Robert is a Google Analytics specialist with a lot of experience in everything web related. He is able to give meaningful insights from a data first seen 5 min ago, as well as to play drums in front of 10.000 people. He studied psychology, therefore he over analyses everything. He has more than 20 years of experience in digital where he started as a web developer and spent the last 10 years as one of the most prominent analysts in the region. That’s why he seems to be appropriate person to talk to about analytics, online\/offline data, Internet of Things etc.<\/p>\n
Below you’ll find some interesting questions and answers, which are to-the-point and spiced up in his own recognizable style with funny and easy understandable examples. You’re welcome to share your thoughts \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Digital Analytics is getting more and more attention every year, because shareholders know they can find a way to spend less money on advertising using analytics tools. The only problem is that marketers, who usually come from the world of traditional (offline) marketing, are using analytics tools at a very basic level. Digital analytics tools are very powerful these days, and they can provide you with answers and guidelines for your marketing campaigns that you couldn\u2019t have imagined just a few years ago\u2014but you have to invest some time in teaching your team to use them. It\u2019s too bad many companies think they don\u2019t need to afford themselves some extra analytical education\u2014while figures are rising\u2014and I\u2019ve seen many teams wasting their clients\u2019 money on poorly optimized campaigns while maintaining \u201ceverything is OK\u201d. Believe me, once those figures start dropping, they won\u2019t have a clue as to what just happened.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost like driving a fancy new car, compared to an old, let\u2019s say, Ford Escort. On a sunny day, they\u2019re both fine, and they\u2019ll get you to your destination. But once you\u2019re there your boss tells you to get back fast, because you have to meet a client. Night falls, rain starts to pour down and now the trouble starts. If you drive a fancy new car with all the controls, GPS, air conditioning, trip computer and (which is most important!), you know how to read all those messages and information displayed on your car dashboard, you\u2019ll be able to tell your boss when you\u2019ll be back (deadline), you\u2019ll know if you will have enough gas and time to arrive at the destination under the current driving conditions (marketing budget), you\u2019ll be able to choose the best route (marketing strategy), you\u2019ll be able to see the road clearly, and you\u2019ll probably be able to accomplish the task the given time. Will you be able to accomplish all of that with an old Ford? Probably not\u2014or at least not that easily. Well, analytical tools are like good car dashboards. They\u2019re able to give you a lot of useful data, but it\u2019s your job to read it all and use it well.<\/p>\n
In another words, yes, analytical tools are undervalued and underused because:<\/p>\n
Sharing knowledge is always a good way to raise any awareness of any kind. Many of my colleagues ask me why I teach customers about analytics so much, because they think that afterward my clients won\u2019t need me any more. They\u2019re wrong, because every time I teach an associate something new about analytics, I know next time we won\u2019t waste each other\u2019s time on simple tasks and\/or problems he could solve himself. Analytics specialists don\u2019t usually want to reveal their \u201csecrets\u201d for fear that the \u201cclients won\u2019t need me anymore\u201d. But that\u2019s just plain wrong! If you solve your client\u2019s problem well, next time you\u2019ll be the person they\u2019ll look to for the right answers, and not somebody else.<\/p>\n
Case studies are also a very good way of showing how valuable analytical tools feedback can be. A good case study can be worth a thousand theoretical good blog posts, and that\u2019s why I think it was a good idea to include some case studies and cases of best practice at the inOrbit conference.<\/p>\n
Digital\/online advertising introduced data mining in a whole new way, something that was unimaginable in the traditional marketing world. We\u2019re able to measure the way people are interacting with our brand, our products and our services. We\u2019re able to determine which website content techniques are valuable and which digital marketing campaigns generate good results both for us and for our customers. We\u2019re also able to give our customers only the information they need at the moment, so without being not too pushy,<\/em> polite, etc. But most of all, we\u2019re able to see, in near real time, where the leaks<\/em> in our budget\/strategy are and what we can fix to stop wasting our (client\u2019s) money and produce and maintain great results on our website. There are also many unbelievable things we can measure (some you\u2019ll be able to get a sneak peek at, at inOrbit) but none of those measures are worth much unless you have a decent marketing strategy, a corresponding website, and a team that understands how digital marketing works.<\/p>\n People in Analytics often pay too much attention to data acquisition, processing and reporting\u2014and in the end don\u2019t having enough time to provide their clients with useful analysis and insights, which is actually the most important part of using analytics. Of course, you can\u2019t have accurate insights if your data is lousy, but as an analyst you have to move beyond just setup and reporting towards insights and analysis, because then and only then you are bring some real value to your company or client. For me, insights and analysis are the most fun parts of the whole Analytics process. It\u2019s rather easy to produce a report with 500 rows of data, but it\u2019s hard to generate a 2×4 table that contains the exact data your CEO needs to make some business decision.<\/p>\n