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Branding Laws · Internet Marketing · eMarketing · Internet Advertising · Online Branding |
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Branding Laws · Internet Marketing · eMarketing · Internet Advertising · Online Branding |
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Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments
Kevin Troy Darling
V.P. Experience Design
Heather Clark
Getting Greater Returns
On Your Web Site Investments
Kevin Troy Darling
V.P. Experience Design
Heather Clark
President
Hotwire Interactive, Inc.
9750 N. 96th St. #250
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
http://hotwireinteractive.com
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 1
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .........................................................................................................................................1
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................3
The common headaches ...........................................................................................................................3
This is for you............................................................................................................................................3
Coming to terms........................................................................................................................................3
Meet Example Corp......................................................................................................................................4
Background...............................................................................................................................................4
Products....................................................................................................................................................4
Strategy.....................................................................................................................................................4
Concerns...................................................................................................................................................4
Goals.........................................................................................................................................................5
Setting Meaningful Goals ..............................................................................................................................6
Goals you can track ..................................................................................................................................6
Taking Measurements..................................................................................................................................7
Problems with Metrics...............................................................................................................................7
What to Measure.......................................................................................................................................7
Starting Someplace...................................................................................................................................8
Baselining .................................................................................................................................................8
Tracking paths ..........................................................................................................................................8
How to Measure........................................................................................................................................9
Recommended Metrics...............................................................................................................................10
Acquisition...............................................................................................................................................10
Conversion..............................................................................................................................................10
Why not overall conversion?....................................................................................................................10
Improving Experiences...............................................................................................................................11
User experience analysis........................................................................................................................11
What does it do? .....................................................................................................................................11
Benefits of User Experience Analysis......................................................................................................12
Calculating ROI ..........................................................................................................................................13
Evaluating our results ..............................................................................................................................14
User Experience at Work............................................................................................................................15
Everybody does it ...................................................................................................................................15
Best Practices .........................................................................................................................................15
Who takes ownership..............................................................................................................................16
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................17
Set Meaningful Goals..............................................................................................................................17
Start Metrics............................................................................................................................................17
Improve User Experience ........................................................................................................................17
Additional Benefits ..................................................................................................................................17
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................18
About Hotwire Interactive ............................................................................................................................19
Our Approach..........................................................................................................................................19
Our Address............................................................................................................................................19
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 2
Abstract
Using illustrative examples, this paper demonstrates the value of improving user experience
on web sites to clarify revenue streams and drive new business. It builds the case that many
companies put their web sites on maintenance diets once the initial development is through,
and then occasionally redevelop to improve business. By putting metrics in place that are
easy to implement on short resources, companies can prove to themselves the value of
improved user experience.
Companies need to integrate their sites into the business cycle, but they don’t know how to
go about implementing the change.
· They don’t track at all
· They don’t use the right metrics
· The metrics are ill-defined
· There’s too much data
· They lack resources
Proving return on investment requires a change in how companies set and track goals for
their web communications.
· Meaningful goals have measurable results
· Results track to a business goal
· Accuracy comes through iteration and analysis
Improving user experience is the most cost-effective investment a company can make to get
greater returns on their web communications.
· Poor user experience is a leading cause of abandonment and attrition
· Good user experience fosters loyalty
· Good user experiences increase conversion rates
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 3
Introduction
The common headaches
Today, many companies are struggling with the need to get more from their web sites. The
tactical and political obstacles are overwhelming. They realize that web sites can directly
impact the bottom line, but they don’t know how to go about implementing the required
changes. The reasons are many:
· A shortage of dedicated resources
· A lack of standardized measurements
· The distributed ownership of deliverables
· An overwhelming deluge of data
· A lack of time, attention, or budget
· Insufficient expertise in experience design
It would be difficult to find a mid-to large-sized company that did not have some kind of web
site. In fact, in the past few years they may have had to manage five or more sites with
unique goals. And each of those sites has been redesigned numerous times. The sites
become a kind of experimental theatre for marketing campaigns and new ideas. The plastic
nature of the web makes it easy for a company to change its mind and try new things. It’s a
two-edged sword. It’s as easy to make mistakes, as it is to correct them.
This is for you
We developed this paper for those of you responsible for the front-end development and
design of web communications. This includes executives in Marketing Communications, Emarketing,
Product Marketing, Web Production, Web Application Development, and anyone
responsible for the overall experience of web sites and digital communications. This is for
those people who look at their web sites and know they could be better, who know they could
help the company reach its goals, and who hear everyday, “Let’s throw this up on the site,” “It
needs a cool splash page,” or “Let’s do it all over in Flash.”
Coming to terms
User experience (UE) is the term we use to describe how an audience will interact with the
web. User experience includes every page, every form, every e-mail confirmation, anything
that the user interacts with.
Front-end includes UE for everything the user sees and hears, but does not concern itself
with the technology that delivers that content. The delivery technology is considered back
end. Of course, front-end requirements naturally place demands on the back end. If a
company wants personalized content on the front end, there will need to be some kind of
back-end database driving that content.
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Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 4
Meet Example Corp.
We borrowed traits from many companies to create a composite company for the sake of
illustration and to protect the privacy of our clients.
Background
Example Corp is a growing high-tech company of about 500 employees and $200M in annual
revenue. They develop B2B and B2C software solutions for desktop publishing. Over the last
ten years, they’ve emerged as a major player in a market where no one company owns more
than fifteen percent. They’ve purchased a number of smaller companies that shore up their
verticals.
Products
Currently they have a high-end product sold through channel partners B2B called
BigPublisher™. It retails for about $1000 with an average profit of $200. They have a B2C
product with a smaller feature set called HomePublisher™. It retails for about $500 with an
average profit of $100. Additionally, they sell support, training, and supplemental software
products such as templates, and illustration editors.
Strategy
Example Corp wants to own twenty percent of their market within the next three years. They
need to build awareness, and utilize their channels to put their software on desktops. There
are two camps within the company; one believes that the best way to achieve their goals is to
build up grassroots support for their products by focusing marketing efforts behind
HomePublisher. The other camp wants to put all marketing into the channel partners to boost
adoption of BigPublisher. The marketing VP is pushing for a balanced approach as both
products sell well and build the market’s awareness of Example as a player.
Concerns
Example Corp. has a number of web sites all with unique goals:
Marketing Site – (example.com) supports the brand and product awareness campaign
and serves as an entry point to the other sites.
BigPublisher Site – (bigpublisher.com) provides product information for the BigPublisher
product.
HomePublisher Site – (homepublisher.com) provides product information and technical
support for the HomePublisher product.
Training Site – (training.example.com) provides education and training services for
BigPublisher
Support Site – (support.bigpublisher.com) provides technical and product support for
BigPublisher.
Each of these sites has their own mix of creative and development staff. Out of necessity,
they built most of the sites quickly. They’re collecting data, but no one has time to analyze the
logs. They’re looking into some Metrics and Trending solutions, but they haven’t had the
resources to implement. Corporate Marketing would like to get more stats but it takes a great
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deal of time and politics to coordinate the efforts of the many business units, who are all
focused on their development efforts.
Goals
Example’s key business units met and came up with the following general goals for their web
sites. Now, it is up to Marketing to balance these needs and help each business unit achieve
their goals.
· The BigPublisher, HomePublisher, and Training business units want to increase the
number and quality of leads they’re getting from the web site.
· Support wants to reduce the volume of support calls, and eliminate calls related to
product information or content available online.
· Corporate Marketing wants to use the web site to drive the sales cycle, foster a loyal
customer base, and build brand awareness.
We’ll be using Example Corp. throughout this document to demonstrate the value of user
experience throughout web communications as a cost-effective means of clarifying revenue
streams and building new business. We begin by evaluating their goals.
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 6
Setting Meaningful Goals
Many companies only look for their web sites to deliver visitors. Yet, no matter how many
visitors you drive to your site, if they are not your target audience, you’re wasting your time
and theirs. Driving traffic to the site is one objective out of many that might deliver a valuable
return.
In the past, Example Corp. has set vague goals for their web sites:
· Drive traffic
· Educate our audience
· Garner Mindshare
· Market our products
You qualify your leads; why shouldn’t you qualify your goals? For web sites, a qualified goal
has measurable value and it is tied to a business goal. We consider a qualified goal to be
meaningful because it presents tangible, real-world measurements. Which of the following
summary statements would you prefer to see on a monthly report?
Vague Meaningful
We had 10M page views We generated $200K in new sales
Our click-through rate was 5% Revenue increased 5% over last month
5000 users downloaded our demo We doubled our qualified leads
It’s easy to rally support for a meaningful goal. One of Example Corp’s business goals is to
own twenty percent of their market in three years. If the market is projected to be $5 billion,
that’s a lofty goal of $1 billion. Break that down and it means they need to nearly double in
size (from $200M) every year for three years. Each business unit will need to decide what
they can do to reach that goal. The web sites alone won’t get them there, but they can make
a great impact.
The Marketing V.P. at Example Corp. looked at the company’s business goals, and decided
that if the web site could double the revenue attributable to it, then that would help fulfill the
company goal of doubling its revenue in one year.
Only when the business goals and objectives determine the choice of metrics do those
measures have the desired impact on business results. (Janet Ryan)
Goals you can track
Another quality of meaningful goals is that they demand clarity. What is a lead? Does filling
out an interest form qualify the visitor as a lead? Or does the company need to have a sales
rep follow up? Should we focus on gross revenue or net profit? What kind of visitors do we
have now? Each company should document their own standards.
The Example Corp. web site delivered leads through an online interest form. The company
considered these leads qualified because the users had made an effort to request contact
from the company and they met general demographic requirements. Knowing that the
company’s goal was to double revenue every year for three years, Marketing set the goal to
double revenue flowing from their site in one year. And to achieve this, their first impulse was
to double the number of leads. The total volume of leads was a highly visible goal easy to
track and report.
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 7
Taking Measurements
Problems with Metrics
There may always be internal debate over what metrics a company should have for their web
communications. A research study conducted by NetGenesis and Target Marketing
commented on the internal debates within companies regarding metrics,
The good news is that 74% of the organizations we talked with have an internal standard
definition for a page view… The bad news is that only half have a standard definition for
visits or users. (Cutler, E-metics, p.15)
While most companies have stopped using hits as a measurement of site activity, fewer
companies have settled on the definitions for page views1, visits, or users. Companies must
define which standards they will use, so that it is possible to track objectives.
Technology will always evolve and pose challenges. The issues that don’t seem to go away
are lack of resources, and volume of data. There’s simply too much data to sort through, and
too few people with the time or technical skills to sort through it.
The Web holds the promise of real-time results. One can literally watch a site at work.
Unfortunately, it takes real time to analyze those results. And it will always take longer to
analyze data than it takes to store it. However, a small set of key metrics will tell you what’s
most important, and you can work up to more complex metrics as you need them.
What to Measure
Most sites serve as some part of the sales cycle. Some sites support the entire sales cycle. It
makes sense then to track data that aligns with a typical sales cycle. And when you’re
tracking to a business goal, the numbers will make more sense.
Reached – This is the number of unique visitors at a web site over a period. For an emarketing
campaign, this is the total number of participants in the campaign. Example
Corp. gets 4,000 unique visitors each day, which is their reach.
Acquired – Out of those reached, these take the call to action. This could mean filling out
an interest form, or clicking on a link. The remainder are considered Abandoned. Out of
4,000 visitors, about 80 typically reach the HomePublisher interest form and are
considered acquired. That means 3,920 visitors have abandoned HomePublisher.
Converted – Out of those acquired, these took the next step. This usually means
becoming a customer (buying something), but it may also mean subscribing to a
newsletter, signing up for membership, or downloading a file. The remainder are
considered Attrited. Out of 80 leads acquired for HomePublisher, only about one-and-ahalf
make a purchase and are considered converted. The remaining 78.5 are attrited.
What makes these statistics valuable is that they represent action. Either the company is
taking action by reaching out to the audience, or the audience is expressing interest in the
company. These metrics have some kind of trigger. These kinds of measurements are much
more accurate than trends based on nested assumptions.
1 We recommend identifying a visitor uniquely through their IP address or through a cookie. A user visit
(or session) should include all the pages that user visits during one session timing out after 30 minutes of
inactivity. Page view counts should represent the display of either static documents (HTML), or dynamic
content (ASP, Script, Forms) and should not use estimates based on hit counts.
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If you track nothing else, the metrics above will tell you a great deal about the performance of
your site. Other metrics look at trends. In the hands of good analysts they can point out how
to improve the performance measurements above:
Engagement – A measurement of how involved a user is in your site.
Stickiness – A measure of how often users return to your site.
Clickstream – The most used paths users take through your site.
These trends help an analyst understand the context of your metrics. The important thing to
remember is that if you’re tracking performance-based metrics, most of the trending metrics
will always be available. What you need to do first is start building a baseline.
Starting Someplace
Consider again the problems associated with measuring ROI:
· A shortage of dedicated resources
· A lack of standardized measurements
· An overwhelming deluge of data
· A lack of time, attention, or budget
There is a clear response to each, if you just start somewhere. If there are too few resources
to track everything, then track one thing. Pick the most important stats and track those. If
there is division over the standards, offer to build a test. Pick one standard and apply it
consistently for a time, then switch to the other standard for a time. In many cases, you can
compare both standards on the same data set.
Baselining
As with project management or scientific experiment, you need a baseline before making
changes. This is especially true of ROI; most companies undertake site redesigns simply to
chase an idea. If they don’t take the time to check how well the site was performing in the first
place, they have no proof of the value of the idea.
If the goal is to bring in more leads, find out how many leads the site brings in now. Of
course, to get better comparisons it would be nice to test against the same quarter of the
previous year. But this is a luxury – guaranteed to be there next year for companies that get
started today.
Typically, one camp on the side of accuracy will want to reduce variables and build a baseline
over time. Another camp won’t want to bother with the baseline at all if it can’t be accurate
and there’s no time to wait. The compromise is to view baselining as an iterative process.
This week’s results are next week’s baseline. Each iteration will yield more meaningful data.
Tracking paths
It’s important to look at how visitors browse through your site. These are the most-used paths
– the sequence of pages that users tend to follow. Ideally, these paths lead directly to some
kind of lead or information gathering form. For example, a newsletter subscription, a contact
form, or a registration form for a demo are desirable ending points for browsing. The path you
want your users to take is called the critical path.
Controlling this critical path is an important consideration for user experience analysis. And
tracking users through these critical path pages is crucial.
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 9
How to Measure
The best metrics come from triggers, but the trigger should be meaningful.
If you own a small shop, you tie a bell to the front door so you can hear when people come in.
The bell is a trigger. If you count the number of times you heard the bell in one day, you’d
know how many times the door opened. But the bell is a poor trigger if what you wanted to
know was how many visitors you had.
In earlier versions of its web sites, Example Corp. did not use a lead form; they had a link to
the product site. Their trigger was clicking on the product link. They could track how many
visitors went to the product site, but they did not know how many of those contacted the
company as a result of their visit. Creating the lead form was a better trigger because it
measured visitors who truly wanted more information.
Example Corp. used referral and source coding 2to track their leads through the system.
These reference codes helped them identify whether the leads came from special offers or
normal paths.
Triggers for acquisition and conversion will depend on the goal. The acquisition trigger should
be placed at the entrance to content that shows the visitor is truly interested in becoming a
customer. The conversion trigger is the point where the visitor becomes a customer.
Example Corp used the lead form as their acquisition trigger. For their conversion counts,
they compared their lead records against the sales records.
It’s important to separate your target groups. Your site content should be organized to
provide opportunities for visitors to separate themselves. A user should move quickly and
intuitively from general to specific information. We refer to this as creating content gates.
These gates are ideal locations for counters.
The important thing is not to let triggers get in the way of your users. For example, if a
company forces a user to create a login account before they use the site, what they gain in
identifying the user is lost many times over through abandonment.
So, while triggers should measure action, they should not be obvious to the user. They
should be integrated into the natural flow of a site. This is one reason for the huge importance
of user experience analysis – to show how users can trip triggers without tripping over them.
2 Referral and source codes are an effective method to track e-marketing campaigns through to the web
site. Contact Hotwire Interactive to investigate developing these techniques with your campaigns.
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 10
Recommended Metrics
When looking at performance, it’s best to examine first rates of change rather than sheer
volume. As in our qualified leads example, we’ll reach our goal by doubling our volume or by
increasing our response or conversion rate.
Acquisition
The response rate is the ratio of acquired candidates to the total candidates reached in a
given period.
Acquired
Response =
Reach
Typical response rates for the industry are in the range of one to two-and-a-half percent.
For example, if a site typically reaches 2000 visitors per day, and 20 visitors click to view the
newsletter offer, the response rate (20 ÷ 2000 = 0.01) is one percent (1%).
Conversion
The conversion rate is the ratio of converted customers to acquired customers in a given
period.
Converted
Conversion =
Acquired
Typical conversion rates for the industry are in the range of one to two-and-a-half percent.
As in our previous example, if 20 visitors a day view the newsletter offer and one visitor signs
up, then the conversion rate (1 ÷ 20 = 0.05) is five percent (5%).
Why not overall conversion?
If you look at overall conversion (converted/reach), our newsletter example yields a rate of
(.05%) five hundredths of a percent (1 ÷ 2000 = 0.0005). However, its more valuable to
examine the relationship between both acquisition and conversion rates because they can
show where your web site is failing. Consider the following table.
Conversion
Low
Conversion
High
Acquisition Low Attracting the wrong
audience and offer is weak
Targeting is mixed, but
offer is strong
Acquisition High Targeting is accurate, but
the offer is poor
Targeting is accurate, and
offer is strong
The reasons for success or failure will vary depending of the site goals. However, it’s useful
to prepare a grid of this kind to investigate the reasons behind the rates. Most often, the rates
can be significantly improved through analysis of user experience.
Getting Greater Returns On Your Web Site Investments hotwireinteractive.com
Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 11
Improving Experiences
User experience analysis
Once a company identifies their goals and begins to measure performance, they will want to
improve it. The question, of course, is where should you invest to improve performance. Do
you put it into infrastructure, visual design, tools, or personnel?
The answers come through user experience analysis – a process that weighs all these
factors to determine what is working and to suggest improvements for what is not.
Usability is an integral part of the design process. It should not constrain good design.
Rather, it should enhance the ability of a good design to create a highly functional and
usable site. (Suneet Kheterpal, Usability Makes a Comeback)
User experience (UE) encompasses everything the user interacts with.
A web site should be pictured as something three dimensional – you move through it. User
experience includes not only the physical design – the color, line, etc. – but also how each
target audience will navigate through and interact with the content. It covers labeling,
indexing, and navigation. UE also includes where to place tools based on how people use
them. Beyond that, UE includes the network of information – what content to make available
when. UE doesn’t just focus on the target segments of your audience. It also takes into
account the needs of the site users – those who maintain, develop, and manage content.
UE analysis is a relatively young field and it integrates skills from many disciplines:
· Market Research
· Business Consulting
· Information Architecture & Design
· Computer-Human Interaction Design
· Software Development
· Visual & Creative Design
· Instructional Design
· Technical and Creative Writing
According to the NetGenesis study, 72 percent of e-business managers said that they
consistently alter site design first to improve their site’s business performance. The plastic
nature of the web makes it easy to undertake these redesigns. However, it’s just as easy to
make new mistakes, as it is to correct them. One of the values of user experience analysis is
that it brings in a fresh set of eyes to evaluate the site with the targeted user in mind.
What does it do?
User experience analysis answers the why and how questions:
· Why is the site not performing?
· How can it be fixed?
UE Analysis provides a way to investigate how users respond and interact with content. Its
purpose is to eliminate obstacles that impede information flow. This applies to conscious and
subconscious choices. The goal is to streamline the experience and eliminate confusion.
When it works, no one notices it, but when it fails, everyone notices it.
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For example, whenever you move your mouse back and forth over a web site’s menu looking
for something, you experience poor UE design. If you click on a menu and immediately find
the item you’re looking for, that’s good UE design at work.
Here’s a real-world example. Have you ever been in the ticket line at the movies where only
one window is open? If there are no rope lines to guide you and a new window opens, usually
the next person in line goes up to the new window. So, you have two windows serving one
line – until someone new walks up and gets in line behind the second window (wondering
why all those fools are standing in the long line). Then everyone reshuffles themselves to
make two lines. It’s poor experience design because you don’t know where to stand. Now, if
there were rope lines to guide you and a new window opened, everyone immediately would
create two lines within the ropes.
The key idea here is not that people need to be told what to do, but they need to know what
is expected of them. Ropes lines say to the patron, “If we open another window, line up here.”
Bad user experience generates frustration. Without the rope lines, the new option creates
confusion. “Should I create a new line and jump ahead of those who lined up ahead of me, or
do I stay put trusting that everyone will take their fair turn?” The new person is also confused.
“Do I line up behind all these people, or do I take advantage of the short line?”
This kind of confusion, frustration, and even anger, plays out across the Web every minute of
every day. And the worst part is that you have very little knowledge of the number of
frustrated visitors, let alone the ability to respond to them. Good user experience reduces
confusion, avoids frustration, and helps the visitor and the company communicate clearly.
Today’s Web sites, extranets, and intranets fail when they don’t support user goals.
Forrester has found that 75% of empowered consumers return to sites because of highquality
content and 66% come back because of ease-of-use. So, without quality content
and good usability, firms won’t lure back online customers and prospects.
(Paul Sonderegger, Forrester Research)
Benefits of User Experience Analysis
Among other benefits, good user experience
· Facilitates personalization
· Improves interaction
· Eliminates confusion
· Clarifies messages
· Increases acquisition and conversion
· Builds loyalty
· Saves the user’s time
Additionally, user experience analysis helps companies
· Build to a common vision
· Reduce development time
· Increase efficiency of back-end processes
· Clarify ownership issues
· Realize greater revenue
To reap these rewards requires understanding what your users experience today. The next
section follows Example Corp. as they try to measure ROI and determine what strategies will
improve their performance.
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Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 13
Calculating ROI
Once a company undertakes user experience analysis to help them reach their goals, they
will want to see that it has paid off. Now that they have a baseline, they can begin attributing
costs to the metrics to determine their return.
This is an area where it is helpful to look at the overall picture:
Return = Reach x Response x Conversion x Avg. Profit x Period
It’s easy to see that increasing any of these elements will have a corresponding increase on
the total. Double reach and return doubles. Double profit and return doubles. Double both
and return quadruples. However, it’s not realistic to double those so easily. It’s a different
matter to double the rates of response and conversion.
Take the following examples:
Example Corp focused first on the HomePublisher product. The average price is $500 on
which they get a 20% profit margin or $100. The marketing site has a link to the product site,
and the product site has a lead form. Typically, they get 4,000 visitors per day linking out to
the product site. Two percent fill out the HomePublisher lead form and two percent of those
make a purchase.
Reached Acquired Rate Converted Rate Annual
Profit
4000 80 2% 1.6 2% $58,400
Not happy with that profit, they launched an banner advertising campaign that doubled their
reach and their profit. However, over a year the campaign cost $80,000, so they lost money.
They concluded that the campaign did not work because the web site was dropping the ball.
Reached Acquired Rate Converted Rate Annual
Profit
8000 160 2% 3.2 2% $116.800
Solution cost $80,000
Return ($21,600)
They contracted a user experience analysis and made improvements in their site based on
those recommendations. As a result, they streamlined the process of acquiring leads through
the site. Without the banner campaigne, their reach returned to 4,000. However, they saw
immediate improvements in their acquisition and conversion rates. The site analysis and
redesign costs ended up being roughly equal to the cost of the banner campaign.
Reached Acquired Rate Converted Rate Annual
Profit
4000 160 4% 6.4 4% $233,600
Solution cost $80,000
Return $95,200
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Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 14
That yielded a 119% return on their investment (over the baseline of $58,400). Equally as
important, it quadrupled their gross profit and nearly tripled ($153,600) their net profit (after
solution costs). Through improvements in user experience, they saw similar gains across
their product lines and lower volumes of support calls. And unlike the banner campaign
where additional revenue stopped the moment the program ended, Example Corp expects to
continue reaping the benefits of improved user experience.
Evaluating our results
We’ve stated before that good user experience:
· Facilitates personalization
· Improves interaction
· Eliminates confusion
· Clarifies messages
· Increases acquisition and conversion
· Builds loyalty
· Saves the user’s time
This is because most people have the purpose of gathering information when they visit web
sites. In fact, a recent report3 from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) found that
76% of visitors are trying to gather information, of these, 25% are trying to find something
specific and 51% are gathering information to compare or contrast information. Additionally,
71% of all visitors collect information with a goal in mind, but are open to whatever answer
may come up.
This means that you need to help your visitors to achieve their goals. You need to make sure
information is where they expect to find it. You need to provide materials that allow them to
make comparisons. If you fulfill your visitors’ expectations, reduce their confusion, and
provide clear information, you remove the biggest obstacles to conversion.
Additionally, we’ve stated that user experience analysis helps companies:
· Build to a common vision
· Reduce development time
· Increase efficiency of back-end processes
· Clarify ownership issues
· Realize greater revenue
This is because most business units who find themselves working together on web projects
have never worked with each other before. They come from different educational and
professional backgrounds. They each have long traditions with their own jargon, analytical
tools, and business standards. User experience analysis has evolved into a natural bridge
between these business units. The analysts who perform user experience analysis typically
come from multiple disciplines and understand the positions and languages of all the
stakeholders. By setting positive user experience as the common goal for all these business
units, and documenting the path for achieving this goal, the business units now share a
common vision. This facilitates parallel development, which reduces the time to market. It
defines the project in detail, reducing scope or feature creep, which saves time, money and
increases the overall efficiency of everyone involved.
3 A Taxonomic Analysis of What World Wide Web Activities Significantly Impact People’s Decisions and
Actions, Julie B. Morrison, Peter Pirolli, Stuart K. Card. (see bibliography)
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User Experience at Work
Everybody does it
Because User Experience is a new field, and builds upon skills from other disciplines,
agencies within those disciplines have staked a claim. These agencies run the gamut from
traditional PR and Ad agencies, to Design Studios, Web Developers, and Management
Consultants. They all have a part of the picture, but few integrate them well when it comes to
total experience design.
The use of rich media – whether streaming video, animation, Flash, or audio – on behalf
of clients is becoming a staple of the marketing communications industry. These days,
just about every PR, marketing communications or ad agency has a subsidiary, a
division, or a couple of kids in a back room developing rich media-enhanced messages.”
(Lawrence Pintak, Super Heroes Plug Super Technology)
The web is not a visual medium alone. It is a multimedia tool that permits interaction between
anyone. Agencies that see it as a media like television will treat it as such. Agencies that see
it as an application will treat it as such. However, it is an interactive media application. It
demands a new skill set that can take advantage of its power and pervasiveness.
Another way to put it is that the web is an active medium. Traditional agencies have grown up
with passive media like billboards, brochures, radio, and television. Some of these seem
active because there is motion and sound, but the difference is on the part of the audience.
With passive media, the audience sits, listens, and watches. Web media is active because
the audience has a mouse in their hands. Not only can they leave with a single click, they can
follow their impulses and explore your message. This means you must guide their impulses,
anticipate their needs, and be on the spot with information.
Active media promises to deliver a more loyal audience because they’ve discovered your
message. Imagine a friend has built a new house and wants you to see it. You’re more likely
to remember the way back if you drive there than if your friend drives you. Not only is the
message more strongly ingrained when it has been discovered, but also your customer is
more likely to share their discovery with others.
In time, all agencies will adapt to web communication or fall by the wayside. But with most
companies looking for one firm to be the single point of contact for their web communications,
it makes sense to choose a firm that has focused on user experience from inception.
Best Practices
While an emerging field, because experience design builds on other disciplines, it has
developed best practices. Of course, we can only summarize some of them here:
Remove Obstacles. Never put more obstacles in front of a user than are required at the
time. If the idea is get users to provide their e-mail address, don’t ask for their name, address,
and phone number. That information should be gathered once users have shown their
interest and commitment.
Tell the story at a glance. Web users gather information by scanning in multiple passes. Tell
the entire story in easily scannable copy, and support the message in the body copy.
Shorten copy.
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Use familiar tools. Users have learned how to use their browser tools. There’s little to be
gained by removing these tools from them. If you can make improvements be sure to test
usability extensively before springing it on an unsuspecting pubic.
Use familiar terms. Labels such as Home, Help, and Contact Us may be boring, but users
understand them. You want to eliminate confusion, but you also want to focus on areas
where you are different from other sites. It’s equally important to be internally consistent with
labeling. If you put your company info under a link called About Us, don’t use a Company
History header on the destination page.
Create content gates. Take advantage of interactive media to allow users to discover
content targeted to them. This is usually done from Home or Landing pages. If a user going
to a golf sites sees herself as an amateur, she’s likely to be more drawn to “Improve your
game” than “Lower your handicap.”
Don’t be trendy. Let other web sites experiment with new multimedia tools that require huge
plug-ins. Pay close attention to adoption rates of new technology. When you prove to yourself
that your audience is ready for the latest thing, give them what they want.
Who takes ownership
There’s a Chinese proverb, “A courtyard owned by many will be swept by none.” In the web
world everyone is sweeping at once, getting dust in each other’s eyes. We advise our clients
how to align their business units to take better advantage of the web. It takes coordination of
many units, but the most effective orientation has marketing owning the experience,
information technology (IT) owning the back end, and as much content as possible developed
by the various departments.
Marketing handles communications and molds experiences. The IT team is more
accustomed to managing infrastructure and can leverage and integrate other internal
systems. Sales information should be developed by sales, product information by product
development, etc. Marketing refines this content and balances the needs of the business
units when delivering the content through the web or any other media.
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Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 17
Conclusions
Set Meaningful Goals
Companies benefit from setting goals that can be measured or that track to business goals.
· Determine the business goal
· Set objectives to meet that goal
· Define what will measure that objective
Start Metrics
Most companies avoid metrics because they can’t agree, or because they don’t have the time
or the resources.
· Begin measuring sites today.
· Build better and better baselines through time.
· Adopt standards and continue to evaluate them.
Improve User Experience
User experience analysis, over all other solutions, will lead to the greatest returns on
investment.
· Build sites that work intuitively
· Improve internal processes
· Raise rates of acquisition and return
· Foster customer loyalty
Additional Benefits
Aside from the ability to measure a more true return on investment, improving user
experience dramatically affects other aspects of your site performance. Once the web site as
a destination has shown improvements, a company can then extend that experience to all
programs that link into the site. E-marketing programs (e-mail, landing pages), partnership
programs, product demonstrations, and others may be streamlined. These incremental
increases in performance add up to substantial returns overall, for a small investment.
In other words, why build a glamorous shopping center outside of town and leave the roads
unimproved? Just as the World Wide Web has no definition, a company should consider their
website unbounded as well. Extend the user experience as close to their doorstep as
possible – forge a path to their door and they’ll walk on over.
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Bibliography
Cutler, Matt, and Sterne, Jim. E-Metrics, Business Metrics for the New Economy. NetGenesis
Corp.: 2000.
Jacopson, Robert, ed. Information Desisgn. The MIT Press. 1999
Kheterpal, Suneet. Usability Makes a Comeback. ClickZ Today. Internet.com Corp.: April 16,
2001. (http://clickz.com/article/cz.3758.html)
Krug, Steve, Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Que:
2000.
Morrison, Julie B., Pirolli, Peter, and Card, Stuart K., A Taxonomic Analysis of What World
Wide Web Activities Significantly Impact People’s Decisions and Actions. Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center.
Nielson, Jakob, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. New Riders Publishing:
1999.
Pintak, Lawrence, Super Heroes Plug Super Technology. Rich Media News, Channel
Seven.com: November 1, 2000. (http://www.turboads.com/richmedia_news/
2000rmn/rmn20001108.shtml).
Rosenfeld, Louis, and Morville, Peter, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.
O’Reilly and Associates: 1998.
Ryan, Janet, Knowing Where to Go. ClickZ Today. Internet.com Corp.: April 16, 2001.
(http://clickz.com/article/cz.3765.html).
Reiss, Eric L., Practical Information Architecture. Addison Wesley. 2000.
Shedroff, Nathan, Experience Design. New Riders Publishing: 2001
Sonderegger, Paul, Web Design Coverage Area Description, Forrester Research Web Site.
2001
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Copyright © 2001 Hotwire Interactive, Inc. Page 19
About Hotwire Interactive
Hotwire Interactive is a web communications firm that maximizes your Net returns. We build
strong online relationships that pay off for our clients. Through carefully constructed
information architecture, design, and content, we create user experiences that compel your
customers to become active and loyal. You measure the effects of that in dollars.
Our Approach
We handle all aspects of web site and eMarketing solutions, from project management to
creative services. We translate your strategies into web communications that drive your
overall business goals. Fluently and effectively, you reach your customer base and achieve
results.
Our approach is to put your audience in the driver’s seat. Hotwire media revolves around the
user and gets your audience involved. Every design element has a purpose and every
purpose makes a move toward ROI.
Also, we form our project teams according to your needs. If you have back-end developers,
we create style guides and blueprints designed for swift hand-off and easy implementation.
With the precision of a relay team, we run the legs of the race that you can’t and pass the
baton to your best sprinters when possible. By optimizing the right skills in the right places,
projects reach completion in record time. The race is won with maximum efficiency and no
one’s out of breath.
Our Address
At Hotwire Interactive, we get it. We understand your business goals and know how to
develop web solutions to exceed them. Most importantly, we know how to identify and deliver
return-on-investment. By defining the value of each user, we show you how to quantify the
impact of your conversion to sales. When you directly increase your conversion rate, you're
clearly adding to the bottom line. It’s time to start gaining measurable results that deliver real
value for your dollar. Make Hotwire your Web communications firm and maximize your Net
returns.
Hotwire Interactive
9750 N. 96th Street, Suite 250
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Phone: 480-451-9815
Email: info@hotwireinteractive.com
Web: http://hotwireinteractive.com