Digital Analytics finally got out of beta. I would say that it is now, no doubt, in full-release mode. Thirteen years ago, when I started consulting in Web Analytics (what it was called then), I would spend half my time telling organizations that data was created from all that activity on their Web sites. Most of them were surprised to learn that, and even more that it could be all analyzed.
Today, show me a business that does not declare being passionate about data, making data-based decisions, becoming data-driven organizations. Heck, show me a Marketing/Advertising agency that does not include analytics in their service offering (at VERY various skill levels, believe me. More on that in my next article)!
It is, after all, a very good thing. For one, I am happy not to have to educate anymore about data and analytics. I am happy to meet only people who think they are important business functions. Well, most of the time anyway.
Now it is time to reap on the buzz, on the years of buying into the pitch, on investing in products and people. Now it is time to give a hard look at what Digital Analytics has brought to your business so far.
What do you know about how people consume and interact with your digital content? Are you able to regroup behaviors based on some sort of segmentation? More interestingly, how are you now able to build the whole narrative, your customers’ journey from attracting them to your offers, converting them, and growing them once they are in your databases.
Obviously, regardless of how mature Digital Analytics is finally is, it is still not the whole story. Years ago we had a debate about whether or not Business Intelligence would someday soon engulf Wed Analytics, making the distinction irrelevant. I belonged then to the group that thought that it would dissolve into BI. I was quite wrong; it has reaffirmed itself as one specialty of Marketing/Business Intelligence, a specialty requiring specific skill sets.
Digital Analytics is still very much focused on how people get to your digital content, and convert to your offers, so that they can then populate your databases. It is extremely important to master, and to learn how behaviors evolve, because people will not constantly respond in the same manners over long period of time. It is also equally important to understand and master what to do with all that data in your databases!
It is time to ask the question: What do we know about how people behave with our content? Really know…