A few years ago, I wrote a post
where I lamented the fact that analytics fails are often blamed on
technology when, in fact, the technology is not the problem and
changing it solves nothing.
One of the main causes for failure I
noted there was faulty data resulting not from a technology issue; but from
poor governance rendering the analytics untrustworthy – and thus nearly
useless. In other words, it’s a content problem, not a packaging issue.
As a follow-up to that post, I want
to discuss an analogous issue that I see in digital marketing.
Lately, I have been implementing
analytics on the digital properties for organizations that do not have much
experience with digital marketing. These clients launch their websites and
social presence with high expectations that they will generate interest and
high levels of engagement with their intended audiences.
Often, I can report that they do… at
first.
And then it all falls off. Sometimes
very quickly. Traffic starts to wither and the visitors that do come no longer
engage as well.
Storytelling is no fun when the data
tells a sad story.
The reactions to this tend to follow
a pattern: The technology must be to blame. First they question the accuracy of
the data. Once I assure them nothing has changed and the analytics are working
properly, attention is turned to the website design and the branding elements
on the social platforms. What often follows is some modest experimentation with
design changes that yields little or no improvement.
Soon, there is talk of an entire
website redesign. It’s around this time that I suggest that maybe the
technology platforms are not the problem. Perhaps the content that worked well
at launch has become stale and needs regular updates to remain relevant and
compelling.
Once that reality sets in, the idea
of experimenting with fresh content in the form of messages, photos, video,
etc. starts to look better than a time consuming, and likely expensive site
redesign.
At this point, the problem becomes
that the staffing plan does not include having people dedicated to developing
new content on an ongoing basis. This, in turn, creates resistance. A one-time
design change is easier to pay for.
The only way I know to counter this
flawed thinking is with a focused effort, even if it is temporary, to release
new content, and monitor the impact.
Results will vary, but fresh content
nearly always results in a positive spike in all the important metrics. This
improvement, however, can only be sustained with an ongoing effort and
dedicated resources, along with an incremental design optimization program to
maximize the impact of your content.
That is - people and process will
matter more than technology in the long run.
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