Why Web Analytics Tools are Just Not Enough

We're all using them, some of us even drill down to their deepest functionality but for many critical goals in web marketing and especially in B2B marketing and sales Web analytics are just not enough.

Why is that?
Well, while Web Analytics tools are obviously important, they lack in some areas that are critical for effective sales and marketing over the web. They are very good at showing the big picture but lack the ability to pinpoint relevant, high potential visitors and more importantly then that, they lack the ability to do something about the data they supply.

I always used to end-up with a good feeling about all the new visitors and referrals to my company web site but could not really monetize on the traffic or the data I saw. Think about it this way, Web Analytics tools let you "see" your visitors but don't let you "touch" or "interact" with them and since your visitors are usually anonymous - thats where the story ends - nice statistics but few results.

Here's what I mean:
I guess were all using some kind of web analytics tool, whether its Google Analytics, PIWIK , Omniture, webtrends or any other web analytics tool, they are generally similar in their approach and the values that they offer. They are also quite similar in what they do not offer. So you can get a lot of info, trends, graphs, pie charts etc. You can get good information on your stronger traffic sources, content and visitor locations and track your online campaigns. But if you want to use your web site to get new leads and turn them into customers all of the above mentioned data can be quite frustrating since it gives you a "sense" of whats going on in general, but not much information about specific visitors or any direct means to convert them into leads.

To summarize, Web Analytics tools are a great first step to turn your web site to an effective marketing machine as they give you a sense of what comes in, which campaigns worked better etc. BUT, if you really want your web site to convert visitors into customers you have to think Reactive.

Why Real-time Reactions Make the Difference

Here's a true story: A couple of years ago, I used to borrow DVD's from a local DVD machine, after borrowing about a dozen I got a phone call from the local Block-Buster store that owns the machine, they said that they see i have been borrowing about a movie a week and offered me a 35 movie membership ticket that would save me 50%.Do you want to guess what happened next? Was I offended? Was I angry that someone saw what I was doing?
NO, I was quite happy and bought the membership card. Their offer was relevant, focused and on time !

One of the main changes that the online channel has brought along is a change of pace. Everything is at our finger-tips, we jump from one subject to another in a flash, from one web site to another in a click - our concentration span is narrowed. Heck... I will probably check my email 4 times and surf to 2-3 sites while writing this post.

This short concentration span and our accelerated pace of life requires immediate responses - when we surf to a site looking for info, service, products or whatever we expect to be served immediately. If you (the site owner) have something special to tell me or sell me, something relevant to ME (based on my behavior or history) you better have it ready and serve it hot. I won’t be here in 2 minutes and probably won’t remember what I wanted. You have to hit the iron while it’s still hot. By the way, this is what inbound marketing is all about - Its what you do when the customer is at the door.

These days, companies usually have some historical data, specific to users or more general in nature that helps them decide what to offer the customer or how important it is to provide him with VIP service. The big problem is - How do you leverage this information in time?

How do you make efficient use of what you know about me and what I am doing now?

The answer lies in real-time reactions. If you can react in real-time to who I am + my history with your company + my current behavior then you have a much better chance at selling me you product, improving the service I get etc.

If you take a moment and think about it, this idea of real-time reactions is not so innovative, we are quite used to it in the offline world. When you enter a shoe store, the salesman will detect your entrance followed by your behavior in the store. He will react with the relevant offer when it is relevant (hopefully :-). If he sees you are interested in running shoes and points to the current New-Balance sale he increases his chances in closing a deal. The "real" salesman can also detect which customers are behaving more potentially and react to them. This way he maximizes his resources.

But our friend, the shoe salesman, doesn’t usually have the privilege of a customer history database or high-potential behavioral patterns. Web sites, however, can be connected to CRM and BI systems, so the potential is there. The question is, can they use this information in time? And can they correlate it with what the user is doing right now?

There many applications that deal with customer history and define what should be offered to them and how they should be treated. Various campaign management and BI systems offer features such as Next Best Offer and Next Best Action. What they usually lack are two critical abilities to leverage those abilities in the online world: Detecting that a customer is in our web site to actually deliver the offer to him and detect his current behavioral pattern to verify whether that his behavior aligns with what we knew/thought or perhaps shows that the offer should be different. Thats what we had in mind when we developed ActiveInsight - providing real-time, value-based reactions to online behavior.

Just think of yourself and your own experience as a customer - how often do you get irrelevant offers in sms, Email or phone? How often do you get relevant offers too late? And what an impact is it when you get a relevant offer on time...