Why?
Because
Numbers
Don’t Lie.

Cassie Lancellotti-Young Head of Marketing
and Analytics, HighTable.com

What are we here to
talk about? Last 6 months in the life of yours truly Hint: You can’t spell “customers” without “users” McClure’s “Startup Metrics for Pirates” How do you seize the booty?

Where are my opinions from?
2003 idiot intern at About.com media/tech banker at Citigroup online acquisition and subscription analytics at TheLadders independent analytics consultant while MBA’ing marketing and analytics at Savored demolition and reconstruction at HighTable 2012

Cassie’s Law/Caveat: No Silos Always
have a comprehensive portrait of engagement – email, site, revenue metrics all in one place. (No more “firing” customers just because they don’t open emails!)

Example: bringing the user into
GA

Example: tight revenue tracking
Sailthru

HighTable 1.0 Disaster

Quora for professionals??

6 key site activities: 1.
ask question 2. answer question 3. vote on answer 4. follow person 5. follow topic 6. follow question

May 2012: The “Oh Shit!”
Moment

§ low activation § 85%
of activity on day 1 § minimal product trial § many “inherited” users § low repeat usage from GLG’s business

June: Tackling the
usage puzzle…

What information can we get
about users (and non-users)?

Which site components actually drive
engagement?

What about customer satisfaction?

July: Road to Recovery Step
1: Pushing for wins at the margins…

Prioritize user education – tell
the

Reiterate that with a simplified

153% increase in questions/visits 136%
increase in answers/visits

August: Road to Recovery Step
2: Big bets with small MVPs

new product concept test for
startup members tested willingness to state business challenges as well as to list other people developed sense for

September:
HighTable 2.0

68% usage from membership (vs.
<10% with old product) Viral coefficient at 0.5+ in just first two weeks 70% fulfillment in 5 days or less

The biggest
lesson of all

The biggest lesson of all
Keep it simple, stupid.

Decide what actually qualifies as
usage Beware of “false engagement” signifiers

Start with ONE thing and
layer up Think Facebook pre-photos, newsfeed, etc…

On to the pirates…

McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates
Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue

Acquisition: invest in infrastructure Hyper-granular
tracking is mission-critical to marketing investment decisions

Acquisition: CPA(R) vs. CPA(C) There
is fundamentally a huge difference between a registrant/email subscriber (CPAR) and a customer (CPAC – credit card required!).

Acquisition: CPA(R) vs. CPA(C) There
is fundamentally a huge difference between a registrant/email subscriber (CPAR) and a customer (CPAC – credit card required!). Maybe you think your CPA is $5, but if there’s only 5% customer conversion, your CPA(C) is actually $100!

Acquisition: intake curves You know
CPA(R) today; you can use historical data to forecast CPA(C) today, too.

Activation – how quickly do
they do what we want them to do? Know what makes sense for your business – i.e. B2B vs. B2C, product pricing Understand bow-tie marketplaces and develop “magic numbers.”

It’s about demand AND supply…

More from Savored…

And remember, business is more
than just marketing…

Retention: 3 things to think
about § Email/mobile (push) § Product marketing (pull) § Customer satisfaction/NPS

Retention: push marketing § Regular
updates about inventory and features § Promotions and win-backs § Abandonment § Shameless manipulation of customer demand! § Optimization!

Optimization can be very basic…
§ Increasing number of restaurants in digest from 4 to 15 increased RPM by over 300%.

And remember, imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery

And remember, imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery (watch your competitors – and copy them)

Retention: product marketing § Is
the funnel as simple as it could be? § Is your site content relevant to your users? § KILL THE DEAD END STREETS!

And be sure not to
sacrifice quality…

Retention: delighting your customers Use
your customers as an idea factory!

Retention: Know the numbers

Retention: I <3 cohort analysis

Referral (+Social, Viral, Whatever) sharing
= traffic = viral coefficient = $$$ Which content is most likely to be shared; how can you promote that? How can you incentivize referrals?

Revenue – at the highest
level… § Know your LTV (and have confidence in your calculation) § Understand your revenue drivers – and what foreshadows them… (email vs. social, mobile vs. desktop) § Develop some easy hacks (prepaid credits, ancillary products, etc.)

Revenue – maximizing WTP Always
start with maximum willingness to pay (sticker price) and move along the curve from there

Revenue – cash is still
king. § Little hacks (wording, default option, etc.) can go a long way where revenue is concerned. § Understand the balance sheet.

Revenue – I don’t have
any! § Develop proxies for revenue – a post, a Tweet – but make sure those proxies are truly valuable behaviors. § If revenue comes from advertising vs. users, think about relationships (e.g. page views).

Another note on the numbers…
Remember that you have TWO lenses for analysis: customer lens who is the customer and what does he do? “transaction” lens tags, patterns, time, etc.

…and one more… Be sure
to understand the “why” of what’s happening – typically one of 3 buckets product/marketing deliberate changes to messaging, site, etc. business ecosystem inventory issues, technical problems “macro” factors industry trends, economic climate, press

…and (of course) make sure
those numbers are significant!

Let’s get (growth) hacking.

Let’s get (growth) hacking. Cassie
Lancellotti-Young Head of Marketing and Analytics, HighTable.com