The Small But Mighty Marketing Podcast
Josh Becerra and Shinhee Son share insights on ways to prioritize learning over metrics and connect digital marketing to your business’s bottom line. Join us each episode as we explore data, strategy, communication, and processes to help you drive results with clear accountabilities that your whole company can get behind. Learn from experiences shared by the hosts and special guests who’ve gone from scrappy to scalable.
The Small But Mighty Marketing Podcast
Stop Letting Data Own You - Small But Mighty Marketing Podcast Ep 5
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Join hosts Josh Becerra and Shinhee Son as they discuss the real impact of broken analytics. Imagine reporting on your revenue, only to find that it all drops to zero after an update.
We discuss:
Why analytics often fail during migrations
Common mistakes marketers make with tracking
How to get alignment on your KPIs with leadership
The steps to building a reliable source of truth
🎧 Tune in to learn how to keep your data under control!
Explore more content from leaders in the marketing community on our podcast. Or visit our blog to find more digital marketing tips and ideas.
Want to learn more about Augurian? Reach out to speak with an Augur today about your marketing strategy and digital advertising performance.
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So imagine that you've been reporting on
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revenue numbers, transaction numbers, and
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then the next thing you know, you have
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zero. Where is it that we find the
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data that tells us we're having success
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or not?You think you might be doing a
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great job dotting your i's, crossing all
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your t's, but it literally just takes one
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little update or one little thing to miss
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and it'll break your analytics. As
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marketers, we need to be able to have a
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story to tell. There has to be a a
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narrative, right?It all comes down to
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talking to your salesgetting buy-in.
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These are all communications you know
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that you need to have regularly and
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proactively, especially the education
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part so that no one's surprised.
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Welcome to the Small but Mighty Marketing
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podcast. I've got Josh, Becerra
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president and co-founder of Augurian, and
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myself, director of marketing here. And
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I'm really excited about today's
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conversation, today's topic. Yeah, it
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should be a good one. We're going to be
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talking about analytics today.
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And yes, it might sound boring, but it
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really is. Analytics isn't boring.
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I mean, I guess it depends on who you
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talk to. Yeah. But if you're listening or
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watching this, if you're feeling
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confused or overwhelmed a lot of times
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when you're thinking about your
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analytics, and if making
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sense of it all feels like another
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full-time job, 'cause it could definitely
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feel that way, I mean, we're gonna be
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diving into this, this whole episode's
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gonna be talking about that, getting more
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clarity around your analytics,And instead
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of feeling like your data owns you,
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we want to change the relationship and
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have you own the data that you're
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currently getting. I like it. So yeah, so
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that's really the purpose of today's
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episode today, and so if that sounds like
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you, let's change that relationship so
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you can lead, you can grow, and you can
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level up in your organization with
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confidence. Yeah, own your data, don't
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let it own you. There we go. So let's
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let's get into it. All right. So I wanted
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to kick it off first withSomething we've
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been experiencing recently with some of
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our clients, specifically e-commerce
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clients. I know what you're about to say.
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Yeah. So the Shopify has
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rolled out a new update that they're
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really pushing all their their websites
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and the the people that own websites to
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to update. And it's related to their
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shopping cart. Sure. And so what ended up
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happening was that it actually broke
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e-commerce analytics. So imagine that.
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You've been reporting on revenue numbers,
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transaction numbers, and then the next
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thing you know, you have zero. That's
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what's happening right now. And they're
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they're forcing people to make this
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update. Yeah, yeah without a lot of
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information about like, hey, when you
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make this update, it might break your
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stuff. So that's never good. Yeah, that's
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a problem. And unfortunately, this is
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pretty common, where companies like
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Shopify or platforms like Google
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They will make updates and it will break
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things. Yeah. And I'm sure you guys that
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are listening to this have experienced
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this multiple times. And so I want to
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talk a little bit about the impact of
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these software updates, platform updates.
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Or even site migrations because I would
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consider that as a pretty big update.
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Sure. Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, Josh, have
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you like experienced or heard a lot of
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these kind of horror stories that mean
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come from these?Yeah. So there are the
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platform updates like Shopify and I think
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that that is something to be aware of.
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Sometimes the platforms are good at like
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letting people know. So you're paying
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attention. We kind of caught this,
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dug into it, understood it and then went
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to all of our different clients who are
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on Shopify to say, hey, have you made
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that update?If you're going to, we need
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to make sure that these things don't
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break and fix them right away. So
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platform updates happen
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and yeah, sometimes stuff gets
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broken and sometimes they're great at
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communicating about it and sometimes they
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aren't and we have to play catch up. But
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with the site migrations, that's a whole
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whole nother story. And yeah, you you
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asked the question, do I hear about this
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stuff?I mean, basically when somebody's
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migrating their site. I get three kinds
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of phone calls. One is like, hey, we're
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gonna migrate our site in 12 to 18
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months. We wanted to understand like what
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the implications are of that, maybe get
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into a. Relationship, partnership, so
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that we can kind of ride alongside that
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process to make sure that the all the T's
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are crossed and the I's are dotted. So
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that's the first kind of call I get. The
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second kind of call is, hey, we're in the
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process of migrating our website. We're
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going to launch it in like a month and we
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need your help. And that's kind of more
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of a like, all right, the alarm bells are
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kind of going off, man, we got to do a
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lot of catch up. and try to figure out
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where they're at, what they've done,
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inform them on where they might be
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missing. Sometimes that means we're like
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advocating to push launches back
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because it takes some time to like make
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sure that you know when you do make
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that migration, that you're not losing
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all your data or that you won't be able
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to like have a good year-over-year
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comparison. That's the second kind of
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call, and then the last kind is, My hair
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is on fire. We just migrated our site.
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We lost all of our traffic. We have no
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reporting like we need help right now. So
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avoid that at all costs. I don't like
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receiving those phone calls. It's really
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hard on our team. It's hard on in-house
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teams. Being planful around site
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migrations and your data is
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super important. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
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pretty insane. So I've been part of a lot
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of different migrations and the more you
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want to change, like for example, you
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wanna change everything from the brand
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name to the, which is gonna
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change the website, all the website URLs.
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You're gonna change the design, the
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functionality, even the tech stack. I
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mean, usually the analytics issues will
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come from URL changes
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because it's gonna affect your ad URLs.
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You're gonna have to make sure those get
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updated. But then there's also, when you
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bring in new tech stack, they do have
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different settings, different
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configurations that don't talk the same
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way as the previous platforms that you
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have. And so, you might be doing,
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you think you might be doing a great job
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dotting your I's, crossing all your T's,
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but it literally could just, it just
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takes one little update, or one little
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thing to miss, yeah and it'll break your
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analytics. And it is a very stressful
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time. So, I've seen some
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companies that will try
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to save on costs,
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but if you think about all the checklist
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items that analytics has to look at,the
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PPC paid media teams have to look at, SEO
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teams, web developer, it's a
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laundry list of to use. Yeah, yeah
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And it's very important that you staff
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properly to avoid that high-risk
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scenario where you're done with it and
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you have traffic is zero. Yeah. Revenue
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is zero or something like that. Even if
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it truly isn't, imagine walking into
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your, you know, into a stakeholder meeting
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and talking about the situation that you
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didn't address yeah before that. Yeah, I
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know. You never want to be in that
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situation, for sure. I would just
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say like beyond like
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URLs changing, tech stacks changing, even
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like design choices that are happening in
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the in the migration process, you might
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end up with like different calls to
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action. You know The designer might be
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like, Hey, let's try this new button over
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here, or let's redesign these forms.
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When that happens, if we're not saying,
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Okay, that form is replacing this form
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so that we can do comparisons, or
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that CTA is replacing this
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CTA, now all of a sudden, if we don't do
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those things, we're either not tracking
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the new stuff and tracking the old stuff,
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and then we're like, Hey, what's
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happening?We're really down in
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our MQLs or whatever. Well, no, it's just
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that you're actually not tracking the new
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forms or CTAs. Anyway, a lot of
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times web dev shops are in the know
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about this stuff, but I've had plenty of
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calls where people are not
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understanding why is our traffic
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underperforming after our migration. And
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half the time it's just because like, oh,
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you're not tracking the new stuff on the
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website in the way that in the same kind
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of. Structured way that you were your
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previous information. And so you got
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to connect those dots. Otherwise your
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year over year data looks really weird.
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And then when you're trying to report out
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to leaders and stakeholders, you're kind
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of always in this uncomfortable
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place where you're explaining. And, well,
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this is different from this because of
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all of these reasons, and and that just
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doesn't build confidence. Yeah, another
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another common scenario in migrations
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that I've encountered is
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subdomains. Okay. And
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either they're getting rid of subdomains,
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or now they're gonna move certain things
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to a subdomain. Yeah. And back in the UA
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days, you had to do cross-domain
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tracking, maybe that's still the case
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now. And so, if you guys are
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considering that scenario, you do
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definitely need to consider your
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analytics because it might not track
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properly across the ecosystem or all the
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platforms or websites that you have. Yeah
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Because I typically view subdomains as
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its own website because it usually
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means it has a different experience,
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different audience, and so forth. So if
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that's you, definitely consider
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your analytics setup because you will
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absolutely need to consider those. And
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so, and same thing with the site
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migrations. I feel like, I think it's
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pretty simple having a plan in place,
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being a little bit more, I guess like
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highball it, because almost every
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single time, I haven't been in a
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migration that everything worked
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perfectly. Yeah, yeahRight on time. Sure.
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All the checklist items were checked off.
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Yeah, yeahThere's always something that
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just goes wrong. I've been in a migration
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where, man, the website looks beautiful
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afterwards. All the SEO was like
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top-notch, we got everything optimized,
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URLs cleaned up, and then we didn't have
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the form tracking updated. Right. And
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that scenario is something we went
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through and we're like, oh my gosh, why
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isn't this converting?I'm pretty sure
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this is a better converting website.
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Yeah. And it was just a small, simple
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thing that that was missed on the forms.
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Yeah, and that little thing just erodes
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confidence in like the whole process, and
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so, yeah, it helps to,Make sure that
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you're keeping track of that stuff and
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making sure that you're just really clear
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on, OK, here's the events and the CTAs
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that we were tracking previously. Have
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those changed?Where do they live now?How
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are we going to map back to the previous
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ones so that we can do some
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year-over-year comparisons?Yeah, it's
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really better safe than sorry. But we
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went really deep really, really quickly
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here on heavy stuff like site migrations.
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I will tell you that I I just had a phone
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call with a perspectiveclient,
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what, maybe two weeks ago, and
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they didn't have any tracking on their
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website. Okay. And we were talking about
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starting to do some you know paid media
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and trying to get them going, but they're
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like, and I'm just like, Can we see your
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GA4 data so that we can get a sense for
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kind of baseline for where we're at with
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things and how things are working today?
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And they're like, We don't have Google
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Analytics or any analytics hooked up to
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our website. And I was like, Well, why is
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that?Well, they have a business unit
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that's in the UK and so because of
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GDPR, right, you have to have like the
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little banner that says, hey, this site
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uses cookies and like leaders at the
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time made the decision that
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like they didn't want to have that banner
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and so instead of. Putting the banner,
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they just were like, well, let's just not
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track anything on our website. So they're
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going through the process now at the
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leadership level to get that banner in
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place so that we can start tracking. So
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you know analytics can be like deep
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into site migrations and
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complexity. But I mean, I've run across
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like people who just don't even have
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analytics on their website. So really
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basic stuff. Yeah, and and there's
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definitely discrepancies. Like even, so
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when you're going through site
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migrations, right, and you're planning on
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a new tech stack, you're gonna have to
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assume that they're gonna report just
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differently. Yeah. This is something that
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I've always faced in the entirety of my
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career. Yeah. Is that the numbers you get
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from one platform almost rarely match a
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different platform. Yeah. And so,
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That really what ends up happening is, is
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that that causes a lot of confusion,
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especially amongst leadership when they
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just say, hey, I just want these numbers
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to match because that means I can trust
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in what you're saying. Yeah. And it's
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really important that you develop a
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source of truth. We talk about this a lot
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here. And it's because it really
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eliminates this confusion. Yeah, yeah,
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yeahAnd our analytics department is
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really focused on that because we know
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that if your leadership can trust your
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data and your reports, they are more
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likely to be confident and therefore
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you get more buy-in on a lot of the
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initiatives that you want to run, that
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you know will grow. And so implementing
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that source of truth is so vital.
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Yeah, Yeah for sure. AndLike one of the
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big kind of disruptions that we had
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recently was going from Universal
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Analytics to GA4. There was a lot of
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like uncertainty about, okay, how does
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this data look now in the new
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GA4 platform?How can we map that
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back to Universal Analytics?And that
355
00:13:42,315 --> 00:13:45,035
honestly is not an easy thing to do. The
356
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views of the data are very different,
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and so having that kind ofability to
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track back and put together a good event
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measurement plan in GA4 that's
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representative of Universal Analytics is
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is something that I think a lot of
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companies struggle with, and and so
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having a good analytics team who can
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really help you understand how to map
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those things back is is important. I'll
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just say, too, around like KPIs and
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things like that. You know some of the
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things that I you'll hear me railing on
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all the time and all my LinkedIn content
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is about like getting alignment on what
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your KPIs are, making sure everybody has
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agreed upon source of truth. Because when
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those and like we aren't perfect at
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Agurian at this either, but it is
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something that we were really. Trying to
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make sure we have a clear focus on is
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like, let's make sure that we understand
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the KPI's that our clients are, you know,
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going to be held responsible for. Let's
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align on those things. Let's make sure
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that all of our tactics and strategies
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are driving towards those things. And
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then where is it that we find?the
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data that tells us we're having success
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or not. I mean, we've had you know
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recently even where a client has said,
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well, but here's some data out of this
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CRM that we didn't even know existed
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that's showing you know these numbers.
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And we're like, oh, well, we were using
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this source of truth to tell us that
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we were having success. And they're like,
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well, this is what this is saying. So we
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had to like step back and and
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realign again. And so you know that
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misalignmentis something that's
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super important. We need to like make
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sure we're solving for them, make sure
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we're asking the right questions, make
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sure that we understand what that source
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of truth is. And how often do you
402
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meet marketers that say, Yeah,
403
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we're aligned with the sales team on our
404
00:15:40,795 --> 00:15:43,515
metrics?Yeah, I mean, the whole
405
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marketing sales handshake is
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is fraught with complexity. I
407
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do think that companies that are really
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focusing on their like CRM
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implementation and they're getting buy-in
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from both marketing and sales, that helps
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create a common language.
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And so I would encourage everybody to
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really like lean on the CRM
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because that allows marketers to talk
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revenue, it allows marketers to talk
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leads, qualified leads.
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And that helps us kind of bridge that
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gap or like make that handshake a little
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stronger. Yeah, and that's a great point.
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I mean, so once, you know, if the
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marketing team becomes really confident
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with what the sales team or what the
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00:16:28,275 --> 00:16:29,515
leadership is looking at, which is
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usually gonna be sales numbers and
425
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revenue numbers, if you can see that,
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then you can back your way into, well,
427
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can I connect my marketing analytics or
428
00:16:38,234 --> 00:16:41,194
web analytics data to your CRM, right,
429
00:16:41,194 --> 00:16:43,914
because ultimately we wanna learnHow do
430
00:16:43,914 --> 00:16:46,274
we get more of these sales?Yep.
431
00:16:46,634 --> 00:16:49,434
And how do we map their behavior before
432
00:16:49,434 --> 00:16:51,834
they closed?Yep. Or before they bought
433
00:16:51,834 --> 00:16:54,594
something?I was just gonna say, like, and
434
00:16:54,594 --> 00:16:56,314
marketers can really leverage these
435
00:16:56,314 --> 00:16:58,554
connections with CRM, right?So we talk a
436
00:16:58,554 --> 00:17:00,474
lot about closed loop analytics. Yeah.
437
00:17:00,874 --> 00:17:03,594
And So what that allows us to do is. Get
438
00:17:03,594 --> 00:17:06,114
beyond kind of, oh, you know, we were
439
00:17:06,114 --> 00:17:08,634
able to drive this many clicks or
440
00:17:08,634 --> 00:17:10,714
impressions, then this many clicks to the
441
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website. We were able to drive this many
442
00:17:13,274 --> 00:17:15,914
conversions. Well, we can get beyond the
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conversion with closed loop where we're
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reaching into the CRM, seeing the sales.
445
00:17:20,794 --> 00:17:23,674
Teams activity and when something turns
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into like a closed one deal, now we can
447
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attribute that all the way back, connect
448
00:17:28,674 --> 00:17:30,794
that back to where did that come from?
449
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Yeah, and it allows us as marketers then
450
00:17:33,274 --> 00:17:35,754
to like inform our, you know,
451
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campaigns, strategies. There's
452
00:17:37,834 --> 00:17:39,834
connections that can be made between
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CRM's and platforms like Google Ads that
454
00:17:42,554 --> 00:17:44,874
allow you to, you know, take the.
455
00:17:45,514 --> 00:17:47,994
the audience, which is closed won deals
456
00:17:47,994 --> 00:17:50,554
in the CRM, and find me more of those
457
00:17:50,554 --> 00:17:52,874
people. Yeah And so when we're doing our
458
00:17:52,874 --> 00:17:54,874
best work, I think we're able to close
459
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the loop for our clients on those
460
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analytics. And that really helps
461
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establish that strong handshake between
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sales and marketing. And now we're all
463
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talking the same language. Now we're all
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focused on driving closed won
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deals. And it feels really clear
466
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in terms of all of your advertising
467
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spend. can be focused on
468
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essentially farming, you know, gathering
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these people that you know for certain
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have closed. And so, yeah, that closed
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loop analytics, getting the CRM to
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talk with your web analytics platforms, I
473
00:18:30,474 --> 00:18:32,874
mean, it really unlocks this this whole
474
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other level. And then ultimately if
475
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marketing and sales can align, as we all
476
00:18:37,274 --> 00:18:38,754
know, I mean, if you're driving in your
477
00:18:38,754 --> 00:18:41,154
car listening to this,I mean, it is it is
478
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a very big point of conversation. Yeah.
479
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But when you can work and align together,
480
00:18:45,314 --> 00:18:46,954
I mean, it's such a beautiful thing.
481
00:18:47,114 --> 00:18:48,714
Yeah. You're on the same team.
482
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Recently, we just signed an
483
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analytics project with a company. They
484
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wanna do you know paid media, they wanna
485
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do SEO, but the the marketing
486
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leader who's new, it's an organization
487
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that has been traditionallyyou
488
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know, going to trade shows.
489
00:19:07,434 --> 00:19:09,754
It's like in the engineering space.
490
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And so you know they're they're very much
491
00:19:13,514 --> 00:19:15,874
like have a sales team that's like cold
492
00:19:15,874 --> 00:19:17,754
calling, reaching out. They're going to
493
00:19:17,754 --> 00:19:20,034
trade shows, very like traditional kind
494
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of marketing. And she's come in to
495
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kind of take them to the next level from
496
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a digital perspective. So the very first
497
00:19:27,874 --> 00:19:29,674
thing, I think it was super smart, she's
498
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like, OK, we have to choose a CRM. And
499
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she got on the same page with the sales
500
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team, and they figured out what CRM they
501
00:19:36,313 --> 00:19:38,313
were going to all use, and got
502
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leadership's buy-in. So now leaders are
503
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saying, this is what we're going to use.
504
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Sales team, you have to use this.
505
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Marketing, you have to use this. So they
506
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got that kind of buy-in at that level.
507
00:19:49,353 --> 00:19:52,073
The The next thing she decided to do
508
00:19:52,233 --> 00:19:54,153
was, hey, let's get all of our
509
00:19:54,153 --> 00:19:55,833
closed-loop analytics and all of our
510
00:19:55,833 --> 00:19:58,633
analytics and everything, platforms, set
511
00:19:58,753 --> 00:20:01,353
up. So we have this short kind of
512
00:20:01,353 --> 00:20:04,313
term analytics project to get all of
513
00:20:04,313 --> 00:20:07,193
the the, you know, wiring connected on
514
00:20:07,193 --> 00:20:09,913
the back end. Yeah. And then in a month's
515
00:20:09,913 --> 00:20:11,873
time we'll start doing paid media with
516
00:20:11,873 --> 00:20:14,633
them and and she'll know that we have
517
00:20:14,633 --> 00:20:17,113
everything like the measurement strategy,
518
00:20:17,273 --> 00:20:20,193
the event plan all set up. It's
519
00:20:20,193 --> 00:20:21,913
where you got closed-loop analytics
520
00:20:21,913 --> 00:20:24,193
closed-loop analytics set up Yeah, and so
521
00:20:24,193 --> 00:20:25,913
now now they're in a good place to
522
00:20:25,993 --> 00:20:28,913
actually start deploying Ad dollars
523
00:20:28,913 --> 00:20:30,353
where they're gonna be able to
524
00:20:30,353 --> 00:20:32,593
understand, you know, is it working?Isn't
525
00:20:32,593 --> 00:20:34,473
it working?What's working?What isn't
526
00:20:34,473 --> 00:20:37,353
working, right?So super smart and I just
527
00:20:37,353 --> 00:20:39,593
think kind of that that analytics first
528
00:20:39,593 --> 00:20:42,313
approach is a great way to think
529
00:20:42,313 --> 00:20:44,873
about You know marketing from a digital
530
00:20:44,873 --> 00:20:47,353
perspective. Yeah, I mean, so if you're
531
00:20:47,353 --> 00:20:49,433
thinking about, okayI've been hearing
532
00:20:49,433 --> 00:20:51,193
about this source of truth. What are the
533
00:20:51,193 --> 00:20:54,113
high-level steps that you know I need to
534
00:20:54,113 --> 00:20:55,913
do?I mean, first, I think it is that
535
00:20:55,913 --> 00:20:58,353
shared common language around the metrics
536
00:20:58,353 --> 00:21:00,273
that matter to the business, right?So
537
00:21:00,273 --> 00:21:02,793
what you can, once you get that KPI
538
00:21:02,793 --> 00:21:04,433
figured out and the objectives of the
539
00:21:04,433 --> 00:21:06,673
organization, then you really need to
540
00:21:06,673 --> 00:21:08,073
look at your data sources and the
541
00:21:08,073 --> 00:21:10,393
platforms that currently give you that
542
00:21:10,393 --> 00:21:13,073
information so you can decide how many of
543
00:21:13,073 --> 00:21:16,073
these platforms actuallySupport or
544
00:21:16,153 --> 00:21:18,153
get you this data. Yeah. And then now you
545
00:21:18,153 --> 00:21:20,073
can decide, well, what is this a good
546
00:21:20,313 --> 00:21:22,153
platform?Yep. Should I move to a
547
00:21:22,153 --> 00:21:24,073
different platform?Because what you
548
00:21:24,073 --> 00:21:25,673
really want when you're choosing a data
549
00:21:25,673 --> 00:21:28,233
platform is that it's robust and it can
550
00:21:28,233 --> 00:21:29,673
integrate with a lot of different data
551
00:21:29,673 --> 00:21:32,473
sources so that it can collect into one
552
00:21:32,473 --> 00:21:34,633
place, again, one source of truth. And it
553
00:21:34,633 --> 00:21:36,793
makes it a lot easier to implement in
554
00:21:36,793 --> 00:21:38,673
your reporting as well. And once you
555
00:21:38,673 --> 00:21:40,593
choose that platform, if that's in the
556
00:21:40,593 --> 00:21:41,753
stage that you're in, then you start
557
00:21:41,753 --> 00:21:44,233
getting into just. Standardizing. Okay,
558
00:21:44,233 --> 00:21:46,313
now that we've understood the definitions
559
00:21:46,313 --> 00:21:48,953
and so forth, we need to make sure we can
560
00:21:49,273 --> 00:21:51,833
understand what does lifetime value
561
00:21:51,913 --> 00:21:54,833
actually mean?And let's agree on this
562
00:21:54,833 --> 00:21:56,833
formula together. Once you get the
563
00:21:56,833 --> 00:21:58,473
standardized definitions and
564
00:21:58,473 --> 00:22:00,753
calculations, then it really gets into,
565
00:22:01,273 --> 00:22:03,033
you know, where you're looking at like
566
00:22:03,033 --> 00:22:05,033
EPL or like how you're processing this
567
00:22:05,033 --> 00:22:07,313
data, how are you integrating and
568
00:22:07,313 --> 00:22:08,873
centralizing?This is where you get into
569
00:22:08,873 --> 00:22:11,153
like the data structure and importing all
570
00:22:11,153 --> 00:22:13,193
of that and thenThen you really need,
571
00:22:13,193 --> 00:22:15,433
then you're reaching another level where
572
00:22:15,433 --> 00:22:18,393
you need a full-time team managing this
573
00:22:18,393 --> 00:22:20,833
warehousing of all this data to make sure
574
00:22:20,833 --> 00:22:23,313
everything is functioning properly and
575
00:22:23,313 --> 00:22:26,313
optimizing how they work. And then then
576
00:22:26,313 --> 00:22:27,913
you just have to continue to work with
577
00:22:27,913 --> 00:22:30,073
your stakeholders to educate them
578
00:22:30,073 --> 00:22:32,073
throughout this whole process. And so at
579
00:22:32,073 --> 00:22:33,913
a high level, as you think about where
580
00:22:33,913 --> 00:22:35,992
you're at as an organization, consider
581
00:22:35,992 --> 00:22:37,272
where you are, if you have that shared
582
00:22:37,272 --> 00:22:39,751
language, okay, let's start lookingdata
583
00:22:39,751 --> 00:22:41,831
sources. If you've got that covered okay
584
00:22:41,831 --> 00:22:44,071
then let's you know maybe it's figuring
585
00:22:44,071 --> 00:22:46,431
out how do I choose the right platform is
586
00:22:46,431 --> 00:22:48,151
it Google Analytics or is it Adobe you
587
00:22:48,151 --> 00:22:50,631
know whatever you decide. So that should
588
00:22:50,631 --> 00:22:52,751
help you decide what the first step you
589
00:22:52,751 --> 00:22:55,431
can take to getting source of truth. I
590
00:22:55,431 --> 00:22:58,271
talked a little bit about reporting yeah
591
00:22:58,471 --> 00:23:01,111
and this is also a hot topic that we like
592
00:23:01,111 --> 00:23:03,191
to talk about here at Augurian and it's
593
00:23:03,351 --> 00:23:05,911
really the difference between a report
594
00:23:06,391 --> 00:23:07,911
And reporting. And I know you like to
595
00:23:07,911 --> 00:23:09,511
talk about this a lot, Josh. Yeah, that's
596
00:23:09,511 --> 00:23:11,351
kind of my my tagline.
597
00:23:11,511 --> 00:23:13,991
We don't just do reports, we do
598
00:23:13,991 --> 00:23:16,711
reporting. And I think that basically
599
00:23:16,991 --> 00:23:19,991
what that's about is saying-- I've heard
600
00:23:19,991 --> 00:23:22,111
plenty of people come to me and say, you
601
00:23:22,111 --> 00:23:23,711
know our current agency sends us all
602
00:23:23,711 --> 00:23:25,751
these reports. There's a bunch of like
603
00:23:25,751 --> 00:23:28,071
green arrows pointing up, a bunch of red
604
00:23:28,071 --> 00:23:30,871
arrows pointing down. But it's a lot of
605
00:23:30,871 --> 00:23:33,031
data, and I don't know you know what I
606
00:23:33,031 --> 00:23:35,631
should be paying attention to, how to
607
00:23:35,631 --> 00:23:37,911
make sense of all this data. Are we
608
00:23:37,911 --> 00:23:40,631
seeing success?Aren't we?And so, yeah, I
609
00:23:40,631 --> 00:23:42,871
think where the difference between
610
00:23:43,111 --> 00:23:45,271
sending reports and reporting is really
611
00:23:45,271 --> 00:23:48,231
around insights and recommendations.
612
00:23:48,631 --> 00:23:51,351
And so what we, I think, need to do
613
00:23:51,351 --> 00:23:54,151
as marketers is
614
00:23:54,471 --> 00:23:57,111
Make sure that we are distilling
615
00:23:57,111 --> 00:24:00,071
down what the most important pieces of
616
00:24:00,231 --> 00:24:02,871
any report are. Like, what is it that
617
00:24:02,871 --> 00:24:05,431
this report is telling us?What are we
618
00:24:05,431 --> 00:24:08,231
paying attention to?And then based
619
00:24:08,231 --> 00:24:10,671
on those insights, what are our like next
620
00:24:10,671 --> 00:24:13,351
steps and recommendations?Now the other
621
00:24:13,351 --> 00:24:15,831
thing is. we have to think about like who
622
00:24:15,831 --> 00:24:18,231
is the audience of the report. And so
623
00:24:18,231 --> 00:24:20,951
like at Augurian, we'll create reports
624
00:24:21,111 --> 00:24:23,271
that are for the in-house team that's
625
00:24:23,271 --> 00:24:25,351
pretty in the weeds, and they really want
626
00:24:25,351 --> 00:24:28,311
to understand in-depth how things
627
00:24:28,311 --> 00:24:30,791
are working and get those like very
628
00:24:30,791 --> 00:24:33,591
tactical recommendations. But we also
629
00:24:33,591 --> 00:24:35,711
will create reports for like the
630
00:24:35,711 --> 00:24:38,711
executive level, where it's very much
631
00:24:38,711 --> 00:24:41,671
a high-level report, and we've found that
632
00:24:41,671 --> 00:24:44,631
our in-house teams really loveus
633
00:24:44,791 --> 00:24:47,631
creating a more executive summary that
634
00:24:47,631 --> 00:24:50,391
they can then pass on and socialize with
635
00:24:50,391 --> 00:24:53,111
leaders to keep them abreast of like how
636
00:24:53,111 --> 00:24:55,471
things are going without having to get
637
00:24:55,471 --> 00:24:57,591
them in the weeds or have to give them
638
00:24:57,591 --> 00:25:00,151
like this like really in-depth analysis
639
00:25:00,151 --> 00:25:02,471
that you know we don't we don't need them
640
00:25:02,471 --> 00:25:04,631
or want them really to be like you know
641
00:25:04,871 --> 00:25:07,511
focused on on the nitty-gritty. We need
642
00:25:07,511 --> 00:25:09,991
them to have buy-in on like the bigger
643
00:25:09,991 --> 00:25:11,991
picture and where it's going. Yeah. I
644
00:25:11,991 --> 00:25:14,311
mean, if your dashboard or your
645
00:25:14,311 --> 00:25:17,191
report is not driving any kind of
646
00:25:17,191 --> 00:25:19,231
action, you have to address it. Yeah.
647
00:25:19,991 --> 00:25:22,071
When I was early on in my career, right,
648
00:25:22,071 --> 00:25:25,031
I was in SEO for a while and
649
00:25:25,031 --> 00:25:27,031
the reports that I was creating was just
650
00:25:27,031 --> 00:25:28,671
full of numbers because it made sense to
651
00:25:28,671 --> 00:25:30,591
me because I was in the weeds. I
652
00:25:30,591 --> 00:25:32,871
understood. If this number was this way,
653
00:25:32,871 --> 00:25:34,351
then I know exactly where I need to go.
654
00:25:34,351 --> 00:25:35,751
But that's because that was my
655
00:25:35,751 --> 00:25:38,150
responsibility. Right. But you know just
656
00:25:38,150 --> 00:25:40,390
like you mentioned, the further away that
657
00:25:40,390 --> 00:25:43,030
someone is from being in the weeds or in
658
00:25:43,030 --> 00:25:45,390
the trenches of really understanding the
659
00:25:45,390 --> 00:25:47,990
nitty gritty, the more translations that
660
00:25:47,990 --> 00:25:50,910
you need to do for them to understand.
661
00:25:51,190 --> 00:25:53,950
Because their whole responsibility is to
662
00:25:53,950 --> 00:25:56,470
make a strategic decision. Do I
663
00:25:56,470 --> 00:25:59,150
move these dollars into this area
664
00:25:59,350 --> 00:26:01,710
or this strategy?I don't need to know
665
00:26:01,710 --> 00:26:04,550
necessarily the specific tactics or let's
666
00:26:04,550 --> 00:26:06,630
just say the click through rates or the
667
00:26:06,630 --> 00:26:09,070
rankings of the specific keyword or the
668
00:26:09,590 --> 00:26:12,110
CPC's of this. They need to understand,
669
00:26:12,110 --> 00:26:14,790
OK, is this channel performing
670
00:26:14,790 --> 00:26:17,270
better or worse in terms of ROI?
671
00:26:17,670 --> 00:26:19,390
and how much I can squeeze out of this in
672
00:26:19,390 --> 00:26:20,870
a different channel. And that's what I
673
00:26:20,870 --> 00:26:23,190
need to know. Yep. Or if it isn't, if
674
00:26:23,190 --> 00:26:25,270
it's underperforming, why do we think
675
00:26:25,270 --> 00:26:27,350
it's underperforming?And then what are
676
00:26:27,350 --> 00:26:29,910
our next best steps to take?
677
00:26:30,870 --> 00:26:33,590
I do think that we talk about insights,
678
00:26:33,590 --> 00:26:36,070
we talk about reporting. In the end,
679
00:26:36,870 --> 00:26:39,830
as marketers, we need to be able to have
680
00:26:39,910 --> 00:26:42,550
a story to tell. There has to be a a
681
00:26:42,550 --> 00:26:45,270
narrative. Every year, we put
682
00:26:45,270 --> 00:26:47,950
together a plan. We have an idea about
683
00:26:47,950 --> 00:26:50,870
how we're going to capture leads or
684
00:26:50,870 --> 00:26:52,710
how we're going to generate e-comm
685
00:26:52,710 --> 00:26:55,190
revenue or what have you. And we need to
686
00:26:55,190 --> 00:26:58,070
be able to like tell a story
687
00:26:58,070 --> 00:27:00,790
through data about how is that plan
688
00:27:00,790 --> 00:27:03,590
actually going. Are there factors that
689
00:27:03,590 --> 00:27:06,150
may be influencing like why we need to
690
00:27:06,150 --> 00:27:09,030
change the plan mid-course?Could there
691
00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:11,750
be internal factors like
692
00:27:11,750 --> 00:27:13,990
we have a new product launch that we're
693
00:27:13,990 --> 00:27:16,910
puttingDollars behind that we didn't have
694
00:27:16,910 --> 00:27:19,550
in our original plan. Are there
695
00:27:19,550 --> 00:27:21,510
external factors like you know
696
00:27:21,510 --> 00:27:23,430
competitors that are doing things
697
00:27:23,590 --> 00:27:25,830
differently or have launched something
698
00:27:25,830 --> 00:27:28,270
new?Is our messaging, are we seeing that
699
00:27:28,270 --> 00:27:30,710
our messaging isn't resonating somehow
700
00:27:31,030 --> 00:27:33,350
with our target market and we need to
701
00:27:33,350 --> 00:27:35,590
like make that shift. So you know
702
00:27:36,230 --> 00:27:39,030
part I think of the role of a marketer is
703
00:27:39,030 --> 00:27:41,270
to be able to tell that story
704
00:27:41,670 --> 00:27:44,470
from. Here's where we said our plan was.
705
00:27:44,630 --> 00:27:46,710
Here's where we see ourselves today.
706
00:27:47,110 --> 00:27:49,350
Here's how that may differ from what we
707
00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:51,990
had you know thought would happen in our
708
00:27:51,990 --> 00:27:54,470
plan. And you got to like have that that
709
00:27:54,870 --> 00:27:57,350
arc or that narrative as a
710
00:27:57,350 --> 00:28:00,150
marketer, because otherwise leaders will
711
00:28:00,150 --> 00:28:02,630
kind of get disconnected or feel like
712
00:28:03,110 --> 00:28:05,910
this is this. like this plan is
713
00:28:05,910 --> 00:28:07,510
failing, and we don't we don't need to
714
00:28:07,510 --> 00:28:10,070
get into a spot where, as marketers,
715
00:28:10,230 --> 00:28:12,230
we're put into a position where we're
716
00:28:12,470 --> 00:28:14,710
like saying our plan is failing. What we
717
00:28:14,710 --> 00:28:16,710
need to be able to say is we're learning
718
00:28:17,110 --> 00:28:20,070
from our plan. Yeah We set out to do
719
00:28:20,070 --> 00:28:21,750
these things. We're learning.
720
00:28:23,430 --> 00:28:25,510
The game board has shifted a little bit,
721
00:28:25,750 --> 00:28:27,510
and we have to make different moves on
722
00:28:27,510 --> 00:28:28,310
the game board.
723
00:28:31,030 --> 00:28:33,910
are certainly what we need to try to be
724
00:28:33,910 --> 00:28:35,990
pulling out of our data at all times.
725
00:28:35,990 --> 00:28:38,989
Yeah, something that I learned also
726
00:28:38,989 --> 00:28:41,909
over time was that at first I was
727
00:28:41,989 --> 00:28:44,949
creating stories about SEO and how do we
728
00:28:44,949 --> 00:28:47,789
grow SEO and and so forth. And
729
00:28:47,789 --> 00:28:49,829
then I started to realize, you know,
730
00:28:49,989 --> 00:28:52,669
leadership is putting a stake in or a
731
00:28:52,669 --> 00:28:54,949
flag in the ground on a plan that
732
00:28:55,749 --> 00:28:57,909
On a plan, right?On a strategy that
733
00:28:57,909 --> 00:28:59,709
they're gonna put themselves on the line
734
00:28:59,709 --> 00:29:01,989
and say, this is what's gonna work. And
735
00:29:01,989 --> 00:29:04,069
then I started noticing, okay, well,
736
00:29:04,109 --> 00:29:06,949
whatever I'm talking about has to support
737
00:29:07,269 --> 00:29:09,989
or tell this leader, this might not
738
00:29:09,989 --> 00:29:11,749
work in the way that you think it might
739
00:29:11,749 --> 00:29:14,389
work. And as a leader, you're
740
00:29:14,629 --> 00:29:17,269
you're steering the ship, right?Yeah. And
741
00:29:17,989 --> 00:29:20,429
our roles as marketers is to be advisors,
742
00:29:20,429 --> 00:29:22,149
really advise them on whether or not
743
00:29:22,149 --> 00:29:24,669
their plan is working or not working. And
744
00:29:24,669 --> 00:29:27,429
so I I think if you've got a marketing
745
00:29:27,429 --> 00:29:29,949
team you know of a few people or even a
746
00:29:29,949 --> 00:29:32,309
large a large marketing team, I think
747
00:29:32,309 --> 00:29:34,149
it's important to remind them of, hey,
748
00:29:34,149 --> 00:29:36,349
these are the the overall like
749
00:29:36,349 --> 00:29:38,029
overarching narratives that we've got
750
00:29:38,029 --> 00:29:40,549
going on. How does what you're seeing in
751
00:29:40,549 --> 00:29:43,429
your day-to-day supporting or
752
00:29:43,429 --> 00:29:45,669
not like these initiatives that we have?
753
00:29:45,669 --> 00:29:47,829
Because I need to be able to tell that
754
00:29:47,829 --> 00:29:50,789
story that this plan isn't going to work.
755
00:29:51,269 --> 00:29:53,949
And this is what we should be doing
756
00:29:53,949 --> 00:29:55,749
instead. Yeah, and I think you know
757
00:29:55,749 --> 00:29:57,509
making sure that we're not just framing
758
00:29:57,509 --> 00:29:59,349
this as like a negative, like, oh my
759
00:29:59,349 --> 00:30:01,989
gosh, the plans never work. It's also
760
00:30:01,989 --> 00:30:04,869
like, oh my gosh, like this over
761
00:30:04,869 --> 00:30:07,469
here has really started to work. Yeah And
762
00:30:07,469 --> 00:30:09,749
like we need to double down on this. So I
763
00:30:09,749 --> 00:30:12,229
want to actually like reallocate
764
00:30:12,309 --> 00:30:15,189
budget away from the initial
765
00:30:15,189 --> 00:30:17,669
plan because, oh man, if we put more
766
00:30:17,669 --> 00:30:19,469
budget behind this, we're going to like
767
00:30:19,469 --> 00:30:22,469
kill it. And so it's not like this,
768
00:30:22,709 --> 00:30:25,189
oh, it's not working, woe is me kind of a
769
00:30:25,669 --> 00:30:28,309
narrative. It's more of a like, hey, here
770
00:30:28,309 --> 00:30:31,029
is how things have changed, and now we're
771
00:30:31,029 --> 00:30:33,589
seeing success over here that we may
772
00:30:33,829 --> 00:30:36,349
not have anticipated. And we need to be
773
00:30:36,349 --> 00:30:38,149
able to have those conversations about
774
00:30:38,309 --> 00:30:40,949
that learning and be able to then deploy
775
00:30:40,949 --> 00:30:43,669
towards other things that maybe weren't
776
00:30:45,109 --> 00:30:47,829
In the plan initially or were there
777
00:30:47,829 --> 00:30:49,429
weren't the biggest investment in the
778
00:30:49,429 --> 00:30:52,229
plan initially And so like not it's
779
00:30:52,229 --> 00:30:54,709
not a narrative of like woe is me the
780
00:30:54,709 --> 00:30:57,509
plan isn't working more of like What is
781
00:30:57,509 --> 00:31:00,469
working in the plan and how and we
782
00:31:00,469 --> 00:31:02,029
just need to be able to tell that story
783
00:31:02,029 --> 00:31:04,069
so we can shift dollars and reallocate
784
00:31:04,469 --> 00:31:06,949
effort Towards the things that we are
785
00:31:06,949 --> 00:31:09,189
seeing working. Yeah, I mean
786
00:31:09,909 --> 00:31:12,709
Again, for all you listeners or viewers,
787
00:31:12,709 --> 00:31:15,429
imagine that scenario, right?Imagine that
788
00:31:15,749 --> 00:31:18,389
your team is coming to you with advice,
789
00:31:18,629 --> 00:31:21,629
backed by data, to suggest this is
790
00:31:21,629 --> 00:31:23,669
something that's crushing it.
791
00:31:24,709 --> 00:31:27,189
You can go and be confident in your plan,
792
00:31:27,189 --> 00:31:29,189
or or hey, we need to shift so that you
793
00:31:29,189 --> 00:31:32,069
save the company from going down a
794
00:31:32,069 --> 00:31:34,869
wrong path. That is a reality, and that
795
00:31:34,869 --> 00:31:37,589
reality can only really exist when you
796
00:31:37,589 --> 00:31:39,668
haveAnalytics set up
797
00:31:40,028 --> 00:31:42,908
properly and you can get by.
798
00:31:42,908 --> 00:31:45,268
I think you can get by without
799
00:31:45,988 --> 00:31:48,188
a perfect analytics implementation, right?
800
00:31:48,188 --> 00:31:50,308
If you've got great product and great
801
00:31:50,308 --> 00:31:52,708
sales and customer service, that can take
802
00:31:52,708 --> 00:31:55,588
you to some distance. But
803
00:31:55,588 --> 00:31:57,148
when you're swimming with a bunch of
804
00:31:57,148 --> 00:31:59,268
sharks, you need to get an edge, right?
805
00:31:59,268 --> 00:32:01,108
You need an edge. And usually it's the
806
00:32:01,108 --> 00:32:03,588
learning is the edge. Yeah. And learning
807
00:32:03,668 --> 00:32:06,228
only happens with analytics. You look
808
00:32:06,228 --> 00:32:08,068
back at the numbers to see what worked
809
00:32:08,068 --> 00:32:10,788
and what didn't. And that is what ends up
810
00:32:11,188 --> 00:32:13,948
creating distance between you and the
811
00:32:13,988 --> 00:32:16,948
top competitors. And it has to be like
812
00:32:17,028 --> 00:32:19,748
a trusted source of truth. So like, when
813
00:32:19,748 --> 00:32:22,308
you're showing up,With leaders and saying
814
00:32:22,308 --> 00:32:24,428
this is what the data, you can't have a
815
00:32:24,428 --> 00:32:27,068
leader saying, well, you know, that's not
816
00:32:27,068 --> 00:32:29,188
what I'm seeing in the data or that's not
817
00:32:29,188 --> 00:32:31,668
my source of truth. My source of truth is
818
00:32:31,668 --> 00:32:33,588
over here. Like that just can't happen.
819
00:32:33,588 --> 00:32:35,628
We have to have an agreed upon, trusted
820
00:32:35,628 --> 00:32:37,588
source of truth so that we're making
821
00:32:37,588 --> 00:32:40,388
smart business decisions based on
822
00:32:40,388 --> 00:32:42,468
data and the insights that we're
823
00:32:42,468 --> 00:32:45,268
deriving. And I'll say a downstream
824
00:32:45,268 --> 00:32:47,988
effect of. of not having a
825
00:32:47,988 --> 00:32:50,708
source of truth is that when you see data
826
00:32:50,708 --> 00:32:52,708
differences in your reports from
827
00:32:52,708 --> 00:32:55,348
different platforms, I can't tell you how
828
00:32:55,348 --> 00:32:57,388
many hours I have spent trying to
829
00:32:57,388 --> 00:33:00,308
reconcile these different things when
830
00:33:00,308 --> 00:33:02,468
at the end of the day, directionally or
831
00:33:02,468 --> 00:33:04,708
in terms of like precision, it's all
832
00:33:04,708 --> 00:33:06,548
saying one thing. Yeah. But
833
00:33:07,668 --> 00:33:09,588
leadership might just get so caught up on
834
00:33:09,588 --> 00:33:11,508
the fact that this number is slightly
835
00:33:11,508 --> 00:33:13,468
different than this number or different
836
00:33:13,468 --> 00:33:15,988
enough. Like think about all the hours
837
00:33:16,068 --> 00:33:18,908
and and money spent on just reconciling
838
00:33:18,908 --> 00:33:21,788
these things when big picture, you need
839
00:33:21,788 --> 00:33:24,228
to understand what that narrative is. And
840
00:33:24,228 --> 00:33:26,868
so that's part of reporting.
841
00:33:26,948 --> 00:33:28,588
That's part of the source of truth. Like
842
00:33:28,588 --> 00:33:30,348
when you get analytics working for you,
843
00:33:31,188 --> 00:33:32,868
it's not owning you anymore. You're
844
00:33:32,868 --> 00:33:34,868
owning the data when you're in that type
845
00:33:34,868 --> 00:33:37,388
of position where you can be that
846
00:33:37,388 --> 00:33:39,988
advisor that leadership needs. You can
847
00:33:39,988 --> 00:33:42,588
trust in the direction of the data, and
848
00:33:42,588 --> 00:33:45,428
you're not spending so much time on
849
00:33:45,508 --> 00:33:47,828
these little issues that really don't
850
00:33:47,828 --> 00:33:49,668
change the trajectory of where you're
851
00:33:49,668 --> 00:33:52,388
trying to go. Yeah. Part
852
00:33:52,628 --> 00:33:55,188
of that narrative, too, is like,
853
00:33:55,588 --> 00:33:58,548
we recently had a client, they came in,
854
00:33:58,548 --> 00:34:00,628
they were doing paid media, spending a
855
00:34:00,628 --> 00:34:02,868
ton of money on their branded
856
00:34:03,268 --> 00:34:05,748
search. Right?So you know this is
857
00:34:05,748 --> 00:34:07,788
basically their name. They're paying to
858
00:34:07,788 --> 00:34:10,708
show up in Google Ads when their name
859
00:34:10,708 --> 00:34:12,708
was typed into Google. And
860
00:34:13,428 --> 00:34:15,588
we decided with leadership's
861
00:34:15,828 --> 00:34:18,268
alignment that we were going to
862
00:34:18,268 --> 00:34:21,108
divest from brand and put a lot more
863
00:34:21,108 --> 00:34:23,588
effort from a paid media perspective into
864
00:34:23,588 --> 00:34:26,388
non-brand. Well, that
865
00:34:26,388 --> 00:34:29,028
changes conversions,
866
00:34:29,668 --> 00:34:32,388
right?And so thenyou get leaders who are
867
00:34:32,388 --> 00:34:34,788
saying, well, like we were getting a lot
868
00:34:34,788 --> 00:34:37,588
more like conversions before.
869
00:34:37,988 --> 00:34:38,508
And
870
00:34:39,947 --> 00:34:42,947
from our paid media,
871
00:34:43,147 --> 00:34:45,387
what we needed to educate them on was the
872
00:34:45,387 --> 00:34:48,307
fact that, well, well we're going
873
00:34:48,307 --> 00:34:50,867
after non-branded search. So you know
874
00:34:50,867 --> 00:34:52,787
people who are converting on brand
875
00:34:52,787 --> 00:34:55,187
already know who you are. They're already
876
00:34:55,187 --> 00:34:57,427
fluent about your products or
877
00:34:57,427 --> 00:35:00,067
services. And so what we're trying to do
878
00:35:00,067 --> 00:35:02,467
is capture people who don't know who you
879
00:35:02,467 --> 00:35:05,427
are, and that's harder to do
880
00:35:05,427 --> 00:35:07,747
and we're going to see less conversion.
881
00:35:07,747 --> 00:35:10,387
So there's also like these disconnects
882
00:35:10,387 --> 00:35:12,707
that can happen where like you set out to
883
00:35:12,947 --> 00:35:15,347
do a strategy, you have it agreed upon,
884
00:35:15,587 --> 00:35:17,827
but then like the implications of what
885
00:35:17,827 --> 00:35:19,787
that means in the data may not be
886
00:35:19,787 --> 00:35:21,827
understood. And so then you have to go
887
00:35:21,827 --> 00:35:24,507
back and re-educate people about like
888
00:35:24,507 --> 00:35:26,627
what the implications were of that
889
00:35:26,987 --> 00:35:29,347
initial decision. Of course, we want to
890
00:35:29,347 --> 00:35:31,547
try to like nip that in the bud from the
891
00:35:31,547 --> 00:35:33,667
beginning so that everybody understands
892
00:35:33,667 --> 00:35:36,467
is aligned, but inevitably
893
00:35:36,467 --> 00:35:39,427
there can be leaders who are up a
894
00:35:39,427 --> 00:35:41,267
really high level and then they just show
895
00:35:41,267 --> 00:35:43,707
up and say like that number was this in
896
00:35:43,707 --> 00:35:45,827
the month of May and in this year the
897
00:35:45,827 --> 00:35:47,547
month of May looks like this. What's
898
00:35:47,547 --> 00:35:50,387
going on?Why are we down?And
899
00:35:50,707 --> 00:35:52,147
you know there's answers, there's a
900
00:35:52,147 --> 00:35:54,507
story, there's a narrative behind all of
901
00:35:54,507 --> 00:35:57,347
that. Soyou know We also
902
00:35:57,347 --> 00:35:59,907
have to just always be
903
00:36:00,387 --> 00:36:02,627
one step ahead of the game when it comes
904
00:36:02,627 --> 00:36:05,347
to like storytelling and education
905
00:36:05,667 --> 00:36:08,467
so that leaders are bought in and they're
906
00:36:08,467 --> 00:36:10,627
continuing to understand like
907
00:36:12,387 --> 00:36:14,947
the changes, the trade-offs in some of
908
00:36:14,947 --> 00:36:17,107
the changes in strategy that we might be
909
00:36:17,107 --> 00:36:19,667
recommending and making. Yeah, as
910
00:36:20,227 --> 00:36:22,227
I'm listening to you, I really find that
911
00:36:23,187 --> 00:36:25,267
I'm realizing or thinking that analytics
912
00:36:25,267 --> 00:36:27,667
really isIs a communication tool at that
913
00:36:27,667 --> 00:36:30,027
level, right?Because you need the
914
00:36:30,027 --> 00:36:31,987
analytics to be able to communicate
915
00:36:31,987 --> 00:36:34,147
effectively, assuming you're getting
916
00:36:34,147 --> 00:36:36,067
results and yada yada yada. But yeah, we
917
00:36:36,067 --> 00:36:37,747
talk about communication in a previous
918
00:36:37,747 --> 00:36:39,947
podcast, but it all comes down to, you
919
00:36:39,947 --> 00:36:41,747
know, like talking to your sales team,
920
00:36:41,747 --> 00:36:43,427
getting buy in. These are all.
921
00:36:44,307 --> 00:36:46,987
communications you know that you need to
922
00:36:46,987 --> 00:36:49,827
have regularly and proactively,
923
00:36:49,827 --> 00:36:51,827
especially the education part so that no
924
00:36:51,827 --> 00:36:54,787
one's surprised. Yeah In those surprises,
925
00:36:54,787 --> 00:36:56,387
you know you talked about, hey, you know
926
00:36:56,547 --> 00:36:58,827
a strategic shift might have happened,
927
00:36:58,827 --> 00:37:01,427
and that's why conversions aren't coming
928
00:37:01,427 --> 00:37:04,067
out the same as it did prior. Yeah
929
00:37:04,547 --> 00:37:06,707
There's also some other issues or some
930
00:37:06,707 --> 00:37:08,867
other scenarios that cause these
931
00:37:08,867 --> 00:37:11,667
situations, and that's when things break
932
00:37:11,827 --> 00:37:14,747
afterwards, and there's theseAnd
933
00:37:15,427 --> 00:37:18,067
it happens to everyone, no matter what
934
00:37:18,227 --> 00:37:21,027
setting or what team you have. And that's
935
00:37:21,027 --> 00:37:23,907
where just analytics issues just come
936
00:37:23,907 --> 00:37:25,827
up and all of a sudden you're no longer
937
00:37:25,827 --> 00:37:28,787
getting data. Yeah. And that is a
938
00:37:28,787 --> 00:37:31,667
nightmare when you don't fix that right
939
00:37:31,667 --> 00:37:33,587
when it happens. Yeah. I've been in
940
00:37:33,587 --> 00:37:36,387
situations where it went on
941
00:37:36,387 --> 00:37:39,187
for way too long. and then having to
942
00:37:39,187 --> 00:37:41,426
report on something like this, and
943
00:37:41,426 --> 00:37:43,906
there's no way you can explain the gap
944
00:37:43,906 --> 00:37:46,346
other than this was a human error. Yeah
945
00:37:46,386 --> 00:37:49,026
We didn't catch this sooner. That is a
946
00:37:49,026 --> 00:37:51,346
very hard conversation to have
947
00:37:51,346 --> 00:37:53,986
because, I mean, the relationships that
948
00:37:53,986 --> 00:37:55,746
we have with all of our clients, it's
949
00:37:55,746 --> 00:37:58,306
with trust. And if that
950
00:37:58,306 --> 00:38:01,226
happens in any month, you have to
951
00:38:01,226 --> 00:38:03,426
assume some of that trust was broken and
952
00:38:03,426 --> 00:38:04,706
you're going to have to really earn that
953
00:38:04,706 --> 00:38:07,666
weight back. And so,Once you've
954
00:38:07,666 --> 00:38:09,266
got, let's just say you've got your
955
00:38:09,266 --> 00:38:10,826
source of truth, you've got your
956
00:38:10,826 --> 00:38:13,346
reporting, you have to assume
957
00:38:13,346 --> 00:38:15,746
something might break at some point, and
958
00:38:15,746 --> 00:38:17,346
you need to have a process that catches
959
00:38:17,346 --> 00:38:20,306
that. And I know that, you know,
960
00:38:20,306 --> 00:38:23,106
Derek, Derek Turner, he's a VP of
961
00:38:23,106 --> 00:38:25,826
operations here, and he shared with us
962
00:38:25,986 --> 00:38:28,706
this anomaly detection that we're doing
963
00:38:28,706 --> 00:38:30,306
for all of our clients. And it's because
964
00:38:30,306 --> 00:38:32,706
of that pain, I think, of, hey, all of a
965
00:38:32,706 --> 00:38:35,226
sudden,We're not getting anything coming
966
00:38:35,226 --> 00:38:37,826
from like paid media or from SEO or
967
00:38:37,826 --> 00:38:39,746
whatever channel that I know you're
968
00:38:39,746 --> 00:38:41,506
really, you care a lot about. Yeah, yeah,
969
00:38:41,506 --> 00:38:44,386
yeahLet's just catch that right when it
970
00:38:44,466 --> 00:38:47,186
happens. And so I know I was like, this
971
00:38:47,186 --> 00:38:49,426
is brilliant. This is gonna save so much
972
00:38:49,426 --> 00:38:51,106
headaches, but it's also the flip side,
973
00:38:51,106 --> 00:38:52,786
right?You can also catch
974
00:38:53,746 --> 00:38:55,906
anomaly detection on the upside.
975
00:38:56,506 --> 00:38:58,866
All of a sudden you have maybe a referral
976
00:38:58,866 --> 00:39:01,626
source that is catching fire. It's
977
00:39:01,626 --> 00:39:02,866
telling you something. There's
978
00:39:02,866 --> 00:39:05,786
opportunity there. Let's strike
979
00:39:05,786 --> 00:39:08,586
while the iron is hot. And I know-- Yeah,
980
00:39:08,586 --> 00:39:11,346
I feel like the anomaly detection is
981
00:39:11,826 --> 00:39:14,066
a great little innovation that just is
982
00:39:14,066 --> 00:39:16,946
helping our team. And you can
983
00:39:17,106 --> 00:39:19,506
choose what those anomalies are.
984
00:39:19,986 --> 00:39:22,986
Some of them you can disregard. Let's
985
00:39:22,986 --> 00:39:25,346
say that our whatever
986
00:39:25,746 --> 00:39:27,826
conversions are down, while it might be
987
00:39:27,826 --> 00:39:30,626
because it's the23rd
988
00:39:30,626 --> 00:39:33,386
through the 25th of December. And so it's
989
00:39:33,386 --> 00:39:35,546
like, well, most people aren't shopping
990
00:39:35,546 --> 00:39:37,746
or doing whatever during those days. So
991
00:39:37,746 --> 00:39:40,066
we disregard certain anomalies, but
992
00:39:40,706 --> 00:39:43,026
it's really helped save our bacon, save
993
00:39:43,106 --> 00:39:46,106
the in-house team's bacon. You know, just
994
00:39:46,466 --> 00:39:49,386
happens a lot where new landing page gets
995
00:39:49,386 --> 00:39:52,386
stood up and a form on that landing
996
00:39:52,386 --> 00:39:55,186
page isn't like tracked. And
997
00:39:55,186 --> 00:39:57,826
so now we have landing pages on the
998
00:39:57,826 --> 00:39:59,626
website, and we're not tracking them
999
00:39:59,626 --> 00:40:02,466
properly. And so you know we
1000
00:40:02,466 --> 00:40:05,266
need to always be thinking about how is
1001
00:40:05,266 --> 00:40:08,146
it that either we're creating new
1002
00:40:08,146 --> 00:40:11,026
pages or changing things on pages that
1003
00:40:11,026 --> 00:40:13,986
might be breaking things. And so yeah, we
1004
00:40:13,986 --> 00:40:16,946
found that analytics can't be just,
1005
00:40:17,106 --> 00:40:19,186
hey, we're going to pay you for a one
1006
00:40:19,186 --> 00:40:21,826
month project to set up a measurement
1007
00:40:21,826 --> 00:40:24,066
plan. and then you know you're going to
1008
00:40:24,066 --> 00:40:27,066
go away and be done. Because as it kind
1009
00:40:27,066 --> 00:40:30,026
of ages, things start to break, things
1010
00:40:30,066 --> 00:40:32,306
get added to the website that then aren't
1011
00:40:32,306 --> 00:40:33,906
being tracked, and now you're just kind
1012
00:40:33,906 --> 00:40:36,546
of out again with a a source of
1013
00:40:36,546 --> 00:40:39,106
truth that isn't isn't really trusted.
1014
00:40:39,186 --> 00:40:41,825
So anyway, the importance of like always
1015
00:40:41,825 --> 00:40:43,425
having your eye on the ball from an
1016
00:40:43,425 --> 00:40:46,225
analytics perspective is is how we
1017
00:40:46,225 --> 00:40:48,945
think about it, and the anomaly detection
1018
00:40:48,945 --> 00:40:51,905
has really helped us. You know, show up
1019
00:40:51,905 --> 00:40:54,705
and say, hey, we noticed this thing.
1020
00:40:54,705 --> 00:40:57,585
Can you help us understand why this
1021
00:40:57,585 --> 00:41:00,385
change is happening?And many
1022
00:41:00,385 --> 00:41:03,105
times it's like, Oh my gosh, we stood up
1023
00:41:03,105 --> 00:41:05,745
this new thing or we eliminated that page
1024
00:41:05,745 --> 00:41:07,905
on our website. Well, that's where the
1025
00:41:08,145 --> 00:41:10,545
like the number one form was.
1026
00:41:11,505 --> 00:41:14,305
So anyway. All that is to say that
1027
00:41:14,345 --> 00:41:16,865
like catching stuff before clients has
1028
00:41:16,865 --> 00:41:19,665
been a real win for us. Helping them say
1029
00:41:19,665 --> 00:41:21,745
like, hey, this is happening on your
1030
00:41:21,745 --> 00:41:24,305
website, did you know that?And that being
1031
00:41:24,305 --> 00:41:27,025
like a insight that then we can learn
1032
00:41:27,025 --> 00:41:29,625
from and build off of, all of those
1033
00:41:29,625 --> 00:41:31,185
things have been important. You know, I
1034
00:41:31,185 --> 00:41:33,665
find the anomaly detection and things
1035
00:41:33,665 --> 00:41:35,945
like that when you catch issues early, it
1036
00:41:35,945 --> 00:41:38,545
allows you to be surprisingly
1037
00:41:38,945 --> 00:41:39,985
It gives you an opportunity to be
1038
00:41:39,985 --> 00:41:42,065
empathetic to to other people on the
1039
00:41:42,065 --> 00:41:44,865
team. Yeah. A lot of times, you know,
1040
00:41:46,065 --> 00:41:47,585
you would think, oh, why why didn't they
1041
00:41:47,585 --> 00:41:50,465
catch this?Why didn't web devs like catch
1042
00:41:50,465 --> 00:41:52,465
this or whoever made this change on?
1043
00:41:53,345 --> 00:41:54,945
We have to, you know, come from a place
1044
00:41:54,945 --> 00:41:56,865
of understanding and realize these
1045
00:41:56,865 --> 00:41:59,425
problems often happen because their
1046
00:41:59,425 --> 00:42:01,865
primary incentive is not necessarily to
1047
00:42:02,225 --> 00:42:04,585
focus on analytics. Their primary
1048
00:42:04,585 --> 00:42:06,345
incentive might be, I need to create a
1049
00:42:06,345 --> 00:42:08,385
beautiful landing page that converts well,
1050
00:42:08,785 --> 00:42:11,265
and is fulfilling the the
1051
00:42:11,265 --> 00:42:14,225
requirements of my my client or
1052
00:42:14,225 --> 00:42:17,105
or you know my manager. And
1053
00:42:17,745 --> 00:42:19,385
that's why in site migrations, for
1054
00:42:19,385 --> 00:42:21,985
example, you need multiple people from
1055
00:42:21,985 --> 00:42:24,465
different disciplines because they all
1056
00:42:24,465 --> 00:42:27,265
have incentives that are different. And
1057
00:42:27,625 --> 00:42:29,345
when you bring them together, then you
1058
00:42:29,345 --> 00:42:31,185
can make compromises and so forth.
1059
00:42:31,185 --> 00:42:34,145
Because I will say there are, even in the
1060
00:42:34,145 --> 00:42:36,465
SEO world, there's a perfect way or an
1061
00:42:36,465 --> 00:42:39,345
ideal way to do SEObut it actually adds
1062
00:42:39,345 --> 00:42:42,065
more time to development. Right.
1063
00:42:42,305 --> 00:42:44,625
But if you don't come from a place of
1064
00:42:44,625 --> 00:42:46,145
understanding, you'll just be like, okay,
1065
00:42:46,225 --> 00:42:47,545
why didn't you do it this way?I mean,
1066
00:42:47,545 --> 00:42:50,025
it's hurting us from an SEO perspective.
1067
00:42:50,545 --> 00:42:52,425
But then you realize, oh, because you
1068
00:42:52,425 --> 00:42:53,665
have to jump through a bunch of more
1069
00:42:53,665 --> 00:42:55,665
hoops, you gotta build, completely
1070
00:42:55,665 --> 00:42:57,345
rewrite it in some ways, and that also
1071
00:42:57,345 --> 00:42:59,025
happens with analytics and when it
1072
00:42:59,025 --> 00:43:01,505
breaks. And so I think these are, when
1073
00:43:01,505 --> 00:43:03,425
these issues do happen, and I'm sure
1074
00:43:03,425 --> 00:43:05,665
you've, all the listeners, you've
1075
00:43:05,825 --> 00:43:08,705
probably,have seen that. Understand that
1076
00:43:08,705 --> 00:43:10,065
it's just because the incentives are
1077
00:43:10,065 --> 00:43:12,545
different and it gives you an opportunity
1078
00:43:12,545 --> 00:43:14,105
to come from a place of understanding and
1079
00:43:14,105 --> 00:43:16,385
then therefore, how do we
1080
00:43:17,185 --> 00:43:20,145
how do we avoid this again?Yeah, there's
1081
00:43:20,225 --> 00:43:22,945
there's trade-offs and it's not like SEO
1082
00:43:22,945 --> 00:43:24,825
or analytics has to win on everything
1083
00:43:24,865 --> 00:43:26,665
either. We just need to have people
1084
00:43:26,665 --> 00:43:28,625
understanding like, okay, we're making
1085
00:43:28,625 --> 00:43:31,425
this choice today and this is the impact
1086
00:43:31,425 --> 00:43:34,225
that that choice is gonna make or have on
1087
00:43:34,625 --> 00:43:37,025
the situation. So anyway, yeah,
1088
00:43:37,905 --> 00:43:40,705
analytics is a complex box.
1089
00:43:41,344 --> 00:43:43,984
It is, yeah. Having a strong partner is
1090
00:43:44,384 --> 00:43:46,944
is really helpful. And
1091
00:43:47,664 --> 00:43:50,304
And yeah, I think people just need to
1092
00:43:50,944 --> 00:43:53,264
to make sure that they have that trusted
1093
00:43:53,264 --> 00:43:55,144
source of truth, yeah that it's agreed
1094
00:43:55,144 --> 00:43:57,104
upon, and we're aligning on what those
1095
00:43:57,104 --> 00:43:59,784
KPIs are, and then figuring out how we're
1096
00:43:59,784 --> 00:44:02,224
reporting out so that people are
1097
00:44:02,864 --> 00:44:05,264
hearing the stories, understanding the
1098
00:44:05,264 --> 00:44:07,984
narrative. And if you can do all of those
1099
00:44:07,984 --> 00:44:09,424
things, I think you're you're in a good
1100
00:44:09,424 --> 00:44:12,224
spot. Yeah. So I mean,
1101
00:44:12,544 --> 00:44:14,344
you know we've got the anomaly detection
1102
00:44:14,344 --> 00:44:16,424
and a lot of cool stuff going on with
1103
00:44:16,424 --> 00:44:18,944
this podcast. You know Any Any exciting
1104
00:44:18,944 --> 00:44:21,904
updates?Well, we had Laura
1105
00:44:21,904 --> 00:44:24,304
King on as a guest. That was a great
1106
00:44:24,304 --> 00:44:26,944
episode. That was super fun. I love
1107
00:44:27,344 --> 00:44:29,744
having the in-person kind of interview.
1108
00:44:31,264 --> 00:44:33,584
you know Previously, we're doing a lot of
1109
00:44:33,664 --> 00:44:36,624
online video interviews,
1110
00:44:36,624 --> 00:44:39,264
and those are great, but I'm excited that
1111
00:44:39,264 --> 00:44:41,344
I'm going to bring a couple of the people
1112
00:44:41,344 --> 00:44:43,584
from those like online video interviews
1113
00:44:43,984 --> 00:44:45,984
into the studio where we're going to be
1114
00:44:45,984 --> 00:44:48,024
able to do some in-person face-to-face
1115
00:44:48,024 --> 00:44:50,944
stuff. I'm looking forward to sharing
1116
00:44:50,944 --> 00:44:53,424
who those guests will be here in the near
1117
00:44:53,424 --> 00:44:56,224
future. Yeah. Yeah Well, thanks for
1118
00:44:56,384 --> 00:44:58,144
joining on the pod again, the Small But
1119
00:44:58,144 --> 00:45:00,424
Mighty Marketing Podcast. This is a
1120
00:45:00,424 --> 00:45:01,904
really important conversation about
1121
00:45:01,904 --> 00:45:04,544
analytics, and hopefully this helps you
1122
00:45:05,264 --> 00:45:07,504
change the relationship from data owning
1123
00:45:07,504 --> 00:45:09,904
you to you owning the data. Let's go.