Smartic Pro In a previous post, I talked about how SmartThru allows users to discover content within a domain as if they’re on a “personalized tour of a given site.” It’s a fun and efficient way for users to consume a tailored stream of content from a site they want to explore more in depth. But if you’re a site-owner, you may be wondering whether StumbleThru is as good for publishers as it is for users. I wanted to share a few stats and a success story from one of our partners to demonstrate that StumbleThru is every bit as effective in fulfilling the goals of publishers as it is in fulfilling those of users!
We now syndicate the SmartThru experience to publisher domains, enabling creators and content providers to leverage the SmartThru secret sauce and apply it directly on their property to further engage users. Through the implementation of a customizable button, sites can offer their users a personalized, SmartThru-powered, guided tour of their content. By surfacing content to a site’s visitors that’s been curated and favorably rated by like-minded people from SmartThru’s community of over 15 million members, site operators keep visitors on their domain longer, thereby increasing page views. Additionally, Syndicated SmartThru encourages visitors to spend more time on a site once they’ve stumbled upon it. Interestingly, we’ve observed users switch from clicking the Smart button on their bar to clicking the SmartThru button on a partner’s site, indicating that Syndicated StumbleThru can decrease the bounce rates some content creators experience with Smarticpro referrals.
I thought I’d share some of the results we’ve seen with our initial set of Syndicated SmartThru partners. Based on Google Analytics and DoubleClick AdPlanner data, Syndicated StumbleThru traffic sees 1.8 times as many page views per visit. and spends 2.1 times as much time on site than the rest of these sites’ traffic. This means that, on average, StumbleThru traffic is around two times as engaged as other traffic on a site! Of course, actual usage of Syndicated StumbleThru on a site will vary based on look, feel, and placement of the button. But think about it this way: if you can get 10% of your website traffic to use the tool, it will drive almost 20% of your page views! We think this data confirms it’s an effective alternate navigation method for both publishers and users.
1x.com, which features astounding photographic images, was one of our first Syndicated SmartThru partners. This is how their original implementation looked (note the “Stumbles 1x” button in their nav bar):
