MeaningfulNoise.com

It’s my intent in every post regardless of topic to emphasize a very linear approach to analytics so that someone coming to this site and reading these posts can pick up on a thought process. As a web analyst, you’re the unofficial policeman for making sure your organization is thinking about what’s going to happen on the other side of the initiative. I find that the tactical nature of most online initiatives are superseding strategy — host a give-away, measure everything, find a random success story somewhere after it’s done.

With any initiative, you must advocate knowing why the organization is doing what it’s doing, push measurability of predefined success metrics, and know where to go with your outcomes. Without these three things, the other side of all initiatives is a meaningless void of numbers, charts, and unopened executive summaries.

The coming storm over web analytics is going to be about value. Many managers are naively pushing data collection as the end-game. Understand, right now, that data collection is at best the pre-game warm-up. Important, but not the point. Businesses are stalling after they get the data. They don’t know what to do with it. Don’t hear the thunder? Give this a read:
http://www.marketingvox.com/web-analytics-failing-to-drive-business-decision-making-038619/

My experience tells me [this] is not about data; it’s about the lack of understanding and commitment to actionable strategies applied to data. We have a chance to turn this around by taking responsibility for pushing objectives, benchmarks, measuring success metrics, and figuring out the next step to change the results. Data gets you so far; actionable strategies take you further; continuous improvement wins the day. But without that first step of an objective, the initiative is going to fail (or at best be misunderstood).

Will the organizations change because you’re the acting as town crier for analytics? Not quickly. There must be evidence before it’s believed. And without success-metrics advocates selling their wares prior to launch of that super hot initiative, the evidence won’t come, minds won’t change.