LifeProof - SEO & Web Analytics

It’s not enough to simply have a website - even a successful one - if you’re not using it to grow and strengthen your business and customer base. The world of web analytics offers an incredible amount of information collected from users. Knowing and understanding your website visitors is just the tip of the iceberg. When looking at phone-case giant LifeProof, it’s evident that their website has their client and their products in mind through the journey. 

Background

LifeProof is the leading waterproof (well really everything proof) phone case on the market. One of the first completely waterproof cases to hit the scene in 2009, it’s not lost any speed throughout the years. Even a titan like Otterbox couldn’t quite match the effectiveness of LifeProof cases. So since they couldn’t beat them - they bought them. LifeProof was acquired by Otterbox in 2013 and has continued to remain a separate brand and entity from Otterbox (Carnoy, 2013). Aside from phone cases, LifeProof now supplies cases for tablets, quick mount accessories, power packs, backpacks, and more. Their products also have a lifetime warranty, trust me, I’ve used it. Building a loyal fan base is important to them.  

Image: LifeProof.com

So who needs a LifeProof phone case? If you’re anything like me, and I kind of hope you’re not, you drop your phone on a daily basis. In your coffee, in the lake, down the stairs…daily life can be trying for your smartphone. The most robust LifeProof cases are waterproof, dirt-proof, snow-proof, and drop-proof. The cases are sleeker than competitor Otterbox’s most durable case and usually cost less (Syntricate, 2018). As phone gets more expensive, you’d be wise to invest in a solid case to protect your investment. LifeProof products offer the adventurous traveler, the sports enthusiast, and the clumsy instagrammer the same unbeatable protection from life and it’s harshest elements. 

The Website

LifeProof’s website features bright and vibrant photos showing various activities and environments - everything from surfing to boating to hiking - with a phone sporting a LifeProof case somewhere casually. The photos are wanderlust inducing and show a carefree and adventurous lifestyle. The site features a main navigation menu, a search bar, and a drop-down shopping bar along the bottom of the frame. As you scroll down, you can see featured products, photos from real users, and a footer navigation. The bottom left of the screen features a bright blue $15 Off button that moves with the user as they scroll. They also have a chat pop up feature that opens after a few page are viewed (LifeProof.com).

Image: LifeProof.com

You can see from the setup and options that the marketers at LifeProof have studied their audience and their use on the website. Purchasing phone cases is priority number one - and the website has made it incredible easy to find instant results for your exact phone brand and model type. They also offer a ‘Sale’ page from their menu and the $15 Off coupon button to appeal to a frugal shopper. All of these features work towards collecting valuable data within Google Analytics. Aside from just sheer page views, each click on a discount button or each item typed into the search bar can help the team at Lifeproof see how popular certain features are. With the introduction of new products, like the power packs and backpacks, page views and actual purchase conversions are incredibly important to show the company’s top executives as they decide where to invest more money. Conversions through purchases will also allow the company to see which type of case sells best and which model of phone is most popular among their users. 

The site also allows users to review products. This feature in itself is very useful for future clients and for the staff at LifeProof to have a conversation with real customers. Each review, and each reply from the company, allow for trust to be built among the company, the customer, and the browsing prospect. 

LifeProof’s SEO 

According to the Chrome PageRank extension, www.LifeProof.com has 3,100+ pages indexed by Google and 10M+ backlinks on Google. Backlinks are very important for SEO rankings on Google, so it’s an excellent sign on SEO health that LifeProof has more than 10M backlinks (Dopson, n.d.) If I had to venture a guess, the backlinks are from hundreds of blogs by popular and obscure sites who do their own independent brand testing and stack up the most popular products. I found several such articles comparing the LifeProof Fre against the Otterbox Defender (Syntricate, 2018). 

More basic SEO strategies, like using meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords are also apparent on the LifeProof pages (Fleischner, 2016). With more than 25 phone models and multiple cases per model, the words ‘waterproof,’’dropproof,’ and ‘case’ are used hundreds of times. Having a large product lineup is certainly an advantage for LifeProof’s SEO. In my own testing, LifeProof appeared on the first page for ‘waterproof phone case.’ When just searching for a protective phone case, however, LifeProof did not appear on the first page, but competitor OtterBox did. 

My Findings

Based on my research of LifeProof’s website and standings within Google, I believe that their website is meant to facilitate conversions and maximum data collection. They’ve made it easy for users to find exactly what they’re looking for while offering minimal other menu choices. The site can also be monitored for warranty claims and product reviews, too. The chat feature, which is growing more and more popular, can also easily be tracked to see when it’s being used and the questions the customers may have. 

The website has several short-term goals and conversions in place, such as their current contest or the $15 Off coupon, that may help marketers see what drives traffic and engagement. A better look at the analytics may also offer necessary demographics to help the website design team make needed changes. To my eyes, it would seem the brand is targeting a younger, active demographic living in mountainous or coastal areas. The imagery and language used on the site reflects this, too. LifeProof’s reputation and dominance in the market have allowed them to become a household name, but their creativity and streamlined process will keep them healthy in the online search world. 

References

Carnoy, D. (2013, May 22). Otterbox Acquires Rival Lifeproof. Retrieved from: https://www.cnet.com/news/otterbox-acquires-rival-lifeproof/

Dopson, E. (n.d.) SEO Backlinks: 4 Reasons Why Link Building is Important in SEO. Monitor Backlinks. Retrieved from: https://blog.monitorbacklinks.com/seo/why-backlinks-are-important/

Fleischner, M. (2016). SEO Made Simple: Insider Secrets for Driving More Traffic to Your Website.

Syntricate. (2018, May 17). Otterbox Defender vs. LifeProof Fre: Which Phone Case Fits You. Retrieved from: https://www.syntricate.com.au/blogs/news/otterbox-defender-vs-lifeproof-fre-which-phone-case-fits-youx

Google Analytics 360 vs. Adobe Analytics

In almost every large industry, there’s a leader and a nearby competitor. Third place usually lags behind and is not often mentioned. Apple and Android, Walgreens and CVS, Burger King and McDonalds…you get the picture. It’s no different with paid web analytics - Google Analytics vs. Adobe Analytics. 

Adobe is a giant in its own right. Often a pioneer of industry, Adobe offers dozens of top tier software applications. You’d be hard pressed to find a marketing professional who isn’t fluent in at least four Adobe applications. It only makes sense that they would expand their brand to include a web analytics platform. 

One of the most distinct advantages of Adobe Analytics has over any competitor, including Google Analytics 360, is its integration with its own apps and third party apps. The Adobe Experience Cloud includes Adobe Marketing, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Target, Adobe Campaign, and Adobe Analytics. In particular, Adobe Target and Adobe Campaign allow for a business to truly expand and thrive from the analytics. Adobe Target allows you to run A/B split tests on your website and advertisements, optimizer your site, app, or email, and even target users based on their behaviors. Adobe Campaign allows for customer profiles to be used for email and retargeting efforts. The drag and drop features makes it easy to build campaigns, and the integration across platforms means that audiences you’ve identified in Adobe Analytics, you can then use in Adobe Campaign. Adobe Campaign can even translate emails to different languages! Google Analytics does not offer anything quite like the Adobe Experience when it comes to app integration. 

Adobe Analytics offers powerful metrics and dimensions to translate your raw data into meaningful and actionable information. With Adobe Analytics, the sky is the limit. Whereas you can be limited with Google Analytics with scope level (hit, user, session, product), Adobe Analytics allows for full customization when it comes to sifting through your data (Christopher, 2017). For larger corporations that know exactly what they want to get from their website and app data, having maximum control over how the data is process and new ways to view it is a huge benefit. If you really want to delve deep into the belly of the beast, Adobe Analytics can allow you to track every stage of a customer’s journey or progress through intensive but informative segmentation. By aligning KPIs with certain stages of a journey, such as interest or engagement, you’re able to see all of the visitors in those particular segments. This can help identify if one aspect of the customer journey is faltering and narrow down why (Millett, 2017). While this is similar to a goal funnel in Google Analytics, it’s a much more detailed and sophisticated process. Google Analytics is obviously limited in this respect. 

With more freedom in reporting, metrics, and dimensions, Adobe Analytics can also provide a more thorough overview for attribution. The two most common types of attribution are last touch - which is the ‘click’ that brought the customer to conversion, and first touch - which initiated the customer’s journey with your brand. Adobe Analytics can actually allow you to pair these two side by side with channels defined so you can see exactly how high the conversions are for organic search, social media, and more. While last touch can seem like the most important, the first touch also allows for the initial brand awareness to take hold (Millett, 2016). The platform also allows for user tracking up to and through a macro-conversion, which can be helpful in seeing how many visits it took a particular user to finally purchase or sign up. 

Many of the base features of Adobe Analytics compare well across the board with Google Analytics. Both utilize multiple sources, like mobile apps and websites, and bring aggregate data into the platform. Both services use their own version of a Tag Manager to allow for website and conversion tracking to feed back into the analytics. On the surface, they both can provide a business with the basics they need to refine their website and marketing efforts. 

One of the biggest advantages Google Analytics & Google Analytics 360 have over Adobe Analytics is their free starter version. If you rack up more than 10 million hits per month, you would need to pay for the Google Analytics 360 version. The cost of the upgrade? A cool $150,000 (Eapen, 2017). The good news is all your data is still kept from the free version. Most small and medium sized businesses would be fine with the free version of Google Analytics. For a global brand, like Patagonia or Nissan, you need more than the essentials to elevate your brand. Adobe Analytics does not provide online estimates, since they generally build the exact platform you need, so pricing could be lower than Google Analytics 360 or soar well above double (Eapen, 2017). 

Another distinct advantage of Google Analytics is that you can generally set it up and navigate it yourself. Google offers hours of online training courses to help you get better acquainted and there are hundreds of other blogs and videos with tips and trips. Adobe Analytics requires a trained professional to implement the program and correctly set up your analytics to reflect the data you wish to see (Eapen, 2017). It may seem overwhelming to need to learn a sophisticated system, but the benefits for your company may very well out weigh the learning curve. 

So what’s right for your business? Many of the bloggers and experts I’ve read in my research suggest sticking to what you’re comfortable with. Unless there are major pitfalls to your current platform, they suggest if you’re acquainted with Google Analytics, you stay the course. While I can agree that it’s better to be well versed in something than stumbling through a user guide, pushing boundaries and getting the most from your marketing should be your main goal. Many of the IMC classes have stressed creating objectives for our campaigns- which should be measurable. Your web analytics tool should be able to give you the measurable proof you need to properly evaluate your marketing efforts. 

References

Christopher, J. (2017, April 26). Enterprise Analytics Tool Comparison: Google Analytics 360 vs. Adobe Analytics. Blastam. Retrieved from: https://www.blastam.com/blog/analytics-tool-comparison-google-vs-adobe

Eapen, D. (2018, February 12). A Quick Comparative Review of Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics 360. Rawsoft. Retrieved from: http://www.rawsoft.com/blog/a-quick-comparative-review-of-adobe-analytics-cloud-vs-google-analytics-360/

Millett, B. (2017, September 6). Mining Customer Journey Insights from Adobe Analytics. Blastam. Retrieved from: https://www.blastam.com/blog/customer-journey-insights-adobe-analytics

Leadfeeder | Google App Partner

Google Analytics offers several apps, formerly called solutions, that can take your website’s analytics to the next level based on your needs and the app’s specifications. I’ll be breaking down the app ‘Leadfeeder’ and explain how integrating this app can help a business grow. Leadfeeder is an analytics app that helps focus a company’s attention to quality leads. It’s mostly for a B2B company that is tracking other companies. 

Leadfeeder Background and Usage

Leadfeeder was founded in 2012 by three Finnish friends looking for an added oomph from their Google Analytics. One of the founders, Pekka Koskinen, found that visitors to his father’s website would seem promising but not leave any contact info and fall flat. Part of the inspiration for Leadfeeder came from that frustration (leadfeeder.com). So instead of cold calling companies who haven’t heard of you before, you’ll actually be contacting companies who were active on your website. This essentially saves billions of dollars of wasted time cold-calling and focusing on leads ready to move or looking for more information. 

One of the best features of Leadfeeder is that once integrated, it can go back through your Google Analytics to profile information you already have (leadfeeder.com). For that very reason, Leadfeeder was built ‘on top’ of Google Analytics so that they can work in tandem. This app provides a more in-depth look at very specific aspects of leads on your website. You can create custom feeds that sort by traffic source, by business, or by country of origin. Traffic sources are much like those in Google Analytics and can be refined to show referral sites or your Google PPC campaigns (Leadfeeder, 2017). These custom feeds allow for any user in your company to set up their own version of the data and see what’s important to them. Think about the sales team - they want to find the leads ready to move. That may mean anyone who’s viewed the pricing page or looked through customer testimonials. 

Leadfeeder also integrates with many popular tools and platforms including Pipedrive, LinkedIn, and MailChimp. For example, if you email your database through MailChimp, Leadfeeder is able to track that user from your email campaign through their entire session on your website (Leadfeeder, 2017). Watching a specific company or customer’s trip through your website can provide invaluable data to your sales team and your web-design and marketing team. Much like with bounce and exit rates in Google Analytics, this kind of tracking can also help you find unknown holes in your system. 

Aside from the quantitative data that Leadfeeder gives you, it also can give you qualitative data. By looking through the companies viewing your website and data, you may find certain patterns. If you’re an SEO and digital marketing company, and you see that real estate offices and brokerages continually visit your site, you know that these types of companies need your services and would be quality leads. 

Leadfeeder’s custom feeds also hide the leads or companies that are not in your main target area. Those who only visit your site once or twice will not be as interested or ready to purchase as those who have visited several times. Hiding this information makes for cleaner, more logical reporting for your sales team. 

Practical Use as a Marketer

Using some of these features, it’s easy to see how this app can enhance your company’s marketing and media efforts. Let’s look at email marketing first. 

According to a study in 2018, email marketing is still ranked as the most effective marketing channel - beating out social media and SEO (Hangen, n.d.). That’s right - email marketing is that important. Leadfeeder’s integration with MailChimp, one of the largest email marketing platforms around, offers a pairing that more effectively tracks your efforts. Google Analytics tracks page views and sources. MailChimp tracks which individual user clicked which links and opened which pages. Putting them together into Leadfeeder gives you a report like no other. Your most active email recipients will be excellent leads for your sales team to approach. From a marketing standpoint, knowing which companies react to what content can help you further segment your email lists and provide better content at better times. Segmentation is crucial for all businesses, whether B2B or B2C, because it allows you to send only pertinent information to certain people or businesses (Vaughan, 2012). 

Another practical use for Leadfeeder as a marketer is to focus on the quality and type of leads coming from Google PPC campaigns. Google Analytics can show the volume and position of your business for keyword searches. Leadfeeder can then narrow down the companies visiting your site that arrived from those campaigns and follow their journey. As a marketer, it’s important to know if your keyword PPC campaigns are true to their name - meaning the company lands on your page and is getting the information they searched for. Following these users through their journey on your website can offer more insight to the marketing team as to what is important to these people. This may prompt marketing to add a button or call to action on the landing page that directs the user down the appropriate path instead of letting them navigate your site on their own. 

Every company, especially a B2B, has a goal in mind - when it’s online, it’s usually filling out a contact form to start the process. Leadfeeder reported that only 1-2% of website users fill out this form and provide the company with their contact information (The Best Tutorial, 2017). As a marketer, how do you know if you’re achieving your objectives? Usually one of those is an increase in these conversions or goals. Using Leadfeeder, marketers can narrow down the qualifying leads that were on the site but did not complete the form and then hand those over to the sales team. Leadfeeder actually creates automated reports, too, so once you set up the custom feed, you can automatically send both marketing and sales automated daily or weekly reports. You can also send a copy to your CEO or manager. Just because they didn’t complete the form doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified. Leadfeeder helps bridge that gap for B2B marketers. 

Leadfeeder. (2017, March 9). Leadfeeder Starter Guide Tutorial. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5PpDgiqVbA

The Best Tutorial. (2018, January 2). Google Analytics and Leadfeeder for B2B Marketing. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8o4ugb8a7c

Vaughan, P. (2012, May 15). Why List Segmentation Matters in Email Marketing. HubSpot. Retrieved from: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32848/why-list-segmentation-matters-in-email-marketing.aspx