What Is Intelligent Optimization?
Intelligent Optimization is the idea of optimizing your website in order to create the most value for and from users. Taking steps beyond Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Intelligent Optimization expands upon standard onsite tactics by introducing new methods to gain traffic and leads – web design, sales funnels, tracking pixels, automation, machine learning and most importantly, data harvesting, are all part of this new system of web construction.
Intelligent Optimization can be thought of as a new practice, one that web developers must understand going forward in order to be successful. It evolves each year as new technologies are introduced and will continue to grow as websites become more sophisticated.
How To Implement Intelligent Optimization
As stated above, Intelligent Optimization is a practice adopted by web developers in order to provide advanced knowledge and analytics to their business or customers. Implementation of Intelligent Optimization requires a continued effort of understanding user behavior and creating action by making informed changes on a website to drive the main business goal, normally sales or leads.
Adopting Intelligent Optimization strategies sounds simple, but implementation can sometimes seem overwhelming. However, breaking up problems in the following steps should help lessen the anxiety and create a logical workflow to accomplishing Intelligent Optimization goals.
From Web User, To Lead, To Customer
Using Intelligent Optimization to acquire clients is a problem that can be worked in reverse. In other words, if the desired action is for a web user to become a customer, you must rework the process of them achieving your desired goal. Step one of Intelligent Optimization is making sure your website has a logical flow.
How would I flow through the website to understand the most about your company? What touchpoints would eventually make me purchase or contact you? A web user becoming a warm lead is easy. Maybe they’re on your site for a long period of time and show an intent to purchase. For them to become a customer, it takes a bit more understanding of past behaviors.
One of the first areas one may look at when performing Intelligent Optimization is a tree-map of historical user flow. This means that we want to understand the historical path web users took that led them to the purchase page or contact page. This data can be found in your Google Analytics dashboard under Audience > User Flow. With this in mind, the web development team can begin to find recognizable patterns users took that pushed them to create the desired action on your website.
For example, if you see that 4/10 users who fill out your contact form flow from your home page, to the services page, to a specific blog post, then to the contact form, you have a pretty good idea that users are gaining some sort of insight from that flow of content that makes them perform the action. Understanding this helps you control future interactions with your website. Maybe buttons should be added on these pages, along with bolded anchor text that pushes people to them.
This type of Intelligent Optimization centers on creating a sales funnel to control the desired outcome of your web users. With this type of information, you can push your web users from lead to customer.
Adding Google Tag Manager & Tracking Pixels
A crucial part of Intelligent Optimization is adding data collection methods in the form of tags and tracking pixels. Doing so allows for better understanding of the end user, which comes in handy during data driven marketing strategies.
Adding pixels to your website is easy, especially for a seasoned web developer. However, a tool always suggested is Google Tag Manager (GTM). Google Tag Manager is a user-friendly solution for managing pixels, or the snippets of JavaScript on your website or mobile app. GTM makes life much easier since it stores and organizes all of your pixels in one user-friendly dashboard. Adding triggers and variables is simple, allowing for advanced sophistication if needed. A great example of Intelligent Optimization with GTM is a case study provided by Airbnb.
By utilizing Google Tag Manager, the Airbnb team was able to organize their tracking pixels, collecting vendor data for 90% of conversions. With this more accurate conversion data, Airbnb was better equipped to optimize to a CPA metric than was previously possible. The result was an improved ability to manage the ROI of data driven marketing activities.
Step two of a successful Intelligent Optimization strategy would be adding organization tools like GTM. While your team may not have all the tags ready to fire, adding GTM to your site and storing Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel is a great start. We also suggest looking for tools like VisitorQueue and other IP tracking systems that allow you to move data to your CRM.
Data Harvesting
Now that you’ve logically structured your website and have the appropriate tags and tracking pixels, it’s time to understand how to harvest data collected.
For Intelligent Optimization to come full-circle, you need to understand how to take the information collected out of your site. Data collected on your website is an incredible way to execute data driven marketing strategies. The role of marketers is changing because of data, and it’s very important for your organization to be in front of this.
First, make sure you know where data from your tracking pixels is stored. For a system like VisitorQueue, information is coming from Google Analytics but stored on the VisitorQueue dashboard. VisitorQueue gives you the ability to move this data over to a CRM through the Zapier API, an automation tool for seasoned web developers. Keeping information in one storage center is a key component to Intelligent Optimization, so be sure when using automation that the systems are behaving in similar ways and flowing to the same area.
If you are collecting information through a payment gateway on an ecommerce website, usually the backend provider stores the transactional data. For example, Shopify data can be found in two areas: Customers and Orders. You are given the ability to export this information in a CSV file. However, you can also use Zapier, once again, to flow this data to another storage center if necessary.
Shopify and WooCommerce collect a wide variety of information on your customers. Being able to leverage an email address makes for a great Facebook Custom Audience campaign.
Lastly, utilizing a physical address from transactional data can be extremely helpful with not only traditional direct mail campaigns, but also for IP Targeting campaigns. Mapping a physical address to an IP address is possible with IP Targeting technology, allowing you to create one-to-one marketing campaigns on a specific household address.
In Summary
Intelligent Optimization is helping reshape the way web developers structure a website. Logically, a web developers first mindset should be generating leads or meeting the goal of an organization. Once that is reached, understanding how to leverage this data for future marketing campaigns is critical.
Untitled is bridging the gap between data analytics and a marketing consultancy. As a company, our first priority is to help businesses bottom line by building out digital first solutions to meet their needs.
If you are interested in learning more about Untitled, dig around our website. Our approach is fresh and unique. Once you’re ready, reach out to us through the contact form. Our team is ready to chat.
