Integrating a web analytics culture

Being skilled in web analytics and having just come back from the eMetric Marketing Optimization Summit in Toronto, we are in the position to give recommendations.

When I speak of integrating web analytics into the company as per my title, I’m not referring to integrating it with software, but the contrary. I say it often, I see it often and I repeat: without a culture of measurement, established procedures and a team or dedicated person, even with the best tool will not change anything.

This is clearly the conclusion that can be drawn from the eMetric conference, can’t rely alone on tools. But these famous tools are so concrete and sexy that they are quickly becoming the solution according to webmasters, web marketing directors and others responsible for web strategies in organizations. The proof, as heard leaving the eMetrics: “I think I have found the tool that I needed because of eMetrics.” It should be mentioned that certain software providers onsite were very aggressive.

But what are the ingredients to a web analytics culture? Here they are.

Define the measurement protocol

First, it is imperative for an organization to ask themselves why they measure. This will pave the way for a clear focus and vision that will define the procedures for web analytics. Are you measuring for continued improvement, to motivate (or increase the accountability) the teams that work on the website, to justify a larger budget in comparison to traditional media? These are but a few examples.

Then, you need to revisit the personas that were established at the conception of the website or for the internet marketing efforts. These will give the perspective needed for performance measurement by respecting the intentions of the visits and the use of the website by the clients.

Fixing key performance indicators (KPI) is certainly the next important step. These are critical and must be determined by each department of the organization that is involved in the web side of the business. Not all have the same needs for following the web performance: not the same KPIs, not at the same rhythm, not the same information quantity and finally, not the same depth of data. The more you lean towards the operations, those that follow KPIs will need access to brute data to transform their learning’s into actions, and vice-versa, the more you lean towards the executive, the more the KPIs are on the macro level and reduced in quantity.

Finally, in the configuration procedure, you need to establish methods and tools to obtain trinity web analytics data: results, experience and measurable behaviors.

It is very difficult to interpret and to take business decisions (examples: invest in a new landing page, change a radio button on the page, optimize the form or create new content) without the presence of these three elements.

Measure and Communicate

Once the measurement infrastructure is in place, nothing is left than to activate it to regularly measure the performance of the website’s presence on the internet.

A few key success factors: dedicate time each period to communicate the success or failure of the KPIs to the different departments. This will also be the occasion to deliver the qualitative elements, the interpretations that will clear the way to create actions based on the data obtained. Moreover, it is the ideal moment to evaluate the pertinence of the KPIs and to improve them if necessary.

Also, we often forget the importance of the presentation of results: too much measurement, unclear wording or graphs can bring the measurements of the consumers on the wrong path or worst, minimize the credibility and importance of the data. I believe we should as much time on analyzing the data to its presentation.

We often forget to implement a quality assurance on web analytics. This quality assurance is essentially to put in question the extracted data and to increase the internal efficiency. Nothing is worst or a waste when measurement is not taken seriously. The responsible person for the quality assurance should not be the same person that handled the implementation.

Finally, it is imperative to negotiate your expert work on performance measurement and sensitize management with the stakes involved: content duplication, technologies and medias making web analytics more and more complex, but also more and more critical for a successful web presence. A specialist that does not have the time or tools to do their job will not deliver satisfactory work to their team. Their work will not be valued and the optimization actions on the website will not be measured. This has an effect not to attribute the web presence to the success on the organization and too often unbalances the budget between web and traditional channels.

When I said there was more than buying a tool and we can go on a long time….