On 16:51:13 4 May 2004 Dave Chaffey wrote:
>A. Diminishing returns from conversion optimisation

Yes - you're rigth about personalization according to behavior. We're going to hear a couple of presentations on that from companies like Amazon and HP. But your title is intriguing as well: At what point does measuring stuff no longer provide value?

>B. Customer scoring.

Jim Novo of the Drilling Down Project will present his views on "LifeTime Value Without Waiting a LifeTime". Unfortunately, this will be at the Santa Barbara "Emetrics Summit" rather than the one in London.

>C.Process and Six Sigma.
>----------------------------------------
...
>What are the cycle times for this process for different
>types of metrics and who is involved - particular
>marketers outside the e-commerce core?

Betweent the presented case studies and the group dicsussions, we should get a glimpse into this area.

>I'm looking forward to the event - you
>have lined up some great speakers.

Thank you Dave - and now, it can be revealed: Dr. Dave Chaffey
was the very first individual to register for the "Emetrics Summit".
Well done!

On 17:29:27 7 May 2004 Dave Chaffey wrote:
> My definition is (slightly) more succinct:
>
>"Web analytics is the customer-centred evaluation of
>the effectiveness of Internet-based marketing in order to
>improve the business contribution of online channels to an
>organisation.

OK - I'll jump in as well. I've written an article called "Web Metrics Versus Web Analytics" that you can find at http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/sterne14.asp (requires free registration).

I suggest that the whole ball of wax is Integrated Marketing Analysis and there are a number of things we can measure on the Web. I guess one good topic for the "Emetrics Summit" would be Web Analytics Taxonomy: What the Heck Are We Talking About?

Steve,

Your point about being able to focus on the actions of defined segments of your visitors is a good one. The easiest way is by linking your registration database to the activity so that you are able to profile the activity of those key visitors. Then you can monitor the activities of these high value customers. And the information can be fed direct to their Account Managers so that they can provide the optimum service to their key customers based on their interests.

The next stage is then linking the online activity with offline activity via integration into the offline databases that hold that information.

As an example one of our customers is looking at creating special promotions for their 100 best customers based on their activities and purchases and so they can look at how they can serve them better.

Colin Cooper
ISSEL
Aligning Execution with Strategy - Pilot HitList

On 09:58:16 12 May 2004 SteveL wrote:
>I have been following this thread with keen interest. Many
>of the posts have valid comments, however isn’t
>“key intelligence still missing”, part of the
>problem in driving online success and aligning online
>activities to off line business goals?
>
>The fundamental value of the online process is the
>generation of interaction and the value of individual
>interactions as it relates to achieving business
>objectives. If the goal is to understand the value of each
>interaction (or lack there of) and respond accordingly
>(treat individual visitors differently in order to
>maximise profitability), then we need to ask ourselves one
>simple question:
>
>How will we achieve this online if we cannot identify our
>customers’, investors and other known business
>stakeholders online actions independently from other
>visitor activity? The inability to differentiate between
>visitors and understand their value or motivation to
>interact with the website or email is a fundamental online
>business development stumbling block.
>
>Broadly speaking, we simply continue to “blindly
>date” our customers and other stakeholders with
>minimal intelligence being available to improve the
>business process. Each visitor, visit, page impression and
>click generated is treated equally in the intelligence
>gathering process, when in reality they are far from being
>equal, based on varying customer value, the stage of the
>sales cycle, their response to a campaign and if they are
>a first time visitor or returning visitor etc.
>
>Companies developing online communication and business
>channels need meaningful intelligence that goes beyond
>“nice to have” stats and provides “real
>actionable intelligence” which can be easily related
>to objectives, whether it is new customer acquisition,
>stakeholder retention, improved sales, improved return on
>investment from campaigns etc.
>
>To achieves this, I believe three significant changes need
>to take place in order to bring web analytics/
>intelligence in line with business management goals and
>objectives, namely:
>
>- The ability to effectively segment and differentiate
>between website visitor groups based on each website
>owner’s requirements, rather than treating all
>traffic as being equal.
>
>- Be able to identify and track known business
>stakeholders’ web interactions over defined periods
>of time, such as customers, channel partners, investors
>etc. Website owners need to be able to translate visits
>and page impressions generated into potential business
>value and assess this against objectives.
>
>- Visitor interaction tracking and reporting over extended
>periods of time. This is a move away from visit, click and
>page impression counting and comparing traffic numbers
>month-by-month and a conscious decision to focus on the
>individual visitor and their interactions over extended
>periods of time.
>
>Comments would be appreciated.
>Steven Liversedge

Thanks Jim. When I said, "Key Intelligence is Missing", I was alluding to the fact that most website owners cannot gauge when key business stakeholders interact with the website unless there is a login process. In short and as an example, they cannot tell when their most important investors, most valuable customers etc, interact with the website and assess exactly what pages the individual interacted with or view interaction history etc.

Visitor identification needs to be cultivated, expanded and then related to visitor groups. Off-line we know whom we are doing business with and when an existing or potential stakeholder interacts with the business (we can identify the person making contact), but online this remains a difficult nut to crack. The “blind dating of our web visitors” as I call it, is the primary stumbling block to developing online success.

“Visitor identification by name” has to be the way forward, particularly if relationship development/ retention is a key goal. I am not talking about visitors who you do not know and cannot identify off-line, but stakeholders whom you do have a relationship with and can identify. By simply dividing web intelligence into known and unknown visitors, we will be better prepared to evaluate and then take advantage of visitor’s interactions. Segmenting known visitors even further will enhance the process. Treating different visitors differently starts by knowing who your visitors are or at the very least identifying individuals in key visitor groups.

With visitor identification must also come the option for web visitors to opt-out of the visitor identification process, as in email.

So if “visitor identification” becomes a reality, what are the important metrics? Recency and frequency of visit evaluation based on defined visitor groups perhaps. Web page performance based on visitor grouping or the conversion process of unidentified visitors to identified visitors?

Steve

Vividence lets you tie the two together - they do consumer panels/online questionnaires and tie them back to clickstream data.

www.vividence.com

Obi

On 14:25:18 17 May 2004 Steve Mountfield wrote:
>Jim
>
>This is the first time I have seen this important link
>made between web analytics, usability and customer
>feedback.
>
>The analysis of web stats can only tell you
>"what" and "where" people have been
>rather than "why" or "why not".
>
>To get a holistic view of the customer experience and
>specifically an emotional response you have to ask the
>customer - how was it for you?
>
>Hope this topic gets some airtime at the upcoming events.
>
>Regards
>
>Steve Mountfield
>Clicktools