Archive for January, 2009
If you´re deciding on your KPI´s, ask “So What?” at least 3 times until you know you got the right one.
My previous post about building a strong reporting infra-structure, shows how important it is to be able to get your reports efficiently, so you can trust your data while you spend the rest of your time analyzing it. (80-20 rule of analytics…you can guess what it refers too).
Once you have your reporting infra structure going, next step is to take a closer look at your indicators and pick those that are really useful. At the same time as the web offers a vast array of data, it is vital to be able to weed out the clutter of data before you drawn in it.
One particular method to select those KPI´s that are useful and discard those that aren´t is the So What? Test. The So What? Test is recommended by Avinash Kaushik in his book Web Analytics One Hour a Day, where he explains the test, and throughout the book gives you great insights in analyzing tons of data.
By performing the So What? Test, you should be able to explore basically 3 dimensions of that specific KPI: what, to which extend it is important, and finally what actions you can follow. Therefore, by conducting this the test, what occurs is that by asking a question, the answer you get should raise another question (So What?!). If by the third question you don´t get a recommendation to follow action you can discard the KPI.
Finally, the big thrill in web analytics is to develop sharp insights that allow you to be guided by the data and let them tell you excatly what to do. Well, the So What? Test surely helps.
Relying on data is key on management control and assertive decision making. But first you need to build a strong reporting infra-structure. Data is everything.
In order to make sound decisions and to keep close track of what´s going on your marketing department, it´s essential to have a good business intelligence tool at your disposal. But if you first need to build it, an important part to the process includes deciding on which data you need and where you might access it. Given you´re a medium or large-sized organization, that might a resourceful process.
Knowing your data
In internet advertising, data is not the problem. Nevertheless, a lot of data might be, and choosing which is relevant might be a long process. In the beginning it might be difficult to make the right decision, so it´s important not to leave out any data that you might realize far too late you need.The more data you have the safer you will be in the future, and you can always drop stuff later.
Putting it all together
Your data might be coming from different sources and you need all the data to account for your advertising channels and to aggregate into one single platform. Since, say Google adwords, Yahoo! and your affiliate networks provide their own set of data, you will need to standardize them. Then once you have build your reporting tool, you´ll be able to look at them alone or grouped, and always in relation to the total figure.
Automation & and time efficiency
The next challenge in having a working business intelligence tool is to automate this data processing mechanist in an efficient and time saving manner. Eventually the time you spend goes into analyzing information, not processing it. The faster you access information, the more efficiently you will be able to respond to the challenges in your environment.
Aggregating data over time and start discovering trends
The first results of this process, might not be visible at first as you need time to aggregate data and start seeing trends over a given period of time. By then, your marketing department will be running on data-driven decision making and you can rely on data to tell you what to do.
My friend went to India and almost got hit by…
Published January 11, 2009 Not Your Average Post Leave a Comment
Does Facebook Garantee Success?
Published January 6, 2009 SEM 1 CommentTags: Advertising, Facebook, Social Media
In my opinion Google improved advertising ROI because its ads appear when users are in the buying mood.
Most of us know that traditional advertising no longer works. Buying ads to generate awareness, make consumers spend, to make profit and buy more ads doesn´t work anymore. Consumers are looking for very specific stuff, and it´s up to advertisers to catch them when they´re on the hunt, send them to their page and deliver.
People don´t want to be taken to places they don´t want to go. They don´t want to lose time with non-sense and don´t want to be interrupted.
Until Google (and Yahoo and MSN..) came up with ads showing on search results pages, advertisers in the net were doing just about that. They were executing traditional advertising instruments online. There was direct mail (spam), billboards and posters (banners and pop-ups)…all of which are unwanted, annoying garbage you´re not willing to pay attention to.
I still remember when I used to live in Sao Paulo and the streets were filled with huge billboards, everywhere you looked. It was horrible and it hugely contributed to the city´s visual contamination. Never again.
(Sao Paulo)
Facebook is a buzz.
I am still trying to figure it out why is facebook (or any social network in a broader sense) receiving so much attention and advertisers seem to be seeing a gold mine there. Maybe that´s because facebook is able to segment like no one (unique in the web). Or because it allows you to do “social advertising” (show ads to people and their friends)? or maybe just because everyone uses it (yesterday 13,5% of global users visited facebook, according to alexa.com)? hmmm, because it´s inexpensive? Probably all of them.
But does it mean it works?
I doubt.
Because in the end it´s just traditional advertising in a sense that it´s used to chase and yell at people. Aesthetically wise Facebook might not be like the streets of Sao Paulo, but still it is full of unwanted impressions people might pay little attention to. Besides, who wants to be friends with a brand? What does it add to the user? Will it be worth talking about it and waste your friend´s time?
Mr. Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks on NY Times: “Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better.”
The real power of internet is that it enables ideas to spread quickly, by themselves and at very low costs. My guess is that marketeers, organizations, people, enterpreneurs need to come up with great ideas that will do just that. Unless communcation strategies are put in place in Facebook in order achieve that goal, sticking to more conventional advertising might be a waste of potencial the social platform has to offer.
There are two kinds of people in particular that inspire me: Chef Cooks and Disc Jockeys. They inspire me because they do it their own way and no other.
During my student years I worked at Restaurant Luce in Utrecht. The kitchen was run by Roy Wiggers, an Amsterdam Chef who was trained in Switzerland and became known for making modern Dutch food in New York. The concept in Luce is very simple. You have only 3 choices. That´s it. Roy decides what you eat. If you don´t like it, it´s no one´s fault, “we´re just not made for each other”.
Roy cooked what he liked and nobody told him what to do. If people were willing, they had to get used to it, accept his view and enjoy their meal. Many people criticized the restaurant and their lack of choice. But most of all, people constantly talked about it. The idea quickly spread and nowadays everyone wants to eat there.
Some disc jockeys are like that too. I have seen Rainer Truby play a few times. The last one (probably the very best set) he played for an empty dance floor and he did it all night long with the same energy and vibration as if had there been a 1000 people. He clearly didn´t play for the people, he played for the music.
Both Roy and Rainer Truby are deeply engaged with their thing. Both don´t change course, nor settle if their audience does n´t “understand” what they do, they just do it anyway. Both deliver an experience, a singular moment. They make people see something they would otherwise never be able to. And they both get a real kick from it.
Ever since I decided to start a blog something changed.
Not only has my blog become my baby, but also an ever growing desire to keep learning and to stay engaged.
In order to write posts and to stay engaged with my blog, I am driven to do research and to be always on the look out for new stuff to write about. When I do that I grow. When I don´t do it, I feel like I stand still.
Therefore, the more I grow, the more the blog grows. The more my blog grows, the more I grow.
That´s the wheel.
It´s all about keeping the wheel turning and to keep moving.
Ultimately, blogging is a reflection and at the same time a thermometer of my own development and growth.
That´s why I love blogging and can´t picture myself not doing it.
