The Four Myths of Web Analytics Every Digital Marketer Must Know

By Dave Wieneke | in Highlights, Web Analytics & Measurement | 22 Apr 2010 | One Comment

Digital marketing is different from traditional media channels because it is inherently measurable.

All the other great attributes of this channel — user participation, mobility, video, personal networks — are built on top of this quantifiable benefit. Measurability is our medium’s killer app.

So why do most organizations and websites fail to use web analytics effectively?

Here are the myths digital marketers need to recognize (and combat) in order to deliver on the promise of accountable marketing investments that can be improved over time.

1. Analytics Requires a Specialist
   If you are a digital marketer, you need to measure how your content (tweeting, emailing, or whatever it is you do) contributes to business goals.  Nobody will have richer insights about your campaigns than you. In order to actively manage your piece of the online business, you need direct access to analytics.
2. Web Analytic Success is Technology, and it’s Automatic
   Most companies with analytics code on their pages have never set a goal, instituted filtering, or defined visitor segments.  Web analytics is no more automatic than business intelligence is.  CMS project success is 20 percent determined by tool selection and 80 percent driven by training, culture, planning and governance.  Web analytics success is driven by the same factors.
3. Having the Best Tools Provides an Advantage
   Nope. Having the best people drives insight and success. While some tools may have more built-in testing or quantitative capabilities, these are peripheral. Arguing that advantage is based on system is like arguing that the Special Forces are a deadly fighting unit because of their gear.  Marines can kill with a spoon; a good analyst can use Google Analytics and Excel to optimize your business.
4. Sitewide Dashboard Stats Matter.
   Pages have different purposes. Audiences segments have different goals. Mixing them together dilutes an analyst’s ability to spot actionable factors.  Knowing the average AMEX bill may be interesting; knowing your own bill is actionable.

These myths are cutting marketers off from using online measurability to foster accountability for driving new business revenue.  Social media has been desperate for this over the last year — and so are the businesses investing in digital initiatives.

Give your business a competitive advantage, dedicate staff power to gaining analytic insight.

Take a lesson from social media
Don’t consolidate web analytics tools or expertise to just a few users. Over the last few months I’ve established and trained several dozen new internal web analytics users.

Bringing colleagues in to the mix has been empowering for everyone.  Why?  More people can do the heavy lifting of turning data in to reports, and there are more hypotheses and insights we can turn in to next steps.  More brains and eyes are a winning combination, and we’re seeing that on a daily basis.