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Posts Tagged ‘Webtrends’

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of listening to ExactTarget Chief of Operations, Scott McCorkle, speak to the evolution of their platform. I’ve written in the past that I believe Email Service Providers have jumped the shark – and it appears the forward-thinking ESPs have already taken note.

Scott spoke to ExactTarget’s goal of being the Marketing Hub for companies. Instead of simply being a send engine for email, ExactTarget is pushing to be the database of record for many of its clients with the following goals:

1. Data Aggregation and Accessibility – through a comprehensive API, robust data extensions and secure, robust infrastructure, it’s possible now for companies to host and utilize ExactTarget as a secure, compliant source for storing their clients’ data.
2. Rules for Relevance – because ExactTarget delivers messages via email, voice, SMS and social media, behavioral data can be captured, stored and utilized to improve the relevance of the messaging for those customers.
3. Delivery of Communication – ExactTarget has the fastest outbound mail management systems in the industry and their OEM model is exploding because of the system’s performance. Added to this is Voice, SMS and, after the purchase of CoTweet, perhaps social media messaging.
4. Measurement Over All – ExactTarget is looking to complete the circle by supplying robust measurement over all outbound communication.

Storing data was largely seen as natural for Software as a Service Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services, but other industries are now moving in this direction. Analytics provider, Webtrends, has launched their Visitor Data Mart, allowing for powerful drag and drop segmentation that’s built directly in the product. Webtrends has a superior REST API and, coupled with a leading Analytics engine, hosting your customer database with Webtrends provides sophisticated marketers with some powerful tools to target and measure communications.

Database as a Service launched a couple years ago with providers like Amazon and Google offering simple relational databases hosted in the cloud. That’s all well and good, but without the applications to leverage that data, the industry really hasn’t had the mass adoption like people thought it would. The advantage that companies like ExactTarget and Webtrends have is that they have proven communication and analytics products already in place over the DaaS.

Although all of these providers have strong integrations with one another, it seems more and more they’re going to be competing to become the primary source of customer data. Ecommerce, CRM, Email and Analytics providers are all going to be pushing to become the database of record and all will be soon be offering services to store your data, provide robust messaging and analytics for your data. He who owns the data owns the client – so SaaS providers pushing to become Database as a Service providers is going to explode in the next year. This is a great strategy for SaaS providers since migrating or leaving your provider becomes much more difficult once they’re hosting your database!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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Real-time… it’s becoming quite an important element. Webtrends has released real-time search combined with alerts. PubSubhubbub is emerging for blogs to push their feeds rather than have them retrieved. Search reaction time is shrinking… people are expecting answers to questions that have only been asked a few minutes ago.

For publishers, the challenge is to react when news happens and capitalize on it immediately. If you’re in the mobile industry and new happens, you need to publish as quickly as possible. It’s not just popularity that is driving traffic, it’s also your ability to react.

A few days ago, I published a WordPress Plugin for ChaCha. The plugin is a combination of testing certain elements of ChaCha’s vast network of questions – now available through an API, topical feeds, and custom feeds. The plugin has a few sidebar widgets – one that actually allows for real-time asking of questions and getting an answer back…. pretty cool.

For blog owners, I also included a ChaCha Trends dashboard that provides bloggers with an overview of trending data on ChaCha, Twitter and Google! By observing trending information, you can capitalize on traffic of topics that people are asking about, searching for, or discussing.

Please let me know what you think! Just go to your plugin directory, Add New, and search for ChaCha. Click install and it will install the plugin. To use the sidebar widgets, register for a developer login from ChaCha and you’ll be up and running in no time! If you simply want to run the dashboard, just write anything in the API Key field.

There’s quite a bit of noise from pop culture across all the sources, but you’ll find a gem every once in a while to capitalize on. Utilizing real-time terms in your content and publishing the content quickly can provide your blog with quite a bit of unexpected traffic!

Disclosure: ChaCha is a client.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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Well… up until now, you couldn’t. Thank goodness that there are analytics firms like Webtrends charging ahead on this front. Webtrends (disclosure: they are a client) made a decision over a year ago that the web site was but a small piece of the overall analytics puzzle.

Since then, they’ve been advancing their platform and skyrocketing their capabilities- acquiring a multivariate testing, split testing and optimization platform, releasing Analytics 9 with an incredible API, real-time analytics and mobile analytics!

Before the month is up, Webtrends is adding some more news – the ability for companies to effectively measure traffic on Facebook. This is what analytics providers should be doing. Your web presence is no longer simply your site… it’s also other domains, subdomains, SaaS platforms, video, landing pages, and social media. Webtrends’ vision is absolutely in alignment with what marketers need.

Webtrends Analytics for Facebook

For the first time, marketers can view their Facebook measurement alongside other digital marketing investments such as websites, microsites, blogs, mobile apps, and more. Additionally, using Analytics 9’s RSS overlay capabilities, marketers can easily see the impact of promotional efforts. Tracking custom tabs, applications, and sharing provides the most complete measurement of Facebook available in the market.

The ability to have concrete measurement on investments within Facebook and compare them apples to apples with other digital channels is critical to marketers. Our comprehensive approach to measuring Facebook, beyond just applications, allows marketers to understand the broader picture of how their Facebook investment is performing. – Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing, Webtrends

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Custom Tabs

Custom tabs and applications have critical differences for data collection, due to Facebook’s Terms of Service and its commitment to user privacy.

• Brands can’t use traditional analytics methods for tracking custom tabs because Facebook does not allow Javascript, and they aggressively cache images.
• To overcome these limitations, Webtrends developed a new method that uses their data collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• In addition to tracking tab views, Webtrends can also measure Tab views segmented by fans and non-fans, Clicks on buttons and links, such as the Share button and its options.

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Facebook Applications

• Applications allow more tracking options both because they allow Javascript and because the Facebook terms of service allows for collection of user level data.
• Webtrends utilizes their Data Collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• Webtrends can measure any type of application built on the Facebook platform.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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At the Webtrends Engage Conference from the beginning of this month I did a presentation on measuring Facebook. The talk was a big hit, so Doug asked me to share it on this blog. The first half covers some justification for why Facebook matters to marketers. It’s the last slides that are the real meat of the presentation as it covers the components of Facebook looking at what can be measured, what kind of tools are available to do it, etc.

Some of the highlights to whet your appetite:

• Webtrends is developing the first solution for measuring activity on custom tabs
• Custom tabs and apps are where big brands are spending their microsite dollars
• Apps are the only place on Facebook to get at visitor level data
• Supporting stats for why you should be doing social media marketing, especially in Facebok

I’m planning to expand off of this deck to create a Facebook measurement wiki, so let me know if that would be of interest to you as well as any other feedback. Enjoy!

This post was written by Justin Kistner

In four words or less, I am a “geek with social skills”. I am passionate about the Internet not only because I love technology, but also I think it is the most beautifully disruptive force on the planet and could be the key to our salvation. If you’d like to know more about what I do professionally, check out my work page.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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The great folks at Webtrends posted videos of the speakers at Webtrends Engage 2010. Here’s the 10 minute sprint I did – B2B Blogging and inbound marketing strategies.

The modified presentation and notes were in my Blogging for Business post last week. Be sure to sign up for Webtrends Engage 2011 in San Francisco.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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If you weren’t at the Webtrends Engage 2010 conference, you missed an incredible business intelligence conference. Engage is unlike any other company conference I’ve been to. The objective is to provide customers and industry professionals with exposure to some of the best and brightest experts throughout the online industry. Register for next year’s Engage in San Francisco – they always sell out!

This year I was invited to do a sprint, a 10 minute powerpoint about something online marketing related and that I’m passionate about. I decided to do mine on inbound marketing (click through if you don’t see the presentation). In New Orleans, I spoke specifically about business to business marketing, but the best practices apply to business to consumer marketing as well.

The original presentation was a bit different since it was animated and beautifully stretched across an 80 foot screen behind me… but here’s the meat of it!

Of course, if you were in New Orleans, you got a real treat… I did my speech and compared Social Media to the evolution of dancing. I even threw in a couple of steps and got some laughs. It was a great time all around!

Here’s a rundown of the content of the slides:

1. Inbound Marketing Strategies
2. Compelling content is what generates conversions. Great content is a combination of effective keyword usage and content that answers the visitors question – and encourages them to the next step in the sales process. Your blog is optimized for search engines.
3. Back in the day, Sales and Marketing were the source of information for prospects. Prospects relied on them.
4. Now Search Engines often offer the information that prospects are seeking.
5. Social Media now impacts both search and influences the decision maker. The prospect is now getting information from Search Engines and from their Social Network.
6. If your Sales and Marketing teams want to be involved in the prospect’s decision making, they need to be leading in search and involved in social networks. No longer can a company simply wait to have prospects ‘come to them’.
7. You need to be everywhere!
8. Utilizing syndication and other integration tools can save you time and keep you in front where you need to be!
9. Additionally, there are other tools on the market to simplify your integration needs.
   Every single blog post should have a path to engagement. Typically, this is a call to action, to a landing page, to a conversion!
10. The customer lands on your blog post, and sees a relevant call to action. That call to action will lead them to a landing page and into the conversion funnel.
11. Most people don’t read. Repeat: MOST PEOPLE DON’T READ! Use whitespace effectively, symbolize with images and add video and audio. Feed the senses: visual, audible, kinesthetic.
12. Downloads, Events, Questions and Answers, Emails, Whitepapers, Prizes…. All of these options should require a data form to collect the lead information. Your blog is free – trade everything else for data!
13. Build compelling landing pages that capture a minimal amount of data and that even prequalify leads. Make it simple. This is a superb example from Compendium.
14. Measure how your leads are arriving… through syndication, social media, email newsletters, events, etc. This will allow you to figure out where you should be investing the most time!
15. Watch referring domains, set goals, and monitor your conversion funnels!
16. I’m Douglas Karr (Twitter: @douglaskarr), If you need help, contact me at DK New Media.

Oh… and I might add that I opened with a fantastic poke from Indianapolis to New Orleans regarding the Super Bowl. Needless to say my prediction went awry somewhere in the 4th quarter and the Saints fans let me know it on Sunday night!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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I wrote another post on how to track multiple authors in WordPress with Google Analytics once before, but got it wrong! Outside the WordPress Loop, you’re unable to capture the author names so the code did not work.

Sorry for the fail.

I’ve done some additional digging and found out how to do it smarter with multiple Google Analytics profiles. (Quite honestly – this is when you come to love professional analytics packages like Webtrends!)

Step 1: Add a Profile to an Existing Domain

The first step is to add an additional profile to your current domain. This is an option that most people aren’t familiar with but works perfectly for this type of scenario.

Step 2: Add an Include Filter to the New Author Profile

You’ll want to only measure page views tracked by authors in this profile, so add a filter for the subdirectory /author/. One note on this – I had to make “that contain” as the operator. Google’s instructions call for a ^ before the folder. In fact, you can’t write an ^ into the field!

Step 3: Add an Exclude Filter to your Primary Profile

You won’t want to actually track all the extra pageviews by author in your original Profile, so add a filter to your original profile to exclude the subdirectory /by-author/.

Step 4: Add a Loop in the Footer Script

Within your existing Google Analytics tracking and below your current trackPageView line, add the following loop in your footer theme file:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
var authorTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxxx-x");
authorTracker._trackPageview("/by-author/<? echo the_author(); ?>");
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>

This will capture all of your tracking, by author, in a second profile for your domain. By excluding this tracking from your primary profile, you don’t add additional unnecessary pageviews. Keep in mind that if you have a home page with 6 posts, you’ll track 6 pageviews with this code – one for each post, tracked by author.

Here’s how the Author Tracking will look in that specific profile:

If you’ve accomplished this in a different way, I’m open to additional ways to track the author information! Since my Adsense revenue is associated with the profile, I can even see which authors are generating the most ad revenue .

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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Justin Garrity is an amazingly talented User Experience expert. He did a fascinating speech at Webtrends Engage 2010 on data visualization, prototyping and user experience (UX) – both explaining the teams’ inspiration and Webtrend’s process. For those of you who remember the Webtrends of old, you really do need to look at their new interfaces – both on the web and via iPhone.

My belief is that Webtrend’s concentration on User Experience will grow and retain their low and mid-tier clients who simply require an advanced Analytics program with robust reporting that’s easy to use. Their concentration on enabling data flows in and out of their datamart is key to growing platform integration and getting enterprise market share.

Once an enterprise client integrates and automates their analytics solution – it’s difficult to turn them… even if it’s a better platform. Webtrends has that challenge now that a couple of the big boys are embedded at larger corporations. Don’t count them out, though… they have some incredible products like Optimize that should open sophisticated marketers’ eyes and make them second guess their investment.

Anyways, on to the short film. Sorry about the quality, I was back a few rows and it’s tough to pick up! I think my eigen values are off and my enhance button didn’t work!