Attendees got a good overview of this very complex topic from Laurie Dwyer, owner/president, STRATEGIC INSITE, LLC, & senior lecturer, Marketing RIT Saunders College of Business. People often automatically think of web analytics when talk turns to marketing analytics. But it should be a much bigger initiative. Yes, online tools and conversion opportunities open the door to new insights about customers and their buying process, but, one also needs to make sure they tap into the powerful insights from internal data sets using statistical tools – often easily accessed through Excel.

Dwyer discussed the process and ways to build a plan (start with a problem, or start with a goal), customer lifetime value, the latest ways to measure social media, and how to enhance your career by building analytics expertise. Her bottom line – start small: one problem, one objective, one focus. Use the multitude of free resources on the web (she provided a great list!) and talk to people who are using it. Be patient with yourself. It takes a while to figure out how to tap in to analytics, but it’s worth it.