Produced by e-consultancy

On a recent blog, we, at E-consultancy, suggested that web analytics should have a more exciting name that does justice to its strategic importance. One suggestion that came back was “e-Business Insights”, while another was “online business intelligence”. Still, analytics is far from the sexiest part of running an e-business, and its value is often overlooked.

Saying that, the web analytics industry has taken some important steps in its evolution recently. Once seen as providing meaningless data for IT geeks, measurement systems are now widely recognised as a vital online marketing and business tool. Collecting and analysing traffic is no easy task, but the rewards if it is done properly can be huge.

The launch of Google’s free analytics tool is undoubtedly one of the biggest things to have happened in the market in the last few years. It has significantly raised the profile of web analytics globally, helping Google’s own advertisers refine their paid search marketing but also helping the marketplace as a whole by bringing the benefits of effective measurement to more people’s attention. 

At the same time, organisations are getting much better at using the analytics tools they have at their disposal. The process of web measurement has moved from being about simple reporting of data to something more strategic as companies have become more sophisticated in their use of web analytics. There is more buy-in from senior management, who can make sure action is taken when insights are gleaned from analytics systems. Marketing departments are also becoming more involved in directing what tools should be measuring – an area which has traditionally been the realm of IT.

Jim Sterne, of the Web Analytics Association, says: “People are beginning to see that it's not just about measuring the visits to their websites, and it's not just about optimising those visits. They are starting to see how insights from web data can inform and direct business decisions make throughout the company.”

As web analytics have become increasingly relevant across organisations, it has become crucial for companies to adopt a solution that gives them an integrated understanding of their online business. Choosing the right analytics tools can make can make a huge difference for companies by providing better customer intelligence and driving greater return on investment. More companies are realising (and, more importantly, acting upon the realisation) that they require a multi-channel overview and joined-up understanding of how their customers are interacting with them, whether on the telephone, in a shop or online.

Unfortunately, though, because of a lack of education about the value of web analytics, many companies are still reluctant to devote resources internally, or to pay for consultancy services offered by analytics vendors and independent companies. This problem goes hand in hand with the lack of people around who have web analytics knowledge as well as a strategic understanding about online marketing and business in general.

Here’s a list of potential advantages that increased investment in analytics could generate for your business:

• Improve your customers’ experience by understanding what is difficult for them and what they are most interested in.
• Increase the effectiveness of your search, display advertising and email campaigns.
• Improve the usability and architecture of your site to drive more traffic and actions.
• Enhance your interactions with customers.
• Improve customer profiling.
• Improve your ability to cross-sell and up-sell.
• Enhance personalisation.
• Identify causes of churn and types of customer at risk.
• Compare effectiveness and ROI across different online channels.
• Improve your ability to predict the revenue potential of customers.
• Increase your understanding of which levers to pull to increase revenue streams.
• Optimise cross-channel performance and gain a single view of the customer across channels.
• Automate site performance management