Metrics Driven Design

I just got back from SXSW and am still trying to digest the vast amounts of information I took in at the event. This was by far the best tech conference I have been to yet. My favorite presentation was Metrics Driven Design by Joshua Porter, the VP of Customer Experience at Performable.

He asked us to think about our existing design as a mountain. Currently, our design is on the corner of the mountain. With optimization, we can get to the top of the mountain, but there is another mountain in the distance. This mountain is much taller than the mountain we are on and is where we strive to be. We can only switch mountains by rethinking our existing design.

Optimization asks: what works best in the current model? Design innovation asks: what is the best possible model?

There are five types of metrics Porter points out that designers (and marketers for that matter) should be measuring and they relate to the usage lifecycle. These are mission critical for most SaaS companies and start with an interested user, moves to a trial/beta user, then a customer and finally a passionate customer. These metrics just measure how well you move people along the usage lifecycle.

  1. Acquisition metrics - CPA (cost per acquisition), revenue by channel, revenue by keyword
  2. Conversion metrics - trials / conversion rate, conversion funnel analysis
  3. Engagement metrics - pageviews, unique visitors, returning visitors, registered users, time on site, daily active users, cohort analysis
  4. Satisfaction metrics - net promoter score
  5. Emergent metrics - a critical metric that, when achieved, drives a desired action (i.e. when a user adds 5 friends in FriendFeed they become an ‘active user’ or Blogger identifying their critical metric as the number of posts per user)

I’ve identified a few metrics that I’ll be working to implement at Codesion, primarily the net promoter score and trial to purchase cohort analysis by month. I’ll follow up with a detailed post on how I set these up in the coming months. Once I get a baseline, the goal is re-think design (both web and product) so we can move to the next mountain (hit escape velocity), instead of just inching our way up on the current mountain (through optimization). 

Already implemented these metrics? Share your tips in the comments.

Block Yourself from Analytics

Small businesses and marketers who work from home rejoice! This easy Chrome plugin lets you filter yourself from Google Analytics without having a static IP address.

KISSmetrics

Looking forward to starting a trial and seeing how they work. Tracking the conversion funnel in GA has been a pita.

5 Steps to Express Inbound Marketing

I’m calling this the express inbound marketing because marketers always tell me they just don’t have time to do everything they want. I give them ideas on little things they can do with the time they have, but they’re always pushing for a task list. You asked (and you all know who  you are), so I’m answering. 

Here’s the 5 step process every B2B marketer with limited time should follow to get inbound marketing success. The rate at which you complete these steps will determine how quickly you’ll see success (a.k.a. do it more and you’ll get more out of it, do it less and it will take longer to see results).

Step 1 - Create a compelling offer

This should be a truly compelling offer - not a contact sales form, request more information, or free consultation form. It needs to be something that your target audience will find valuable. If you can help it, this compelling offer should not mention your products or services at all. It should help your key market solve a problem they have. This can be things like a guide, kit, whitepaper, webinar, slide presentation, article, or video.

Examples: Website Re-Design Kit or New Homeowner’s Guide to Purchasing Insurance

Step 2 - Put it on a landing page

Create a landing page with a form that encourages visitors to give you their contact information in exchange for this compelling offer. When creating the form fields be sure to think about how much information your target audience is willing to give up to get your offer. If you ask them for everything but their social security number just to download an article, they’re probably not going to fill out the form - and neither would you! The number of form fields often highly correlates to the conversion rate of that landing page.

Step 3 - Write a blog article to promote the offer

Now, go to your blog and write an article that promotes the compelling offer you just created. Using my examples above, good blog posts might be titled, 5 Simple Steps to a Website Re-Design or What Every New Homeowner Should Know about Insurance. Then, create a call to action (ideally a graphical button, but text will do) at the bottom of your blog post and link it to your landing page. 

Examples: Thinking of Re-Designing Your Website? Download the free Website Re-Design Kit to help you get started.

For more helpful tips, check out the New Homeowner’s Guide to Purchasing Insurance.

Step 4 - Promote the blog article to your network

Go out and promote this blog article to your network. Post it to Twitter, your Facebook and LinkedIn status updates, the news section of relevant LinkedIn groups you’ve joined, look for LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers to respond to, and send out an email to your database. Don’t be shy, but don’t be spammy either. Look for relevant places that your target audience might be spending time online and go there first.

Step 5 - Analyze and repeat

Now that the heavy lifting is complete it’s time to analzye the results. See how much traffic your efforts brought in and the number of leads and customers that resulted. You should also track to see if you increased the number of blog subscribers, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, Facebook fans and so forth.

What did you learn? What could you do differently next time? Now, go do it and share your experiences below!