Nov
18

Customer analytics: predictive technologies improve the return of marketing and sales

Author: J-P De Clerck

Market research company Aberdeen Group recently found that 60% of the top-performing companies would increase their budgets for customer analytics next year in able to better determine the most important trends, patterns and behaviour of customers. An integrated view on the customer is key in providing relevant interactions and content and, thus, to increase customer loyalty and marketing efficiency.

A more recent study by Aberdeen Group shows that these reasons also rank among those that drive businesses to invest in predictive technologies. Read more »

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Nov
10

The need for real-time analytics in the multichannel and social media era

Author: Manu De Ros

Media such as mobile channels, social networks, blogs and Twitter have increased the demand for online analytics that go far beyond “traditional” web analytics. The mobile evolutions and the focus on a holistic and multi-channel marketing approach have consequences for businesses. They range from new metrics to the integration of customer analytics solutions. And let’s not forget the impact on the amount of data that customer-centric and data-driven companies now have to their disposal. In a white paper I recently read from Bloor Research (dating from earlier this year), this topic is tackled: how to manage all our web data “to gain business insights” (what ultimately matters) in a world where we are increasingly “drowning in online data”. Read more »

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Jul
13

Understanding word-of-mouth marketing: 5 reasons why people share brand stories

Author: J-P De Clerck

We know that people talk to others about products, brands and services. Word-of-mouth has always existed, long before online media did. And so has word-of-mouth marketing.

But with the arrival of digital channels and social media, word-of-mouth is increasingly used for marketing purposes. The fact that people rely more on peer advice, the explosion of online ‘conversations’ and the increasingly public nature of word-of-mouth in a digital space, provides businesses both opportunities and challenges.

To understand word-of-mouth and thus word-of-mouth marketing, we need to understand why people share stories, including brand and customer experiences, product recommendations etc. with others. For the record: word-of-mouth (WOM) is still predominantly an offline matter but things are changing fast… Read more »

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Jun
2

Online customer intelligence and web analytics in offline situations

Author: Manu De Ros

We live in a cross-channel world. There are more media, channels, online moments of contact, and digital sources of information than ever before. Furthermore, the buying behavior has become way more complex.

When people want to buy something, they make a variety of decisions and undertake several actions before an actual purchase takes place. A lot of this takes place online. However, this doesn’t mean that we should just forget about the offline aspect.

People can inform themselves in their purchasing decision on trade shows, by reading magazines, through offline conversations with friends, etc. These are all offline.

This information can in turn lead to searching for more information, for instance on a corporate website. Here we’re online.
Or perhaps they happen to stumble upon a promotion for the product or service that they want to purchase. Online and/or offline: a printed promotional leaflet, a television ad, a coupon from a newspaper, an e-mail, a banner, a tweet, etc. Read more »

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May
31

Customer intelligence: why and how a data-driven business is a customer-centric business

Author: J-P De Clerck

The days when marketers could make decisions solely based on intuition or gut feeling are over. Nowadays, they must measure everything and base their decisions on data and on prognoses backed up by numbers.

Furthermore, the ROI of marketing is being monitored more often. Even though this is a good evolution, it shouldn’t stand in the way of creativity, innovation, and taking (controlled) risks.

The focus on data-driven marketing shouldn’t be an excuse to quit practicing activities more difficult to calculate, such as participating in online conversations and branding. And the power of a brand and commitment can be quantified too. Read more »

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May
28

Analyzing website traffic: the importance of visitor-centric content clusters

Author: J-P De Clerck

Web analytics is about business, people, and processes, but of course measuring and analyzing traffic, behavior and efficiency of a website or any other online medium has a technical side as well.

When drawing up a web analytics strategy and identifying key performance indicators (KPI’s), we look at business goals and translate these in metrics and data that lead to information.

This process includes defining clusters of related web pages, information and visitor segments. Read more »

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