Common Knowledge | Wondering something?
Research Methods Used for Our Clients
CTC believes that certain research methods will ensure the best results for our clients. Below are some of the methods we use in our approach and how we used them to achieve overall success in different projects.
Statlas
The most powerful and unique research tool we have is Statlas. For more on this powerful CTC tool, check out this article: https://k.commonthreaduniversity.com/wp/common-knowledge/use-the-growth-data-tool/
Capitalizing on cultural moments by acting
Capitalizing on cultural moments is crucial for brand loyalty and engagement. When a company shows that they are aware of cultural movements they are staying relevant to the constantly evolving consumer.
Arshi was deep diving into data for an Admission accelerator brand. When the first Stimulus check dropped in April of last year, they used a rewards program to drop an additional $12 in rewards credit into user accounts at the same time. This was a great move to capitalize on the moment. Arshi took this idea to other brands to talk about what they can do to capitalize on big cultural moments.
Analyzing Page Speed
Page speed is important to the user’s overall online experience. Analyzing this data will help make sure that the customer’s experience is quick and efficient.
Google Page Speed and some other tools are the industry standard for analyzing page speed for Shopify sites. Unfortunately, Shopify sites get underrated by Google. Using Shopify Analyzer is a great resource for Ux. Unfortunately, Google does use its own tools for page ranking and organic search. Analyzing page speed helps us determine the effects of having a high functioning ecommerce site to keep customers engaged.
Researching Cyber Security Matters and Taking Protective Measures
Cyber Security is extremely important in today’s day and age where a majority of our interactions are online. Taking preventative measures with cyber security will ensure the safety of all accounts.
Lexi had a client whose Instagram channel was hacked and hijacked. We make sure that our clients are using 2FA and something like LastPass or Dashlane to keep all of their logins secure. The way we ensure online safety is to use security software and create security plans for each individual client.
Using the Wayback machine for research
The Wayback Machine can be extremely helpful in accessing knowledge when looking into cause and effect for a brand. The Wayback Machine can help answer a lot of questions we have when looking into a certain issue.
Tsegie used the Wayback Machine to troubleshoot Earthling co, to try to determine why their conversion rate was dropping. Using the Wayback Machine, we went back to August when conversion was better, to learn what was different then.
We discovered that due to some additional options, the add to cart buttons got pushed below the fold on a normal desktop.
Getting help with data from marketing
Researching and using data from marketing can give insights into the current state of the brand.
Luke: Love Wellness has been struggling with the perception that their brand is performing poorly while everyone else is performing well. AO helped Luke pull some aggregate data to show them that their performance is as good as it was at the end of May at this year, and that the changes their experiencing are normal and on-par for this time.
If you have clients who are not in the #ctc_growth_circle channel, get them in there! We want to give clients unique access to our valuable information and data.
Giving clients Q4 insights
Many clients have very little or no insight into what happens in Q4. Offering our deep experience makes us extremely valuable to them. Our clients are here because they want us to guide them.
Interrogating all Data
A deep analysis of data is often needed to understand the performance of our companies.
Last month, we encountered a double-firing pixel in the Native account that went on for about 3 weeks. The big reason we didn’t catch it was that last year in August they had their biggest month, and the numbers didn’t seem far off. July had outperformed YoY, so we thought the high performance wasn’t unreasonable.
The truth was that last year they were running a campaign making medical claims that got shut down, which is why their performance was so high for that period.
We interrogate the root cause of data carefully. Every analytics account is a story, and you can track the lines and ask questions. Interrogate them about that story.
Communicating across departments
Our teams work cross-functionally to ensure that we are covering all the bases of our client’s needs.
We’ve been running Heat Sheet meetings for the past five weeks, because we were having some customer satisfaction issues, and we lost a client for service-related reasons. We’ve been able to identify challenges and take actions to improve the service experience for all clients.
Every division at CTC is incredibly talented and capable. We’ve seen dramatically improved results in the client pulse. At this point, AW isn’t worried about any of our upcoming opt-outs thanks to the current record of service excellence.
The key to achieving this great outcome was clear communication. If you see something, say something, don’t win or lose on your own. Keep it up!
Conducting Deep Client Research
Client research is extremely important, especially ahead of big meetings. As long as something’s publicly available, it’s good for us to know it and show the client that we’re truly paying attention and care about their brand.
Prior to a recent meeting, Iain discovered that one of the clients had garnered some internet fame for publishing a naked picture with a co-founder for the launch of one of his brands. Iain mentioned it in the meeting which was, frankly, a little weird, but showed the client just how far we go in learning about the people whose dreams we shepherd.
Following Shopify
Following closely on Shopify will give us the metrics for understanding growth within the e-commerce site and give us an accurate depiction of the brand’s current state.
When a Q2 Shopify Earnings report came out this week, they came in at $30.1bn. Incredible growth, even exceeding what we had predicted based on client data.
Mitch has put together an ongoing spreadsheet that has allowed us to track client metrics against GMV, so we can track our position.