The next big thing in online marketing

In addition to the growth of search, online advertisers have access to a wealth of other channels - fast-growing rich media advertising, rejuvenated email marketing and newer channels like instant messaging, RSS feeds and blogs. Perhaps more than they can handle?

Due to the sophistication of online advertising channels and campaign management tools, detailed measurement and advertising accountability has become par for the course. There is response, conversion and marketing ROI data being kicked-up everywhere.

However, marketers lack a broader context to compare the performance data of their online channels and tactics on a like-for-like basis. Even more important is an understanding of how customers interact with these varying channels and how this influences your overall marketing planning.

Enter Site (Web) Analytics.

Jupiter Research estimates that the web analytics marketplace is worth around $400 million and projects that it will grow to a $1 Billion industry by 2010. This growth is due to site analytics providing marketers with a consolidated view of acquisition, retention and conversion tactics in the context of visitor behavior on their site.

Site analytics takes marketers from the realm of measurable campaign data to visitor behavior analysis to how these two factors, can and should, influence each other in overall marketing optimization and performance tracking.

Google recently acquired Urchin...you guessed it a Site Analytics company. Could it be that they realize customers will start asking how paid search clicks convert, against organic search traffic and how this compares to clicks from online advertising campaigns, customer retention email, and partner promotions and so on? Watch out for what site analytics competitors such as Omniture, WebSide Story and Coremetrics will do in response to Google.

Giving context to online marketing data is what site analytics provide. How marketers analyze, manage, respond and most importantly what actionable marketing tactics and strategies they put in place as a result of it is what will differentiate the market leaders from the laggards.

This is what we see as the next big thing in online marketing and Google thinks so too...