Online businesses wrapped up their 2010 efforts, in many cases, with strong holiday numbers that suggest better days this year. Among the many opportunities facing marketers in 2011 is web site optimization, which is maturing into a strategic capability that sets the course for sales and marketing initiatives. We expect to see several trends in the coming months regarding ease-of-use, actionable value of data and automation.

 

As the year begins, the market is asking for tools that are supportive of their needs across integration, workflow and business process support. Marketers are particularly interested in adopting optimization solutions that don’t prolong their reliance on IT support; however, a word of caution here. When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Ask questions relating to user experience and scalability across your web site to ensure your own standards are met.

 

Many marketers have experience working with online tools, from paid search and email to affiliate networks, display advertising and of course, social media. This new level of comfort means the optimization provider should be able to train the marketer quickly and allow for self-service, knowing that support is readily available to facilitate any step in the site optimization process. In addition, site optimization is not a “one size fits all” approach. Features and functionality must seamlessly interact across all products inside the toolset. Ease also means reusability, scalability and flexibility to help you accomplish the tasks at hand.

 

The conversations around web site optimization today are quite different from those that were taking place at this time last year. Marketers, safely over the initial adoption learning curve, now want to interact with their analytics and have the self-sufficiency to turn their data into more effective, measurable campaign results. 

 

Connecting data to action is a key attribute of site optimization. All along the continuum of testing and relevancy targeting, marketers must clearly articulate a value proposition that speaks to each individual, at the time it matters most. Data enables these types of connections, both in a rules-based approach as well as in automated solutions.

 

Insights and actions require a paradigm shift in how to view and leverage data and its corresponding results. Traditional platforms provide results disjointed from the actual user experience viewed, thus adding a hurdle for insights, rather than removing roadblocks to deeper knowledge. Instead, in-context windows into the world of site optimization blend the raw data collected with the visual connection to the user experience. Matching this information arms the marketer for even greater opportunity in conversion and revenue uplift.

 

The trends in web site optimization strongly indicate that marketers want solutions that help them automate the process of targeting visitors with the right message at the right time. After mastering the initial learning curve around simple targeting, e-businesses now see the potential for pushing more relevant content to a virtually endless number of customer segments.

 

Advanced and automated targeting platforms will be essential to this effort, but marketers should seek out the means to adopt these capabilities without eliminating human control.   The proliferation of automation will create a landscape in which retailers can dynamically create an unlimited number of micro-segments. These small clusters of visitor types are similar to those a business might identify manually, but they are created mechanically and updated in real-time as attributes change. Such platforms learn every time new data is captured and build models to address these shifts in information. An apparel maker, for example, might identify micro-segments based on combinations of seasonal trends, location, gender, age, parental status, click-path analysis, purchasing history and other factors.

 

In 2011, we’ll see people interacting with optimization tools at the strategic level and setting the parameters for automated decision making at the tactical level. E-tailers seeking out the best options for meeting this need will look for products they can use today that will also accommodate future opportunities and growth.

 

We’ve entered the year of the micro-segment in web site optimization. That fact will change the way marketers approach their technology, their web site offerings and their abilities to deliver the content, messages and images that will most likely resonate with an infinite number of customer types.

 

As we look back on the early days of web site optimization, it might be easy to say that simple A/B and multivariate testing was enough to achieve significant insight into bettering the online experience. It was certainly an important start. However, tools exist to rapidly advance the pace of knowledge, insights and gains without sacrificing the experience to users themselves. The bar for site optimization has been raised, and companies will embrace enterprise-level solutions to leverage data in meaningful ways to drive conversion, revenue and greater loyalty.
 

Pete Olson is vice president of enterprise solutions at Amadesa.