A customer life cycle framework includes metrics for reach,
\nacquisition, conversion and retention. This framework gives you a
\nbusiness model for understanding the nature of your business in relation
\nto other businesses.<\/p>\n
In today’s business environment, the trend is for most businesses to
\nuse both online and offline channels in their marketing plans. The broad
\ncategories of reach, acquisition, conversion and retention can be used
\nto further clarify the metrics you measure.<\/p>\n
Whereas in the past, marketing managers could simply report that they
\ngot 30 percent more visitors who bought 10 percent more widgets. Now,
\nusing a customer life cycle framework to interpret the powerful reports
\nin web analytics solutions, managers can pinpoint the initiatives that
\nbrought more visitors or the optimal sales path that increased sales.
\nYou can identify the marketing activities that succeed and those that
\ndon’t, fine tuning your marketing activities.<\/p>\n
The following are definitions for the metrics in the customer life
\ncycle. These metrics will be used when you create your Key Performance
\nIndicators, the means for achieving your business goals.<\/p>\n
For our purposes, reach is defined as the likelihood of gaining
\nsomeone’s attention. This can be displayed in a number of ways,
\ndepending on how you are looking at it.<\/p>\n
Each qualifier is both easy and difficult to measure. Any banner
\nnetwork can tell you how many banner impressions were served or the
\nnumber of times your search phrases were used. Likewise, any magazine or
\nnewsletter can tell you how many readers they have. Any marketing
\nvendor can tell you how many valid addresses your direct mail piece was
\nsent to. But how could you know how many people read your article or
\nactually received your piece of mail? And if they did receive it, how
\ndo you know they opened it? It is impossible to accurately calculate
\nthis data.<\/p>\n
This is why reach is difficult to measure. No matter how powerful
\nyour web analytics solution, no one can tell you the number of people
\nwho actually read and think about your marketing message.<\/p>\n
For that reason, reach is tied to acquisition; we can’t measure the
\nnumber of people who read a message but we can infer this value from the
\npercentage of people you are able to acquire. So when thinking about
\nreach, keep in mind that it is correlated to the actual acquisition of
\nvisitors.<\/p>\n
If reach is defined as the likelihood of gaining someone’s attention,
\nthen acquisition can be defined as how well you got it. Did they make
\nit to your site? Did they click on a link or type your domain in their
\nbrowser and bring themselves to your site? That’s acquisition.<\/p>\n
\nTo some, acquisition is more accurately measured in terms of a visitor
\nnot only arriving, but also engaging in some sort of action, like a
\npurchase. However, any visitor who lands on your site as a result of one
\nof your ads has the potential to complete an activity of value. Thus,
\nit can be considered an act of arrival or response.<\/p>\n
Acquisition stats are focused on your source of traffic, which can be
\nthe referring domain, a search engine or a search key phrase. Your web
\nanalytics solution extends this measurement, allowing for the
\nqualification of visitors. In so doing, it runs into the measurement of
\nconversion.<\/p>\n
Conversion and the activities leading to this action are the raison
\nd’etre for your website. Conversion is the successful completion of
\nspecific activities by your site visitors that result in a positive
\ncontribution to your bottom line.<\/p>\n
Conversion can be measured differently for different activities.
\nConversion does not have to equal a sale. It can be the downloading of a
\ndocument or application, the act of submitting information to generate
\nleads, the locating of information in an FAQ or support document, the
\nact of navigating from a general to a more specific page, the specific
\namount of time spent on a website, the viewing of a specific number of
\npages, or viewing key pages like the services page with pricing
\ninformation.<\/p>\n
Studying the sales path to conversion will help you make changes to
\nyour website and influence marketing initiatives that will impact your
\nvisitors’ ability to complete desired goals. This is a win-win situation
\nbecause it leads to customer satisfaction and increased profits for
\nyour business<\/p>\n
We have discussed the fact that a website may want to measure many
\ndifferent conversion rates. It is important to measure all the
\nconversion rates that matter, but do not compare your rates to those of
\nothers. Research firms have published studies about conversion rates by
\nbusiness category, and this information is interesting, but it should
\nnot be used to gauge your own success. Your measure of success should be
\nthe increase (or desirable decrease) in your site’s key performance
\nindicators over time.<\/p>\n
Select the top three or four key performance indicators for your
\nwebsite (or marketing campaigns) and measure these over time, tracking
\nprogress and making the changes that will improve future conversions. It
\nis also important to keep your conversion rates to yourself since
\ncompetitors can use the data to your disadvantage.<\/p>\n
The reach, acquisition and conversion phrases in the customer life
\ncycle have been very time-invested, but now you need to concentrate on
\nkeeping those repeat customers. Research says that an existing customer
\nis worth more than a new customer, so you need to monitor and hold on to
\nthem – which is no easy task with the Internet making competitors just a
\nclick away. If you sell a product, someone can make it cheaper. If you
\nprovide a service, someone can always do it better or faster. Unless
\nyour products and services are well branded or very unique, your
\nbusiness will always be subject to churn.<\/p>\n
That is why it is important to measure retention. Retention measures
\nthe activities of your repeat customers, tracking everything they do on
\nyour site whether it is a purchase or any other activity. By watching
\nthe individual actions of your repeat customers, you can respond
\noptimally to their needs, then up sell and cross sell products and
\nservices to them. Visitor segmentation tools are an important aid to
\nunderstanding your repeat customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A customer life cycle framework includes metrics for reach, acquisition, conversion and retention. This framework gives you a business model for understanding the nature of your business in relation to other businesses. In today’s business environment, the trend is for most businesses to use both online and offline channels in their marketing plans. The broad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101022,"featured_media":0,"parent":62564,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62850","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"