The 2012 A/BAMA Campaign
Written by Dylan Langei
According to Optimizely, A/B testing, in essence, is a method to validate that any new design or alteration to the content on a webpage, email, newsletter, and/or person-to-person script is improving your conversion rate before making the actual content change. A/B testing provides you with a measurement tool and real data so that business decisions can move from "we think" to "we know." An A/B test involves testing two versions - version A (the control) and version B (the variation) - utilizing live traffic and measuring the effect each version has on your conversion rate.
Our soon to be guest, Amelia Showalter, who was the director of digital analytics for the 2012 Barack Obama campaign, utilized A/B testing with her team to market the reelection of President Obama. Considering Obama was reelected in 2012, we have much to learn from Amelia and her team's tactics. The articles from Businessweek & TechPresident provide details on the campaigns approach of leveraging A/B testing to listen, experiment, and analyze. The campaign mainly utilized A/B testing for emails to see if people were more receptive to one method over another. The interesting part was that they would create around 18 variations with differing subject lines, amount of money asked for, formatting, and even the message themselves - yet even the best writers, analysts and managers could not identify which of the variations would perform the best and worst. This relates to the concept of HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) and why it is so ineffective. Many businesses can learn from this, as HiPPO is often a method still practiced. Many businesses figure, well he/she is a top-level executive who makes three times as much as the normal employee, so they have the best decision-making skills. Well this is incorrect, it is impossible to predict what A/B testing measurements provide - accurate and concrete data so businesses can know what content will drive conversion rates. However, Amelia's team was provided with many resources, which allowed them to scale more easily than a traditional business might. Therefore, it would be difficult for a traditional business to send out as many emails as Amelia's team did, or engage in as many person-to-person interactions.
There are thousands if not millions of businesses using optimization to gather actionable data, track conversion rates, and discover winning combinations across a range of ideas. LifeProof is one of these businesses. LifeProof manufactures and markets SmartPhone and Tablet PC cases for all-environmental protection, functionality and interactivity. Lifeproof's goal was to implement a testing culture and launch a series of tests on the site's product pages. LifeProof tested various landing pages with original CTAs like "Buy Now" and "Learn More" to less direction options like "Purchase" and "Explore," and more explanatory options like "Choose Your Case" and "Find Out More." LifeProof also learned through testing failures. In an effort to increase the purchase of the Total Water Protection (TWP) feature, the team wanted to automatically pre-check that upsell on the product page. However, the team learned that pre-checking TWP was causing more harm than benefit. Pre-checking this item equated to an 11% decrease in monthly revenue projections. In the end, LifeProof experienced a 19% life in revenue, scaleable testing program, and strengthened branding.
Sorry Nike, Just Google It.
Written by Dylan Langei
So what is all this hype around digital analytics, and more specifically Google Analytics? To be honest, you could Google it. But, since you're already here, I suggest reading on. Digital analytics are a fundamental component of marketing. With nearly everything moving online, the "digital" part of "marketing" is becoming implied. The term "digital marketing" may almost become obsolete, not because the digital part will become unimportant, but everything having to do with marketing will become digital. Through this digitization, many purchases are occurring online, therefore allowing consumers activity and behavior to be tracked. Nowadays, businesses don't have to assign an employee to stand at the door manually reporting customer traffic.
As stated in Forrester's Report, web analytics provide data handling, metrics, reporting, usability, integration, service, predictive analytics, and real-time data. The Big Six, if you will - Adobe, IBM, Webtrends, AT Internet, Google, SAS Institute - possess various strengths and weaknesses in the web analytics market. These vendors are sought out by numerous enterprises based on these strengths and weaknesses, and integrated accordingly. So why Google Analytics? Why become certified? Well, Google has immense brand recognition (Google is a verb for heavens sake), it is a marketable credential, and it will probably be the only chance I'll have at placing "Google" anywhere on my resume (not trying to downplay my potential, but come on, I'm a realist and Googles hiring rate is 0.2% - and yes I did Google that). Even though my chances of employment at Google are only slightly better than winning the lottery, I can become Google Analytic certified to increase the attractiveness of my resume. Why is this an attractive component of a resume you may ask? According to E-Nor, 51% of Fortune 500 companies use Google Analytics. Obama's campaign team even leveraged Google Analytics for the 2012 re-election campaign in order to engage supporters, reach and influence persuadable voters, and activate supporters to vote. This alone proves that Google Analytics is a very powerful and highly accredited tool. Therefore, becoming competent in a digital analytic platform like Google Analytics will provide me with a competitive edge over other job applicants. I will be able to understand web traffic, customer behavior, online campaigns, best customer location, what users are searching, what people click on the most, and various other components provided by Google Analytics. With this understanding, I then will be able to act on these insights by comparing different marketing approaches and move forward with the one that performs the best. Fusing business objectives and strategies with a comprehensive understanding of analytics is an invaluable trait in this digitize era of ours, in which I hope to possess after the Google Analytics certification.