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Savvy companies leveraging data at a high level
After using Web analytics across its product line for a little more a year, security software maker Symantec Corp. is now doing a lot more than simply measuring click-throughs.
The company is using data pulled from its Web site, as well as other channels such as e-mail and radio, to help it make important strategic decisions about how it markets to customers. With this high level of analysis, it can begin to recognize trends in customer behavior at each point in the sales cycle and target marketing messages to its customers.
In addition, Symantec's agencies and ad serving companies have become a part of the analytics process.
"It's now shifting beyond, 'Here's the data and someone analyzes it/"said Eric Krugler, senior director-customer experience online operations at Symantec. "It's now pushing into campaigns and real-time presentation of information [to the customer] based on that data."
DATA OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD
But Symantec is an exception-one of a small group of savvy marketers leveraging Web analytics at this high level. That's because Web analytics and the data generated by that analysis are largely misunderstood, according to a June study conducted by Web Analytics Demystified. The study found that 82% of 856 respondents, who included marketers and web anayltics practitioners, said Web analytics is poorly understood in their organizations and that the majority of people interacting with Web data do not understand what they mean.
Moreover, more than half (56%) said Web analytics is difficult, despite the fact that the majority of respondents had at least two years of experience with the technology and 23% had more than five years of experience.
"The reality is this stuff is hard work," said Jim Sterne, president of Target Marketing and president of the Web Analytics Association. "The data...