What + Why + How

Is your company taking action on your web analytics ?
Is it integrated as part of the business ?

Web analysis is still not a key priority found in many entities big and small. To many, they still feel anything with regards to the web channel, it belongs solely to the IT department. They are leaving a very valuable and important analysis tool behind, which helps in addressing the needs and wants of their consumers and how they can integrate the insights into the business and improving the overall bottom line revenue. If the management don’t know what is going on or how well the web channel is doing, how do they gauge the overall success of the business?

So how could entities tap into their existing web channel and integrate the insights into the business? The most vital part before even conducting analysis on the web channel, entities must know “what is the objective of the business?” for the web channel. Is the web channel solely for e-commerce, lead generation, branding content or customer support; or a combination? Once entities identify their business goals or objectives for the web channel than will the data provide insights that are relevant.

So how could you tapped into the insights of your web channel? In my humble opinion, how about adopting the “What(s)”, “Whys” and “How” into your business, in becoming more customer centric and adopting a more holistic approach towards the business.

• What(s): Tapping into how the consumers are doing your web site based on the key performance index desired by the business. For example, in an e-commerce website, what are the consumers clicking on which leads them in making a purchase decision or what promotions or messages found on the website that the consumers click on before arriving to the check out process. It is vital in identifying the relevant behavioral clicks aligned with the key objectives of the web channel. As of today, entities are hit by overload of information provided by the web analytics tool vendors, which are not relevant to the business. Purely reporting on the click streams data will not provide solutions unless goals are identify.

• Whys: Even with all the “what(s)”, it only provides what the consumers are clicking on or their behaviour; it doesn’t tell why is it leading consumers towards the particular behavioural outcomes. Therefore, conducting attitudinal research is vital in understanding what leads consumers to the behavioral clicks on the website. In the previous example of the e-commerce web channel, attitudinal surveys can be conducted to find out why consumers are abandoning the check out process at the very last stage, is it because the sales form online is too complicated or they refuse to pay for the costly shipping fees ?

• How: Lastly, without doing an analysis in contrast with the competition, entities will not be able to identify how they are faring. By understanding how the primary competitors are faring, they could tap into what is and what is not working for their competitors. However, it is important not to blindly follow what the competitors are having, since different entities have very different business goals and objectives.

By clearly identifying the business goals of the web channel and devising key performance indicators and analysing the “What(s)”, “Whys” and “How”, will help the entities become more customer centric and drive the business success. Lastly, the process doesn’t ends here; tests have to be conducted on an on-going basis constantly in meeting and understanding the ever changing needs of the consumers. Action have to be taken and not reporting.

Are you taking action ?
Or are you only report ?