Web analytics and social media

monitoring in industrial marketing: Tools for improving marketing communication measurement

Authors:

Joel Järvinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Aarne Töllinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Heikki Karjaluoto, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Elisabeth Platzer, Evolaris next level GmbH, Austria

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans 2012

What the study is all about?

The study...

◦ investigates how the online environment allows industrial companies to overcome traditional marketing communication measurement challenges

◦ examines the perceived benefits of web analytics (WA) and social media monitoring (SMM) with regard to solving the measurement challenges

◦ compares the results with findings from within the financial services industry in order to illustrate the challenging operational environment encountered by industrial businesses

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Study background

Persistent challenges related to showing

the contribution of marketing actions to

business performance

Weakened stature of marketers within firms

Increasing pressure to make marketing more

accountable

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2012

Study Background (continued)

Digitalization has brought new opportunities

to make marketing more accountable

◦ User behaviour can be traced on websites

◦ Firm-related online discussions can be monitored

Various requests for more research on the

possibilities of marketing measurement

empowered by digital solutions

“Everything can be tracked”

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Study Background (continued)

Clearly, in many industries marketing measurement has become significantly more accurate in the online environment, but it is not so clear...

...how industrial companies with fewer customers, fewer transactions and longer purchase decision cycles are able to improve their marketing measurement accuracy via online measurement solutions

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Conceptual model

WA & SMM

Online environment solutions to overcome the measurement challenges ◦ WA = „the measurement, collection, analysis and

reporting of internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage‟ (Web Analytics Association 2011) tracking customers’ online activity on the company

website and linking specific online marketing communication actions to sales or customer leads

◦ SMM = Tracking and analysing electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information regarding specific keywords (Sponder 2011) to monitor online discussions related to the company

or to particular marketing campaigns.

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2012

Conceptual model (continued)

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Methodology

Exploratory case study with qualitative approach

Three industrial firms + one financial services company investigated ◦ firms selected by purposeful sampling

◦ industrial firms investigated as a single entity

◦ cross-case analysis conducted between the group of industrial companies and financial services firm

11 face-to-face interviews conducted ◦ interviewees selected by purposeful sampling

◦ 9 interviewees from industrial firms

◦ 2 interviewees from financial services company

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Results

Major sources of measurement challenges

identified in industrial companies

Lengthy selling process (purchase decision

never solely based on a specific marketing

communication action)

Long-term impacts investigated by surveys,

but no ideas how the survey results correlate

with long-term financial outcomes

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Results (continued)

Short-term measurement with WA

◦ WA has enabled industrial firms to...

examine how much attention and traffic a specific

online marketing communication action attracts to

the company website

track the purchase intentions and sales leads

generated through specific online campaigns

◦ Financial services firm was able to link an

online campaign all the way to the actual

transaction

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Results (continued)

Long-term measurement with WA

◦ WA has enabled industrial firms to...

perceive the interest, reactions and viral effects

gained with a specific online marketing action

◦ However, the WA data...

does not reveal if the message was received by

those who it was targeted to and understood in a

way it was designed to be understood

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Results (continued)

Long-term measurement with SMM

◦ SMM has enabled industrial firms to...

monitor and discover company-related discussions

◦ However, the SMM data...

has not essentially helped in overcoming long-term

measurement challenges

◦ No major differences were found between

industrial and financial services sector in

terms of long-term marketing measurement

opportunities with WA and SMM

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Conclusions

Online environment has significantly improved industrial companies’ ability to show the contribution of short-term marketing outcomes

Despite the advancements of WA and SMM, industrial companies will continue to struggle in their efforts to show the long-term financial value of marketing activities

Operational environment seems to have a major influence on the perceived usefulness of WA and SMM

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Conclusions (continued)

Industrial companies could significantly

improve their marketing measurement

accuracy by developing effective process for

tracking sales leads and calculating average

life-time value for a customer lead

It seems that industrial companies must still

depend largely on surveys to find out long-

term impacts of marketing actions, although

the advancements of SMM may change this

in the future

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

Questions and Discussion

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012

AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans

2012