The Simon Sinek Guide to the Data-Driven Organization

January 26, 2012 By David Crankshaw
Simon Sinek's Golden Circle

The meeting starts in an hour. You were up late last night. Had to make sure you've got all the numbers to support your proposal. You feel armed and ready. But a little nervous too. What if your manager (or your client or the creative director or the executive committee) disagrees with your data? What if the disagreement takes the form of “I know what all the facts and figures say, but … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics

The surprising truth about Direct Traffic in Google Analytics

January 17, 2012 By David Crankshaw
Google Analytics Traffic Sources

Search. Referrals. Direct. Google Analytics categorizes visitors arriving at your site primarily into these three buckets. Search: Visitors find you in the search engines, either in the organic listing or your PPC ad. Referrals: Visitors are referred to your site from another website that links to you - an article for example, or a blog post. Direct: Visitors who already know about … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics

Web Analytics: Prepare like a Power Shopper

January 13, 2012 By David Crankshaw
Power Shopper

Ever gotten stumped with your web analytics before you got started? You encounter dozens of metrics, even more possible ways to view them, thousands of different configurations for reports. It’s no wonder many marketers and entrepreneurs throw up their hands in exasperation. Though determined to use their web presence to produce more traffic, leads, and revenue, they give up and return … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics

Google Analytics Releases Real Time Tabulation

October 2, 2011 By David Crankshaw
Google Analytics announces Real Time

Many people have wanted real time abilities in Google Analytics. Now they have it. Last week Google Analytics announced it would add real time capture and analytics information to its application. Jason Cutroni, Stephanie Chang at distilled, and Dorcas Alexander at LunaMetrics immediately wrote informative articles with their initial impressions. … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: ,

Marketing Through “Thought Leadership” Not “Look at Me”

September 28, 2011 By David Crankshaw

It's become a running joke in Brad Feld's circle that he "hates marketing." But does he really? Feld published a letter this week from Chris Moody, COO of Grip. Moody's letter captures what he believes Feld's philosophy of marketing to be. It's based on a belief that "startups have the power to change the world." Feld and others at venture firm Foundry Group don't say "look at us; look at … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Power and Influence Tagged With: ,

Exit Rate vs. Bounce Rate: Which provides more insight?

September 12, 2011 By David Crankshaw

All visitors to your web site leave at some point, whether they visit one page or one hundred. The last page they visit is their Exit Page, an event your analytics application records. You might think that your analysis of the Top Exit Pages for your site would reveal some important information. But it turns out that the Top Exit Pages report is not that helpful. … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With:

A Checklist: The Attributes of a Well-Qualified Lead

July 25, 2011 By David Crankshaw
Qualified leads are like rough diamonds.

Salespeople get a short time horizon. They are paid to make their number, to convert prospects into customers, to focus on this quarter’s results. When companies give their salespeople unqualified leads it drains productivity and saps morale: Salespeople must spend time to manually qualify a large number of leads, a job for which they are poorly suited. It steals their time away from … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Selling Tagged With: ,

Sometimes Ignorance Is Bliss: Website Analytics

July 18, 2011 By David Crankshaw

You know the bounce rate on your website. And average time on site. And on and on for many other metrics. Are your numbers low or high? What can you compare them to? How can you know what a 'good' number is? You could compare your metrics to those of your competitors to answer this question. Or to other industries that are similar to yours. You could look at historical patterns - this … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: ,

How to Get Started with Google Analytics

July 11, 2011 By David Crankshaw

Every business wants to know what is happening on their website. But you can't just stroll onto your website like a restaurant owner who leaves the kitchen to visit the dining room. Or a shopkeeper who visits the store floor. It's invisible, this activity on your website. You need a way to record the activity and assemble it in a form that you can use. That's exactly what Analytics … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: ,

5 Steps to a Core Website That Ranks and Converts

July 4, 2011 By David Crankshaw
Blog and Core Website that ranks and converts

Like a moth to the light, when technology buyers have a problem they turn to the search engines first. They may have just started to investigate a problem. Or buyers could be at the final stages of vendor selection. At all stages of the buyer’s journey they rely on search engines to find sources of information. It’s no surprise then that technology companies invest significant … [Continue reading...]

Filed Under: Search Marketing Tagged With: ,
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