We are coming into a digital / data age by all accounts, and have been for a while. Everything is based on data, data data and making decisions based on that data, especially for ecommerce sites. Really though, do we know what we’re looking at? Do we understand the numbers? The differences in conversion rates, visitor sources and the like?

The truth is that data has two major caveats that everyone needs to be aware of and needs to put their statistical hat on to understand:

Data can tell any story

Depending the on the way you cut your data, the way you include or exclude certain groups and the metrics you use, data can tell wildly varying stories to people. The data, of course, is always the same (hopefully). One pool of data, and we attach meaning to that data. It’s the meaning we attach that can differ so much!

If we go into data wanting to draw a particular conclusion, then we can find a way to do it! Be careful.

Data needs to be statistically relevant

The good old AB test. A dangerous tool at times. We’re comparing two different landing pages. One converts the visitor 10% better than the other one. We’re all happy with the work done. Is this number real? ‘What do you mean is it real?’ I hear you cry – how can numbers lie? They can’t. But they can hide the whole truth.

First of all, sample size. Did you test enough visits and conversions. It ran over 100 visits? Not enough! To get statistical relevance we need a large sample size, over a decent time period.

Secondly, if you try an AA test, comparing exactly the same creative to itself, in theory they should perform exactly the same. In practice, this does not always happen. In fact, over at Get Elastic they performed an AA test and one version outperformed the other by 4.97%! Shocking. So that 10% difference could of been 5%, or 15% – who knows!

If you perform tests make sure you have statistically relevant numbers, and that the results you get show a very clear difference between the two. If you can, perform an AA test also.

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This week I attended one of the Marketing Industry Network events in Manchester which discussed the future of the independent digital agency. The panel including agencies like Cool Pink, Code Computerlove and Chapter8 and come question time I asked whether the change within the industry is been driven by clients or agencies. It was interesting discussion and inspired this post which will explore how the structure of the two sides of the agency/client relationship seem to affect the working relationship, projects undertaken, and results gathered.

We’ll cover this is this order:

• Agency structure
• Client structure
• How this affects projects and results
• The future

Agency structure

Agencies can obviously be structured in many different ways and there are probably more ways than I could ever think of. Having said this however we can normally say that there is what is seen as a standard agency model driven by departments.

One department does the creative, one the technical build, one the testing / QA, one media planning and so on. Projects are passed from department to department to be worked on and generally go back and forth. The departments don’t always communicate that much with each other. They are lead by the account director or executive who’s the communication path to the client. This model is a pretty natural output of a growing company in it’s attempt to cope with scale.

I will call the above the silo approach. Team’s are quite separate and not all that collaborative.

The other way of working is focused much more on collaboration. Whether it’s a lot of smaller teams with someone from each discipline in each, or, in the case of a smaller company, one giant collaborative team.

Client structure

A similar situation exists within clients as well. A spectrum between collaborative and silo based organisations. The difference with clients is also where the decision makers lie for different projects. Where they lie can make a dramatic difference to what projects are prioritised and why, and how the relationship can be affected.

First lets discuss structure. In my experience there are a lot of different structure possibilities within organisations and a lot of this is dependent on how they have grown. Here’s a couple that we have come across in charge:

• Business managers / Business development
• Direct Business (If the company has a retail arm)
• Managing director / CEO
• Marketing
• Ecommerce
• IT

It makes such a huge difference who is responsible for a digital/ecommerce project as to the results which we’ll discuss later. The stereotypes of the above departments / decision makers can be very true. IT are generally more interested in how much work it means for them and security (rightly so), business development and CEOs are very much about the bottom line and marketing tend to be more aesthetically orientated.

The key with how the client is structured however is less who is the point of contact, and more about the level of collaboration within the organisation. If each part hardly ever talks, it means something very different to if they have regular catch up and joint planning.

How this affects projects and results

If you’ve worked at any agency for a period of time, you know some projects go better than others, some seem simpler, even hen the project is more complex. Often the less complex the project, in a paradoxical way, can be harder.

I believe that the alignment of client and agency structure can play a big part in how well they work together. You could argue that a good account handler should protect the agency and client from any differences that can cause friction. To a certain extent that’s true. I do believe though, that the underlying structure and therefore culture of the organisations will always come out.

Combo One – Collaborative client, Silo agency

If a collaborative client tries to work well with a silo’d agency, they will become frustrated that things cannot be more collaborative. They will crave to have good, productive meetings with all of their major players, and all of the agency’s major players.

Combo Two – Silo client, Collaborative agency

If a silo’d client tries to work with a  collaborative agency, the agency will become frustrated by the fact their ideas and forward thinking fall often on deaf hears depending on the contact within the client. Ideas and work are constantly filtered through their eyes resulting in their view dominating. When work is finally presented often other organisation stakeholders are disappointed as it’s so focused from one area. More work for the agency.

Combo Three – Silo client, Silo agency

If a silo’d agency works with silo’d client, things go very, very slowly. Communication is drawn out, Chinese whispers are prevalent. Work takes a long time to get done and there’s a lot of back and forth from agency to client and inter department within both client an agency. Even after a drawn out process, the work produced will end up not really pleasing anyone either side unless there’s on dominant personality as the client contact.

Combo Four – Collaborative client, Collaborative agency

If a collaborative agency works with a collaborative client, projects can go exceptionally well (in our experience). The stakeholders get round the table and talk out what they want from the project. Everyone’s views get aired and they feel like they have been heard. The agency then works together on the project, discussing the possibilities for the project. Again, all parts get heard and discussed. Projects move faster and results are generally better. There are a couple of caveats. Trying to get all the stakeholders together can be difficult and therefore slow things down waiting for a meeting. Sometimes both clients and agencies can get too many people involved with too many view, and a project can lose direction and clarity. You can never please everyone.

Conclusion and the future

So what does this mean? We can’t all magic the right clients or change our current clients, organisational change takes time. I think one of things all agencies need to realise is that one of the reasons digital agencies seem to be doing well is that their attitude to collaboration and change. Digital moves so fast as an industry, that the agency has to be collaborative and good at change. This helps them with clients as well, to learn and adapt.

In my opinion, all agencies must work hard to be as collaborative as possible and encourage clients to do the same.

Filed under: Agency talk, Digital Media | 1 Comment

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My article on why context is so important to mobile marketing, and how that differs to normal marketing has been posted over at Wise Marketer. You’ll need a free login to read the article (well worth the effort) and I would thoroughly recommend registering for their daily update – so much great content comes from these guys (if I do say so myself):

http://bit.ly/bcKoDb

Filed under: Published elsewhere, linkedin, Mobile | Post a comment

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Most companies are collecting data for no reason. Far too often we’re coming across companies that have some form of analytics but no idea why. They have had it put in (mainly because it’s free) and someone has normally shown them how to log in and told them what some of the numbers mean. They have never logged in again, let alone actually done any analysis of the data.

Data is useless without meaning. Meaning is useless without action. Companies need to be analysing their website statistics, finding out why certain trends are appearing or not appearing, and take action to change what they are seeing. Only then are you truly using web analytics, and not just being a data collector for no reason.

Here are some things you might want to know about your visitors:

• Where are they coming from? Which of these sources is the most profitable? What’s the trend of these visitor sources? Which are declining or increasing over time?
• What is my bounce rate? Which content gives the worst bounce rates (and therefore should be fixed)
• What content are they looking at on my site? Which pieces of content are the most popular? Which produce the most exits from the site?
• What keywords are people using to visit my site? Are they all brand led? If so what can I do to encourage people to visit my site that haven’t already heard of me?

There’s a ton of questions you can ask yourself. So why not start asking yourself right away. Stop collecting, start analysing.

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We hear it too often. There have been so many times that I’ve heard people comparing offline shopping to online shopping. Trying to recreate the offline experience in an online store.

Here are what I believe are the fundamental differences:

1) Online, you can be in 10 shops at once

The possibility of comparing lots of different website’s product at once is so easy, especially with tabbed browsers now the standard. If you’re offline, you can only see one product at once price in one store at once. This is a crucial difference. Do you know what your main competition is doing to stand out? Free delivery? Delivery options? Bundled deals? And so on. Make sure you have points of difference.

2) No parking, no journey, no walking

Simple, but there’s less logistics. You can do some shopping in literally a couple of minutes online. Visits can be short or very long on a website. Quite often in offline world, you don’t spend a very long time in one store, but move from shop to shop. Generally this is done simultaneously while online. Much less stress (in theory) than an offline shop. Also a better use of time as there’s no journey time involved like going to a town centre or an out of town centre. Make sure you take advantage of these things.

3) You have to arrange for delivery

Once ordered, you don’t have the product immediately, unlike a lot of offline transactions. Especially with slightly larger items, that means delivery to somewhere that can accept it, or wait for it to arrive one day. This can be a pain for the customer. Although a lot of stores have moved this forwards a lot recently and there’s also quite a lot of innovation in this area with lockable boxes for large parcels. How are you making delivery as easy as possible and doesn’t put people off?

4) There’s more support in store

In theory, there’s good customer service advisors in store to advise and guide the customer through the store to what they want. They can answer questions you may have, you can touch and feel the products, and they can tell you things you may not have know about the product before, or suggest things they could buy with it.

This is where offline can easy trump online. The sheer level of proactive customer support is the big boon offline.

I say this is ‘in theory’ because recently the customer service has been pretty shocking ion a lot of established UK retailers like Debenhams, Tesco and New Look. Many of them have shop assistants chatting to each other while serving you, and generally not supporting the customer. The one thing where they can stand out from offline they are turning the other way. Shocking.

So for your site – think about exactly how you can can give as much support as possible. Live chat? Possibly. Great support copy on delivery, returns, etc? Essential. Great product descriptions, images and bundling? Yes please.

Filed under: Ecommerce, linkedin | Post a comment

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Lots of commentry on the web today about Firefox 3.5 being the most popular browser. Really, when you add up Internet Explorer, it’s still IE at 55.4% and Firefox at 32.1%. See graph below. There’s a problem though

This is not what you’re clients stats are like. See below two of our major ecommerce sites for big brand names here in the UK. Note the Internet Explorer total (and underneath how much IE6 is still important too).

Make sure you work with your clients visitors, not the web news deadlines.

Filed under: Digital Media, Ecommerce, linkedin | 6 Comments

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“Current spend from advertisers is between 12% and 13% of total budget. However, the time spent onlone by consumers is approaching 20%. Clients need to address this shortfall” – Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

Great quote and a very simple gap that needs to be filled. If advertisers continue this trend they will fall further and further behind consumers shopping habits and it will be very hard to catch up

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This is a follow on from the ‘7 deadly sins of beginning a web project‘ which I posted last month, this post deals with what to do, as opposed to not doing.

1) Assign a website champion

This is crucial. There needs to be someone inside an organisation that is running the website project that will be responsible for it. And I don’t mean someone who just is the point of contact for the rest of the organisation, but someone who will drive the project, be passionate about the project, and is prepared to educate the rest of the organisation on the best way forwards, in collaboration with the agency helping to build the site.

2) Understand what you want from your website

Do not start a web project by just thinking ‘We need a new site because the current one is a few years old’. Really think about it:

• What is the website’s purpose for my organisation?
• What are the top 5 tasks we want our customers to accomplish on the site?
• What plans do we have to enhance the website in the future?
• Who will be coming to our website (demographics, purpose, reason for visit etc)

There’s a lot more questions but there are a few to get you started!

3) Understand what they want from your website

Your visitors! If you have a current website, ask them what they like and dislike about it, and given half the chance, what they would improve. That information is gold dust, and shows you what needs to be focused upon for the new project. If you don’t have an existing website – ask those that are likely to use the site what they need. It’s not about you!

4) Don’t over spec the technology

This is one of the craziest parts that we have seen happen. Instead of doing step 2, companies can just start looking at packages and what functionality they provide. Suddenly, it’s essential for them to have granular access control. Really? Is it? How many people are going to be editing the site? Only 2. Both in marketing. So what’s the need for access control? Exactly. That’s just a simple example – however it can get truly out of control and cost an organisation thousands it doesn’t need to spend. At least, not immediately.

5) Remember phasing

This is related to the above. A website is never a one off build project (or at least it shouldn’t be!). It should always progress in phases, building up the site and adding only what is necessary, and preferrably when your visitors want it. That way you can change often and quickly, and measure how the changes help or hinder your site. The days of massive complete redesigns (should) be nearing an end.

6) Get expert advice

Very important in my opinion. You may know your target market very well. You may know your own business inside and out. What you may not know is the web and what it’s potential is for you. A great agency who lives and breathes digital and marketing as a whole can take you strides forwards with your website. You need advice that challenges you, pushes you as an organisation and helps you leap towards your goals. You do not want to hire a ‘yes man’. In a recent pitch for a website I said that (paraphrasing) ‘If you’re just looking for an agency to push stuff around a page for you until you’re happy, or one that will just do as they are told, that’s not us. If you want that, we are not the right choice for you. If you want to be guided, helped and challenged, then we can help’

7) Set a strong project plan

With dates, milestones and targets to be achieved. Do not let yur project drift or go off course. Stick to the plan and things are much easier to finish and much less painful along the way.

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According to Verdict Analysis, the heady days of 20-40% year on year growth for online spending is over. With the recession and ecommerce becoming more mature, growth is set to be a more sedate 11% per annum. See below:

It’s an interesting perspective. Although I agree a lot of the major retailers are doing a lot of things right, many are doing them wrong as well.

I agree the total market size and therefore overall spending may grow at around 11%, however any individual site should be looking at taking market share via creating engaging customers experiences and staying ahead of the ecommerce curve. There’s also the growing mobile space that presents many opportunities for growth online.

Filed under: Ecommerce | Post a comment

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• Do you just collect data? Or do you analyse?
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As some of you may know, we work with a number of retailers helping them with their ecommerce operations. One of those companies is Next where we operate one of their 3rd party websites that sells Made to Order products such as curtains, blinds and some furniture.

It’s now been going close to 2 years and so we have a nice wodge of data that we can analyse to see the trends that are appearing. The most interesting relationship we’re seeking to understand at the moment is that between sampling (getting free samples of curtain fabrics in the post) and purchase of an actual product.

We recently sent out an email to all those people that didn’t purchase but had ordered samples, it’s been pretty successful, generating a good number of orders and paying for itself many many times over. On analysing the data of those that purchased on the promotion, we found that there seemed to be a optimum time between samples bought and the purchase date. We’e now thinking of setting up a system to take advantage of this new found optimum date to remind people at that time.

We’re now looking to delve deeper into the sample to purchase relationship to see how we can:

• Convert more people to order from sampling
• Reduce the level (and therefore cost) of sampling without reducing orders

Which should result in some pretty huge return on investment.

I think some ecommerce websites can focus too much on their traffic sources, increasing traffic from X route and their conversion rate, and not always think about some of the other simple measures on their site such as registration, sampling (if you have it) and other metrics. Are you obsessed by traffic and not behaviour?

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• Do you just collect data? Or do you analyse?
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