4 Tools to Track the Effectiveness of an Online Campaign

Having done this for some time, I find it odd how little people seem to actually track a website's effectiveness for online campaigns.  The general measurements tend to be the click-through rates, the overall traffic to the site, the number of donations received, and the average gift sizes. These are all important, but I feel like many people leave out checking into exactly why they got the results they did.  For this reason, I have put together a list of four online tools that I find very useful in determining what visitors to the site were doing and why.

The first tool--and perhaps one of the most well known--is Google Analytics.  Web analytics software is one of those essential pieces for tracking any site, they tell you how many people visited, why, from where, for how long, and can even give you an idea of what content is getting the most attention.  Google provides a free analytics tool which is one of the most sophisticated and easy to use tools I have come across to date.  

To set up Google Analytics on your site, simply login to Google, fill out the registration form for setting up a site (which is primarily getting the domain name and a few pieces of information about the site), and then use the few lines of Google's code that you can insert into your site.  Every 24 hours,the online tool will update and allow you to view all of your site statistics and even download and print them in an easy to follow PDF.  

The next tool and one of my favorites is CrazyEgg, which displays "heat maps" of exactly where people on your page are clicking on a given page. This may sound a bit like analytics, but there is a small and subtle difference.  Analytics is checking what links people followed, where CrazyEgg will show you what they clicked on.

This has several benefits. First, it will show you at a quick glance which areas in your site are getting some of the most attention. This is important since Analytics only tracks the link, but if you have several links that go to the same page you can now see which ones are getting more attention.  By knowing what people are view more and what is of interest to them, you can adjust other aspects of the campaign site to be just as compelling allowing you to better direct your visitors to where you want them to go.

Another benefit is that it will show you pieces of content that people are clicking on that may not be links at all.  This will give you a quick view at a possible usability issue.  It may not be something that needed to be a link in your mind but if people are confusing it for one, or thinking it should be one then you can change those pieces to better suite the needs of the visitors.

CrazyEgg is not free like Google Analytics, but it is not expensive either. Starting at $9.99 a month for the basic level, it will allow you to monitor 10 pages. My recommendation is to put this on the most important pages in the site including the home page, campaign landing page and the donation page.

Another tool I find very useful is ClickTale.  ClickTale is a "in-page web analytics" tool.  The main difference between ClickTale and other analytics tools is that this one will allow you to see the breakdown of the page not just the links followed around the site.

Say for example we know people stay on a single page linger than any  other on the site.  Why? What is it that is keeping them there that is not on the other pages?  With ClickTale we can find that out. 

 

ClickTale generates a video which shows you what the visitors are actually doing inside the webpage.  It records every visitor interaction including scroll, click, mouse movement, and keystroke.  This allows you to do inexpensive usability testing by seeing exactly what the visitors to your site are doing.  It will also generate heat map pages that will show you what visitors are doing as a group, including how far down people scroll, what is getting more interaction,  and so much more information.

The final tool is Google Website Optimizer.  This is a wonderful tool for A/B testing of a campaign allowing you to create multiple versions of pages or even just portions of a page to see which is most effective.  

Google Web Optimizer works by allowing you to create projects which will measure the different pieces of content and determine which are the most effective in getting conversion.  To create a project you simply choose a page and a goal and generate several versions of that content.  Google takes care of the rest by segmenting the users for you, then it will analyze which page version and even which aspects on a page are the most effective.  The tests can be as basic as comparing 2 pieces of content or complex testing with multiple variations.

This is useful in seeing which imagery, stories, and layout can be most effective and allow you to make changes as needed to actively improve the campaign as it runs.

It is true that any of these tools on their own can be great resources to an online campaign.  The real benefit is that when tied together they will give you the complete overview of exactly how effective your campaign is.  This will allow you to make changes to the campaign as it runs.  You can also use these tools to plan for the next campaign since you can see precisely what worked well and what did not.  Already knowing exactly what your visitors want is a very valuable resource kind of like reading their minds. 

How Twitter is Driving Action and Growing Up. 140 Characters at a Time.

onPhilanthropy has focused on twitter before (see here and here), but I want to share my thoughts on the ways I have seen twitter maturing, primarily as a network driving social change and action. Twitter has been on my mind a lot recently since we started posting from our new @onphilanthropy twitter account. The conversations I've had with some of our readers and people involved in this space have been worthwhile and fun so thank you and if you haven't already, feel free to follow us and say hi.

Personal Twitter Emergencies

Back in April when James Karl Buck (@jamesbuck) found himself in an Egyptian prison cell, his single word tweet, "ARRESTED" set a series of events in motion, ultimately leading the US Embassy to arrange his release. Chris Brogan reflected about the implications of the network's influence in bringing about such a dramatic real world result so quickly.

"What’s important about this story? Everything. Twitter has a powerful ability to move people to action, to deliver help where it’s needed, and more. If a messaging platform can free a man from prison, what else can it do for YOU?"

Just this week twitter was used to marshal the energies of its vast network to help find a missing child. User Geno Church (@genochurch) sent a message on twitter asking for information about his missing daughter McKenzie that was resent, "retweeted" in twitter-speak, in subsequent days. Thankfully she's been found and will be with her family.  While it's not clear whether twitter was directly responsible for finding her, the outpouring of support that the family received is impressive.

Tweeting Action

I have seen some remarkable twitter funding appeals, most notably Beth Kanter raising $2,657 in 90 minutes at Gnomedex this spring. This impressive campaign was an exceptional instance and Beth is one of the most well connected people on twitter. I am encouraged by many of the other campaigns I see and also by the development of tools to integrate action for social change more fully into twitter.

Social Actions led by Peter Deitz is seeking to connect people with actionable opportunities for causes they identify. Through the twitterfeed platform Social Actions allows users to automatically post a daily action to their twitter feeds.

Conversation and Awareness

New modes of conversation have emerged through the 2008 Election as twitter has been  increasingly used by newscasters to demonstrate public sentiment about the candidates ideas and also by users during the debates. Twitter has promoted its own expanding role in politics through its new election portal. Meanwhile, sites like Current TV, which has featured relevant tweets during live debates, and twitter's own search tool allow users to engage in conversation during debates in what many feel is a richer experience.

Another campaign worth noting is the effort to "Turn Twitter Pink" by having users add pink to their pictures in recognition of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. (@onphilanthropy is participating in this effort as well)

That's just a taste of the innovative action I've seen on twitter recently. What kinds of campaigns and twitter uses have you stumbled on lately? Better yet, share your ideas for tomorrow with us in the comments.

Follow the onLine team:

http://twitter.com/onPhilanthropy

http://twitter.com/meshugavi

http://twitter.com/tomwatson

http://twitter.com/garthmoore

photo by carrotcreatived

Keeping Up With Social Media

How many hours do you have in a day to work? How much of that time can you (or a staff person, if you're lucky) devote to updating your organization's Twitter posts ("tweets"), Facebook Causes items, MySpace page, blog posts, and other social media? OK, how much time can you devote without doing at midnight while in your pajamas or sitting in front of the television on Sunday night? How can you keep up with all social media?

Well, it's easier than you think. Just recently, I had to handle our tweets and do some updates here and there (including today's blog post, which was supposed to be done yesterday). Well, Avi Kaplan here at onLine advises 30 minutes a day to update your social networks. So, try it. Take 30 minutes every other day to see what you can do. Make a few updates, post a tweet or two every couple of hours. Take 20 minutes to write a a great blog post. Just remember to be fun, be social, and get people listening and engaging with your organization.

Here are some interesting topics about social media anxiety/resources to explore... when you have the time:

• Beth's Blog: Information Coping Skills
• Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking
• Idealist: Add Facebook Friends for a Cause...Or a Living
• DIOSA: Get a volunteer

What's Next?

The Obama-Biden campaign recently released an iPhone app that is revolutionary. The app isn't just an abridged version of the site, but a tool embedded into your iPhone designed to exploit it's capabilities. Consider for example, the "Call Friends" tool, which organizes all your contacts (using their area code) by state battlegrounds. From within the tool, you can call a contact and talk Obama, talk McCain, or even talk Tina Fey. After making a call from the tool, the contact's note "Have not called" is changed to "Called". (There is also options to label the contact "Not interested", "Already Voted", "Call back", and others.)

From the app, you can sign up to receive emails and text messages about recent updates, read local and national Obama news, watch videos and view photos, view a countdown to Election Day, read Obama's view on the all issues but most importantly- donate. Political favorites aside, the app is magnificently clever.

Think about your non-profit. A tool that is in front of your constituent every time they look at their phone, allows them to easily access recent updates, and offers them an opportunity to conveniently donate is unreal- yet, here it is. The potential popularity of this app to catalyze a stronger passion for your advocacy group or nonprofit looking to build a more motivated following I believe is only months away from your nearest app store.

10 Reasons Why You SHOULD Blog

I recently came across this article on AdAge.com -- "10 Reasons Why Your Company Shouldn't Blog" and just couldn't believe my eyes. No blog? That's heresy!

I won't deny that a good blog does take time, shouldn't be boring, still needs to be marketed like any other online property, and is not a quick fix for communications, but the same could be said about a good web site, and I'd challenge a company to try conducting business without a web site these days.

To be fair, the article was focused on corporate blogs. But for any nonprofits who read Advertising Age and are using these 10 reasons to postpone or drop plans for a blog, I offer this:

10 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Should Blog

1. Content syndication (RSS) tools for blogs can push content out to your audience much easier than anything available for a web site. Feedburner will send content updates to email addresses and other tools like RSS FWD offer similar blog to email options.
2. The nature of social networks and Web 2.0 means going where the people are, not building a web site and expecting them to find you. A blog's content can be easily shared across platforms like Facebook and MySpace, without duplication. The RSS feeds drop the content right onto your pages on those platforms, getting your updates where people can see it.
3. A blog can be leveraged as one more piece of a marketing campaign, helping you get beyond just sending out the occasional press release.
4. A blog should be personalized and have a voice, and in contrast to the typical nonprofit web site that has to offer lots of information to lots of audiences, a blog can really focus on a core group of people, such as donors.
5. A blog can even help you project more than a single voice. Volunteers and people in the field can offer more direct stories about how the organization is changing the world in real time, sometimes better than those written, reviewed, and approved project descriptions posted on the organization's official web site.
6. The interactivity, mostly in the form of comments from visitors, may only be appropriate in a blog setting and not something you'd want to offer on your general site.
7. Bloggers talk about brands. They talk about company information, their favorite products, and support causes and charities they care about. As a blogger, your own organization could do similar things. If you're an animal shelter, why not discuss the dog foods used at your organization? If you're a blindness organization, you can discuss medications used around the world and donated by the pharmaceuticals companies.
8. Money, money, money. Maybe not appropriate for all organizations and their blog endeavors, but for some, there is an opportunity to make money by adding advertising options to the blog.
9. In 2006, a survey of corporate blog owners found that 76% of companies surveyed indicated that they have noticed an increase in media attention and/or Web site traffic as a result of their blog(s). By getting your nonprofit's voice out there as an expert in your area, whether it be on poverty in your community, access to clean water in Africa, or any other big or small issue, the media may be watching. Take advantage of the opportunity to establish your organization's work as a leader in your sector or community.
10. For some organizations, a blog could actually BE YOUR WEBSITE.