We already talked about how important is asking the right questions before sitting in front of a particular data source. It makes easier your work since you only need to fill the blanks with information instead of sitting in front of a data source for one, two or three hours looking for “something interesting or useful”.

Understanding what questions can answer each data source, it is as important as the question itself. As we talked about five years ago in the Analytics 2.0 model, you have several information sources, each one measure a particular type of interaction between users and the marketing pieces of companies or people.  However we shouldn’t care about the information source but the information itself, we need the information that answer our questions no matter if that information comes from one, two or 1000 sources. No matter if it comes from a Web Analytics, a CRM, and ERP, or any other information platform. What it is important is what type of information can any of those platforms provide you.

Behavior: Behavioral information can only answer you the “What?”. Remember this because it is very important. Whenever you are in front of a behavioral source of information, don’t you ever ask another question than “What?”. What kind of information sources are behavioral sources? Web Analytics Tools, Adservers, eMail Marketing Tools, among others.

If you are using some of the above mentioned information tools directly or indirectly (into a dashboard with other information sources) you must remember to ask them questions with what.

• Right: What are users doing in my website? What pages are they navigating?
• Wrong: Why are users navigating this way? Why are users navigating those pages?

Attitudinal: This kind of information answers the “Why?” just that. Attitudinal information is normally captured through surveys and tells you about the attitude of a particular person or group of people about something, a brand,  products, etc.

• Right: Why aren’t users finishing the conversion process? Why are they looking but not buying products?
• Wrong: What pages are users visiting before buying? What was the information source that drove traffic to the product A?

When you ask questions to an incorrect source of information you are forcing inferences. Inference is filling the lack of information with bullshit with the strong mistaking certainty that you really have the information. The result is worst than having no information. When you don’t have information you make decisions understanding how risky it is, but when you think you have certain information you make decisions not thinking about the risk even when you are in a real risky situation.

So before begin with your analysis ask yourself, what kind of information can I get from this source? Is this Behavioral or Attitudinal?

We can discuss about almost everything, the name of what we do (Digital, Web, or just analytics), about the platforms, about the practices and even about who are the most influential professionals but if there is something about we are do all agree is that this was a very intense year, lets take a look to the most relevant news about it:

January 24, 2012: Accenture to Expand Analytics Capabilities with Acquisition of Neo Metrics Analytics S.L.

March 05, 2012: Web Analytics Association Becomes Digital Analytics Association.

March 31, 2012: Urchin is retired from the market.

April 18, 2012: Havas Digital 20% of Intellignos.

April 25, 2012: IBM Advances Big Data Analytics with Acquisition of Vivisimo.

April 25, 2012: Códice, Intellignos and Marketview launches the first Google Analytics User Conference Roadshow in Latin America.

Jun 13, 2012: IBM to acquire web analytics vendor Tealeaf Technology.

June 15, 2012: Yahoo! Web Analytics To Be Discontinued.

June 25, 2012: Digital Analytics Association Appoints John Lovett as President.

September 06, 2012: Adobe goes end to end on social with the acquisition of Wildfire.

October 29, 2012: Google Announces Universal Analytics.

Have a great 2013, my wish for the new year is that all our actions can be directed towards building a better Analytics Industry!!!

Paraphrasing my colleague Eric Peterson, I’ll do my part to demystify, in this case, the digital marketing. We are all talking about how wonderful and beneficial it is, for both online and offline. Everything that it is online is cool, is the future, offline it’s old fashion, the past, something that sooner or later will be done, finished, and we are gonna be all happy about that. As we say this kind of things we are reading the newspaper (the “offline” version), watching tv and listening the radio. If we lose the cable signal, we don’t receive the newspaper or the radio signal has some noise we have an instant nervous breakdown!

when we, the people that work in “digital marketing”, receive the information about the share of online ad investment from the past year, and the forecasting of the next year, we get angry, outraged! How can be possible that something that wonderful, the new big thing, the coolest ad stuff, is getting less money from advertising (at least in most of the countries) than the old stuff and unattractive tv?! are we all nuts?? Are the CEOs and CMOs stupid?? And we probably shoot some brillant phrases like “These bureaucrats are still managing the companies like they did 50 years ago!!!”…”however those problems will be solved when younger managers achieve those positions, they will definitely will understand the POWER of the internet!

Let’s see what it is beyond all this problem…the myths

1. Internet is the only media where everything can me measure: First of all, not everything in “the internet” can be measure. You have a lot, tons of information that can be measure as well as a lot that can’t be measure and some other tons of data that even when can be measure the cost of doing it is higher than the benefits of the information itself (decision-making and follow up).

I was talking with people from retailing from Latin America and they told me that they know when a TV advertising is not displayed because the get an slowdown in sales at their retails. That sounds very clever, isn’t it? What’s more important for a company that, like any company, is looking to increase their benefits or results, get the information about the number of pageviews, bounce rate and time on page, or having the information that when the invest X in TV they get Y in extraordinary sales in their retails? They don’t pay salaries with pageviews, likes or followers, they pay their salaries with money. Having information is not a problem today, managers today are drowning in data. They are drowning in data and our best brillant idea is giving the MORE information!!! What a stupid thing! They are on the edge of the abyss and we kick them forward…very clever

How many companies has the culture that their people before start looking for information they first write their questions in a piece of paper? How many, instead, have the culture of staying hours in front of the closer information platform or source looking what information can be useful? Wasting their time and leaving the information tool some hours later trying to remember why they did that with a bittersweet taste in their mouths. That is exactly drowning in data…

2. Just online is the future: In the same way that the radio hasn’t disappeared because of the television, the television and the other “offline” media will not disappear because of the internet. Is totally normal that the media. All the media are constantly changing, that’s normal, but saying that a media that is selected by millons of people around the world will disappear…that’s totally different. Whey would a powerful media as television will disappear? Remember the example of the retainers mentioned in the first Myth? I’m an entrepreneur and I don’t care how cool is Facebook, if I increase today or tomorrow’s company results with a flyer, then I’ll invest in flyers. Come on, who cares how cool can be a media? The important thing is the result that it can generate for the company. I’m not talking just about money (the present result), but user experience, service, etc (the future result). Me, as an entrepreneur, prefer the future just when I the future is secured. I don’t care about the future if my company will not there when it cames along . If the ROI of a flyer is attractive and it has no negative impact to my company image, then I’ll definitely go for the flyer and I’ll remember about Facebook and Twitter when it worthwhile.

Companies shouldn’t invest in something just because it’s cool of the future or “because you have to be there”, instead, because that investment allow them to increase the company’s result, today or in the future. Companies don’t pay their salaries with Likes or followers, no matter how cool or sophisticated they are.

3. Marketing online vs marketing offline: Strategically talking this classification is totally absurd. Marketing are the actions focused on generating demand, present of future, for a product or service of a particular company or brand. Ergo, every company has just one marketing objetive and one strategy. Then you have the operative marketing, what it is, how you execute the strategy through every particular marketing channel. So the decision of which channel is best is related on which one allow the company achieving its objetive more effectively, if the answer is the flyer, then welcome the flyer! if the answer is paid search, welcome paid search!

4. Managers have no idea about internet: The main objetive of a Top Manager, the C level, is to ensure the maximum present and future benefits. Present = Sales(Benefits), Futuro = Client support + Product Quality + User/Client Experience + Brand Positioning +…etc. (at least that’s the way I’d like it be in a company that I would work). So what a CEO need to report is information that allow the Stockholders and the board of directors to know if he is making the company improve its current or future situation.

So instead of thinking that the CEO is a dinosaur, why we don’t think that we are reporting them totally useless information like likes, followers, bounce rate, etc. Why useless? Because he has no idea about the operations (the company can have 1 or 1000 websites, that’s operations and is responsibility of the mid management),  because he can make any decision with that information and because nobody measures him based on that. So our challenge as digital analysts is providing each person in the organization with information that allow them making decisions or controlling how things are going, so before starting a report write a piece of paper with the questions it has to answer and before delivering it read the question and try to answer it with your report, without inferences, just with the provided information.

A 30 slides report with metrics like pageviews, bounces and registrations is completely inert. More pageviews is not equal to more income per advertising. Sales are not equal to received money. Today money is not equal to money in 8 months.

5. You have to be in social media: No, you don’t have to be anywhere, unless it complies with the premise “Earning more money today” or “Earning more money tomorrow”. I’m not saying this with avarice but totally the other way around. If the company earns money can generate employment, a nice work environment, etc. You don’t HAVE to be in social media, you CAN be in social media is this operative channel is a useful one to implement your company’s strategy.

6. Big data is the salvation: Big data, are the techniques focused on capture, curation, storing, search, population, analysis and visualization of data, in cases where due to the high level of data is totally impossible the manual handle of them. However those techniques don’t improve human capacity of finding insights, ergo, it doesn’t matter how good are you handling big data platforms but how good are you analyzing it. Bid data platforms and techniques are very helpful, makes your job easier and improve the dynamism but if you don’t focus on answering questions, big data instead of helping you it will sink you.

Big data is not the salvation, humans are the salvation. We have the unique and creative capacity of finding insights in tons of data. Computers are clumsy and bureaucratic (but are great repeating things, something that humans are terrible doing), so don’t try to find the answer where there are no answers.

I could definitely add another myth, but you know “7 myths” makes me feel like a cliche Character…

Stop doing that annoying noise about analytics and it’s glamorous terms and go to work. Switching to an Analytical culture it’s so hard than just a few companies are achieving it.

Understanding the metrics or information tools is the less important and complicated step for switching to a Data Driven culture. The most complicated one is the political cost, that since to be high for most of the managers.

Since 2006 approximately which began to appear more strongly the “Web Analytics” term (Digital analytical) in the Internet industry. We’ve been talking a lot about it this five years but we’ve been doing not much than measuring the results of digital campaigns.

Everybody agreed with Robert Kaplan’s quote “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. When anyone mention it, everybody looks like it is something logic or based on the common sense. Then why nobody can achieve something that is obvious that it’s important? So, why infer over another inference having the chance of making decisions based on low risk scenarios?

You may say that everything about Analytics is pretty complex, that has some cryptic terminology and that it is normally useless. Even when I do agree with great part of that, I don’t think that that is what makes a CEO’s or any person from the C level not taking Analytics seriously or even with some priority. Actually if someone from the C level sees the “Gold” in the information will definitely goes in that direction. The biggest problem is the Organization’s cultural change, that requires a long term planification that has to be based on a corporative decision, that will definitely have political costs that nobody is willing to take, even when it worth it, for sure.

Those companies that changed its culture and became “Data Driven” are those that at the end of the day fill power points with Case Studies that make fill the rest like non creative. But is not about “blind creativity”. Is not true that with just a brilliant mind it’s enough. I mean, it would be great if you can just hire a Guru that can tell us that if we do A and then B then we will get C (hopefully C is money), but unfortunately it doesn’t exist such a thing (actually, would you really hire someone that call himself a Guru? :-S). It is important to realize how terrible and unfair can be asking someone a particular result not providing him with information.

I don’t even remember the number of times that the “Creative guy” from a company almost broke down and cried for joy for receiving a report with detailed information that provided structure and order to a particular requirement. “Finally some information!” was heard as he exhaled a puff of oxygen. Apparently not even the creative guys flee from information, at least not most of them.

What it is really hard is thinking about the others. We are all constantly generating relevant information, you can probably break down in laughter if I tell you that one of the most important sources of information is the notebook full of scribbles next to your computer. That notebook hides the truth that someone, five or ten steps from you, is searching while praying. That scribble in your notebook saying “I swap the header image of the guy wearing a suit by the image of a family enjoying in the field” is all what probably needs some guy next door that is trying to understand why the bounce rate dropped down in 15% generating an increase in ad stock and an increase of 5% in sales! But since the information is not available is hard to understand the cause of the mentioned result.

Nobody leaves a boat in the middle of the ocean when it’s navigating perfectly, why taking the risk? You leave a big one like the titanic even to get into an small boat just when the titanic is sinking.  The CMO’s report from IBM is very clear in that regards, CMO’s are drowning in data and have no idea how are they going to be able to make decisions with the volumes of data that they are facing this days. So, the boat is sinking, time of taking the risk…is time to take the new boat.

Ten years ago or so, talking about Analytics was something interesting for a couple of nerds and geeks, and not just in Latin America, but in the world.

Two weeks ago I was Invited to talk about the Digital Analytics job in one of my favorite TV programs, “Argentina para Armar”. Tom (from Intellignos) and I were talking probably for the very first time to a non nerdy audience about what is Digital Analytics about. And you know what? I received dozens of emails asking for more information about this “profession”!

If you are in this industry probably sometimes you feel, , like me, that things are not moving forward as fast as you like to, but this kind of things give us a clue that we are going in the right direction and the Digital Analytics Association is being definitely the cornerstone.

Here I leave you the video, I know, it’s in Spanish…but, is a great time for practicing it, right?

First part of the program

Second part of the program

I’m wonder why some people starts a measurement project from the end, the implementation of a measurement tool. So, let’s talk a little bit about the previous step of a measurement project.

The measurement Object: First of all it is vital to define what are you gonna measure, in every case you will measure a system so you have to understand how that system looks like. So if you have system, the main thing you have to understand is the main objetive of it, in this case let’s say earned money, benefits, not just quantity of sales.

In this step I suggest you to grab a sheet of paper (I normally use the other side of a wrong printed one) and start the drafting process. Important! This is a draft, forget about being perfectionist.

In the draft draw every part of the system you need to measure. Let’s say an Online Shop (eCommerce), a content website, an online product site for an offline commerce, etc.

Take a look to an example I did just for this post:

As you can see, first I defined the demand generation actions (traffic channels?), so I defined a responsable (marketing) and the objective of each channel is between parenthesis. Each channel, or even campaign, will drive demand to a particular landing page. The quantity of landing pages will depend on the quantity of different targets and/or messages communicated, the idea is that each person lands on a page that is relevant to the previous message received. Then each landing page will have a set of interactions that will drive the landed browser to a particular content or process. It’s important that you have in mind the process you wanted the user to do so you will be able to plan the few required interactions to do that and not adding dozens of interactions that will compete each other and can finally drive the user out of the conversion process.

Parenthesis: Each interaction compete with the rest of them, so if you think that adding a download, or a product simulator is a good idea, first analyze which other interactions do you have in the same page and how they compete each other.

Returning to the main topic, each landing page will drive traffic to a set of content and each content will also be responsable of a particular goal. In this case each content will take users in different stages of their buying process and will try to convert them into clients. Actually, customer support will have the goal of providing a great service and turn that in a new sale (up sale or cross sale).

Once the conversion is done (a new sale) you have information about that new client to improve his Life Time Value. In this case I highly recommend you to go from ROI (Return on Investment) to ROCI (Return on Customer Investment), because no matter if you are getting a high ROI you can be investing money in non rentable clients…but this topic worth, at least, a full new post.

Define the “interactions to conversion”: In the above image you see each part of the system and its role in it. The main objetive is to generate benefits from online sales, meaning increasing the gap between cost and price. Then you have to find sets of actions that will bring the company closer to its objetive. Let’s say “Awareness”, “Buy intention”, “Conversion” and “Upsale / Cross Sale”. Each of the above “Categories” will have a sets of measurable actions, let’s say for awareness could be “Download Catalog”, “View Product”, etc. Then try the same with each categorie. Get a value for everything, a registration is a lead conversion and should have a value for you. All those interactions related to the main objetive must be tracked, whether with page tracking or action tracking.

Information system: Once you now all the required information you have to define all the information sources you need. Website Analytics, HeatMaps, Surveys and Polls, eMail Marketing, Ad Servers, etc.

After this you have to define the implementation structure for each platform and just then do the implementation, but that is for another post.

Juan