The web analytics group in Scotland have for sometime been discussing ways to help our marketing industry colleagues wake up to the value of our services. The Drum magazine feature earlier this year was a start and I know members are all making individual efforts to plug away at this key market.
So it was great to hear Mads Moller of Google presenting at the Marketing Society conference in Edinburgh on Friday. He introduced not just Google Analytics, but basic level concepts of the cycle of measurement, insight and refinement that online marketing offers. He didn't talk about the new multivariate testing tool - this was a basic introduction after all - but he certainly conveyed the possiblities of using analytics data to drive a highly accelerated testing and improvement programme. With most of the great, good and aspiring of Scotland's marketing industry in attendance, it was a plug that we should capitalise on!
Mads - consider yourself invited to the WAA Scotland group anytime you're in town. The dates are below!
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Web Analytics Wednesdays for 2007
Things have been a little quiet on the Web Analytics Scotland front in the last few months.
Personally, I have been away a lot, including spending some time at the Emetrics Summit (read summit report here) and WAA training in Washington DC and I realize it has been a very busy time for everyone.
However, I was hoping we could get some re-invigorated WAA Scotland activity underway in the New Year.
Unless anyone has a strong preference for meeting monthly, I suggest we meet bi-monthly, at a venue in Edinburgh as before. (Please advise if you have other preferences - for example, online meetings between the face to face sessions).
Proposed Web Analytics Wednesday dates for the New Year 2007 are:
Wednesday 10th January
Wednesday 14th March
Wednesday 9th May
Venue: Apex House, Scottish Enterprise, Haymarket, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Time: 6pm to 7.30pm followed by drink at local pub.
I would be very happy to hear from anyone who may like to get involved with helping organising and promoting activities in the coming year, or has specific ideas for sessions they would like to see. Please contact me on: vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
You may also be interested to know that there are plans to make an intensive WAA web analytics training day, similar to that delivered in Washington DC last month, available to European WAA members - possibly in an online format. I will update you when I know more about this.
Personally, I have been away a lot, including spending some time at the Emetrics Summit (read summit report here) and WAA training in Washington DC and I realize it has been a very busy time for everyone.
However, I was hoping we could get some re-invigorated WAA Scotland activity underway in the New Year.
Unless anyone has a strong preference for meeting monthly, I suggest we meet bi-monthly, at a venue in Edinburgh as before. (Please advise if you have other preferences - for example, online meetings between the face to face sessions).
Proposed Web Analytics Wednesday dates for the New Year 2007 are:
Wednesday 10th January
Wednesday 14th March
Wednesday 9th May
Venue: Apex House, Scottish Enterprise, Haymarket, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Time: 6pm to 7.30pm followed by drink at local pub.
I would be very happy to hear from anyone who may like to get involved with helping organising and promoting activities in the coming year, or has specific ideas for sessions they would like to see. Please contact me on: vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
You may also be interested to know that there are plans to make an intensive WAA web analytics training day, similar to that delivered in Washington DC last month, available to European WAA members - possibly in an online format. I will update you when I know more about this.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Web Analytics In the News
This Special Web Analytics Feature in last week's DM review has some interesting view points on the current state of the web analytics industry and where it is heading, with input from Eric Peterson, Jim Sterne and others:
http://www.dmnews.com/cms/lib/6502.pdf
http://www.dmnews.com/cms/lib/6502.pdf
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Next Web Analytics Wednesday
Date: Wednesday August 16th
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Scottish Enterprise, Apex House, Haymarket then drink at local pub
Agenda will be updated shortly - just let me know if you would like to introduce a discussion topic.
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Scottish Enterprise, Apex House, Haymarket then drink at local pub
Agenda will be updated shortly - just let me know if you would like to introduce a discussion topic.
Monday, June 26, 2006
July Scotland Web Analytics Wednesday Event
Date: Wednesday 12th July, 6pm - 7.30pm
Venue: TBC - followed by drinks at local pub
As requested by attendees at previous events, we have planned some more structured discussion topics for next month's Web Analytics Wednesday. If there are topics or questions you are interested in exploring in this and future sessions, please feel free to email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
Stephen Budd of Highland Business Research will be reporting on the Customer Strategy and Management event held at the NEC in Birmingham last week. With the focus firmly on CRM and using data to identify profitable customers, this should add useful perspective to our previous CRM & web analytics discussions.
If you would like to lead a discussion topic with a 5 minute introduction, or have a success story or case study you would like to share , or you're doing great things integrating web analytics and CRM, we'd also love to hear from you.
Confirmation of the venue and discussion topics will be circulated prior to the event.
Venue: TBC - followed by drinks at local pub
As requested by attendees at previous events, we have planned some more structured discussion topics for next month's Web Analytics Wednesday. If there are topics or questions you are interested in exploring in this and future sessions, please feel free to email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
Stephen Budd of Highland Business Research will be reporting on the Customer Strategy and Management event held at the NEC in Birmingham last week. With the focus firmly on CRM and using data to identify profitable customers, this should add useful perspective to our previous CRM & web analytics discussions.
If you would like to lead a discussion topic with a 5 minute introduction, or have a success story or case study you would like to share , or you're doing great things integrating web analytics and CRM, we'd also love to hear from you.
Confirmation of the venue and discussion topics will be circulated prior to the event.
Monday, June 05, 2006
E-consultancy delivering web analytics training in Edinburgh
E-consultancy is delivering a web analytics training course in Edinburgh on the 4th July.
Neil Mason will be delivering the course. Neil will be a familiar face to those who've attended the Emetrics Summit and if you haven't heard him speak, I can heartily recommend him as a fascinating and knowledgeable practitioner, not just of web analytics, but of integrated business intelligence.
More details of the e-consultancy course can be found here:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/knowledge/events/1105/web-measurement-and-analytics--edinburgh-training-event.html
Neil Mason will be delivering the course. Neil will be a familiar face to those who've attended the Emetrics Summit and if you haven't heard him speak, I can heartily recommend him as a fascinating and knowledgeable practitioner, not just of web analytics, but of integrated business intelligence.
More details of the e-consultancy course can be found here:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/knowledge/events/1105/web-measurement-and-analytics--edinburgh-training-event.html
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Next Web Analytics Wednesday Event
Next Scotland Web Analytics Wednesday Event
Date: 31st May, 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Edinburgh, Burns Room, Apex House (Scottish Enterprise) - then drinks at nearby pub!
As requested by attendees at previous events, we have planned some slightly more structured discussion topics for this months Web Analytics Wednesday:
1. Emetrics Summit Debrief
WAA Scotland group members Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research and Andrew Hood of Lynchpin attended the London Emetrics Summit earlier this month. At the next Web Analytics Wednesday on 31st May they will be sharing some of the ideas and latest thinking from the global web analytics community that were presented and discussed at this event.
2. Web Analytics and CRM
WAA Scotland group member Colin Munro will be leading a discussion on Web Analytics and CRM. Having been the Web Analyst and CRM manager for VisitScotland and managed the measurement of the many the web properties and complex campaigns under VS’s remit, Colin’s experience on this subject should lead us into some useful debate.
3. Events and Education
The Scotland WAA group is also planning a larger scale event for later in the year and is also looking to develop a set of online case studies, recommended resources and useful hints and tips for the local web analytics community. There will be discussion about this on Wednesday, but if you can’t attend please do email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
After the discussion in the comfort of Apex House, we will decamp to a nearby pub. If you would like to attend the Web Analytics Wednesday event or just come along at 7.30pm for a drink, please let Vicky Brock know so we can keep an eye out for you!
Directions to Apex House can be found here: http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/edinburgh-how-to-visit.htm
Finally, we are looking for topics or questions you are interested in exploring in this and future sessions, so please feel free to email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
Date: 31st May, 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Edinburgh, Burns Room, Apex House (Scottish Enterprise) - then drinks at nearby pub!
As requested by attendees at previous events, we have planned some slightly more structured discussion topics for this months Web Analytics Wednesday:
1. Emetrics Summit Debrief
WAA Scotland group members Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research and Andrew Hood of Lynchpin attended the London Emetrics Summit earlier this month. At the next Web Analytics Wednesday on 31st May they will be sharing some of the ideas and latest thinking from the global web analytics community that were presented and discussed at this event.
2. Web Analytics and CRM
WAA Scotland group member Colin Munro will be leading a discussion on Web Analytics and CRM. Having been the Web Analyst and CRM manager for VisitScotland and managed the measurement of the many the web properties and complex campaigns under VS’s remit, Colin’s experience on this subject should lead us into some useful debate.
3. Events and Education
The Scotland WAA group is also planning a larger scale event for later in the year and is also looking to develop a set of online case studies, recommended resources and useful hints and tips for the local web analytics community. There will be discussion about this on Wednesday, but if you can’t attend please do email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
After the discussion in the comfort of Apex House, we will decamp to a nearby pub. If you would like to attend the Web Analytics Wednesday event or just come along at 7.30pm for a drink, please let Vicky Brock know so we can keep an eye out for you!
Directions to Apex House can be found here: http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/edinburgh-how-to-visit.htm
Finally, we are looking for topics or questions you are interested in exploring in this and future sessions, so please feel free to email us or contribute to the Scotland Group blog with your suggestions.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Report from the 2006 London Emetrics Summit
WAA Scotland members Vicky Brock of HBR and Andrew Hood of Lynchpin both attended the 2006 Emetrics Summit in London last week.
It was a stimulating, full on event with participants from all over the globe.
It was encouraging to find out how much interest there is from countries across Europe in forming their own local groups, with much interest in building relations with the Scotland group.
Vicky's full report details can be found here: http://www.highlandbusinessresearch.com/emetricssummit2006.jsp
It was a stimulating, full on event with participants from all over the globe.
It was encouraging to find out how much interest there is from countries across Europe in forming their own local groups, with much interest in building relations with the Scotland group.
Vicky's full report details can be found here: http://www.highlandbusinessresearch.com/emetricssummit2006.jsp
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Babies and Bathwater - Re-gaining Business Intelligence Online
Web analytics is a young industry and by its nature, those working in it have arrived from numerous different routes - some from IT roles, some software or web development, some from marketing.
Personally, I fall into the direct marketing camp. It does not seem strange to me at all that within my own company, which deals with business intelligence in its many forms, web analytics services should sit very naturally alongside market research, customer insight and other forms of data analysis.
I spent many years in direct marketing working with clients to understand the exact impact that the position of a graphic on an outer envelope had in affecting open rates; how different propositions and calls to actions affected return on investment; the affect of the same message on different groups or the same message at different times - all with the overall client objective of ensuring that every penny of marketing spend worked as hard as it possible could to make sales and achieve business goals.
So this week, roughly 7 years on from my first fumblings with web analytics, I found myself delivering a couple of workshops where much of the discussion centred around defining the key goals, pinning down measures that matter, understanding what conversion is and how to action measurement to achieve business goals.
And I found myself wondering how the baby got thrown out with the bathwater during the move of business activity online. How come this web analytics industry ever got born, when in so many ways, the obvious facilitators of this business intelligence function were the direct marketing and advertising agencies.
Instead it seems to me that so much of the rigorous process of test, measure, refine that was occurring in direct marketing got overlooked as businesses rushed online. Then when clients caught their breath and again started to ask "how do I know if this is even working" and "how do we make this more successful", those questions were asked to their new media agencies, web designers and online marketing teams who in many cases had not grown up chanting "test, measure, refine" and had to undertake a discovery process of their own.
Naturally, new technology was needed to start to effectively measure performance online - and I know there was a time when even those of us committed to measuring effectiveness, testing approaches and actioning demonstrable improvements online were very frustrated. But this drove innovation and I think the industry has developed to the point that lack of measurement technology is not the issue (except perhaps, as Steve Jackson rightly points out, amongst mobile activity and newer delivery mechanisms). The data is better than it has ever been, in any other marketing medium.
Ironically, the catch up is instead in the "test, measure, refine" mantra and the detail focused, return on investment obsessed culture that lead some businesses to be so successful at direct marketing in the first place. The companies that once appreciated that the choice of a single word, or the careful positioning of a response mechanism could make or break a campaign, are re-engaging with the principles that of course they knew already. But this time championed by the web analytics industry.
I believe it was Bob Chatham of Forrester Research who said at the Emetrics Summit last year that web analytics will disappear as it matures - becoming instead simply "business intelligence". I would agree, because re-gaining business intelligence online by embracing some of the tried and testing principles of offline ROI measurement, data analysis, customer profiling and predictive modelling and combining that with new data sources and processing power available, has the potential to be an incredibly powerful business resource of a scale not yet seen.
(Personal opinions of Vicky Brock)
Personally, I fall into the direct marketing camp. It does not seem strange to me at all that within my own company, which deals with business intelligence in its many forms, web analytics services should sit very naturally alongside market research, customer insight and other forms of data analysis.
I spent many years in direct marketing working with clients to understand the exact impact that the position of a graphic on an outer envelope had in affecting open rates; how different propositions and calls to actions affected return on investment; the affect of the same message on different groups or the same message at different times - all with the overall client objective of ensuring that every penny of marketing spend worked as hard as it possible could to make sales and achieve business goals.
So this week, roughly 7 years on from my first fumblings with web analytics, I found myself delivering a couple of workshops where much of the discussion centred around defining the key goals, pinning down measures that matter, understanding what conversion is and how to action measurement to achieve business goals.
And I found myself wondering how the baby got thrown out with the bathwater during the move of business activity online. How come this web analytics industry ever got born, when in so many ways, the obvious facilitators of this business intelligence function were the direct marketing and advertising agencies.
Instead it seems to me that so much of the rigorous process of test, measure, refine that was occurring in direct marketing got overlooked as businesses rushed online. Then when clients caught their breath and again started to ask "how do I know if this is even working" and "how do we make this more successful", those questions were asked to their new media agencies, web designers and online marketing teams who in many cases had not grown up chanting "test, measure, refine" and had to undertake a discovery process of their own.
Naturally, new technology was needed to start to effectively measure performance online - and I know there was a time when even those of us committed to measuring effectiveness, testing approaches and actioning demonstrable improvements online were very frustrated. But this drove innovation and I think the industry has developed to the point that lack of measurement technology is not the issue (except perhaps, as Steve Jackson rightly points out, amongst mobile activity and newer delivery mechanisms). The data is better than it has ever been, in any other marketing medium.
Ironically, the catch up is instead in the "test, measure, refine" mantra and the detail focused, return on investment obsessed culture that lead some businesses to be so successful at direct marketing in the first place. The companies that once appreciated that the choice of a single word, or the careful positioning of a response mechanism could make or break a campaign, are re-engaging with the principles that of course they knew already. But this time championed by the web analytics industry.
I believe it was Bob Chatham of Forrester Research who said at the Emetrics Summit last year that web analytics will disappear as it matures - becoming instead simply "business intelligence". I would agree, because re-gaining business intelligence online by embracing some of the tried and testing principles of offline ROI measurement, data analysis, customer profiling and predictive modelling and combining that with new data sources and processing power available, has the potential to be an incredibly powerful business resource of a scale not yet seen.
(Personal opinions of Vicky Brock)
Friday, March 10, 2006
WAA Scotland, Nordics and England joint activity
Vicky Brock of the Scotland group and Steve Jackson of the Nordics group have been invited by the WAA to join Nick Sharp as co-chairs of the WAA International Committee.
A joint Scotland/Nordics summit took place in a hotel in Edinburgh on a rainy afternoon yesterday, (well Steve and Vicky sat down and drank beer and talked the hind legs off web analytics for a fair few hours) and in terms of development of the web analytics industry ahead of us, I think this is an exciting time and hope that in Scotland we can really share, enjoy and learn from the enthusiasm and wisdom of members in these other regions.
Those Scotland group members planning to attend the London Emetrics Summit in May (3rd - 5th) have got another reason to get their booking in fast. The International committee will be hosting a dinner for WAA members on the Wednesday evening and we would love to see you there!
The US Summit is already sold out, and London is booking very fast - so if you're interested, find out more here: http://www.emetrics.org/html/london_2006.html
A joint Scotland/Nordics summit took place in a hotel in Edinburgh on a rainy afternoon yesterday, (well Steve and Vicky sat down and drank beer and talked the hind legs off web analytics for a fair few hours) and in terms of development of the web analytics industry ahead of us, I think this is an exciting time and hope that in Scotland we can really share, enjoy and learn from the enthusiasm and wisdom of members in these other regions.
Those Scotland group members planning to attend the London Emetrics Summit in May (3rd - 5th) have got another reason to get their booking in fast. The International committee will be hosting a dinner for WAA members on the Wednesday evening and we would love to see you there!
The US Summit is already sold out, and London is booking very fast - so if you're interested, find out more here: http://www.emetrics.org/html/london_2006.html
Friday, January 27, 2006
Forthcoming Web Analytics Wednesdays dates so far for 2006 are:
1st March, Glasgow
"Closing the Loop: Applying web analytics to improve usability, customer insight and return on your marketing investment."
March 28th (venue tbc), Edinburgh.
1st March, Glasgow
Launch of the WAA and Web Analytics Wednesdays in Glasgow
6pm - 7.30pm, venue Scottish Enterprise, Atlantic Quay
- Enjoy some informal networking and problem solving discussion with others working with or interested in web analytics
- A preview of current web analytics thinking and technologies
- Find out more about the Web Analytics Association and the forthcoming Emetrics Summit
- Take the opportunity to get involved in shaping web analytics in Scotland
This event, sponsored by Scottish Enterprise, is free and particularly targeted to those working with web analytics, web services or responsible for working with company or public body websites.
For more information or to book, contact: info@highlandbusinessresearch.com
8th March, Inverness
Workshop on web analytics technologies and applying web analytics to improve usability, customer insight and return on your marketing investment.
3.30pm - 5pm, venue The Green House
- An introduction to current web analytics thinking and technologies
- Get results from analytics by measuring your online performance and identifying key web performance indicators
- Tips to help you isolate and test what's working and what's not
The seminar on 8 March is free and particularly targeted to those working in IT, web design or responsible for working with company or public body websites. Thanks to Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise for their support.
For more information or to book a place, contact: info@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Special Event:"Closing the Loop: Applying web analytics to improve usability, customer insight and return on your marketing investment."
March 28th (venue tbc), Edinburgh.
- Understand current web analytics thinking and how web analytics can be applied as part of a usability management programme
- Get results from analytics by aligning your business goals and measuring your online performance
- Tips to help you isolate and test what's working and what's not
- Share web analytics lessons learned by online businesses worldwide
This is a joint event with the Scottish Usability Professionals Association . Presentations will be given by Vicky Brock of HBR and the WAA and Andrew Hood of Lynchpin.
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