Digital Media MeasurementFor the Web, Digital Advertising & Public Relations

Brian D. Shelton@briandshelton@ExactTarget

The New Marketing Landscape

Cross-channel vs. Multi-channel

Cross-Channel vs. Multi-Channel

Cross-channel marketing is the inverse of multi-channel marketing.

• The customer is now central, not the organization

• He/she is followed and tracked while they switch from one channel to another

• Simply pushing the same content to all customers using all channels no longer works

• Listening to and engaging with the customer at the right time with the right content on the right channel is much harder to do, but when done well is much more effective.

• This is becoming a much bigger part of the public relations landscape as agencies move to offer more social media management solutions.

• PR must be an integrated piece of a company’s overall marketing mix.

We need to “listen.” What does that really mean?

Listening is also a simple way of saying, “let data kick-start your marketing.”

• Data analysis (and execution)

• It’s easier said than done• Forrester (commissioned by ExactTarget) used an online survey to investigate the

outlook and application of cross-channel strategies and technologies of 211 U.S. marketers with annual revenues of $100 million or more. Many organizations are still struggling to understand customer interactions across channels and manage execution across multiple technologies.

• Not surprising, some of the biggest hurdles involve the lack of headcount (49%), and know-how (42%).

Traditional Measurement

Slide via JESS3

Key Players: PR Software

Key Players: Marketing/Monitoring Software

Key Players: Digital Analytics

January 2012Gartner Magic Quadrant Report

“By 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than the

CIO.”-

Indicators

• Spike in number of marketing software companies

• Shift to cross-channel, integrated marketing, rather than traditional siloed marketing and measurement

• This has led to consolidation in the market – seen through mergers and acquisitions (ExactTarget/Salesforce, DoubleClick/Google, Eloqua/Oracle)

• Traditional PR and ad agencies increasingly bringing social media management into their service portfolios, a bit of an acknowledgement that brands no longer solely own their message

• Trends toward redefining “ROI” – attribution modeling and conversion scoring

Determining “success” on digital platforms

• TRAP: Success on digital platforms are determined the same way you measure success on traditional platforms; success metrics MUST reflect overall business goals.

• Example: If you say, “Success is 10,000 Facebook ‘likes’ on our brand page,” you’ve fallen into the trap. Now, if you were to say, “Success is 10,000 Facebook ‘likes’ because I know that 84% of those who ‘like’ our page are existing customers and I know that Facebook drives 3% traffic to my website and converts at 20%,” I know you’re metrics are based on business goals.

• TRAP: The numbers are the numbers. Not so.

• Example: ExactTarget redesigned its website in early 2013. Post-launch, the “Avg. Pageviews” metric was showing a significant decrease. Only looking at the number would lead to the inaccurate conclusion that the redesign negatively impacted site performance. In fact, the number of pages on the site were decreased and content consolidated. The decrease in pageviews (along with a higher Avg. Time on Page metric) actually demonstrated an improvement in site performance – more relevant content found more quickly.

Determining “success” on digital platforms

• TRAP: Relying on Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), a traditional PR success metric, can paint a highly inaccurate picture of PR success.

• Example: The dollar-denominated AVE calculations have nothing to do with profitability, and can confuse those not familiar with marketing metrics. AVE calculations seek to assign a “cost” value to placement, they do not demonstrate the revenue (potential or actual) realized from the placement.

Measuring “Voice of the Customer”

• Traditionally, PR and advertising measurement was often done through the use of focus groups, surveys or panels.

• Digital has changed the reliance on such techniques because individual user behavior can now be tracked in great detail

• What people SAY they do or SAY they prefer doesn’t always reflect their actual BEHAVIOR, which demonstrated true tendencies and values.

• Digital tracking and measurement doesn’t require direct participation (i.e. not relying on a person to state a preference, push a button, etc.)

• Focus groups, surveys and panels still have a place – they can be used to compare, contrast, validate, or dispute insights gained via other, more interactive, measurement techniques.

• Advertisers and marketers increasingly drive offline campaigns to digital channels to drive tracking, measurement and insights.

• A/B and multivariate testing being deployed more broadly to optimize campaign performance by determining user preferences.

‘Big Data’: The Next Big Challenge

Collecting data is no longer the biggest challenge for marketing, PR and advertising practitioners, but rather the interpretation of ‘big data’ to inform actionable strategies.

Examples:

• Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud – evaluating behavioral and quantitative metrics to drive real-time marketing automation

• Google Analytics – evolution to Google Universal Analytics, which allows robust tracking of cross-platform, cross-device and cross-channel metrics.

• IBM – continuing to explore predictive analytics and and business intelligence tools.

Brian D. Shelton

@briandshelton@ExactTarget