Signals from the Field

This is the beginning of a series of blog posts that focuses on going back to the basics of digital marketing. In this post, I want to highlight some of the web analytics do's and don'ts when it comes to metrics. There are dozens and dozens of different metrics available to us, enabling us to evaluate the performance of a website. Some of these metrics aren't nearly as valuable as we think they are while others that hold the keys to success are often ignored completely.

Money may not buy happiness, but beauty buys both money and happiness, says a study published online recently that gauged happiness and attractiveness among more than 25,000 people worldwide. This recent study was conducted about how beauty affects happiness and prosperity. This really caught my eye and after reading it, I was fascinated. The researchers concluded that “better-looking people generally earn more money and marry those who are better-looking and higher-earning.” They went on to report that “the top 15% of people ranked by looks are more than 10% happier than those ranked in the bottom 10%.” Remember, these are results from a study, not my personal opinion. Thank God because I'm clearly not the most attractive person around!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

A recent survey by American Express and SEMPO revealed that small and mid-sized businesses (SMB’s) are investing more in social media than in search engine optimization. Considering the challenges in measuring social media ROI, I was ambivalent about this finding. I mean on one hand I am not surprised businesses are really interested in social media. After all, it is what everyone seems to be entranced by. On the other hand, search engine optimization is such a powerful tool to actually generating leads and it can be more easily measured.

GroupM Search and comScore, two reliable sources of research about online buying behavior, recently released findings of a new study that focused on the impact and search and social media, and the synergy of each channel. The results were quite interesting and may provide insights that could alter your current search and social media strategies. A meaningful excerpt from the study revealed the following:

Much is being written about the success of sites like Groupon and Living Social. A recent blog post expressed concern that these kinds of location-based promotional sites will ultimately lead to merchants competing on price only. An excerpt from the post read as follows:

While social media is still as popular a networking concept as ever, social technologies have developed as a broader approach to leveraging your network for maximum effect. Networking is no longer just about handing out business cards at a work function or tweeting about your daily activities, it’s much more these days. After studying the marketplace and taking inventory of the many online social tools and trends that have emerged recently, we developed a comprehensive process for integrating social technologies into your operation to enhance revenue and dominate your market.

Going through some of the finer points in Google Analytics - Conversion University caused me to ask "why don't more people embrace the richness of web analytics data?" I think about some of our clients and many people I run in to who are struggling to be effective marketers and then I look at the power of the data you can get from Google Analytics. I just shake my head in amazement that more aren't embracing the data.