10 Examples of What Analytics Success Looks Like?
Read a great post this morning which I’ll reference in a moment that speaks to the reason data-rich companies are still not flourishing with this information. It [data] is available in many tempting flavors – free, paid, borrowed, mobile, real-time, visualized, raw, aggregated, curated and so on. But why then is not magically ringing the cash register?
How do I know if all that data is even making a difference? In other words, what are the metrics for my metrics?
“Huh?” you say.
To put it more clearly, how do I measure my analytics efforts themselves. What signs do I look for that my data-driven strategy is making an impact?
What does success look like?
Well, I’d say the golden Holy Grail conversion goal is … are you ready for it … here it comes … “action.”
Action -- could come in different shapes and forms and may not register on a monthly report but it’s prompted by insights, information from data analysis [notice I didn’t say data gathering]. And you must recognize it in all its forms so you can strive for it and then celebrate it when it occurs.
And it could look like any of these:
1. You discover all your site pages are not tagged properly in comScore and correct it
2. You discover a competitor is increasing market share in a new vertical, and greenlight a beta test in that same vertical
3. You discover the bios page on your site generates 22% of your visits and expand, promote and elevate that section at the expense of under-performing content
4. You discover more people are entering your site from your story level page than your home page and start A/B testing to reduce the bounce rate of your story level pages.
5. You discover 20% of labor resources are spent on a site section that generates 10% of your visits but no revenue, no conversions, no repeat visits and simply kill it.
6. You discover that your peak audience arrives between 10a-2p and shift the schedules of your web staff to produce more from 7a-10a.
7. You discover that users to your home and garden section click on ads 3x more often than any other section of your site and notify sales.
8. You discover referral visits from Google spend twice as much time on site as visitors from Drudge and Twitter and review/rewrite all the page titles on site to increase search referrals.
9. You discover referrals from a related site convert at a higher rate than any other visit and set up a meeting to partner with that site.
10. Or, you gather your execs, stakeholders, clients into a single room and ask, “What is the one most important action a visitor to our site can perform and how does it drive our business?” and you don’t leave the room until you agree on it. That’s your No.1 priority … and that’s where you measure intently … analyze relentlessly … and act boldly.
Now back to that post, Bryan Eisenberg’s “Data Rich, Optimization Poor” drives home the same thought – data, and even analysis without action – is lip service.
“There's no profit from having a web analytics report; you make money from making changes and experimenting based on the insights available from the data. In order to do web analytics correctly, it needs to generate a to-do list for you.”
Amen, brother. Action is where it’s at.
