Random Analytics

Knowing the User's Every Move

From Phil Windley's Technometria regarding the WWW2006 conference

I sat through Richard Atterer’s talk on User Activity Tracking for Website Usability Evaluation and Implicit Interaction. (See the paper.)

Welcome to Avinash Kaushik

I returned from vacation to find a new web analytics weblog. Occam's Razor, by Avinash Kaushik of Intuit, was a nice "welcome home" present. He is already stirring the pot with thought-provoking posts. I still have sooo much to learn.

From my vantage point here at the end of the alphabet, it seems fitting that I'm the last in the industry to welcome him.

Web Analytics Wednesday - Sunnyvale, CA

As a WebTrends user, I'm amused to receive reminders about Web Analytics Wednesday from the local WebSideStory account exec. Too bad he could not attend tonight, because I mentioned several issues with WebTrends Enterprise 7.5. Also mentioned problems with the data warehouse of former WebTrends Intelligence Suite which forced me to stop using it.

One attendee has a client upgrading from WebTrends 7 to WebTrends Analytics 8. Be my guest ... I'll wait. Based on past broken promises about features, and current product issues with WebTrends Enterprise 7.5, I will not consider WebTrends Analytics 8 until next year. Want to help your web analytics vendor troubleshoot their newest "production" release? Again? Been there. Done that. Have the scars to prove it.

Another attendee mentioned receiving demo of latest from Visual Sciences. Would not provide details, but said the demo was truly awesome.

Maybe the next meeting won't be in such a noisy location; I could hardly hear the folks at our table.

Web Analytics: The Delayed Conversion Concept, Part 1

From Jason Burby at ClickZ and ZAAZ

Recently, I've received questions about conversions that start online but ultimately occur offline at a later date. We refer to this as a "delayed conversion," and it's a great area of focus for many organizations.

Understanding the full cycle of a delayed conversion is imperative. Too often, only the initial, on-site portion of the conversion is measured. That only tells a small fraction of the story. Delayed conversions are actually quite common and span all different industries and site types. I'll focus on three examples, but the applications are endless.

Five Quick Tests to Raise Ecommerce Sales by 5% in Just 6 Weeks

Read the article free for 10 days at MarketingSherpa.

What do you do when you have this great analytics package but you’re not looking through half -- make that a fifth -- of the data you get back. Well, at least you know you’re in the same boat as everyone else.

Brad Wolensky, Orvis' Director of Ecommerce, yearned to be able to hire more Web analysis marketing staff to really take advantage of the site's data.  But first, he had to prove to upper management that extra salaries would be more than amply covered by corresponding bump in revenues. 

Discover how he launched a low-cost, high-impact test project, and proved his case so well that after six weeks he got the green light to hire not one but three more staffers.

Branding Versus Direct Response: Sound Familiar?

From Shane Atchison at ClickZ

In many conversations, marketing executives tell me their higher-level online goals are leveraging the Web to create unique brand experiences and generating brand loyalty.

Yet when I compare those conversations to topics presented by Web analytics experts, the focus still tends to be on direct response metrics: click-through, conversion, direct leads, direct revenue, and immediate return on marketing investment.

Is there too much focus on the Web as a direct response channel? What about the Web's long-term value to an organization's brand? Customer satisfaction? Overall business?

The Right Tool for the Right Job

From Neil Mason at ClickZ

When we discuss analyzing Web site data, we tend to think about doing it with a Web analytics tool. Last time, I described my perfect Web analytics system as allowing me to have fast, reliable access to my core data on the site and to easily and cheaply access and extract the data in different formats. Then I'd be able to analyze the data in different tools if I wanted to. [...] I saw an example of this recently with a global media company client. It wants to be able measure and report on the hundreds of sites it manages across the world. Typically in a situation like this, there are potential tensions between a need for a high-level view of key metrics across all sites and the local need for depth and detail on a small number of sites...

Startup launches Web analytics for salespeople

From China Martens at InfoWorld

Web analytics startup Genius debuted on Monday a service that aims to provide salespeople with insight into prospective customers' online behavior.

Genius, with its first product, joins a crowded field of companies aiming to fill perceived gaps in current sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Jim Sterne - web analytics newsletter

The latest web analytics newsletter Sterne Measures is now available from Jim Sterne. Subscribe at www.emetrics.org/SterneMeasures.html. Among other things, Jim discussed the latest emetrics summit:

Yes, it went from the divine to the ridiculous (see #2 below) and there is more coverage at blogs such as:

• http://instantcognition.blogspot.com/
• http://blog.keyes.us/index.php
• http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/
• and, of course
• http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog