Rise of the KPI

I was reading an interesting Marketing Sherpa article that summarizes top marketers analytics frustrations and had a couple of thoughts.

Check out the article here...

The second frustration listed in the article discusses the wealth of information and how such a small amount of it is useful. This is the place where I think some SMBs gets overwhelmed.

The article goes on to discuss how Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) can help you decide what information is worth tracking and measuring. This is where the playing field levels considerably.

The truth is that you don't need a huge analytics platform to measure against most of your KPIs. If you understand what impacts visitor behavior and how you can measure that you are already half way home. Something as simple as "average depth of visit" can be a truly telling statement if you run an ecommerce website that has a defined purchase conversion funnel. If buying the red widget takes 5 steps to complete an order and your average depth of visit is 2 pages...you have a serious problem.

Its important to approach analytics in order...

1. Do an audit of your business and revisit the goals you had for the website when you built it.
• Revisit that website RFP and proposal from when you had the website built. Are the business goals the same today as they were then?
  
2. Spend concerted time understanding the website and the actual process of taking action.
• Its amazing how many SMB's don't actually know what is involved for their customers to take action on their website. Reintroduce yourself to your website and get familiar with how you expect your users to find and interact with it.
  
3. Understand what impacts that behavior
• Is the online demonstration too long?
• Are there too many steps to purchase?
• Did search traffic lead to increased revenue?
  
4. Open up your analytics tool and find the metrics that measure that behavior
• Time spent on page
• Average depth of visit, exit pages
• referrers
  
5. Create dashboards that track those metrics

If you do any of this out of order - you might find that you are tracking things that aren't really actionable and therefore an inefficient use of your time. Spending time fully understanding your business and its online presence will make all the difference.

The great social media experiement of 2007

I was working for the advertising agency for a major sporting league when I came up with a concept I call the "event blog time capsule."

I got the idea when I was standing directly in front of the stage at a U2 concert - the band was two feet in front of me with thousands of fans shouting, dancing, and screaming around me.

What I noticed was a phenomenon that was extremely interesting. Everyone around me was taking pictures and short movies on their cell phones. There must have been hundreds of them - all with their own angle and point of view.

And I thought - how cool would it be if all of these people took the extra time to send those pictures to their blog...or even better, the same blog?

Which got me thinking about chronicling huge events - sports, concerts, political rallies, ect on an open blog that is available for the duration of the event.

Imagine capturing something like the Indy 500 or Ozzfest from the unique perspectives of not just 1, 5, or even 10 people - but from hundreds of people!

The result would be an online phenomenon...an event blog completely broadcast by the fans attending the event - from each unique perspective and experience. Instead of trying to bring all the unique experiences together from a multitude of personal blogs - it would be collected in one spot - raw and unfiltered.

I think that a smart marketer could really generate buzz about it - by handing out exclusive invitations (blogging email addresses) to event goers and anticipating a whisper campaign where those people hand it out to their friends. The result would be hundreds (thousands?) of people posting to an event sponsored blog that then becomes a time-capsule for the event.

There are challenges of course...

• The volume of posts and concurring posting could bring a server to its knees
• The content is raw and unfiltered - Ozzfest pics could get interesting...
• Many televised broadcasts will have restrictions on publishing event content
• Approving posts if necessary could be overwhelming

I am absolutely positive that there a many more than those. The deal breaker for my initial pitch to the sporting venue was broadcast restrictions on event images.

So I'm throwing down the gauntlet.

What marketer can make this happen? I have made the pitch and everyone I know loves the idea and think it would be an awesome spectacle. The benefits are as intriguing as the challenges...

• Competely viral - the buzz would be amazing
• Get perspectives that no other camera can get - unique and individual experiences
• What better advocates for the event than the fans that love them
• Get those people who missed the event to see what they are missing
• Give the event goer the power to dictate the story (was the race the best part of the Brickyard 400? Or was it the party that Tony Stewart threw the night before?)
  
• Go places the media doesn't know about

There you have it, I gave my idea away. Nothing would make me happier than to see some marketing guru build out the first major "event time capsule". It would be awesome. So take part in my great social media experiment and prove to me that it CAN indeed be done!

Good luck to you all!

Why I chose Google Blogger

The decision to start blogging had come to me a long time ago. I had developed blogs before but did not fully understand the shear amount of time involved with creating and posting to one regularly.

After shelving my ambitions for a year and doing more research/reading I decided to pull the trigger and fully devote myself to blogging on a topic that I am passionate about. I have to admit that I am excited and slightly intimidated to put myself out there.

Unlike a lot of bloggers who begin on a whim - choose a blog publishing solution and move on, I actually evaluated a handful of them for a year before deciding on my choice.

I looked into typepad, blogger, wordpress, and social network blogs like myspace and xanga. I also tried open source content management blogs like Joomla with varied results for each.

What pushed me over the edge was the new Google Blogger.

The first conclusion that I came to was that I did not want to mess with hosting if I didn't have to. I fully understand the implications with not hosting my blog myself - but it would actually be a hinderance to me. I would probably end up spending all my time customizing the application instead of writing anything.

Another conclusion that I came to was that I didn't want to pay anything. I like free applications and open source software - so being a cheap ass definitely played a part.

The social network blogs were weak in their extensibility...and the content management was overkill.

But I wasn't sold on blogger until the "new blogger" came out.

The first (and obvious) benefit was the integration with my Google account which is great because I hop between my google apps quite frequently.

But the most impressive changes were the way in which a person with html experience can build out their own blog templates and edit the styles from within the interface. This is great if I decide I want to change colors or fonts of particular content - I can specify the variable in my blogger template and update it anytime without having to edit the css again. This may come from the fact that I have a graphic design background and get bored easily with the look and feel - so this was a nice feature.

I also love that I can use my own domain. I didnt want a blogspot address (there was no way I would have that) and I was going to go with a different application based solely on that fact. But new blogger beat me to the punch and fixed it before I had come to any definite conclusions.

The widget options were nice and suited most of my needs. I rarely found an app or widget that I could not easily integrate into the new blogger. And most 3rd party widgets are custom configured for blogger and wordpress which made extending the template very easy.

Overall, I found that the new blogger was more than suited for what I wanted to accomplish. It provides me the freedom to build out cool, custom templates and add new features on the fly. The functionality is what you would expect and provides very few limitations.

Now I understand that pro bloggers out there will decry me for placing my uptime/downtime into google's hands, but some of the best blogs I read are good old blogger blogs with the blogspot address. And I have seen both uptime and downtime for blogs from every stripe. I am not looking to become a powerhouse blogmaster with 10 blogs...I dont have that kind of time and I if I did I would be golfing instead.

So I chose the new blogger and I have to say that i am very pleased with it so far.

Let me know what you think - do you use blogger? or did you come to a different conclusion?

Passing values into landing pages from a url

For those of you that are building out multiple landing pages I have a simple javascript that may help you with passing variables from campaign url strings into your landing pages.

For example, if you have landing pages that contain identical forms and only need unique "lead source" information you can use this javascript to pull a variable passed in a url string to change the lead source information.

Place the following code where you would normally put your hidden lead source fields.

<script>
function getQueryVariable(variable) {
var query = window.location.search.substring(1);
var vars = query.split("&");
for (var i=0;i<vars.length;i++) {
var pair = vars[i].split("=");
if (pair[0] == variable) {
return pair[1];
}
}
}

</script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"><!--
document.write('<input ');
document.write(' type="hidden" ');
document.write(' name="lead_source" ');
document.write(' value="' + getQueryVariable("ls") + '">');
//--></script>

You can then access the page with the variable attached to the url:

www.yourwebpage.com/landingpage.html?ls=leadsource1

The variable populates the hidden form field with the lead source information.

<input name="lead_source" value="leadsource1" type="hidden">

When the user clicks submit the information will populate in salesforce.com eliminating the need for multiple landing pages.

You can also use this in correlation with you analytics link ids to maintain consistency in your reporting. Just change the variable in this line of code:

document.write(' value="' + getQueryVariable("change-this-value") + '">');

You can be creative and use this script to pass multiple values if needed...think about personalizing the landing page from a personalized url string in an email. You could pre-populate a form or even personalize the landing page with their name or any number of attributes in the email database!

Best of luck to you!

Efficient Testing vs. Test Everything

The concept is drilled into our head over and over to test everything...that "time spent testing is time well spent".

Don't mistake me when I say that I agree with this. I truly believe in smart marketing.

I just have one thing to add to that however - few people are willing to write it and fewer are willing to say out loud.

"Not all testing is necessary."

If you are a small business owner or marketer you probably don't have a ton of free time - so you have to spend your time wisely if you choose to do any testing at all. So the mantra to "test everything" is really quite unrealistic for the SMB trying to stay afloat.

I appreciate the idea of "left brained marketing", but at some point you have to use common sense as to when and how you spend your time.

Does it really matter that my headline is cornflower blue instead of teal? You could (and Ive seen it done...) spend months split and multivariate testing that variable...with little to no effect.

Instead, make larger changes. Form placement is a great place to start. Or change the specific call to action or headline copy. These will yield more significant results and give you a better understanding of what works.

Also, If you do the cornflower blue test and you have a significant difference in results it is more likely that other factors are influencing the data...like time of day, marketing campaigns, unexpected traffic, ect. It is possible that your customers truly love teal headlines - but I probably wouldn't go betting the house on it.

There is a reason we have a right brain, without it we would forever analyze but never take action. Find the most effective way to use your time - and leave the colorful headlines for later.

Google Reader and Blogging

I have to say that most of the fun in building out a blog is evaluating the shear amount of plug-ins, widgets, components, ect that you will find available to you. I have to say that I could blog for months on just that topic alone because I must have evaluated over a hundred of them, but I only want to bring the most relevant ones to topic here...so I digress.

One that I find particularly cool is the widget for sharing your google reader articles. While you dont actually need the widget - you only need a reader that allows you to create a shared feed and a blog that reads RSS feeds, its actually a great little tool.

It allows me to quickly post links to great articles without having to think twice about it. I just click on the shared button and the link instantly appears on my blog in a content area on the right...awesome! For me this is all about the flow of information and any time I can easily share it I get excited!

So check out the little gray box on the right for some great content from around the web!

My next big project: Sugar CRM

Like everyone I am intrigued by open source products. I recently referred my co-worker to Open Office and he has a great post here about his experience.

Its amazing to me the power of community and how it ultimately breeds some of the best products we use everyday. I cant imagine what my life would be like without them...the most recognizable of them all being Firefox.

So I have come across an open source CRM application called Sugar. I plan to review this product in my spare time since customer relationship management is one of my larger interests. I work in salesforce.com every day and I have to admit that I'm curious to learn more about this free tool.

While I am sure that it will pale in comparison to its big brother, I am more curious to see what it is capable of than its limitations. It will be an interesting comparison at the least.

Stay tuned and i will have a full review of this application and how it compares to salesforce.com. If you have any experiences with it yourself or some tips to help me with this journey please feel free to post them or contact me. If you want to partner on a review let me know!

I love Jimmy Johns, and HATE thier website

I am a huge fan of Jimmy Johns. So is my wife, my co-workers, and many family members. After I discovered JJ's it has been very hard for me to go to Subway - their subs are so much better than anything you will find at Jared's old joint.

And even better, they deliver.

I learned this awhile back when I was complaining to my wife on the phone that I had forgotten my bank card at home and couldn't get lunch. I was going to have to steal someones leftover casserole from the company refrigerator...or die of starvation. My wife informs me that they indeed deliver - so she gives me her credit card info and I proceed online.

So I jump on their website to find the location nearest to me so I can get their contact information and have them deliver the "Big John", Gods greatest gift to man.

I am treated with what is probably the most horrible website I have seen in awhile. This is God punishment to man.

See here for yourself.

Graphically it is beautiful. It is full of animation and smooth transitions. But it is all trapped in flash (I will save the rant on flash for another post) and I am forced to sit through endless animations and loading sequences to get to the information I seek. Not only that, but none of the navigation is intuitive...I am forced to decipher all of the meaning from the array of confusing buttons to find my local JJ.

But even more creepy is that they have this creepy dude "Jimmy" (Im not exactly sure if this is the real Jimmy or not) but he is EVERYWHERE. He talks to me, folllows me around, looks at what Im pointing my cursor to, and is just overall annoying as hell. Not to mention that EVERYTHING has a sound effect. New menus pop up...WHOOSH! Jimmy bounces around...BOING BOING! Meaningless animation appears...PLOP!

I eventually found what I was looking for - but not after going through hell to get there. It makes me wonder how many people they loose just because they care more about thier personal image than the ease of use for their visitors?

SEO has changed - do you have your game face on?

So you updated your meta tags a few years ago, maybe some title tags and content updates for good measure. As a result you saw some good results to your search engine positions - and a nice uptick in revenue to go with it. You have been riding the wave of good fortune and basking in the adoration of your superiors - eating up the praise and promotions that have come along with it.

Then one day a friend asks you about your company and you tell them confidently "just do a search in google for x, we'll pull right up...". After a brief pause your friend asks you again what company you work for - you tell him and he tells you that someone else is showing up.

You frantically open up google and do a search for your company...and like a horror movie where the young woman is about to realize her fate - you belt out a horrific scream, startling your coworkers and the poor friend on the other end of the line...

"What happened to my rankings?" you say as you grab you composure.

What happened was that you got too comfortable.

SEO is no longer a simple process of updating tags and building up your inbound links. Your competitors are actively watching your SEO movements - the better rankings you have the more of a target you become.

Think of SEO as a game of "smear" where the person holding the ball is singled out by everyone else for getting tackled. If you have a sweet search ranking for a highly sought after keyword, congratulations...you got the ball.

The key to holding onto your search ranking is to always be paying attention to others on the field - get lazy and your bound to have your back end handed to you...and your search term stripped away.

So the game has changed. You can either come suited up ready to play or get in the stands with the other wannabes. The glory belongs to those on the field.

What is Skatterbox?

Skatterbox is a simple combination of two ideas. The first being a sandbox which developers typically use for testing their applications. This blog acts in much the same way for me - as a testing ground for all my ideas with the community as my sounding board.

The second is that I have a ton of these ideas that need organized. They are "scattered" and I need a place to store them. I love everything about marketing technology and I cast a wide net as far as my interests go. The goal of this blog is not to replace any of the best blogs for a particular industry but to help marketers connect the dots between all of them and become better overall marketers.

So I swapped out the "c" for a "k" (scatterbox is already owned - go figure...) and bought the domain name. And "viola" Skatterbox is born.

My hope for Skatterbox is that is becomes a resource for the little guy to go to go and compete against the big guy. You don't need a huge marketing department to find success for your business - you just need a little knowledge of what tools are available to you and how to use them. I hope this blog becomes a place for like-minded marketers to share their experiences, insight, and ideas so that we can all become the most successful marketers possible.

I look forward to meeting you along the way!

About Me

This is the section of the blog that will be the hardest for me to write because I have no idea what you want to know. Alot of people fill this space with their personal biographies or resumes which I guess makes some sense but is very self serving and isn't really my style.

For those people wanting that crap you can look at my Linked In profile.

Others will tell you all about their hopes and dreams and carry on about special causes or philisophical missions. I'm not quite that arrogant to assume that you want to know these things either so I will leave them out as well.

In thinking about why you would come to this page in the first place gives me great pause. After thinking about it you probably just want a snapshot of the guy who writes the blog and make sure that hes a real person that is qualified and trustworthy.

So here it goes...

• My name is Luke Newton, I currently live in the Indianapolis area with my lovely wife Sarah who obviously settled for less than she deserved when she married me.
  
• I have worked for about six years in interactive marketing and worked under some of the smartest and most talented people in the profession.
  
• I have a real love for helping people realize what they can do on their own with a little knowledge - which is the reason for this blog.
• I have 4 children - Charlie, Jack, Emily, and Oliver...all of them cats and dogs
• My hometown is Newton Illinois. Yes, I'm Luke Newton from Newton...
  

I have to admit that if I see any traffic to this page whatsoever I will be extremely flattered. I hope I have answered all of your burning questions, but feel free to contact me if I have not.

All the best to you!