In this interview Mark Maher continues his series of interviews with Satama professionals and other digital culture leaders. This time, Mark talks with Steve Jackson about his Web analytics article which is available here .

MM: You point clearly to what many business people are currently frustrated with regarding Web analytics. It’s a feeling that we’ve all just been handed the keys to an amazing vehicle – but have only the vaguest notion of how to drive it effectively and confidently. Is it now really a controlled science that can routinely deliver predictable results?

SJ:It is possible to make it a controlled science - yes. The problem lies in knowing how to develop key performance indicators (KPI’s) which measure the site’s success or failure. Most businesses are sold a tool by a salesperson who shows the business some amazing ways to measure success, but when it comes to doing it themselves, most companies have no idea where to start. The best way to develop KPI’s is to determine:

1. What you’re offering your visitor and the value to the visitor (What motivates them to take the action you want them to take).
2. Align the visitor’s goal with your business objectives.
3. Figure out whom all the major actors are; in other words, who needs which measure of success and why.
4. Then and only then do you attempt to determine the metrics which you use to determine success aligned to each actor’s need
5. Once you have those metrics, then you pick your tool.

The trouble is, most businesses don’t do this correctly and end up with either an inadequate tool, or more likely an inadequate strategy. It’s why you often find that many businesses are on their 3^rd or 4^th web analytics tool. They assume incorrectly that the tool is at fault when actually it’s the strategy. 80-90% (depending on your business model) of your resources should be spent on strategy and people to formulate strategy and analyze the results of their Web analytics. 10-20% should be spent on the tool and the implementation. Right now the balance is the other way around.

MM: You mention that registration is tricky thing to get one’s potential, or even actual, customers to do. What is the common denominator for companies that have a strong registration-driven strategy?

SJ: The common denominator is a good incentive to register. Really, it’s that simple. If there is a good reason for you to sign up to a website - then you will do it. Think Amazon. They sell online, cheaply, efficiently and offer good service. Registering with them is easy and you are actually encouraged to do so because every time you login they offer you relevant stuff based on the last time you purchased or filled in your wish list. Think Google. You get a free email account with loads of web space to store emails when you sign up with them. Now think of your average business, sign up to receive a free white paper – this works well. Sign up to receive our free newsletter – this works if the content of the newsletter is relevant. Getting registered users is possible, but you have to use your imagination and figure out ways to get people logging in and going back to your website before you can start tracking them using web analytics.

MM: Do you see any indication that Web users are starting to feel over-analyzed and over-targeted? And if not, is this just a matter of time? Or do you rather think that over time the consumer will actually have a firm expectation of being “known” by a marketer, and might conversely feel insulted by marketing attempts that flow from false assumptions about who they are and what their needs might be?

SJ: Yes there are a few indicators that people are worried about online privacy. Cookie issues have been a hot topic with some reports saying that up to 40% (http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3489636) of users delete their cookies so that they can’t be tracked.

Personally I find it laughable.

A cookie is a string of text attached to your browser software. Here is one here from my own browser;

ubid-main.104-8224320-1306005.amazon.com

Basically when I visited Amazon, they assigned the string above to my copy of Firefox so they could track it. Do you see any personal information there? No? That’s all that Amazon can know about me from my cookie, that I visited them and traversed their website.

Now consider your store card that gives you loyalty points and discounts on your food when you shop at your local store.

They know your name, birthday, credit card number, what food you eat and therefore whether you have children or even pets. They know what your demographics are, where you live, if you have a car, if you have high or low income in fact just about all your consumer behavior so they can figure out just about anything based on how you shop.

Talk about opt-in! By having a store card you give away your whole life to big brother and yet no-one seems to care. Why? Because the consumer trusts the store – it’s at the bottom of their street and the store offers good service. The stores have been serving people for 50 years or more and has never invaded their privacy. So the trust factor is there.

Online the jury is still out. However I think that eventually we’ll see super portals appearing that allow you to login once and be tracked across numerous websites. This will allow us to start shopping in a similar way as we do in offline environments, with discounts offered on wish lists and behaviorally targeted ads appearing because you have indicated what your interests are.

It is only a matter of time before people trust the online environment as easily as they do the offline one.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.