Random Analytics

Reality Marketing, Part 1: Letter From the CMO

From Shane Atchison at ClickZ

Who needs reality TV when you work in marketing? In today's ever-changing landscape, there are plenty of real-life challenges to overcome: Which new technologies do you pursue? How do you keep up on all the latest trends and opportunities? Where do you place your bets with your marketing budget? How do you raise the bar on accountability?

Defining and Using Segmentation, Part 1

From Neil Mason at ClickZ

"Segmentation" is a word that quite often means different things to different people. It's all the rage in Web analytics. Everybody's doing it, and all the Web analytic tools offer it. But what is it, what does it mean, and how can it be used?

Web Analytics: Forecasting the Impact of Change

From Jason Burby at ClickZ

Part of prioritizing opportunities is forecasting how much you can increase or lower a metric. I'm often asked, "How can I determine potential lift so I can prioritize opportunities based on the greatest impact to my business?"

Before you can forecast the lift, however, you must assign a value to the desired site behavior.

Omniture Improves Flash Application Measurement Tools

From Kevin Newcomb at ClickZ

A new tool from Web analytics vendor Omniture promises to improve analytics for ... Flash, Flex and AJAX. Omniture and its competitors have been able to track Flash interaction with JavaScript for years. ... Omniture ActionSource provides native support for ActionScript, the programming language for Flash, Flex and AJAX. That means developers no longer need to worry about developing extra scripts to enable analytics, and it eliminates performance bottlenecks and interaction points where inaccuracies can be introduced, according to Greg Dowling, senior analyst at Jupiter Research.

Web Analytics Reading

The sidebar now includes links to noted web analytics authors. You'll learn more from them than you will from me. Those people are smart. This author? Not so much.

I'm still adding folks to my Bloglines and Radio UserLand RSS readers, so the list here isn't complete yet. My thanks to those of you who link here. I haven't written much of my own content due to other demands. Don't know how the rest of you find the time, but thanks for sharing. I hope to contribute more. Any day now. Really.

Avoiding the Most Common Web Analytics Pitfalls

Shane Atchison's latest column ClickZ lists these pitfalls:

• Goals and Metrics Aren't Clearly Defined
• There's Lack of Analysis Standards Across the Organization
• Data Are Inaccurate and Staff Doesn't Trust It
• Staff Is Overwhelmed With Too Many Reports
• You're Uncertain of Site Changes' Financial Impact
• You Have Trouble Analyzing the Data to Draw Valuable Insights
• You're Unsure How to Take Action on the Data

His column includes recommendations, of course. You can also visit Shane at ZAAZ.

The Next Generation of Web Analytics

You could just read Xavier Casanova's ClickZ article. What you should do is read his Coffee, Sun & Technology weblog regularly.

How to Get 35.8% More Downloads From Your Landing Page

From MarketingSherpa

If you're trying to get business execs to download a desktop application or perhaps some trial software from your landing page, check out the *great* multivariate test results in this Case Study.

Other neat results -- should you give people who clicked on your ads but didn't convert in the past, a different offer the next time they clickthrough?

Monster's raised revenues 200% in the past two years by testing online ads and landing pages targeting employers. Here are their biggest lessons learned.