Last night I watched the live feed for another solid MIMA event – what a great community of interactive and digital folk in the Twin Cities. The topic? Analytics (with speakers Chris Wexler, @chriswexler, and Kristen Findley, @kdfindley).

The use of data and analytics is an always-important subject – but even more so given the increasing volume of conversations happening around social media and the quest for ROI, or ROE (Return on Engagement). (Let’s remember: you can measure social media activities. More on that fun topic later this week though.) Here’s a quick recap of the MIMA event:

Analytics Aren’t for Geeks

Analytics are critical to any marketing plan. They give you a benchmark for success. And with digital/Web, you can measure it. Use that data to differentiate in a tough market.

Think about analytics in the context of, and during, an entire project, program or campaign life cycle. Consider Web site data, banners, tagging, coding, analysis and testing suggestions.

Keep the End in Mind

That means starting with the business goals. Web presence is inherently important, but what do you want it to do for you – for the business?

What do you want someone to do when they get to your site? Kristin says [paraphrased]: please don’t say “to engage.” There’s always more. Do you want visitors to complete a form? Read content? Click through to something? Be specific. Make sure the objectives are aligned the first time around so you’re not switching gears half way through the effort, ultimately creating more work later on. It’s OK to put more work upfront to save time down the road.

Remember: you’ve got program objectives that lead to Web site objectives that lead to key performance indicators to help pave the way.

Analytics are, to a degree, holistic. You have to look at the total analytics package – as in how offline activity is affected by online work.

We’re moving away from an era where analytics are all “post-” and moving into an era where data and analytics are “pre-” too.

The Speakers’ Favorite Metrics

@kdfindley “hearts bounce rates.” (And I concur. Want to improve your site’s bounce rate?) Bounce rates matter because they give an indication of how people perceive what it was that you were promising them when they hit your site. You want to keep your bounce rate low. By working on this metric, other metric improvements will improve as well.

@chriswexler likes meta metrics, particularly when you put more weight toward the things people care about on the site, such as video views or e-mail sign ups. Think about other ways of quantifying value, such as if people came to a site and blogged or went through a specific process.

While there are other important metrics, when it comes to Web analytics I’m also a fan of keyword search results (what’s driving folks to your site), referrals (what sites are driving folks to your site), site overlay reports (what clicks and calls to action are really working) as well as content (favorite, most heavily trafficked pages and length of stay). You can digest much more though through any popular Web analytics service like HitWise or Omniture.

Collaboration = Good

The analytics team can become the “objective keeper” of information – the watchdog of what delivered well and/or didn’t. Marketing teams should rely on some of this insight.

Bring the creative teams into the process so they can understand the importance of a specific objective and know what “the ask” is. Some of the best creative, yet results-oriented outcomes can come from the use of understanding good data.

Creative + technologists (and someone who can speak API) = cool outcomes.

As the analytics conversation spreads outside of the analytics group, jump common hurdles like terminology barriers with a bit of education first.

Remember: data doesn’t make decisions; people do. There’s always a story in the numbers that’s more interesting than the numbers on their own. Keep in mind that it’s 20% reporting and 80% insights.

The Speakers’ Favorite Metric Tools

Omniture (Test&Target)
Google Analytics
Atlas
Mediaplex
Webtrends

Final Thoughts

Marketers don’t make brands – consumers do. Marketers and companies influence what people think of a brand and push them in a certain direction. It’s important to know the perceived truth (and analytics can help). And that is where social dashboards can come into play – to hear what people are saying about brands. Beehive uses Radian6 to monitor the conversations for clients, but there are other good options like Nielsen BuzzLogic, Biz360 and Visible Technologies. Pay attention to sentiment though – the industry is exploring that more and more. Services that cover sentiment/insights well are lithium and Harvest, among others.

Oh, and there was this: “Data can provide serendipity.” Well said.

Katharine Mudra

Account Supervisor