Introducing IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle Perfecting the science of the customer journey Contents 1. Introduction 2. Why IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle? 3. Understanding the customer lifecycle 4. Pinpointing key factors in lifecycle progression 5. Using insights to fuel marketing applications 6. Conclusion Introduction IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle is the industry s first application geared to enable online marketers to track and understand how customers progress through long-term purchasing and conversion lifecycles. A customer conversion lifecycle is characterized by milestones ranging from first-time visitors to valued customers who engage with your brand through repeat purchases, newsletter subscriptions, product reviews and social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Using IBM Digital Analytics Lifetime Individual Visitor Experience (LIVE) Profiles data, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle gives online marketers a broad perspective into the customer conversion lifecycle, enabling you to evaluate which marketing campaigns are most effective in prompting customers to progress from one milestone to the next. IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle also supports a range of nonpurchasing lifecycles by value, frequency, downloads and leadgeneration, making it applicable across a range of industries. Seamless integration with IBM marketing solutions enables you to convert insights into action by targeting customers with personalized email, display ads, on-site recommendations and more.
This supplement to the IBM white paper "Increasing relevancy, loyalty and conversions online" highlights the functionality of IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle and how marketers can use it to: Example Purchasing Lifecycle Example Event Lifecycle Understand the customer lifecycle beyond single-session metrics Pinpoint key interactions and events that prompt customer progression through lifecycle milestones Customize marketing initiatives for customers in different stages of the conversion lifecycle Analyze marketing effectiveness for granular customer segments at various stages of the conversion lifecycle Evaluate and optimize techniques to accelerate lifecycle progression Retarget segmented customer groups with personalized marketing campaigns 14.8 Days 2.2 Sessions 7.9 Days 1.4 Sessions 63.1 Days 7.5 Sessions 19.9 Days 1.2 Sessions 78.9 Days 5.2 Sessions Shopper 1x Buyer User Review Writer 2x Buyer Newsletter Subscriber 3x Buyer 14.8 Days 2.2 Sessions 7.9 Days 1.4 Sessions 63.1 Days 7.5 Sessions 19.9 Days 1.2 Sessions 78.9 Days 5.2 Sessions Figure 1: Typical purchasing and event lifecycle progressions. New Visitor Whitepaper Downloader Forum Contributor Facebook Fan 2x Downloader Subscriber Why IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle? Traditionally, many online marketers have based web analytics largely on single-session clickstream data, tying conversion to the customer s last marketing touchpoint. For example, a web analytics solution would show that a customer clicked on a promotion in an email newsletter to land at a home page and moved through pages for electronics, TVs, furniture and couches before exiting. If the customer bought a TV, the email newsletter would receive credit for the sale without consideration for the customer s engagement with other online channels or touchpoints. The issue is that most conversions occur only after multiple days and numerous website visits or other online interactions. In fact, analysis of IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data aggregated from multiple retailers has shown that customers engage with your brand an average of 5.5 times before conversion. Over-reliance on basic web analytics can prevent marketers from fully understanding the customer s journey, the buying lifecycle and key points of influence over a period of many months. The need for online marketers to analyze customers and not just visits is driven by the increasing complexity of web interactions, widespread demand among sophisticated customers for greater personalization and fierce competition for customer attention. Marketers need to better understand how customers use and are influenced by various campaigns and channels overextended time periods. Popular channels and campaigns that influence customers are: Paid and natural search Email communications Display advertising On-site recommendations Social media channels like Facebook and Twitter On-site communities and customer reviews Mobile devices (browsing and shopping via iphone, Android phones, and so on) 2
Understanding the customer conversion lifecycle As a next step in the evolution of web analytics and online marketing, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle gives marketers an innovative approach to analyzing long-term customer activity data. IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle features built-in snapshots and the ability to customize conversion lifecycle views and drill down to underlying data. In Figure 2, the Lifecycle interface reflects a monthly snapshot of activity from the perspective of lifecycle milestones. The interface shows a total of 1,293,042 unique visitors and the raw numbers and percentages of individuals who became shoppers, 1x buyers, 2x buyers and 3x 5x buyers in that population. It also shows the average number of days and sessions it took to progress to those milestones. The interface also illustrates migrators, or sets of individuals who have progressed from one milestone to the next, and the time and sessions on average between each progression. IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle enables you to view and compare such data sets over any range of timeframes, such as Q1 versus Q2, orq4 versus Q4 year over year, and by a number of predefined and customizable milestones and data attributes. For example, the view could reflect products purchased, average order value, social media activity, product review contributions and any segment of the population by milestone. For instance, in Figure 3, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle shows the top products purchased by 2x buyers. Such data can provide marketers with invaluable insights helping customize cross sell and up sell campaigns to 1x buyers, prompting them to quickly progress to the 2x buyer milestone and beyond. Figure 3: IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle shows the marketing channel source of 2x buyer migrants Figure 2: IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle reflects key milestones for a large set of unique visitors 3
While this example looks at a purchasing lifecycle, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle supports other types of lifecycles relevant to companies in a variety of industries, such as financial services, higher education, consumer and enterprise software sales, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, and telecommunications. Examples of other customer lifecycle milestones include: Lead Generation Lifecycle Stage 1 prospect stage 2 prospect stage 3 prospect Frequency Lifecycle 1 session visitor 2 session visitor 3-5 session visitor 6-10 session visitor 10+ session visitor Event Lifecycle Non-event initiator event initiator 1x event completer 2x event completer 3-5x event completer 6x event completer Value Lifecycle $0 value visitors $100 value visitors $500 value visitors $1000 value visitors $5000 value visitors $10,000 value visitors Downloader Lifecycle 1 white paper downloader 2 white paper downloader 3 white paper downloader Student Lifecycle Browser inquirer downloader Facebook fan applicant enrollee Pinpointing key factors in lifecycle progression The real value lies in understanding what prompts customers to progress through the lifecycle, from one milestone to the next. Taking it a step further, online marketers should endeavor to understand what prompts certain segments of customers on their lifecycle journey. Using IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle data, your marketers can continuously optimize their initiatives to generate optimal value based on the insights into which campaigns, channels, touchpoints and customer characteristics are in play. You can measure the time and sessions required for customers to progress through milestones. The solution also helps online marketers set goals to reduce the time it takes to reach milestones by using the marketing techniques that are most effective. You can explore which techniques and offers work best for early-stage customers and what is most effective for late-stage customers. In Figure 4, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle illustrates top marketing influences on sets of individuals at different stages in the customer conversion lifecycle. For instance, paid search was most effective in driving migration from non-shopper to shopper, while email was most effective in prompting 2x buyers to become 3x buyers. Drill-down capabilities enable you to examine this data at a granular level. Figure 4: IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle lets you examine which campaigns and channels are most effective in driving lifecycle progression. 4
IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle makes it easy for you to customize reports based on metrics you select, in addition to using its set of prebuilt metrics such as: Visitor population: Number of unique visitors who visited your website at least once in a given timeframe and met the segment criteria Average days to reach: Average number of days from start of a lifecycle period to reaching a milestone Average days in between: Average number of days for customers to progress from one milestone to the next Average sessions to reach: Average number of sessions from start of a lifecycle period to reaching a milestone Average sessions in between: Average number of sessions for customers to progress from one milestone to the next Using insights to fuel marketing applications Use the insights you derive from IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle to fuel your IBM marketing applications like email, display advertising and on-site recommendations. Since you are tracking customers as they migrate through lifecycle phases overtime, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle is uniquely suited for targeting of individuals who fall below the averages for time and number of sessions to progress to the next milestone. Using your IBM Digital Analytics LIVE Profiles data, IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle enables you to engage prospects and customers with personalized marketing based on where they are in the customer lifecycle, as well as the channels, campaigns, products and services they find most appealing. IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle seamlessly integrates with the IBM LIVEmail personalized email solution, the IBM AdTarget display ad solution and the IBM Product Recommendations engine. In Figure 5, a pop-up box in IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle enables a user to select from a set of customer segments to receive personalized marketing email using IBM LIVEmail. Figure 5: IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle enables automated email targeting through IBM LIVEmail Conclusion As consumers become more sophisticated and conversion cycles lengthen, it is imperative to know all the marketing touchpoints on the path to conversion. Understanding the time to reach each milestone lets online marketers know how quickly customers become more valuable. Understanding which marketing programs are most influential in prompting customers to the next milestone helps marketers optimize their marketing mix and engagement strategies. IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle is designed to give marketers the insight to optimize the customer lifecycle and improve migration between milestones. About IBM Enterprise Marketing Management The IBM (EMM) Suite is an end-to-end, integrated set of capabilities designed exclusively for the needs of marketing and related organizations. Integrating and streamlining all aspects of marketing, IBM s EMM Suite empowers organizations and individuals to turn their passion for marketing into valuable customer relationships and more profitable, efficient, timely, and measurable business outcomes. 5
Delivered on premises or in the Cloud, the IBM EMM Suite of software solutions gives marketers the tools and insight they need to create individual customer value at every touch. The IBM EMM Suite helps marketers to understand customer wants and needs and leverage that understanding to engage buyers in highly relevant, interactive dialogs across digital, social, and traditional marketing channels. Designed to address the specific needs of particular marketing and merchandising users, the IBM EMM Suite is comprised of five individual solutions. Digital Marketing Optimization enables digital marketers to orchestrate relevant digital interactions to attract and retain new visitors and grow revenue throughout the customer's lifecycle. With Customer Experience Optimization ecommerce professionals can turn visitors into repeat customers and loyal advocates by improving the digital experience of every customer. With Cross-Channel Marketing Optimization customer relationship marketers can engage customers in a one-to-one dialogue across channels to grow revenue throughout the customer's lifecycle. Price, Promotion and Product Mix Optimization allows merchandisers and sales planners to make price, promotion and product mix decisions that maximize profit and inventory utilization. And with Marketing Performance Optimization, marketing leaders, planners and decision-makers can model and assess mix, and manage marketing operations to maximize ROI. Copyright IBM Corporation 2012 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America November 2012 IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at: ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NONINFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. Please Recycle Over 2,500 organizations around the world use IBM EMM solutions to help manage the pressures of increasing marketing complexity while delivering improved revenue and measurable results. IBM s time-tested and comprehensive offerings are giving companies such as Dannon, E*TRADE, ING, Orvis, PETCO, Telefonica Vivo, United Airlines and wehkamp.nl the power and flexibility required to provide their customers and prospects with what they expect today a more consistent and relevant experience across all channels. For more information To learn more about IBM Digital Analytics Lifecycle contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/software/marketingsolutions ZZW03056-USEN-01