February/March 2007 Newsletter

Accurate, Actionable News from Site Intelligence

February/March 2007

Hello and welcome to our February / March 2007 issue of Accurate, Actionable News. Our research from readers has indicated a preference for shorter newsletter content. You also want to skim read the information to pick up the bits relevant to you. So here goes…

There are two specific information topics in this issue:

1.	New VBIS v5.0. This is the newest version of VBIS, available early Spring, which builds on VBIS v4.0’s theme of speed for data access and reporting. There are 3 core benefits to v5.0:
	a.	Search marketing – progression analysis for real cost and value creation
	b.	Email integration – total campaign evaluation to identify key value segments
	c.	Data Warehouse access and speed – terabytes of data accessed in seconds.
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2.	Russell Gould, Director of Digital Marketing for MyTravel and David Pool, Site Intelligence Commercial Director, presented at the Retail Business Show at the end of January.
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Customer Perspective – New upgrade VBIS v5.0

VBIS v5.0 from Site Intelligence provides complete integration of its enterprise class data warehouse with email and paid search solutions to deliver click level, value based analysis of each search term and email response.

Key features include:

•	Search Marketing Module: The Search Marketing module integrates directly with Google and Overture to extract costs and rankings for each search term and attributes these to landings and conversions within each of the progressions tracked by VBIS.
•	Email Integration Module The VBIS Email Integration module tracks activity and value throughout the process of list generation, email send, landing and action on the site, delivering accurate insight into the effectiveness of each email promotion and campaigns as a whole
•	Speed and accuracy from Site Intelligence data warehouse VBIS v5.0 combines data accuracy with speed to allow pre-configured report runs to be produced instantly – whether it’s for a daily total or an 18 month trend analysis with tens of terabytes to process. Since all this is driven through a single data warehouse, both aggregated and individual click level data can be accessed easily and fast however long ago the data was created without loss of quality.
•	Scalability VBIS 5.0 allows terabytes of click level business data to be maintained across multiple data servers providing the ability to query the VBIS Data Warehouse across several years of eCommerce data.
•	Site Overlay The new VBIS Site Overlay delivers an essential insight into the value of individual page links and content, visualised in the context of the web site page. The new Site Overlay is capable of detailing any measure available within the VBIS Data Warehouse including conversions, revenue and new visitors.
•	Data archiving With many of our customers now storing more than 3 years click data it is inevitable that some of this will need to be archived. VBIS v5.0 now enables administrators to archive carefully selected data from the VBIS data Warehouse to ensure critical data is not removed from current visitors/customers or active reports.

These new features from VBIS focus solely on delivering management level business measures, clearly identifying marketing activity that is profitable and that which does not provide a return. The VBIS Search Marketing and Email Integration modules fit seamlessly with the existing VBIS SiteReporter data visualisation to provide accurate and actionable site intelligence across the whole business.

If you would like to talk to someone at Site Intelligence regarding the new VBIS v5.0 upgrade call 0870 420 5933 or drop us a line at editor@site-intelligence.co.uk

Author Peter Schooling – Head of Marketing.

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Customer Perspective – Site Intelligence and MyTravel

As an existing customer of Site Intelligence, Russell Gould, Director of Digital Marketing for MyTravel.com and David Pool, Site Intelligence Commercial Director, presented at the Retail Business Show at the end of January.

The presentation, entitled ‘Panning for Gold’, provided an insight into MyTravel’s online digital strategy created to achieve greater relevance and resonance with its customers and how Site Intelligence provide the ‘glue’ to bring all disparate elements of the multi-channel and multi-business into a common view.

Below are extracts from the presentation:

• Multi-national travel Group
• Employs over 14,000 people
• Last year took close to 6 million people on holiday
• Multi-channel distribution – Store, Call centre, Digital
• 31 aeroplanes and 81 hotels
• Some of the MyTravel partner brands

MyTravel’s digital strategy focussed on creating a four point plan to drive the business forward:

1.	Customer Acquisition:– Attracting new customers
2.	Customer Retention & Growth:– Harvesting repeat business from existing customers
3.	Customer Conversion:– Turning more ‘lookers’ into ‘bookers’
4.	Measurement & Optimisation:– Tracking and analysing every aspect of activity

Out of this four point plan came a number of deliverables. In each instance a full market overview was undertaken and a ‘best in class’ discipline adopted with a resource aligned against each initiative / deliverable.

Accountability and tracking is key to understanding and delivering this long term value. Much of the activity has its own tracking technology attached, however the trick with this is to bring it together into a simple format that helps MyTravel monitor performance at all levels across all digital business - micro and macro.

Sitting around all this activity is web analytics which MyTravel have worked hard to move into more of an umbrella position. All reporting at a day to day micro level is managed using the appropriate tracking however all overlaying reporting uses Site Intelligence to ensure zero overlap and maximum accuracy.

MyTravel effectively audits each of the other tracking technologies to ensure it matches or at least understand why it does not!

In terms of ongoing tracking development MyTravel have implemented 4 key business KPI’s:

1.	With each partner created a best practice approach for each activity (4 point strategy plan).
2.	Established and agreed core measurement KPI’s and targets for daily, weekly and monthly monitoring of each activity.
3.	Implemented a robust analytical platform that is scalable to incorporate ALL tracking requirements – Site Intelligence.
4.	Interrogated online real estate and promotional space to measure customer click patterns, sales patterns, search activity, measurement and testing of changes, and commercial considerations.

To prove that this level of analysis and tracking is working, Russell pointed out that after usability testing, MyTravel improved the search, quote and booking process by reducing the number of steps involved from 8-5 and improving the presentation of information.

On implementation of this development MyTravel exceeded the 10% conversion uplift target that had been forecasted.

The second phase of usability testing introduces a series of navigation and design changes following extensive customer ‘usability’ research coupled with reviews across travel and other industry leading websites. This found:

•	Navigation structure is intuitive
•	Page ‘real estate’ is optimised to deliver against customer search requirements – deal, inspiration, browse, or specific search
•	Conversion expectation of a 10% uplift exceeded

In Summary:

1.	The four point strategic plan focusing on – Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Customer Conversion, and Performance & Optimisation – forms the core platform.
2.	ALL activities are tracked at a micro level and measured against KPIs relating to that specific activity.
3.	Site Intelligence provides a single and consistent view for reporting purposes of all tracking and web analytics.
4.	Track and report on every site or activity change (e.g. usability) to understand the impact and improvement.
5.	The power of Online Retailing is transparency – everything is tracked!

Our work has enabled MyTravel to deliver click level analytics all the way through to Management Information. VBIS from Site Intelligence coupled with a best practice business strategy has delivered uplift in conversion in excess of 10% and provides the core of MyTravel’s digital business intelligence.

If you would like to arrange a meeting with one of our sales or pre-sales consultants, please call 0870 420 5933 or drop us a line at editor@site-intelligence.co.uk and we’ll contact you to arrange a convenient time.

Edit: Editing of Russell Gould’s presentation by Peter Schooling – Head of Marketing, Site Intelligence.

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Downloads – VBIS v5.0 release sheet

If you would like a pdf copy of the VBIS v5.0 release sheet email editor@site-intelligence.co.uk.

Data sheets for SiteViewer, SiteReporter and SiteConsole are all available via the website as well as a full customer list. To go to the download section on the website click here.

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Site Intelligence, Harwell Innovation Centre, Harwell Business Park, Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Tel: +44 (0) 870 420 5933 Fax: +44 (0) 870 5934
Email: info@site-intelligence.co.uk Web: www.site-intelligence.co.uk

Site Intelligence provides software and support for online marketing intelligence that transforms business data into accurate, adaptable and actionable information, delivering a measurable and quantifiable return on investment.

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