2006 heralded a step change in the web analytics market. Now businesses with an online presence wishing to succeed in this rapidly changing world are welcoming the next evolution in marketing analytics, says Conrad Bennett...

By Conrad Bennett, Technical Services Director, WebTrends

[Register and post your own comments on this article below...]

2006 heralded a step change in the web analytics market. Businesses with an online presence wishing to succeed in this rapidly changing world are welcoming the next evolution in marketing analytics.

By combining the science of online optimisation with the creative art of marketing, they have realised that you can not only prove but also dramatically improve your marketing results.

As more and more businesses bolster their web presence, analysing web visitor behaviour is crucial. No longer is web analytics purely about number crunching for backroom IT dwellers, but a vital tool in analysing business trends and stats for senior management.

CEOs have woken up to the fact that they have to be involved in their marketing campaigns and become more marketing-savvy. As a result they are embracing advanced marketing measurement and web analytics as an indication of organisational performance.

Web analytics comes of age

This move beyond conventional web analytics has been coined Marketing Performance Management and matured to meet the growing requirement to identify what customers want in order to deliver the right messages at the right time. Of course the web is key in bringing this change about, allowing businesses to measure all of those fragmented media channels, quantify the results of your marketing campaigns to the whole organisation and target messages to customers effectively.

Marketers are now calling for a total system of measurement, with the web as the hub. They face a myriad of challenges in today’s competitive marketplace and are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate the success of their campaigns. However Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have remained inconsistent, despite the fact that more and more organisations are embracing them as a means to measure the strength of their business.

Consistent KPIs mean streamlined operations, increased customer lifetime value, and reduced business costs. However different teams are receiving different information from different systems, that measure campaigns differently, which is where the route of the problem lies.

Time for web analytics 2.0?

In this respect data is left languishing in silos. And with so many campaigns to try and keep track of, from search to email to advertising, the amount of data can become overwhelming to a frazzled marketing exec with a hundred actions on the to-do list.

Couple this with the continued explosion in the breadth of media opportunities and new and exciting ways to reach consumers through the net, and the problem can only be exacerbated. If everyone in an organisation is measuring marketing campaigns with opposing and uncoordinated systems, valuable insights will continue to fall by the wayside.

"Intention marketing"?

Another issue that has brought about this change in the market is poor targeting of campaigns. Sending a one-size fits all message simply doesn’t provide the results it once did. In order to create marketing campaigns that resonate, it is imperative to understand the intent of customers and tailor the message to it. This is a key aspect of relationship marketing - and a powerful benefit of communicating with the web as the hub.

Marketing departments must now begin to provide metrics and demonstrate accountability – just like their peers in other departments. A recent survey by WebTrends revealed that over 56 per cent of marketing executives stated that the web was either the hub of their organisation’s marketing strategy, or that it would become the hub in the next year.

As online marketing is rapidly maturing, businesses must ensure their web analytics keep-up with their online campaigns. In particular there is a real need for organisations to recognise the importance of web analytics within every part of their marketing spend.

Integrated marketing still the exception...

Not only has online marketing needed to take a more sophisticated approach in measuring visitor behaviour and accountability, but also it must be more closely integrated with offline marketing activity. A recent survey compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that an integrated online and offline marketing strategy remains the exception rather than the rule. 52 per cent of executives admitted that online and offline marketing efforts either run in parallel or are not integrated at all.

A 360-degree approach to customer data analysis can provide a business with a complete insight into the online behaviour of customers and is vital in ensuring that both existing and potential customers can be targeted more explicitly.

Benefits of web intelligence

Measuring and tracking online marketing performance is key to ensure only the most effective, profitable and loyalty-building marketing activities are executed. As CEOs embrace Marketing Performance Management as an indication of organisational success, marketing teams are being held accountable for creating ‘web-smart’ campaigns that optimise online marketing spend and campaign elements to generate the maximum number of sales leads.

The next generation of web analytics is here, with tailored solutions that meet the needs and objectives of a variety of members from the marketing team - not just the technical guys sitting in the basement.

About the Author
WebTrends Inc. is the global leader in web analytics, working with big brands to understand visitor behaviour on their websites and track the success of marketing campaigns. Conrad Bennett, Technical Services Director, heads up the technical services team, having joined WebTrends in 2003. www.webtrends.com