BtoB spoke with Adam Greco, senior partner at Web analytics and optimization consulting firm Web Analytics Demystified, to get tips for marketers on how to best implement Web analytics in lead generation programs.

BtoB: What's the biggest mistake people make when using Web analytics for lead generation?

Greco: In my experience, the biggest mistake in the area of Web analytics lead generation is not connecting the online website behavior to the resulting offline success. Most lead generation sites—often b2b sites—do not sell a product or service directly on the website. This means that all data collected about the website visitor, including traffic source, search engine keyword and visit number, can be tied to the online lead generation form completion but not to the revenue-generating event that takes place afterward. By not doing this, lead-generation Web analysts are uninformed about which campaigns and content related to their website lead to downstream success. Without this, online marketers may unknowingly devote marketing dollars to efforts that produce many leads that turn out to be unqualified once they are turned over to sales for further nurturing. Establishing this connection takes more work but results in more efficient spending of marketing dollars and the addition of other revenue-producing improvements being made to the website

BtoB: How can marketers do that?

Greco: B2b websites have a small number of opportunities to get prospects to visit and revisit their site. If you think about it, with each click on the website, prospects are tacitly telling you what products or services they are interested in. Unfortunately, most b2b marketers ignore this information and continue to present a “one-size-fits-all” website experience to prospects. They are still showing them the same site and contact that they are showing everyone else. The best b2b marketers use information to present the right content to the right prospect at the right time. This type of personalization can have an enormous impact on overall website conversion.

I would suggest b2b online marketers take advantage of personalization technology that is available. Some of the options out there include Google Website Optimizer, Adobe Test & Target, Get Smart Content—you can go on and on. There are so many out there. These solutions enable what I call “mass personalization.” You're not targeting one person directly—you're targeting the masses—but each person feels like he or she is getting a personalized experience because you show different promotions and different content to different people based on what you know about them. And yet very few b2b marketers are getting to that point of installing these solutions.