how to harness the power of google analytics, email marketing & vanity to increase user...

Clinical and Translational Science Institute / CTSI at the University of California, San Francisco

“Mirror, Mirror, Who’s

Looking at My UCSF Profiles Page?” Nooshin Latour, MA & Anirvan Chatterjee UCCSC 2014, San Francisco

How to Harness the Power of

Google Analytics and Vanity

Nooshin Latour

Communications

and Marketing

Anirvan Chatterjee

Data Strategy

WHAT IS UCSF PROFILES?

PROFILES.UCSF.EDU

Hard to find the right expert

Photo by CTSI at UCSF, used under CC, https://flic.kr/p/k2Dkp3

for biomedical

researchers

What is UCSF Profiles?

• Every UCSF researcher has a profile

• Every profiles automatically includes

publications and research topics

• Researchers can log in to add a photo,

bio, awards, etc.

What is UCSF Profiles?

• Users can search UCSF Profiles to find an

expert on a topic, enabling collaboration

• Profiles data is publicly available via APIs,

and used in 30 UCSF apps & websites

What is UCSF Profiles?

• Lots of traffic from on and off campus

– 2,800 visits per day

– 1 million visits per year

– 75% of traffic from search engines

• We actively mine web analytics data to

provide insights into site usage

PHASE 1: LAUNCH

JAN 2010 – DEC 2011

How do you launch a brand new

campus-wide resource?

Photo by Diane Yee, used under CC, https://flic.kr/p/e48bHL

Tactics

1. News article on UCSF.edu

2. Executive Vice Chancellor emails ~8000 people

3. Send postcard to the 2500 people profiled– Free iPad contest for users who update their profiles

4. Get major campus websites to link to the site– e.g. UCSF.edu, Library, School of Medicine

5. In-person outreach at faculty event

Results

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Visits per month (campus) Visits per month (external)

PHASE 2: GROWTH

JAN 2012 – JUN 2013

How to understand, increase

website traffic and usage?

Photo by Thomas Sauzedde, used under CC, https://flic.kr/p/admtKw

1. Search engine optimization

2. Advanced Google Analytics

3. Pretty URLs

profiles.ucsf.edu/

ProfileDetails.aspx?Person=276329999

profiles.ucsf.edu/deborah.grady

4. Get incoming links from all over

ucsf.edu

cancer.ucsf.edu

directory.ucsf.edu

ctsi.ucsf.edu

neurology.ucsf.edu

meded.ucsf.edu

immunology.ucsf.edu

postdocs.ucsf.edu

osr.ucsf.edu

ind.ucsf.edu

osher.ucsf.edu

accelerate.ucsf.edu

familymedicine.medschool.ucsf.edu

microbiology.ucsf.edu

humangenetics.ucsf.edu

id.medicine.ucsf.edu

endocrine.ucsf.edu

medicine.ucsf.edu

anesthesia.ucsf.edu

epilepsy.ucsf.edu

globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu

surgery.ucsf.edu

radiology.ucsf.edu

ucsfhealth.org

open-proposals.ucsf.edu

anp.ucsf.edu

epibiostat.ucsf.edu

stemcell.ucsf.edu

diabetes.ucsf.edu

globalresearch.ucsf.edu

pharmacy.ucsf.edu

addiction.ucsf.edu

bms.ucsf.edu

pharmchem.ucsf.edu

ohns.ucsf.edu

mountzion.ucsfmedicalcenter.org

healthvalue.ucsf.edu

tobacco.ucsf.edu

ari.ucsf.edu

surgicalmovementdisorders.ucsf.edu

medschool.ucsf.edu

dgim.ucsf.edu

pharm.ucsf.edu

pediatrics.ucsf.edu

multiplesclerosis.ucsf.edu

transplant.surgery.ucsf.edu

cardiology.ucsf.edu

studentlife.ucsf.edu

globalprojects.ucsf.edu

mphd.ucsf.edu

psych.ucsf.edu

pibs.ucsf.edu

whcrc.ucsf.edu

cfar.ucsf.edu

nephrology.ucsf.edu

experimental.medicine.ucsf.edu

fellows.ucsf.edu

urology.ucsf.edu

cvri.ucsf.edu

general.surgery.ucsf.edu

officeofresearch.ucsf.edu

dahsm.ucsf.edu

gi.ucsf.edu

odonovanlab.ucsf.edu

coe.ucsf.edu

dermatology.ucsf.edu

ccb.ucsf.edu

sfghres.ucsf.edu

acrc.ucsf.edu

lomvardaslab.ucsf.edu

hcgne.ucsf.edu

geriatrics.ucsf.edu

top.ucsf.edu

ita.ucsf.edu

nursing.ucsf.edu

hospitalmedicine.ucsf.edu

nic.ucsf.edu

plastic.surgery.ucsf.edu

memory.ucsf.edu

prds.ucsf.edu

pulmonary.ucsf.edu

5. Syndicate Profiles data to

campus websites and apps

Results

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Jan-1

2

Fe

b-1

2

Ma

r-12

Apr-

12

Ma

y-1

2

Jun-1

2

Jul-12

Aug

-12

Sep

-12

Oct-

12

Nov-1

2

Dec-1

2

Jan-1

3

Fe

b-1

3

Ma

r-13

Apr-

13

Ma

y-1

3

Jun-1

3

Visits per month (campus) Visits per month (external)

PHASE 3: ENGAGEMENT

JUL 2013 – JUL 2014

The challenge

Only 28% of users had edited their own

Profiles pages (as of August 2013)

Regular Email Doesn’t Work

Source: YouKnowWhatSpamEmailis

Key Strategies

1. Measure: Establish benchmarks

2. Partnerships: Easier to work together

3. Automation: Tech trumps manual labor

4. Vanity: Tap into user motivations

CO-BRANDED PERSONALIZED

EMAILS

Case study 1

Email open rates for these

campaigns, vs. industry averages

• UCSF Profiles News Email: 41%

• UCSF Profiles UCTV Email: 39%

• Our department newsletter: 26%

• Nonprofit industry avg.: 25%

• Education industry avg.: 23%

• Social networking avg.: 22%

• Software / web app avg.: 22%

AUTOMATED

ONBOARDING

EMAILS

Case study 2

Automated onboarding email

1.User added to Profiles

2.Daily process checks new user logs

3.New users get a customized welcome email,delivered via Mandrill email service provider

Automated onboarding email

After two weeks…

if they didn’t edit their Profile

A/B tested subject lines

“Reminder: Mary, take a few minutes

to update your UCSF Profiles page”

vs.

“Mary, here are three ways to

enhance your UCSF Profiles page”

After two weeks…

if they did edit their Profile

Email open rates

• Welcome email #1: 39%

Click-thru rate #1: 32 %

• Welcome email #2A (didn’t edit): 26%

• Welcome email #2B (did edit): 31%

CUSTOMIZED ENGAGEMENT

EMAILS

Case study 3

Default vs.

Customized Profile

Customization rates

As of November 2013, before this round of

emails:

• 18% had added a bio and photo

• 20% had added only a photo

• 3% had only added a bio

• 59% had added neither

Ask users to fill out their Profiles

• We sent a customized email

to 3,072 Profiles page owners

• Emails were customized by segments:

1. missing photo (3%)

2. missing bio (20%)

3. missing photo and bio (59%)

Users gets a custom pitch

• Specific call to action (e.g. “add photo”)

• Share average pageviews to motivate

users

Results

• “Add bio” email 12% made edits

• “Add photo” email 11% made edits

• “Add both” email 10% made edits

UCSF PROFILES

ANNUAL REPORT 2013

Case study 4

What do researchers care about?

Academic reputation

Funding

Status

Google Analytics tells us which

networks looked at which user

So we can answer…

Am I being viewed by:

1. Colleagues at UCSF?

2. Colleagues at other universities?

3. Pharmaceutical companies?

4. Foundations?

5. The National Institute of Health?

A/B testing subject lines

• NAME, your 2013 UCSF Profiles page report is ready

• NAME, your 2013 UCSF Profiles report is ready

• NAME, your 2013 UCSF Profiles stats are ready

• NAME, your UCSF Profiles stats are ready

• NAME, your UCSF Profiles pageviews in 2013

• NAME, your UCSF Profiles pageviews

Winner!

Email results

• Sent to 2,713 Profile owners

• Zero unsubscribes!

• Open rate: 46%

• Click rate: 14%

Survey user feedback

• 236 recipients (8.7%) completed survey

• 100% of them said knowing who looks at

their Profile page is useful/interesting

Survey user feedback

• “I want to learn exactly who (which pharma, institution, company, govt agency) viewed my profile”

• “How many people are clicking on my publications?”

• “Are my pageviews high or low, compared with others?”

• “Always happy to see my name up in lights!”

Survey user feedback

• “I like my Profiles page. I think it's a great landing site for collaborators and students who want to do research with me.”

• “I've been putting off updating my page - this is very motivating”

• “This was a pleasant surprise. I didn't even know this information was being collected. I certainly didn't know others were interested.”

Did emails help

change users’ behavior?

YES!

385 net users (6% of total)

updated their Profiles

for the first time

Key lessons

1. Measure: Establish benchmarks

2. Partnerships: Easier to work together

3. Automation: Tech trumps manual labor

4. Vanity: Tap into user motivations

The team

Thank you!

Nooshin Latour

nooshin.latour@ucsf.edu

@nooshin

Anirvan Chatterjee

anirvan.chatterjee@ucsf.edu

@anirvan

UCSF Profiles

profiles.ucsf.edu