The document discusses how to engage anonymous users on a website or platform by identifying them, learning about their preferences through behavioral tracking, and engaging them with personalized content. It emphasizes the importance of anonymous users, who make up 57-98% of most audiences. By identifying anonymous users with unique IDs and tracking their actions, businesses can better understand user preferences and serve relevant recommendations to convert anonymous users into known users and power users who drive revenue and engagement.

1. Anonymous Users Are
People, Too
How to Engage Them, Convert Them, and
Turn Them Into Power Users

2. Why understand anonymous users? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
From unknown to known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Iden7fica7on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Crea7ng a virtuous cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Key takeaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 2
Table of Contents

3. Why understand anonymous users?
Most marketers have thought about personalizing to known users—
people who’ve signed up, subscribed, or otherwise submiQed their
emails. It’s smart to give those users personal aQen7on: that’s how
you build loyalty. But what about everyone else?
According to research from VentureBeat, between 57% and 98% of
your audience is likely anonymous. So, if you’re just personalizing to
your known users, you’re only op7mizing your experience for a 7ny
slice of your audience. You’re missing out on the opportunity to
engage the vast majority of your users—and perhaps more
importantly, you’re not giving anonymous users a compelling reason
to make themselves known.
Trea7ng anonymous users like they’re all the same is standard, but
trea7ng them like future VIPs sets the founda7on for long-­‐las;ng
rela;onships. If you show your anonymous users that you understand
them—and tailor their experiences accordingly—they’re likelier to
engage, sign up, and ul7mately join your cadre of power users. And
trust us: you want to make your number of power users as big as
possible.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 3

4. The power of power users
Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? Applied to sales, it
s7pulates that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of
your customers—your power users, so to speak. The
reality is actually even more extreme: in retail, 5% of
customers o_en generate a third of revenue.
As the 7tle of this eBook implies, we’re going to talk about concrete
steps you can take to turn those anonymous users into power users
that drive your bo?om line. First, though, we’re going to address a
common mistake businesses make when trying to increase sign-­‐ups.
Many businesses put their weight behind geang more traffic, never
taking the 7me to collect or understand data on individual users. This
volume-­‐based approach gets the job done, but it’s not efficient in the
long run.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 4

5. Let’s say the hypothe7cal website FeedBuzz.com had 100 visitors one
month. 10% signed up, neang FeedBuzz 10 known users.
Now, let’s say FeedBuzz decided to focus on driving traffic and got
200 visitors the following month. 200 x 0.10 = 20 known users.
But let’s imagine an alternate scenario: along with upping traffic to
200 visitors, FeedBuzz tracked those new users’ data, using it to
increase its conversion rate to 20%. 200 x 0.20 = 40 known users.
That’s 4x the amount it got the first month. And if FeedBuzz were to
build on those rela7onships to create 40 new power users? Boom:
Now that’s what we call engagement. By using data to engage users
at every stage of the funnel, FeedBuzz made the most of its traffic.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 5

6. So, how are brands approaching this challenge? How are they
convincing anonymous users to make themselves known? Frankly,
conver7ng an anonymous user is a lot like winning over a date: you’ll
do well if you make them feel special from the very beginning.
The three mains steps:
1. Iden;fying anonymous users
2. Learning about their preferences
3. Engaging them by drawing upon that data
From unknown to known:
personalizing throughout the user
journey
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 6

7. -­‐ Quote’s source
In today’s digital world, iden;fying your users early and oIen is one
of the most important steps you can take. The goal is to capture
signals around each user as they browse your site, whether they’ve
done it once, twice, or 32 7mes before signing up.
One way to iden7fy anonymous users is to assign each one a unique
ID, with represents their user profile; the more ac7ons they take, the
more it grows.
You can then use that ID to iden7fy them each 7me they come back,
which allows you to serve up content recommenda7ons that are
specifically relevant to them.
It’s also a great way to breathe new life into your evergreen content,
or make sure your newsworthy content reaches the people that care
about it.
Then, once that unknown visitor makes themselves known via opt-­‐in
(the most common scenario), you’ll need to merge that data with
their email.
Step #1: iden7fica7on
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 7

8. -­‐ Quote’s source
Next, you learn about your anonymous users. Learning translates into
tracking behavioral data, i.e. informa7on about the ac7ons they take
online. (Some examples: watching a video, adding an item to the
shopping cart, etc.) Every day, your anonymous users give you heaps
of it by simply browsing your site—why not make the most of it?
Step #2: learning
Real-­‐7me, first-­‐party behavioral data is extremely
valuable: Facebook and LinkedIn have built businesses
on it, using it to surface relevant content for each of
their users and make their planorms borderline
addic7ve. (Emphasis on first-­‐party: since it’s their data,
they have full control of it.)
The power of behavioral data
You don’t just want to know if an anonymous user has clicked on a
post, though. On its own, that informa7on doesn’t help you much.
You want to understand what kind of content they clicked. Have they
been reading posts about supernatural phenomena or the future of
transporta7on? Are they watching videos on making steak or training
puppies?
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 8

9. Tracking anonymous ac7vity also gives you a great idea of what’s
popular and trending on your site, and with whom.
If you make content recommenda7ons, tracking anonymous ac7vity
allows you to measure them against a baseline (e.g. do personalized
recommenda7ons drive more clicks than popular recommenda7ons?).
These deep insights around user behavior can also guide your
editorial strategy, helping you figure out which themes produce
results and what types of content to create next.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 9

10. The power of seman7c analysis
To really understand a user’s on-­‐site behavior, you need
two basic components:
1. An understanding of the user
2. An understanding of the content
As a star7ng point, you can gain an understanding of the
content by simply taking tagged keywords into account.
The problem with these tags is that they’re o_en
inconsistent and not quite representa7ve of the content
(e.g. a post could be tagged “surfing” when it’s mostly
about a father-­‐son rela7onship). Ah, human error.
Seman;c analysis, the process in which a machine uses
contextual clues surrounding words and phrases to beQer
understand the prac7cal meaning of content, provides a
more accurate view of what each piece of content is
about. For example, seman7c analysis allows machines to
understand the difference between a jaguar (as in the
animal) and a Jaguar (as in the car).
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 10

11. -­‐ Quote’s source
In this sec7on, we outline how we advise our customers to engage
their anonymous users. If you’re not currently a Boomtrain customer,
you’ll likely find ideas you can implement on your own. To make
things as diges7ble as possible, we’re going to review this informa7on
through the eyes of our old friend FeedBuzz, a hypothe7cal digital
media brand whose traffic is 90% anonymous.
First, each anonymous FeedBuzz user automa7cally gets a unique
Boomtrain ID that allows the company to:
1. Personalize to users while they’re s7ll anonymous
2. A?ribute their anonymous user data to their email address once
they become known
Step #3: engagement
The power of aQribu7on
Making sure you transfer someone’s anonymous user
data to their known user profile is incredibly important;
we can’t stress this point enough. A user doesn’t become
a totally different person once they sign up, so why
discard their anonymous user data as soon as they
provide an email address?
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 11

12. Let’s say a new user is browsing FeedBuzz.com for the first 7me, and
FeedBuzz iden7fies them as User 12345. As the user scrolls down the
homepage, they no7ce a widget 7tled Recommended For You. It’s
serving popular content right now, since User 12345 hasn’t done
enough to let FeedBuzz know what to recommend.
One of those popular ar7cles is a profound piece 7tled “The Future of
U.S. Monetary Policy”—just kidding, it’s 10 Camels That Could Totally
Be Models (#8 is Seriously Killing It). (What? We’re just being
realis7c.)
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 12

13. The user clicks it and proceeds to spend 45 minutes on the site. Now,
every 7me User 12345 visits FeedBuzz, the Recommended For You
sec7on is populated with ar7cles tailored to their interests.
As User 12345 spends more and more 7me on the site, they decide
to subscribe to the FeedBuzz newsleQer. Boom! Now FeedBuzz
knows that User 12345 is actually Emily:
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 13

14. To start things off on the right foot, FeedBuzz sends Emily a welcome
email with par;cularly relevant recommenda;ons. (We’re using the
data we collected on her while she was anonymous, remember?)
She’s especially delighted by the following personalized content
recommenda7on: Cat-­‐Themed CraIing Projects.
A great welcome email is a lot like a post-­‐date text. It reminds the
user of you, shows that you’ve been listening aQen7vely, and sets
expecta7ons for future interac7ons.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 14

15. The power of a winning welcome series
If you don’t currently have a welcome series set up, we
highly recommend it! According to Econsultancy, welcome
emails have 63% higher open rates and 105% higher
unique click-­‐through rates than other kinds of emails.
Some 7ps for crea7ng a great welcome series:
1. Send the first email in the welcome series as soon as
possible—immediately is ideal—to maximize the chance
of engagement.
2. Let subscribers know what kinds—and how many
emails—to expect (e.g. “This is a four-­‐part welcome
series…”).
3. Use the user’s behavioral data to send content that’s
specifically relevant to them.
4. Try providing some kind of offer or unique piece of
content; reference it in the subject line to increase the
open rate. S7ll, make sure the subject line specifies
that the subscriber is receiving a welcome email (e.g.
“Thanks for subscribing—enjoy your 20% off!”).
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 15

16. The more ;me Emily spends with FeedBuzz’s website and emails, the
more relevant her recommenda;ons get. That’s because the
recommenda7ons are powered by our machine learning planorm,
which constantly tests and refines its sta7s7cal models and
algorithms against new and exis7ng data. It also adds an element of
serendipitous discovery to generate new insights about individual
users and content once gains begin to plateau.
In a few months, Emily goes from an uniden;fied anonymous user, to
an iden;fied anonymous user, to a known user, to a power user—
someone who’s made FeedBuzz part of her daily rou7ne.
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 16

17. Iden7fying and tracking anonymous users is both an acquisi;on
strategy and a reten;on strategy. In fact, marketers shouldn’t
necessarily think of the two as separate things. They work hand-­‐in-­‐
hand; they supercharge one another.
Personaliza;on at every stage of a user’s journey gives you a holis;c
picture of them, one that’s crucial for building a long-­‐las7ng
rela7onship. To revisit the da7ng metaphor, it helps you catch their
eye while they’re s7ll anonymous, get them to go on a date with you
(i.e. give you their email address), and ul7mately demonstrate that
you really “get” them, and that spending lots of 7me with you is worth
it. Wow them enough, and they might even introduce you to friends
and family.
Meanwhile, by recommending ar7cles based on relevance instead of
recency, you’re making full use of your evergreen content—stuff that
otherwise gets buried in the far reaches of your site.
If you show your anonymous users some love, they’ll show your
content some love, which will help you send them even beQer
content. It’s a virtuous cycle.
Crea7ng a virtuous cycle
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 17

18. Key takeaways
1. One of the best ways to turn anonymous users
into power users is to personalize at every stage
of the funnel.
2. Don’t just think about how many users you’ve
got. Think about how to create power users—and
once you’ve got the magic formula, think about
how to scale it.
3. Tracking anonymous users is only helpful when
you can aQribute their data to their email
addresses once they sign up.
4. When someone gives you their email, they’ve put
a lot of trust in you. Show them that they did the
right thing by making a great first impression (e.g.
sending an A+ welcome series with content that’s
relevant specifically to them).
Anonymous Users Are People, Too 18