Last night was “Web Analytics Wednesday” on Monday in Montreal. This was only the second time in a year I could attend, because I am always out of town when the vent is held here. I was amazed by the number of people; six years ago, when I started to build a formally packaged suite of services in Web Analytics, I could barely get five people to listen to me. Kudo to Stéphane Hamel for taking the time from his very busy schedule to take care of organizing it!
I talked to people I didn’t know and several I did. My question was to same to everybody: “So? How impactful is your Web Analytics installation (meaning tools and reports) on your online marketing activities?”. Guess what: everybody told me “Not much”. Not much!
And here’s the real biggest pain of Web Analytics:
Adoption…
Not tool, oh no, but usage. You probably remember my rant a few months ago. Well, I believe adoption is still the biggest problem with Web Analytics. We have been focusing too much on tools and not enough on construction. Organizations are in dire need of figuring out how to really integrate analytics into their Web management processes.
This brings me back to the fundamentals of this blog: when I first started Analytics Notes, I was particularly interested in how analytics would impact online marketing culture. I’m not pessimistic; I know we are having more and more influence on what gets done. However, I too often see the same situation: many organizations don’t know what to do with the reports of the tool they finally implemented correctly.
C’mon! time to change how you see your online business. Go find a new opportunity today!
Hi Jacques,
I feel your pain! I remember that back in the day when I was still working in-house managing a large and highly competitive pay per click campaign, taking the time to dig into analytics data was a key contributor to the success of the campaign.
Not only was I able to tap into a wealth of actionable data to capitalize on opportunities and fix problems, but analytics helped us to stay ahead of the competition.
That said, very few people (if any) at the company were using analytics to it’s full potential and it was next to impossible to convince upper management that it was worth investing in having an expert properly set up analytics. Not to mention hiring someone full-time to analyze the data and communicated with other members of the online marketing team to come up with action plans.
Sometimes I feel that analytics is like a cult following – it hasn’t hit mainstream yet and only a few enlightened people are aware of it’s potential. For that matter you can throw usability and designing websites to perform better rather than simply “look good” into that category.
We continuously stress the importance of analytics implementation and usage alongside with usability improvements to all our clients. Once tied to marketing budgets, especially via PPC, it’s easier to convince clients of their merits.
Keep up the good fight!
Hi Xurxo,
Exactly!!!
Thanks for sharing your story. You showed them you found a gold mine, and they didn’t bother to pick up a shovel… Arrggh!!
hi jacques –
maybe you should refer people to MC Hammer, he seems to be quite interested in Analytics:
see video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6aBITJuSQA&
Enjoy!
Wow! Thanks Martin!
Well, KUDO to MC Hammer!
I have rarely heard such passionate pitch in favor of analytics.
I’m taking those fancy pants out of the closet again, in gratitude.