There’s a phenomenon in the field of marketing analytics that is vitally important for you to understand because it showcases why people make the choices they do about metrics. I’ve no doubt you’ve read stories of people using or misusing a particular metric in ways that would seem almost comical if they weren’t so sad.…
After a shower recently, I noticed a logistical problem: all of the normal bath towels weren’t available. So I used a hand towel, which was sufficient to get the job done. Even though it was optimal, it achieved the desired effect. That got me thinking about a concept I first read in a pharmacology book…
As the year winds down, let’s rewind the clock and look back at what you really liked in 2014. These are the top 10 pages of 2014 on my blog by page views. A reminder, if you’d like to construct your own top 10 lists, there’s a quick tutorial here. #10: Benchmarking your site in…
When you give it some thought, you realize that basic advertising and marketing demographics are largely unhelpful. There are some statistically relevant associations, but just because someone is 25-34 years old, male, in a household income $75,000 and up doesn’t automatically mean they’ll buy your product or service. Demographics data is useful for telling you…
Here’s a fun exercise to try that might save you some time this holiday season and for every holiday going forward. Should you blog, post social media updates, or be active online during holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, Hanukkah, etc.? There’s an easy, simple way to discern an answer. First, why are you active? Is…
It’s that time of year again, time to make wild guesses about what’s to come in the year ahead. There are two general approaches folks use to predict the future. The first is the blatantly obvious; it’s been the year of mobile for about 3 years now. Content marketing is still pitched as a new…
The long tail is something of a legend when it comes to content marketing. Lots of people talk about it, but few people ever really go looking for it. How real is the long tail? How relevant is it to your business? Luckily, our stalwart friend Google Analytics can help us to understand that. If…
Benchmarking is one of the most underestimated tools in the Google Analytics toolkit. If you haven’t already tried it out on your site, go read this post and try it now, then come back here. If you have, excellent. Benchmarking by itself is a useful first look at what’s working vs. what’s not in your…
I had the privilege to attend and speak at the MITX Data and Analytics Summit in Boston. One of the things that I took away from the event, which was excellent and enjoyable, is that analytics and measurement tools are getting more and more sophisticated (and expensive). We’re evolving our measurement and metrics tools constantly.…
