Do You Know Your Numbers: The Whats and the Whys of Analytic Data
No, I am not talking about your Social Security Number or your telephone numbers. I am talking about your Web Analytics. What numbers are important and what are the keys to understanding your site and its visitors.
I will give you a brief overview below but I would encourage you to get into the habit of reading the blogs of the masters in this field and the books that they have published . My first and foremost leader and teacher is Avinash Kaushik author of the blog Occam’s Razor and books under the Sybex imprint, Web Analytics in an Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0 The Art of Online Accountability & The Science of Customer Centricity. To get a scan view of the best analytics blogs subscribe to Alltop’s Top Web Analytics which might be like asking you to sip from a firehose.
The others I would encourage you to follow are Bryan Eisenberg and Mitch Joel Eisenberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller Call to Action and co-author of a/b always be testing- The Complete Guide to Website Optimizer. Mitch Joel, a prominent thought leader in digital marketing is the author of the book Six Pixels of Separation :Everyone is Connected Connect Your Business to Everyone. He also has a podcast with the same name where the “cool guys” like Chris Brogan, Julien Smith,CC Chapman,Mitch and others do sort of a weekly call “Media Hacks” as well as a number of interviews. I include Joel who is not an analytics maven but who is very very good at the insights and creative dimension of the Why? side of Web 2.0 and who Google calls in to consult on marketing.
I describe analytics in two camps the What Has happened and the Why It Did and What You Can Do About It. The former being more quantitative and the latter qualitative.
There are a number of tools you can use that are free for the quantitative view.
If your site has a Cpanel installation you can use Awstats . It provides counts on who has visited,where did they come from, what kind of browser did they use,what kind of operating system, what search engine bots have visited and a lot of other specific data.
You can place Google Analytics Code, Clicky Code Code on your site for more detailed analysis at no cost. Both tools have reporting interfaces that are customizable to your needs.
For the qualitative side Google’s free Website Optimizer Tool allows you to to a variety of tests on the landing pages and content you have placed. You can do simple A/B testing, where you test two variations of content, for example changing the content of a headline or the colour of the type separately to find what converts better . You can do multivariate testing also on various variables and variations and see and test them to maximize your returns. The video below explains it’s use for you:
The 4Q tool by iperceptions is a free tool which provides you answers directly from your users and their experience with your site. This can yield valuable Voice of the Customer Information and your users can rate their experience. See below as Avinash Kaushik introduces it to you.
Filed under analytics, Web Conversion Testing by 
Power Friending is reviewed by ReadItforme Channel on You Tube:Business Book Summaries
“To find more out about these Business Book Summaries and ReadItFor.Me Channel go to: Polar Unlimited and visit Steve Cunningham.
If you like this idea check out this great offer they have for ReadItFor Me Pro ”
I came across the above video in my daily scans. It is a book trailer on You Tube Channel by ReadItFor.Me, a digital review and book summary site by the Burlington based digital media agency Polar Unlimited for my friend AmberMac and her new book Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business
These guys are specialists at Digital marketing and it shows and is instructive to all you internet marketers and authors out there . So why do I think that ? Let’s look at it above, then on their site
1. I can have all my senses stimulated at the same time by watching the cute You Tube Video show in that I see it, I hear the music and the visuals are captivating almost as obviously as Amber Mac and the book.
2. It tells me the story of the book in a scintillating way that is not commercial but very entertaining.
3. It then makes me curious about who has made this and lures me to find out who these characters are. I know Amber Mac and this fantastic book very well. I want to know more about Readitforme and Polar Unlimited
4 When I get to their site it is very well laid out and appealling and the ReadItFor.Me idea is upon the navigation bar.
5. I then look on the right hand side and I am being offered two things of value. The first that catches my eye is a free digital health check, the second is an extension of what drew me in and that is a Free offer for a ReadItFor.Me Pro subscription which has a description of what I will get . Imagine the simplest “Vayniac”* not finding the summary on Crush It! not valuable.
6. I see the Business Summaries slow pitched a little differently right below. I am enticed further into their web by inviting me to subscribe with my email and get on their list, so I can benefit from further conversations about cool topics by interesting guys and gain a chance to win something like a book from one if these authors. They now will talk to me weekly about new books and ideas
7. I see massive social proof in the form of Client Lists and Portfolios. I also see exclusivity in their speaking engagements as they appear only for C-Suite types.
8. I am reinforced more in that they also offer webinars on a regular basis where I can probably get to know them like them and trust them more. I have been given three opportunities three different ways to engage in addition to the Videos.
And on their main page their depth of knowledge, a team with young and older folks, is demonstrated by their own promo video.
These guys have a crystal clear understanding of the conversations that you need to engage in with your customers, your viewers and your market and do so in a digital form.
Are you using these kinds of tools and tactics on your website ?
Are people lured in and fascinated? Ask yourself if you have mastered the 8 items above. Are you capturing visitors and getting them on your list with an opt-in form. Are you using your autoresponder to continue the conversation. I use Aweber as my autoresponder due to their excellent deliverability rates and statistical capabilities. They have excellent customer service and training.
Are you offering an ethical bribe to encourage subscribers to engage with you? Are you using video on your site to have the conversations that will build your relationships? If you are not you are missing some valuable opportunities.
Are you using free web “what” analytics tools to measure activity on your site? Are you capturing the “why” analytics that give you the the Primary Purpose of Visit, The Task Completion rate, and the Voice of the Customer ?
I welcome your comments. Come back and visit and I will outline these steps for you in greater detail here on the blog.
* Vaniac: A devotee to the Crush It! author, and internet cyber-Wine Guy Gary Vaynerchuk.
Filed under analytics, Audio-Visual Presentation, Brand Building, Marketing, Video by
Pay Per Click Management
I just came across a post by one of the leading thinkers in the Analytic World, Avinash Kaushik. The post was on his blog Occam’s Razor and is an excellent summary one should focus on for PPC and Organic Search ROI improvement.
ppc-sem-analytics-5-actionable-tips-improve-roi
Avinash is well worth listening to and adding to your feed readerGet OccamsRazor. He takes the complex and distills it down to the simple. He is also a pretty funny guy in his writings on some subjects that could induce sleep in the weak.
He is also author of the best selling book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day from which all his profits are donated to the charities Smile Train and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
Filed under analytics, Internet Marketing, PPC-Pay Per Click Ideas, Web Conversion Testing by
