How to capture, measure and convert Digital Engagement?
If you are a frequent flyer like myself (not that it is a great thing), you would have definitely seen and probably used at the airport the basic, simple and feels-mechanical feedback kiosk that has 4 options ranging from very happy face to very unhappy face.
It amazes me how simple it is, the simple data it captures without personalisation however the power it can give the airport operator regarding the mood of the traveler at the point of leaving the security check.
So this is an easy physical way to capture and measure travelers mood.
In the digital age, where "omnichannel" is the norm and the expectation by the digital consumer, how can you capture, measure and of course impact the engagement of digital consumers?
First thing is to understand what is digital engagement and why we need it?
Digital Engagement encapsulates the digital consumer's perception, satisfaction and interaction with a specific digital product and service across all the available channels that impacts the company's brand, reputation or economical revenue flow.
When it comes to metrics to capture, measure and track digital engagement, 3 important principles to be followed:
1- Principle 1: Do not capture, measure and track any metric just for the sake of metrics, or as some call it "Vanity Metrics". It is important to focus Internal investment (resources) or understand success of external investment (campaigns with 3rd party) based on metrics that really matter. For example, page views is a metric available almost on all platforms but it does not transfer to engagement and therefore, it is a useless metric to capture and measure, especially if your external investment is depending on it.
2- Principle 2: Derive metrics around digital consumer's perception, satisfaction and interaction rather than around your sales, marketing and revenue. The latter will be an automatic result if you measure and act on the right metrics.
3- Principle 3: Decide on a concrete set of channels, device types and tools you will get data from. Too many might be more confusing than helpful and you will struggle to measure your impact on the digital consumer's engagement.
I know that every company is different and their digital engagement differs based on their product and service offerings. However, based on the above 3 principles, I will share possible metrics that you can capture, measure and track efficiently and effectively to measure the digital engagement of your consumers across any of your channels (e.g. Email, website, social, etc..). It is up to you then to choose and combine the right metrics to support your digital journey. Remember, as per principle 1, do not use all of them just for the sake of metrics if they do not work for your digital consumer's engagement.
Perception Metrics:
1- Reach Rate: This metric is the percentage of visitors to your digital channel that are new compared to consumers returning. This metric highlights to you if your brand, the digital channel and content is reaching and engaging to new consumers. It highlights if your brand and digital offerings are being sought after.
2- Sentiment Rate: This metric is the percentage of likes/shares/comments per number of visitors. This metric highlights to you how the digital consumer feel about your content, your brand to like it, share it or comment on it.
3- Amplification Rate: This metric is the percentage of content, posts or articles shared compared to the overall. This metric highlights to you that your digital consumers trust your content, brand and product offering to share it further.
Satisfaction Metrics:
1- Adherence Rate: This metric is the duration a digital consumer is spending on your digital channel from the moment they land till they leave. This metric highlights to you whether your digital consumers are enjoying and engaged with your content and therefore satisfied. It shows the quality of your content and consumer experience.
2- Conversion Rate: This metric is the percentage of visitors are "converted" and made a purchase, filled a form or even gave feedback. This metric highlights to you the percentage of users who are satisfied and convinced by your product or service offering and their experience to spend their money and time with you.
3- Retention Rate: This metric is the percentage of visitors to the digital channel that are not new. This metric highlights to you if your digital consumer are satisfied with their experience and are loyal to your brand, product and service offerings.
Interaction Metrics:
1- Bounce Rate: This metric is the percentage of users that visit only one section of your digital channel before exiting the channel. This metric highlights to you what your digital consumers want and is most important to them. It shows the strength of your content, structure of the channel on the different devices and of course your search engine optimization strategy (Users will "bounce" off quickly if they searched for cars and arrived to a bicycle site for example).
2- Efficiency Rate: This metric is the number of clicks per particular task a user need to accomplish within your digital channel. This metric highlights to you the effort the digital consumer faces to accomplish what you want them to do on that channel (e.g. visiting multiple areas, complete a multi-step sign-up process, etc...).
Of course, in addition to the above, a very powerful metric is the perception of the user and this can be done by simple surveys when they interact with your relevant digital channels.
Once you have identified the most important metrics for your digital product, you should also define the correlation between them to allow you to get more intelligence out of the data you receive.
In the next 100 days, revisit the metrics you are measuring and try to "challenge" yourself and your organization using the 3 principles and drop instantly any "vanity metrics". What I mentioned above are just examples of possible metrics which you can use however as long as you and the organization always keep the digital consumer at the center of your metrics, then you will get the right data to give you to measure your return on digital engagement.