Beyond Statistics, What's Next?
The future is coming – and it’ll mean the end of website statistics as we know it.
by Ross Lasley
We’ve presented formulas for using web stats to calculate appropriate Internet marketing spending in a past issue of this newsletter last winter ("Make Money with Alphabet Soup").
Two huge things have emerged in the world on Internet Marketing in the last few years – enewsletters and CPC (cost per click) marketing.
Both of these items have statistics associated with them – how many people opened the newsletter, clicked a link, forwarded it, and so on. We recently launched a product, KISSclicks, which offers robust results tracking on managed CPC campaigns. This allows users to see the conversion percentage of general web visits vs people coming on a CPC campaign as well as providing the management tools to determine which vehicles are creating the most revenue.
Frankly, it’s pretty darn cool – but it is just the tip of the iceberg. The current crop of products that do this work come from some pretty bright software vendors – but I doubt any of them are the source of the next generation of tools.
What we’ll see next is fully integrated user information, along with the tools to make practical use of the data. To me, this is more of a consulting task than a programming one – and each installation will require substantial customization.
Most businesses do a variety of things related to the web – they have a site, an e-newsletter, SEO strategy, CPC campaign, placements on other sites for which they usually pay (banners, etc.), special offers, affiliate links, and offline advertising designed to push people to the web vehicles.
Today there is a very limited statistical connection between these segments, despite the fact that most end users will experience at least two of them.
Integrated reports will be found inside your internal database of customers, which is connected to your invoicing and service systems as well. (yes, I know some CRM tools claim to do all this now – they don’t)
These off the shelf tools are coming but a smart consultant armed with a good database can do this for you today. Managing web sites involves more than just responses – it requires an all-encompassing approach.
Rubber Meets the Road
To give you an example of the practical impact all this can have, consider the experience of one of our clients, The Nauset Lantern Shop.
The Nauset Lantern Shop is based on Orleans, MA, and creates authentic handmade replicas of colonial lanterns – really gorgeous stuff. Michael Joly, the current owner, had a site up for about two years before he came to KISS, and the sales were pretty dismal. He had a shopping cart system, had done some CPC – and the results were zero. (he literally never had one shopping cart sale)
KISS designed a new site from the ground up. We developed a custom shopping cart system to allow for his rather complex products (choose finish, guard style, and so on) that priced it together right there. An e-newsletter has been established, CPC campaign is running, and the site has had numerous adjustments based on the experience of users. An all encompassing approach that keeps site design, functionality, marketing plans, and adjustments based results in balance.
The bottom line? Results. The sales at this site have been more in each of the two months since launch than they were in the previous two years. Michael set a specific sales target for the year, representing 10% of his business total and the site is right on track to meet that goal. In his words: “I got my first order 48 hours after the new site launched. Since then we've steadily increased the conversion rate and average order total leading to a great source of income for our business.”
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