Event Websites, Part II: Setting Goals and Measuring Conversions

Event Websites, Part II: Setting Goals and Measuring Conversions John Curtis, Quotient Stephen Nold, Advon Technologies Ian Strain-Seymour, Apogee Search

Converting traffic into registrants
Advanced tactics
Calculating website usability and conversion
Heat and click-thru mapping
Defining a visitor critical path

Email Marketing Best Practices
Tracking
A/B testing prior to sends
Don’t send emails from Outlook
Advanced techniques
Test for various email clients / browsers: BrowserCam
Include web analytics tracking code so that you can measure conversions
Create webpage version of your email for compatibility & SEO

Sample Email Tracking Code
Basic:
Domain.com/link.html&=123
Advanced:
Domain.com/link.html&=Oct09-wk1-list1
Domain.com/link.html&=Oct09-wk1-list2

Key Metrics for Email
Sends
Opens
Bounces (hard, soft)
Click Tracking
Unsubscribes
What you can’t track: conversion

Why Usability Matters
Improves your conversion rate
Get the full benefit from your traffic
Improve the Repeat Traffic Rate
Referrals via social / word of mouth
Customer Satisfaction
Side Benefit:
good usability = accessibility = good SEO = ROI

Website Usability Metrics
Bounce Rates
Validate for Accessibility
Repeat Visit Rate
Monitor Exit Pages

Usability Best Practices
Consider Z reading pattern
Page load time
Don’t code menus with images only, use text
Don’t code menus withy Javascript that renders links
Low cost testing: have 1-2 non-technical users try to accomplish your key site goal.
Do so without coaching

Heat Maps
How do people interact with the page?
What do the look at?
What do the click on?
How long on the page?

Click Paths
The path or sequence of pages a visitor looks at
Endless options, you have to focus
Have a specific question you want to answer
Key Questions:
Where do people go after they enter?
Where do people go before they leave?
Where do people go before a specific page, e.g. registration?
Where do converters enter the site?
Know you baseline

Web Analytics: Context is Key
Numbers without context are useless
You have to supply context
Vs. Goal
Vs. Previous Year, Month, Week, Week of Month
Vs. Competitors
Vs. Related Sites

Setting Goals: Work Backwards
How many attendees do you want?
What is your conversion rate?
What is your distribution of traffic?
What is your Cost per Visit (per Channel)?
Work backwards to your budget
Too high? 2 options
Improve your conversion rate
Change your traffic mix

Measuring Goals
In Google Analytics:
Implement GA on all pages, including Thank You page
Log into Google
Use Goal Wizard to define goals based on Thanks you pages
Better usability, better data

Contact Information
John Curtis, | President
Quotient Solutions
www.quotient.net
[email_address]
@Social_Quotient
Ian Strain-Seymour | Director, Online Strategy
Apogee Search
www.apogee-search.com
[email_address]
@ifss
Stephen Nold | President Advon Technologies www.meetingtechonline.com www.mtosummit.com [email_address] @stepnold

Event Websites, Part II: Setting Goals and Measuring Conversions

by Stephen Nold on Dec 14, 2009

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Event Websites, Part II: Setting Goals and Measuring Conversions — Presentation Transcript