FREEDyourMind

Welcome Dave Lewan!

Our work in the government and nonprofit space has been exploding lately...between our thought leadership (our new e-gov transparency research, our report on satisfaction with nonprofit websites, and the quarterly ACSI E-Gov Index) and our client work (hundreds of federal, state, and local clients, along with numerous nonprofits and associations), we needed someone great to lead our work in this area.

Enter Dave Lewan, our new Director of Government and Public Sector Markets. You can read all about his excellent qualifications in our press release or on Linked In, but the main point is that we're excited about his strong leadership, which will help us continue to serve government and nonprofit clients with the solutions, methodology, and technology that will help them make the most of their online initiatives.

Feel free to email Dave (dave.lewan@foreseeresults.com) or visit him on Twitter to say hello (@davelewan) and we hope he'll be contributing to a new e-gov blog we have in the works. You'll have a chance to meet him and share your ideas with him next week at the Gov2.0 Summit in DC and again at our annual public sector user conference: Digital Citizen (Oct.8th in DC).

Welcome, Dave!

Eric Peterson on the X Change Conference

I recently talked to Web Analytics Demystified's Eric Peterson about the upcoming X Change conference in San Francisco this September.

Larry: I wasn’t able to make it last year, though I will be going this year. Can you tell us a little bit about the X Change conference and its objectives?

Eric: Sure, and we definitely missed you last year Larry!  The X Change is something that John Lovett at Forrester called the "unconference" for the digital measurement set.  Instead of trapping participants in occasionally boring presentations and thinly-disguised vendor pitches (sorry!) our model is built entirely around 12 to 15 person "huddles" designed to promote participation.  These huddles are led by the best-and-brightest practitioners from within the measurement industry --- folks like Greg Dowling from Nokia, Lynn Lamphier from Best Buy, Dylan Lewis from Intuit, and James Robinson from the New York Times.  The huddles work because our leaders and participants actually do the work they're talking about every day.  No vendors or consultants lead huddles, nothing "meta" ... real people doing real work.

Larry: Tell me about last year’s conference. What were the highlights for you? (and lowlights, if you feel like sharing!)

Eric: Well, the biggest letdown was, of course, you not being there.  My highlight honestly was just being at the X Change and helping to make it happen.  This is a really special conference, and as you know, I get to ** a lot ** of conferences.  Our industry is still young, and the group that comes to the X Change is very much responsible for the sector's evolution ... either because they're the CEO of a company providing critical technology (like you), because they're a consultant in the middle of the process (like me), or because they're putting hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of measurement technology to use to improve their business (like most of our participants.)

Larry: Are you planning anything differently this year?

Eric: Well, other than having a big "Thanks for coming, Larry" presentation on Day One ...  The biggest difference is our keynote this year, something we call "Four Founders Perspective" where I will be moderating a conversation with Brett Crosby (Google Analytics), Bob Page (Yahoo Web Analytics), John Pestana (Omniture/ObservePoint) and Matt Cutler (Visible Measures).  These guys are unique in that each founded a measurement company (Urchin, Accrue, Omniture, and NetGenesis, respectively) and are still actively working in the sector.  The keynote will focus on where we've come from, where we are today, and where these four guys think the sector is going.  Since I'm a big fan of all four guys, I'm pretty excited about the keynote.

Larry: Feel like dropping any other names of who is already planning to attend? Who’s your target audience for this conference?

Eric: Well, rumor is that Larry Freed and Kevin Ertell from ForeSee Results are coming ... plus senior staff from WebTrends, Coremetrics, Unica, Omniture, SAS, Teradata, and a handful of other great technology providers, a handful of well-known consultants from the U.S. and Europe, and brilliant practitioners from companies like Apple, Adobe, HBO, TBS, Comcast, Verizon, Nike, Sony, Cisco, BBC, Barclays, Schwab, Kohler, Intuit, Best Buy, Avaya, Macys, and more.  In terms of attendance we're actually pretty selective and limit the conference to 100 participants plus about 20 huddle leaders and staff and so we're confident about selling out again (for the third year in a row!)

Larry: Why should people come to this conference above all others?

Eric: One reason: because they have experiences in measurement that they want to share and because they want to hear right back about the experiences of their peers.  There are a ton of conferences where you can go and be "talked to" but none in my experience where the participant is fully part of the content, other than the X Change.  The beauty of the X Change is that "rock stars" emerge where we least expect them --- there are a ton of brilliant people in our field but until we actually get together that brilliance is tucked away.  The X Change is about getting those folks together, having them network, and seeing what comes of it.  The conference is the best possible investment for companies wanting to retain and nurture their brilliant talent, and I haven't even mentioned our "Think Tank" training day on September 9th which is an awesome way for emerging talent to get hands-on training from some of the brightest consultants in the industry.

Larry: How should people register?

Eric: Your readers can point their browsers to http://www.semphonic.com/XC/XChangeRegister.aspx and get started now.  For more information about the conference folks can either visit http://www.xchangeconference.com, email me directly (eric@webanalyticsdemystified.com) or Twitter me @erictpeterson.

Thanks Larry, and I'm glad you're finally coming to the big event!

Larry: Thanks, Eric, and look forward to seeing you then, if not before.

It's Almost Time . . .

I am here at eMetrics in San Jose for what will for sure be another great emetrics conference put on by Jim Sterne and his team.  And while I always look forward to eMetrics, this time will be even better.

Tomorrow morning at eMetrics we will be announcing a new product from ForeSee Results that builds on our exisitng product and the American Customer Satisfaction Index technology. 

A lot of great effort by our team at ForeSee Results has gone into the product, and it will take the web metrics ecosystem to the next level!  Details tomorrow.

TechNow '09

If you live in Michigan and you haven't yet bought your tickets to TechNow '09, get on it!

What is TechNow '09, you ask? Basically three young entrepreneurs got together to talk about how to encourage start-up technologies and investment in Michigan. Read all about them in the Free Press or in Crain's. I'm speaking on a panel at the event, which should be lots of fun, especially since it's the only business event I've been to this year that concludes with a Manolete concert.

See you there!

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!

Event: Digital Citizen 2008--Leveraging Online Metrics in the Public Sector

If you haven't already signed up for Digital Citizen 2008, you can still register. We've been doing these annual conferences for the public sector for a few years now, and they are a great way to see how federal government websites, associations, and nonprofits are measuring and managing online citizen satisfaction to improve the quality, cost-efficiency and accessibility of services to the public. 

There will be case studies and best practices; even a panel on the future of e-gov with a surrogate from the McCain campaign (we are still waiting on confirmation from the Obama campaign). McCain surrogate Robert Cresanti will be on a panel designed to uncover the campaigns’ approach to e-gov in a potential future administration.

Other speakers include leading interactive industry analyst and author, Eric Peterson, in addition to e-government leaders from organizations such as Dept. of State, Small Business Administration, World Bank, Smithsonian and National Cancer Institute.

October 7, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Ronald Reagan International Trade Center

Thoughts and Observations from Shop.org in Las Vegas

I know the slogan is “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, but I am going to tell you anyway.

• The unsettling news that continues in the economy and the financial markets was a topic of conversation amongst many retailers and vendors.  I am not sure anyone knows what to expect over the next few months.  Hopefully we can see some settling down as we approach the holiday season.  The consumer, for the most part, has been pretty resilient during this economic cycle.  It is going to be important to the holiday season that there are not many more events that unsettle consumers.
  
  
• Generally the mood seems to be cautiously optimistic about the upcoming online holiday season, assuming we don’t have any (or too many) more unsettling events. Most, if not all, of the hopeful growth this holiday season will come from the online channel.
  
  
• Consumers will do more research online to make sure they are wisely spending their dollars.  The “merged channel” is what consumers are demanding and most multi-channel retailers understand this.  There are more and more merging of the channels by retailers.
  

• Mobile as a complimentary channel is still in the very early days, and while we will probably see increased use of it this holiday season, it will still be minimal.  But, retailers should start thinking about the impact on their business if consumers are walking up and down their aisles while they comparison shop on their mobile.
  

• Online retailers clearly have the attention of senior management.  This brings more visibility, more budget and more accountability.  There seemed to be more senior management, with responsibilities beyond the web, attending shop.org then I have seen before. Another sign of the recognition of the growing importance of the web channel.
  
  
• Many retailers are shifting their ad budgets significantly online, better matching their marketing spend with the growth of the channel.
  
  
• While retailers are getting much better at utilizing metrics, there are still too many retailers that put too much focus on the wrong metrics, and these “wrong” metrics can be very misleading!  Conversion rate is a good example.  Many times a declining conversion rate is a result of successful performance.  That will give you something to think about...and if you want to know more about it...let me know.

Shop.org -- Here We Come

Another Road Trip.  This time all business.  Off to Shop.org.  OK, it is in Las Vegas, but really....all business.

We are excited about ForeSee Results participation at shop.org.  Those of you that know us, know that we have a very strong retail presence, with over 70 retailers using ForeSee Results. 

At shop.org this year we will have a great white paper on the partnership between ForeSee Results and Allurent.  It has a great case study on Borders included in the white paper.

And, we have some exciting things to share about multi-channel measurement with online retailers. 

If you are going to be at shop.org, make sure you stop at our booth.  I hope to see you there.

And hopefully my luck in Las Vegas will be better then it was in South Bend this weekend.  A fumble filled loss by our Michigan Football team in a rain drenched afternoon!  Ok, so my prediction was a little off.

Kellogg's Case Study Webinar: Online Customer Satisfaction

Whether or not you made the LaCoste webinar last week, I hope you'll join us this coming Thursday for another webinar with Kelloggs.

Paul Iagnocco, Director of E-Businesses at Kellogg, is going to talk about how customer satisfaction metrics can guide evaluation and decision-making for a website that is not primarily used for e-commerce. He'll talk about how to address the needs of different audiences across multiple brands and how to effectively use the website as a promotions channel. I think he'll be talking mainly about his experience with the main website (kelloggs.com) as well as with two brand sites (keebler.com and morningstarfarms.com).

If you run a website that is not primarily used as a sales channel, I think you'll find his insights pretty interesting. The webinar is being done in conjunction with the AMA, and you can register to attend here.

Measuring How Website Drive Demand for Consumer Brands

This Wednesday, we're doing a webinar with Lacoste about how they are using their e-commerce site (first launched in 2007) to both support online and offline sales while also encouraging affinity to the luxury brand.

Maryssa Miller, Director of E-Commerce for Lacoste, will share her case study about how online customer satisfaction data has helped Lacoste gauge customer expectations and guide improvements that increase both sales and demand for the brand.

In addition, Sucharita Mulpuru with Forrester is joining us to discuss the challenges faced by consumer brands that sell direct and through retail partners. She's going to talk about the role customer metrics can play in mitigating channel conflict.

It's a free webinar. Click here to register. Maryssa is great and always has a lot of really interesting insights. Her session was one of the highest-rated session at our 2008 User Conference.