Going through some of the finer points in Google Analytics - Conversion University caused me to ask "why don't more people embrace the richness of web analytics data?" I think about some of our clients and many people I run in to who are struggling to be effective marketers and then I look at the power of the data you can get from Google Analytics. I just shake my head in amazement that more aren't embracing the data.

When doing seminars for marketers and business owners I always recite the famous quote from Wanamaker - "I know half my marketing works - I just don't know which half." That's so true for many. Just think about how much more successful you could be and how much more effective your marketing investments would be if you truly set goals and then configured metrics to measure performance. At the beginning of the year my firm, WebStrategies, decided to market a "product" (it's a service, of course) that analyzes a client's overall marketing activitities, identifies how to measure each element (online or offline) and configures web analytics to track those activities. This approach resonates with many but others still can't wrap their minds around it. Perhaps it is not a priority for them.

In any case I continue to be amazed at the richness of data one can get out of Google Analytics. As I manuevered through Conversion University (CU) I picked up a few more nuggets of gold relative to advanced segmentations, navigation paths and ecommerce behavior. If only I could get a client to spend just 30 minutes in CU, I doubt I'd ever have to preach the benefits of web analytics again.

ROI visibility was recently rated as one of the most important issues for marketers today. Well, much of the answer to this challenge lies in being clear about objectives, creative about metrics/measurements and using the tools at our disposal to measure marketing success. They are there - we just need to understand their application and be smart about implementation.