – Which pages are most popular among visitors?
• 2 – How has the visitor trend changed over time for key pages? Are they certain pages seeing their visits grow/decline?
• 3 – What pages have unusually high exit rates?
• 4 – What are the most popular landing pages?
• 5 – Which pages are performing well in organic/natural search? Are there pages that should be earning more traffic from organic search?
• 6 – Which landing pages are most successful in leading visitors to other content?
• 7 – What is the most common page that visitors will see after visiting the Home page and other important content?
• 8 – Are there pages crucial to the conversion process that are not garnering enough traffic or performing poorly?
• 9 – If tested, what pages have the potential to make a significant impact on conversions?
• 10 – What terms/keywords are used most often with site search?
• J – Is there an abundance of site search terms that are not well represented in site navigation or content?
• Q – What content is shared most often via social channels?
• K – Are there any issues with site speed? Does the site demonstrate slow/extended load times?

♠ Actions/Conversions

• A – Is the website tracking goals and conversions accurately?
• 2 – Are there specific sales-oriented website behaviors that should be monitored more closely?
• 3 – What is our site’s conversion rate (conversions / visitors)?
• 4 – Is there a significant difference in conversion rate between desktop and mobile/tablet visitors?
• 5 – What percentage of visitors abandon their shopping cart (or other conversion process)?
• 6 – Are their certain products or lead generation forms that have a consistently low conversion rate?
• 7 – How do conversions differ by referral source? What referral sources are most important to us with respect to conversion volume and value?
• 8 – What pages are present most often in the conversion funnel?
• 9 – What products deliver the highest revenue? conversion rate?
• 10 – What is our average order value? average order quantity?
• J – What are the most popular conversion paths by channel (e.g. Paid Search –> Email –> Direct –> Conversion)? Are there common channel pairings or combinations that often lead to conversions?
• Q – Are there channels that are more likely to provide assisted conversions?
• K – What is the average number of visits required before a visitor converts?

Do you have a similar process? What questions do you also include?

Google also offers remarketing campaigns that can be managed from within the AdWords interface.

How It Works

Here is a conceptual flow that illustrates how a basic retargeting campaign functions.

1. A potential customer visits your website. Every visitor’s browser is tagged with some special code that will enable your ad to appear to them later.
2. That visitor leaves your website without completing a purchase.
3. Your advertisement is displayed to that visitor and encourages them to return to your website.

Why Retargeting?

Win Back Prospects – According to Google, 96% visit a website without completing a desired action. Retargeting campaigns can actually help you encourage those lost conversions to come back.

First Dates Don’t Cut It – According to Google’s Zero Moment of Truth study, the average visitor accesses 10.4 resources before finally arriving at a purchase decision. In many cases, a potential customer may visit your site more than once. As explained in a previous post on measuring assisted conversions, you can determine just how many times your visitors come to your website before purchasing and the channels they use to get there.

Money Well Spent – Since you are essentially talking to someone who already knows your name, it stands to reason that remarketing campaigns will produce higher click rates, impressive conversion rates, and a lower cost per acquisition.

Remarketing in Google Adwords

The following notes discuss the process for creating a Google Adwords Remarketing campaign. Tips for each step in the process are listed.

Campaign Setup

• Choose to create a “Display Network only” campaign.
• → Name your campaign. note that you may consider a naming convention if you plan to create multiple campaigns and keep them organized.
• → Click the Remarketing radio button.
• → Choose a daily budget. Remember that your campaign will be limited to impressions for previous site visitors only, so consider how many people might be seeing your ad daily.
• → Google will advise that you do not limit location or language at the time of campaign setup. Know that you can update this setting after the campaign is created. Make this update only if you really need to limit your messaging to specific locations, languages or devices.
• → Configure your campaign flight and determine when you want your ad to run (all day vs. day parts).

After completing this step you will either be directed to your tracking code (first-time campaigns) or ad group creation (additional campaigns).

Tracking Code & Placement

The code that will allow your remarketing campaign to operate is provided at the time of campaign setup. You will need to place this code on every page of the site. Already created a campaign and need to get your code? Look in the “Shared Library” area and select “Audiences”.

Tip: If you are planning to give the remarketing code to your developer to place, please paste and deliver it in a text file. Simply cutting and pasting it into the body of an email may cause the code to get jumbled along the way.

The Main List

Remarketing campaigns operate by displaying your message to a “list”. Advertisers can create lists, which comprise visitors to the site based on their behavior. The behavior required to land on the default “Main List” is a simple visit to any page of the website. We can also create lists that include visitors who have seen specific pages or website sections as well.

Creating Other Lists

Lists are developed based on URLs visited. Advertisers typically want to show specific product-related ads to previous visitors who have browsed those products. Other potential list targets include:

• visitors to a particular service description page,
• visitors to the checkout process,
• visitors to a lead generation form,
• visitors to a map or directions page,
• visitors to a special offer page,
• visitors to sales-oriented content,
• and so on.

To ensure we are only showing our ad to those who have not completed our desired action, we can develop a list that includes a “URL does not equal” parameter in which the visitor did not reach at “Thank You” or confirmation page. In other words, if we only want to deliver our message to those who have yet to buy/download/contact/submit/etc., our list may be constructed like so…

Once you have created your lists for each campaign, they can be assigned with the “change display targeting” button in the Display Network tab.

Additional Tips

• Consider creating different ad groups for each list you develop. This will allow you to align ad message with list (i.e. audience) and landing page. Be as consistent as possible with the visitor experience from original visit to ad creative to campaign landing page.
• Among the various ad types and sizes, you will likely find that the Leaderboard (728×90) garners the most impressions and the square and rectangle ads will provide the best click rate.
• Update “Frequency Capping” within campaign Settings to ensure you don’t deliver your ads too often to the same people. Encouraging repeat visits can annoy potential customers quickly if overdone.
• Also within Settings, you can exclude yourself and everyone at your business location with IP exclusions.

Remarketing Resources:

• Introduction to Remarketing with Google Analytics
• The Zero Moment of Truth Macro Study
• 7 Types of Effective Retargeting from Chango

But how exactly does responsive design work? The video below takes you on a tour of some really riveting code (sarcasm intended) from REI, a company that employs responsive/adaptive email design techniques consistently. Take a gander.

Note: This is by no means a tutorial. It is merely intended to help those unfamiliar with @media query and responsive design to get better acquainted. Enjoy.

Resources mentioned in the video:

• Our REI Email
• The Mobile Email Opens Report from Knotice
• Media Query Support by Device
• Mobile Patterns

While you are at it, subscribe to the Email Email. It’s a monthly email newsletter all about … ya know … email.

A recipe for flourless chocolate cake from Gluten Free on a Shoestring

XML Sitemaps

Traditional sitemaps were actual web pages used in the dawn of the internet to help visitors find their way around a website, similar in format to a yellow pages directory for web pages. Later they demonstrated value from a search engine optimization perspective as they provided one page on the site where a search engine spider could quickly gather and access every single page on a site. Today, sitemap pages are used less often. As website users, we have evolved to a more conventional site navigation format and search engines typically rely on a different kind of sitemap, an XML file.

You can create your sitemap XML file manually or with a variety of available tools. Since Gluten Free on a Shoestring operates on the WordPress platform, we simply found a sitemap plugin that updates with every new page or recipe post that is added. After creating your sitemap, you can submit it to Google Webmaster Tools and allow Google to quickly index all the important, visitor-friendly pages of your website. Once submitted, Google will provide statistics regarding index frequency and ratio (i.e. the percentage of pages submitted that are being indexed).

HTML Improvements

Located within the “Optimization” section of Webmaster Tools, the HTML Improvements data shows areas for growth with our on-page optimization efforts (i.e. alterations to web page titles and meta descriptions). As you can see by the table on the right, Nicole’s site has a few duplicate meta descriptions and duplicate tittle tags. Considering the site has well over 450+ recipes, these numbers aren’t too bad. However, as each page should be treated as a unique destination with a custom welcome mat, these are worthwhile fixes. By clicking on the “Duplicate meta descriptions” or “Duplicate title tags” links within Webmaster Tools, we can get a full list of pages that require modifications.

Crawl Errors

The “Health” section within Webmaster Tools includes a Crawl Errors report. This helps us identify pages that could not be found or produced a 404 error. Minimizing errors improves website experience and in turn improves a site’s standing in search engine results. Here are a few of the errors found on Gluten Free on a Shoestring.

These kinds of errors should not cause panic. They are simply pages that once existed and do not any longer. Either the page went away, or it was renamed. Every error page requires a redirect to transfer visitors away to a relevant page on the site that still exists. It is important to use 301 redirects whenever possible, which alert Google that a page has moved permanently. Redirects can be placed within page code, within a .htaccess file (fun!), from the hosting server, or in Nicole’s case, with a separate WordPress plugin.

Search Queries

The Search Queries report within the “Traffic” section is particularly useful when trying to determine where to focus immediate attention with your optimization program. It provides a table with keywords, their impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate and average position in search results. The table below shows several keywords for which Gluten Free on a Shoestring has been optimized. While each of these terms has a top 10 ranking (as shown in the Avg. Position column on the far right), there is certainly some room to grow with each. The optimal “Avg. Position” would 1.0, which would signify a top ranking.

When we click on each of the terms presented above, Google Webmaster Tools shows us the page(s) that has earned the corresponding ranking. At this point, we are presented with two optimization options:

1. Increase usage of the term on this page (i.e. keyword density). This can be a little tricky as we don’t want to overdo it and suffer any “over optimization” penalties. However, there may be some room to insert the target phrase into page headlines or text in a way that does not compromise the integrity of page content.
2. Promote this page with an eye toward acquiring more links. This could involve a variety of strategies from a social media push to guest blogging on other baking/cooking/food blogs, Q&A sites, or even utilizing traditional media. We’ll also want to consider how other pages within Nicole’s site link to the page in question.

Employing one or both of the options above should help us secure a more favorable ranking for terms and corresponding pages that require a little added SEO attention.

Links to Your Site

Find your most common link sources with the Links to Your Site report, which is also located within the “Traffic” section. Data presented within this report can encourage us to create and/or reconfigure our link acquisition plan.

Based on the information available, we are typically left with three potential next steps:

1. Keep it Up: a link source may be providing a high volume of quality inbound links thanks to consistent site promotion efforts.
2. Make Adjustments: there may be a few link sources that are unexpected or unfamiliar. Determine if these sources are worth a more concerted effort. Is there more we can do to garner additional links from this source? Do the links we have acquired require some modification to maximize effectiveness?
3. Focus on Other Sources: Just as you might spot a few surprising link sources, there may also be a few glaring omissions. Are there partners, news outlets or other potential link sources upon which we should place emphasis?

Please note that there are other fine tools I would recommend for link diagnostics such as Open Site Explorer or Majestic. However, Google Webmaster Tools should be considered a legitimate tool to help inform a well-rounded link promotion strategy.

By utilizing these five elements and the entire toolset from Google Webmaster Tools, you can craft a venerable SEO recipe. What other tools or reports within Webmaster Tools do you rely upon?

Slides 3-5: Brief over view of paid, earned and owned media.

• Paid media includes any placement that the organization pays to acquire (i.e. advertising)
• Earned media refers to brand mentions and features that are obtained via public relations efforts
• Owned media is comprised of any assets controlled completely by the brand (e.g. websites, social media channels, email campaigns, mobile sites/apps, etc.)

Slide 6: A text graphic that illustrates how channel opportunities have increased exponentially over the past few decades. This proliferation makes the task of communicating with our audience theoretically easier, but it also makes the planning and channel decision process much more complicated. This phenomena has also transformed the true “generalists” into an endangered species.

Slides 7-8: Referring to how ad agencies and internal marketing teams have worked historically, we no longer operate in a linear fashion (at least we shouldn’t). Slide 8 demonstrates the cyclical pattern of campaign planning and execution in which we constantly aim to improve performance and business-oriented metrics from program to program.

Slide 9: A list of the topics I’m covering in class today.

Slide 11: Just before showing this slide to the class, I ask one person to stand up and find the “motorcycles” for sale link. The response time is measured by one other student who has a watch with a second hand or a stop watch app on her phone. The point here is that Craig’s List is not the optimal navigation experience. They can get away with showing 90+ links on the Home page as we have come to expect this from Craig’s List. However, this obviously does not fly for the everyday consumer-focused website.

Slide 12: Patience on the web is kind of like bigfoot; I’m pretty sure it exists, but I’ve never seen it. As soon as you equip the average Internet user with a mouse, a screen and a wifi connection, we essentially become the equivalent of a video game-addicted teenager surviving on only Adderall and Mountain Dew chasers.

Slides 13-18: Website navigation tips based on our short term memory abilities and need for speed. The point here is to make it as easy on the visitor as possible to accomplish her goals.

Slides 19: The best book written on website usability in my opinion, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. If you haven’t read it, go get yourself a copy.

Slides 20-24: Concepts related to website testing including A/B splits, multivariate testing, online user testing and eye tracking studies. Here’s a list of just some of the website testing tools referenced on these slides.

Slide 26: One of the best examples of content marketing I have seen: Charmin created a mobile app to allow people to rate public restrooms.

Slides 27-28: My bricks and feathers concept for content marketing also illustrated here.

Slides 29-30: An approach to identifying content marketing productions based on what customers are searching for, talking about and accessing on a brand’s website. A real life example of this approach as executed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center is provided on Slide 30. In this scenario, VUMC found that their was substantial search volume, social chatter and website content interest in sports injury content. They developed a mobile application to help youth sports coaches prevent injuries and access health/injury information easily.

Slides 31-33: Several tools used by content marketers to plan, organize and develop outstanding content marketing programs.

Slide 35: My attempt to compare social media program development with adopting a shelter dog. Read the shelter dog analogy here.

Slides 36-38: The importance of choosing the appropriate social media channel and creating an editorial calendar.

Slides 39-42: Tools and concepts to maximize efficiency and exposure with social media. There are references here to Facebook EdgeRank.

Slides 43-44: Kraft Foods relies upon metrics from their website and social media channels to determine what specific content deserves a little extra attention on their KraftRecipes.com site. Based on traffic and share metrics, they amplify recipes by promoting them more via social media, email and with primo placement on their home page. Feathers are amplified to bricks which transform to larger, meatier bricks promoted in multiple channels.

Slides 45-46: Recommendations on what to measure within social media programs including real revenue and sharing activity. Some of the tools included in this section are included in this social media analytics post.

Slides 48-49: Notes and stats about the value of marketing with video.

Slides 50-51: Tips for video content and an example of a brand that has enjoyed amazing success with video, Dollar Shave Club.

Slide 53: Average open and click rates for house lists vs. purchased email lists.

Slide 54: CAN SPAM rules.

Slides 55-56: The anatomy of a typical email marketing message including pre-header, main content and legal/disclaimer footer content.

Slides 57-60: Explanation of email tracks, triggers and campaigns. Various email program types are explained here.

Slides 61-62: The importance of “welcome” messages and sample elements often found within them.

Slides 63-64: A discussion about email list segmentation and two approaches for dividing a list for relevance: 1) asking for preferences and 2) monitoring behaviors.

Slides 67-68: In the sport of hockey, players should not skate to where the puck is; they must skate to where the puck is going. Smartphone penetration among US adults is 55% as of January 2013. Meanwhile there are no signs that this upward trend is slowing. See the smartphone adoption trend line here.

Slide 69: Stats for device usage during the course of an average day from Google’s Zero Moment of Truth study.

Slides 70-73: Notes on responsive design vs. other means of developing a mobile site. See a description for all three options for developing a mobile website.

Any questions about owned media or any of the slides in the deck? Feel free to contact me or ask in the comments below.

One of the most important aspects to building a baseball team is constructing a pitching staff. Some pitchers are built for stamina, others provide dominating power, and a few pitchers craft a unique delivery style that is meant to deceive and confuse hitters during key points of the game. Here’s a quick recap of the types of pitchers one might see during a game.

Starters: A starting pitcher will begin the game and attempt to survive as many innings as possible without giving up too many hits or runs. Some starters can go the full 9 innings, but they are usually asked to let another pitcher take over later in the game.

Middle Relief: If the starter gets into trouble, middle relief pitchers are ready to step in and burn through hitters. You won’t see middle relief pitchers in every game, only when the starter needs help early.

Setup Men: These pitchers provide a bridge from the starters (and middle relief pitchers) to the closers. Setup men do not start and rarely finish the game, and they don’t always get the credit they deserve.

Closers: When you need a pitcher to shut the game down and retire the last few batters, call on the closer. A great closer will ensure victory and rarely let a win slip away.

Knowing which pitchers fit into the different roles is not easy, and the ability to do so justifies the big dollars many baseball managers and pitching coaches command. This skill translates very well to marketing managers. Some tactics and channels work better to start the sales process with potential customers, while others are more effective at closing the deal. Using Assisted Conversions within Google Analytics, we can rely on previous conversion paths to define channel roles and win more often.

Finding Common Paths

To find out what role each marketing channel plays in the conversion process, navigate to Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Top Conversion Paths. Here you’ll find a list of the most common paths to a sale.

To translate with our pitching lineup analogy, here’s how you can read the data.

At this point, you’ll want to begin to understand how each of your channels fit in the existing marketing mix.

In the example above, we can see that both Referral and Paid Search channels would be considered “starters.” Both sit at the beginning of the conversion path, but visitors tend to convert with another channel. The Direct channel looks like a “closer.” In this sampling of conversions, Direct was always at the tail end of the path, closing out the conversion. Meanwhile Organic Search looks like a bit of a wild card; it started and closed conversions. We can likely dig deeper into Organic Search behavior to determine if there is a particular keyword or type of keywords that are more likely to be starters vs. closers.

Analyzing Your Paths & Applying Filters

There are two ways to get a closer look at how your paths are performing.

1. Use the standard filter search located just above the reporting table (see arrow below).

2. Apply conversion segments to isolate views of a specific channel or path type.

In the image below you can see there are default segments, but you can also create your own as I have done on the right. Conversion segments provide a way to view and compare numbers for different channels. You can also use segments to evaluate positions within the path for the same channel (i.e. determine if a channel is more likely to be a “starter” or a “closer”).

Answering Common Questions

Here are just a few questions that you can answer when reviewing your assisted conversion data.

Which of my channels start the conversion path with customers and which close the sale?
Translation: What does my marketing mix really look like when it delivers sales and/or conversions?

Which channel(s) can stand alone and which need help to close the game?
In Other Words: Are there channels that can go the distance without any help (i.e. get the sale in a single visit)? Which channels are more likely to work with others as a team to complete a conversion?

How should my message and call to action differ for each channel based on its position in the conversion path?
For Instance: If I know paid search consistently performs as a starter, perhaps my message should change from “buy now” to a softer “sign up to learn more.”

Which channels are currently undervalued?
Example: So often we discredit social media and other new media tactics for their lack of impact on sales. Traditionally, if the channel is not a “closer”, it has not received any accolades. Use assisted conversion analysis to show the true value of tactics that start and prolong conversations with valuable prospects.

Other Starter & Closer Considerations

For “starter” segments in which a channel begins the conversion path, place emphasis on soft calls to action that will set us up for an eventual conversion.

• Consider a retargeting campaign to generate repeat traffic or returning visits.
• Develop content “hooks” (e.g. informative downloads, ebooks, in-person event or webinar invitations, etc.) that provide value to the visitor while requiring prospect contact information in return.
• Encourage subscriptions to email newsletter programs or social media channels that allow us to develop a meaningful relationship with the visitor.

For “closer” segments (i.e. those most commonly found at the tail end of conversion paths), focus on getting the sale now.

• Ensure the post-click experience includes a strong and clear call to action.
• Conduct landing page testing to determine what sales-oriented call to action will generate a higher conversion rate.

With careful analysis of the post-click experience, we can begin to create a clearer picture of our customers, their intent and preferred buying process. Hopefully adoption of this kind of evaluation will eradicate mystery and help us to understand “what will encourage my audience to act.” Rely on analytics to build your marketing channel team, and WIN more often.

An email marketing track (also known as a drip campaign) is a short series of messages created to provide small amounts of information to recipients over time. These messages are usually automated, and the audience receives emails about your product/service in predefined intervals (days, weeks or months).

A few scenarios in which email tracks are employed include:

• Communication to foster sales of big ticket items (e.g. cars, boats and homes that usually require serious consideration time from the buyer).
• Enrollment cycles for education, insurance, memberships, and related programs in which important information and time-sensitive reminders are helpful.
• Trial or introduction periods that involve a “product tryout” on the part of the consumer.

The Value of a Email Track

Email marketers utilize tracks for a variety of reasons. First, they provide a means of maintaining an active presence with the audience in an automated (i.e. low cost) fashion. They allow us to test and measure buying cycle time frames, message effectiveness and the impact of specific features and benefits when shown to the audience. Finally, email tracks are popular because they work. Tracks can provide the right message to the right audience at the right time if executed correctly.

Nearly every email delivery tool offers the ability to create and rollout email tracks with varying degrees of precision. However, what are the expectations for communication at the close of the track? If the email track did not encourage every recipient to act, what is next? How can we as marketers work to secure an ongoing relationship via email or other means with our track participants?

Here are seven options for email marketers who eventually reach the end of the line.

1. Take It Offline

If your email series did not have the desired effect, perhaps it is time to attempt another method with specific audience members. The end of a track can often trigger the sales team to pick up the phone, deliver the message via snail mail or invite prospects to an in-person event as a way to keep communication flowing.

2. Keep Going

Depending upon the length of the email track, it may be worthwhile to keep pushing messages at a regular rate. This option requires careful measurement to determine if your recipients could actually benefit from additional emails. For instance, measuring email clicks on links other than “unsubscribe” could indicate the need for more information and/or more time with your offering. Utilizing your metrics, try to determine specific aspects of your message that resonate with recipients. Perhaps there are certain elements or unique content that can encourage sales-oriented behaviors. If your metrics show zero activity from the recipient, choose another option.

3. Ask, “What Next?”

The close of a track can also present an opportunity to gather more intel. The most important aspect of your email marketing campaigns is and always will be relevance. Improve relevance for individuals on your track list by inviting them to share what they would like to receive and when. This can come in the form of a short survey or a “Profile Center” in which specific interests are updated. Many email marketers include the “Update Profile” link in the footer of every email, but in this scenario, it would be the start of the show.

Fab.com and their preference system powered by SailThru does an unbelievable job of this as seen below.

4. Stall & Rekindle

Your pitch may be superb, but your timing might be off. If you are promoting a product or service that has a seasonal sales cycle, you may choose to halt communications now and reinvigorate your track at a later date. Don’t kill a promising long-term relationship by pushing too hard in the short term.

5. Newsletter Migration

In addition to your track targeted to prospects, you may also have an email newsletter for current customers. If your regularly scheduled customer updates or newsletter will provide legitimate appeal to your sales prospects, include them on your list. However, be very careful about how this migration is communicated and executed. Get permission to send newsletter updates either at the end of the track or (even better) when the track starts initially.

6. Introduce to Social

Similar to email, social media is an excellent tactic for maintaining ongoing communications with an existing or prospective customer base. Near the end of your email track, encourage subscription to your social channels. Here’s an example from Sports Authority:

7. Do Nothing

If you are really hoping to irritate a potential customer, just keep sending irrelevant garbage. Remember, your sales prospect is the object of your affection; Try not to piss her off. Sometimes the best thing to do stay in a prospect’s good graces is to discontinue efforts and let them come back on their own terms.

Here is the issue – without seamless continuity from keyword to ad to landing page, the visitor may get confused. With its Quality Score metric Google encourages advertisers to consider the visitor experience and shows them how to check on it. Plus, it is more challenging to deliver a conversion experience when you discover keyword phrases that, although relevant to your offering, do not already have a corresponding landing page match.

To explain further, here is an example:

• You sell cross training sneakers used for general exercise.
• Your keyword research reveals high demand for “trail running shoes.”
• While you can certainly envision a customer purchasing your shoes for that purpose, your site has zero content that covers trail running.
• To avoid missing out on the potential sales, you choose to include the trail running phrases.

The problem with this scenario is the the unlikely occurrence of a sale for “trail running shoes” and related phrases without a landing page experience dedicated to this topic.

Only Make Promises You Can Fulfill

Creating a paid search campaign or ad group is an exercise in futility without a compelling experience on your site that aligns with the visitor’s query. Remember, this is pay per click; when a potential customer clicks, you pay. And clicks don’t guarantee sales. Search doesn’t create demand, it fulfills it. Similarly, your site must fulfill a keyword and advertising promise. Only promote the messages and angles you can support with site content.

Work Backwards

1. Identify landing pages,
2. create text (or graphic) ads that use similar verbiage,
3. and finally, identify and select keywords that correspond in harmony.

During your keyword selection process, you will likely uncover additional terms that are relevant to your product/service. If these terms draw a different line to a potential sale via a separate and unique message or selling proposition, create separate landing pages and ads to adhere to that new path. In other words, when a new set of keyword phrases makes a different promise, you must fulfill that promise differently as well.

To use the previous example, our cross training sneaker campaign might look like this at launch. In this scenario, each ad group would have its own keywords, ads and landing page experience.