Revealing visitor behaviour through tags, with Ricardo Cristofolini

Revealing visitor behaviour with tags

Episode 189

My sister-in-law Janice works at the forefront of Medical Sonography. You may know it by the name Ultrasound, where non-invasive sound waves are sent into the body, which bounce off tissue and get displayed on a monitor. It has the ability to evaluate anatomy in an increasingly wide range of structures such as abdominal organs, the heart, vasculature and muscles in patients of all ages as well as the most commonly known purpose of obstetrical ultrasound.

In the past 35 years, ultrasound has changed from a tool that was used solely by Radiology and has now expanded into being used by almost every medical disciple: cardiology, emergency medicine, anesthesia, nursing, physical therapy and more. Training these non-traditional users had a huge boom, and now ultrasound is being taught in the first year of medical school as it is known that no matter what type of medicine one chooses, ultrasound will play a part. Janice and others have shared their love and knowledge of ultrasound to help and aid the expansion of ultrasound into new realms in all areas of healthcare.

In a similar way, to be better marketers, developers, or website owners, there are aspects of web behaviour that we need surfaced: specific user conversions, page views, scrolls and many other interactions. These aren’t visible to Analytics tools out-of-the-box. Our equipment must be configured to highlight them, and that’s done with tags that fire and alert our analytics software of specific interactions, the same way that medical monitors show the echoes of specific sonar frequencies.

We’ve evolved from coding tags right on our sites to operating them with tag management systems, the most common one being Google Tag Manager. Without these tagging tools, our visibility into site performance would be limited the same way that doctors before ultrasound couldn’t see what was going on inside their patients.

Another similarity these tools share is that they both come with ethical and safety considerations, and laws covering user privacy and data protection. Gathering insights, whether by ultrasound or tag technology, must respect the digital autonomy and privacy of users.

We have a guest to take us through all facets of tag management and I hope that after hearing him, you won’t think of tagging as just some machine that should be relegated to technicians, but a tool you can use on the front-lines, as something you yourself should get hands-on with. So let’s talk about tag management with Ricardo Cristofolini.

With a background in Tourism and Hospitality Management and International Trade, Ricardo Cristofolini’s Analytics professional journey began when he arrived in Canada in 2015 to study at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology, where he earned an Ontario College Diploma in Computer Programming, Networked Environment, and Programming Languages from 2015 to 2017. There, he had the opportunity to put together previous professional knowledge with brand new one exploring multiple subjects, from Web and App Development to cloud computing, Database structure, and much more.

Transitioning to the workforce, Ricardo served as a Web Developer at FilmFX from December 2017 to December 2019, gaining two years of experience. In March 2018, Ricardo expanded his skills at Pondstone Digital Marketing, specializing in WordPress, Content Management, and other relevant areas until February 2019. At this point, he had already fallen in love with Analytics and Data Tracking. His expertise continued to evolve as he took on the role of Senior Data Analytics Implementation at Bounteous Canada from July 2021 to October 2022 He currently holds the position of Napkyn Senior Implementation Specialist Data Solutions, a role he has been dedicated to since 2022.

In his spare time, when not reading about Analytics and developing his knowledge (and earning a badge from Linkedin as Top Web Analytics Voice), Ricardo supports others’ new adventures in this field on multiple social media platforms answering questions and providing guidance.

Originating from Brazil, Ricardo Cristofolini’s professional trajectory reflects a dynamic and progressively challenging path within the realms of web development, digital marketing, and data analytics implementation.

 

Chapter Timestamps

00:00:00 – Intro

00:04:55 – Ricardo on GTM and Google Tag

00:27:40 – PSA

00:28:30 – All about Server-side Tagging

00:49:06 – Where to contact Ricardo

 



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People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

What’s New with the Google Tag article

Everyday use of Google Analytics, with Dana DiTomaso

Dana DiTomaso

Episode 188

Dana DiTomaso embarked on her digital marketing journey over 20 years ago, initially working in tech support for a CRM before founding a web design company in 2002. In 2000, clients sought her expertise in increasing website traffic, propelling her into the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By 2012, Dana became an active participant in the SEO community, sharing insights on technical and local SEO topics.

Dana, having typed her first line of code in 1982, consistently demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit and started delivering talks and presentations since 1998. Recognizing the potential of digital-first marketing, she founded three businesses that educate entrepreneurs and organizations. As the founder and lead instructor of KP Playbook, Dana teaches the “Analytics for Agencies” course and manages a thriving learner community, emphasizing proven principles over quick tips. Notably, none of her clients have faced Google penalties to date.

Dana lives in an old growth forest near Victoria BC.

 

Chapter Timestamps

00:00:00 – Intro

00:03:01 – Welcome Dana

00:08:18 – The unvarnished view of data given by GA4

00:16:33 – Using custom reports and exploration tab

00:22:41 – Giving other users access to Reports

00:26:39 – PSA

00:27:25 – Reporting through Looker Studio

00:35:08 – Why knowing some UX helps

00:38:54 – Pulling other data sources together with GA data

00:44:01 – Looker studio tactics

00:53:18 – Where to contact Dana

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Reach out to Dana at Dana@kickpoint.ca

Dana on LinkedIn

Dana’s personal site

Dana built Kickpoint Playbook, which includes the course “Analytics for Agencies” – use the code FUNNELREBOOT for 20% off

GA4SPY

Supermetrics

Airbyte

TeamSimmer

GA4BigQuery



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High Impact Content Marketing, with Purna Virji

High Impact Content Marketing

Episode 187

In numerous companies, the approach to content strategy appears to be nonexistent, marked by haphazard content creation and dissemination. A notable absence of a cohesive plan to align content with overarching marketing objectives is evident, leading to a disjointed and less effective approach. In light of these challenges, it becomes imperative for companies to recognize the critical significance of implementing a robust content strategy. The upcoming discussion will delve into a methodology that not only addresses these shortcomings but also promises to elevate content creation to a level where flawlessness becomes a tangible outcome. As we navigate through the intricacies of this approach, you will discover how a well-crafted content strategy can serve as the linchpin for achieving marketing goals and fostering a more impactful and cohesive online presence.

Purna Virji is a globally recognized content strategist. She grew up in India, when her family came to the US they settled in  Philadelphia. She did her masters at Cardiff University, but returned to Philadelphia where she was a journalist and then a producer at the local TV affiliate for PBS. That experience is where She picked up expertise in creating content. She ported this communications flair into designing Pay Per Click ad campaigns for ecommerce companies and then when Microsoft’s own ads platform needed a trainer, she transitioned to working there, training both internal Microsoft teams and external groups on Microsoft ads. She went on to speak at conferences like MozCon and SMX Advanced and was ranked as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world by PPC Hero.  

She is currently the Principal Consultant for Content Solutions at LinkedIn. In 2023 she came out with the book “High Impact Content Marketing” which we’ll talk about today.  

Timestamps/Chapters:

0:00:00 – Intro

00:02:42 – Welcome Purna

00:10:32 – the AGES model

00:20:38 – PSA

00:21:46 – Practical tips for high Impact content

00:35:26 – Identifying what your audience’s needs are

00:46:41 – Where to get book; contact Purna



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Author’s COCOA model for topic ideation, reprinted with permission

Successful Change, with Susan Odle

susan odle

Episode 186

Increasingly, many Marketing teams have been forced to transform their own teams, or the Business as a whole has had to start transforming itself. 

But no matter how technically sophisticated they are, no matter how many consultants they have or how many Project management meetings they hold, most companies struggle through these transformations. At best, when transformations succeed, they leave heart-ache and sore feelings 

Most of them revert to the status quo they tried so hard to shake. Those leading the initiative end up demoralized, marginalized or downsized.

People who say they can make transformations successful are treated with skepticism. But when that someone has skills that are so multifaceted and has pulled off this feat in multiple industries, you ought to lean in & hear them out.

Susan Odle is someone whose life’s journey and heritage spans three continents. Born to Guyanese parents moved first to London England, then to Toronto, Canada where she went to high school; it happened to be the same school where I went. Anyway, she moved to Ottawa to study music at University. The musician in her has been strong from then until now, evidenced by a solo project she released in 2017.

Our paths crossed again years later when I moved to Ottawa. In the interim Susan had been holding pivotal roles in high tech firms, leading channel & direct sales, professional services, and ops which helped several to successful exits. Susan was honored In 2020 as one of the top 50 women in SaaS by the Software Report. She’s also owned several businesses as well. Currently, Susan specializes in operationalizing change through her consultancy, 8020CS. She’s taken her understanding of navigating successful change and literally wrote the book on it. “Successful Change,” was released in 2023.

Chapters & Timestamps

00:00:00 – Intro

00:02:47 – Welcome Susan

00:06:46 – The chaos that comes with transformation

00:11:50 – The 8020CS Blueprint

00:21:46 – Break change down into four dimensions

00:29:38 – PSA

00:30:32 – Moving through ‘gates’ toward successful change

00:48:59 – Overcoming resistance

00:53:45 – Susan’s coordinate and other resources



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Hosting Events that Generate Leads, with Michael Tucker

Hosting events that generate leads

Episode 185

One thing that professional services and solo subject matter experts struggle with is building an audience and influencing their purchases.

Creating a content marketing engine that achieves this can take agonizingly long – years even. But virtual events that are properly marketed seem able to shorten that timespan. 

My guest, Michael Tucker, has refined a program that develops virtual events for clients, and over the past 3 years it has accelerated post-event prospect discussions and sales success.

Graduating from Campbellsville University in Kentucky, he now calls Florida home 

Chapters/Timestamps:

0:00:00 Intro

0:01:14 Welcome Michael

0:03:44 Virtual events are good for leadgen

0:29:09 PSA

0:30:17 Running virtual event that embeds call-to-action

0:32:30 Seeding the CTA into event

0:54:50 Michael’s coordinates



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People/Products/Concepts mentioned in the show

Michael’s sites:

www.thefunnelpros.com

https://www.virtualstagesecrets.com/

Michael on Instagram

Michael on YouTube.com

Zoom

Manychat

MobileMonkey

Zapier

Slybroadcast

HighLevel

ECamm

Streamyard

Prophecies and Pleas of an Advertising Man, with Myles Younger

Myles Younger

Episode 184

You could say that the marketing field is going through exciting times right now. But you shouldn’t say that everything’s rosy. Here are examples of issues we’re grappling with:

The use of SaaS by Marketing may have freed us from being chained to the IT department, but after 25 years of binge buying all these point solutions, we’re saddled with loads of Technical debt, and the order to repatriate customer data from all these servers. 

CMOs are tasked so much with explaining technology out there, much of their time is used up by the C-Suite’s questions, leaving little time for them to manage marketing.

There’s the question of whether the agency-client relationship will survive with AI. Some say brands won’t need an agency as they will generate their own creative. Agencies like Publicis, who’ve poured huge sums into their media-platform CoreAI that monitors billions of consumer signals and can inform what ads should be made, when & where.

 Because our field doesn’t have standardized accreditation, our terminology isn’t  uniform, and we make dialects for our company or industry. How’s that working for us? About as well as it did for those building the Tower of Babel.

My guest is Myles Younger, Head of Innovation and Insights at U of Digital. Since graduating from Northeasters 20 years ago, he’s been up and down the marketing industry block. He was a client-side marketer in the tech and financial services sectors, He founded and led an adtech company, Canned Banners, that was acquired. He worked as a VP at data consultancy  MightyHive which became Media.Monks. 

He is in a new role now at U of Digital, spearheading this education thought leadership to expand the company’s educational offerings across different formats, learners, and markets 

To me, he’s something of a modern-day David Ogilvy, who wrote his thoughts on his industry back in the day, in a book called “Confessions of an Ad Man”. Myles is just as outspoken on digital media and advertising topics, and the opinions he voices in trade publications and podcasts can come across as prophecies about this industry and sometimes pleas for how it could be better. 

I caught up with him in Portland, OR, where he lives with his wife and three kids.

Timestamp/Chapters

0:00:00 Intro

0:03:25 Welcome Myles

0:04:55 Continuum of approaches to privacy

0:07:58 Our reliance on ad tech; its future

0:20:56 We can only go as fast as our people can

0:24:53 Tech debt we’ve brought on ourselves

0:31:50 PSA

0:32:37 Changes impacting platforms & ad agencies

0:42:44 Platforms exploiting advertisers in the name of Al

0:48:27 The good & bad of using their Cloud offerings

0:52:32 Best reaction is educating ourselves

1:00:00 How to reach out to Myles

 



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People/Products/Concepts mentioned in the show

Myles Younger on LinkedIn

Myles works at Uof.Digital (check out their newsletters)

Salesforce ‘no software’ campaign

Benito Mussolini

Tower of Babel

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Diverse Data Tracking Methods, with Adam Greco

Adam Greco

Episode 183

As a Disclaimer, note that there’s no sponsor or affiliate relationship with the vendor interviewed here. They’re simply on the show to give their perspective on our topic.

As trite as it sounds, the way that we look at the world affects our understanding of it. Let me tell you about a time I noticed this. When I was a kid, I would go to school, walk into my classroom, and see my teacher there. She was such a constant there, I imagined that she never left the classroom, she was a fixture of the room, part of the furniture. It’s like the teacher didn’t persist as a person who had a life outside of the classroom. So when I was out at the grocery store with my parents and I saw my teacher, not dressed in their teacher clothes, not ensconced in their teacher setting, my brain just melted. 

While this might be laughable, those of us using marketing analytics tools could be guilty of falling into the same trap. Credit for making this concept clear in not 1 but 2 great books must go to Avinash Kaushik. Think about it. According to Classic web analytics, visitors who hit our website had started  an imaginary timer that we called a web session. We imagined in this race against the clock, they were viewing a sequence of pages which ferried them to forms we used as gates. We told ourselves that the gate-crossers had completed a successful session, converting from visitors into leads or customers.

Stepping back, there are a few things wrong with this picture. Users don’t only exist inside of a session, just like the teacher didn’t only exist in the classroom—they roam about as they please. 

Today’s users aren’t confined to marketing content. The experience they have straddles our marketing sites, to sites  and apps where their identity persists through being logged-in, where the interactions even span multiple devices – as we see on Slack and Discord for messages we’ve already read.

The user’s state changes – sometimes they complete a purchase, or become a paid subscriber, but at other times they may opt for a free plan or abandon their cart. 

We need analytics for all of these actions. We need to step back and view the entire experience that people have with us over time. This is something that classic web analytics just can’t measure.

This is why the new generation of tools allows us to analyze complex trends and behavior of our users. They are collectively known as event-based analytics tools, and they excel in portraying the way that users experience a product. The foremost product-oriented analytics tool out there is called Amplitude, and today, we are speaking with its product evangelist.

Since 2021, Adam Greco has been Amplitude’s  Product Evangelist, guiding clients in understanding their tool through workshops, blogs, and videos. 

He got into this field in 2005 when he joined analytics platform Omniture where he was a customer advocate for four years until Adobe acquired them and rechristened them Adobe Analytics. He then worked at consultancies for 15 years, showing people how to get the most out of Adobe’s tool,  authoring over 200 blog posts along the way. 

Lately Adam’s speaking and advising on analytics has had him splitting his time between Chicago and Amsterdam (where he was when this was recorded). When he’s in the states and not working, he enjoys restoring and going for drives in his 62 convertible corvette. 

Timestamps/Chapters

0:00 – Intro

5:00 – Meet Adam; why event-based method works better than session-based method

24:00 – PSA

24:45 – how to get value out of recent analytics tools, including warehouse-native apps

56:20 – Adam’s coordinates and free resources

 



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People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Adam works at Amplitude

Video of Adam speaking on Warehouse-native analytics 

Connect with Adam on MeasureSlack

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Gary Angel

Google BigQuery

Snowflake Analytics

Databricks

Quantum Metric

Mixpanel

Heap

Content Square

Example of Amplitude’s event-based reporting

Voice Marketing, with Susan Westwater

Susan Westwater voice marketing

Today’s episode looks at how pervasive voice technology is, and how marketers can make better use of it. 

After spending over twenty years in marketing agencies, Susan Westwater became cofounder and CEO of Pragmatic Digital. Susan has talked and written on the role voice & conversational AI plays in marketing and business strategy. 

Susan is coauthor of Voice Strategy: Creating Useful and Usable Voice Experiences. Recently, she co-authored the book “Voice Marketing” 

Chapters & Timestamps

0:00 Intro

2:30 About Voice marketing

27:15 PSA

28:00 Susan’s process for enabling voice technology in your marketing 

59:30 Where to find Susan and the book

 

 



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People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Susan contributes to the industry site: https://voicebot.ai/

Susan’s company is Pragmatic.digital

Book can be found at VoiceMarketingbook.ai

Susan is on X and on LinkedIn

Morgan Freeman

UTM Parameter Builder

Intro was made with the help of https://ttsmaker.com/

Data For All, with John Thompson

Data for All, John thompson

Episode 181

When a person interacts with their device or goes online, who owns their data? Today’s guest says they do, and marketers should be paying them for the privilege. Right now, you might think this person wears hats made out of tinfoil. It may surprise you to learn they are the Global Head of AI at (EY) Ernst & Young, having also been an analytics executive at Gartner and CSL Behring and graduating from DePaul with an MBA. 

John Thompson has written four books. I found out about him through his 2020 book Building Analytics Teams, which led to him being a guest on this show back in 2023. He recently released his book “Data for All” which spurred this repeat appearance – which has only happened with a handful of people. 

For links to all persons and concepts mentioned, go to Ep 181’s notes page on the Funnel Reboot site.  

 



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Timestamps/Chapters

0:00 – Intro

1:39 – How we came to giving our data for free

24:55 – Public Service Announcement

25:49 – Getting paid for our data

44:26 – Getting to John & his books

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

John is on LinkedIn

John Thompson came on Funnel Reboot for episode 136

Reprinted with permission

Hello $Firstname, with Rasmus Houlind

Hello $Firstname, with Rasmus Houlind

Episode 180

 ‘1 to 1 Marketing,’  sounds wonderful. Don Peppers & Martha Rogers wrote a series of books in the 1990s called this. We have thrown all kinds of technology, content, and persona construction at it over the last 25 years. But it still eludes us. Architecting communications that converses with each person, at their own point in a conversation with our brand is hard.  Is it marketing’s job to actually have 1:1 conversations? And with  what’s at stake if we  screw up personalization, can we implement or maintain it without losing our jobs?  

Today’s guest is here to help answer that. 

Since getting his M.A. in Information Studies from Aarhus University, our guest has lived at the intersection of data and communications.

Since 2020 he has been the Chief Experience Officer at Agillic, an omnichannel marketing software, where he works primarily with large companies involved in omnichannel marketing, customer experience management, and customer lifecycle projects. 

He’s on a mission to ensure that the end user gets consistent, timely and relevant communications across channels – be it web, email, app, text, social – or even in-store. He often presents keynotes on Omnichannel Personalization and sits on the jury for that at the Danish eCommerce Awards.

His first book, written  together with Colin Shearer, was a bestseller on Omnichannel Marketing. We’re talking with him about his book “Hello $Firstname,” which came out in 2023. Joining me from Copenhagen, let’s welcome Rasmus Houlind.

Chapters & Timestamps

0:00 – Intro

2:30 – Book’s Main Theme 

37:48 – Public Service Announcement

38:41 – Quantifying the value of Personalization

1:00:25 – Rasmus Contact details

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Rasmus on LinkedIn

Rasmus works at Agillic

Book has versions available for North America & Nordics

Bowtie framework
Bowtie framework

Plato’s theory of forms (here is a YouTube video on it)

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Example in book used the Financial Times

Episode Reboot

Download a free abstract of the book