Don’t tell the client…

Small lies, big lies, statistics. The (un)intentional misinterpretation of data can have massive effects on decisions, may that be about war, business, or just about any aspect of life.

Intentional misinterpretation does include omissions of key information. As I’m working with market research, I often face the problem of what should be told to the clients. There’s a genuine challenge where say base sizes produce unrobust data, which is a common problem with qualitative projects. My personal belief is that clients should be made aware of all information, good and bad. Managers often think differently about this.
We recently run a project for “a big social network site” looking into ad exposure on their site and its effect on online purchase, or even just generic (related) action. The outcome was that in the specific quant (not qual) group, there wasn’t a visible link between the two, and in the very few cases where link actually could be suspected, repeat rates were close to zero. Since  however the client is a strategic partner and a big player of the market, the management decided to omit 90% of the findings and report back on those few cases only where link was suspected. No mentions of the repeat rate. Press releases were made, everyone happy. (Apart from me but at least my name didn’t go onto the slides. I wouldn’t have wanted it anyway).

We’re now working with a company that’s selling shoes. Our qual project involves looking at 10 (!!) people’s behaviour, examining how they research and buy shoes. Client is building a massive strategy on this. No comment on that one, but one of the recurring feedback from the panelists was that they didn’t consider that client’s products because they were/are boring. So we’re reporting back that we think the client needs better online and offline presence. Can’t tell them that the people on whom strategy will be based think that their products suck. Double facepalm.
What’s the point in agreeing into such projects in the first place with base sizes so small that the margin of error is epic high, and then not report back the key finding? We could as well spend the money on a few pints in the pub and make up numbers and stories…

ps. image credit: unknown, not mine, found it on facebook.

Get your Momma drunk this March….

Dependent on where you’re from and what/how much you know about British culture, the idea of pubs might come slightly unusual or unfamiliar. Although I guess there’s a translated word for pub in pretty much any language, however its cultural meaning is likely to differ from what a pub in this country is. So, a pub in the UK tends to be the place where people drink and wind their gloom, however it usually also presumes the idea of not being stabbed on the spot while there. This is a major “lost in translation” moment, because for example Hungarian pubs are the places where most ppl wouldn’t go unless they ether have a need for cheap booze, or being knifed. The majority of English pubs are neither that cheap, nor that dangerous.

The word pub is an abbreviation of “public house”, though also sometimes referred to as “free house”, because people are free to go in there. The specific photo on the left was shot at one of the pub chains yesterday, and it’s inviting the guests to book a place for Mothers’ Day. As for myself, I’m not much of a family-oriented person, which isn’t to say I don’t care about my parents, yet I don’t go head over heels to get them stuff each year just because it’s another marketing-driven day to celebrate. Living literally a thousand miles doesn’t help either.

Nonetheless, it’s supposed to be a sort of special event, and I am really wondering why people would feel like getting Momma to the pub is special. Then just do nothing instead, probably it’s for the better…

SEO on a New Website? Content first!

I met up with a friend of mine today. She’s in her late 30s, has experience with events management, as well as professional engagement with make-up. At the same time she’s not a techy person at all, which is fine, as we all have our interests. She was asking for my opinion on how she should proceed trying to establish her website and getting it on the top of search engine results. Everyone’d like that I guess! Her aim is to set up two different websites, one for each of the areas mentioned (events [B2C, wedding-style] and make-up).

She was saying that she had conversations with different friends and business owners in the recent past that offered her various advice and services. Some promised PR, SEO, monthly updates and maintenance, Google AdWords, etc, for a hefty price, around $400+ per month. She was also interested in learning more about running pages on FB, and how she could attract more users. At this point, I think we were a bit ahead of reality. Again, appreciating she’s not a geek, she didn’t understand the difference between impressions and clicks. None of the previous contacts bothered to explain it to her.

Slowing it down a bit, I tried to explain/gave the following advice, which I’d generally suggest to anyone trying to get into the online world:

• Get the content sorted first. On the website. Do try to make the content SEO-friendly (obviously), but also user-friendly. Good SEO is based on good content, that is also actually relevant to the user. Putting just a load of keywords, even if as sentences might not be useful by itself. Even if she does enlist professional SEO help, the content matters a lot more, because once people click through, if the content is not relevant for the users, they won’t hesitate to close the tab. This is a waste of money even if she’s not specifically paying for it via AdWords.
• In case of a site selling products, another challenge is to get the product and design right, but that’s not directly related to the topic. (Well, not fully at least.)
• Relevant content is more likely to get picked up naturally than via small odd sites that just collect links and operate as the backbone of SEO. The other issue is that Google might occasionally cut off such links if they think there’s something dodgy going on there. There is always the problem of new sites not being found easily (as they don’t appear in search), but the content is still king IMO.
• Try to understand how AdWords work. It’s not rocket science and quite a bit of money can be saved with it. It’s also a great way of actually having an idea as to what’s hot and what’s not, rather than outsourcing this information and being dependent on advice from others regarding your own market/niche.
• Try to understand the basics. Knowing what the difference is between an impression and a click is actually useful, partially because it helps not appearing like a complete n00b. If you can convince the partners that you’re at least somewhat knowledgeable about the topic, you can get better prices and better cooperation from them.
• She was inquiring about setting up a FB page but not running ads for it. As such this is perfectly feasible, but again having a page just for the sake of it might not be useful. Users need to be driven to that site and they need to be engaged with. For the events site, this might be a bit more complicated, because while people buy make-up every-so-often, events are organised for a person/organisation less often. You’d hope not getting married on a weekly basis. In other words, putting up something cute for the ladies and chatting to them is a good idea, but people need to be aware of the page, not just to the extent of ‘liking’ it, but engaging with it.
• PR and newsletters are good when done properly. It’s a bit of a peacock-effect, but the more noise you generate (until a certain limit), the more likely is that there will be positive response. Once again, it matters what you put into the newsletter, which is in turn somewhat dependent on the product. AFAIK the response rate to such communications is around <5%, but it’s still a decent way to remind people that your company still exists.

Thoughts and comments are welcome.