FREEDyourMind

More Good News For Website Analytics

More evidence from Jim Sterne's eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit that the down economy isn't negatively impacting members' online marketing budgets or interest and attention to web analytics.

65% of respondents said the state of the economy has no negative impact on their overall online marketing budgets. And while just over a third said it was negatively impacting budgets, only 15% plan to actually cut budgets.

More than 80% of respondents have seen increased interest in analytics from senior management within their companies. The report notes that this is usually a pain point for eMetrics attendees, and we certainly see it with out clients: getting management attention and buy-in is always a challenge.

But even more important that increased management attention: twice as many are increasing rather than decreasing their analytics budgets.

This is a powerful statement to the power of web analytics. As the report notes:

Web analytics helps us maximize the effectiveness of our shrinking marketing dollars by pointing out our strengths and weaknesses and providing an actionable roadmap to our most impactful ROI channels online. Tough times really do call for tough measures.

In a strong economy, anyone can succeed. When times are tight and competition is up, only the strong will survive.

Google's Mail Goggles

A recent Google Labs creation is Google Goggles, a feature that is supposed to prevent hasty and poorly-thought-out late-night email messages.  The theory is that it will stop those emails you wish you had never sent after a long night at the bar.  Now I never have that problem.  It works by asking you some math questions before letting the email go out.

So I started thinking, where else could an application like that have value - especially if you can apply it to any decision. 

• Would McCain have selected Palin if he had a version of Google Goggles?
• Would Obama have let himself be at a meeting with William Ayers if he had a version of Google Goggles?
• Would George Bush ... (too many to choose from)
• Would Kwame Kilpatrick (the former Mayor of Detroit, now serving time) have let himself send text messages?.

Was there a time you wish you had Google Goggles?
Was there a time that you wish someone else had Google Goggles?
I would love to hear your best!

E-Gov Continues Upward Trend

Our quarterly rating of nearly 100 federal government websites is available today. You can read about it in Internet News or in the government trade publications, or you can download the full report on our website.

The report finds that the government has done a great job satisfying citizens with e-gov initiatives so far, But we’ve really only scratched the surface of e-gov’s potential, and a change in administration is the perfect time to implement new policies, executive orders, and legislation that will support the work of federal workers to deliver superior information and services to the citizenry via the web.

One week from today, we will be electing a new president. Each candidate has promised that his administration will bring change, improve transparency, and increase accountability to United States citizens. Fears about the economy are at a fevered pitch, and whoever wins will inherit an economy where efficiency in government has never been more important. It will be crucial to save money wherever possible.

As the candidates spar about saving money on earmarks, energy independence, federal government efficiency, or any of the other proposals intended to offset the controversial $700B bailout, let's talk about how technology—specifically increasing adaptation and sophistication of e-gov initiatives—could kill two birds with one stone. E-gov programs that satisfy citizens will encourage more people to use the website not only to get information but also as their primary channel of interaction with the government. These two kinds of usage save the government and the people both time and money while fostering democracy, increasing accountability, and improving transparency.  

I'm working on an op-ed about this topic. I know that the next prez will have a lot on his plate, but anything that saves money and increases efficiency and transparency should be a priority.

Meanwhile, kudos to all the great federal employees who are working hard to make services and information available to citizens online, and extra kudos to those who are succeeding with flying colors.

What To Do Now (part 2).

About a month ago I shared some thoughts about what a VP of E-Commerce should be doing in these tough economic times.  In case you missed that post, the 5 items I listed were:

1. Be aggressive...and smart.
2. Focus on what matters most...your customers.
3. Measure what matters most...because you cannot manage what you cannot measure.
4. Accuracy, precision, reliability and validity of your measurements is critical to success.
5. Resist the urge to be penny wise and pound foolish.

Since then the markets have dropped over 20%, we have seen a huge number of companies announcing layoffs and losses.  So. lets continue the list.

6. Rely on metrics, not only on your expert opinions, your instincts and loud complainers.  In any times, but especially in tough times with limited budgets and resources, we need to make sure we are focused on improving the things that will have the most impact on our business.  Not on the things that have the loudest complainer or are an expert's favorite.

7. Make sure your metrics are valid.  They need to measure what is important.  Often measurements like conversion rate can be very misleading.  We need to understand what we are measuring and why it is important.

8. Make sure your metrics are sensitive.  They must be able to detect change.  Simple scales (such as 5 point scales) are often not sensitive enough to detect change.

9. Make sure your metrics are precise.  They must be exact.  When we are fighting for every visitor, every customer and every dollar, we need precision in our measurements.

10. Make sure your measurements are accurate.  Our measurements need to be correct.  Garbage in leads to garbage out.  Measurements that are not accurate can lead us down the wrong path with a false sense of security.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  Don't look at your 401k statement - it will make you sad.

The Limitations of Traditional Online Surveys

I could probably write a book with this title (hey...there's an idea!), but the reason I'm thinking of it now is that I was just popped a survey on a magazine website.

It asked all the basic demographic information that might be useful for research. But so much more was left on the table.  It is great to gather information, but if you are going to put your site visitors through a survey, make sure you are making the most of the opportunity. 

Some quick thoughts (or you could call them "must haves"):

• Make sure you are getting a representative audience to complete the survey.  Without it you have individuals opinions (there is some value there) but with a representative audience you have taken the first step towards having a useful metric.
• Demographics can be important,  but lets also understand what is driving their satisfaction and what is likely to result from the online experience (loyalty, retention, purchase online, purchase offline, etc.).
• Understand the relationship between those drivers of satisfaction, overall satisfaction, future behaviors and financial success. It is great to know where we are today, but the holy grail is to know what we need to do to improve -- and what impact it will have on our success.  This is not an easy task, but it is the key to turning voice of customer into actionable information.
• Rely on a proven methodology.

I like to think of it as "applying science to voice of customer."

On My Way Home From eMetrics

Another great eMetrics show in DC.  Congratulations to Jim Sterne and his team.  Yes, the show is continuing through the end of the day on Wednesday; unfortunately I had to get back to the office and left Tuesday afternoon.

Some of the highlights:
Jim Sterne's presentation, which is always both educating and entertaining, focused on the impact the economy will have on the web analytics field, and what should be done about it. He spoke about making sure you are focused on three things: 1)Increase revenue, 2)Lower expenses and 3)Increase customer satisfaction.   Well said Jim!

Let's dig a little deeper on those three very important things.  The interesting thing is that they are all related.  Increasing Customer Satisfaction will drive increased purchase frequency and spend (revenue) and it will drive loyalty.  Driving loyalty will lead to lower costs in both acquisition costs and support costs.  So, while you want to focus on all three, if you have success with increasing customer satisfaction you will have success in the other two.

Eric Peterson's presentation was also a highlight.  Eric does a great job of explaining the metrics ecosystem and explaining the importance of it.

Mike Marvel from Home Depot gave a great case study on how Home Depot is continuing to advance their use of customer satisfaction metrics to not only understand the online experience but also to understand the impact that the online experience is having on their store channel.

There were many other great sessions and great networking.

And a personal highlight was a great dinner we hosted at Restaurant Eve in Old Town Alexandria.  We had 30 customers and "soon to be" customers there.  It was great food (I would highly recommend the place) and great conversation.  Thanks to Cecilia for pulling together a great evening.

On My Way To eMetrics

I am excited about participating in this year's eMetrics Marketing Optimization summit in DC (Alexandria to be more precise). There is a great list of speakers: Jim Sterne (Chairman of the Web Analytics Association), Eric Peterson (Web Analytics Demystified and the founder of Web Analytics Wednesdays), Jason Burby (ZAAZ), Alex Langshur (PublicInsite) and many other industry leaders. And there is a great representation of companies presenting including The New York Times, Hewlett Packard, Ameriprise, Home Depot, McAfee, Yahoo! and Nokia, just to name a few. It is an honor to share the podium with such a great list of presenters.

It will be interesting to see the mood of the web analytics industry in these turbulent economic times.How has the economic crisis impacted the mood and initiatives of this group?

While budgets are getting tight and earnings are disappointing, there is no more important time to make sure you have the right metrics -- and use them the right way! One of my favorite sayings is "You cannot manage what you cannot measure." Not too long ago you could be successful on the web by just showing up. Not anymore. Only the strong will survive.

Check back in the next day or so for some updates from the conference!

Multitasking Madness

Did you hear the piece on NPR about multitasking? Many of the multitasking activities they mentioned were caused or enabled by technology. Like I talked about with the Emmy's and the VP debate, people are partaking in multiple media at once for entertainment purposes...add that to working, sending emails, checking Facebook, talking on the phone, and texting, and many of us have the ability to--or feel compelled to--do more than one thing at once.

The NPR piece cautions though that you aren't REALLY doing more than one thing at once, you are shifting your attention quickly from one thing to the next.

Do you think the many channels of activity you are expected to monitor helps you or does it drive you crazy?

Searching Google's Oldest Index

Oh, this is cool! In honor of their tenth anniversary, Google is giving us the ability to search their oldest available index from 2001. Meaning, you can go see what it would have looked like and what search results would have been before and during the absolute explosion of the internet.

Observations:

1. The page looks almost the same! How many online companies have made such minimal changes to branding and site appearance in ten years -- and been as succesful as Google has?

2. In 2001, Google bragged about indexing 1.3 billion web pages. Their index is now well over a trillion unique URLs, and growing by several billion every day. That's a thousandfold increase.

3. For fun, let's compare some search terms from then to now:

"Sarah Palin" in 2001: Your search - "sarah palin" - did not match any documents.
"Sarah Palin" in 2008: about 24,200,000 for "sarah palin"

"Barack Obama" in 2001: 672 for "barack obama".
"Barack Obama" in 2008: 80,400,000 for "barack obama"

"Michelle Obama" in 2001: about 43 for "michelle obama"
"Michelle Obama" in 2008: about 5,160,000 for "michelle obama"

kangaroos in 2001: about 84,300 for kangaroos.
kangaroos in 2008: about 6,240,000 for kangaroos

Iraq War in 2001: about 414,000 for Iraq war.
Iraq War in 2008: about 29,600,000 for iraq war.

"American Idol" in 2001: about 158 for "american idol"
"American Idol" in 2008: about 31,200,000 for "american idol"

"online customer satisfaction" in 2001: about 3680 for "online customer satisfcation"
"online customer satisfaction" in 2008: about 98,700 for "online customer satisfaction"

A search for "Wii" in 2001 turned up results for Willamette Industries and the Wildlife Institute of India. The same search in 2008 turned up results for, well, Wii.

4. Gene Weingarten, a nationally syndicated humor columnist for the Washington Post, coined the term "googlenope" meaning a search term that returns zero results. As soon as it is identified and written about online, it of course automatically becomes a "googleyup." Examples of googlenopes that were googlenopes until identified as such are "ferrari to produce minivan," "finger severed in blogging accident," and "I can't find a starbucks anywhere." You get the idea.

But in 2001, there were quite a few phrases that it's hard to imagine were ever googlenopes:

    * "dumb Paris Hilton" (0 hits in 2001; 971 hits in 2008--now 972!)
    * "fried chicken is healthy" (0 hits in 2001; 450 hits in 2008)
    * "Red Sox won World Series" (0 hits in 2001; ,640 in 2008)
    * "Washington Wizard Michael Jordan" (0 hits in 2001; 97 hits in 2008)
    * "social media websites" (0 hits in 2001; 52,200 in 2008).

5. I couldn't find any examples of things that actually have fewer results now than they did in 2001. I tried out-of-date technologies like VCRs, bankrupt companies like Polaroid, failed products like New Coke. But with a trillion web sites compares to a billion, it's almost impossible that anything would be mentioned less, even if NO ONE is talking about it anymore.

Can anyone find any examples of something that have fewer mentions now than it did 8 years ago?

Partnership with OX2/LBi

We're announcing today that we're partnering with OX2/LBi out of Brussels to integrate our satisfaction metrics and their behavioral metrics for clients in Europe (or should I say "behavioural" since we are talking about Europe!). When combined, our two solutions will provide European e-businesses with a superior, integrated online analytics solution.

René and Aurélie over at OX2/LBi are great and are both respected thought leaders across the pond. OX2/LBi has a stellar reputation, so I'm excited we're going to be working with them and their team.

Read the press release on our website and check out the blog over there if you get a few minutes.