Web Analytics – a domain of Marketing
(working paper)
Dr. Paul Harrigan
Academy of Marketing Conference 2010, Coventry, UK.
Introduction
•
PhD, University of Ulster, 2005 – 2008
•
Lecturer in Marketing, University of Southampton, 2008 –
•
My PhD investigated e-CRM in SMEs
•
Published/ing in this area at the minute
•
….But forming an interest in a parallel area….Web Analytics
What is web analytics?
• ‘Web analytics for marketing encompasses the proactive tracking of
customers on the Internet, management of the vast amounts of
inherent data and analysis of customer behaviour to build customer
insight and inform marketing strategies and tactics’
What is web analytics?
•
Origins lie in vast amounts of log data that the Internet produces - previously
just seen as a ‘by-product’ of Internet activity
•
Now the ‘by-product’ can be ‘recycled’ to drive marketing activities online
•
Allows an organisation to understand their website
•
Also allows understanding of customers’ movements and behaviours before and
after they visit their website.
I’ll not get into the technical side of it….
1) because it’s complicated and 2) because I don’t yet understand it!
Practice driving Theory
• In practice, digital and Internet technologies are absolutely driving
marketing…..
• ….into areas that theory doesn’t properly cover
• Sophisticated technologies are allowing marketing practitioners to
understand consumer behaviour online
• IT people have the skills, marketing people don’t
Possible benefits of web analytics
(taken from e-CRM theory)
•
Improve an organisation’s inherent marketing orientation and customer focus
•
Improved market awareness
•
Increased personalisation of relationships
•
Enhanced customer service
•
Improved customer loyalty
•
Cost savings in marketing
•
Increased sales
•
Increased profitability
Authorial influences:
Harding et al. (2004), Jayachandran et al. (2005), Teng et al. (2007), Letaifa and Perrien (2007), Morgan (2007).
Research objectives….
• Define web analytics
• What is the need for web analytics?
• Justifying using web analytics
• The strategic direction behind web analytics
• Future directions of web analytics
Ultimate aim should be to recognise and reclaim this as a Marketing
domain, not an IT one, in both theory and practice.
Methodology
•
Exploratory research, so a grounded theory approach to begin with
•
Current paper draws on qualitative data gained from a selection of (n=10) indepth interviews carried out in 2009-10
•
Interviews carried out with expert practitioners in web analytics field in London
and the SE
•
Mixed methods research…..quantitative phase to follow in 2010 once landscape
has been scoped and issues
Past and Present of Web Analytics
• Defining it….
‘Web analytics is really about behavioural marketing. In a digital
world you can’t control what people do, so the best you can do is track
their behaviour, analyse the data, and try to be a step ahead’
(Respondent 1)
• The need for it….
‘The best performing sites on the Internet in 2008 only get a figure of
around 60 per cent of people completing a sale, if that was the
purpose of their visit to the site’
(Respondent 4)
Strategic Web Analytics?
• Previously….
Web analytics used to be used for three things: justification, strategic
direction, and usability’
(Respondent 4)
• Regarding strategic direction, the respondent actually stated that ‘no
one knew what this actually meant’.
• Now….
‘Web analytics is used for three things: strategic direction, user
engagement, and justification’
(Respondent 4)
Marketing skills in Web Analytics
•
‘Marketing people don’t know what a tag is….and IT people don’t know what
marketing is!’
(Respondent 4)
•
‘The organisational focus is still not on web analytics’
(Respondent 2)
•
‘The biggest single problem in WA is that people get data blind’
(Respondent 1)
•
‘There is so much data, but very few people have got insight. To get that you
have to spend about 2/3 times on analysis people than on software’
(Respondent 1)
Future of Web Analytics
• Two issues….
– the role of
‘45 per cent of organisations are now running Google Analytics; the
question is: can you trust data from a company who is trying to sell you
advertising?’
(Respondent 2)
– website vs. web vs. multi-channel analytics
‘web analytics is expanding - it is ‘about more than just website traffic; it’s
also about web traffic’
(Respondent 1)
‘More than that, it is becoming about ‘tracking and analysing mobile
internet behaviour’
(Respondent 1)
Thank you
• Feel free to ask questions…
Dr Paul Harrigan
Lecturer in Marketing | School of Management
University of Southampton, UK, SO17 1BJ
t: +44 (0)23 8059 7361
e: paul.harrigan.soton.ac.uk
w: http://works.bepress.com/paulharrigan/
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