they typed into search engines when trying to locate product information. Promotion is
successful if traffic is generated that meets objectives of volume and quality. Quality will
be determined by whether visitors are in the target market and have a propensity for the
service offered (conversion rates for different referrers). Overall hits or page views are not
enough – inspection of log files for companies shows that a high proportion of visitors
get no further than the home page! Differences in costs of acquiring customers via differ-
ent channels also need to be assessed.Key measure:
Referral mix. For each referral source such as offline or banner ads online it should be
possible to calculate:
percentage of all referrals (or visitors);
cost of acquisition;
contribution to sales or other outcomes.2 Channel buyer behaviour
Once customers have been attracted to the site we can monitor content accessed, when
they visit and how long they stay, and whether this interaction with content leads to
satisfactory marketing outcomes such as new leads or sales. If visitors are incentivised to
register on-site it is possible to build up profiles of behaviour for different segments. It is
also important to recognise return visitors for whom cookies or login are used.Key ratios are:Bounce rates for different pages, i.e. proportion of single page visits
Home page views/all page views e.g. 20% = (2358/11 612)
Stickiness Page views/visitor sessions e.g. 6% = 11 612/2048
Repeats Visitor sessions/visitors e.g. 2% = 2048/9703 Channel satisfaction
Customer satisfaction with the online experience is vital in achieving the desired chan-
nel outcomes, although it is difficult to set specific objectives. Online methods such as
online questionnaires, focus groups and interviews can be used to assess customers’
opinions of the web site content and customer service and how it has affected overall
perception of brand.Key measure:
Customer satisfaction indices. These are discussed in Chapter 7 and include ease of use,
site availability and performance, and e-mail response. To compare customer satisfaction
with other sites, benchmarking services can be used.4 Channel outcomes
Traditional marketing objectives such as number of sales, number of leads, conversion
ratesand targets for customer acquisition and retention should be set and then com-
pared to other channels. Dell Computer (www.dell.com) records on-site sales and also
orders generated as a result of site visits, but placed by phone. This is achieved by moni-
toring calls to a specific phone number unique to the site.
Key measure:
Channel contribution (direct and indirect).CHAPTER 9· MAINTAINING AND MONITORING THE ONLINE PRESENCE
Channel buyer
behaviour
Describes which
content is visited and
the time and duration.
Stickiness
An indication of how
long a visitor stays on
site.
Channel
satisfaction
Evaluation of the
customer’s opinion of
the service quality
on the site and
supporting services
such as e-mail.
Channel outcomes
Record customer
actions taken as a
consequence of a visit
to a site.
Conversion rate
Percentage of site
visitors who perform a
particular action such
as making a purchase.