SPIWEB and milesBENNETT to Work Closer in 2008

After meeting in the middle of 2007 Iain and Miles have decided to work closer with their respective companies in 2008.

SPIWEB Consultancy focuses mainly on training users in how to make best use of their web analytics tools. With clients like NHS, Hackett, Jaeger, Butlins, Warner Breaks, NAVMAN and more, SPIWEB brings an impressive client list as well as specialist skills and not forgetting one of the best web analytics trainers in the Europe. SPIWEB’s director, Iain Murphy, is also a board member of the WAA Education committee and has contributed towards the University of British Columbia’s web analytics qualification.

milesBENNETT, with specialist knowledge in the financial services sector, has worked with banking groups like Grupo Santander, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Miles Bennett has implemented the tools, worked with marketing managers to identify requirements and customised reporting to satisfy those needs. Miles Bennett helped bring awareness of the problems faced by financial services organisations at London’s eMetrics Summit in 2007. He is also a board member on the WAA International Committee and regularly arranges well attended presentations and events.

Their 2008 roadmap includes some impressive solutions to web analytics and internet strategy challenges. Providing a service to clients which will leave them feeling confident in using their web analytics tool and to have a direct influence on corporate strategy, marketing / cost effectiveness and most importantly the bottom line.

LinkedIn makes advance on UK

Business social network LinkedIn has outlined plans for its European expansion strategy.

A London office, the first outside the US, opens in two weeks as the site's European HQ as it looks to capitalise on social network boom.

Figures from Nielsen Online show LinkedIn was the fourth fastest growing social network in 2007, after Facebook, Perfspot and Imeem.

The London office will be headed by Kevin Eyres as European MD. He joins from travel site SideStep Europe, where he was MD.

Eyres said he was looking to appoint a marketing and sales team, as well as an ad sales house to sell across Europe. UK ad sales are currently handled by Ad2One, which holds the contract until March.

Last month LinkedIn began improving its user experience, including a redesigned home page and news section. It also joined Google's OpenSocial to allow developers to build applications for the site.

The network will continue to rely on viral marketing, as well as holding offline events; it's also making a drive to get existing members to use their accounts more.

A key part for me is to get early adopters back on the site, especially now that
the network has grown so much. There's much more of a reason to be active, said
Eyres.

LinkedIn first revealed plans for a UK office after amassing 1m members in the UK without a formal presence (NMA 15.11.07)
Reference: New Media Age, 24.01.08

Web Analytics, Defined?

What do businesses perceive web analytics to be? Some organizations classify it as a marketing role and others classify it as an IT role.

However, very few organizations view this as a strategy input role.

Web Analysts provide both sales information telling an organization how much bottom line value is been driven from the website. They are also providing strategic information which is largely unavailable in retail outlets. If we take the example that a retail outlet measures everyone that comes into the store (known as footfall) then we measure how many sales are sold in the same period. From this we can also look at average sales value, most popular products and finally the cost of point-of-sale advertising.

What we cannot measure regularly is the efficiency of the sale. The time taken to complete the sale, where people leave in the sales funnel (in retail outlets a long queue could mean that sale is lost and potentially future sales also lost).

Web analysts (with proper training) can provide recommendations, monitor the changes made to the web process and then analyse whether the improvement was a success or failure. To quote Jim Sterne (Target Marketing, EMetrics and the Web Analytics Association) – “Test Measure Test Measure” is the best way to ensure that not only do your customers buy, but that they also come back.

SPIWEB offers consultancy services to companies who want exactly this. A streamlined sales process, efficient customer registration and ultimately, an increase in the bottom line.

Why you should become a contractor

There is a drastic shortage of internet marketing and analytics trained staff. Companies are trying to recruit web analyst and marketing staff left right and center. As a web analytics professional I receive an average of five calls a day.

The “New Business” magazine has recently written an article of skilled labour and how targeted training can boost bottom line performance, productivity and the sense of worth a staff member gets from a company’s investment.

Between 1996 and 2002 the University of Kent researched 2,000 small companies. In that time 11% of those that did some staff training went out of business and 27% of those that did no training went out of business.

What are the reasons that people don’t train their staff? Some quote time and others quote resources (including money).

“New Business” states that “training does not have to be expensive, especially with the many government initiatives currently available. It does not even have to eat into valuable work hours.” If the case is such then could it be that the managers are not explaining the benefits of training and development to their staff?
In SPIWEB’s opinion people should have structured training which involves the staff member as well as management and it shouldn’t always be strictly tied to company objectives.

• Review the job objectives
• Question what the staff member wants to do
• Confirm the best way forward (e.g. internal/external training
• Setup regular review points

The need for the review is to measure whether there was a requirement to change the programme.

"Either in the mistaken belief that a technical specialist can somehow bring the team along as a manager by strength of technical excellence alone, or because the renumeration and reward system do not allow for the growth of an individual’s personal wealth and status without the need to become a ‘manager’, or even because companies have not put in place processes for identifying the nuturing good managers.”

Turning Strategy Into Reality – Rossmore Group - 2003

If we go back to the original question – “Where are they?” – chances are they are already in your organization. You just need to see past what you know of people and see what they are capable of.