Woopra Educates Users about Web Analytics

April 11, 2012

We paid attention in statistics class. The quality of the data and the questions one frames are key to making any analytics exercise work. Punching buttons and generating pretty charts and graphs are not too helpful if the underlying data and the questions are off base, incorrect, or training wheels for a hassled MBA.

Quora recently posed the question “Web Analytics: Most companies don’t use the full potential of their Web Analytics tools. What do you think?” and received eight answers.The most thought provoking response came from Natalie Issa, the Marketing Director of the web analytics company Woopra.

According to Issa, there are four key points one should keep in mind when tackling the web analytics challenge. These are: Google analytics, marketing vs. developers, large companies vs. small, and educating users.

When discussing the importance of educating users, Issa writes:

“Web analytics services need to invest and devote resources to educating users. The company I work for, Woopra, is tackling this head on by hiring individuals whose job it is to teach and create learning materials for our users to make sure they have all the support they need (if this sounds like your kind of job, feel free to message me :)). We’re also seeing more and more marketing firms and consultants helping small and medium size businesses with their web analytics needs.”

Does this mean that customers are making decisions without an appropriate understanding of what the math behind the system actually delivers? Our view: training wheels on analytics can produce some interesting consequences.

The reality is that analytics will not solve problems reliably unless the users understand the data and frame the correct question. Statistics 101. It is not the training; it is the fact that people want a silver bullet, not mental effort. Just our view, of course. Marketers have a different goal, and it is not education, is it?

Jasmine Ashton, April 11, 2012

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.