When Custom Variables Are Consistently Useful: Customer segmentation by membership
Ah, the New York Times. A paper with global stature. No paper made more significant headlines of its own in the online world when the New York Times announced its digital subscription program (details here). The skinny is that visitors who are not subscribers can view up to 20 post in a month, while subscribers of one of three digital news packages have unlimited access. When non-subscribers click on their 21st article, they can purchase a subscription. The plan was implement in March 2011, and the jury is still out on how well the paywall plan is working. New York Times is noted to be the largest newspaper publisher who has implementing a paywall.
Many online blogs operate like a newspaper, and while many still are not at the scope of New York Times, a financial model for making a profit can be a challenge. So what would a small business do to emulate a paywall, or even figure how to better serve its audience? One analytics feature that would be helpful is developing a custom variable to distinguish subscribers online.
A few words on custom variables. Custom variables are a javascript call out that measure page actions for specific activity, In the case of visitor, measurement can include such as the number of pageviews from members who log in on a members-only site. The variable is typically activated by modifying the analytics code, inserting the following Javascript call out with parameters.
Google Analytics requires that index, name, and value are identified. They are determined as followed method accepts four parameters:
- index—This is a slot number, with a single value from 1 – 5, inclusive. This is meant as a key for one custom variable, so you can have index 1, and index 2, an index 3, and so on.
- name— This is a string that identifies the custom variable.
- value—This ia a value that is paired with a name. You can pair a number of values with a custom variable name, such as a custom variable name gender and supply male and female as two possible values.
- opt_scope—The scope for the custom variable, usually for an additiona description
Most web analytics solutions have some variation of the callout. Piwik, for example, uses the Javascript callout setCustomVariable( index, name, value, scope ) where scope is named “visit” or “pages” depending on whether your variable is tracking based on visits or pages.
When you decide to implement custom variables, you need to consider your site needs carefully against your budget, since most paid solutions offer more flexibility with variables. Piwik and Google Analytics, both free solutions, limit the number of custom variables, while paid solutions Yahoo Web Analytics and Omniture Site Catalyst permit more variables and offering even more customization.
But custom variables can help track visitors to distinguish traffic patterns between members and non-members. Such an arrangement would help your blog develop what effort would convert non-subscribers to subscribers, as well as may other ideas to maintain traffic onsite and provide unique, nuanced treatment for two separate sets of visitors.
There are plenty of other ways a custom variable can be used. Justin Cutroni offers a unique way of using custom variables for coupons – you can read about his process here.
What other ways can custom variables be useful?
How Regular Expressions Makes Segmentation and Web Analytics Diagnostics Easier
The next time you look at your keywords in Google Analytics, take notice of repeated phrases and characters. Maybe they’re words about direction – North Dakota, South Carolina, or the phrase “new” for New Jersey, New York, New Brunswick, etc. Sometimes its a brand name and product combination – Google Chrome, Google Android, Google Adwords, and the list goes on for many brand in many industries.
These patterns sometimes need to be sifted to detect trends, but repeatedly parsing data by eyeball and keystoke can impede speedy analysis. To reduce the effort, try inserting a regular expression in your report filter the next time you review a Google Analytics report or plan a goal in Piwik.
Regular expressions are characters meant to return a string or pattern of text in a query. Regular expressions appear in Javascript and a number of coding languages. Within a web analytics solution, regular expressions are used for identifying keywords with a similar spelling or related meaning. Expressions are also handy in other filters such as returning a string of IP addresses, as well as URL segments that appear repeated, be it characters from a tagged campaign or a subdirectory.
Because of their versatility, regular expressions can be added to a number of analytics solution settings. In Google Analytics, for example, the regular expression string can be saved in the advanced segmentation wizard for repeated usage, saving time to recreate a group with each use of an analytics session.
Parenthesis () identify a group of characters, usually applied with there are versions of a group of words. (az) captures the lowercase letters a or z. So say you have a product called jeansa and jeansz – you can create a regular expression jeans(az) to capture both in a query. You can cover long sequential ranges with a hyphen, such as (a-z) to cover the lowercase alphabet.
Brackets [ ] can also capture a group, The difference between the brackets and parenthesis is that brackets are for matching a sole character. So while (xyz) would return with parentheses, a bracket [xyz] captures appearances of x, y, or z in a string.
A hyphen can also be sued to denote a sequential range of characters.
A period . is typically a wild card, used for unknown characters in a text.
What if your desired sifted text string contain a period or a question mark? You can use a backslash \ – it permits an exact usage of the character that follows it. In coding language this means the backslash “escapes” the code to treat a character as exactly as it appears.
A caret ^ return queries in which characters appear at the beginning of the string. So ^New would return “New York Knicks” but not “The New York Knicks”
A dollar sign $ requires characters to appearance at the end. So from the Knicks example, the word $Knicks would select both “New York Knicks” and “The New York Knicks”
The pipe, |, dictates an either/or. So if your are interested in keywords about cars, for example, “Toyota|Ford” can return Toyota or Ford, while “Toyota|Chrysler|Ford” returns a a choice from a series of makes.
A great way to use regular expressions is imagine the string as a strainer. Ultimately you want the query to show what you want sifted out from a “flow” of characters. Keeping the concept simple will help you be able to develop regular expressions. Or if you are not comfortable
What if you’re not comfortable with coding? You can think about the desired queries pairings, then seek help from someone experienced with Javascript to translate the idea into a regular expression.
Keep in mind that a regular expression filter may be adjusted over time, particularly as keywords that are used in a blog posts change or with whatever change that occurs for a website.
Learning sources for regular expressions:
Luna Metrics, a web analytics consultancy based in Pittsburgh, has a wonderful user-friendly guide on the key regular expressions used in Google Analytics. You can download it at the Luna Metrics blog
Google offers a page covering the basics of regular expression. You can connect to the page here.
Because regular expressions are based on Javascript code structure, W3C schools offers a few pages on the subject, which can give an overall arc on how expressions are used with respect to a website.
What is the benefit of regular expressions to your online presence?
Regular Expressions help your analysis in a few time-saving ways:
- Reduced analysis time — By saving regular expression in an advance segmentation wizard, you remove the need to recreate a segment set with each report
- When used on keyword, RegEx can provide a refined focus on keyword trends within a site, leading to better decisions on PPC, content, and other marketing sources.
Google Plus Pages – Its impact and how to incorporate it into your digital presence
Ok, it’s here. And once again businesses are scrambling on what to do.
Google Plus
Hopefully for Thanksgiving 2011 internet pundits took a break after spending the last few weeks assessing Google+ Pages. On November 7th, Google released the platform, a competitor to Facebook Pages and Linked In, after requesting businesses to not create a Google+ page as a business page. Zimana has launched its Google+ Pages – you can see and plus the page here.
Is Google+ Pages it better than Facebook Pages? Not necessarily. Platforms are really a matter of choice.
Further, I feel there are a few shortcomings that show at launch, but are recoverable over time.
One is a lack of an audience base that spends 1 of 8 social media minutes on its platform – this s a Hubspot stat on Facebook engagement according to Hubspot. Currently with 40 million users overall, Google+ stats will be more widely known with study, particularly if Google includes third party apps and developments in a manner similar to its Droid operating system.
The second shortcoming is that the page can only be managed by one administrator vs Facebook’s two or more admin selection capability. This can be a headache if the person managing this page disappears entirely.
But the anticipation for Google+ Pages lies in its significant potential search influence. A Google+ page can be linked to your website through Direct Connect. Direct Connect is based on search user typing a + before the brand name; When this happens, the Google+ Page shows in the SERP alongside other results. Linking your Google+ page and your site gives Google a relevant connection between your site to a user query in Google Web Search.
To establish the link, a business employee or manager must first establish a Google + account. A Google+ page can be then created (You can have more than one page, but again, only one administrator at this writing).
Next, a link to the company website is needed to make Direct Connect viable. This requires inserting a “rel=publisher” code in the main website page. The instruction can be found at this Google Webmaster page.
A second consideration – none of the Google+ Pages have a customizable URL. This is a missing advantage on business cards and on websites – who wants to share a URL with a series of numbers. Facebook offers a customized pagename features for pages with at least 25 followers.
But there is a work around. A few Google+ enthusiast are sharing a website, gplus.to , on which users can creates an unique URL to use on the aforementioned business cards, webpages, and other marketing tools.
This is still not as comparable as renaming the page itself – think of a rename as a SEO opportunity to include a keyword- but gplus.to does becomes handy for removing the long numerical URL when a short handle is more memorable.
Finally, Google+ Pages does not have a direct connection to Google Analytics. Currently you can add a Google +1 button to your site to see how your site is shared through the Google+ platform. Google Webmaster can also provide some data, but its reports activity significantly different from GA. Although Webmaster reports on all +1 activity, a GA account only reviews what is tagged to the website.
Most importantly, Google+ Pages serves a reminder of the importance of images and content labels. Like Facebook, Google+ users can be tagged – This alerts the tagged persons when sharing occurs and can spread the awareness of your business.
In a recent social media white paper, Hubspot noted that much of pre-shopping research starts with search and that social media also increases the likelihood of a purchase. Reports from Forrester and eMarketer also agree that customers research, be it B2B or B2C, rely on a search and social media presence for a purchase decision. With Google+, Google has made the combination of a social network and a search engine more convenient for researching offerings. It’s this research that will ultimately make your business a success.
Treat your blog like a Porsche – How to make the most of evergreen blog content
Porsche makes evolutionary changes to its 911 (2012 version shown). A blog can benefit from a similar approach.
Many people have heard of Porsche, but only the die-hard enthusiasts reflect on the history of its most famous product, the 911. The nameplate has been redesigned 5 times in its storied history – a new one is being introduced for 2012. But each time a redesign was announced, car enthusiasts understood what kind of vehicle to anticipate – a sports car with a rear-mounted 6 cylinder engine in a rounded rear body, 2+2 seating, and headlamps pronounced above the hood and fenders.
Now what does an automobile have to do with blogs? Well, a 911 is an example of an evolutionary updates that retain favorite aspects and gain enhancement with new ones. You can take the same approach with evergreen content, articles that consistently attract traffic for your site.
First, what is the benefit, besides drawing traffic?
Evergreen posts can give an indicator for new content, by implying what topics can be repeated. Using the Porsche example, you may have a popular evergreen post on driving a Porsche 911; A potential follow-up post could be on a driving comparison of the 911 against other Porsche models, like a Boxster, or an older model, like a 924 (We’ll skip the 914 to avoid hurt feelings of the Porsche sport car club arguments in the 1970s). The choice can give an opportunity to build content that can keep you audience browsing on your site a bit longer.
An evergreen post can also provide an ease in brainstorming new post ideas, refreshing the mind by allowing a focus on topics that require few thinking steps to extend. If your post is a year old, for example, find an aspect of the topic that has been updated. I did a post on Microsoft’s first store, then did a follow up when Microsoft announced its plans a year later. These kinds of updates can save you time behind the laptop because some of the structure is already there.
Even posts from bloggers or sharing from readers can also give new branches from an evergreen topic. This is particularly useful for topics such as sports, politics, entertainment, and neighborhood events.
Here are a few ideas for creating and managing evergreen content:
Use analytics tools to first identity evergreen content
To determine an evergreen content, look at the content report in your web analytics solution and examine the average time on site and visits. You should have an idea of when posts were made. Many blog URLs can be set to include the date.
When you look at the content report, you can then see a post and its date, then sort by time on site or exit rate. An ordered comparison can be done, but for examining a sort based on multiple dimensions you would have to export into a spreadsheet.
Use site search to determine topics that visitors may be looking for
Sometimes search results from the site search reports can give ideas on what people are generally looking for and not finding (If you are not sure, this is an activated feature on many analytics tools such as Google Analytics – A quick refresher will be posted soon). Those ideas can influence your evergreen topic due to their degree of relativity to the topic. For example, let’s say you find results that indicate that visitors are looking for Porsche repairs. Your blog may be on Porsche history, so post on repair history may be a good topic to build upon past historical views and develop an intro into repair topics that may be closer to what people are looking for. The best approach is to use your experience on the topic when reviewing site search
To date or not to date?
Consider what naming the date in the title can do — Dates can, er, “date” the material, but I have seen blogs receive traffic for a post written more than a few years ago. Try to keep dates naturally in the post, rather than in the title.
Retweet evergreen posts with updates
In addition to making a new post, you can update the evergreen post with additional material or a few comments regarding what is new. Consider also sharing evergreen posts in a your email distribution as well
Consider a video version of your evergreen topics
A video version of your evergreen content can give a different spin on the topic and can be another augment.
Consider giveaways of related plans and how-tos
Giveaways become great evergreen topics that continue to attract traffic. White paper downloads can be giveaways, as are how-to charts or informative graphs.
Consider contrarian views
A friend of mine sent me a post about a filter bubble online – how the scope of internet information can become narrow due to a dependency of an algorithm matching search usage, and was sent as help to a post I was writing on the spread of information. Most evergreen posts are usually about a utilitarian topics, but some reasonable debate can infuse life into even the most pedestrian of topics. An article on planning holiday marketing can be a debate about whether holiday catalogs are really useful, for example.