Erm, what do you mean it's wrong?

It's frustrating, isn't it. You have just spent the last 12months planning for the launch of a swanky new web site, invested tons of time and money in ensuring the insight datapoints are tagged up correctly, selected/chosen and signed with new affiliate partners to help promote your new swanky site and a whole bunch more and then suddenly it all comes crashing down; you've noticed something is wrong... the account ID being used in the page is for the development platform - bummer!

That means ALL your visitor behaviour insight is going to go into a black hole where no one other than you has access which now means you will be spending roughly 30mins a day, extracting those reports and placing them into an Excel sheet to distribute manually, distracting you for doing your day job.
OK, but that's not too bad - we've all had to do that before, and it's only for 4-6weeks...! BUT, what about next month, when the powers-above have brought onboard this hot new tech company that is going to drive our traffic and more importantly, our sales through the roof! More tags. More time. Being lost = More Pain!

privacy widget goes in here...

What to do - your budget has been halved, there are code freezes coming up due to the Christmas rush and the ink hasn't even dried yet on the contract your Director just signed. Heart rate, blood pressure, stress - all increasing. Job on the line? Doubtful, but your patience? Likely being tested!

Well, this is the first giveaway sign that a company such as this one needs a platform which can be remotely controlled outside of the company when it comes to placing/replacing technology vendor tags on the web site. Do you need one? Well, consider the options. How many times has the scenario above presented itself to you and/or your company? I would guess it happens monthly, maybe even weekly (dare I say daily)? How often do changes to the web site take to get started, let alone completed; weeks, months (never?)? And how much does that translate into lost insight/missed opportunity? I would guess the financial pain is a figure that already has five 0's in it already... and growing!

The good news is such technology to help ease the pain exists today and the shortlist is somewhat 'short'. With the ever increasing burdens being placed on visibility, availability and actionability, today, companies need to be so much more dynamic in the electronic media world and this is where tag management platforms can help.
Such platforms are yielding massive ROI's for their customers, making companies like yours innovative/dynamic and helping to make the lives of analysts 'easier'. You are no longer hired as an Analyst who needs to also know JS/HTML inside and out because it is you making the site change recommendations and developers are leaning on you. Once you start using a Tag Management System (TMS), you will notice you start to do on a daily basis what you were initially hired to do, Analyse and spot trends/make recommendations; you will also get more of a life, drink less wine, smoke less and generally lead a happier life.
Maybe it is time you considered a TMS for your company, after all. If you are still reading this rather lengthy blog post, the chances are you are someone who is suffering and can relate to all my points above. Need I say anymore?

End of message.

The era of cold calling, is over!

Does rejection excite you? Nah, me neither but in many cases it is just 'part of the job' and more often than not it is delegated to the junior in the team!
Sometimes you get lucky, perhaps 1 in 5 companies you 'carpet bomb' get you a meeting? But even then, you have to invest a lot of 'manual labour' to research your new prospect, what are they doing (what aren't they doing??), any recent wins/losses, expansion/growth opportunities and plenty more. And to make matters 'worse', all that effort and time doesn't include activity on the social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn among others.

So, a quick math calculation puts all this effort to approximately 1-2 hours per prospect. A successful sales person will need at least x20 that number to ensure they hit their number - so, how can you separate the 'Wheat from the Chaff'?
It's easy - you need a managed, cloud based (no hardware or people skills to source then!), internet and social media analysis platform that is 'always-on', an always 'in your pocket' news service that alerts you every time a company and keyword are matched BUT (and here is the magic) *with ranking heuristics, natural language and text mining service* which supplies the relevant contextual insights required specifically for you. In short, it will change the way you do business and will make you hugely successful and more productive - the era of cold calling is, finally over!

Such a service exists today - it won't hurt you to check out www.artesiansolutions.com to find out more!

Social CRM - and why you should do it!

Some people think CRM doesn't work; some don't see the value in Social Media. But those that spend just 30minutes of their time very quickly realise how the two technologies come together to make their lives easier, more productive, make them more successful and get/keep customers!

I'm talking about Social CRM - the new phenomenon brought alive by Artesian Solutions who are a British company based in Reading (UK) and are headed up by a team of veterans who know what they are doing!

Before you dismiss the thought of engaging in Social CRM yourself, consider this; how long does it take for you or your staff to do market research before you/they pick up the phone and cold call a prospect? I would guess a good hour or so (for each prospect).
How about conducting your own competitive insight - who else is claiming to do the same as you and possibly taking some of your custom away?
Now imagine having all of this information (and so much more) at your finger tips every morning (whether in your Inbox, Salesforce or as a standolone interface), saving you the trouble of scouring web sites, blogs, social media channels such as Twitter or LinkedIn.
Yesterday, I did exactly this for a new user at an existing customer - showed him how he could bring value to his asset management accounts by keeping an eye on the competition and also empowering him with information which one of his accounts will find invaluable.
Another previous example resulted in one of the account managers going back to his desk after some short training, and secured shortly after (same afternoon), a seven figure sum value deal with a new customer.

I use this service daily and it is very interesting to note how much real news slips through the traditional medium net! There are tons of golden nuggets in Twitter for example, some of which never make it into the traditional mediums such as TV, radio or print!

You might be thinking all of this is going to be very expensive, but you would be wrong. It's cheaper than filling your car up with fuel by a significant margin (and of course depends on the number of cars you own/run and people who would want to use such a service).

Individual insight - now more important than ever!

It seems 2012 is the year for digital Individual Insight. Everyone is asking for it, but why should you consider it? That, is what I hope to clear up in this post today.

First of all, what is 'Individual' and what does it mean to me and my business?

Individual is exactly that, a single instance of a person and anything/everything that person says or does.

Why should I care about knowing what an individual says or does?

Knowing someone has been on the web site, failed to complete a process and then left means your business is failing to convince an individual to do something online (that translates into lost opportunity)! When that individual calls into the call centre and completes their transaction offline, understanding why and what the outcome was will help you better tailor your efforts in channels they are less effective.

Take a scenario, someone has just been on Facebook and told their 100+ friends how bad a particular service your company offers, is. Think about the potential impact that might bring to your business - those 100+ friends also have 100+ friends each, taking the total level of exposure of something good or bad to well in excess of 10,000 people! If one in those 10,000 people were about to buy from the same company (or maybe the same product or service), but now don't due to a 'Friends' update, think about the impact that now brings to your business - now consider what if 10 or 100 of those 10,000 people were about to buy from you?

So, knowing the 'individual' activity is highly important, and that is only in the Social world - have you considered your own web site? Imagine the opportunity that awaits you in your own online shop; you know what every individual does that comes to your web site; you know what products they always look at but never buy; you know they like discount items - so next time you run your Sales email marketing campaign, send them a personalised and relevant email.

It may all seem like a no-brainer - after all, why wouldn't you want to get to the level of the 'individual' activity?! They have the ability to give you so much input into what is and isn't working for your business. The reality is no one has really considered or thought about this level of detail, mainly due to not realising such technology actually exists to help them achieve it.

Well, it does exist and I urge any organisation that wants to better target individuals

What can I expect to achieve if I adopt a platform that gives me 'individual' insight?

That promotion you have always wanted? It could happen, if you help shift the mindset of a business to think more laterally. Individual insight will help your business go from good to great, how can it not? Individual insight is now about aggregated views of data; individual insight gives a business the power to know, the power to change, the power to deliver - look at the success Unica and Bluesheep have had over the years, mostly derived from non-online individual insight. Imagine the value your business would get if it were possible to replicate the level of detail known about an individual from the online world in the same way the offline technologies have done so in previous years?

Still not convinced? Individual insight has demonstrated to businesses how they can save £250,000 per annum in adword campaigns, without impacting sales.

It has demonstrated uplift in excess of £1M in incremental revenue every time a Sale email marketing campaign is sent.

It has helped save in excess of £1M in online fraudulent transactions taking place on a web site with multiple credit cards, or shipping to known fraudulent hot-spots, OR individuals getting insurance quotes who chop and change their personal and historical circumstances to achieve a better price...

Individual insight just works! It can bring huge benefits to any organisation, you just have to try it for yourself to appreciate the value it brings.

Who wouldn't want the 'Visibility' piece online (and my 2012 prediction)

So you think you have perfected the online website channel; conversion rate is optimal, revenue stream is consistent, acquisition spend and performance is spot on (lucky you!).
So, where do you go from here? Sure, you could take an early Christmas and kick your feet up, sit back and enjoy the goodies people bring in to the office to spread the Christmas Cheer. Or, you could be doing something unique - something no one else has mastered yet and something that will make you hugely popular should you master it. I'm talking about the 'Visbility' piece, of course.

I coined this phrase back at the start of the year and it's meaning is very simple; "to provide businesses with visibility of what is happening in the social world and effectively merge it with the web site behavioral data", all in realtime.

Just think about it for a second - you have already achieved your ideal KPI's for the performance of the online channel, but what if you could make it even better, with no real significant change needing to be made to your online business, effectively letting you continue what you are doing well already? (low risk then!). What if I could help your business learn how to target new customers or help your business understand who your influencers' are (to keep them influencing), what your poor performing products/services are (social networks is where most people complain or praise something), what content you should be serving to the individual who arrives on your web site based on their likes/dislikes/hobbies and more.

Now, you have the ability to target each individual with what they want to see (before they even know it). It increases your engagement rate (you already know what they like/dislike, so serve appropriate content), likely conversion rate increases, improve satisfaction rate, help promote loyalty and as a bi-product of these improvements, take more revenue online!

It's a no-brainer really but who does this today? No one. In fact, there are technologies (no single vendor... yet), that exist independently that 'could' do it, if only they woke up and smelt the coffee! Think about the business benefits to you, the customer, the vendor and the Industry as a whole - it's a win win win really.

I predict 2012 will see the introduction to such 'theories' whereby they will become a reality - personally, I'm really looking forward to it!
Customer Insight and Social Networks, merging to provide true 'Individual Visibility' - just got to coin a new, whizzy marketing name/phrase for the new internet phenomenon that is imminently (over?) due!

Don't work harder, get Smarter!

So you're boss has just told you that you need to cut your marketing spend for 2012 by 50% - ouch!

What do you do? All the data you need to gather/analyse/predictive modelling and so on... So much to do now!
The old adage that "one half of the marketing budget will be working for your business, but which half?" springs to mind!
Sure, you could look at your usual reports for the information, look at your PPC keywords, attribute revenue and performance to each search engine/keyword and try to work out what is and isn't working for your business - but just take a moment to consider just how many keywords you have? It won't be a few (or even a few hundred), more like thousands!

So, how can you possibly identify the performance of each Paid Keyword? Just because a keyword is or isn't taking most revenue for your business, does that make it a poor performer? What about the touchpoints by each individual on the build up to conversion, have you considered those?

What you need is an automatic bid-management platform; one which looks at the performance of onsite engagement/conversion and feeds what it knows from the web site back into bidding for a better price with the search engine promoting your keywords.

Such a platform (and one I have personal experience with) is Optimine. Who else can make such a bold claim during these difficult economic times as Optimine with quotes like this one: "Improve your paid search returns by 25 percent or more – guaranteed, with OptiMine bid management software".

But looking at the performance of keywords alone is really like looking at the weather forecast wishing you could change it and make it better (such as snow on Christmas day please!!). Ponder for a moment, what would make a bid management platform better?
I can tell you - a Customer Insight platform that looks at the individual level but empowers the business to weight individual activity based on 'Goals' that have been achieved - such as viewed landing page (1pt), viewed product detail page (5pts), added product to basket (7pts), checkout started (9pts) and so on. By feeding information such as this back into the PPC Bid Management platform, I can not only look at the performance of each keyword from a revenue recognition point of view but also ALL the keywords which played a part in the build-up to conversion.

So, when your boss asks you to cut your marketing budget by 50%, now you have a good idea with PPC which keywords you can safely 'bin' without affecting your online business but you can also find golden nuggets of information which help your business boom beyond 25% - how about 250%? A keyword is outperforming expectations today - pay more for the keyword to increase demographic or geographic exposure! You just can't do this sort of thing with traditional web metric platforms - and if you were to try, don't forget to tag everything up!!

eMetrics London 2011

The day has started off well, lots of sunshine and blue sky in Islington, London - at eMetrics too!

eMetrics conferences are a place for all people who are interested in the world of Predictive and Web Analytics to fall into an exhibition hall and attend speaker sessions to learn more about the wonderful world of online visitor behavior and learn about the new features of traditional web metric and predictive platforms (ie. based on this happening, you can conclude that is might happen, type thing).

I'm at the eMetrics London event today promoting a platform I passionately believe in - Individual Customer Insight; not aggregated, no charts and graphs to wow people with, no predictive modelling either - just REAL BigData and the ability to do things with it.

More to come later, as the event unfolds...