Conversion Metrics: How Click-to-Chat Enabled Micro Conversions for AstraZeneca

Visitors are great for business, but leads and customers are even better. Defined as conversions or conversion rate, this metric refers to outcomes achieved by visitors to your website - more generally, it is an activity that is completed that is relevant to the success of your business. A conversion can be a macro conversion or a micro conversion: a macro conversion is typically a completed purchase transaction; in contrast, a micro conversion is a completed activity, such as an email signup, that indicates that the user is moving towards a macro conversion (Google, 2018).

Rarely do conversions occur on the initial visit to a website. In fact, 95% of your website visitors will never convert upon first visit to your website; rather, it takes 3-4 visits for your visitors to actually think of doing business with you (Saeed, 2018). Macro conversions may take several sessions per unique visitor to achieve an event, while a visitor may achieve one or several micro conversions in an initial visit. In the world of biotech and pharmaceuticals, micro conversions may be the primary metric available for a website, since product purchases are rarely performed online. Activities like PDF downloads such as Doctor Discussion Guides and Infusion Checklists are important tools for building brand awareness and cultivating website visitors towards a macro conversion such as a copay card enrollment or newsletter signup. Strong marketers will set goals for these conversions within Google Analytics, which help to set a benchmark for micro conversion activities and assess effectiveness of the website in cultivating visitors.

What do your website visitors need? What questions do they need help answering, and how will you provide them? The best way to optimize for any kind of a conversion is to answer the questions that people have in their head and to know those we have to ask (Zhai, 2018). Before setting goals for your conversions metrics, one needs to take a step back and understand the needs of the customer and how micro conversions on your site meet those needs. One way AstraZeneca met patients halfway and developed a unique micro conversion strategy on their website is with the development of “Click to Chat” feature for NEXTOR and CRESTIUM websites. The technology provides consumers with an option to contact a live AstraZeneca customer service representative with just a click of a button on the “Contact Us” page of these product websites. “AstraZeneca understands that our consumers want flexibility, especially when it comes to health information... This new resource enables consumers to have easier access to the information they seek through the convenience of a real-time, online channel” (Benson, 2011). AstraZeneca now sets micro conversions goals for the chatbox custom component on their websites, to understand the percentage of visitors who use the feature and their satisfaction post-chat (as measured by a short survey).

Fig 1: Satisfaction scores for AstraZeneca Click-to-Chat Feature (Einarsen, 2012) 

What the Click-to-Chat feature further provides is personalization. If your website is optimized, but not personalized, then adopting a personalized marketing strategy may drive traffic and increase your conversion rate further (Kobold, 2017). Since patients can immediately engage with a representative, they receive immediate responses to their needs in a personalized setting - without getting on the phone or seeing a physician.

Fig 2: Click-to-Chat feature on CRESTOR (Einarsen, 2012) 

At a high level, conversion metrics will help marketers understand if the activities on their website meet the needs of their visitors. Actions like downloads, video starts, and engagement with a chatbox can be measured by number of instances but also the satisfaction of the visitor upon completion of the action. The latter will help marketers measure the relevance of their content to their target market, and also help set realistic goals in Google Analytics to measure these conversions.


References:

Benson, R. (2011, April 27). AstraZeneca Launches Live Click-to-Chat Feature on CRESTOR and NEXIUM Consumer Websites. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110427005996/en/AstraZeneca-Launches-Live-Click-to-Chat-Feature-CRESTOR-NEXIUM

Einarsen, B. (2012, July 17). Interactive chat – is Pharma ready yet? Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.klick.com/health/news/blog/social/interactive-chat-is-pharma-ready-yet/

Google. (2018). Conversion - Analytics Help. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6086209?hl=en

Saeed, S. (2018, January 08). How to Reveal Your Path to Conversion in Google Analytics. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-reveal-your-path-to-conversion-in-google-analytics/

Zhai, S. (2018, April 03). Episode Two: Actionable Tips to Optimize Your Life Science Website for Conversions. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.supremeopti.com/episode-two-actionable-tips-optimize-life-science-website-conversions/

Referrals: Referral Traffic and Visitor Acquisition Sources: How Twitter Referral Data Can Shape a Marketing Campaign

(LoginRadius, 2014)

The success of a digital marketing campaign and vital tactic like a website requires understanding one’s audience. This means going beyond their interactions with the website and whether or not they convert, but also their origin and behavior prior to entering your website. The source of traffic to a page or website entry point is known as a referral.

Referral traffic is Google's method of reporting visits that came to your site from sources outside of its search engine; when someone clicks on a hyperlink to go to a new page on a different website, Google Analytics tracks the click as a referral visit to the second site (Bashara, 2017). The site of origin is the referrer, since it refers traffic from one site or digital tactic - such as a display ad or partner website - to the next. In addition to Referral Traffic, Google Analytics also measures Search Traffic and Direct Traffic.

Diving deep into referral traffic metrics can help marketers determine which referral sources lead the the most conversions. Fairmont Hotels leveraged Google Analytics referral reports to understand the impact of social media traffic to unique visits to their website. Fairmont Hotels tracked the quality of traffic from Twitter, which is normally categorized as Third-Party Traffic in the Google Analytics platform, but also registered as Direct Traffic if the link is copied-and-pasted into a new browser. To make sure the aggregation of the source is accurate, the company decided to use URL builder, in which a link can be given parameters like source, medium, campaign name etc., which lets the company track the source of twitter traffic irrespective of where the link is clicked on (Nagarad, 2018). Their efforts resulted in a clearer understanding of the impact of Twitter referrals on their unique visits and ultimately, conversions. An increase in conversions as a result of a specific Twitter campaign can help marketers understand what resonates with that audience to increase traffic to and conversions at the Fairmont Hotels website. The source of website visitors is important because one can segment traffic from each channel to help you see which traffic source brings you the most engaged and relevant visitors (Trice, 2016). These insights can then be applied to campaign strategies and marketing budget allocation.

Referral traffic from Twitter can be analyzed in a more granular level. The Referral Paths report in Google Analytics can break down the “who” and “how” of tweets to your website. Applying Chrome extension Campalyst Tweet Lookup Plugin converts bit.ly URLs to actual tweets in your report suite for a nominal fee (Patel, 2018). This is an opportunity for Fairmont Hotels if gaps were discovered with their tracking codes in the above example.

Figure 1: Campalyst Tweet Lookup Plugin provides actual tweets and sources of the tweets within the Referral Sources report of Google Analytics (Patel, 2018).

Reporting at this level opens more doors for marketers to understand what messages are resonating with their audiences. Understanding which tweets are driving more traffic to your website will help you understand not just what content is most successful in driving traffic, but which Twitter profiles are the strongest brand advocates. Marketers could use this data to contact influential brand advocates and build an influencer marketing campaign, whereby a select group of influencers are groomed to promote the brand in their social media accounts, for a small fee or other rewards from the company.

All brands can benefit from understanding their referral traffic, it’s sources, content, and how those messages ultimately result in conversions (or bounces). Cultivation of meaningful content that drives visitors to a website or to purchase/sign up/convert does not solely happen on the brand’s website; tactics and communications driving to the website are all part of a holistic integrated marketing campaign that can benefit from optimization as a result of web data reporting to uncover what messages are performing the highest.

References
Bashara, R. (2017, November 21). What Is Referral Traffic in Google Analytics? Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/referral-traffic-google-analytics-53168.html
LoginRadius. (2014, December 26). How to Drive Referral Traffic with Social Sharing. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://blog.loginradius.com/2014/12/drive-referral-traffic-social-sharing/Nagarad, S. (2018, April 03). 10 Best Google Analytics Case Studies. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/google-analytics-case-studies/
Patel, N. (2018, July 05). What You Can Learn from Referral Paths in Google Analytics. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/referral-paths-in-google-analytics/
Trice, S. (2016, August 8). 5 Google Analytics metrics every pharma marketer should know. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-google-analytics-metrics-every-pharma-marketer-should-sawyer-trice/