Web analytics - how to better know and serve web customers

Picture this: a man walks into a store; he is alone, appears to be looking for a new pair of shoes and is fancying higher-end dress shoes. In a bricks-and-mortar location, sales representatives can quickly respond based on what they see, adjusting their technique to this customer and his needs. Salespeople will perhaps note that he dislikes brown or dismisses loafers immediately. Just as importantly, the store manager can see if that two-for-one display is drawing attention.

For a shopper who visits a Web site, however, all these important insights into the customer are tougher to gather, and that is why companies turn to Web analytics. In today’s Internet reality, not conducting Web analytics is like trying to watch and listen to your customers without eyes and ears.

Web analytics—the measurement, reporting and analysis of Web traffic and data—is a powerful way for businesses to assess and understand their customers’ behaviours and, like the shoe salesperson, adjust their own behaviour to meet customers’ evolving needs, adds Fares Aldik, team lead, online analytics consultant at Bell Business Markets.

Web analytics services offer five insights crucial to e-tailing and B2B success, he also adds:

Behavioural Data, allows businesses to test and optimize Web sites for greater engagement and usability 

• Data on the success of marketing campaigns, to tweak and perfect customer acquisition strategies such as affiliate marketing and search engine optimization
• “Voice of Customer” services gather qualitative input from customers
• Brand Monitoring online through “online brand ecosystem analysis,” learning what is said about the business and its products in the emerging sphere of social media
• Online Competitive Intelligence, for benchmarking marketing strategies and market presence.

A variety of Web analytics software tools exist, from the free (Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics) to the more costly. Generally, more expensive tools are more flexible and offer better segmentation of particular campaigns. They also break traffic into “personas” of particular customer patterns. Services like Bell’s Web Analytics and Optimisation Consulting provide businesses with expert service in this area.

Customer centric
But in the end, it’s not about the tools. The first priority is to set business objectives for the online assets (Web site, intranet, extranet, etc.), determining key performance indicators (KPI) and using metrics to strengthen the business by better understanding customers and potential customers.

Web traffic and metric reporting must be automated to add value to the reports and prevent Web analysts from becoming “reporting monkeys.” Automated reports mean time is spent on analysis and strategy, not building tables, says Aldik.

In addition, the right people must be hired or trained to understand the data from Web analytics software tools. The perfect Web analyst walks the paths of three disciplines: technology, marketing and statistics.

To make the most of Web analysis tools and services, businesses must adopt an approach that takes a broad look at themselves, how they are interacting with the Web and vice versa. The user experience on the Web has become one of two-way discussion and insights for business improvement can be gained through Web analytics to learn from customers and product ambassadors, but also competitors and product bashers.

Enterprises can take this reality to heart and use Web analytics to target displeased customers with their brands and work to transform them into product evangelists through listening to their needs and understanding their behaviours.

U.S. merchant John Wanamaker is famously said to have stated, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Through visibility into campaign success, insights into site traffic and the behaviour patterns of visitors, Web analytics can take that guesswork out the picture.



For more information visit www.bell.ca 

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