The Challenge
Tyrell, Inc. is the Houston-based maker of the award-winning “Zeno” skin clearing device, a revolutionary instrument that uses heat to kill bacteria that causes pimples. Recognizing that the Web is critical for marketing a new and innovative product, Tyrell turned to Spur Digital to lead the effort of optimizing the use of the Web to market and sell this blockbuster consumer product. Spur’s challenge was to measure and analyze visitor behavior as a means to understanding consumer preferences and optimizing brand engagement.
The Solution
Zeno is marketed through multiple channels including thousands of physicians, high-end retailers such as Nordstrom and, as of late, every Walgreens in the country. Like many innovative products, Zeno has generated a lot of awareness including appearances on Good Morning America, Today, Ellen and the Tyra Banks show), which has translated into online traffic at www.MyZeno.com.
The site has 5 primary objectives:
- To educate consumers on what causes of acne and to demonstrate how Zeno works to eliminate pimples.
- To help consumers find a licensed Zeno physician in their area. This is achieved through a proprietary Doctor locator on MyZeno.com.
- To help consumers find retailers and e-tailers that sell Zeno.
- To sell Zeno directly to consumers.
- To build Zeno’s opt-in email database.
With the goal of optimizing sales and maximizing ROI from its advertising dollars (both online and offline), Spur Digital monitors and analyzes traffic and sales on a daily basis.
Spur recognized that measuring only visits and sales would merely scratch the surface in terms of understanding online engagement. To develop a deeper understanding, Spur mined a deeper and broader set of data from its proprietary web analytics platform to analyze consumer preferences and the correlation of online sales to web-based advertising. From this analysis, several interesting insights emerged:
- Most purchases take place on repeat visits. Among online purchases, only 1 in 3 purchases took place during the visitor’s first visit. Most purchases take place during visits 2-6, with some sales taking place on subsequent visits.
- Repeat visitors often rely on search engines vs. bookmarks. One would assume that after visiting MyZeno.com, most would simply type in the URL to return to the site. The data tells a different story: 50% of those making their second visit and 40% of those making their third visit to MyZeno.com used a search engine to find their way back to the site. Search is a powerful channel, even after the initial visit.
- Consumers do a lot of research before making a purchase. The average visitor views 6.5 pages and stays more than 5 minutes per visit. We also found a significant percentage sign up to receive Tyrell’s newsletter. Together, these facts provided a strong indication that educational content (about Zeno, how it works, testimonials, FDA test results) is an important component of the purchasing cycle.
- There is a two-week lag between advertising and sales. After we learned that the majority of sales take place during visits #2-6, we analyzed the purchase data and found there was a two-week lag between the initial visit from an online ad, and the online purchase of the product. The two-week lag correlation (0.90) provided valuable insight into consumer buying cycles and is now being used for media planning and forecasting.
In the case of Zeno, measuring engagement provided valuable insight into how customers interact with Tyrell and the keys to optimizing sales and ROI. We can also track changes over time in order to assess the impact of site changes and new campaigns while increasing our understanding of customer behavior.