How to diagnose drop in Customer Engagement?
Analysing customer engagement drops is a critical task in growth marketing and a common application of RCA in internet businesses.
Understanding the reasons behind a decline in user interaction can help in making informed decisions to rectify issues and improve engagement strategies.
Example:
Consider an online education platform based in Bangalore that noticed a sudden drop in course enrollment rates and engagement on its learning materials.
Initially, the platform enjoyed high user interaction and course completion rates, but over the last quarter, these numbers have started to decline.
The goal is to increase the enrollment rate back to its previous numbers and improve the interaction with the platform's content.
Using the RCA approach:
- 1. Identify Metric Hierarchy: Key metrics identified are enrollment rates (conversion), average time spent on courses (engagement), and course completion rates (retention).
- 2. Conducting EDA: The analysis revealed a drop in average session duration and a higher bounce rate on course pages. Additionally, a significant decrease in course completion rates was noted.
- 3. Formulating Hypotheses: Based on the EDA findings, the team generates hypotheses about the causes of the engagement drop. Possible hypotheses might include: changes in course content leading to reduced interest, an increase in course prices deterring enrollments, or external factors such as increased competition or shifting industry trends impacting user behavior.
- 4. Identifying Analytical Techniques: To delve deeper into the reasons behind the engagement drop, time series analysis is employed to understand trends over time, and correlation analysis is used to explore the relationship between content changes and engagement metrics.
The analysis might indicate that changes in course content or structure, increased course prices, or perhaps a lack of updates to keep content fresh and relevant, could be contributing to the decrease in engagement. External factors such as emerging competitors or changes in industry trends could also play a role.
Takeaway:
To effectively analyze and address customer engagement drops in digital marketing, a systematic approach is required.
This involves setting a clear metric hierarchy, conducting focused EDA to understand where and how engagement is dropping, and then applying the appropriate analytical techniques to uncover the root causes.
By doing so, businesses can take targeted actions to improve user interaction and engagement, thereby enhancing the overall success of their digital marketing.