How to Get Into Big Data Analytics

Albert Einstein once said “information is not knowledge” and data without context is just organized information.

In essence, data is just people doing stuff.

The true value of data is far beyond obsessions with key performance metrics.

For most businesses, it’s about extracting insights to create value that has the potential to drive innovation to improve products and services.

In fact, more companies are shifting their focus from traditional business intelligence (BI) to predictive analytics – using historical data to predict future events.

Understand the World of Big Data

To put things in perspective, according to IBM “we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last 2 years alone.”

There is so much data coming in at such a high velocity in all types of complexity that this phenomenal we called big data is now a problem for most businesses.

In fact, there are so many challenges in dealing with big data that it’s often hard to process let alone understand.

This is especially true for any business that engages with digital advertising or online marketing.

This is why it’s important to maintain focus on business objectives in addition to all the online marketing tactics because like the author of the book Antifragile, Nassim Taleb wrote, “We’re more fooled by noise than ever before, and it’s because of a nasty phenomenon called “big data.” With big data, researchers have brought cherry-picking to an industrial level. Modernity provides too many variables, but too little data per variable. So the spurious relationships grow much, much faster than real information. In other words: Big data may mean more information, but it also means more false information.”

It’s meaningless if we have the means to analyze the data but the data is wrong to start with.

And of course we also need reliable data which is exactly why Samuel Arbesman, the author of The Half-Life of Facts, encourages us to start thinking about long data.

The point is that whether you’re doing marketing or product development, we need reliable data to help us make better decisions.

How to Get Into Big Data Analytics in Online Marketing

Just like you wouldn’t expect a musician to compose a song without a tune, or a restaurant to open without a menu, you can’t expect to develop a strategy or execute a tactic using data without knowing what you want to achieve.

This is at the core of any data-driven performance marketing – makes decision based on analysis to prove or disprove hypothesis.

It’s about running tests, collecting data, analyzing results to find the story the data seeks to tell.

If we’re going to become better in performance marketing, we also need better tools and processes transform big data into smart data.

Here are 7 ways you can get into big data analytics.

1) Focus on Business Objectives

Don’t collect data because you can, collect data because it’s necessary. Identify the core problems that have to do with meeting business objectives.

Speak the right language to the right people as different stakeholders in business have different goals that they focus on.

If you’re focusing on impressions, clicks, CTRs, and CR, and the person you’re dealing with only cares about ROI, CPL, and CPA you’re going to have a hard time communicating your value.

Learn to translate your data into terms that’s tailored for your audience.

2) Understand Business Infrastructure

Realize that you will need to understand technical infrastructure such as web hosting, data warehousing, and how data flows in and out of business infrastructure.

In addition, recognize that every business utilizes a variety of applications behind the technical infrastructure.

So make sure that you have some basic knowledge of how each of those applications work and what other tools are available to help you integrate more useful t data.

3) Take the Data Science Approach

You need a multitude of skills to stay at the top of your game, but most importantly you need to become a data scientist. This means investing in learning more about statics, analysis, experimentation, and data visualization.

These skill sets are now in high demand as big data proliferates.

Data scientist is about performance marketing, you need to be the one leading the charge in research and delivery of business intelligence.
Ensure your data integrity will be tremendous for segmentation and optimization.

4) Integrate the Entire Conversion Journey

In the search engine marketing world, a conversion means either a sale or a lead. KPIs such as CPL (cost-per-lead), CPO (cost-per-sale), AOV (average order value), or even ROI are typically what SEMs deliver on the frontend.

However; few SEMs talks about lifetime value or backend conversion metrics that enables you to get a clear picture on the full conversion funnel.

For example: if your frontend click-to-lead CR (conversion rate) is 10% at a $30 CPA (cost-per-acquisition) but your backend lead-to-sale CR is 20%, your actual click-to-sale CR is actually just 2% which means your CPA is actually $150.

All businesses want to know their true return on their marketing dollars; this is why if you don’t have the backend data integration, the frontend data can be very misleading.

And if you have the right data integration, you can proceed to optimize towards the most important KPI, which often times is NOT the frontend metrics.

This applies to offline data as well since TV, radio, print, or even billboards can drive traffic to your website, it’s important to take those media cost into consideration. And don’t forget about other cost of sales attributes such as call center or cost from other channels.

5) Leverage Web Analytics

web analytics is a great place to start your data journey. It tells you where people came from, where they clicked, how long they stayed, what pages were visited, and a whole lot more.

Web analytics puts context to your visitors to your site by adding behavioral data that reveals intent. Someone that searched on a branded term will most likely act differently than those that did not. The same applies to the length of the query.

In fact, even Google uses real human raters in addition to its algorithm to rate content because real human experience is what Google’s search engine tries to mimic.

6) Tell a Story via Data Visualization

Human beings are hardwired to pay attention and remember stories more than anything else. And we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words.

So what’s better than translating your data into graphs or diagrams to help you narrate your story?

The idea of you presenting the data is not to confuse your audience but to communicate fully the integrity and the meaning of your analytics so they can understand it, and take action against it.

Storytelling in the context of data visualization depends on how you balance the visual narrative against your target audience’s ability to discover and interpret.

If you’re to produce great data visualization, I highly recommend that you take a look at Edward Segel and Jeffrey Heer’s paper called “Narrative Visualization“, in which they’ve identified three distinct genres of narrative visualization.

7) Start Predictive Analytics

A great example of predictive analytics being deployed can be seen in Google’s Instant Search. It predicts what you’re trying to search before you finish typing to save you 2-5 seconds per search, guide your search, and load search results instantly as you type.

In fact, predictive analytics are what’s powering recommendation engines of companies such as Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, Match.com, and more!

These predictive analytics are often utilized as conversion optimizing features inside products, such as ad targeting, recommendations, personalizations, and more.

It may sound far beyond our ability to predict the future, but the truth is that predictive analytics is about identifying and exploiting patterns.

The first step is to understand how to leverage techniques in statistics, modeling, and programming.

However; you can start by doing simple projections or forecasting then gradually move into more sophisticated techniques.

You don’t even need anything fancy, just some basic Excel skills will do to get started.

The Take Away: Big data analytics is here to stay.

One of the most fascinating things I get to do at work is to look at data from SMBs to Fortune 50s.

We try prioritize our decisions to spend our client’s investment based on data because it’s what we do – performance marketing.

I can’t stress enough the importance of statistics and its supersets econometrics and data science in solving real life problems.

Great online marketing strategies aren’t just about the tactics on traffic acquisition or conversion rate optimization (CRO); it’s about getting the most out of your marketing dollars.

It requires you to understand the connection between your marketing activities and the broader business objectives.

By integrating rich, relevant business data and powerful analytics, big data allows businesses to quickly assess emerging trends, identify correlations, and take meaningful actions.

Integrated Marketing Strategy – How to Integrate Search, Social for eCommerce

by Eric Tsai

It seems as if all the talk in web marketing these days center on algorithm updates, social signals, mobile and display opportunities. Marketers and brands are eager to make adjustments trying new strategies to drive sales and increase profits.

I think it’s important to know the difference between a sales channel and how sales are made.
Search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media are all channels to engage and carry out your message with prospects and customers.

Simply put, the medium is not the message. It’s a venue for you to generate demand and drive qualified visitors to your conversion funnel.

And we all know what conversion funnel is all about – getting those sale!

This is why it’s important to figure out how these channels work together (and independently) to help drive qualified traffic to your web properties.

Not only will this increase the chance of converting that traffic into sales (higher conversion rate), it will also bring clarity to your marketing investments.

The key is to realize that social media is turning customers social as a result transitioning eCommerce to social commerce.

The Social Customer: More Research, Less Impulsive

Today, if you want to find a restaurant or buy a product you can start by getting opinions from your social circle on Facebook and Twitter or read reviews on public venues such as Yelp and Amazon. In addition, you get to compare prices across multiple deal aggregators and coupon sites.

It’s indicative that consumers are no longer buying based on impulse but cold hard facts.

According to a recent survey conducted by Yahoo! and Universal McCann to help marketers understand the new dynamics in the path to purchase, “The abundance of online tools has evolved shopping, empowered consumers and ultimately renewed passion and excitement within the path to purchase…Consumers have learned what information sources to filter and what sources they can rely on. And when it comes to media, Internet comes out on top as 2 in 3 people stated they trust the Internet for researching their purchases.”

I particularly like the recommendations under “Implications for Marketers”:

Marketers should contribute to the social ecosystem by becoming part of the conversation. Leverage your brand as a contributing member of 3rd party communities (e.g., fan page, micro-site, etc.) to create a more personal and authentic relationship with your customers.
Create reward systems that deliver the “consumer win” by making the consumer feel special — such as tailoring deals to their expressed interests and encouraging viral sharing.
Marketers don’t necessarily need to be considered a consumer’s “friend,” but should leverage the right media to aid consumers — like expert reviews. Trusted sites perform better.
Online sources influence purchases just as much as, if not more than, offline sources so it’s important to make sure your brand is integrated in the online experience.
As shoppers use digital tools to gather info and narrow down options, your presence doesn’t need to be purely rational. It can and should delight emotionally.

If we can identify the potential “decision path” and buying landscape of our prospects then we can build better campaigns to truly engage in a relationship that brings value to both sides.

Social Commerce: Why Consumers Connect with Brands

Whether it’s through social media, organic search or paid search, it helps to understand why certain types of consumers elect to go down a specific path that ultimately led to a purchase.

Once you figured out the complex scenarios of a purchase funnel, then it’s time to craft a campaign that can effective in gaining your prospect’s attention.

Why attention?

Because more attention means higher chance of clicking, and more clicks brings in more traffic. You may want to read the post on Why Attention is the New Currency Online.

The important thing about traffic is that we want convertible traffic not media with strenuous acquisition costs.

Social media is a complicated media where customers are willing to interact with brands but it’s difficult to track and measure.

According to a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs, “42% of online consumers have “followed” a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer’s blog, and the average person follows about 6 retailers.”

Here are the top reasons shoppers follow a retailer:

As you can see from the data above, most people connect with brands with some level of transactional intent in nature.

The key is to realize that this type of digital relationship is built on mutual benefits.

For brands, this means being creative with incentivized-advertising that leads to trial, trial to purchase, and purchase to become a regular customer.

And it’s very likely that some if not the entire process take place online.
Each contact point may be discoverable by search forming a contributing factor to influence the purchase experience.

This is a high level way of viewing social commerce. And it requires careful planning beyond marketing.

This is why for example, customer service, sales and marketing needs to stay connected. It’s about linking different part of your business to help optimize the social commerce experience.

And to do making each department social is a great place to start.

Social Media: Turning Search Social

In order to combat Facebook, Google decided to counter with Google +, a social network that mimics many social features of Facebook. (I’ve just started using this and will keep an eye on it as it grows.)

The value of SEO and the success of Google is undeniable but the fact is Facebook has become the central hub of the increasingly social web.

Accordingly to ComScore, time spent on Facebook nearly doubled compare to Google even though Google continues to attract the greatest number of unique visitors in general.

What this tells me is that there is a fundamental shift in how we fit the Internet into our lives.

This also means that search is evolving from a utility-focused function (of finding information) towards a more connected engagement environment.

The initiate discovery builds meaningful relationship that’s based on the human network.
This is the reason why all social networks are gaining traction, not just Facebook.

For example Twitter is also becoming a force to be reckoned with according to Compete:

Twitter is the preferred platform for learning about new product updates. While those who follow a brand on Twitter and “Like” a brand on Facebook do so to learn about discounts and available “free stuff” to a similar degree, the Twitter followers are much more likely to use the platform for “updates on future products” (84% to 60%). Clearly Twitter is viewed as a medium in which consumers can directly communicate with the stewards of the brands they are most interested in. See chart below for details on why consumers choose to follow or Like a brand.

And the next interesting insight was shows that Twitter has the potential to drive sales.

Twitter is more effective at driving purchase activity than Facebook. 56% of those who follow a brand on Twitter indicated they are “more likely” to make a purchase of that brand’s products compared to a 47% lift for those who “Like” a brand on Facebook. This is further evidence that marketers can drive ROI with Twitter by engaging followers through compelling content. See the chart below for more details on usage outcomes across Twitter and Facebook.

Of course, not all engagements are created equal and this is where online marketing is changing.

Consumers will decide which channel to use for their own benefits so as marketers, you need a approach these venues with meaningful engagement in mind aggregating valuable conversations over time.

It only make sense to start your engagement strategy by understand today’s consumers. Once you gain an understanding of the larger trend, then it all comes down to narrowing your target audience and tailor your message to fit the medium.

The Take Away

You can now purchase or bid on highly targeted media to carry out your ads that gets distributed instantly.

The result can be tracked and analyze through various attribution models.

Although there are still limitation to data transparency across all channels, one thing is clear, modern marketers now must try to understand all the touch points prior to conversion (making the sale) to get an idea of the impact of these channels.

It’s time we realize that social media provides significant influence across the social web.

It’s not just about page rank with SEO or ad rank with PPC; you now must consider measuring the depth of engagement as a competitive advantage within your marketing toolbox

What are you doing beyond search?

Why You Need Email Marketing More Than Social Media

by Eric Tsai

With more than 500 million active users and the recent surge overtaking Google in time spent on site, you would think that Facebook is the king of content sharing. However; a recently research from Chadwick Martin Bailey found that email still tops Facebook for content sharing.

According to eMarketer, “86% of survey respondents said they used email to share content, while just 49% said they used Facebook. Broken down by age, the preference for email is more pronounced as users get older. And only the youngest group polled, those ages 18 to 24, reverses the trend, with 76% sharing via Facebook, compared with 70% via email.”

So what does this mean to your business?

For one, just like what the article points out social network sharing revealed much of our self-interested motivations behind sharing.

People love stories, especially stories about themselves. Unless you’re an effective marketer, most of us make decisions on how we feel about the relevancy of the content based on what we think was interesting, funny or helpful. Furthermore social sharing via Facebook is more about the person sharing while sharing via email is more about the recipients.

This goes back to knowing the customer and understand the habits of what people use and why. Social media will continue its explosive growth but marketers must not focus on tactics at the expense of strategy.

Here are 3 tips to help you focus on strategy rather than tactics:

Picture Your Outcome

You need the right motivation to help you identify what needs to be done to get the results you want. A Facebook fan page, be on the first page of Google or a YouTube channel is not a goal. They should be the contributing factor to getting your goal.

Set your objectives (usually has to do with sales goals) and figure out the tactics that can get you there efficiently and cost effectively. Reverse engineer from your outcome by doing research, ask questions, conduct tests and architect your sale funnel.

Talk to every customer facing points of your business, come up with a mixture of tactics so when one doesn’t work you have alternatives to implement immediately.

Become Your Customer

It’s always interesting to me that everyone talks about listening and conversing especially in the topic of social media marketing. Don’t get me wrong, there is definite value in monitoring Twitter feeds, LinkedIn Answer or check your sentiment via Social Mention.

The challenge for most marketers is that you’re still thinking from your perspective to simulate what might be going on in your customer’s head.

Don’t just send out surveys. Sit down and talk to as many customers as you can and just drill down with meaningful questions deeper and deeper. Figure out where they’re coming from and what do they think they want.

What does your solution have to do with their challenges? Is it obvious to them that they need your products or services to overcome their problems?

Know the difference between listening and feeling like your customers.

Identify Quality vs Quantity

Generating high quality leads should always be the number one focus over the amount of leads. From a business perspective, it’s about what you do with the lead and the opportunities it generates.

This applies to content as well across blogs, landing pages and social networks. Your audience will find value in your content if it’s relevant in solving their problem. Move the “free line” so they will step into the funnel.

Come up with your own system to rank your leads, clicks, retweets, likes on an ongoing basis and measure the effectiveness and impact of each channel.

It’s useless if you have bunch of weak leads that you spent a lot of time on trying to convert, instead focus on capturing those sales-ready prospects and lead them down the funnel.

Remember people have all kinds of reasons not to buy, it takes time to nurture leads so put more emphasis on finding those already looking for your solution (hot leads) will yield optimal ROI (return on your invested). Try testing your ideas with Google Adwords or Facebook Advertising.

It’s cheap to spend a little and get some proof of concepts that brings clarity to your assumptions.

The Take Away: Email marketing is about your audience and should be consider your top weapon from your marketing toolbox. It’s more personal and secure in many people’s eyes so tread carefully but don’t be afraid to test and find out about your customers. Learn, create, measure and improve.

I’ve always been an advocate of email marketing and will continue to stick with my opinion that email marketing is here to stay but business owners and marketers must recognize the implications of social medias well as SEO on email marketing. For more information on integrated the 3 read: How to Integrate Email Marketing, SEO and Social Media for more details.