Digital Customer Analysis Going Mainstream?

Analytics Education

Is it possible the mainstream digital marketing space is about to finally move on from a focus on front-end measurement (campaigns, etc. ) to creating knowledge around how enterprise value as a whole is created?  And actually enabling action in this area?

Judging by the material coming out of the recent Martech conference in Boston, one would think so.  And it looks to me like I’m not the only one thinking “it’s about time”.

A couple of years ago I lamented:

It’s been very popular among marketing types to talk about “the customer” but seek metrics for affirmation other than those based on or derived from the customer. Digital analysts have followed their lead, and provided Marketers plenty of awareness, engagement, and campaign metrics. As I’ve said in the past, this is a huge disconnect. Does it make sense (analytically) to have discussions about customer centricity, customer experience, customer service, the social customer, etc. and measure these effects at impression or visit level?

If you’d like to review some commentary on the conference, see a list of 5 posts here.  I found the list of tweets here particularly indicative of Martech’s potential, for example:

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Marketing Funnel Not Dead, Using Funnel Model for Attribution Is

DataBase Marketing, Web Analytics

It’s become fashionable to declare the “Marketing Funnel Model” dead.

For example, here is a post worth reading on this topic by Rok Hrastnik. There are some very good points in this post on why using a funnel to attribute media value is really a troubled idea. I was flagged on this post because it has a quote from me that seems to support Rok’s  thesis about the death of the funnel model and the related idea, “Direct Response Measurement is a Wet Dream”. The quote is from a comment I made on a post by Avinash where we were discussing the value of sequential attribution models:

There are simply limits on what can be “proven” given various constraints, and that’s where experience and a certain amount of gut feel based on knowledge of customer kick in. If you can’t measure it properly, just say so. So much damage has been done in this area by creating false confidence, especially around the value of sequential attribution models where people sit around and assign gut values to the steps. Acting on faulty models is worse than having no information at all.

But none of this means the Funnel Model is dead, or that Direct Response Measurement overall is a Wet Dream. What’s (hopefully) dead is people using the funnel model inappropriately for tasks it was never designed for, in this case multi-step attribution of media value to goal achievement. On the other hand, if this specific funnel use case is what Rok was coming after, I agree, because it didn’t make any sense to use a funnel model for this idea in the first place.

Let’s unpack these ideas

Funnel thinking is based on a relatively reliable model of human behavior, AIDA.  This model from human psychology does not specify tools, channels, or media.  It simply says that there is a path to purchase most humans follow. That is:

A – Attention: (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer
I – Interest:  (Intent) promote advantages and benefits
D – Desire: convince customers the product will satisfy their needs
A – Action: lead customers towards taking action / purchace

Example: I’m Aware of tons of products I would never buy. There are lots of products I think are Interesting but I have no Desire for. There’s a short list of products I Desire but have not Acted on. The list of products in my head worthy of purchase consideration gets smaller and smaller at each stage of the AIDA model. This is the funnel.

The AIDA funnel has not changed and it’s not dead.

It’s a model of human behavior, not media consumption.

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Marketing to Focus on Customer. Analytics?

DataBase Marketing

It’s been very popular among marketing types to talk about “the customer” but seek metrics for affirmation other than those based on or derived from the customer.  Web analysts have followed their lead, and provided Marketers plenty of awareness, engagement, and campaign metrics.  As I’ve said in the past, this is a huge disconnect.  Does it make sense (analytically) to have discussions about customer centricity,  customer experience, customer service, the social customer, etc.  and measure these effects at the impression or visit level?

Is someone who visits or purchases or comments one time really a customer, for the purposes of analyzing “centricity” ideas and concepts?  I think not.  Visit metrics simply don’t work for understanding these customer concepts, because by definition they unfold over time, not as single events.   Add in the fact most web activity is 1x in nature – even buyers – and you begin to realize that analyzing “traffic” yields very little in the way of “customer” insight.

From a Marketing perspective, hey, happy to have the 1x revenue, but these are interactions I’m not really excited about increasing spend on, knowing they will be a one-night stands.  This is especially true when you also know re-allocating some of the funds spent on the 90% 1x-ers to the other 10% could double company profits!

If you have followed my writings over the past 12 years, none of the above perspective is new.  What might be changing is this: more people in the online world are beginning to think the same way.

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