The holiday shopping season is already upon us. Is your site ready? Jupiter Research (a unit of this site’s parent corporation) forecasts online holiday sales will grow from 2002’s $13.8 billion to $16.8 billion this year. Good news for e-tailers!…
This column is the second in a series for data-starved, financially challenged marketers struggling to make decisions without access to critical data. We’re looking at tricks for getting seemingly unobtainable data, no matter how low-tech or manual the process. In…
In last summer’s Choosing Your Perfect Software Match series, I shared results of my interview with Jupiter Senior Analyst Matthew Berk [Jupiter Research is owned by eCRMGuide’s corporate parent]. We discussed “Berk’s List” of the best analytics tools for evaluating…
Online survey vendors and software have made it increasingly easy and inexpensive for marketers to conduct their own research. With little to no budget, marketers can now measure things such as customer satisfaction. In the offline days, they were often…
This is the final installment in a series based on a discussion I had with Matthew Berk, senior analyst for Jupiter Research, which shares its parent company with ClickZ. He’s a former IT guy who is passionate about site analytics…
This is part two in a series based on my talk with Matthew Berk, senior analyst for Jupiter Research. He’s a former IT guy who is passionate about site analytics and empowering marketers with the tools to make good decisions.…
This week I found my analytics soul mate. You know how it is when you meet someone who’s as excited about analytics as you are? You’re enthusiastic about all the same things and can share dozens of war stories. That’s…
Call it business intelligence, Web site analytics, customer experience measurement, statistical analysis, or just plain old reporting tools, most of us seek the same thing: actionable intelligence. Data is often interesting even if it’s not relevant, but who has time…
The interviews and preparation I did for my recent series on metrics gave me a lot of food for thought. I think it’s clear by now there’s no magic set of metrics that works for everyone. Similarities can exist between…
This is the third column in a series aimed at that frequently asked question: What should I measure for my online business? Parts one and two focused on e-commerce, where revenue is unanimously considered the most critical metric, and online…
This is the second in a series aimed at that frequently asked question: What should I measure for my online business? My last column covered e-commerce metrics. We heard from folks in the trenches about which stats are mission-critical and…
My last column raised the persistent question, “What should be measured for my Web business?” More data is at our disposal, but we have less time than ever to make sense of it all. If you are wondering what to…
Mark Sakalosky’s ClickZ column, Fluffing the Numbers, included a thought-provoking hypothetical story about how the online world might operate if our ad rates were set using an artificial “sweeps” period, as TV rates are. I read his piece the same…
In my last column, I mentioned using new employees to help take a fresh look at your site, to see it with “virgin eyes,” as one reader put it. It’s not that hard to do but requires you to check…
In parts one and two, I shared reader feedback and recommendations on reporting tools, in response to a previous column. This week: more tools and more feedback. Let’s get started. Memetrics’s XOS XOS is a campaign optimization tool allowing users…
Last month, I wrote about my experience with different analysis tools and asked for reader feedback about the tools that have worked (or not worked) for them. Several were quick to point out no single tool resolves every reporting need.…
In my last column, I began to share reader feedback in response to a column requesting your input on the best, and worst, analysis tools. Let’s dive deeper and look at specific products and tools you use. Cut me some…
Do you know who your best customers are? (Some of you will admit you don’t. You probably attribute that to your inability to get reliable customer data. We’ll deal with that in another column.) Those of you who do say…
I loved my ClickZ colleague Mark Sakalosky‘s article “Customer Data? We Don’t Have Any Customer Data.” Chances are you could claim that story as your very own. Most of us have found ourselves needing some critical customer data to make…