eCommerce Analytics

I was reading up on analytics technology today and ran across an interesting article at TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) which surprised me.  It was surprising due to the fact that it was a year old but was reporting the same results as today:  predicitve analytics solutions are still novel to many companies and unknown to even more.  Even after dozens, if not hundreds, of successful case studies show how predictive analytics are a low-effort, high ROI solution to help a company achieve strategic goals:

[P]redictive analytics can yield a substantial ROI. Predictive analytics can help companies optimize existing processes, better understand customer behavior, identify unexpected opportunities, and anticipate problems before they happen,” Eckerson writes. For six years running, he points out, a majority of TDWI’s annual Leadership Award winners have used predictive analytic solutions to achieve noteworthy business results.

Before we created our predictive analytics solution for email marketing we knew the benefits of predictive analytics solutions and we realized that marketing has many metrics and data points as well as a very strong set of historical data which we can and do use to build solid, accurate models of customer behavior and desire.   Why are users of predictive analytics still considered Early Adopters?

Read Predictive Analytics Provide Big Payouts For Early Adopters »

Have we really dissected email marketing so thoroughly that we’re talking about best practices for “From” fields? In a word, yes.

Monday, Dharmesh Shah posted 8 email marketing tips distilled from an interview with Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman in The Boston Globe.  I agree wholeheartedly with 7/8ths of her tips, but #7 tripped me up a bit:

7. Two things that get your email opened: #1:  “From” and #2 “Subject”. 

Read Email “From” Field: Calling Card or Attention Grabber? »

First things first, no matter who you support, I hope all of you have either gone out to vote today, or are planning to go out to vote. Although I’m usually not this dedicated, I woke up at 6:30 this morning to try and make it to the polls by 7. I was hoping I might be able to get their before the crowds, but by the time I got there at 6:55, the line was already two blocks long. I’ve voted at the same polling station for over 10 years now, and I have to admit that I’ve never seen such an incredible turn out for any election thus far. It took me about an hour to make it through, which was actually less than what I originally thought, but glad I beat the long lines I know will be there later this evening.

Read Obama Leading in the Polls? Perhaps it’s Due to Better Marketing »

Being a Boston-area, MIT-based company, Istobe always pulls for other Boston-area, MIT-based companies. And this goes double for companies in the customer analytics and targeted email realms. Such is the case with Constant Contact, one of the email service provider (ESP) titans out there. And now we get a new survey from Constant Contact that echoes our ramblings at Istobe. email marketing is becoming more and more important for small businesses as the economy stumbles into the Christmas season.

Read Constant Contact Survey Shows Small Businesses Will Rely on Email Marketing this Holiday Season »