How 4Q and Google Analytics Teamed Up to Show You "Why"

If you're here, you probably have your own web analytics package installed on your website. Maybe you even have goal funnels set up to know when people are buying your product, subscribing to your newsletter or performing some other task of interest. You know that, with just a little effort, you can find out who is coming to your site and what they're doing. But all web analytics enthusiasts have been plagued with one question. Why do visitors do the things they do? This week, Google Analytics and 4Q announced an integration that will add even more value and insights to your web analytics activities by answering a critical question. Why?

Web analytics thought leader Avinash Kaushik called it Trinity, a mindset and strategy for understanding web analytics. In order to improve your web performance, you need to know who visits your website, what they do and why they do it. Kaushik described how "clickstream" tools like Google Analytics could show you the who and the what, but they couldn't tell you the why. Enter 4Q.

Kaushik joined forces with iPerceptions in 2008 and released a free tool called 4Q, a product that allows you to get a sense for why your visitors do what they do by asking them four simple questions via a pop-up invitation :

• What are your visitors at your site to do?
• Are they completing what they set out to do?
• If not, why?
• How satisfied are your visitors?

Traditionally, your Google Analytics data and 4Q data stayed within each tool. On Friday, May 14, 4Q rolled out it's new integration with Google Analytics - along with custom purpose of visit choices - allowing users to create custom reports filled with awesome "why" data of 4Q.

The setup video on the 4Q website was enough information to get started. The integration process itself takes about a minute. Once your 4Q and Google Analytics accounts are connected, all 4Q responses are collected in the form of custom variables, which can be added to custom reports in Google Analytics.

On a side note, I couldn't find any information on how custom variables map to the 4Q questions. After a little trial-and-error, I've determined the following mapping:

• Custom Variable 5 (Value) = 4Q Task Completion
• Custom Variable 4 (Value) = 4Q Purpose of Visit
• Custom Variable 3 (Value) = 4Q Satisfaction

Presently, I'm excited about the integration. But I have started to have second thoughts about 4Q. The only problem with 4Q is that many people find the pop-up invitation form itself to be annoying. And as more mobile users begin to see the form, it's apparently beginning to pose usability problems as well. Imagine, the very tool I installed to improve customer experience ends up taking away from it. You can bet I'll be keeping an eye on my visitors' reactions to 4Q to see whether the tool is doing more harm or good.

Kaushik's mental framework for web analytics has expanded well beyond Trinity, but the who, what and why remain a vital part of the equation. What are your thoughts about the 4Q/Google Analytics integration? Is there a custom report you're just dying to create? Is there a "Why?" you've been wanting to answer for a long time? Or is 4Q's pop-up survey more trouble than it's worth. Leave a comment below and share your opinion.

10 Blogging Mistakes, Tips and Tricks: One Year in the Making

This Sunday, May 16 2010 represents the one year anniversary of Big Picture Web, my humble blog/website/company. For the last year, my goal has been to help people use online marketing strategies and measurement tactics to create more successful blogs, websites and social media presences. I've learned a thing or two about blogging in that time, and today, our special anniversary post features 10 blogging mistakes, tips and tricks I've gathered during the first year of Big Picture Web.

Most of us, myself included, aren't writers and learning to blog isn't easy. In fact, I cringe when I look at my very first post. But it's one of those things that gets easier over time. You start to get a feel for your audience. You develop a certain voice. You start to see which posts keep readers' attention and which posts are bombs. All of this information helps you avoid common blogging mistakes and move forward. And so here we are, one year and a list of 10 blogging mistakes, tips and tricks under my blogging belt:

1. Be consistent. The worst thing you can do as a blogger is to be inconsistent. It's way too common to see a new a blogger come out of the gates with a full head of steam, posting three times a week. But by the second month, the blog becomes a ghost town. Don't let your excitement become a blogging mistake. At a minimum, post once a week. Establish a rhythm and then don't waiver. You can do significant damage to your community and readership if your content schedule begins to vary.
2. Don't ignore comments. Comments are screaming indicators of engagement, yet less than 1 in 10 people typically leave comments on blogs. Comments are golden. Comments are social proof, convincing new readers to stick around because others have joined in your conversation as well. Neglecting people that leave comments - unless you're Chris Brogan and receive scores of comments per day -  is not only a huge blogging mistake, it's also very rude. Comments should be a goal on your website and should be highly coveted. If you get one, respond to your commenter and thank them. Go to their blog. Friend them. Send them a birthday card. You get the picture.
3. Develop a content strategy and stick to it. By in large, no one will will read your blog if it's just a "mere online diary," as Twitter friend @passepartout puts it. You need to be offering something unique and useful to a specific audience. If you look at some of my first posts, my direction was horrible. I wrote about incredibly general topics like SEO, email marketing, online marketing in general. Those articles get no traffic and generate very little interest. Now, I blog about online strategy, measurement and the actual software platforms bloggers and website developers use to meet online goals. This much more focused approach has yielded a lot more engagement with folks that come to Big Picture Web.
4. There is no substitute for quality. Great blog posts are like adding a tiny, recurring source of traffic to your site each month. I created a full-on guide for measuring banner ad revenue as one of my first blog posts. I'm still amazed by how much search traffic I receive. Compare that with this post and you can see why the banner ad post receives so many more visitors. Put in the time to create quality content. Your audience will appreciate the extra effort.
5. There is no excuse not to do basic SEO. If you still don't know what search engine optimization is, you owe it to yourself to at least learn the basics. Following a few basic SEO blogging tips like adding keywords to your blog post titles and image alt tags can go a long way to boost your long-term search traffic.
6. Bad usability is a big blogging mistake. Bloggers almost always end up shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to usability. White text on dark font. All caps. A million blinking lights and widgets. Molasses-like site load times. Keep your web page down to the basic elements that will support your goals. Make sure your add-ons don't slow down your overall site performance. Bottom line: poor usability loses visitors.
7. Choose your blogging platform wisely. Before you dig in and start building your website, it's important to look at the options available to you. You'll see that there is an age-old trade-off between flexibility and ease-of-use (e.g., Wordpress vs. Squarepace). Find the niche that suits your needs, then find the quality solution that suits you.
8. Measure your blog. I believe passionately in measuring to improve. And in my opinion, there is no excuse for not installing a basic web analytics platform on your blog (e.g., Google Analytics). How else are you going to know what content is working? I'm constantly looking at my sources of traffic, top landing pages, goal funnels, everything. There are countless insights on how to better serve your community and improve your blog if you just take the time to look.
9. Don't be a know-it-all. It's tempting to write definitive guides for your audience, but it's important to realize that blogs are social content. For example, I use website session recording software Clicktale to see how visitors engage with Big Picture Web. Most people that read a blog post will typically read what the community posts in the comments as well. Your thoughts are just as interesting to the Big Picture Web community as mine are. 
10. That said, I've intentionally left #10 blank just for you. Use the comments below to tell us about your biggest blogging mistake, tip or trick. Both my visitors and I will be grateful if you do.

I certainly appreciate all of the now nearly 1000 visits I get each month to Big Picture Web and hope that this next year is even better. If we haven't connected on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, now's the time.

Blatantly Using My Blog (and Vacation) As Leverage

If you're here, you've probably at least heard of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the book Trust Agents. I recently finished reading their vision for building relationships and trust online - it's quite good. Exceptional, actually. And today I'm going to blatantly use my blog and my vacation to Europe as leverage to illustrate one of their points and - more importantly - to help you.

Leverage is simple, according to Brogan and Smith:

You can use the advantage you have in one place to help you in another.

What does this mean? Often you have a skill, asset or tidbit of knowledge that can be used to further your efforts in other areas. In social media, for example, why not share your advantages with your network/blog followers to form and strengthen relationships? Let's take it a step further to clarify.

I'll be in Europe this week. Do you need anything? 

That's right. If you'd like a little souvenir or knick-knack from Europe, let me know. I'm using the Twitter hashtag #bpweurope throughout the trip. Send me a tweet using that tag or leave a comment below before April 17th and you might just get the European treasure you've always wanted (you can also just say hi if you'd like). We're slated to go through parts of France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany although haven't really committed to anything. (Note: For best results, keep it simple. All unfilled orders due to volume, weight, hazmat status or price will result in a shiny key-chain.)

How is this leverage? 

When I get back, I'll be hosting a website/blog/social media strategy and measurement meetup in the Twin Cities area. Door prizes will include your requested souvenir. I'll be taking advantage of my already-scheduled vacation to Europe to increase my meetup attendance through putting a smile on your face.

I'm also leveraging my blog to tell you about my trip, souvenirs and a new meetup.

Leverage is just one of the many key moves of a "Trust Agent." Hopefully today's blog post piqued your interest to the point of wanting to learn more.

What assets do you or your company have that could be used for leverage?

The Complete Google Analytics iPhone App Guide

Whether you frequently need website data on demand or are just a Google Analytics addict, having quick access to Google Analytics is important to many bloggers and business folks alike. Your smart phone can be an excellent way to access this information on the go, but there are so many apps on the market already. You don't want to buy just any app. As a blogger, Google Analytics enthusiast and iPhone owner myself, it's no wonder that I'm also interested in finding the very best Google Analytics iPhone app out there.

After reading about the Top iPhone Apps for Social Media Marketing nearly month ago, I've been slowly making it through every Google Analytics iPhone app on the iTunes store. I tested each one for a few basic, yet critical personal iPhone app user criteria:

• iPhone App Usability - iPhone app users expect excellent usability. Simple tasks like selecting websites or reports have to be easy. Selecting date ranges must be swift and intuitive. Bonus points are applied heavily for Google Analytics app that minimize excessive screens and scrolling without cluttering the iPhone screen.
• (iPhone app shown here: Visits. Click to enlarge.)Google Analytics Insights, Not Just Data - As web analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik always suggests, web analytics is about the maximizing your insights, not necessarily reports. Great Google Analytics iPhone apps provide the best traffic and outcomes insights in as few reports as possible.
• iPhone App Price - Google Analytics iPhone apps already vary widely in price. Some are well worth it. Some aren't. I'm willing to pay for services but expect value.

After scouring the market and without further ado, I bring you the Complete Google Analytics iPhone App Guide.

Full Service Google Analytics iPhone Apps

Our guide is split into two basic categories, full service and specialty. Full Service Google Analytics iPhone apps should provide access to all major visitor, traffic, content, goals e-commerce and event information for a Google Analytics profile.

Quality Full Service Google Analytics iPhone Apps:

• Update 6/23/10: Analytics App recently came out with an updated version of their app that includes beautiful graphs as well as much better goal information. At this point, Analytics App (see below) is the winner
• Bam Analytics - Current Google Analytics iPhone App Champ. Bam Analytics knows how important it is to show not only stats on your website visitors (i.e., traffic sources, browsers, content), but what they did as well (i.e., conversions, ecommerce, goals). Bam Analytics provides great conversion rate information on search and e-commerce. While I'd personally like to see some additional conversion rate metrics surrounding traffic sources and campaigns, as well as event summaries, Bam Analytics is already the leading Google Analytics iPhone app for outcomes. Did I mention they also allow for advanced segments and reports?

• Analytics App - Very good but in need of a few tweaks. Analytics App has one of the easiest date range interfaces of all the Google Analytics iPhone apps. The robust report list is anchored by the Dashboard, Today and Yesterday Overview Reports, which is helpful overall but sorely lacks info on goals, conversions, events, campaigns, etc. Analytics App is overall a solid iPhone app with great design and utility. A few optimizations here and there could make it the champ.

• AnalyticsPro - Another great iPhone app just shy of perfection. AnalyticsPro has a lot of things going for it as well. It provides for different visualization options of detailed traffic reports, which help to coax insights out of Google Analytics. Again, this iPhone app is overall very good but lacks summary reports with outcomes. 

(Bam Analytics provides access to goals. Click to enlarge)(Analytics App has a great interface. Click to enlarge)(AnalyticsPro has great graphs. Click to enlarge)

Google Analytics iPhone Apps Requiring Improvement:

• (Click to enlarge.)Pocket GA - Personally, I like the date range user interface of Pocket GA above nearly every other Google Analytics iPhone app. Unfortunately, they're missing quite a few key core reports -- outcomes, keywords, conversion, campaigns, events - the usual.
• Analytics Agent - Analytics Agent has a clunky date interface and minimal access to outcomes from the summary reports. There are much better Google Analytics iPhone app options available. Moving on...
• Buzz InSites - This Google Analytics did not live up to my expectations in the least. When I first saw Buzz InSites, they claimed to provide access to your web analytics and social profile metrics from one convenient interface. For the $5 price tag, I thought, it had better do that and more. Buzz InSites flops out out of the gate with clunky login and date selection interfaces. The scant Google Analytics and Twitter summary information at the end of the usability maze leaves much to be desired with this iPhone app. 

Specialty Google Analytics iPhone Apps

Specialty Google Analytics iPhone apps are apps that are designed to show one feature or particular aspect of your website's performance. Their purposes vary widely, as does there quality.

Specialty Google Analytics iPhone Apps Worth a Look:

• (Click to enlarge.)Ego - Even though high-level stats like website visitors, Twitter followers and Feedburner subscribers don't necessarily translate to outcomes for business or personal goals, they can be of great appeal to our vanity. That's why Ego is the perfect app to check summary metrics across multiple platforms quickly.
• Visits - Visits shows one thing and one thing only - visits. See summary stats, traffic sources and keywords. The app doesn't say it can do anything it can't. See the image above.

Specialty Google Analytics iPhone Apps Needing Improvement:

• Analyze This! - This fun app shows great executive level summary info for goals, e-commerce and campaigns. While this free iPhone app shows a lot of potential, it's seemed a bit buggy to me -- I encountered a time-out on several occasions. But hey, it's free and I certainly look forward to any improvements this app developer chooses to pursue and thank them for sharing their tool with us! As social media and Web 2.0 continues to prove again and again, the best tools can also be free.
• (Analyze This! has promise but needs a little work. Click to enlarge.)Analytics, Touchlytics, Cracklytics - These apps are great examples of someone playing around with a Google Analytics API. Without some major improvement, it would be hard for the beginner, intermediate or advanced Google Analytics user to derive much value from these iPhone apps in their current state.  The best part about iPhone apps is that they're updated frequently. I have faith that these apps can utilize their customer feedback and improve their product accordingly.

Having a web analytics platform like Google Analytics installed on your website is important to advancing your site closer towards your personal and/or professional goals. iPhone users -- well, at smartphone users, really -- have the ability to access this information from anywhere at any time via the apps listed here today.

Does your review of these apps differ from mine? How do you measure a good Google Analytics iPhone app? WWhich one do you use? I foresee a lot more movement from developers on these types of iPhone apps in the coming months and years. Leave a comment below to add to the conversation here at Big Picture Web.

Sign up for FREE tips via Email

4 Pro Tips for Managing Your Brand Online

Branding has become a topic of great interest to me lately. A few recent work activities followed by meeting some new branding experts/friends have brought the power of a brand into perspective. A brand is the sum of everything you know, think and feel about a product or service.  It's the feeling you get when your favorite product's jingle is on the radio or TV. It's the specific look of the bullet points on the product feature list on the website. It's what assures and comforts us when we choose one product over another. Today's post features four pro tips for managing your brand online.

1.  Your Brand is as Good as the Customers' Experience

New friend and brand expert Pat Dawson recently launched his website/brand consultancy with TheBrandChiropractor.com. Dawson and fellow branding experts blog about their observations of brands that convey a message far different than the version of the brand customers experience, both online and offline.  For example, Dawson's most recent post outlines a difference in customer experiences across Rainbow Foods grocery stores in the Twin Cities and suggestions for how their owners could put their brand back "into alignment."  Managing Your Brand Online Tip #1: Strive for alignment between customer expectations and customer experience.

2. The Power of a Brand with Power

More new friends include John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founding principals of Pollywog, a Twin Cities naming and branding firm.  Their patent-pending brand process helps you create a powerful brand that will stand out in an online landscape, cluttered by over 5.5 million worldwide brands. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #2: Create a brand that stands out and is easily understood and spread by word of mouth.

3. Let Your Customers Help Shape Your Brand

We recently tested a few visual design changes on our website at work with a few of our customers.  We developed three different designs and then asked our customers to select five adjectives from a list of fifteen that best described the designs.  We were then able to leverage the customers' feedback in our decision-making process with evidence supporting the path we selected. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #3: Let customers help make big branding decisions.

4. Use the Online Brand Management Tools

Conversations occur about you online whether you're listening or not.  It's easy to mange your brand online with free tools and little time here and there.  Check out this recent blog post about free online brand management tools you can use to stay on top of what's being said about your brand online. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #4: Use free and cheap tools to alert you when your brand is mentioned.

What tips do you have for managing your brand online? Have you seen a particularly memorable brand recently? Post a comment with your thoughts.

Sign up for FREE tips via Email