Why Google Analytics Needs Board Level Attention

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Are you a Doctor? The reason I ask is because I wanted to know if you could tell me why I have a cut on my right arm and what I should do about it.  It’s bleeding quite badly and it needs attention.

“No I’m not a Doctor” you say. Can you tell me what I might do to bring the bleeding under control? “I don’t know, put a plaster on it?”.

I’ve tried that but it’s still bleeding.  I’m guessing I need a Doctor!

I was recently working with a reasonably large Insurance Broker.  One of the products they sold was home insurance.  The broker rebadged a major global insurance company policy and sold it as their own, and why not, the insurance giant employs 22,000 people worldwide in 130 countries according to their website.  It was a safe partner for the broker to choose.

The problem was that the Insurance Broker was spending bucket loads of cash buying attention using Google Pay Per Click advertising, for people wishing to get a quote for their home insurance. Unfortunately spend didn’t lead to new policies.  The marketing department checked it out and they were competitively priced it’s just customers didn’t seem smart enough to be able to get a quote!

When the marketers examined the Google Analytics they discovered that customers were abandoning the customer journey at the point where it said “Apply Online”.

The problem is that the customer hadn’t been given a quote and they sure didn’t want to apply for anything.

So the marketing team changed the term to “Get Quote” and customers stopped abandoning the sales process at that point.  Sales however didn’t go up.  The cut continued to bleed and the marketers wondered why after they had put a plaster on their website what else they could do.

As it transpired, the problem for the poor sales wasn’t a marketing issue.  The marketing team only knew how to treat the short term problems of the wound, and the team wasn’t empowered or experienced enough to do the required stitching and insure the same accident didn’t happen again.  The solution required a business doctor, someone that could understand all of the symptoms and fix the problem now and for ever.  The solution needed board level interference.

On close inspection the insurance giant providing the web sales engine, made the customer fill out 30 pieces of data before they gave a quote.  Competitors asked for 8 pieces of data.  The insurance company asked the customer to match their address to their property database, the competitors just asked for the County the property resided in; all this plus many more symptoms of poor customer service.

The insurer’s system wasn’t fit for purpose, it was not competitive and was built around the organisation, not the customer.  When you check out the insurer’s Irish website and click on the ‘Home & Car Insurance’ button, the page produces a 404 error – page not found.  This homepage button has been broken for weeks.

All of this illustrated a lack of attention to detail by the insurance giant, a massive lack of knowledge regarding the competition in the consumer market and how the competition makes it easier for the customer.

So what’s the cure for the bleeding problem?  There is only one solution for the broker.  Find an alternative insurance partner!

Google Analytics describes symptoms.  Sometimes marketers can fix a bad bounce rate on a website, poor click through rate or conversation rate.  In my experience, most of the time the problem is deeper.  The poor performance illustrated in Google Analytics often requires qualified medical attention or even surgery.  This isn’t within a marketers remit.  This requires board level attention.

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Can The Price of ‘Good Service’ be Calculated?

I met Fergus at a presentation I was giving in Cavan town in September 2011.  A sturdy man; he stood alone beside the coffee being served before I took to the stage.  He didn’t know I was the guest speaker as I shimmied up beside him and asked what was his business and did he use the web to conduct his business?  His response was “The web will break this Country” – an ironic statement given the financial condition of Ireland at present.

Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing. Shredding Old Profits

Fergus went on to say “Because of the Internet, everyone knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.  He continued to tell me that he sold second hand agriculture machinery and that before the web he could make good margin but since it was now easy to find the price of comparable machinery online, his margins had been squeezed.

Not wishing to sound all ‘Kerry Bradshaw’, but Fergus got me thinking; does the Internet strip away value from local service providers?

Cavan is a small town that seems to be two hours away from everywhere.  It’s two hours from Dublin, two hours from Belfast, two hours from Sligo, two hours for Galway etc.  This is a sizable distance from most major population densities.  The products Fergus stocks are heavy and not easily transported. So why do the efforts of Fergus buying and stocking the machinery in this remote part of the Country seem to hold less value now than before the proliferation of the web?

The answer seems to me to be that value added services could now be calculated like never before.  Where once ‘good service’ was part of the blend to help win a deal, the customer can now put a price on that good service and decide if the service is something for which they would like to pay a premium.

The chance encounter with Fergus reminded me of the book Who Moved My Cheese.  The book is a parable of continuously shifting business environments and it describes how we must adapt our businesses if we are too succeed.

The fact that ‘good service’ or other services that were once much more intangible are now calculable means that web is forcing Fergus and other businesses to reevaluate their value proposition and all at an eye watering pace.  This is not an easy task for a business that has flourished for 25 years and now seems consigned to either change or die.

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How to be a Thought Leader on the Web

Social Media and Websites are beside the point.  Until the market research is complete and the digital marketing strategy is understood by the leaders of the organisation, all digital marketing activity is beside the point.  The reason is because it’s the sales, marketing and digital strategy that defines what the point actually is!

Why create an e-commerce website if it’s not possible to get enough attention to make it economically viable?  Why ‘engage’ with customers on social media if you don’t have anything to add to their lives?  Why conquer search engines for anything other than your business name if all of your business comes from advocacy?  Why look for a multi-lingual content management system if you’re not even close to being competitive online in France?

Strategy drives web success.  Strategy drives design.   Strategy determines which digital channels you use.

Aepona, are a Belfast based technology firm.  They sell high-end tech infrastructure to mobile phone networks all over the world. Two years ago their leadership made the conscious strategic decision that they were going to establish themselves as thought leaders in the emerging market of mobile cloud computing.

Gartner defines a thought leader as a company that shows both vision and an ability to execute that vision within their niche.

Aepona plan in advance their vision for their marketplace.  They plan on how they hope to execute that vision illustrating thought leadership.

Strategic Planning of Vision x Execution of Vision

The Aepona website is constructed with both new clients and industry analysts in mind with the intention of illustrating thought leadership.  It’s one thing to claim to be a thought leader, until the industry analysts say you are – you’re not!

Vision is expressed in the blog. News illustrates that vision is being delivered upon and white papers provoke additional debate to feed next blog & social media

To become thought leader the firm had to become omnipresent, appearing everywhere, from trade shows to webinars.  Aepona need to be seen as the ‘talk of the town’ in the industry media and be mentioned by analysts, therefore Earned Media or Online PR was the prime channel required to enhance reputation.  In this case industry peer review and analyst reports were targeted.

The result:  the 10-year-old firm grew their revenues from $23M to $35 in 12 months and now employ 300 staff.  They hope to top $45M this year.

The digital strategy was only part of their plan, albeit an important part.  The key to their success however was excellent vision and leadership in their company and a strategic approach to using the web.

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