Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Measuring Success Of Non-trasactional Websites

Posted by Anonymous on 7/25/2008 at 2:58 PM ET 125 Points
Many of my pharma and CPG clients have non-transactional websites (i.e. they are not directly selling anything or trying to capture sales leads). Essentially their sites exist just to have an online presence. Some have have rich media videos or PDF downloads of FAQ's or Symptom Assessors. However, interaction with these is not really a good proxy for success of business goals, which is ultimately to drive sales.

Can any of you suggest any solid KPIs for brand building/educational websites? Thank you!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 7/25/2008 at 3:10 PM Member
    number of hits who stay on the site longer than 60 seconds...
  • Posted by melissa.paulik on 7/25/2008 at 3:16 PM Member
    If I put myself in the shoes of a pharmaceutical company who wants to teach someone about a condition, I'd suggest that the metric should be usage.

    - Number of visitors to a website would be important.
    - While many companies are looking for unique visitors, I think a pharma company might be interested in repeat visitors.
    - The amount of time they spend on a website could be a gauge for their interest level and the value they are receiving.

    I think pharma companies have an ethical duty to do more than just convince people they have a condition. And, I think most reputable pharma companies would agree. I'd also try to do things like create self-help or support groups through the web site, add progress trackers, and suggest life style changes (which is not done enough IMHO).

    CPG companies, especially food, are doing some interesting things with Facebook fan pages these days. In addition to helping them with their website you might want to explore these a bit more.

    All the best!

    Melissa

  • Posted by Levon on 7/25/2008 at 6:17 PM Member
    It can be measured on how many people you add to your list by trying to squeeze an email address and name out of the site visitor in order to view the report or use the tool you have on the site.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/25/2008 at 9:45 PM Member
    If sales initiated from the website, then you can use cookies to track the visitor and determine what they did before they purchased. Without cookies, you could track IP address of visitor and match the IP address to an online sales.

    If sales are offline, then use an overt tracking code (use the code for your discount) for different actions (i.e., your PDF has one code in it, the video has a different one, etc.).
  • Posted by Mikee on 7/25/2008 at 10:54 PM Member
    With Google Analytics you can set up goals. These can be that someone navigates to a particular page. You can set up a funnel that has various checkpoints along the way. You can then track where people go.

    You can also track the number of pages viewed per visitor and the time on site. If people are really reading the pages they will spend longer on site, even if they did not view many pages. This may be an indication that they are using the site.

    You could place some polls on the site that are on important pages. People will only be able to respond to the poll if they made it to that page. Depending on the construction of the site you can allow people to rate pages, therefore letting you know what people think about the content.

    Good Luck
  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 7/26/2008 at 11:05 AM Accepted
    Hi,

    I understand from your question that your clients want to know whether these informational websites actually drive sales - which you won't get from most of the typical website KPIs. Instead, you can model how sales/revenues changed (1) with the introduction of the website (2) with website content changes and (3) with any promotions posted on the website. Just finished a paper where we did so for an informational website of an apparel retailer, would be happy to send you a copy.

    Cheers
  • Posted by jenshinn on 7/27/2008 at 9:02 PM Accepted
    I understand your pain and frustration with trying to define solid, measurable KPI's for brand building sites.

    We found that the disconnect often comes from the fact that the Web team doesn't get fed the sales for the prior month so they can't clearly measure if the site is working based on sales. Sales numbers often trickle in months later when no can remember what online campaigns we're going on during that time period. Push to get sales numbers quickly..they might not be "final" or might exclude some channels but, as long as they from the same source every month it will give you a direction to say.,..Wow! The 3,000+ visitors we had to the site really did or didn't increase sales last month. Then you can dig in and see why or why not. Maybe you did have more visitors but the bounce rate was really high..you didn't reach your target audience so sales didn't follow. Or maybe they did and you should run the same PPC again.

    In addition, I disagree that site interaction isn't a good measure. Don't discount the value of pdf downloads and video views! I once worked with a company that allowed us to built a point system into each of these actions. A pdf download was worth 3 points and a newsletter sign-up was worth 10. Each month we trending the interaction using total points. Our goal was to improve the overall interaction on the site. Using points rather then downloads or video views helped us connect with the key executives that controlled the online budget and gave everyone on the team a tangible goal.

    Other KPI thoughts:
    Trend new links to the site. Use this to show successful branding and market penetration.

    Set-up Google Alerts and track how many other sites mention your Brand when pages are indexed. Find out who is talking about the Brand and what they are saying. Push these results back to the client as often as necessary..specially bad press, if someone has something bad to say about the Brand find out who and why so the company can address it quickly. You could trend the mentions each month.

    Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts.

  • Posted by Neil on 7/28/2008 at 2:41 AM Member
    You set a goal (e.g., people signing up for your email newsletter) and then measure it.

    If it is another sort of goal, then Google Analytics can be very helpful and it is free.
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