1. Using data to
understand and grow
your customer base
Luke Coleman
@ltcoleman
Thursday, January 31, 13

2. Data
• Data is a character in
the fictional universe of
“Star Trek” played by
actor Brent Spiner
• Data are values of
qualitative or
quantitative variables,
belonging to a set of
items
Thursday, January 31, 13

3. Small Data vs. Big Data
• All data is the same, cost
is the only factor
• You could lease the IBM
350 for $3,200 per
month
• First consumer 5mb
hard drive in the 1980’s
was well over $3000
Thursday, January 31, 13

4. Analytics to understand
your customer
• Analytics is the discovery and
communication of meaningful patterns in
data
• These patterns allow you to understand
your customers
• What is the most popular analytics
platform?
Thursday, January 31, 13

5. Google Analytics
• Phil Mui - lead product manager
• Video
Thursday, January 31, 13

6. Google Analytics
• Google owns your data
• Premium costs ~150k / year
• Easily integrate with Google AdWords
• Google deals with hosting your analytics
solution ( capacity issues )
Thursday, January 31, 13

7. Piwik
• Piwik is the major open source alternative
to Google Analytics
• You host the solution
• You own the data
• Free
• More flexibility
Thursday, January 31, 13

8. Piwik
• Create custom dashboard widgets
• It can track file downloads, cart
abandonment, and outbound links
• Officially supported mobile app
• Admin cookie so you don’t track you own
page views
• Track page views per user
Thursday, January 31, 13

9. Piwik Homework
• Video
• What did you think of the dashboard?
• What data did you find valuable?
Thursday, January 31, 13

10. Test Flight App
• iOS SDK
• Beta testing
• Analyze usage through
checkpoints & feedback
• Crash reports
Thursday, January 31, 13

11. TestFlight LIVE
• Crash reports
• Engagement
• Usage data
• Revenue
Thursday, January 31, 13

12. TestFlight LIVE
• Crash reports
• Engagement
• Usage data
• Revenue
Thursday, January 31, 13

13. Tracking emails
• Email is not free
• PGS
• Amazon SES
• MailChimp
• Guaranteed delivery?
Thursday, January 31, 13

14. Tracking emails
• Tons of email clients, virus scanners, ISPs
• CAN-SPAM act
• Must pay attention to bounce rate,
complaints, unsubscribes
• How? use analytics in your emails
• Bonus: http://www.emailology.com
Thursday, January 31, 13

15. Analytics with A/B
testing
• What is A / B testing?
• Without data, how useful would A / B testing be?
• Optimizely
Thursday, January 31, 13

16. A / B testing
• What do you normally
want to test?
• The call to action’s
wording, size, color,
and placement
• Headline or product
description
• Form’s length and
types of fields
Thursday, January 31, 13

17. A / B testing
• Layout and style of website
• Product pricing and promotional offers
• Images
• Amount of text
Thursday, January 31, 13

18. A / B testing
• Smashing Mag : Ultimate Guide
• Obama campaign
• Obama digital team used ~500 a / b tests
over 20 months
• Increased donation conversions by 49% and
sign up conversions by 161%
Thursday, January 31, 13

19. Obama form test
Thursday, January 31, 13

20. Obama form test
Thursday, January 31, 13

21. Obama headline test
Thursday, January 31, 13

22. Obama headline test
Thursday, January 31, 13

23. Obama image test
Thursday, January 31, 13

24. Obama image test
Thursday, January 31, 13

25. A / B testing
• Obama digital team analyzed their data and
gained valuable insights into UX/ UI best
practices
• Many times people want to second guess
the results
• As long as your data pool is large enough,
the data does not lie
Thursday, January 31, 13

26. • What has ABC done to
utilize data?
• Membership retention
• Membership signup
• Registration
• Feature value
Thursday, January 31, 13

27. Membership Retention
• What is membership
retention?
• Data analyzed by third
party integration
partners
Thursday, January 31, 13

28. Signup Conversion
Rates
• Online Signup for 10 fitness
• What do you see wrong? What
improvements could be made?
• The rewrite....
Thursday, January 31, 13

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31. Thursday, January 31, 13

32. MICO Registration
• MICO sign-in page
• What is the problem with registration?
- We saw a 50-60% drop
• Why doesn’t ABC just use email?
Thursday, January 31, 13

33. Feature Value
• Using data to learn about a features’ value
• How do you handle client requests? How
do you keep them happy?
• Where are we gathering this data? Where
are the data points?
• Projects in software are expensive
- Use data to prioritize them
Thursday, January 31, 13

34. Stupid vs. Smart data
• Collecting data for the sake of collecting
data
• ABC’s Piwik patch disaster
• Why big data wants “Data Scientists”
• Collect data on purpose
• Video
Thursday, January 31, 13

35. Q &A
Follow me! @ltcoleman
Thursday, January 31, 13