Best Practices: Proof Of Concept (POC) For WebID +Person

Best Practices: Proof Of Concept (POC) For WebID +Person


Understanding who is visiting your website can be a powerful tool. It is almost magical and almost too good to be true. So how do you verify and validate the results?

  • Goal: Test whether the concept is feasible and viable. In addition, it enables those involved in the proof-of-concept exercise to explore its financial potential.
  • Timeline: Typically 14 days or 500 identifications. Let us know if you have a more significant volume site, and we will arrange a size/length-appropriate POC.
  • Audience: Full website or a subset of pages

Below we cover three common POC techniques that do not work very well and one that does. We explain why they do not work and how to best do a Proof of Concept.
  • POC Techniques that we do not recommend (and why):
    • Technique 1:  (this one does not work well)  Sending Emails to everyone identified and expecting immediate conversions.

      • Why this does not work.
        • Most industries are not "buy now" or "convert now." These visitors will require nurturing over time to become a conversion. This is particularly true with prospects that have yet to contact you.
        • Things to consider with this technique:
          • How long is your sales cycle?
          • How many "touches" does your average prospect require?
          • Is the content of your email "covert now," or does the content provide timely, relevant (based on the content they viewed on your site), valuable information to the prospect?
          • Don't compare your results to the email list of customers or prospects that have raised their hand. These prospects are almost always higher in the funnel.
    • Technique 2: (this one does not work well)  Putting tracking code on a login page and mapping the users.

      • Why this does not work.
        • The average person has 3 to 6 email addresses.
1) personal email address
2) past personal email address 
3) business/employer email address
4) former employer's email address
5) shared-couple email  (Example: jane-and-bob@domain.com)
6) side hustle email
7) shopping email
8) politics email
9) other emails to keep your identification or actions private/secret
    • Each email address creates an online footprint and sometimes even a complete profile. Our identity graph helps tie these together.
    • Where this concept becomes a problem:
      • Bob Smith is a current prospect.
      • Bob Smith visits your website for the 5th time. He looks around for a bit, then leaves without a conversion. He may be looking for information or want to look closer at your product/service details.

    • Technique 3:  (this one does not work well)  Sending Emails with email in the UTM.

      • Why this does not work.
        • Similar to the issues with Technique #2 above, you expect the email address you sent to match the one we identified.
The POC Technique we recommend:
    • Technique 4:  (this one works!)   Leverage the Known Customers and Associates function of Visual Visitor.

      • Set up Known Customers and Associates function:
        • This requires an initial upload as well as API for immediate updates. For short POC, you can skip the API portion until you can fully implement it.
        • Do the initial upload of Customers, Prospects, Vendors, Employees, Franchisees, and Partners. Do not worry about duplicates, as we handle duplicate checking for you.
        • Are you worried about privacy? We accept SHA256 Hash as well as plain email text.
          • Here is an explanation and example of SHA256 Hash (click here)
          • If your platform does not output SHA256, we have an Excel spreadsheet template we can share with you.
        • Bonus: There is no charge for these identifications!
    • Why this technique works.
      • You already know these people
      • You already have this traffic on your website.
      • We will handle the identity graph matching so you see people you know are on your website.
      • Our A.I. (machine learning) will be able to start understanding your customer set and produce more results sooner.
    • You will see these people showing in your list of identified contacts.
Seeing people you know will help you quickly check the boxes for a successful POC!

As always, if you need assistance or would like to discuss in greater detail, please do not hesitate to reach out.


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