How to get Web Analytics right – Part 1 – 3 Fatal Flaws in Your Digital Analytics Setup

During the last years I had the chance to see – and setup/maintain – many Digital Analytics setups under the hood. Here are my top 3 fatal flaws that I have seen in many Digital Analytics setups. In times of digitization, AI and data-driven decision-making, these can bring huge losses.

1. The Wrong: unclear directions, goals & KPI

The first serious mistake happens right at the start of each tool implementation. Not making sure that you have your directions and goals clearly in mind.

I have seen too many organizations having no clear path for their Web Analytics setup before their eyes. As a result, they often collect standard measures and follow generic tipps and best practices.

But by doing this, they waste LOTS of human resources, time and money. To rely on standard measures and KPI means you are following the wrong path. Just because many people are following a path somewhere, it doesn’t mean this road leads to the place that YOU want to reach.

When you don’t achieve clarity about how your website or app can contribute to your organizations individual goals, this is the unfortunate starting point of a long path ending up where you never wanted to:

• If you’re just following standard setup and some best practices, you are strongly prone to collecting wrong data. This data that doesn’t represent your success towards your own unique goals.
• From this follows, you’re drawing suboptimal conclusions.
• From this follows, you’re hitting suboptimal decisions.
• You end up with prioritising wrong actions
• Finally, you’re moving farther and farther on the wrong path.

It is crucial to always make sure you are focused on what’s most important for you – individually for your organization! Your “reason why” is very unique. Your goals are very unique. Your approach to the market & to reach your goals is very unique. That is why also your data and KPI definitions needs are just as unique!

How to get this flaw corrected? Read on with blog post series part 2: 
How to get Web Analytics right – Strategy, Goals and KPI

3. The Neglected: Unleveraged Data value

The third big trap is not directly one about Digital Analytics Tool Setup itself. But nevertheless, it can totally derail your whole website or app project. Thus, it is just important as the other points above. It is about not leveraging the value hidden in your data.

Imagine you get both your data collection strategy AND your data quality right, but THEN no one in the room uses the data (which may be strategically correct and of good-quality) to its full potential. Sounds ridiculous? Yes. But. That’s exactly what I see in sooo many organizations. It’s not the point, that there is no will to extract these insights.

But what’s often missing, is this:

• The knowhow and experience needed for clever analysis this not available.
• People can’t estimate how big the available values and advantages are. Thus organizations don’t even think about such projects.
• Colleagues have no time to do this job.
• Other tasks have higher priority.
• Especially in times of trouble, such type of work becomes quickly a lower priority.

What has changed over the years? In classical times and classical brick and mortar businesses, you could get to know your customers quite simply. They come in-person into your store. You meet them, you get to know them better and better. You observe so many details. How they behave. What is important to them. Their face expressions, their body language. But in the digital age, in a more and more digital business – where your clients and interested parties meet you more and more exclusively online – you lose more and more such classical possibilities. The earliest and often today even the only main touchpoint is your website or app! And the new way to learn about your customers, is to get knee deep into your data about your users.

THIS is the reason, why data is the fuel to improvement in the age of ai. But you can only leverage it, if you take action and improve your organization based upon data-based insights.

Missing to get to know your customers and how their behaviour – sometimes rapidly – changes is, in my opinion, one of the biggest threats to the growth of many websites, apps and shops. I have seen so many organizations NOT using their data potentials.

And of course, as it is chronologically the third step after the two mentioned above, logically, this is the hardest to be accomplished. It needs to be accomplished, after you have reached the other two steps successfully. I am convinced: The needed knowhow is too often dangerously missing within organizations, how to approach your data so you can lift up the knowhow out of your data.

THIS is where I can step in and support: With my extensive experience and knowledge, I am ready to help. Either with coachings and trainings that help your colleagues to thrive. Or with my analytics packages to deliver those insights, so you can directly start leveraging and using valuable insights. We even can setup continuous improvement together. Let’s get in touch and book an appointment.

Within this series’ upcoming blog post number 4 (coming soon), I’ll talk about how to approach your data, so you can derive the real worthy values. And how to come into data inspired, data based and datadriven action.