Originally written by the Sciart team for ean-online and first published there.
Behavioural analytics; the quiet cousin of paid media, Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and Electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) are often overlooked and underinvested in a world where instant gratification and quick results reign supreme.
It's time we started to shout more about this powerful skill and educate ourselves on what it has to offer and how it can complement other marketing activities with data-driven insights.
Sherlock Holmes at Your Service
Think of behavioural analytics as our personal detective, revealing relevant data-driven insights into how people behave as they journey through websites, apps, or any digital platform, from entry to exit. It’s a way of analysing quantitative data and unravelling the intricate code of user behaviour.
Clicks, taps, scrolls and hovers all act as digital footprints of our virtual exploration.
You can analyse and understand what elements people engage with on your site or app; are they clicking on non-clickable elements or encountering issues like confusing navigation or malfunctioning buttons? Insights like this are reliable indicators, enabling you to implement data-backed user experience (UX) enhancements that improve both user satisfaction and brand visibility.
Behavioural Analytics in Action
You click on a sexual wellness product that catches your eye but end up abandoning the cart like it's a sinking ship. Suddenly, you receive an email offering a sweet discount on that exact product! Clever, right? This is behavioural analytics in action! The data wizards noticed your hesitation and sent you a personalised deal to entice you back. It's like they know your shopping habits better than your best friend! But don't worry, it's all in the name of improving your online experience. Businesses can use this information collected to help personalise their eCRM campaigns, which can lead to better retention rates and brand loyalty.
Set Me Up!
Think of cookies as breadcrumbs left by your site’s visitors. When you implement JavaScript on your website, it acts as a doorway to a silent observer, gathering valuable data on how users behave and interact with your pages. This digital diary of user actions provides profound insights into their preferences, engagement patterns, and potential pain points. With this treasure trove of data, you can optimise user experiences, tailor your strategies, and create a seamless journey for your audience. You can also connect to your ecosystem, this will allow you to track the source of traffic, so where it’s coming from - social, affiliate, paid. You can also track the medium, how the user found you, was it via an email newsletter, social media or a banner ad. Armed with this data you can analyse the performance and effectiveness of your various marketing channels and identify which are providing the best return on investment (ROI) and optimise those which are underperforming.
Respecting Privacy - Ethical Tracking
Now, let's address the elephant in the room – privacy. Transparency and informed consent are vital; you don't want to fall foul of regulations such as GDPR or CCPA, or worse lose customer trust.
Ensuring your site or platform's visitors are aware that their data is being collected and used is paramount. This can be achieved through mechanisms like cookie pop-ups or by incorporating clear explanations in your site's terms and conditions. Your user trust and privacy should remain at the forefront as you utilise the power of behavioural analytics to enhance their experience.
Tracking Platforms
Platforms play a crucial role in behavioural analytics and it’s important to use the right tool at the right time.
Analytical platforms like Mouseflow and Hotjar allow us to track mouse movements, view heatmaps, gaining valuable intel on what elements attract users' attention and which ones they may overlook. We can even decipher how far down the page people scroll, providing insightful data for CRO tests aimed at enhancing and guiding users towards the most critical elements of your site or app.
While analytics platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Piwik PRO, and Adobe offer valuable insights into user behaviour on your website, they each have distinct advantages tailored to specific business needs.
GA4 provides essential data on page views, bounce rates, and traffic sources, offering an overview of your website's performance. However, it falls short in explaining the "why" behind these metrics.
Piwik PRO fills this gap by offering specialised features for deeper insights into user interactions, making it ideal for enhancing user experiences and conversion rates. Its strong focus on data protection and compliance also makes it suitable for industries with privacy concerns, like sexual wellness.
Similarly, Adobe excels in providing comprehensive behavioural analytics functionalities, aiding in uncovering the reasons behind user behaviour patterns.
However, like any great investment, it's essential to do your research and determine which tracking platform works best for your business. While behavioural analytics platforms come with undeniable benefits, they do carry a cost. Therefore, it's crucial to weigh the advantages against the expense and choose the platform that aligns with your business goals and budget.
Benefits
Whilst mind-reading remains a sci-fi dream, behavioural analytics remains the next best thing! Armed with real data from real people, behavioural analytics offers the key to optimising many of your business’ marketing strategies. By understanding what captures people's attention, identifying their pain points, and discerning their preferences, you gain a competitive edge that can be infused into your paid campaigns and eCRM strategy. Not stopping there, you can also conduct impactful AB tests as part of your CRO experiments, all powered by the insights from behavioural analytics.
Embracing the power of behavioural analytics allows us to make data-driven decisions that go beyond guesswork, leading to the delivery of personalised experiences for your customers.
So, the next time you see a tailor-made offer popping up just when you needed it, remember it's all thanks to those data detectives working behind the scenes.
