Category Archives: Marketing / Tech Interface

You Learn Anything at SES?

Analytical Culture, Marketing / Tech Interface, Web Analytics

SES = Search Engine Strategies San Jose, for those not in the know.

And I mean the question literally.  Not did you have a good time, see lots of friends, do a lot of beneficial networking, talk to customers, build your reputation, create content for your blog, etc.

Did you Learn anything?

Looking at the stream of blog posts, video, Tweets and so forth – much of it incredibly repetitive by the way, which is a whole other issue for this type of Journalism – I have to wonder if anybody except those new to Search actually learned anything.  You know, walked away with new knowledge they could use to improve their efforts.

I have more than a passing curiosity about this issue from a macro perspective.  As you might know, I am a Co-Chair on the Web Analytics Association’s Education Committee, responsible for creating the WAA’s Core Curriculum and upcoming Certification Testing.  So I think a lot about Learning and Education, especially as it relates to the web.  And that thinking includes different “delivery models” like Conferences.

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Business Prevention Committee

Analytical Culture, Marketing / Tech Interface,

Do you have a BPC (Business Prevention Committee) where you work?

The BPC may not have a formal meeting schedule, so it can be difficult to tell who is actually on the Committee.  But you can often tell who is on the BPC by looking for these signs:

1.  Person has a narrow view of the company or customer, a “my silo” thinker.  For example, a Marketing person who doesn’t care about the negative impact of a marketing program on customer service.

2.  Person is generally averse to testing new ideas, a “this is the way it has always been done” kind of personality.  BPC’ers never admit to being wrong about an idea, especially ones that have to do with “change” of some kind.

3.  Talk of performance-based measurement and compensation makes BPC’ers very nervous.  Not fans of their own skin in the game, getting a little risk on the table.  Like many bloggers, they just repeat what they read.  No data, no conviction, and no responsibility.

4.  A fundamental lack of knowledge about how the business really works.  Worse, won’t take the time to find out what they don’t know because “that’s not my job”.

The best way to go about dismantling the BPC in your company is?

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Optimizing the Interface (Band 3)

DataBase Marketing, Marketing / Tech Interface, Web Analytics

After the lessons we learned in the Band 1 and 2 Optimizations (see Band diagram) for HSN, we were able to reallocate that budget to invest in Band 3 – Optimizing the Interface. We realized during the previous Optimizations we were already getting a tremendous amount of traffic through channel surfer / clickers, but this traffic was not “converting”. In other words, we really needed to Optimize the “Landing Page” for this existing audience – the TV show itself.

Don’t suppose the above scenario sounds at all familiar to the web analytics folks out there – you know, “more traffic, any traffic” is the answer? Oops, maybe not, what about higher conversion?

I won’t bother providing the Band 3 example for the web; you all know what Optimizing Landing pages / web sites is about, or can certainly find that info elsewhere. However, you might find the Optimization of a TV shopping channel interesting…

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