This April 7th, I’m going to be a panelist at the Oregon Governor’s Conference at the Expo Center in Portland, Oregon. The topic? Analytics. But its not about conversions, conversion funnels, and measuring intended “action” on a website. No, we are talking about something that has been on my mind for a bit actually…engagement metrics. I read a great analogy about this recently. If you and I both decided to make chicken soup, we’d both go about it through different means. Being Italian, mine would probably have some basil and oregano to it and would inherently be less healthy for you. But the end product would be that we both produced chicken soup. However, the steps to make it were slightly different, and the ultimate end result would be slightly different.

Its very similar online. Users do not come to a site and immediately complete the intended transaction right away, nor in the same prescribed manner each time. No, upon coming to your site they will interact in the manner they choose, not you. This is engagement. And as trust is built between person and brand, the interest (and hopefully engagement) increases.

I’m working with one of my clients to make a significant shift in their view and measurement of their online audience. Rather than just tracking the progress of a user coming to the site and proceeding through the prescribed checkout process, we are looking at how users choose to engage with their brand. They may look at one or multiple products. They may read more about how its made. They may share that information with others. They might interact with multiple forms of media that further highlight that product and its background. We hope they read customer reviews or even sign up for our email list, but that is really their choice. But in the end, its the user who chooses the path, process and how they eventually get to a point of trust and interest to purchase.

When a digital brand understands how users engage with them, they can learn to better communicate with them. Marketing in the digital space is not about bludgeoning a user over the head to buy, buy buy! Its an opportunity to converse, to dialog, to share, and to engage. And when we learn how users respond to that better, we too can learn how to better converse and engage.