How do you get management to pay attention to your website?
This 11-word question has a 1-word answer – data.
Management-types have a strange affinity for numbers. Raw data makes them smile, spreadsheets can warm their hearts, and graphs make them downright giddy. It is said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, the way to management’s top-of-mind is through data.
Sort of.
In today’s world, we all have access to piles of statistics about our websites. We know about time-on-page, bounce rates, and conversions by keyword. We know about geo-IP, referring URLs and other sophisticated visitor monitoring information. Emailing daily reams of data to management with may seem like a good idea, but
is likely to get you nowhere fast. Yes, management likes data. But what really gets them excited is data-driven analysis.
Here’s a five step plan for using data to get management’s attention regarding your website:
Step #1: Keep quiet until you’ve got the data
“Our website needs to integrate insert-latest-technology-here because our competitor’s websites have it,” isn’t a solution to a problem – it’s a data-less recommendation. Maybe your company is smart to keep things simple. Maybe they aren’t. Long story short, if you start the conversation this way, you’re stumbling into a deep hole.
Step #2: Seek secondary data
Let’s continue with our example begun above. If you notice competitive sites implementing a certain kind of technology, do some secondary research on it. You’ll probably find whitepapers, studies, and other third party materials regaling the benefits of the latest whiz-bang whatchamacallit.
Step #3: Augment the secondary research with your own targeted data
Another reason to do secondary research is that it helps you to identify specific areas where a deeper internal analysis would be beneficial. If, for example, one of the whitepapers you downloaded in step #2 said that the latest technology is particularly good at increasing conversions in later stages of the sales funnel, you now know that you’ll need to pull your own data from those particular stages.
Step #4: Use the data to tell a story
Cutting and pasting targeted data from your analytics tools into a document or email is better than where we started, but it isn’t great – yet. Instead, take the time to craft a narrative around your goals and simply use the data for punctuation and power. You can present the narrative in written form, slide ware or even in conversation.
We noticed several of our competitors were implementing xyz technology on their sites. We’ve considered it in the past and given these developments, we had a closer look. Some reputable research is available out there and we spent a few days digging through it. A good whitepaper by John T. Expert showed that several firms were able to increase conversion rates when they implemented the technology in late-stages of their sales funnels. We have X people each day exit those stages of our funnels and in the past quarter, it’s increased by Y%…
Step #5:Always include measurement systems
Somehow, data begets data. Don’t fight it – embrace it. If you’re going to recommend changes, always recommend one or more ways to measure the impact of those changes. You’ll not only get management’s attention – you’ll keep it.