Monday, June 23, 2008

All consumers are not equal

How do you define the value of a consumer is who visits a website? If someone visited a single page more valuable or someone who visited multiple pages much more valuable.

I guess it depends on page content. If the single page that was visited was one of the most valuable pages on your website, then that one page visitor should be the most valuable consumer on your website. Such pages could be the core product information or landing page. One more example could be the "Submit" more information page i.e. if the consumer takes some action at your website. If the consumer shares some personal information like email, phone, address then this is a perfect time to start a relationship marketing programs. Ask them what they need and provide them…

A consumer could also visit multiple pages which might not be so valuable and as they would not show stronger engagement with the brand or the product.

In the direct response model, especially with an e-commerce engine in place, a funnel based measurement system works very well to evaluate the value of the consumers. The further down the funnel a consumer is the more valuable he/she is. However, in the case of branding websites, there is no linear path that a consumer is supposed to follow. Thus, in the branding websites each pages needs to be assigned a value and then evaluate the value of your consumers.

1 comment:

Ben Kunz said...

Interesting.

This logic may break down, though, in that most web usability studies show consumer scan rapidly for information, and then commit or retreat. So the skew of value, based on page views, would be small -- either (a) bounce or (b) conversion, and minor variations thereof.

Because *consumers* themselves have a high range of value -- you could be worth $10,000 in sales and me only $100 -- then using channel-specific behavior to put a value on consumers seems like the wrong tool.

I like the idea that monitoring clickstreams can determine value. But I conclude the variation in clicks within a site are far, far smaller than the variation in actual customer value.

It could even become the inverse -- someone with high conversion on a site could be unprofitable.