#3 - Stop Relying On One Analytics Tool

This is my series of 30 brief interactive marketing tips. I’m posting each business day at 8:30 a.m. EST. Catch them all by subscribing to my blog or bookmarking the site. All of the posts will be tagged “30 interactive marketing tips” and listed on this page.

#3 - Stop Relying On One Analytics Tool

“If I buy this tool, all of my measurement problems will be solved.”  Admit it, you’ve thought that to yourself.  You might even have heard that from a sales rep or two.

The fact is that there is no one web analytics tool that aggregates all of the information.  Even Google Analytics doesn’t give you all of the paid search data you need (see: 3 Ways Google Analytics Fails Paid Search Marketers).

The web analytics tools you choose will vary depending on your site and needs.  Here are a few alternatives off the beaten path that will get you started.

NetMechanic

• A simple tool aimed at small and mid-size business. It can help you find broken links and slow loading pages automatically. No analytics tool aggregates this kind of data yet.

Crazy Egg

• Crazy Egg is a path visualization tool in the vein of site overlay. They’re best known for their heatmap and confetti products, both of which take you a step past basic click maps.  I like the segmentation options built into the tool.

ClickTale

• It literally records what your users do on your site and lets you watch a movie of it. User experience architects rejoice! You might also want to explore tapefailure or RobotReplay.

There are always going to be gaps between the questions you have and the answers your core web analytics tool can provide.  Some tools had add-on options to close these gaps, but none can tackle them all.

Start thinking about the ways you can supplement your core tool with other satellite sources of data.

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