Patent Document

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/496,920, filed Jun. 14, 2011, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for any purpose. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The invention relates generally to filtering tools and systems that allow businesses to organize, consolidate and label visitor web log data for the purpose of accurately automating updates to visitors&#39; quality scores and/or automate targeted electronic and direct mail to web site visitors. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Various web visitor tracking services, such as Google Analytics, provide Users with reports on website visit activity to URLs for the purpose of providing web traffic insights to marketers. However, these tools do not provide sufficient filtering mechanisms that organize, consolidate and label visitor activity for the purpose of automating updates to lead quality scores and/or automating marketing communications when visits to the URLs are logged. Without this approach, marketers are unable to reliably use web visit activity to increment visitor quality scores and/or trigger communications with precision and therefore unable to take advantage of cost and productivity efficiencies of sales and marketing automation. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0004]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary network diagram system. 
           [0005]      FIG. 2  illustrates the process of assigning a Link Name to a web visit and triggering a lead score update action based on a visit to that link name. 
           [0006]      FIG. 3  illustrates a flow chart of how the invention is used to setup triggered marketing communications and increment lead scores. 
           [0007]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flow chart of how the invention is used to process a visit into a link name and trigger an action. 
           [0008]      FIG. 5  illustrates a screen shot diagram demonstrating execution of a workflow automation wizard according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 6  illustrates a screen shot of where a User may specify that a Link Filter  610  and Link Name  620  may be used to trigger actions 
           [0010]      FIG. 7  illustrates a screen shot of where a User may specify a Link Name, Group/Page Type, and Lead Score increment value. 
           [0011]      FIG. 8  illustrates a flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0012]    Embodiments of the invention relate to the positive effects of applying filters to tightly organize and label web visit log data as a necessity to automating communications and incrementing lead and prospect quality scores based visits to User websites. 
         [0013]    Real Time URL Unification (RTUU) is the process of automatically combining a multitude of redundant URL instances that occur from web logging into a single easily understood Link Name and assigning them to a category. Redundant URLs commonly occur in web logs due to application of tracking codes or other information appended to linking URL&#39;s syntax. 
         [0014]    RTUU is achieved with a filtering tool. The work of unifying URLs into a Link Name, Page Type, and quality score is used by a connected Marketing Automation system that allows businesses to automatically send email, direct mail, sales alerts and increment quality scores based on web visit profiles. 
         [0015]    Marketing Automation relies heavily on Real Time URL Unification because the redundant instances of URLs that occur in visitor tracking and web logging cause automation execution orders to be missed. 
         [0016]    For example, if a Business User wants to automatically trigger a direct mail piece to be sent to a Visitor to “www.mybusiness.com/products”, the trigger will be missed if the Visitor&#39;s visit to the page is tracked and logged as “www.mybusiness.com/products&amp;k87”. 
         [0017]    With RTUU, the Business User applies a rule that specifies any tracked URL containing “www.mybusiness.com/products” be logged and assigned a Link Name “Products”. What&#39;s more, they can categorize Link Names under a Page Type and further specify the quality score of visitors to Page Types be incremented or decremented. The visit activity of that individual is automatically stored to their web activity record. 
         [0018]    The capability to assign Link Names and Page Types give the Business Users full assurance that the automation triggers they set, such as sending email, direct mail, sales alerts, and incrementing lead scores when a particular web page is visited, will not be missed. This results in improved business performance. For example, emails that are triggered based on visitor actions can be over 100% more effective than emails that are sent as part of a general non-triggered broadcast. What&#39;s more, businesses save on resources when not having to manually compile segmented lists of individuals who meet preferred behavior profiles and broadcast to those lists. With regard to direct mail, Users of this system can automatically order direct mail advertisements to be produced and sent to any qualifying visitor without the expense of minimum print runs and manual labor associated with tracking what visitors should receive the direct mail and processing the individual pieces for mailing. 
         [0019]    Example Use Case 
         [0020]    Luxury Real Estate, Inc. in New York, N.Y. may wish to send a 12 page color brochure to individuals that visit a web page featuring Luxury Rentals and increase the individual&#39;s quality score, for example, by 300 points. The web page is located at the URL www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals. 
         [0021]    By sending a brochure quickly after a visit to a Luxury Rentals page, Luxury Real Estate may be able to make a positive impression on the individual. And by maintaining a quality score for the individual, Luxury Real Estate may be able to trigger multiple other actions, such as sending an alert to a sales agent and sending an email to the individual requesting an appointment. 
         [0022]    Luxury Real Estate may advertise Luxury Rentals it offers by purchasing keywords on Google and affiliate networks. The company tracks which traffic sources work best by providing each source a “tracking code” that is added to the end of linking URLs. The results of applying a tracking codes to linking URLs and having multiple sources of visitor traffic to www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals may cause many different instances of the page www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals to occur in web logs. 
         [0023]    For example, the web visits they see in their logs are www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals?pmc=123 and www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals?pmc=345. 
         [0024]    The consequence may be that Luxury Real Estate&#39;s marketing team cannot ensure that all visitors to www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals will be sent a brochure because if they set an automation rule to “send brochure to a visitor to www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals” a visitor who&#39;s visit is logged as www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals?pmc=123 may not be recognized as visiting “www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals”. 
         [0025]    To address this problem the company may access a marketing automation solution that is equipped with the invention via the Internet and applies a Link Filter to apply a Link Name to the page www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals. The filter enables allow Luxury Real Estate to assign all visits to that page, regardless of source and URL syntax, to a single Link Name. What&#39;s more, they can assign that Link Name to a Page Type and increment quality scores for individuals who visit pages assigned the Page Type. 
         [0026]    The Luxury Real Estate User applies a Link Filter that assigns all visits to any page containing “/luxuryrentals” to the Link Name “Luxury Rentals”. And, they use the Link Filter to further specify that a visit to any pages with the Link Name “Luxury Rentals” be categorized as a “High Value” Page Type and that an individual who visits a “High Value” page have their score incremented by 300. The Score increase will bring the score for that individual to greater than 200, which may be a trigger point for sending an automated email to individuals that invite them to tour properties. In addition, the sales agent assigned to the individual may automatically be sent an alert that the tour request email has been sent and instructs him to call the individual. 
         [0027]    Positive Commercial Impact of Real Time URL Unification, Scoring, and Marketing Automation 
         [0028]    The result of filtering is that all visitors who visit the Luxury Rentals web page will have their visit logged and stored as having visited the Link Name “Luxury Rentals”. Therefore the marketing team is assured any visit that&#39;s logged as a permutation of the www.luxuryrealestate.com/luxuryrentals will be associated with the “Luxury Rentals” Link Name and will not be missed by rules specified in their automation. 
         [0029]    This in turn assures the marketers that the quality score of the individual visitor will incremented, an email requesting a tour request will be sent, and a brochure will be sent. 
         [0030]    Certain details are set forth below to provide a sufficient understanding of embodiments of the invention. However, it will be clear to one having skill in the art that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these particular details. Moreover, the particular embodiments of the present invention described herein are provided by way of example and should not be used to limit the scope of the invention to these particular embodiments. In other instances, well-known hardware and/or software operations have not been shown in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. 
         [0031]    The block diagram of  FIG. 1  provides a high level system architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0032]    The server  120  may include one or more processing units  121  and computer readable media  130 ,  150 . Herein, the term computer readable media is used to refer to a single computer readable medium in some embodiments, and in other embodiments multiple computer readable media in communication with one or more processing units, such as the one or more processing units  121 . The computer readable media  130  may be configured to store executable instructions for a data analysis and write model  121  (hereinafter “write model”) and executable for a mailing, emailing, sms, or lead score increment request engine  124  (hereinafter “request engine”). The executable instructions for a data analysis and write module  121  may include instructions for identifying a visitor, determining what User table  152  and visitor profile  154  to write visit activity data to, and whether identification data corresponding to a visitor meets certain criteria, further examples of which are provided below. 
         [0033]    Although the executable instructions for the data analysis and write module  122  and the executable instructions for the mailing, emailing, sms, and lead score increment engine  124  are shown on a same computer readable media  130 , in some embodiments any or all sets of instructions may be provided on multiple computer readable media, and may not be resident on the same media. Computer readable media herein may include any form of computer readable storage or computer readable memory, including but not limited to externally or internally attached hard disk drives, solid-state storage (such as NAND flash or NOR flash media), tiered storage solutions, storage area networks, networked attached storage, and/or optical storage. 
         [0034]    A User  106  may access the write model by logging into an application executing on the server  120 . The User  106  may, for example, access the application through the TCP/IP network  110 . In at least one embodiment, the TCP/IP network  110  may comprise the Internet. Moreover, the client may include a graphical user interface, such as a PC running a web browser  107 . 
         [0035]    Embodiments of the present invention relate to a URL consolidation, organization and labeling functions whereby a User may use the write model to enter and store instructions  134 , in order to create a single labeled representation  135 , and/or assign a group  136 , and/or increment/decrement lead quality score values  137  of multiple redundant URL web log entries  132  stored on computer readable media  130 . 
         [0036]    When a web visitor  105  visits a User&#39;s website  170  and/or web page  171  containing a behavior tracking code  172  through the Internet  110  using a client that may include a graphical user interface such as a PC running a web browser  107 , to the write model may log the visit into storage  132 , then apply the rules created and/or stored in the write model. The write model may further query stored instructions  134  to analyze, label and write the visit information to the visitors profile  154  in the appropriate User table  152  of the database  150 . 
         [0037]    The block diagram  200  of  FIG. 2  provides a high-level architecture of an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure for creating URL unification, normalization and scoring instructions that may, for instance, be used to implement the instructions of  134  and/or  135  and/or  136  and/or  137  of  FIG. 1 . 
         [0038]    The User  210  logs into a web application  221 , for example, through the TCP/IP network  205 . The client may include a graphical user interface, such as a PC running a web browser  211 . The User navigates to a Link Filter Wizard  230  and chooses to add a new filter  232 . The web application  221  has the User&#39;s login session stored in running memory  260  and will write ensuing instructions to the Users account  250 . 
         [0039]    The User  210  may then enter text for a Link Name  236 , Group  238 , Score Value  240 , and Filter Criteria  242 . 
         [0040]    Per the aforementioned example, if the User  210  wanted to consolidate and label web log visits to a Luxury Rental web page  271  on his website  270  and containing a web tracking snippet  272 , the user  210  would enter Link Name  236  “Luxury Real Estate” then assign a visit to that Link Name to a Group  238  “High Value Visit” apply a Lead Score Value  240  of “500” and then set Filter Criteria  242  to be “any URL” “containing” “luxury rentals”. The User  210  may click a save link  244  and the criteria set in the Link Filter Wizard  230  is written into storage  250 . 
         [0041]    If the User  210  wishes to edit the setting created in the Link Filter Wizard  230 , he may do so by clicking a Link Name  236  that is displayed and choose to Edit  246 . This enables the User  210  to modify settings  236 ,  238   240 ,  242  previously applied. Upon completing the edit, the User  210  clicks a save link to write the new instructions into storage  250 . 
         [0042]    The block diagram of  FIG. 3  provides a high-level system architecture for applying URL unification and normalization to automate marketing communication and increment lead scores using a Workflow Automation engine  315 . 
         [0043]    The User  350  logs into a web application  311  through the TCP/IP network  301 . The client may include a graphical user interface, such as a PC running a web browser  351 . The User  350  then accesses a Workflow Automation engine  315 . The web application  311  has the User&#39;s login session stored in running memory  370  and will write ensuing automation instructions for that User&#39;s account  371  in on a machine readable drive dedicated to storing the automation instructions  385 . 
         [0044]    The User  350  may specify the number of action steps in an automation routine  320 , and further may specify a link name  325  for when actions, such as sending email from an email delivery engine  386  and/or ordering production and postage of a direct mailing from a print and post partner  390 , should be triggered for delivery to a member  355  stored in the Users  350  database  370 . 
         [0045]    For example, the criteria may be to trigger a Luxury Real Estate direct mail piece to a member  355  who made a web visit through a TCP/IP Network  301  to the User&#39;s web page  365  on the User&#39;s website  360  and has an assigned link name “Luxury Real Estate”  365 . 
         [0046]    During the process of creating the automation flow, the User  350  chooses from an assortment of actions  331  to take when link name visit criteria  325  is met. These actions include send email  332  and/or direct mail  333  and/or update lead score  334 . 
         [0047]    The User  350  will save the workflow  340  and click a “play” icon to activate the Workflow rules and automation. 
         [0048]    When a visitor  355  visits a “Luxury Real Estate” page  365  which contains a web tracking snippet  366 , the web tracking engine logs the visit and run a query against the URL Filter Criteria  380  that&#39;s held in machine readable memory and will write the visit to the visitor&#39;s  355  record  356  in the database  370 . After the visit is recorded in the visitor&#39;s record, the Workflow Automaton engine  315  will query the automation rules  385  to determine if an automated action should be executed against the vistor&#39;s  355  web visit activity. If there is a rule to send a direct mail piece  333  to the individual  355  stored in the User automation instructions  385 , the system will trigger an order  333  to a print and post vendor  390  to print and post the mail piece. The direct mail order  333  instruction includes contact information of the individual  355 , a catalog number to identify which piece to print, and any variable data about the individual  355  that should be printed on the direct mail piece. 
         [0049]    The flow chart diagram  400  in  FIG. 4  provides a method for creating URL unification, normalization and scoring instructions and using rules to trigger lead score updates and/or generate automated direct mailings according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0050]    The system receives a log file  405  then makes a query to determine if the logged URL matches a link filter rule. If not, the process ends. If there is a match with a link filter rule  410 , the system writes the visit activity to that Link Name page to the visitor record  410 . The system will also write the page type visited to the visitor&#39;s record  415 . The system then updates the visitors lead score  420 . They system then makes a query to determine if a visit matching that link name is set to trigger an automated mailing  430 . 
         [0051]    The screen shot diagram  500  shown in  FIG. 5  is a screen shot of execution of a workflow automation wizard according to an embodiment of the present invention. Users of the system may choose if they will send email  501  and/or increment lead scores  502  and/or send direct mail  503  when criteria are met. The user can specify when the email action  506  and/or direct mail order  507  will be triggered. The user elects to create and apply an Advanced Filter  505  to specify a link name as provided in diagram  600  in  FIG. 6 . When the User has completed the workflow setup, he clicks a play button  510  to activate the workflow for ongoing processing of queries with web site visits. 
         [0052]    The screen shot diagram  600  shown in  FIG. 6  is a screen shot of where a User specifies that a Link Filter  610  and Link Name  620  be used to trigger actions specified in diagram  500  in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0053]    The screen shot diagram  700  in  FIG. 7  provides a screen shot of where a User specifies Link Name  701 , then Group/Page Type  702 , then Lead Score increment value  703 . The assignment rules are setup by using a comparison operator/match type  705  that will be used to compare the syntax of the URL written in the web log to the text provided at  710 . If the combined setting rule of  705  and  710  are met, then the visit will be labeled according to the instruction in  701 , assigned to the group specified at  702 , and the lead score of the member/visitor will increment by the value provided  703 . A summary of current Link Filters is provided to the User  715  for review and editing  720 . 
         [0054]      FIG. 8  illustrates a flow diagram  800  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The intention is to provide further context and how embodiments of the invention may be applied in broad marketing context. 
         [0055]    From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.

Technology Category: g