It almost seems predictable, particularly being an advocate and champion for the "user / customer / consumer / visitor/ shopper / buyer / lurker / blogger/..." that at some point we had to move beyond the fixation on "conversions" as a success metric for marketing. Evolving and adapting to the new influences and effects of social media, "engagement" is finally a holistic metric worth sinking your teeth into. Forester Research has published a report and advises that marketers need this "new approach."
All for the engagement metric say "I'
The engagement metric, according to Forester, includes four key components:
- involvement
- interaction
- intimacy
- influence
Brian Haven of Forrester Research includes a synoposis of each of these components on the Forester Marketing Blog:
Involvement
Includes web analytics like site traffic, page views, time spent, etc. This essentially is the component that measures if a person is present.
Interaction
This component addresses the more robust actions people take, such as buying a product, requesting a catalog, signing up for an email, posting a comment on a blog, uploading a photo or video, etc. These metrics come from e-commerce or social media platforms.
Intimacy
The sentiment or affinity that a person exhibits in the things they say or the actions they take, such as the meaning behind a blog post or comment, a product review, etc. Services such as brand monitoring help track these types of conversations.
Influence
Addresses the likelihood that a person will recommend your product or service to someone else. It can manifest itself through brand loyalty or through recommendations to friends, family, or acquaintances. These metrics mostly come from surveys (both qualitative and quantitative).
Brrr! Conversion and traffic metrics are cold.
Just looking back at the "coldness" of conversion rates -- "how do we churn and burn" with each conversion action, this metric finally addresses the obvious that these are people behind the "desired actions" and if we understand our customers' involvement in context to every interaction they have with us and learn more closely what they want and need to continue down the path -- and what motivates them to continue through to the end, it's a much deeper and richer understanding. Sadly, metrics (because there is so much data) often force marketers to analyze the numbers than getting to intimately know the "people" behind them. This metric, as Forester puts it, is "a more holistic appreciation of your customers' actions, recognizing that value comes not just from transactions but also from actions people take to influence others."
Did you hear that?
That is me standing on my chair cheering!
"People" being described in the same sentence of what you are measuring. Could it be that the pendulum is swinging back from number of clicks to "number of chicks." :) If we know who is using our sites and why and how we make it easy for them to engage, "we've got it." It sounds simple, but I think this basis premise has been overlooked by the bean counters.
Yes, Finally!
I know people complain that "engagement" is yet another buzzword to throw around, but really if we take the true meaning for what it is worth, there should really be a sigh a relief that metrics have truly found their way to the user. As Forester notes, "Once engagement takes hold of marketing, marketing messages will become conversations, and dollars will shift from media buying to customer understanding."
Ah, that's music to my ears!
