Measuring Online User Intent Is Necessary, But Not Sufficient

Indices and surveys demonstrating thought processes need correlation to purchase or other conversion stats to be really useful.

The RFIntent index is a newly launched effort by the New York PR firm Ruder Finn to publicize what they see as a comprehensive analysis of the underlying motivations that people go online. "The intent index underscores the emerging trend that people's online behavior is better explained and understood by similarities in intent rather than by demographic differences...."

Well, they may claim that the world of online marketing is now post-demos, but even the RF people bow to a cut of their intent info by the basic demographic cuts of sex and age. The study is new, so there is no time series information yet; perhaps the addition of change of intentions over time will make this metric a little more useful to understand the online usage zeitgeist.

More interesting and action-oriented is how voice-of-customer analytics provider iPerceptions is encouraging its customers to look at another measurement beyond selling stuff-kind of. On an iPerceptions blog the company wrote, "It's time to ditch the idea that conversion is the be-all and end-all of online marketing success. The fact is, not everyone comes to your site looking to buy something. Recent research shows that 84 percent of website visitors are not there to make a purchase; instead, they are looking to obtain information, compare prices, browse products, find out a store location or store hours, get product support, or simply look at pictures and watch videos....If your site visitors aren't able to complete the tasks they set out to do, they won't consider purchasing from you again, either online or in-store."

iPerceptions however, does go on to say that if customers are satisfied that they could perform the tasks they set out to do at your site, then this task completion measurement should ultimately be predictive of purchase of some sort. They imply that it all depends of course on very specific situations - the individual web sites and the products and services available on them. To spread this gospel, the company allows anyone to measure task completion through a survey available for free just for registering. The "core component" of the survey is the Yes or No answer to the question "Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit today."

Just like the Net Promoter score from "The Ultimate Question"-Would you recommend this product/service to a friend?-this is meant to be the single and simple metric that you can ask consistently over time and over any sites or products that will be predictive of sales and profitability.

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