Web Analytics, Behavioral Targeting and Optimization by Anil Batra. I am a big believer in targeting and personalization and have written extensively about it in this blog. However, targeting and personalization is not “set it and forget it” strategy. It needs to be continually tested to make sure that it is working and driving value. Sometimes you have to test and see if “no-personalization” will yield better results than personalization. To make my point, let’s take an example: I get a weekly promotional email from a prominent marketing company. They personalize the email subject line (good so far).
How [XYZ Company] Should Kickoff New Clients Ensure that [XYZ Company] delivers great PPC campaignThe rules of online branding that [XYZ Company] needs to know Note: Instead of [XYZ Company] they use the name of the company I used to work with. However there is an issue with the way they do personalization. The issue is that they use the name of the company I USED TO WORK FOR. This is a perfect example of why personalization fails. Creating a Culture of Web Analytics. All those who have worked at companies which never used or do not use web analytics to make decisions about site changes, know how difficult it is to create a culture of web analytics. It is very hard. Building a culture of web analytics is a grueling uphill task.
After working with various client I have found that reasons for not using web analytics vary from company to company, some of the common ones are:Gut feel has always worked or at least it seems like it has workedIt is an additional step in the process New skills are required to use web analytics. Here are few things you need to do before jumping into KPIs Identify various stakeholders, who could benefit from web analytics, in the company.
You don’t have to have a comprehensive list of every person but some that you think could immediately benefit and you can immediately help is also a good list to start withGet a meeting with them, individually or grouped together in groups based on their roles/departments etc. Common Web Analytics Issues. Having frequently been involved with the web analytics process I have noticed some consistent issues with web analytics both from an agency and in house perspective. I am not talking about data quality or even vendor selection, I am talking about how web analytics strategically fits in within an organization. Analytics is not a priority: In many cases web analytics is often an afterthought and is not implemented during a site launch or during a sponsored/email campaign.
Web Analytics needs to be given more priority and should be thought of before any marketing campaigns are implemented so that you can actually quantify the amount of dollars you budgeted and spent for the marketing. The right stakeholders are not getting the right data: If the same dashboard is given to every person involved with your online strategy then you're not allowing them to make informed business decisions which affect their part of the overall plan. 5 Big Issues in an Organization's Analytics Process. In organizations where priorities are constantly changing and everyone has a very tight deadline, there are many issues surrounding web analytics that can arise.
I will mention some of these issues in a moment but the key to web analytics in a corporate culture is evangelizing it. Getting as many key stake holders trained on its usefulness and getting them to understand the importance of web analytics has become a necessity in order for web analytics to receive any type of priority. As an analyst, the more people you can get on your side the more you can push things like testing, deep dives, best practices and the importance of tagging. But, without further ado, here are some major pains for web analytics in a corporate culture: Web Analytics is the last thing on people's minds.
Manoj has been in the Digital marketing industry for over 10 years with experience at some of Canada's largest companies: WestJet and Shaw Communications. Become a better Analyst with these 5 Skills. If you are looking for a career in web analytics and want to establish a solid foundation of skills as a part of your overall analytics training, then I recommend adding the skills below to your tool-set to help you become a very well rounded analyst before you enter the field. Taking a course on web analytics, reading a book on web analytics or subscribing to a web analytics blog are a good start, but frankly, are not good enough by themselves. Search Marketing: I always think of Web Analytics as a tool to help your search marketing strategy. Without an understanding of the different strategies that your business is implementing, how do you know what to measure. Paid Search, SEO, Email Marketing, Social Media, Press Releases, and Textual content are all different segments that web analytics should integrate with.
Manoj has been in the Digital marketing industry for over 10 years with experience at some of Canada's largest companies: WestJet and Shaw Communications. The Top 5 Web Analytics Problems. A great deal has been said and written about the good, the bad and the ugly of web analytics. Here, I'm going to boil the debate into five of the biggest challenges we face as we implement analytics tools and the ways that we can deal with them. 1. Overselling and under-deliveringYour problems start when a slick sales person from a web analytics company sells you the solution to end all solutions and you buy into it without considering the practicalities of implementation and adoption.
This sets you up for disappointment from the start. Even worse, your enthusiasm for the solution may have led you to sell the tool to your boss and colleagues as the answer for all online marketing woes. Now you've sold the solution so hard, your boss and the rest of the company have completely unrealistic expectations of it. To top it off, your boss may know even less about online analytics than you, but was led astray by the same sales person and your support for the tool. 2. 4. 5.
Search analytics. Search analytics is the analysis and aggregation of search engine statistics for use in search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). In other words, search analytics helps website owners understand and improve their performance on search engines. Search analytics includes search volume trends and analysis, reverse searching (entering websites to see their keywords), keyword monitoring, search result and advertisement history, advertisement spending statistics, website comparisons, affiliate marketing statistics, multivariate ad testing, et al.
Services[edit] Last updated: 2013-007-07 Data collection[edit] Search analytics data can be collected in several ways. Since search results, especially advertisements, differ depending on where you are searching from, data collection methods have to account for geographic location. Accuracy[edit] Search analytics accuracy depends on service being used, data collection method, and data freshness. Market conditions[edit] Web analytics.
Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns. It helps one to estimate how traffic to a website changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views. It helps gauge traffic and popularity trends which is useful for market research. There are two categories of web analytics; off-site and on-site web analytics. Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis regardless of whether you own or maintain a website.
It includes the measurement of a website's potential audience (opportunity), share of voice (visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening on the Internet as a whole. Web server logfile analysis[edit] Digital marketing. Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices (computers) such as personal computers, smartphones, cellphones, tablets and game consoles to engage with stakeholders. Digital marketing applies technologies or platforms such as websites, e-mail, apps (classic and mobile) and social networks. Social Media Marketing is a component of digital marketing. Many organisations use a combination of traditional and digital marketing channels. History[edit] The term 'digital marketing' was first used in the 1990s.[1] In the 2000s and the 2010s, digital marketing became more sophisticated as an effective way to create a relationship with the consumer that has depth and relevance.[2] In 2012 and 2013 statistics showed digital marketing remained a growing field.[3][4] Digital marketing is often referred to as 'online marketing' or 'internet marketing'.
Types of digital marketing[edit] Two different forms of digital marketing exist:[citation needed] Multi-Channel Communications[edit]