This diagram depicts web analytics activities in vertical axis and marketing activity on horizontal axis. This diagram represents a tactical activity that needs to be followed in order to achieve desired outcome.

Above diagram acts as a classifier for any project we may be indulging into for our website. From standpoint of high level web strategy, Based on the priority of which area of users behavior we need to improve should be decided. The three areas of users behavior are Acquisition, Engagement, Conversion.

These three areas however are not always mutually exclusive. They are interrelated and sometimes interdependent.

Most of the activities that can be classified within purple background are health check activities. They can also be referred as preventive maintenance. Within this activity, we are generally measuring critical Key Performance Index and ensure they do not show wild swings or black swans.

The activities in “Green” are activities that have significant potential to improve the bottom line or top line of the business. So from a strategic standpoint, we should have a right mix of both the categories of activities based on the business appetite. For e.g. 65% of the web analytics time / budget can be spent on activities in “green” and 35% can be spend on purple activities.

Analytics and testing activities are generally focused on change/improvement. So it is essential to generate a base case for studying any improvement. Consequently, it is very much essential to have a goal set for all the improvement which will be a positive digression from base case. Often if information gathering activities or purple activities are done well , they serve as a base case for the optimization/analytics activities.

For further Ideas on what we do during Optimization/Personalization, feel free to review Optimization Approach.