Making heads or tails of analytics
July 29, 2014
The following post is measuring analytics from a three page pdf for a hypothetical health-oriented business in central Florida.
This business has an online presence through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and e-newsletter. However, Facebook and the e-newsletter are the only data provided.
To begin, seeing the color green on your analytics reports is a good thing because it means that you have gained positive ground. At the opposite end of the spectrum is red–a color that you do not want to see in an analytics reports because it means that something was not a success. According to this specific Facebook Insights report, there was an increase of 0.69% of likes which equates to roughly six new people becoming fans–seeing a total of 880 page likes. Without knowing how long this company has been on Facebook, it is hard to measure whether or not having six new likes is less than an average week, average, or greater than their average. With having limited knowledge, I’m going to express that this is a positive change since it is an increase in having the potential to reach more people. Our second field, “friends of fans,” is also green since we’ve gained more fans. This particular field has increased by 1.31%. Then, red. The “people talking about this,” category saw over a 50% decrease in the amount of conversation and engagement generated by this company’s posts. This is an area that will need to be concentrated on–so I’ve noted it. Lastly, our “weekly total reach” is up over 39%. We’ve successfully been able to get ourselves in front of more people. Our key is going to be converting these lookers into clickers to help increase the amount of people talking about this company.
Exploring further into the Facebook Insights we are able to see which posts faired best, and which flopped. The post which reached the most people and saw engagement was on May 29th and began with, “Join us tomorrow morning in the…” Other successful posts included May 28th’s “Join in some…” and May 27th’s “Take a moment and thank all who have…”
In addition, we are able to analyze the company’s demographic from the Facebook stats. More than 60% of users are female, with the largest age group being 25-34 years of age being 28.6%. This age group is also the most popular among the male’s boasting a 18.2% share.
This company’s Facebook reach is primarily within the United States with 5,107 users and the most popular area of the United States is the central Florida region where this company is located (over 1,634 users from Orlando, 252 from Celebration, 243 from Kissimmee, 100 from Davenport).
Analyzing the reach chart, we are able to see that this company did not pay for any ads, and organic remains flatlined as well–tho sitting slightly higher. The viral category is sitting around an estimate of about 5,000 to begin with and dips up and down inconsistently. Total reach sits slightly below 6,000.
Under the “Visits to Your Page” heading, we can see that this company experiences a lot of return viewers. The most popular tab views come from the company’s time line, followed by the profile and photo stream. Referrers included 9 from Google, 2 from Outlook, and 1 from Yahoo, Bing and Issuu.
Who exactly is talking about this page? 68.9% are female and 31.1% are male. 29.2% are females and 12.3% are males between 25-34.
Facebook Conclusion:
To begin with, the email newsletter has more subscribers than the Facebook page has likes. A great idea to integrate the two would be to include a link in the email newsletter to the Facebook page to remind subscribers that, “Hey we have a Facebook!”
It’s also important to integrate the other social media channels into the Facebook plan. For example, this health company can post vivid images to Pinterest and have the link to the images be to their Facebook, or another account which they are trying to drive traffic to. Pinterest is a really great tool to use, especially for health and fitness. Personally, I know that myself and my friends use Pinterest to look up healthy recipes, new workout routines, and funny memes to keep us inspired to stay on our diets. So, Pinterest would be a great place for this company to explore and spread their content and links around. Myself and my friends are also in this company’s largest demographic–important side note.
A great goal for this company would be to engage more with fans in order to increase the “people talking about this,” category shown on the analytics dashboard. A fun way to do this would be to post original content that the company has possibly linked to their Pinterest account or share special deals that they may be offering. Some companies on Facebook also run contests to drive more users to their page which can in turn raise the amount of your Facebook likes and up the company’s “people talking about this,” when users participate. An example for an easy contest may be (depending on if this said health company is a supplier of products or if it is a gym) creating a special gift basket that is full of healthy snacks, vitamins, health book or magazine, and any other trendy products. This company can even use special products that have their branding on them–ie: a water bottle with their company name and logo for promotional purposes. Everyone loves the opportunity to win prizes, so a simple “Like us and comment on this post with your favorite product for the chance to win,” may be a quick and easy way to boost analytics.
Moving on to analyzing the email marketing blast we are able to see that it was sent to 2,624 people. The delivery rate was 99.3% so only 2,606 emails actually got delivered to user inboxes. Out of those who did receive the email, and at the time of this screen shot, only 661 people had opened the email; that’s a 25.4% open rate. Next, we move on to the click rate which was 10.9%, or just 72 clicks.
Email Conclusion:
MailChimp, a service which I personally use with my employer, lists the average health and fitness email blast with an open rate of 24.27%. In all technicality, that 25.4% is above average. BUT, what can this company do to potentially have an even higher open rate?
1. Having an exciting subject line that will entice people going through their inboxes to open up the message.
2. Make sure you’re able to get past spam filters by reminding users when they sign up to add you to their address book.
3. Try sending the email on a different day/time and see if that fairs better in comparison.
For the company to improve their click rate, they are going to want to make sure they place the most interesting content at the top of the email. If their subscribers do not see something that catches their eyes fairly quickly, they are going to toss the email. We are all guilty of doing this when we go through out emails–because we get a ton. The company needs to make their call to action clear. If a new product is going to be launched–let’s say a new vitamin–they’re going to want to feature that at the top of the email, highlight interesting and key facts about the vitamin and have a link or button next to it where users can be directed to the website (or wherever the company would like them to go) to discover additional information or to make a purchase.
Now, have can this company increase the sign up rate for their email newsletter? Offering special incentives for email subscribers only would be a great benefit! Think about why you give your favorite stores in the mall your email–you want access to coupons and sales! By offering a special promotional coupon for first time subscribers, that may increase their motivation to sign up. The company can then periodically offer special discounts and savings to their loyal subscribers.
If the company decides to host a contest via Facebook, it would be beneficial to feature it in the e-newsletter. Again, people love free things, and if the contest is little to no effort to enter, it could potentially see a lot of traffic. This may also result in subscribers forwarding the message to their friends who are fans of the health and fitness world–who may wind up subscribing to the newsletter for future deals, information and contests. Even a simple subject line about the contest may help increase the open rate, “Win $250 worth of our favorite picks, now!”
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Tags: analytics, email, Facebook, IMC, integration, MMC5006, results