In part 1 of this two-part blog post, I defined the first two stages of Web analytics success, basic reporting and dedicating more time to true reporting analysis. But that is just the beginning. How do you get to a higher level of analysis that produces real results and ROI for your online marketing campaigns, as well as a competitive advantage?

See "4 Stages of Web Analytics Success - Part 1" for a definition of the chart axis (click on image to view full size).

3) Advanced Analysis success is achieved when your Web analytics solution has been customized to allow analysis and reporting on the metrics and conversions that drive your business. At the same time, you're using these metrics to develop a set of specific actions aimed at increasing the performance of your marketing campaigns.

• At this stage, and contrary to popular belief, you should have freed yourself from data-overload by concentrating on five or fewer key performance indicators that drive your business.


• Having an integrated-marketing solution that ties your individual email marketing and pay-per-click campaigns to click-streams and conversions is needed. For example, you should now be able to separate email addresses of individuals who have purchased something on your Web site, from those who abandoned the shopping cart at a specific point, from those who opened the email but didn’t click through at all.


• Someone in your organization, or in an external agency, must have a deep understanding of your Web analytics solution and your business objectives to champion your Web analytics efforts.

4) Competitive Advantage success can be achieved in many different ways, and it is highly dependent on what your direct competitors are doing with Web analytics. That said, achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage requires that you have the right products in place, the right people on board, and closed-loop processes running, enabling automatic analysis to be conducted and actions to be taken.

• A competitive advantage could be as simple as automating your reporting and having the right reports distributed throughout your organization at the right intervals, or it can be as complex as automating the process of remarketing (i.e. sending out triggered email messages to visitors who abandoned your shopping cart at a certain step)


• Any way you look at it, you need to optimize your marketing efforts, minimize hours spent on repetitive Web analytics tasks and analysis, improve your conversion rates by targeting the right segments with the right messaging, and infuse these goals and concepts throughout your organization.

Needless to say, what constitutes a competitive advantage for you right now may not be as effective in the future as your competitors catch up, so you need the right products, the right people, and closed-loop processes working together seamlessly to build upon your successes.

In my opinion, if you follow this framework and understand where your goals fit into these stages of success, your Web analytics program and your organization is headed for success.

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