The holiday season is underway. Set your KPIs and gather your data to inform your content marketing strategies for 2015. Don't miss out on valuable Black Friday and Cyber Monday metrics.

1. Marketing Analytics
Dos and Don’ts of the Holiday Rush

2. The Season is Underway
B2C companies looking for a quick fix?
DECEMBER
Make your
own sale
time for
your
customers.
Here’s
an
idea:
1 2 3 4 5 6
We’re not
crazy
Wednesday
That’s a
relief
Thursday
Take your
time
Tuesday
7 8 9 10 11 12 13

3. Wait for the Mayhem to Die Down
B2B companies just trying to close business for the end of
the year?
Here’s a tip: Wait until you have share of mind and your
voice can be heard. Forget about shouting at
the busiest time of year. Talk to your customers
when they can hear you.
Don’t Do

4. There’s Still Time to Set KPIs
Before the madness begins, make sure you’re measuring what
matters. Build smarter campaigns and long term marketing goals
by tracking some of the same KPIs year round.
•Onsite Traffic
•Offsite Traffic
•Traffic to your site as a whole
•Traffic to your site by campaign
•First time visitors as a whole
•First time visitors by campaign
•Total conversions for your content

5. Traffic Report
Your campaign traffic should be segmented by:
When tracking traffic to your site, make sure
you are aggregating views and interactions.
Set a baseline to compare across both.
Hint:
•Content groups
•Time period
•An aggregate of both
•Keyword segmentation

6. Unique Visitors
When setting KPIs for campaigns, watch for unique visitors to your site.
•Track which campaigns are re-engaging certain audiences
•Know what is driving new traffic and new visitors to your site
•Repurpose the successful campaigns into new channels
•Use successful keywords in new content

7. Set Up Conversions
Set up conversions in your analytics system for multiple points:
For B2C
Shopping cart fill Final Sale
For B2B
Free
Demo
Trial
Demo Request
Download of white paper
Free Trial

8. Traffic Report
Break out your conversions into these segments:
✴Marketing Channel
✴Campaign
✴Content Type
✴Search Engine
✴Device

9. Marketing Channel Insights
Gather data to understand how much each of these
marketing channels is contributing to conversions.
•Email
•Social
•Paid Search
•Organic Search
•Advertising
•Referral
•Public Relations

10. Marketing Performance Insights Chart
Your marketing channel data might look something like this:

11. Conversion by Campaign
Track campaigns to discover:
•Which campaign is converting the most traffic
•What campaign to repeat season to season
•What campaign to repeat holiday to holiday
•What campaign did not perform as expected
•Ways to improve next year

12. Converisons by Content Type
Not all content is created equal. Track content by type:
Website content
Blog
Landing pages
Static site
YouTube videos Videos

13. Search Engine Conversions
Search engine conversions are those folks that have landed on your
page through organic search. Know their journey and amplify it.
Know what converted them
Know what content led them to your site
Use that content as a new marketing campaign
Repurpose for an ad campaign
Don’t lose track of these people. They are self-selected
and will be your longest lasting conversions.
Hint:

14. Conversion by Device
Most everyone has access to the internet all day long
through either mobile or desktop devices. Know how
these people are coming to your site by percentages.
•Tablet
•Smartphone
•Wearable
•Laptop
•Desktop

15. Set Your Baseline
When measuring the efficacy of this season’s
campaign, use baselines set at different intervals:
All of 2014
Q Q Q Q 1 2 3 4
Cyber
Monday
Friday
28
Quarters Black Friday
Cyber Monday
For most analytics platforms, you should be able to go
back and get this information, if you don’t already have it. If
you don’t own all this information, break down the silos and
share information with other groups in your organization.
Hint:

16. Holiday Season Metrics
This is a great time of year to update keywords and topics in
organic search to match any ongoing campaigns.
•Track keyword and topic effectiveness this season
•Use the comparisons in the future
•Discover holiday terms to improve campaigns
•Know what type of words describe your product best
•Understand what kinds of sales work best for your audience
•Focus on terms such as deal versus sale
•Focus on descriptions that created traffic
Hint:
Don’t forget to note non-holiday terms that increase
traffic to make your ongoing yearly campaigns better.

17. Don’t Overlook Key Discoveries
Sometimes we discover things during this end of year
push that could be applied to any time of the year.
•Keep track of new insights
•Review at least 5 things that work
•Study 5 things that didn’t work
•Look past the holiday season into the entire year
•Use key discoveries as part of goals of the New Year
1
2
3
4
5

18. Make Changes Now
If you’re thinking about getting a new analytics platform, adding a
new marketing channel, or any other change, why not try it now?
A good time to experiment with your marketing mix is the
time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. People are so
busy that it generally gives marketers time to work out the
kinks before investing in changes fully in the New Year.
Hint:

19. Differentiating Baseline from Campaign
Baseline: The aggregate of all marketing activities and thematic
campaigns over a specified period of time.
1 Month
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat
A Week
6 Months
3 Month
A Year

20. Baseline to Take a Longer View
Use baselines to compare quarters to the year, or months
to the year, or days to the year and get a better idea of
traffic and conversions overall. Set your baselines to
measure the aggregate of all your marketing efforts.
✴Across channels
✴Across campaigns
✴Across devices
✴Across content type

21. Get Ready for the Holiday Crush
1. Make sure you have your analytics in place
2. Find 3-5 new KPIs to track across campaigns
3. Try tracking some new things as you learn about visitors
4. Pepper in new data points
All this work now will help you make better,
smarter marketing decisions in the future.
Hint: