eMetrics primer

Version française

… Being able to measure what actions people take and what information they use is, in my opinion, one of the key differentiators between the online channel and other communications mediums.

I find that the insights into customer and staff behaviour gained through eMetrics provides a solid basis for improvements to websites and intranets. It's also hard evidence that can be used to bring others onboard.

However using the wrong eMetrics can lead to all kinds of problems. I feel it's vital to understand what you are measuring, and why you should be using it.

Below is a brief primer using slides from a presentation I gave at a conference in 2007.

Slideshare: View Upload your own By Craig Thomler 10/06/2008 (Source: eGov AU)
 

The Trouble with Web Metrics, Sep 11, 2008, Source: Seybold Publishing Report

 This is an excerpt from an in-depth, and undoubtedly controversial article in the September 11, 2008 issue of The Seybold Report. If you are already a subscriber, click here to read the full article. (If you are not yet a subscriber, click here for a limited time special offer.)

Despite their historical association with lies and damned lies, statistics still wield great power and influence, and mathematics - if not numbers themselves - is widely regarded to be above the political, philosophical and religious hubbub of daily life. Received wisdom would have us believe that numbers can measure or even define reality. But no matter how you parse it, when you try to use numbers to make sense of a world as anarchic as the Web, there are bound to be questions about exactly what you're measuring and what those measurements mean.

A huge industry had grown up to supply numbers to help define commercial strategies on the Web, from designing Web site interfaces and crafting appealing content packages to performing traditional marketing activities such as brand enhancement, circulation building and ad sales. In the world of Web analytics there is a constant search for new, more telling statistics. But according to a report by research firm Booz Allen Hamilton and sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a marketing trade association, the metrics that matter most include "reach, engagement, action and ROI." In other words, the industry needs gauges to measure how large an audience is being reached, the extent to which they're drawn in and react favorably, and whether the whole process can yield a profit.

Server-based approaches are rapped mainly for providing what BSkyB's Director of Online and Partner Marketing Scott Gallacher has dubbed "data without insight." In other words, we can see what has happened but not why. When asked about the importance of motivational insight in such research, Web interface guru Jakob Nielsen (no relation to A.C. Nielsen) is unequivocal. "There is no way automated metrics can collect the most important insights of all," Nielsen asserts, "namely what the users are thinking, what they want to accomplish and why they leave your site (or, if you're lucky, why they decide to do business with you)."

See also from this blog:

An audit of the UK governmental websites

Audience Dictatorship ?