Why?Because Numbers Don’t Lie.

Cassie Lancellotti-YoungHead of Marketing and Analytics, HighTable.com

What are we here to talk about?

Last 6 months in the life of yours trulyHint: You can’t spell “customers” without “users”

McClure’s “Startup Metrics for Pirates”How do you seize the booty?

Where are my opinions from?

media/tech banker at Citigroup

online acquisition and subscription analytics at TheLadders

independent analytics consultant while MBA’ing

marketing and analytics at Savored

demolition and reconstruction at HighTable

2012

2003idiot intern at About.com

Cassie’s Law/Caveat: No Silos

Always have a comprehensive portrait of engagement – email, site, revenue metrics all in one place.

(No more “firing” customers just because they don’t open emails!)

Example: bringing the user into GA

Example: tight revenue tracking

Sailthru

HighTable 1.0 Disaster

Quora for professionals??

6 key site activities:1. ask question2. answer question3. vote on answer4. follow person5. follow topic6. follow question

May 2012: The “Oh Shit!” Moment

§ low activation§ minimal product trial§ low repeat usage

§ 85% of activity on day 1§ many “inherited” users

from GLG’s business

June: Tackling the usage puzzle…

What information can we get about users (and non-users)?

Which site components actually drive engagement?

What about customer satisfaction?

July: Road to RecoveryStep 1: Pushing for wins at the margins…

Prioritize user education – tell the

Reiterate that with a simplified

153% increase in questions/visits136% increase in answers/visits

August: Road to RecoveryStep 2: Big bets with small MVPs

new product concept test for startup members

tested willingness to state business challenges as well as to list other people

developed sense for

September: HighTable 2.0

68% usage from membership (vs. <10% with old product)

Viral coefficient at 0.5+ in just first two weeks

70% fulfillment in 5 days or less

The biggest lesson of all

The biggest lesson of all

Keep it simple, stupid.

Decide what actually qualifies as usage

Beware of “false engagement” signifiers

Start with ONE thing and layer up

Think Facebook pre-photos, newsfeed, etc…

On to the pirates…

McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates

AcquisitionActivationRetentionReferralRevenue

Acquisition: invest in infrastructure

Hyper-granular tracking is mission-critical to marketing investment decisions

Acquisition: CPA(R) vs. CPA(C)

There is fundamentally a huge difference between a registrant/email subscriber (CPAR) and a customer (CPAC – credit card required!).

Acquisition: CPA(R) vs. CPA(C)

There is fundamentally a huge difference between a registrant/email subscriber (CPAR) and a customer (CPAC – credit card required!).

Maybe you think your CPA is $5, but if there’s only 5% customer conversion, your CPA(C) is actually $100!

Acquisition: intake curves

You know CPA(R) today; you can use historical data to forecast CPA(C) today, too.

Activation – how quickly do they do what we want them to do?

Know what makes sense for your business – i.e. B2B vs. B2C, product pricing

Understand bow-tie marketplaces and develop “magic numbers.”

It’s about demand AND supply…

More from Savored…

And remember, business is more than just marketing…

Retention: 3 things to think about

§ Email/mobile (push)§ Product marketing (pull)§ Customer satisfaction/NPS

Retention: push marketing

§ Regular updates about inventory and features

§ Promotions and win-backs

§ Abandonment§ Shameless

manipulation of customer demand!

§ Optimization!

Optimization can be very basic…§ Increasing number of restaurants in digest from

4 to 15 increased RPM by over 300%.

And remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

And remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

(watch your competitors – and copy them)

Retention: product marketing

§ Is the funnel as simple as it could be?

§ Is your site content relevant to your users?

§ KILL THE DEAD END STREETS!

And be sure not to sacrifice quality…

Retention: delighting your customers

Use your customers as an

idea factory!

Retention: Know the numbers

Retention: I <3 cohort analysis

Referral (+Social, Viral, Whatever)

sharing = traffic = viral coefficient = $$$

Which content is most likely to be shared; how can you promote that?

How can you incentivize referrals?

Revenue – at the highest level…

§ Know your LTV (and have confidence in your calculation)

§ Understand your revenue drivers – and what foreshadows them…

(email vs. social, mobile vs. desktop)

§ Develop some easy hacks (prepaid credits, ancillary products, etc.)

Revenue – maximizing WTP

Always start with maximum willingness to pay (sticker price) and move along the curve from there

Revenue – cash is still king.

§ Little hacks (wording, default option, etc.) can go a long way where revenue is concerned.

§ Understand the balance sheet.

Revenue – I don’t have any!

§ Develop proxies for revenue – a post, a Tweet – but make sure those proxies are truly valuable behaviors.

§ If revenue comes from advertising vs. users, think about relationships (e.g. page views).

Another note on the numbers…

Remember that you have TWO lenses for analysis:

customer lenswho is the customer and what does he do?

“transaction” lenstags, patterns, time, etc.

…and one more…

Be sure to understand the “why” of what’s happening – typically one of 3 buckets

product/marketingdeliberate changes to messaging, site, etc.

business ecosysteminventory issues, technical problems

“macro” factorsindustry trends, economic climate, press

…and (of course) make sure those numbers are significant!

Let’s get (growth) hacking.

Let’s get (growth) hacking.

Cassie Lancellotti-YoungHead of Marketing and Analytics, HighTable.com