This report provides an analysis of the web and social media analytics of the
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (WT&G). Methods of analysis include research from
Adobe SiteCatalyst, Chartbeat and various analytics studies. With this research, this
report will give possible revenue projections for the WT&G. This report is divided into
ten different sections and each section has its own recommendations and revenue
projections. Below are some of the major recommendations from the ten different teams:

Highlight multimedia and simplify the homepage

Consolidate to one minimalistic link for the subscription page

Brand multimedia page consistently, highlight local section and make comment
section more accessible

Fix title tags, optimize headlines, optimize URL’s and fix site descriptions

Develop mobile applications and optimize tablet experience

Simplify registration navigation and better email formatting

Implement social commenting system and post more about sports

Ask questions/interact with followers, provide only one link in a tweet and brand
consistently

More frequent pinning and add pin-it option on Telegram website

Use dashboards to test changes made to the site
If the WT&G implements all of these recommendations listed above, the WT&G could
see an increase of $449,523.72 - $614,318.72 in revenue per year.
Website Design
Site design is often considered one of the more subjective components of
determining a site's success. However, it cannot be argued that the way information
is presented can determine how enticing it is to consume it. That being said, there
are metrics that can be correlated to the affects of one's design: bounce rate, time
spent on site, and pageviews. Also, looking into the Paths of the users can indicate
what changes should be made.
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We have researched design trends and done research into what affects the
metrics above, as well as click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. All of these
support the suggestions we have made and increase user satisfaction. Ultimately, a
happy reader is one that will come back for more.
It all comes down to how long it takes to get to the content readers want to
read. Reducing friction and promoting the most in demand content is central to
increasing pageviews and time on site. In one Marketing Experiments case study,
reducing friction in one site’s checkout process increased conversion by 58%. In an
Adobe case study of their client, Scottrade, the creation of landing pages that are
most relevant to user's interests increased time spent per visitor by 25%, increased
pageviews by 30%, and increased conversions by 20%. We believe that the
simplification of the home page and the pushing of more relevant content will aid in
creating a similar affect. Therefore, we offer the following suggestions.
Popular Content
Move the popular content element up and add it to all of the WT&G pages.
This is an element of curation and can help send readers to where they likely want
to go. Also, the WT&G's reader's comment page is one of the most popular -- 8.25%
of users go there after the homepage. Making this element a priority will decrease
the friction of getting to the most popular content from any article or section and
increase pageviews. Currently, the WT&G bounce rate (number of visits to a website
that end with just one pageview) is 25.3% from the homepage, while 40.11% of all
visits exit after viewing the home page. If the WT&G curates content like we have
suggested, we can lower these numbers. There is a company called Visual Revenue
that specializes in this space. They have an analytics platform that looks at what
your most popular content is from a variety of different sources and then suggests
to you what to promote.
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Multimedia
Video and other multimedia elements help engage readers and can increase
time spent on site. The WT&G has a video section, but it is way down below the fold.
If it is moved, the WT&G could keep people there longer. The WT&G could also start
selling pre-roll ads. If more people start watching video content that has advertising
attached, the WT&G could increase revenue. Beware: one study shows that 16% of
viewers stop watching a video if a 30-second pre-roll is shown. That is less than the
majority, but this kind of advertising does have an effect on certain users'
satisfaction. The WT&G could potentially mitigate this by using a shorter pre-roll
advertisement. An IAB study showed that the optimum length for a pre-roll
advertisement is 15 seconds.
Story Thumbnails
Visual content is extremely important when it comes to enticing user to click
on a story. While the WT&G has plenty of pictures throughout the homepage,
attaching thumbnails to your story links could improve pageviews. Outbrain
experienced a 27% increase in engagement after adding thumbnails to stories. A
good example of this is USA Today. Their homepage is highly visual, with thumbnails
or videos for the majority of stories present.
Advertisement Segregation
Segregating advertisements from the WT&G's content better while
increasing the content's organization could be helpful in decreasing some of the
confusion on the WT&G homepage. The homepage has a lot of things that look like
advertisements while all the WT&G content gets lumped together using an
undefined grid. Increasing comprehension of what an advertisement is while
making the WT&G content easier to view should decrease the website's bounce
rate.
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Local News
Make local news a focus, perhaps with its own heading on the homepage.
Nine percent of readers go to this section after the homepage. So, why not put the
newest stories more prominently on the homepage? The WT&G already has a local
presence, but far below the fold. Let it shine more.
Website Simplification
Eliminate excess and simplify. The WT&G has two living tabs, animations and
banners that look like ads, and shout outs to sister publications that precede the
WT&G's own content. Consider using the WT&G Twitter feed as a breaking
news/recently published ticker. It behaves as such will help promote the WT&G's
social media. It will also help to simplify and modernize the homepage.
Revenue Projections
We want to decrease bounce rate by 20%, and increase pageviews by 10%.
Total pageviews for 2012 were 108,249,112, while the bounce rate (for the
homepage) for March 2013 was 24.9%. Considering this information, we would like
to increase pageviews by 10,825,000 a year and decrease the homepage bounce rate
to 20%. Given the information WT&G's advertisement revenue model, with a page
view increase like this, the WT&G could see an increase in revenue of $124,488$248,975 a year.
SOURCES:
http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/optimize-content-social/
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/custome
r-success/pdfs/scottrade-case-study.pdf
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/website-optimization-transcripts/201201-19.pdf
http://www.iab.net/insights_research/947954/dv_effectiveness
http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/digital-pre-roll-video-ads-hatedeffective/142145/
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Subscription/login process
Continuing on in the topic of website design, now we will analyze the
subscription/ login process for the WT&G. At the present, the WT&G's registration and
subscription process is divided between two options. At the top of the home page, is a
“Buy Now” option, directing the user directly to payment and subscription options.
Secondly, at the bottom/right of the page is a “Register” page, which directs the user to
enter their email information and reason for subscribing. The “Register” page has about
9,499 visits. After the user enters his or her email information, an email confirmation is
sent to the person’s email.
Recommendations
To best optimize the subscription and registration processes, we suggest a more
minimalist approach. This would include just one link for both options and implementing
a funnel approach, which consolidates all links on the homepage into one option that is
more prominent on the page. This will reduce confusion and direct all interested in
subscribing (in any capacity) to one landing page. This landing page will then present the
user with the different purchase options, which in WT&G’s case include several purchase
options as well as several subscription options. Although the “registration” and “buy now”
options may be different monetarily, the user will be more likely to proceed and consider
the options when the landing page is clear and presents all options at once. By directing
all users to the same landing page for subscription and registration, the WT&G will have
a better grasp on how much a registration is worth monetarily and we will be able to
better track where fallout is happening.
This consolidation process will also encourage less fallout because the user is not
navigating through as much of the site. There will be one link that all interested are
directed to and then one landing page with options. The user will select which option is
the best fit for them and then be sent a confirmation email. By eliminating steps and web
pages, we will hopefully encourage retention and increase conversions.
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We would also suggest that the WT&G make a clear call to action like,
“Subscribe Today!” By doing this, the user can be redirected to the value proposition and
presented with his or her options regarding the site, its content and their access to it.
Using verbiage like, “Buy Now” or anything else that induces a mindset that the user will
be spending money will be detrimental to the user considering any option.
After testing both options, the “Register” option resulted in more than one
confirmation email that were identical- not providing any new information. This
decreases the user experience and is a glitch in the email registration process that should
be addressed.
SOURCES:
Carr, Kelby. Pinterest Marketing for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012. Electronic.
Delo, Cotton. "Pinterest Launches Web Analytics to Track Popular Content." Advertising
Agency & Marketing Industry News. N.p., 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 May 2013.
Ellis, Grace. "Social Accessorizing." Dealerscope 54.10 (2012): 44,44,46,48. ProQuest.
Web. 2 May 2013.
Mozdzer, Jodi. "A Recipe for Engaging with Pinterest." The Quill 100.5 (2012): 32-.
ProQuest. Web. 2 May 2013.
N.Y. “PINNED By POLICE.” Editor & Publisher 146.3 (2013): 9. Academic
Search
Elite. Web. 2 May 2013.
Teicher, David. "Real Simple: Pinterest Drives More Traffic For Us Than
Facebook."Advertising Age DigitalNext RSS. N.p., 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 02 May
2013.
Site Sections
Now that we have examined the design of the WT&G's website, we will look
at how the sections of the WG&T could be improved. The site sections of the WT&G
have a significant impact on the structure and functionality of the website. The
consumer uses the site sections to navigate through the newspaper’s content. These
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sections are vital to maintaining a longer and more user-friendly experience. With
the use of Adobe SiteCatalyst, we have identified various areas that can be improved
upon as well as opportunities for growth in terms of revenue and traffic.
Multimedia
The multimedia section of the WT&G homepage is not visible when the user
initially enters the site. For the month of April, there were 2,617 pageviews to the
multimedia page. By moving the multimedia section above the fold, the user is able
to interact with additional content and pageviews can increase. Additionally, the
thumbnails of videos on the right side of this section should have titles. If the user
does not know what each video is about, they are not likely to click on them because
they will not want to sort through each video to find one they are looking for or one
that they find interesting.
As an additional suggestion, the naming of the multimedia page is important
to maintaining the consistency of the user experience. Under the ‘news’ site section
drop down menu, the multimedia page is titled ‘photos/video.’ Within the site map
at the bottom of the website under the ‘news’ list, the multimedia page is titled
‘multimedia.’ Both links direct the user to the multimedia page, but do not have the
same title. This discrepancy should be addressed.
Pre-roll video advertising is a great opportunity to increase revenue for the
WT&G. By moving the multimedia section above the fold on the homepage,
pageviews will likely increase dramatically. With a conservative goal of 100,000
pageviews per month (this is conservative because featured items on the homepage
typically get 150,000 pageviews or more per month), the multimedia section would
be among the top seven sections of the website.
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Site section pageviews – April 2013
Multimedia Revenue
If each person that visited the multimedia page watched a video, there would
be 100,000 video views. With a $40 CPM for pre-roll advertisements, the WT&G can
expect to see $4,000 of revenue per month, and $48,000 of revenue per year. This
number can increase form visitors watching a video from the homepage. In addition
to the video views, when a user visits the multimedia page, they will be served
display advertisements. With a goal of 100,000 pageviews and a $23 CPM for display
advertisements, the WT&G can expect to see $2,300 per month, and $27,600 per
year.
Local Section
The local section is ranked third on the website in terms of total path views
behind the homepage and obituaries. Local content makes up 12.8% of the site’s
total path views. The majority of users view the homepage. So, if some of the traffic
can be directed from the homepage to the local section there is a lot more
advertisement revenue that could be generated for the WT&G. The hope is that the
placement of local content on the homepage should redirect at least 5% more
pageviews the local page. The local section got 214,667 pageviews in the month of
April and would have had 225,400 pageviews if the local section received 5% more
pageviews.
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The local page also generates a lot of next pageviews after the local
content is viewed. Fifty-six percent of people are continuing on to other areas of the
site after leaving the local content page. By directing more pageviews to the local
content, more people would continue on to other areas of the WT&G. This would
help keep people engaged in the site longer and, again, create more advertising
revenue.
Local Section Revenue
There are currently four CPM advertisements on the local section page of the
WT&G. As previously stated, if traffic were to increase to the local section by 5% this
would gain the page an additional 10,733 views. The WT&G gets $23 for each CPM
advertisement. So, with the increase of traffic by 5% the WT&G would get an
increase of $246.79 a month in advertisement revenue. Over the course of a year the
increased advertisement revenue would amount to $2,961.48.
Comments Section
One the strongest parts of the WT&G website is the comments section
(SiteCatalyst: reader_comments). It drew the third most traffic of all the sections,
behind FRONTPAGE and Obituaries. In the month of April alone, nearly half a
million pageviews were recorded on reader_comments. Based on the provided CPM
revenues, this section brought in $115,000 from advertisements alone. This is great,
but because of the unique way users interact with the comments section, there is
major room for growth.
Once someone arrives at the comments page, they are about 8% less likely to
immediately exit the site compared to the site as a whole (Total Bounce Rate: ~42%,
Comments Bounce Rate: 34%). This tells us that when a user is on the comments
page, they are more likely to move to other pages within the site. Additionally, 53%
of visits result in a reload. Typically, this is cause for concern, but here it means that
people are clicking refresh to see the most recent comments. This displays an
entirely new set of advertisements each time. By driving more pageviews to this
section in particular, you can really increase your revenues from advertisements.
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As previously stated, the design team is suggesting moving the Most
Commented Articles box to the top of the homepage. By doing this they will improve
on the ratio of people arriving to the comments section from the hompage. Right
now, 50% of pageviews come from the homepage but on the other hand, only 12%
of homepage traffic went to the comments section. Lowering that rate will show the
effectiveness of moving the Most Commented Articles Section up.
Comments Section Revenue
By increasing traffic to the comments section and increasing visits a mere
10%, there will be approximately 22,429 more visits/month. Based on the
estimated CPM of $23, revenue will increase $1,032 per month for an annual
increase of $12,380.
SEO
Now that we've seen how several different elements of the WT&G's website
could be improved, we will look at strategies to draw more people to the WT&G
website. In broad terms, search engine optimization is the process of improving the
quality and volume of web traffic to a website. This is done by employing a series of
techniques that help a website achieve a higher ranking with major search engines
when certain keywords and phrases are put in the search field. However, search
engine optimization is a complex process and it cannot be fully defined in a short
definition. Search engine optimization involves many techniques and approaches
that vary greatly depending on your goals and what you are trying to aim for during
the process of optimization. No matter what the goal though, search engine
optimization attempts to structure a web page so it is found, read and indexed by
search engines, especially the major ones like Google. Search engine optimization, or
SEO, can also make a web site and its content more visible, attractive and relevant to
search engines and web searchers. SEO also allows for businesses to become more
easily located throughout the Internet by web searchers. If a business can become
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more easily located online, this in turn makes the business more visible in
consumers’ minds as well. In this new online age, a strong online presence is crucial
to surviving and breaking through the clutter.
Overall, SEO is a multidisciplinary activity that focuses on gaining more
natural and productive search traffic to a company’s website. Productive is the key
word here, in that gaining traffic itself is not enough, because the traffic has to be
relevant and your website has to be providing value to web searchers. Because
productivity is such a vital part of the SEO process, a company who begins to utilize
it needs to understand things like site design, user experience and information
architecture.
Title Tags
Simply put, title tags are like the chapter of a book. They tell people and
search engines what your specific web page is about. Title tags are an important
factor in achieving higher search engine rankings, and they can generate a quick
difference in rankings as well. For web searchers, title tags can help them decide
whether or not to visit the site based on the relevancy of the website to the user. The
WT&G does use title tags correctly on some of its pages, but overall there should be
more consistency throughout all of them. The WT&G company name and specific
keyword phrases are the most vital pieces that belong in its title tags.
Below are two examples of title tag inconsistencies on the WT&G website.
The Dining Guide section of the WT&G website is found under the Living section.
However, the title tag says that it is in the Entertainment section. This is inconsistent
and does not line up with what appears on the web page. Also, even though the
destination URL has some good words in it like dining, the end of the URL has some
coded details that the WT&G might understand, but does not make sense to the
searcher. The second example is of the On The Job section of the WT&G website,
which is found in the Business section. While the title tag has business in it, it has
nothing about On The Job.
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Title tags are quick fixes that can make a big impact. The WT&G should want
to make title tags and destination URLs as user-friendly as possible. This will make
them clearer and more concise and will help searchers find what they want a lot
easier.
We encourage the WT&G to take a look at each section to figure out what can
be or needs to be changed, but we have these specific examples just to get the WT&G
started. Our overarching recommendations thus far are to make your title tags and
destination URLs more clear and consistent for a friendlier user experience.
Google Display
On a Google search results page, each result consists of a headline, display
URL and description. A headline is the first thing a searcher will see and will direct
the searcher to the WT&G website if it matches their keywords. It is important to
use the right keywords in the headline in order to attract searches to the WT&G site
as opposed to a competitor’s. A display URL is a shortened version of the destination
URL in order to tell the searcher exactly what page they are going to be directed to
in the most direct way possible. Optimizing the destination URL is an easy way to
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give the searcher another cue that the WT&G website will match their search. Lastly,
the description is a 160-character description of the WT&G website. This
description can be tailored to each page in order to clinch the deal with the searcher
that the WT&G website is the one for them. The description is not taken into account
for Google page ranking, but is important for a good user experience.
When we searched the WT&G website on Google, the headline and display
URL are good, but the description gets cut off. It looks like this description is not
pulled from content on the website, but when it was written it was over the 160character limit. This is an easy fix and will give searchers a clearer glimpse of the
WT&G website. Also, when searching specific areas of the website that are most
popular, like local news, the description is the same one as the homepage. This
description would be more effective for the searcher if it said something to sell them
on the local page, making that section unique.
Keyword Analysis
When looking for valuable keywords, or keyword phrases, to incorporate
into the content of a website, think about how you yourself search. When you type in
keywords in the search bar you usually use many different orders and synonyms to
get what you are looking for. This is why Google checks your site for these keywords
and variations of them on each page of your website. This is one way that Google can
rank how relevant your information and site is to searchers.
By using Google AdWords Keyword Tool we were able to analyze what
keywords were being searched the most that pertain to the WT&G website. The
keyword “Worcester telegram” has 74,000 local monthly searches. This is just one
keyword phrase that people are searching for and it has a significant search number.
Another top keyword was “Worcester telegram obituaries” with 5,400 local monthly
searches. This shows that the search traffic is there, and now is the time to harness
that searching power.
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After finding relevant keywords to the WT&G site that were getting a lot of
local monthly traffic, we searched them on Google. The results for “Worcester
Telegram,” were good, because the WT&G ranks first on the page and the homepage
is the most relevant result for that search. Then we wanted to see if the same was
true for one of the WT&G major sections: local. For local, we searched “Worcester
local news,” and found that although the local page matches this search the best, the
homepage was ranking first. The headline for local, besides saying local, does not
really convince searchers that that is the place they should click. Additionally the
description is the same one used for the homepage, which might have caused some
confusion. So, the WT&G should optimize the local homepage so that search engines
know that the local site is the site to direct traffic to, not the homepage. The problem
with directing someone to the homepage is that it takes the user much longer to get
to the information they were looking for and it might be a frustrating experience for
them.
After searching general areas on the site, we wanted to get down to specific
articles. Overall, many local articles are appearing in the first results. For example,
we searched “Sturbridge fire chief sidelined critical report,” which we pulled from
the WT&G site. We knew that the WT&G was going to appear for these exact
keywords because this phrase is longer than most searchers would put in, but we
wanted to see what the WT&G site looked like in comparison to the WT&G's
competitors. Note that the WT&G's competitors online may not be competitors
offline. For this example the search result below the WT&G was from
topstoriesdaily.com. The headline for the WT&G site gets cut off by the character
limit and the display URL does not contain the keywords, but ranks first. This may
be due to the WT&G page authority over the competitor or how many more views
the WT&G article received. But although the WT&G site ranked above the
competitor this time, by making the display URL more optimized so that Google can
pick up on those keywords this would ensure that the WT&G does not fall behind in
rankings for searches that are very relevant to the website.
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Although many people in SEO focus solely on ranking, ranking number one
does not mean everything if you are not taking searchers closest to the content they
want. For example, when we searched “mass high school spring statistics,”
Worcester ranked number one. However, when we clicked on the search result, we
were taken to the Hometeam homepage. As searchers looking for specific
information, we wanted to be directed to the latest spring statistics instead. This can
be achieved by making sure that the title tag, destination URL, and site content is
using relevant keywords on the latest spring statistics page.
So when going through the WT&G site and making keyword relevant
corrections, try to direct people closer to the content they are searching for instead
of homepages in order to keep people on the WT&G site.
Page Authority and Page Rank
Page authority can predict the likelihood of a single web page to rank well.
The higher a page authority, the greater the likelihood that a specific web page will
rank well in search results. The WT&G current page authority for the homepage is
86 out of a 100-point scale. This is a high page authority and means that the WT&G
is ranking well on major search engines for popular and relatable searches.
Page rank is a development by Google that is used to determine the
importance of a web page. Page rank measures a web page’s importance, with the
most important pages on the web having the most links leading to them. Page rank
is measured on a scale of one to ten and assigned to each individual page of a web
site. Currently, the WT&G homepage has a page rank of 6. This is a good page rank,
as most companies with higher page ranks than this are much larger companies or
corporations. If the WT&G should ever wanted to increase its page rank, a good way
to do that is to have other people linking back to its website.
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Return on Investment
Knowing the return on investment for this process is necessary if one wants
to know how it will affect a company in a positive way. Currently, the WT&G has
more than 2 million people coming to the site per month through search engines.
This current natural search engine traffic provides the WT&G with about $93,563.48
per month. Just a 15 percent increase would result in a monthly increase of
$14,034.52, which would lead to a new monthly revenue goal of $107,598. Based on
all the information and recommendations we have provided, this goal is possible
and achievable. Gaining more revenue from search traffic and optimizing the WT&G
website more effectively are both very positive things and will give the WT&G an
advantage over its competition.
Mobile
Now that we've analyzed how the WT&G can optimize its SEO strategy, we
will look at another way the WT&G could boost SEO and simultaneously earn more
revenue. Currently, The WT&G operates through an optimized site for smartphones.
Readers viewing the website from an iOS device will see the mobile site, however,
readers viewing on Android devices can download the newspapers’ application. For
tablets, there is a WT&G paid application for iPad only.
WT&G has a vast untapped mobile market that can be optimized for
exponential growth (in terms of traffic and others metrics) and revenue. A report by
The State of News Media in 2011 says nearly half of adults (47 percent) receive their
news from a mobile application — not through the Internet. In order to capture this
market, a mobile application should be created. According to a 2013 report by
Comscore, 4 out of 5 minutes spent on a smartphone are actually spent within
applications — a whopping 80 percent.
Mobile Website Design
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Overall, WT&G’s mobile site is very simple and organized. The navigation of
the site, however, is troublesome for users. In order to view the entire homepage, it
requires 4-6 swipes. This can make for a frustrating user experience. If a reader
were looking for the obituaries section within the mobile site, they would have to
scroll to the very bottom before finding their content. This could be easily fixed by
eliminating content below one swipe/the fold (simulating a “virtual newspaper” of
sorts in design). Eliminating the refresh button in the menu navigation (it’s already
embedded in the browser) and implementing a search feature could make
navigation much easier and faster — and even boost SEO.
Mobile Applications
Developing an application for WT&G could open floodgates of extra revenue.
The iPad application is free initially. However, it is completely blank and
inaccessible for nonsubscribers. It is extremely strategic to offer every form of
mobile applications for free, but it is increasingly more profitable to include in-app
purchases. According to a 2013 TechCrunch report, 76 percent of U.S. iPhone App
Store revenue comes directly from in-app purchases. This illustrates the price
margin that could be created to allow users to view a set number of stories before
paying a rate. This “trial” period could be used to track consumer behavior within
the application, test metrics and gather psychographic information to better curate
personalized news for readers.
The WT&G could even create task specific applications. Think about
subscribing to the Obituary App (newspapers like the Boston Globe and Boston
Herald have already done so), since it is a highly trafficked part of the normal
website. An application dedicated to only hometown or local sports could be very
lucrative.
Mobile applications can be costly and cumbersome at first (an estimated
$1,000-4,000 to develop fully according to Blue Cloud Solutions). However, an
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application would allow the WT&G to tap new and growing markets for revenue and
readers.
Mobile Application Improvements
Once a mobile application is developed, the possibilities for optimization are
endless. We recommend implementing geo-targeted push notifications and text
messages to connect with readers in a relevant way while they are in a location
where a story might be developing. The user could personalize the type of push
notifications received. Men might favor local Worcester sports team scores and
women might fancy a text with a local nail salon offering a coupon. This type of
personalization not only adds to the user experience, but WT&G could use this
function to even target readers in the vicinity of a business who regularly advertises
with the newspaper.
The idea of a personalized news experience truly expands beyond
notifications, however, and resonates with readers being able to tailor their news
consumption. Add an offline RSS reader, so readers can read their favorite stories
even when in an inopportune Wi-Fi moment. Give subscribers a one-click login to
the application or mobile site for their ease and reap the social clout of friends’
recommendations and likes through word of mouth marketing (eWOM). Take this
even one step further and allow readers to share all of the content on WT&G on
various social networks with one click. These are just examples of the endless ways
applications can be customized.
Mobile Payment
Another benefit of applications is the ability to optimize the subscription
process to fit the trend of mobile buying. In 2013, Americans will spend $13 billion
using their smartphone, according to a 2013 Hipcricket report*. A 2013 report by
eMarketer projects by 2017, 89.7 million smartphone and 125.1 tablet owners will
be using their devices as a digital wallet*. Applications like Square allow consumers
to easily pay for a subscription (using near field communication technology)
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without their eyes ever leaving the screen. eMarketer analysts project retail mobile
commerce sales will see a 168.9% increase over the next four years. * This
emphasizes the drastic shift consumers will start making from paper money to
paperless currency.
As mobile buying becomes mainstream, mobile advertising revenue will see
an indefinite increase. From 2011 to 2012, IAB reports mobile advertising spent
nearly twice as much — to 9 percent of all online marketing.
Tablet
WT&G’s mobile site receives more unique visitors than on tablet. But,
readers tend to bounce far less. Tablet usage spikes in the early evening (from 7-8
pm)* and, according to TechCrunch, people are 75 percent more likely to watch a
video that is longer than 10 minutes. It is important to note that tablet ownership
corresponds with higher news consumption. Hipcricket reports 58.8 percent of
tablet owners rank news as their top activity, while 49.2 percent of smartphone
users do.
There are many revenue opportunities available within your tablet
application, especially with interactive advertising. According to a 2012 report by
the IAB, 47 percent of tablet users “click on an ad for more information at least once
a week.” More significantly than that statistic, is the implementation of rich media
tablet ads could drastically increase reader interaction. In fact, the IAB says 77
percent of users interact with tablet ads — 79% of those recall interacting with
tablet specific video ads.
Revenue Calculations
Using the website’s CPM ($23/1,000 pageviews), we project the WT&G could
gain $67,185 in revenue from mobile site views alone — which accounts for around
3% of all pageviews. If you implement our suggestions and optimize mobile as the
premiere way to read the WT&G, great marginal profit will be made. If you
increased your pageviews by 5%, WT&G could expect $3,359 more in revenue.
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Increase your pageviews by 10%, WT&G could expect $6,718 more in revenue. We
strongly suggest optimizing the WT&G mobile experience to lower the bounce rate
— which is the highest within the website (at 18%) — to keep mobile users happy,
responsive and loyal to the WT&G.
SOURCES:
http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/mobile-survey/
http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/Facebook_Vaults_Ahead_of_Google_Maps
_to_Finish_2012_as_number_1_US_Mobile_App
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/in-app-purchase-revenue-hits-record-highaccounts-for-76-of-u-s-iphone-app-revenue-90-in-asian-markets/
http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_Internet_Advertising_Revenue_Report_FY_201
2_rev.pdf
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/12/people-now-watch-videos-nearly-30-percentlonger-on-tablets-than-desktops/
http://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/blog/cost-develop-app/
Email Optimization
Now that we've analyzed how the WT&G can optimize its mobile presence,
we will look analyze how a specific mobile task can be optimized. Email
optimization is the process by which multiple factors of email campaigns are
carefully observed, measured and recorded. Slight changes are then made to certain
factors to test various strategies and meet specific goals for the company. These
factors could include the organization of email lists, rates of those who open the
email, those who follow certain links inside the email, monitoring calls to action in
the subject line and message content as well as many other factors.
The current use of email at the WT&G leaves a lot of room for optimization
and for potential profits. Let us examine the process of finding, signing up for and
receiving news emails from the paper as it is on the website currently.
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Navigation
Navigation to the page that allows users to sign up to receive email
newsletters is hidden into the sub-navigation of the Reader Services section and then
under Newsletters. There is also a cube advertisement with a very small section
dedicated to Newsletters, which rotates on the home page and article pages. The
promotion of this page can be improved by having dedicated house advertisements
for the emails newsletters and, potentially, an icon on the top navigation of the
website that will lead users more directly to the sign-up page. Analytics show that
last month only 950 users visited this page.
Registration
Signing up for newsletters is currently a five-step process. Users are required
to create an account, or be signed into their account, to sign up to receive certain
newsletters. This process should be simplified, allowing anyone to receive emails
instantly and to select which newsletters they want in their inbox. Gaining a new
email address into your database is a valuable asset. Each new email address is a
potential new paying customer for the paper and they can be encouraged to create
an account, to subscribe to become a paying customer or to expand their services
afterwards. Increasing the ease of gaining new emails into your database will allow
the WT&G to have a number of specific leads towards gaining new paying
subscribers.
Email Formatting
Lastly, the actual email messages that are sent out by the WT&G have a lot of
room for improvement. The emails are mostly text based, with links to each article
as a stand-alone hyperlink. There is no text from the article nor is there much
context of the story. There are images of advertisements in the email, which seems a
little confusing since it is the dominant visual information communicated in the
email. Some of the improvements we suggest for these emails are as follows:
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
Tailor email subject lines to highlight the content within and encourage users
to open then.

Have more than simple links to articles. Put little blurbs from each story into
the email so that users have a reason to go to the site and continue to read.
By giving them a bit more content and context, users would be more likely to
go to the website to finish reading that article. This will increase pageviews
of your site.

Invest in a premium mail service that has responsive, professional email
templates. Most people read their emails on mobile devices, so a responsive
email is absolutely necessary. The theme will also reflect positively upon the
brand.
With these simple improvements, the WT&G has the potential to gain more
pageviews, more loyal online readers of the paper and multiple new subscribers. A
healthy goal would be to increase new paying subscribers by 10% each month
through the intelligent use of email. By tracking which users have free accounts on
your website, which are already paying customers and which receive emails but
have neither, the WT&G can tailor email messages to sell premium subscriptions to
each segment.
Revenue Projections
Additionally, a 10% increase in web traffic due to referrals from emails
would be worth $720/month in advertising revenue. Selling advertisement spaces
in each email you send out for $30 CPM would mean each email address, assuming
you serve 4 advertisements per email, would be worth 12 cents per list serve for
which they sign up.
Facebook
Now that we’ve analyzed how the WT&G can profit from optimizing email,
let’s discuss how the WT&G can profit from other social mediums. According to
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Facebook statistics, the average “liker” has about 2.4 friends and clicks on 5.3 times
more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user. In a Business.com 2009
Business Social media Benchmarking Study, it was reported that 61% judged the
success of a company’s social media initiatives by its web site traffic, 57% by its
engagement with prospects, and 54% by its brand awareness. Facebook clearly has
value for companies and by using it successfully to build your fan base and drive
traffic to your website, your newspaper can continue to engage in online discussion
and keep the public informed.
WT&G Presence
The WT&G has a good social media presence. Not only does the WT&G post
on average of 4-6 times a day and have a nice mix of local Worcester/Boston news,
hard news, and soft news, they also engage with their readers. On the majority of the
WT&G’s posts, they respond back to subscribers with a meaningful comment that
either answers their questions or encourages them to follow a link on the website to
obtain more information.
Soft news, which consists of entertainment, comics, sports, and
Worcester/Boston landmarks around town receive the most “likes.” WT&G
subscribers love funny pictures of animals and slice of life moments, as well as
stories about their favorite stars coming to town. What is really unique about the
WT&G Facebook page is the voice. It is very conversational. The WT&G garners
more likes when they post pictures rather than just providing link from a story from
their website.
Competitors
The WT&G’s main three competitors are The Boston Globe, the Boston
Herald and the Boston Metro. All three newspapers have a social presence on
Facebook. The most effective Facebook user is the Boston Globe with 74,119 likes.
Boston Herald comes in second with 13,171 likes with Boston Metro trailing at
2,196 likes.
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The way we are measuring their success compared to the success of the
WT&G is by the number of likes, interactivity and social context. The Boston Globe
has a strong media presence, where most of its users are interacting with sports
posts. They do a good job of dividing hard news, soft news and more local stories.
They also engage well by the use of good questions. The Boston Herald does a good
job with design by posting the front page of their newspaper on Facebook making
things consistent. They are trying to compete with Boston Globe’s methods. The
Boston Metro does not have that strong of a media presence with little interaction.
Strategic Goals
The WT&G’s Facebook page will be used as a tool to drive traffic to its news
website. By increasing traffic to the WT&G Facebook page, we can first, encourage
subscribers to “like” the page, and second, encourage their friends to “like” it also.
One of our main goals for the WT&G is to increase likes on its Facebook page by
10% each month. Providing links to subscribers via Facebook posts will entice them
to read more and visit the WT&G website.
Demographics
Women 25-34 years old are the most popular age group on the WT&G
Facebook page. Of the 68.1% of women who interact with the WT&G Facebook,
almost 41% comprise the 25-44 year-old market. Many of these likes come from soft
stories, so it is important to keep posting these to maintain that demographic. Since
only 31.2% of males interact with our page, it may be beneficial to post more sports
related stories.
Likes
From Wednesday, April 10 to May 2, the WT&G’s “likes” went from 13, 290 to
14,180, a 6.7% increase in little less than a month. The WT&G currently has
2,578,074 friends of fans. This is a great indicator of how far the WT&G’s reach
could potentially extend to if subscribers’ friends were to like the WT&G Facebook
page. On April 23, the week total reach peaked at 189,109 people. That is more than
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twice the WT&G circulation. Again, this number provides great insight to the
amount of people who can possibly interact with the WT&G’s content.
Best Practices
In her Mashable article, “Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands,”
Lauren Drell revealed some insightful tips for brands that wanted to optimize the
newest Facebook Timeline feature. We found these nine tips simple, although very
useful and suggest the WT&G implement five of the nine to drive traffic to its
Facebook page and increase fan growth. Drell encourages brands to first, embrace
images. The Timeline feature can really bring a human side to the brand and
showcase the slice-of-life moments behind the scenes of the newsroom. Next, she
advises brands to make the most of their cover photos. Drell calls it “prime real
estate” and cites a recent eye-tracking study that reports that consumers pay far
more attention to the cover photo than any content on the wall.
Third, she suggests highlighting or pinning the best posts. “Highlighting" the
WT&G’s most important information will display the update across the width of the
page, giving more weight to key news. Using the “pin to top” option will not only
enlarge the content, but it will also make it the first thing to appear on the timeline.
Fourth, Drell encourages brands to run contests to boost engagement. She says
“with more odds of winning, fans are more likely to engage, even for something
small.” Small branded SWAG bags make for great prizes. Last but not least, she
advises brands to embrace their fans. By posting pictures of subscribers and their
friends, the WT&G can mix up its content and show off its fans motivating them to
stay loyal.
Recommendations
Since social media, including Facebook is a free outlet for companies to use, it
is important to capitalize on the opportunity to reach your audience on such a large
scale. An opportunity is open for the WT&G to reach a more nationalized audience
by posting one national story for every four local stories they post. Another
recommendation would be to include stronger calls to action under posts. Examples
25
include, “like below!” or “share with your friends!” These will help to make the
audience interact more with the posts.
Along with this, posts could include more contests and giveaways that could
help interactivity between the audience and the WT&G. For example, by sharing a
link, subscribers will be entered into a gift card giveaway. Implementing a social
commenting system would also be extremely beneficial to the WT&G so whenever
someone they are connected to comments or likes something on their page, it
immediately shows up for their friends to see. Since males are not as frequently
reached, it may be helpful to add more sports stories to grab their attention.
Revenue Projections
 Referrals from March to April : 191, 300
 Increase by 10% and divide by CPM (1000)
 Multiply by $23= $5436 yearly revenue increase
SOURCES:
The Value of A Liker:
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=150630338305797
9 Best Practices:
http://mashable.com/2012/05/17/facebook-timeline-brand-tips/
Twitter
Since social media is a great way for news organizations to profit from, let’s
analyze another way for the WT&G to do so. Twitter provides great potential for a
news organization. It is an easy and effective way for news outlets to communicate
with their readers. It also gives the publication an opportunity to develop a
personality. This is accomplished by how its messages are communicated as well as
how the organization responds to its readers. Through this communication the
26
organization gains feedback and insight into what content is most engaging and
popular amongst its readers, resulting in a more satisfied customer.
Competitors
After thoroughly analyzing the Twitter strategy of the WT&G, we looked to
competitors to determine where The WT&G could make improvements. After
looking at its top competitor’s social media strategy, the Boston Globe, we first
recommend tagging the writers Twitter handle within the tweet. This would prove
successful, as it is a way to generate conversation with the writer. If a reader has a
question or comment about the story Twitter gives them a connection to the
newspaper as well as an individual.
In addition to adding the Twitter handle, we suggest that the WT&G retweet
its reporters. Reporters should have an account set up, which they can tweet their
work or other related information. By doing so we are again putting a face to the
WT&G and its content. This is especially important on social media platforms. Going
along with this strategy, we also suggest that these be updated with photos of
individuals rather than utilizing the WT&G logo. This would provide differentiation
between the main Twitter feed and the tweets coming from reporters.
The idea of adding a presence of writers within the Twitter feed coincides
with important information we discovered while conducting our research. One way
news organizations can capitalize on social media is from the growing practice of
what is referred to as “dual screening.” This means people are often following along
with their phone on social media while looking at other forms of media such as
television. Having reporters live tweet events they are covering creates a live
streaming effect.
Aside from creating this presence we recommend that The WT&G encourage
interaction with its followers. The 2012 State of the News Media Report notes that,
“Hearing about things in the news from friends and family, whether via social media
27
or actual word of mouth, leads to deeper news consumption.” Therefore Twitter is a
medium that cannot be ignored. One way to engage social sharing and interaction is
asking questions. Questions are often the key to generating conversation. However,
it does not stop there. A question is also proven to be more engaging in that it may
also entice the reader to click on the link to find out the answer. By implementing
this strategy the WT&G has the potential to increase its pageviews from Twitter.
In addition to interaction, we want followers to have a clear call to action.
This means providing them with an engaging headline or question followed by a link
to a particular article. Oftentimes the WT&G is tweeting a link to an article alongside
a link to the WT&G. homepage. This is problematic because if the user follows the
link to the homepage they will not be directed to the information that initially
engaged them to click. This will increase the sites bounce rate.
After looking at the general Twitter strategy we wanted to see if there were
opportunities to target content to a niche following. We learned that Twitter
accounted for 17.8% of all visits from social sites. From that small percentage we
noticed that a large amount (27.7%) of entry pages were to the Hometeam Statistics
page. Because the Hometeam page accounts for so many visits from Twitter, we
want to focus on optimizing this section of the website. We noticed some
inconsistencies between the website and Twitter:

The Twitter description of the TG Sports account says the account is for pro,
college, and high school sports. However, the header and avatar photos
reflect only the Hometeam page.

Furthermore, the URL in the description directs visitors to the general sports
page, yet the majority of tweets are Hometeam-related.
Because there is a disconnect between the Hometeam page and the general
sports page, we recommend dividing the one account into two. There would be very
28
few changes to the Hometeam account; however, we recommend branding the new
TG Sports page to be consistent with the WT&G account. The Boston Globe has done
an excellent job of consistent branding, and we think the WT&G should have a
similar branding strategy.
Recommendations
In conclusion, we make the following suggestions to improve the Twitter
account in hopes of driving more traffic to the website:

Update reporters’ avatars with photos, retweet reporters

Include reporters’ Twitter handles

Ask questions/interact with followers

Provide only one link in a Tweet

Create a separate sports account

Brand consistently
Revenue Projections
By making these simple changes the WT&G will be able to gain a significant
increase in pageviews, which will translate to gains in revenue. Currently the WT&G
receives roughly 790,000 pageviews from Twitter. By implementing these simple
changes to the overall Twitter strategy the WT&G will be able to increase pageviews
from Twitter by 10%. This will translate to $2,211 of added revenue each year.
SOURCES:
http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/mobile-devices-and-news-consumption-somegood-signs-for-journalism/what-facebook-and-Twitter-mean-for-news/
Pinterest
Continuing on with our discussion of profiting from social mediums, we
arrive at Pinterest. Pinterest is a visually based social media site that models its
posts on the idea of pinning onto a bulletin board. By testing new ideas and themes
29
with a Pinterest profile, traffic to a home site can increase as effectively or more
effectively than other social media (Teicher). Because the site is visually driven,
compelling images can peak users’ interests to further pursue the information given,
thus driving users back to an article on the WT&G news site. Given that the
collaboration and utilization of many online medias are integral to the storytelling
process for WT&G website, Pinterest can and should become a relevant actor in the
storytelling process for the WT&G.
Pinterest currently has 48 million users and 74% are female (Carr). These
users are concentrated between the age ranges of 35-44 years old and their yearly
income is concentrated between $25,000-50,000 (Carr). Fortunately, the
demographics of the WT&G prove promising for an active Pinterest page. Moreover,
26% of WT&G’s users fall within the income range that Pinterest’s users do. In
addition to this, 28% of WT&G’s users are between the ages of 35-49, and 50% of
them are female. Given that WT&G’s demographics are aligned with those of
Pinterest’s users, an increase in traffic and subscriptions can be expected for the
WT&G with the correct use of Pinterest.
Best Practices:
As previously mentioned, by effectively using Pinterest, sales and
subscriptions for the WT&G website can be expected. On a related note, In Grace
Ellis’ article, “Social Accessorizing: How to Win with Social media,” Ellis reports that
adults spend about 8.8 hours a week on social media sites, visiting an average of 2.4
sites regularly. In addition, Ellis states that 19% of consumers say they “refer to
social media before they purchase a CE accessory.” While this statistic does not
directly refer to a news site, the takeaway can be applied to the business of the
WT&G Furthermore, by promoting interesting information and images through a
Pinterest profile, WT&G can expect its use to be profitable for an increase in
subscriptions.
WT&G Pinterest:
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Presently, WT&G’s Pinterest account consists of five boards: Sports,
Photography/News, Videos, Newspapers pinning. The Pinterest profile has 106
followers and 54 pins. Also, there is no Pinterest widget on the WT&G home website,
linking to the WT&G website to Pinterest. Thus, no traffic is currently being driven
between the Pinterest profile page to the WT&G website.
Recommendations:
To make WT&G's Pinterest profile more relevant to the WT&G community
and potential followers and/or subscribers, we would recommend that WT&G test
and consider a variety of tactics that other news organizations have implemented on
their Pinterest pages. The WT&G should consider their brand and community image
within the Worcester community. By understanding the Worcester community, the
WT&G should think of their Pinterest presence as a representative of their
personality as a newspaper. Furthermore, the “pins” and boards should be directly
related to the interests and unique personality of Worcester as a community. First
and foremost, the first step WT&G should take is to add the Pinterest widget to the
WT&G website.
An easy way to approach the use of Pinterest as a “personality projection”
would be to implement a community events and entertainment board (Mozder, 32).
This board would be completely devoted to plays, performances, charity events and
community events happening in Worcester. The Boston Globe is an example of a
newspaper utilizing this concept well. In a pin on this board, the Globe might pin
about the Boston Ballet’s season opening, and once the pin is clicked, the user is
redirected to the article on the Globe’s site. Followers of the board can choose to
comment on the “pin” thus furthering involvement and engagement with their site.
Similar community events worthy of a board might be a “Prom” board (32). In this
case, followers could submit pictures from the local high schools’ proms, creating a
photo board of the local teens’ experience at the prom. The board could remain up
all year and could be added to each year as the prom recurred. Adding a hashtag
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under each pin like “#TGprom2013” and then later years with “#TGprom2014”
would provide a fun continuance of community photos through the community’s
prom.
The same tactic for a “prom” board could be implemented with almost any
local news aspect. These could include sports pages, or even crime. A “mug shot”
board has been used by The Mercury in Pottstown Pennsylvania to “pin” the mug
shots of community members arrested or wanted. The Mugshot board is useful to
the Pottstown community because it allows the community to be involved in the
investigations and providing of information for their community members. After
implementing the mug shot board, the Pottstown police department has
experienced a 57% increase in “warrant services” (Editor, 9). The Mercury suspects
that the increase in information provided by the community is because people feel
more “comfortable communicating via social media”(9). As people are found to be
innocent or dropped from charges, The Mercury posts an update on the board
providing followers and Mercury readers a notification of changing developments. It
is important to note that community members want to feel included and educated
on criminal activity, so the mug shot board allows people to be involved and
educated in a unique way (9). Whether or not the WT&G choose to implement a
mug shot board, by working to engage the reader into community developments
and happenings is important to consider when forming a Pinterest presence.
It is important to always consider the newspaper’s involvement with the
community as integral to the purpose of the Pinterest profile. Given this objective,
by including a “staff bio” page, the WT&G would be able to introduce their reporters,
editors and staff to the Worcester community in a welcoming and friendly way
(Mozder, 32). On this board there would be “pins” of a staff members’
photographs. The “pin’s” short description would give their name and contact info,
and the “pin” would link the user to the staff member’s articles on the WT&G
website (32). The staff bio board is an opportunity to put a face and image to the
reporters and editors working on the content for the WT&G, which allows the
community easy access and accessibility to the journalists of Worcester.
32
In light of a community’s involvement with Pinterest and the opportunities it
provides between the journalist and the community member, the same tactic could
be used when a profile story is done (32). These stories would have their own board
on the Pinterest profile, and the pins within it would show a picture or image
regarding the profile story done on a Worcester citizen. The board would serve to
highlight the WT&G interest and support of community individuals through the
articles the WT&G has published.
WT&G’s most active board on its Pinterest page is the “recipe box” board. For
future activity on Pinterest, we would suggest that this be continued, but more
frequently. By making Pinterest activity more frequent and regular, WT&G will be
able to drive its traffic to Pinterest, and therefore back to the WT&G website.
It should be noted, that as Pinterest is implemented as an added platform for
information sharing and community involvement, a conversation among the
community will be generated among community members as they share, comment
and pass along each pin, comment or discussion.
Optimizing Pinterest and Projected benefits:
An added opportunity for WT&G is the new Pinterest analytics option
provided for companies. If WT&G decided to opt in for the analytics side of their
Pinterest account, they would be able to track and measure the re-pinned and
clicked pins. With this information WT&G would get a better idea as to what exactly
works for the Pinterest profile and what does not (Delo). Similarly, Pinterest users
who have verified websites linked to their Pinterest accounts are able to measure
how many people have pinned items from their sites, how many people saw those
pins and how many people clicked through from Pinterest to the brand's site (Delo.
This would further allow WT&G to get a better idea of how other social media is
feeding into the Pinterest account.
33
By investigating how other social media use feeds or funnels into or out of
Pinterest for the WT&G, they would further be able to measure what kinds of posts
and content are most relevant across platforms. That would provide WT&G with the
knowledge needed on how to better integrate those other media platforms.
Furthermore, we encourage the use of crossing promotions of social media across
Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
By doubling traffic to the living section pages, which are most prevalent
types of material on Pinterest by at least double, this will also at least double
revenue for the WT&G. As of now, the living sections are generating $23 in
advertising revenue per page, per thousand views.
Revenue Projections:
As previously mentioned in the background information section, Pinterest
can drive as much traffic as other social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. Given
that WT&G can expect about $18,170 a year in revenue from Twitter referrals, we
would like to project a conservative revenue increase for Pinterest. If Pinterest were
able to acquire half as much referral traffic as Twitter in the first year, the WT&G
could expect about $9,085 in advertising revenues.
As WT&G tests a variety of techniques and tactics, it should be able to
get a better idea of what works best on Pinterest when driving traffic back to the
site. In addition to experimenting with tactics to use on Pinterest, by implementing
the analytics tool, WT&G should be able to better measure the revenue of Pinterest
traffic against Pinterest pageviews specifically.
SOURCES:
Delo: http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-launches-web-analytics-trackpopular-content/240282/
Teicher: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/real-simple-pinterest-drives-trafficfacebook/231576/
“Pinned by Police: The Mercury creates Pinterest board to capture criminals”
34
Mozder: “A Recipe for Engaging with Pinterest” by Mozder Kelby Carr Pinterest
Marketing for Dummies:
http://site.ebrary.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/lib/umcolumbia/docDetail.action?d
ocID=10575465
Grace Ellis: “Social Accessorizing: how to win with social media”
Dashboards
Results of the suggested changes to the WT&G website will be monitored in
Adobe SiteCatalyst. In order to efficiently interpret the data presented by
SiteCatalyst, we have created four dashboards to display the information most
important to WT&G’s stakeholders. These dashboards allow you to quickly gauge
the performance of the WT&G website by measuring key selected metrics in a
streamlined way. They provide a “snapshot” of how the site is performing, bringing
to the front only the most important information. However, it is important to
remember that any report shown in a dashboard can be expanded upon with one
click. Also, these dashboards should not remain static – as new information needs
arise. Feel free to make changes – it is as simple as clicking the “layout” button at the
top of each dashboard.
Site Overview
35
The first and most important dashboard we created is the Site Overview
dashboard. This dashboard provides a bird’s eye view of the overall performance of
the WT&G website. Because most of the recommendations we have made, focus on
increasing display advertisement revenue by increasing traffic. The Site Overview
dashboard presents mostly traffic metrics such as the “big 3” (visits, pageviews, and
unique visitors), as well as a reportlet on “referring domains,” which outlines where
the traffic is coming from.
These metrics are relatively slow to change. Because of this, we have placed a
month-long timeframe on the dashboard. We have shown the WT&G the “big 3”
metrics to show how they change over a longer timeframe. This will give the WT&G
an idea of how our suggested strategies are affecting the site in the bigger picture.
Should the WT&G wish to view these metrics over a different time-span, say by
quarter or by year, just click the calendar at the top right of the dashboard to
temporarily change the timeframe.
Daily Report
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The Daily Report is a supplementary dashboard that analyzes the day-to-day
operations of the WT&G website as a media platform, focusing primarily on the
performance of individual articles and site sections.
The largest reportlet at the top shows the previous day’s most popular
articles and the percentage of total pageviews (among all articles) that it accounted
for. This could be important to reporters who need to know what kinds of articles
are best engaging Worcester residents. Below the reportlet is a smaller one that
displays which articles were most popular on social media, an increasingly
important source of traffic for media sites.
At the top right is a bar graph that shows which sections of the site were
most popular. The gauge at the bottom shows how many pages the average visitor
viewed that day – it is shorthand for engagement, which is expanded upon in the
Site Usage dashboard. Lastly, to the right is a reportlet showing which domains
referred the most traffic to the WT&G website that day. Should the WT&G website
see a large, abnormal spike in traffic, its source would likely show up there.
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Note on site sections: because sections have not been defined in SiteCatalyst,
the “sections report” registers sections by their URL. As a result, things like the
homepage, the login page (showing up as “clickshare”) and a Monster.com pop-up
are viewed as individual sections by SiteCatalyst. Also Obituaries shows up as three
separate sections. We recommend defining site sections by newspaper sections such
as Local, Business, Obituaries, etc.
Social Media
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The social media dashboard measures visitors coming to the WT&G website
via links from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The top reportlet
shows the overall daily traffic over the course of the month. Should our suggested
social media strategies be implemented, you should see the results in this graph.
Below this is a pie chart, which shows the percentage of all social media
traffic each site contributes. This will change often. For example, in the screenshot,
you will see that Reddit.com accounted for about 35% of all traffic for that week
(after an article went viral). For the previous two weeks, however it did not even
register as a traffic source.
The rest of the dashboard focuses on the popularity of specific articles on
individual social media sites. Almost all traffic from social media sites comes from
links to the WT&G articles, so finding which articles appeal to each community is
crucial to implementing a social media strategy. We have included a different list for
each site because after weeks of monitoring this dashboard, we found that they
rarely overlap. The articles popular on Twitter are rarely the same as those popular
on Facebook.
Next to each list is a gauge showing the amount of traffic the WT&G received
from each site. The red, yellow, and green sections were set based on average daily
pageviews from the previous month. Due to the nature of social media, the traffic
totals will likely be very volatile from day-to-day, which is why we added a weekly
overview of all social media sites above the three specific sections on Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest.
Site Usage
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The Site Usage dashboard interprets how visitors interact with the WT&G
website. The metrics focus on engagement and loyalty, as well as how people access
the site and where they go after they have gotten to the homepage. The results to
changes made to site design, especially to the homepage, should show up in this
dashboard.
To measure engagement, the two reportlets at the top left measure average
pageviews per visitor and average time spent on site. These measures of
engagement are most important because they tie directly into revenue from display
advertisements – the more pages each visitor loads, the more impressions the
advertisements generate.
Loyalty is measured by return frequency. The line graph at the bottom shows
how many return visits the WT&G website receives. The pie chart shows how much
traffic is generated by heavy users of the WT&G website. Currently, visitors who
return to the WT&G at least once per day (heavy users) generate about 60% of all
pageviews.
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The device report at the bottom shows how people are accessing the WT&G
website – the largest slice, labeled “other,” represents people logging on with
computers or laptops. Lastly, the reportlet at the top right shows where people go
immediately after coming to the WT&G homepage. Here you will be able to see how
tweaks to the homepage’s design affect the paths users take to their destination.
Conclusion
We've just presented a lot of research and recommendations to help the
WT&G improve their organizational practices. We've talked about everything from
optimizing the WT&G's website design to its social media policies. Below is a list of
the most important recommendations and revenue projections for the WT&G.
Website Design
 Highlight popular content feature
 Highlight multimedia
 Add pre-roll advertisements
 Add story thumbnails
 Differentiate content from advertisements
 Highlight local news
 Simplify homepage
 Simplify registration process
Yearly Revenue Projections: $124,488- $248,975
Landing page optimization
 Consolidate to one minimalistic link on homepage
 Call to action (Subscribe Today!)
 Value Proposition
Site Sections
 Brand multimedia consistently
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 Highlight local section
 Make comment section more accessible
 Make website logo link to homepage
Yearly Revenue Projections: $90,941.48
SEO
 Fix title tags
 Optimize headlines
 Optimize URL’s
 Fix site descriptions
Yearly Revenue Projections: $168,414.24
Mobile
 Simplify mobile site/ app navigation
 Begin to use Near field communication
 Develop mobile applications
 Optimize tablet experience
 Yearly Revenue Projections: $40,308-$80,616
Email
 Simplify registration navigation
 Better email formatting
Yearly Revenue Projections: $8,640
Facebook
 More national posts
 More promotions/contests
 Implement social commenting system
 More sports posts
 Yearly Revenue Projections: $5,436
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Twitter
 Update reporters’ avatars with photos
 Retweet reporters
 Include reporters’ Twitter handles
 Ask questions/interact with followers
 Provide only one link in a tweet
 Create separate sports account
 Brand consistently
Yearly Revenue Projections: $2,211
Pinterest
 More frequent pinning
 Add pin-it option on Telegram website
 Utilize other social media platforms
Yearly Revenue Projections: $9,085
Dashboards
 Check dashboards regularly, on a time-frame that makes sense for your
business
 Use dashboards to test changes made to the site
 Different dashboards will be important to different stakeholders – distribute
them only to those who will find them most relevant
 Change the dashboards to fit your needs – nobody knows your business like
you do.
If all of these recommendations were fully implemented, the WT&G could
expect to see a $449,523.72 - $614,318.72 increase in revenue per year.
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