OM Marketing Bootcamp Day One Wrap-up

Whew! It's been a GREAT day at OM Marketing Bootcamp. My personal highlights:

1. I not only MET Avinash Kaushik, but I got his autograph for my Web Analytics Book. Great speaker, very relaxed and seriously into analytics, data and very customer-centric. Really liked him in person. Thanks Avinash! Yes, Trinity Rocks and So do you!!
   
2. Cathy Resmer "live blogged" all day -- was way cool to read the re-cap and figure out this new journalistic endeavor. Down-side is the application she used was not Blackberry friendly so I had to wait until the end of the day to read it all, so couldn't participate.
   
3. Networking, networking, networking! Chatted with former students, other business people including folks from Epik, Propeller, MyWebGrocer, and the Publisher of the Burlington Free Press.

My biggest take away is that overall, I'm on it. There weren't any surprises that made me feel like I wasn't on top of the space I'm teaching. Whew -- that's always my concern and I'm glad to see that I've been able to stay on top of the trends and issues in Analytics, Advertising and Social Media. And actually, I might be a bit ahead on the mobile use and Twitter...but that, of course remains to be seen.

Best Advice and overall great themes that came from today:

1. The CUSTOMER should drive your decision-making (in other words, know your target market, where they go online and what they are doing online). Use analytics data, surveys and A/B and Multivariate testing to help get clear on what customers want from your online presence.
   
2. Give up control Marketing VPs and CEOs! Your brand is no longer your own -- now you need to MANAGE the brand using other tools, but you have to be willing to let consumer generated content run its course.
   
3. Be open and flexible and ready to try out the new tools to see how they will work and if they will work for your target market.
   
4. Data driven decision making ROCKS or...as Avinash would say, "It's crazysexycool". Even better, is data visualizations of the right information. Data by itself is often crap -- but with the right visualizations it can actually tell you what you need to do and better yet can help you convince the HIPPO to let you do it!

For the nitty gritty check out http://twemes.com/om -- which are all the Tweets that came through today about the OM bootcamp -- of course most of them are me! I think my thumbs will fall off. Also the live blog from Blurt provides some great things too.

I'll be back on tomorrow for the second day -- the focus will be Analytics. Yippee!

Avinash is coming...Avinash is coming!

If you are at all interested in Internet Marketing you know the name AVINASH KAUSHIK. If you are interested in Web Analytics then not only do you know the name AVINASH KAUSHIK, you have read his book, you follow his blog AND you watch his YouTube Videos. He is also the "Analytics Evangelist" at Google. Um...yeah.

Basically you can't really say Web Analytics without saying Avinash Kaushik at the same time.

I've been reading his blog and I have his book and I show his videos in my Internet-based marketing class. And in June...I will meet him. I will see him in person. This is WAY cool. What is even cooler is he will be HERE at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Oh yes. I'm not off to some swanky conference in New York City or San Francisco or Chicago. I'm here...on campus...just a short walk from my office and I will get to listen to Avinash in person.

It's all part of the Online Marketing Bootcamp. This is the third go around for the Bootcamp and it's growing for sure. I attended the first one, conducted a session at the second one (about an hour after I successfully defended my dissertation!) and will be attending the third one.

As I get ready to re-write and re-tool the Internet-based Marketing class having the opportunity to hear Avinash in person and potentially even speak to him will certainly provide some great inspiration on how to get students excited about data-driven decision making. Yep. That's what I said. Get students EXCITED about data-driven decision making!

So why here you might ask. Well, to be honest, Burlington and Vermont in general is a growing hub for information technology businesses, small software engineering firms and cutting edge online marketing companies. At the same time, our college (shameless plug!) is one of the few that offers classes in things such as Social Networking, Web Analytics, Online Visibility and Search Engine Optimization. We've been teaching Internet-based marketing for over seven years (that's me, by the way) and we have some OUTSTANDING alum who are rock'n the business.

Dave Winslow, CEO of EpikOne (the only Google Partner in New England) and his team of Champlain Alum from the e-Business and Business programs: Paul Skarvinko, Charles Miller and Matt Brinkerhoff will all be there on hand to TEACH about different facets of online marketing. Read more about all the experts here!

So not only do we have local talented experts in this field (many of whom were educated right here at Champlain!) we are able to bring in the top tier in the business to our campus.

$500 for the first day session to see Avinash in person. Burlington is not nearly as expensive as NYC or Chicago and you have a WAY better chance of actually meeting Avinash here then you would there for sure. $1950 for the full week of sessions that are split into beginner and advanced.

Well worth it.

I'm bringing my copy of Web Analytics an Hour a Day to get autographed.

Champlain College Online Marketing Bootcamp Day 3: Web Analytics Wednesday

It's day three and we are deep into Analytics!

The day began again bright and early in the Mac Lab at Champlain College as we DOVE in the DEEP END of the "Technical Side" of Google Analytics. Our tour guide was Justin Cutroni the VP for Web Analytics at EpikOne. Justin has a blog "Analytics Talk" which is referenced on page 86 of Web Analytics an Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik, where he writes, "Justin Cutroni is one of hte smartest web analytics practitioners and consultants around. His focus is on GA but he has lots of non-GA stuff as well."

Today we learned about how to set up Google Analytics on our websites and how to customize the data and the reports. I'd go into detail...but OMG! I'm still processing. The big things I'm taking away are:

• Filtering is important


• Link Tagging can make ALL the difference -- especially with non-HTML files like PDF and FLASH and ads outside of the AdWords network.


• Goals are CRUCIAL -- it's all about conversion, so make sure those goals are clearly defined.


• Goals don't have to be just e-commerce related -- if you want people to sign up for an email newsletter, that's a goal; if you want people to download a file, that's a goal.


• Campaign tracking is very important and encompasses all of this
  

This afternoon has focused on the reporting from Analytics -- we walked through all the reports and really got an in-depth look at GA from Rachel Meyers an Analytics Specialist with Google.
While many of the reports are self-explanatory, the context provided by Meyers was very helpful and there are many nuances that we went over that I had never considered before. The new interface has really made a difference and allows for ease and depth at the same time!

Next step is the Web Analytics Association's networking event Web Analytics Wednesday! at the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington, VT.