Through the years Dr. Stephen Turner and "not Dr only Mr." John Marshall have had a deep influence on my evolution as a Web Analytics professional.
My first foray, all those years ago, into a "big boy" web analytics tool was using ClickTracks (after having dabbled in build your own log parsing ecosystem that dumps data in a massive Data Warehouse that fed a business intelligence tool to do web analytics!!). Over the years that early experience with ClickTracks and conversations with Dr. Turner and John helped shape a lot of my thinking.
John Marshall as you all know was the ex-CEO of ClickTracks, and now along with me is the co-founder of MarketMotive Inc which focus on online marketing education and certification. Dr. Stephen Turner wrote what is perhaps still the most widely used logfile web analytics application in the world: Analog (in 1995!). He is also the ex-CTO of ClickTracks.
Dr. Turner was in the Silicon Valley recently and I could not resist having him and John come over to do a quick video.
Two reasons actually.
One they have spent a very long number of years in the field contributing in so many ways, true web analtyics legends to the rest of us. Two, as you'll see soon, we just have so much fun when we hang out.
The question was simple:
"If you could reach deep into your experience and share one awesome actionable tip with Analysts & Marketers what would it be?"
Here are three answers that you'll surely find helpful. . . .
A bit of history + Guru Dr. Turner shares his tip: Segmentation!
(This video is 7 mins long.)
Key lessons you'll learn. . . .
Specific examples of what segments you could start with.
How Segmentation could help you understand visitor persona.
Learn how you can customize landing pages for higher conversions.
Dr. Turner's top secret tip! [Ok, ok you got it out of me: "spend" time with your data!]
There are some links at the bottom of this post if you want to learn more about how to use segmentation. In particular I recommend the post about making your reports "connectable", it is segmentation and also data communication. Let me know what you think of it.
Guru Marshall shares his actionable analytics tip: Internal Site Search!
(This video is 5 mins long.)
Key lessons you'll learn. . . .
How SEO influences what Visitors search on your site.
Why gods gift to humanity (ok Analysts :)) is intent.
Why it makes sense to mix Guru Turner and Guru Marshall's tips!
See with all search data out there the sexy smoldering one in the room was search data you already have? Now that you know that. . . .
(This video is 7 mins long.)
Key lessons you'll learn. . . .
Why this is the next step in the evolution: HITS -> Page Views -> Visits -> Quantified Goal Values.
How can you charm the pants off your boss/'s using this method.
How do you actually quantify goal values and compute your economic value.
Why it changes every conversation you will ever have about your website.
Ok what do you think? Did you get that? I hope you did, or I'll have to write a long blog post explaining it! : )
All kidding aside I firmly believe that the difference between Analysis Ninjas and Reporting Squirrels is the fact the latter have spent no time quantifying the economic value of their websites (*especially* if your site is a non-ecommerce site, a blog, a lead gen site, a tech support site, a ….).
So did you notice how much fun we had? Web Analytics is such a fun amazing thing.
Now your turn.
Dr. Turner, John and I would love to get your thoughts on our three tips. Please share your feedback using the comment form below.
Oh and if you could give one, just one, solitary piece of advice, what would it be?
Thank you.
PS: Couple other related posts you might find interesting:
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