Let me first define web analytics: it’s the collaboration between analysts, web developers and management on the collection of web data for the purpose of analysis and optimization.

Having experience in implementing some of the best web analytics platforms such as Omniture, Google Analytics, WebTrends and Coremetrics, I know that no out-of-box solution fits your exact business model. All web analytics platforms will start collecting data when implemented, but that data isn’t necessarily reflective of your company’s business goals or online KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This is why web analytics is a collaboration between multiple teams, to measure the KPIs that matter to your business. It is valuable to have a consulting partner who is able to suggest the best way to obtain the KPIs that matter to your company’s bottom line.

Once you start obtaining data from your site, it is time to analyze and make a hypothesis. It is important to collect the most fact-based data from your web analytics platform, otherwise your analysis and hypothesis are going to fail. This is by far the most important job of the web developer and the analyst, making sure your data is accurate. No analytics platform data will match a competitor’s system, as they collect data differently. However, conversions should match 97%-99% accuracy of your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system or database.

Now your team has created custom reports and you have identified an opportunity on your website. There is a sense of urgency to get the site changed with the new insight. However, management says “I need you to prove that your hypothesis will actually work.” This is where you need a methodology for Website Testing. It is important to have experience with testing, or have a partner who knows what to test in order to obtain success. Running multiple tests without a methodology can lead you to insignificant results and wasted time.

Finally, your testing has paid off, and you are ready for implementation. Some testing software allows you to flip a button and site traffic will drive to the pages that convert at a higher rate. Most of the time you are testing templates in your CMS (Content Management System) and need to have your development team deploy the changes. It is important to remember that implementing good web analytics that lead to optimal results is a process. A process that takes knowledge, precision and testing to get you to report that 300% increase in digital marketing conversion!

We are excited to announce the launch of the brand new Knight Hawk microsite! Near the end of 2011, we were approached by Smart Targets LLC (a federally licensed dealer of professional tactical supplies and training materials) to create a visually stunning, informational, and educational new microsite showcasing their exclusive product: The Knight Hawk Portable Pop-up Target. When developing this microsite, we wanted to make sure that the visitor was able to quickly view the product and all of its great features- all while using SEO best practices.

The Knight Hawk Target is a “smarter target” than the simple pulley system or knock-down targets that are currently used in the industry, and far less expensive (not to mention hundreds of pounds lighter) than the hydraulic pop-up targets sometimes used. This target is perfect for Military and Law enforcement training professionals, allowing them to seamlessly set up multiple targets in multiple areas of the training facility with its portability feature. It also has a programmable remote and instant feedback feature that is perfect for setting up training facilities, or for any shooting enthusiast. The instant feedback system will stand up in 50 mph winds, yet can be knocked down with something as light as an air-soft gun (we even tested it with Nerf guns at the office and it worked).

The Knight Hawk Target has received support from Top Shot Season 2 Winner Chris Reed, as well as various board members of the NTOA, MTOA, and various law enforcement departments across the country. This product really is one that is going to change the future of Military and Law enforcement training as we know it.

Check out the Official Knight Hawk Website to Learn More!

The great Lee Clow’s Beard Twitter stream aside, Advice to Writers on Twitter has been a great source of writing advice. Some of the bits I’ve enjoyed:

Always carry around a notebook. If you don’t write it down, it’s gone. STEWART O’NAN #amwriting #writing #writetip

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) January 24, 2012

The first 8 drafts are terrible. MALCOLM GLADWELL #amwriting #writing #writetip

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) January 19, 2012

Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don’t get all writerly: “He opened the door.” There, it’s open. AMY HEMPEL

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) January 18, 2012

Best advice I’ve ever received: Finish. PETER MAYLE #amwriting #writing #writetip

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) January 12, 2012

If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. WILLIAM ZINSSER #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) January 7, 2012

We are excited to announce the second piece of an interactive program for Fibre-Craft Materials Corporation’s Springfield Dolls line. Following the launch of the SF Style Club interactive microsite, we’ve just launched the second part of the piece, an ecommerce sister site for Springfield Dolls, where you can buy all your favorite dolls, fashionable clothing, accessories, and furniture!

The online store features easy-to-navigate product categories, a searchable catalog of all the fashionable doll products, and a wishlist to save all your outfits for safekeeping or online shopping on a rainy day.

We made sure the ecommerce system syncs to an existing inventory management and shipping component. This ensures that the inventory numbers within the store and the warehouse correspond at all times.

Ready to get shopping? Visit the Springfield Collection store now!

• 90% of consumers will leave a website if they forget their user name and password
• 86% are bothered by being asked to create a new account on a website, and most will then leave the site or not return
• 41% of users would prefer social login over having to create a new account (35%) or even using a guest account (24%) (the same question in a study 1 year prior returned the reverse results in terms of order of preference)

What’s more, 78% of social login fans share site content with their social network. So not only does the social login option increase the likelihood that visitors will interact with your site and prevent them from leaving, it can also help encourage your customers to promote your site.

Think about every opportunity you might have for this, even in regards to content that doesn’t exist yet. Can people leave comments or write reviews on your website, and if not, can you find a way to integrate that kind of feature? Giving users opportunities to interact with your site and engage with your brand is important itself, and social login would be the cherry on top to help get them to participate.

And can visitors purchase products from your site? If they see an option to login through, say, Facebook, eliminating their need to even think about a password, they’ll be more likely to jump into their account and buy. Beyond that, once they’re logged in, you have opportunities to allow them to easily share what they purchase or what they want with their social network. Tack on an incentive to them to share with friends for even better response.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google all have social login plugins that require various degrees of web developer involvement. There are also some platforms available that allow a more comprehensive integration of social login, along with other social features. Talk to your trusted marketing agency or developer about how to jump onto this opportunity!

Vlad Chaykovsky

Where are you from?

Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, but lived in Columbus, Ohio for most of my life.

What do you do at envisionit?

Senior Analyst.

Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.

The atmosphere here is really nice, everyone is so supportive and relaxed.

What did you want to be when you grew up? 

A veterinarian.

Fill in the blank: My favorite thing about Chicago is …

Going out to a Cubs game!

William Bernbach, David Ogilvy, and Lee Clow are just three who have created campaigns that have become just that, cultural references. Take a look

William Bernbach

Via Wikipedia

Known for: Volkswagen’s “Think Small” Beetle campaign, pairing copywriters with designers into an ultimate creative superduo

Once said: “Our job is to bring the dead facts to life.”

David Ogilvy

Via Marketing Beyond Advertising 

Known for: The “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock” headline, tasting blood through direct advertising*

Once said: “Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”

Lee Clow

Known for: Apple’s 1984 commercial, the Energizer Bunny, Taco Bell Chihuahua.

Once said: “Great brands have a story, our job is to tell them.” (Lee Clow, or more specifically, @leeclowsbeard, has more to say about advertising, creativity, and ideas on Twitter.)

Don Draper (not a real ad man, technically)

(Via WSJ blog)

Known for: Pitching ideas and doing whatever he pleases as a partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

Once said: “Just think about it deeply, then forget it…then an idea will jump in your face.”

Who else do you think has contributed to part of our culture through good copywriting? Tell us in the comments!

*Ogilvy took on a client who had $500 to spend on the promotion of his new hotel. Ogilvy bought as many postcards as $500 would purchase and mailed invites to people listed in the phone book. The hotel was packed at opening. “I had tasted blood,” he later said of the experience.

What does the “Search Plus Your World” feature do?

The new “Search Plus Your world” combines Public, Personal, Social (Google+ only), and Private search all into one algorithm. Public results are just regular Google searches, while the new Personal feature compiles results based both on your past search behavior and social connections. The feature will also feed in relevant content that his been shared within your circles on Google+.

Here’s an image provided by Google that shows an example of the Personal Results feature. (Note: if you select the globe icon on the right it will hide personal results, and when the person icon is selected, personal results will be turned on.)

The left arrow above points to the section that states there are 50 personal results out of the 419,000 found for the search. Some of these 50 personal results will be blended into the first page of your search results.

Personal Results are compiled from these existing areas:

• Regular Web Listings
• Regular Web Listings  (boosted because of social behavior and social connections)
• Public & Private Google+ posts, photos, and Google Picasa Photos

In the image below (again provided by Google) we see more of the results for a search for “Chikoo,” the name of a Google developer’s dog. Chikoo is also the name of a fruit, and before the “Search Plus Your World” feature was implemented nothing related to his dog would have ever shown up in the search results. But with the new feature…

How does the “Search Plus Your World” feature make Google+ more important?

Since Google+ has launched, they have over 60 million users on the network, which makes sense, based on the simple sign up process through your already-created Gmail account. With that said, not many people are active users on the service, and even many marketers haven’t started utilizing Google+.

The reason this new “Search Plus Your World” feature makes Google+ that much more important, is that your search results will now actively pull in Google+ results into your news feed. That means the more content your brand page or personal page produces on the Google+ network, the more likely your results will populate on the front page of a user’s search results.  These results are only pulled from Google+, not Facebook or Twitter, and has caused some backlash from Twitter.  On top of these new features, Google has already implemented the “Google+ search” (for example if you search Burberry+ it will go directly to the Burberry Google plus page). You must also never exclude the thought that Google+ content is more than likely heavily weighted over Facebook and Twitter content.

This just goes to show that Google will continue to increase the value of their Google+ network, and that every brand (Worldwide, National, or Local) should have a page set up on G+ with active content on a daily basis. Now is the time to stay ahead of the curve and build that network, before it becomes too late.

Below are some thoughts and questions you should ask yourself about keywords when you are building a site, adding a page, or even naming a product:

1. Just because you call your product something, doesn’t mean that a consumer is searching for your product that way
   • A car can be searched for many different ways: sedan, coupe, Ferrari, sports car, two door sedan, red car, best sports car, which car is better, Ferrari that was in Ferris Bueller’s Day off

   When trying to find keywords for your site, make sure that the keywords make sense for your brand and what the product actually is; this will help them rank better in the long run.

2. Make sure to check out how competitive the search landscape is
   • If you are a smaller website, it might be better to focus less on the broad, very high traffic keyword “cars” and put more effort into the “red four-door sedan” keyword which doesn’t have big companies competing for that space.

   Just because consumers conduct 1,000,000 searches a month for a specific keyword, doesn’t mean you will get any traffic from it, if you are not ranking on the first page or second page of the results. So do your competitive landscape analysis and find the right keyword.

3. Map Your Keywords across your site
   • Why cannibalize your own keywords? Find unique keywords per page that you can optimize and have the possibility of ranking for all of them

   Make sure to focus each page to two or three specific keywords and use each keyword two to three times in the content.

   Take Advantage of Internal Linking using your keywords.

   • When internal linking make sure to use the keywords as anchor text just as you would when doing external linking
4. Use Google’s Keyword Tool
   • This gives you a better idea of how consumers are searching for your type of product and what type of traffic you might see if you are ranking in the top positions.
   • Plus, it’s FREE, so use it!
5. Track the rankings of your keywords
   • This helps you see if your optimization efforts are paying off and to better understand what is and isn’t working for your site.
   • Again, there are free tools all over the internet, so just do a simple search for “Keyword Ranking Tool” and choose which ranking tool you like best.

Keyword research is one of the most important elements of being a good search marketer. Take your time, find the right keywords that you can rank for, and hopefully you will drive relevant search traffic to your site!