In one of the many blogs I read recently a surprising statistic jumped out at me; unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read the stat.  It said that 47% of online marketers use analytics to measure campaigns.  When I read this, my jaw dropped.  What are the other 53% doing? Randomly guessing? Basing optimization decisions on what campaign looks the prettiest?

Analytics are paramount to understanding optimization – from SEO to SEM to email campaigns and more.  Regardless of the platform you use (whether it’s Google Analytics on the low end or something like Omniture at the high end), I cannot stress its value enough.  Whether you measure marketing success with page views, form sign-ups, email subscriptions, or purchases, you have to know how to measure your successes, perform A/B or split tests, and drill down into all the layers of your site or campaigns.  Knowledge can directly correlate with success and ROI when you’re dealing with online marketing.

If you’re in the 47%, congratulations.  I hope you’re using every piece of data to your best advantage.  If you’re in the 53%, I wish you good luck… and encourage you to seek more information from any number of analytics packages.