08.08.08
Posted in Events, Personal at 6:28 am by Christine
“A man is what he thinks about all day long.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I attended a business breakfast network group in Cape Town yesterday. Met some interesting folks and also had the privilege of listening to Ronnie Muhl (In May 2007 Ronnie Muhl became the 7th South African to summit Mt. Everest via the north east ridge.) on his expedition and challenges.
Not usually one to do this, but a supporter of good causes. Remember Chaeli, or the Chaeli Campaign? Chaeli is the little girl who was born with Cerebral Palsy and by the age of 9 and a bit years needed a motorised wheelchair as she had developed a degenerative neuropathy which left her unable to use the muscles in her arms and legs to their full potential. This vibrant young child, together with some friends decided that they were going to raise the money themselves. 7 weeks later they had managed to raise R20 000! Having achieved their goal, Chaeli and her friends did not stop there, and formalised the campaign as an NPO to help other children in need.
They have been successfully making a difference to others in need, this year marks the 4th year of the Chaeli campaign.
To toast the last four years, Chaeli’s 14th birthday, and to raise additional contributions to the campaign Ben and Roz Zander will host a fundraiser in support of her living proof of the “art of possibility”.
What to Expect:
- A 30 minute presentation by Ben and Roz about a framework of possibility
- A powerful peek into youth empowerment
- Inspiring singing, dinner and dancing
Tables of 10 at R10,000.00
Saturday 30 August, Arabella Quays, Cape Town
For more info please contact Zelda Mycroft on 0861 CHAELI or info [at] chaelicampaign.co.za
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08.07.08
Posted in Online Marketing at 9:56 am by Jono
Well, perhaps problem is too strong a word, I suppose in business we prefer to refer to these obstacles as ‘challenges’. And some people certainly find metrics more challenging than others!
What’s important?
As many of us will know all too well, in an online environment it’s possible to create metrics and measurements until the (virtual) cows come home. CTRs, visitors, page views, CPAs, conversion rates, you name ‘em we got ‘em. Pretty much everything can be measured.
But, what many people fail to understand is that in order to derive any value from analytics, you need to know what you’re looking for and what your key performance indicators are.
To the layman, many of the metrics that are churned out are hard to interpret (or easily misinterpreted), particularly when considering ratios and averages.
I’ll illustrate with an example*:
Assuming that one of a company’s online goals is to generate enquiries for their sales team. Now, you are told that in a given month the conversion rate of referrals from Source A was 30% versus a conversion rate of 40% from Source B. The natural conclusion that most would leap to is that for some reason, Source B works better and perhaps sends more qualified traffic to the site, right? WRONG.
Consider that Source A referred 4000 visitors to the site over this time as apposed to Source B’s 200.
So in terms of actual numbers, referrals from Source A actually accounted for 1200 enquiries to Source B’s 80.
*names changed and numbers slightly altered.
Another common misconception
Another gem that frequently gets people is when the number of new visitors + repeat visitors doesn’t add up to the total number of visitors. This little conundrum has undoubtedly caused hours of confusion to many.
The main confusing factor in this case is the metric of the “new visitor”. The definition is at fault, or perhaps, it is just a misnomer. If you visit this blog for the first time today and then return again later today – you are both a “new visitor” and a “returning visitor”.
From this example it’s easy to see that a “visitor” is not an individual, but rather a facet of web measurement
So what do we do?
In a veritable world of metrics a-plenty it’s important to know what’s important. Some pointers for keeping on the straight and narrow:
- Show clients the metrics that relate directly to their goals
- Contextualise your findings
- Keep sight of your clients KPIs and track metrics which show the ROI clearly.
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