RE: site stickiness

From: Jim Novo <jimnovo_at_sprintmail.com>
Date: Thu 08 Mar 2001 09:56:59 -0600

CHRISTIAN SARKAR <Christian_Sarkar_at_bmc.com> WROTE:

>Are there any reliable stats for measuring how
>long the average user should stay on a site?
>I do understand that different topics have
>different levels of stickiness.

TO WHICH MARLENA SCHWARZ <marlena_at_sharpe-partners.com> REPLIED:

>If the length of visit is unusually long, is it
>due to "stickiness" or users who are lost and
>can't find what they Need?
>IMHO, the only way to know is to measure satisfaction
>levels with a survey or other research.

You're right about length of visit as a measure of
anything valuable. If people in the aggregate come to
a page and spend an hour there, but never come back,
is there value in this behavior, particularly if you
paid good money to get them there? Is length of visit
really relevant long term?

There is another, and probably more accurate way to measure
interest or loyalty: use the behavior of the customers
themselves. What you need to look at is repeat
behavior by customer segment. Repeating customers are
much more likely to continue visiting or buying; it's a
measure of future value.

If you are spending equal amounts of time and effort on
two areas or merchandise categories of your site, and
in one area you get a high repeat rate and the another
you are getting a low repeat rate, you are wasting
resources. You need to either fix the low repeat
rate business (compare features, copy, etc. to high
repeat rate area) or switch resources from the low
repeat to the high repeat area, where you generate
more valuable customers. This increases the overall
ROI of the site.

CHRISTIAN SARKAR <Christian_Sarkar_at_bmc.com> WROTE:

>Can anyone point me to a URL which tells me more
>about this stuff, perhaps by industry or category?

I don't know of any URL's on stickiness, but if you
want to learn more about the "repeater stickiness"
described above, more details are on my site: See:

http://www.jimnovo.com/measure-loyalty.htm

Jim
-----------------------------------------
Jim Novo mailto:jim_at_jimnovo.com
Author:Turning Customer Data into Profits
Learn the techniques and models used in
profitable customer-focused marketing at:
http://www.jimnovo.com



Received on Thu Mar 08 2001 - 09:56:59 CST