Since storming on to the scene in 2005, Google Analytics has turned a lot of heads and has garnered some serious consideration from some large companies who would have previously only considered the top tier vendor solutions.  Given that it is a feature rich solution and it’s free, the value proposition seems to be difficult to dispute.

Yet, despite it being free, there have been a lot of ‘buyer beware’ articles written describing some of the hidden costs and risks associated with using Google Analytics.  Some of the costs/risks cited, for example, are the lack of customer support and training, data ownership issues, and despite its rich set of features, it does not provide the depth of analysis that a high-end analytics solution does.  And unfortunately you have to invest a lot of time with the tool to really identify its limitations.

So while these hidden costs are certainly relevant and should definitely be taken into consideration when evaluating analytics vendor options, I do believe Google Analytics is a compelling tool that can provide enormous value in evaluating the effectiveness of online marketing initiatives, understanding web site visitor behavior, and optimizing the performance of a web site.

But here’s the rub, the decision to use Google Analytics frequently conveys an implicit devaluation of the importance of the analysis of the data that actually provides the real value to the organization.

The use of Google Analytics is often a reflection of the diminished importance an organization places on obtaining the actionable insights that can provide extremely high returns.Of course there is no doubt that organizations are frequently guilty of not investing the time and energy necessary to take advantage of a tool even after making a fairly significant investment in the tool.

However, there is an exponentially higher risk when no investment has been made. No one in the organization is saying, “we invested all of this money in the tool and we are not taking advantage of it,” because there was no investment.  In fact, to most it would seem almost ridiculous to suggest that a company should hire someone full-time to analyze data derived from Google Analytics.

Yet more and more firms are adding full-time analysts to their web optimization teams because they recognize the dividends it pays. Unfortunately many companies are now asking, “can’t we get as much from Google Analytics for free instead of paying for our current tool” instead of asking “shouldn’t we be doing more and better analysis to gain actionable insights from our current tool?”

I believe this is by far the most significant hidden cost of Google Analytics and it has nothing to do with the quality of the tool.

About a week ago, during a trip to a local grocery store, I noticed that a large red metal box about the size of a drive-through ATM had been installed just outside the entrance.  It certainly drew my attention and upon further examination, I discovered that it was a DVD movie rental vending machine from Redbox.  For $1 a day, I could instantly rent new release DVD movies.  I couldn’t resist trying it – a pack of gum costs more.

The process was simple:  swipe your credit card, select your movie from a touch-screen, and the DVD is presented much like money from an ATM.  Returning the movie to the kiosk was just as easy.  Redbox is owned by Coinstar and McDonald’s and they claim to have served-up almost 40 million rentals.

From a retailer perspective, the kiosks provide value in that they can help drive foot traffic and that is what McDonald’s was obviously thinking with its investment.  Take the kids to lunch at McDonald’s and they beg to rent ‘Cars’.  You figure it’s only a buck, so why not (revenue for Redbox).  When you return the movie to McDonald’s the next day, you grab a coffee and McGriddle sandwhich, since you are there (revenue for McDonalds).  If you take the kids with you on the return trip, not only only will they will beg you to rent ‘Ant Bully’ but they will probably want some pancakes as well. 

Besides liking the convenience as a consumer, the important reminder for me is that innovation doesn’t have to come from being on the cutting edge of technology.  All of the movie/tv show rental buzz today surrounds downloading video or online viewing; however, Nielsen reported toward the end of 2006 that 81 percent of U.S. households own a DVD player, while 79 percent own VCRs, and DVD households rent DVDs twice per month. 

Given those numbers and the fact that Blockbuster generated 10 times more revenue in 2006 from its in-store rentals than it did from its online service means that there are still a significant number of people renting from stores.  For those people, services like Redbox provide incremental convenience – they are already at the grocery store, restaurant, etc. and renting a movie from Redbox saves them a trip.  I am not saying DVD kiosks are going to replace rental stores, but it seems to me that they can carve out a nice niche.

So, the next time we see the latest Apple product introduction on the cover of Time magazine or read about how some cool gadget company received millions in funding, let’s not forgot that innovation and convenience aren’t solely owned by cutting-edge technology.

Poor email marketing – much like Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect.  I am not sure that email marketing ever got its just due, but now with all of the talk about Web 2.0, user-generated content, blogs, podcasts, social networks, video, and mobile, you would think that email marketing has gone the way of the manual typewriter.  That’s unfortunate because while email marketing faces challenges from the proliferation of spam and phishing, it remains one of the best tools in a marketer’s tool box.

A recently released report from Forrester, E-Mail Marketing Comes of Age, found that email is now used by 97% of all consumers, and consumers who buy products advertised via email spend 138% more than typical non-readers.  Additionally, over 50 percent of consumers who open and read email marketing messages are likely to purchase other items on impulse, and 50% of those who open and read email marketing messages are more likely to purchase impulse items once they get to the site.

Now, that doesn’t mean everyone should just start blasting emails out to as many people as possible.  Consumers are frustrated about getting too many messages in their inbox and have started reporting legitimate email as spam because it is easier than unsubscribing.  Like any other marketing communication, it has to be relevant to be effective.  The following are some suggestions on how to improve your email marketing:

• If you aren’t currently sending email campaigns, seriously consider it.  Start by developing an email marketing strategy that addresses issues like what you want to accomplish with the campaigns (e.g. generate leads, maintain awareness, etc.),  what value you are actually providing the consumer, how frequently you are going to sending campaigns, and how is success defined.
• If you already are sending campaigns, re-visit your stategy, addressing the same issues mentioned in the first bullet point.
• Track results like opens, click-thrus, and conversions.  Conversions are especially important because it ultimately tells you how successful your overall campaign is.  Conversions might be products sold, leads generated, registering for a seminar, or downloading a whitepaper. 
• Ensure that your subscriber list contains email addresses that have legitimately requested to receive email from your company.
• Verify that you are Can-Spam compliant.
• Develop a schedule for sending emails that you feel you can commit too.  Most companies underestimate the time it takes to generate, edit, and approve copy, even for email campaigns.
• Ensure that the design properly reflects your brand.  Just because you can use Photoshop doesn’t mean you should.  If you didn’t design your website or marketing materials, you probably shouldn’t be designing your e-mail campaigns.
• Seriously consider using an email marketing service provider (ESP).  Not only do ESPs help with deliverability, but they offer features like automated emails and dynamic content tools that provide real power to marketers.
• Test, test, test.  You should experiment with subject lines, day and time of delivery, and body copy.  You never can be certain what will get the best results until you try it.
• Promote your subscriber sign-up on your website and whereever else you can.
• Send a welcome message when someone signs-up.  This provides an opportunity to re-affirm what types of messages you will be sending and how often they will be sent and request that they add you to their safe-senders list.
• Make it easy to unsubscribe.  If a consumer doesn’t value your emails, you would much rather have her unsubscribe than report the message as spam.
• Given the number of different email clients used by consumers to read email (e.g. Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail) and the effort made by ISPs and others to control spam, it is more important than ever that email campaigns are designed in a way to help ensure that they will be delivered and read.  Use a best practices guide like the ones provided by CheetahMail or search on ‘email design best practices’ to help.
• Subscribe to competitor’s newsletters to see what they are doing.