Performance Insights
The desired outcome from an investment in web analytics is to improve business performance. The recommended approach for this involves an iterative process of transforming data into intelligence, identify issues & opportunities, propose changes which can be made and implementing these changes, potentially through testing alternative solutions. While a significant 20%+ improvement in performance is targeted, this process does require a significant investment in time, money and resources.
The Performance Insights project is an alternative introduction to performance optimisation. It is a one off project using existing web analytics data where L3 Analytics reviews the current performance, identifies issues & opportunities and recommends actions to take to improve performance. Successfully implementing these changes will provide any organisation with the proof they require to invest in working with L3 Analytics.
Tasks within the Performance Insights project
Review Data
The first stage involves reviewing the web analytics data of the organisation. Part of the analysis will be common across any organisation (e.g. traffic sources, entry points) while the remainder will be customised to that organisation (e.g. desired visitor behaviour, navigation, conversion points). This analysis will involve trending data over time and applying key segmentation in order to understand performance.
The interpretation of the data will be guided by a review of the website. All of this will be undertaken based on the experience and knowledge of online organisations of the L3 Analytics team. This gives us an understanding of what the data should look like, when performance is normal and when it needs to be delved into deeper.
Identify Issues & Opportunities
Based on the review of the data, L3 Analytics will identify issues that are negatively affecting performance for the organisation and, based on best practice approaches for online, identify other opportunities where improvements can be made. Not only are these issues & opportunities identified but they can also be prioritised based on the potential impact on the organisation’s performance.
One of the approaches used here is to compare current performance against targets (not necessarily benchmarks) for similar visitor behaviour as represented through data points. The gap identifies the potential uplift if changes are made.
Recommend Changes
Web Analytics data provides the “what”, where these pain-points and potential opportunities exist. Data alone cannot indicate exactly what change will improve matters, it cannot answer the “why”.
L3 Analytics does provide recommended options for these changes. These are based on experience, best practice and other sources of intelligence such as usability studies, all of which suggest likely answers for the “why”. Often alternatives will be included as these will need to be tested to see which has the greatest impact on visitor behaviour. It is encouraged for organisations to also provide ideas for the “why”, given their own expert knowledge of the market and customers.
Note that L3 Analytics will request information on what changes an organisation can make early in this process. We will not recommend changes that the team within the organisation we are working with has no control over.
The performance review, issues & opportunities for improving performance and the recommended list of changes to achieve this improvement in performance are presented back to the client, at the most senior level possible. The focus within this presentation is not on the data but on the recommended changes, supported by data.
Costs and Timelines
As this project uses existing web analytics data, it can generally be performed as soon as L3 Analytics has available resources to perform the required analysis. However a recommended approach is to adjust the configuration of the web analytics tool based on initial investigations to provide intelligence of a higher quality and allow this data to collect for a two week period. The presentation can be made to the internal team between 2 and 4 weeks after the project is initiated.
The cost of this project is between £2,000 and £3,000 depending on the complexity of the organisation (and thus data to review) plus travel expenses.
Performance Optimisation
As stated, this project is intended to prove the value of web analytics to an organisation. It requires the recommended changes to be implemented for this value to be realised. For assistance with embedding a process of continuous improvements with a target of 20% within your organisation, the Performance Optimisation project is required.
