ROI White Paper

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Site Search: The hidden potential in digital investment

Transcript of ROI White Paper

Page 1: ROI White Paper

Site Search: The hidden potential in digital investment

Page 2: ROI White Paper

It’s time we talked about your site search (and here are the reasons why).

The best user experience

The digital world is increasingly competitive.

Changes to your digital technologies and design – even small ones – have been shown to increase conversions (or, when you get it wrong, bounce customers back the other way).

Consumers in today’s digital marketplace expect a valuable, low-friction web experience every time.

So it’s never been more important to ensure your website search is working for you and your customers – using technology that understands your business context and predicts what your audience wants.

FUNNELBACK |SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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Digital marketing – a global phenomenon

Investment in marketing designed to drive traffic to a digital product, service or message is now considered essential, with digital advertising spending set to outpace non-digital channels.

To compete in this global digital marketplace, you need to invest in technology that will give you the best return on your investment.

50% in the UK

43.3% in Australia

43.3% in China

31.3% in the US

Percentage Digital Advertising Spend by Country. Source: eMarketer

'Are you safeguarding your digital investment?'

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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Organisations in the UK alone now spend over £8.1 billion per

year on digital marketing.

The best search experience = the best returns

Research tells us that 68% of visitors rely on search as their primary form of navigation.

It also reveals that visitors who use site search convert at nearly three times the rate of non-searchers.

And it has to work well the first time: 43% of site visitors give up after just one attempt to use site search.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[1]

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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If navigation can't direct your users to what they're looking for, on average 50% of your visitors will turn to site search facility to find it.[5]

Site search needs to not only align with your digital brand, but also to offer fast, relevant results. The visitor’s journey should be improved dramatically when he or she searches – with effective connections to your products and your content. You can offer the best content, solutions or products in the world, but if people can’t find them, those offerings may as well not exist.

If you don’t love your site search, your visitors

won’t either.

With investment in digital technology coming at such a great cost, it's hard to justify turning your back on 34% of your users.[6]

A survey by the Econsultancy group of 500 top companies revealed that 83% of digital marketing professionals understood that having an effective site search solution was a major benefit to user engagement[7] with over two thirds of respondents understanding that an effective

site search is a key advantage in increasing sales.[8]

However, while the potential benefits seem obvious, Forester concluded that “Search on many corporate websites is an understaffed, IT-funded afterthought”.[9]

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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You don’t have to be selling a product to improve your customers’ search experience and get a better

return on your digital investment.

Effective search has been shown to improve ROI through many and varied methods:

• Inbound sales leads

• Higher sales

• Higher conversations

• Lower cost of customer interaction

• Increased channel shift

The beauty of having a functional site search is that the cost savings can be realised for multiple types of websites across multiple verticals.

But I don't sell anything...

Whether your site is for brand recognition, servicing your customers, direct or indirect conversation, an effective site search solution is a vital tool in driving conversions and lowering the cost of customer interaction.

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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Search success stories

Real results: global healthcare provider

A global healthcare provider achieved the following results from installing Funnelback’s site search solution, within a matter of weeks:

• Consultant profile visits: 55% • Product page visits: 47%• Visits to self-pay and insured

section: 44%• Conversions to enquiry: 30%

Forrester research indicates that the average conversion rate – that is the ratio of orders to overall site visits – is 2.9 percent.[10]

For an organisation that receives 30,000 visitors a month, with an average sale value of $500, the site would generate $425,000 in sales per month. Increasing this conversion rate by just 1% through implementing Funnelback’s intelligent site search would generate an additional $120,000 per year.

A number of Funnelback clients have seen a complete ROI within weeks of the system going live.

Fast, effective and relevant site search pays off quickly.

Funnelback’s search customers report increases in online conversions from anywhere between 5% and 30%, sometimes within weeks of implementing our search capabilities on their site.

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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Real results: local government authority

Other benefits of effective search for a website are illustrated by the experiences of a local council.

The primary role of the council’s website is to service and inform its residents and ratepayers.[11]

Typically, the council receives around 787,000 service enquiries via phone and 41,000 email enquiries per year.[12]

The average support-channel costs are $1.85 for phone and $2.50 for email enquiries per interaction, according to Gartner/Avaya.[13]

Some Funnelback clients have experienced phone and email enquiry volume decreasing by 15%, but even a decrease in enquiries of as little as 2% already results in considerable annual cost saving across these channels.

$1,500,000

$1,550,000

$1,600,000

gs

Cost saving with effective search

$233,768 savings

$31,169 savings

Annual SavingAnnual Cost

$1,450,000

$1,400,000

$1,200,000

$1,250,000

$1,300,000

$1,350,000

Typical scenario

without effective search

With -2% volume contacts With -15% volume contacts

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT

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Funnelback has 15 years’ experience in providing search solutions – helping organisations get the best return on their investment, both in sales and in services.

Let us help you

Contact your local office online at funnelback.com/contact to find out how Funnelback can improve your search function, and increase return on your digital investment.

References1 http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/27/half-ad-spend-digital-media2 Adobe 2012 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey, 20123 MarketingSherpa 4 N Norman Group5 Jupiter Media Matrix6 Funnelback & Econsultancy Site Search Survey7 Funnelback & Econsultancy Site Search Survey 8 Funnelback & Econsultancy Site Search Survey 9 Forrester Research10 Forrester Research11 http://wps.socitm.net/dashboards/purpose-of-visit12 Kent County Council - Quarterly Performance Report, http://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0015/14721/QPR-QTR-4-2013-14.pdf (Accessed 2015-07-17)13 Gartner/Avaya

FUNNELBACK | SITE SEARCH: THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN DIGITAL INVESTMENT