(How to) stop pretending that you're customer-centric

by Jono Alderson

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@jonoalderson (how to) Stop pretending that you're customer-centric

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@jonoalderson Web development Jono Alderson Technical SEO Strategy + analytics Data science + eCRM Consultancy + Futurology Performance + security

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Ouch

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@jonoalderson Let’s start with some audience interaction

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@jonoalderson Hands up if… You think that ‘UX’ is something which SEO should heavily influence

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@jonoalderson Hands up if… You think that ‘reputation’ influences clicks and conversion

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@jonoalderson Hands up if… You think that ‘brand’ is a ranking factor

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@jonoalderson Now...

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… Your organisation is customer-centric

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… Your content and social strategies clearly connect to your core business

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… You deliver excellent customer experiences

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… You’re competing on loyalty and retention

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… Your SEO strategy & performance is judged on how well you win hearts and minds

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… Your content strategy is judged on how well you influence brand recall & preference

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@jonoalderson Keep your hands up if… You’re running PPC ads to your educational and inspirational resources to influence consumer perception of your brand

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson http://bit.ly/2bayMFQ

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@jonoalderson Chances are...

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@jonoalderson You’re probably not customer centric

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@jonoalderson You’re proﬁt/money/growth-centric

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@jonoalderson You’re focusing on visits and conversion rates

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@jonoalderson "How many people did we get to do the thing we want them to do?"

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@jonoalderson Those are your KPIs, right?

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@jonoalderson But that's the opposite of customer-centricity

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Maybe that’s ﬁne?

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@jonoalderson After all, that’s how capitalism works Profit/money/growth are our best proxy for success/value

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@jonoalderson But that does raise an interesting question...

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@jonoalderson Why not just be evil?

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@jonoalderson Because being evil comes with social and reputational cost Reputational cost = acquisition cost = less growth

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@jonoalderson So, why not just be good?

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@jonoalderson Being good comes with $$$ cost $$$ cost = reduced capabilities = less growth

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@jonoalderson You’re balancing good and evil across multiple dimensions

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@jonoalderson Product/service quality. Cost. Reach. Innovation. Diﬀerentiation. Customer service. Technology. Geography. Speed. Personnel. Training. Systems.

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson But now, balance isn’t enough The cost of entry continues to decrease, and disruptors can win on almost any dimension.

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@jonoalderson ...And losing on any dimension can mean being outranked for competitive head terms

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@jonoalderson “Best LCD TVs 2018” “Compare LCD TVs” “Best LCD TV” These all have different intents, and you can’t win just by being the biggest or richest or good or evil

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@jonoalderson And ‘winning’ often isn’t enough to win

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@jonoalderson Slides: http://bit.ly/2sVgPE9 Videos: http://bit.ly/2ERBkmI

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@jonoalderson So, how do you compete?

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Google’s paradigm has to disproportionately reward good consumer experience ...Otherwise, people (might) use other search engines*

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@jonoalderson So... Good consumer experience means greater visibility

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@jonoalderson ..and greater visibility means greater opportunity for commercial outcomes

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@jonoalderson Wait, consumer experience? Not customer experience?

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@jonoalderson (not all of your customers) Google is assessing the experience of all of your visitors

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@jonoalderson So you need to worry about everybody who might visit your website ...and everybody who chooses not to.

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@jonoalderson Being “customer-centric” isn’t enough

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@jonoalderson How consumer-centric you are directly impacts your commercial performance

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@jonoalderson Everyone, everywhere* *not to scale People who might feasibly ever buy from us Where we should invest the majority of our marketing People who might feasibly ever visit our website

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Because senior stakeholders are naturally risk-averse.

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@jonoalderson ...and this is all a bit woolly...

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@jonoalderson ...whilst other channels gave them lots of safe, predictable numbers.

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@jonoalderson It’s their job to not screw up ...not to gamble on opportunity

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@jonoalderson NB: that’s why they still under-invest in SEO, social and content

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@jonoalderson ...and anything else which isn’t last-click

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@jonoalderson ...and why they’ll only invest in audience/consumer marketing to solve immediate problems

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson So…

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@jonoalderson Google mandate that you must provide good experiences to your consumers.

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@jonoalderson So you pitch your CEO... ...and anecdotally, they’ll “get it”

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@jonoalderson “Of course I understand that we need to be consumer-centric, and that our reputation plays an important role in consumer purchase decisions” - Your CEO

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson “I can’t justify this expenditure without a demonstrable return. Spend all of the marketing money on PPC and generate more leads/sales” - ALSO Your CEO

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson This isn’t an education problem

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@jonoalderson It’s a risk-aversion problem...

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@jonoalderson ...it’s a persuasion problem

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@jonoalderson ...it’s a data problem

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@jonoalderson ...it’s an analytics problem

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@jonoalderson Imagine for a moment...

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@jonoalderson What if we could make consumer-centric marketing more measurable?

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@jonoalderson IT’S ALREADY MEASURABLE

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Measurability isn’t the problem.

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@jonoalderson The problem is with our storytelling

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@jonoalderson So if you want to be more consumer centric...

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@jonoalderson You need to connect your consumer-centricity story to the money story.

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson But it’s hard to do join the dots Channels! Systems! Attribution! Stakeholders!

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@jonoalderson You need to ﬁx your whole organisational outlook, objectives and measurement strategy You have to extend your reach beyond SEO and PPC

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson It’s okay I have a framework*

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@jonoalderson When you change how people are measured, you change how they behave.

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@jonoalderson We’re going to change the way your hippo behaves Using only a single sheet of paper

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Objective Goal KPI Performance Make lots of money Sell lots of stuff to everybody who visits our site ● # transactions ● £ sales revenue 6/10 7/10 Be loved by everyone Make content which people like, share and read ● Visitors to our blog ● Newsletter signups ● Referral entrances to blog content 3/10 2/10 1/10 Objective Goal KPI Performance Make lots of money Sell lots of stuff to everybody who visits our site ● # transactions ● £ sales revenue 6/10 7/10 Objective Goal KPI Performance !?

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Objective Goal KPI Key Segments Performance Be known as the leading brand in our market Produce content which people discover and read # new organic+referral+email visitors to blog posts (per month) Category, author # average comments-per-post (rolling) Grow our owned and earned audiences # Active new email signups Double YoY revenue Increase sales revenue from digital channels # qualified sales (per month) where the sale had digital attribution Department, channel, product £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had digital attribution Increase customer lifetime value % of new consumers via the website making a repeat purchase within 3 months (rolling, YoY) Channel, source, campaign, keyword, gender, geographic region, entry page Average time between repeat purchases (rolling, YoY) Provide the best customer experiences in our market Provide great content and help users find the information they need % task completion rate (per month) Entrance page, Channel, source, campaign, keyword % satisfaction rate (per month) Delta % against average competitor satisfaction rate (roling) Compete on marketing efficiency Maintain a high conversion rate to sale % visitors to macroconversions (per month) Channel, source, campaign, keyword, call type Increase self-service actions on the website £ value of microconversions (per month) Microconverion, channel, source, campaign, keyword Ensure that audience-centric activity drives commercial outcomes £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had audience campaign attribution Campaign

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Getting started is easy

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@jonoalderson Get some integrated on-site survey data in your analytics

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@jonoalderson Start with getting task completion rate and satisfaction rate in your analytics “How well are we enabling our consumers to do the thing they want to do?”

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson 1. “What did you come here to do today?” (list) 2. “Were you able to do it?” (Y/N) 3. “How would you rate your experience?” (x/10) 4. “Any other comments?”

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@jonoalderson 1. “What did you come here to do today?” (list) 2. “Were you able to do it?” (Y/N) 3. “How would you rate your experience?” (x/10) 4. “Any other comments?”

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@jonoalderson 1. “What did you come here to do today?” (list) 2. “Were you able to do it?” (Y/N) 3. “How would you rate your experience?” (x/10) 4. “Any other comments?”

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@jonoalderson 1. “What did you come here to do today?” (list) 2. “Were you able to do it?” (Y/N) 3. “How would you rate your experience?” (x/10) 4. “Any other comments?”

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@jonoalderson Now pivot on task, channel and landing page

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@jonoalderson http://blog.immeria.net/2009/11/iperceptions-deep-dive-in-behavioral.html

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@jonoalderson “We have loads of visitors from this channel who land on that page, who say they’re looking for these things but that they can’t find them”

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson effectiveexperiments.com

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@jonoalderson Okay. That was step one.

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@jonoalderson Now you need to connect the HIPPOs to the consumers You’ll need five things

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson 1. Help stakeholders realise that they don’t have a shared set of definitions for success 2. Extract their knowledge (and opinions) 3. Define the goals & KPIs 4. Demonstrate segments, define targets 5. Define an implementation roadmap

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson “What are your business objectives?”

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@jonoalderson “Double year-on-year revenue” “Provide great customer service” “Be more efficient” “Have a high conversion rate” “Get 600 more email opens per week”

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@jonoalderson Objectives must increase revenue, decrease cost or improve brand

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@jonoalderson Objective Be known as the leading brand in our market Double YoY revenue Provide the best customer experiences in our market Compete on marketing efficiency

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@jonoalderson Goals objectives - nonsense + specifics = tactics

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@jonoalderson Objectives often require multiple goals

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@jonoalderson Objective Goal Be known as the leading brand in our market Produce content which people discover and read Grow our owned and earned audiences Double YoY revenue Increase sales revenue from digital channels Increase customer lifetime value Provide the best customer experiences in our market Provide great content and help users find the information they need Compete on marketing efficiency Maintain a high conversion rate to sale Increase self-service actions on the website Ensure that audience-centric activity drives commercial outcomes

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson KPIs Ultra-specific technical definitions

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@jonoalderson “Increase sales revenue from digital channels”

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@jonoalderson “Increase sales revenue from digital channels” ● # Conversions

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@jonoalderson ● # Conversions ● # Qualiﬁed macroconversions “Increase sales revenue from digital channels”

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@jonoalderson ● # Conversions ● # Qualiﬁed macroconversions ● # Qualiﬁed macroconversions “Increase sales revenue from digital channels”

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@jonoalderson ● # Conversions ● # Qualified macroconversions ● # Qualified macroconversions ● # macroconversions (valuable form submissions, valuable phone calls, and offline conversions which cite ‘web’ as source) “Increase sales revenue from digital channels”

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@jonoalderson Think outside of the box Don’t use any stock metrics

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@jonoalderson Introduce audience-centric KPIs How many people did you help?

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@jonoalderson Interweave your commercial and audience KPIs to prevent silo’d behaviour.

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@jonoalderson Don’t worry about how you’re going to track your KPIs (yet)

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@jonoalderson http://bit.ly/2tWeYiK Understand that diﬀerent page types have diﬀerent success metrics

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@jonoalderson Objective Goal KPI Be known as the leading brand in our market Produce content which people discover and read # new organic+referral+email visitors to blog posts (per month) # average comments-per-post (rolling) Grow our owned and earned audiences # Active new email signups Double YoY revenue Increase sales revenue from digital channels # qualified sales (per month) where the sale had digital attribution £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had digital attribution Increase customer lifetime value % of new consumers via the website making a repeat purchase within 3 months (rolling, YoY) Average time between repeat purchases (rolling, YoY) Provide the best customer experiences in our market Provide great content and help users find the information they need % task completion rate (per month) % satisfaction rate (per month) Delta % against average competitor satisfaction rate (roling) Compete on marketing efficiency Maintain a high conversion rate to sale % visitors to macroconversions (per month) Increase self-service actions on the website £ value of microconversions (per month) Ensure that audience-centric activity drives commercial outcomes £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had audience campaign attribution

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@jonoalderson Segments ...define reporting requirements

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@jonoalderson Objective Goal KPI Key Segments Be known as the leading brand in our market Produce content which people discover and read # new organic+referral+email visitors to blog posts (per month) Category, author # average comments-per-post (rolling) Grow our owned and earned audiences # Active new email signups Double YoY revenue Increase sales revenue from digital channels # qualified sales (per month) where the sale had digital attribution Department, channel, product £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had digital attribution Increase customer lifetime value % of new consumers via the website making a repeat purchase within 3 months (rolling, YoY) Channel, source, campaign, keyword, gender, geographic region, entry page Average time between repeat purchases (rolling, YoY) Provide the best customer experiences in our market Provide great content and help users find the information they need % task completion rate (per month) Entrance page, Channel, source, campaign, keyword % satisfaction rate (per month) Delta % against average competitor satisfaction rate (roling) Compete on marketing efficiency Maintain a high conversion rate to sale % visitors to macroconversions (per month) Channel, source, campaign, keyword, call type Increase self-service actions on the website £ value of microconversions (per month) Microconverion, channel, source, campaign, keyword Ensure that audience-centric activity drives commercial outcomes £ qualified sales revenue (per month), where the sale had audience campaign attribution Campaign

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@jonoalderson How you visualise performance is the most important bit. Bullet charts are your secret weapon.

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@jonoalderson “Something’s gone wrong “Everything’s ﬁne” “It’s champagne time!”

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@jonoalderson “How do I set targets?”

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@jonoalderson http://bit.ly/1rzdCop

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@jonoalderson Your dashboard must ﬁt on one piece of paper(!)

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@jonoalderson http://bit.ly/29mFsgZ

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@jonoalderson

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@jonoalderson Congratulations! Your organisation is becoming more consumer-centric.

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@jonoalderson Ok, let’s rewind and summarise

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@jonoalderson Search engines reward audience centricity Improved experiences = improved performance

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@jonoalderson Organisations don’t can’t think this way So you need to join the dots for them

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@jonoalderson When you change how people are measured, you change how they behave

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@jonoalderson ...and you always have permission to say... “I think we can measure success in a better way”

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@jonoalderson So when you develop a measurement framework which makes audience centric behaviour important...

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@jonoalderson ...and you trap stakeholders into committing to a better deﬁnition of success..

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@jonoalderson You can begin to grow investment in consumer-centric marketing and improve your performance