Come Up to the Marketing Lab

WebTrends Tuesday unveiled its Marketing Lab, which includes the newest version of its analytics software, as well as a new data warehouse for exploration and customer targeting. The marketing data warehouse, which WebTrends is offering for the first time, features segmentation of unique visitor data, and off- and online customer events, which will aid the data exploration and target marketing capabilities, according to the company. The analytics software, WebTrends Analytics 8, will replace the version 7 release that has been on the market for the past two years. WebTrends asserts* that marketing executives have indicated the Web will be the hub of their organizations' marketing strategy in 2006, but that a large percent of those execs rate their ability to measure online marketing performance as weak. "[The standards] used to measure advertising success are reach and frequency," says Brent Hieggelke, WebTrends vice president of corporate marketing. "The problem with [analytic solutions] in the past is that they stop at aggregate level metrics--they don't go down to the individual level. With companies expanding their online marketing to $55 billion [by 2010, according to a Piper Jaffrey report], it's important that they target down to the individual level in order to segment their markets." The new software also includes enhanced reporting and cross-tabulation capabilities, Hieggelke says. All business users can use the new features to establish goals and view past and current top level performance benchmarked against those targets in real time. They can also drill into operational details and evaluate multiple what-if scenarios. "It's important for a number of reasons," Bill Gassman, research director with Gartner, says of WebTrends Marketing Lab. "[When] they were part of NetIQ, they lost a lot of customers. They had a systemic problem; their support was trouble; and their customers didn't like them. WebAnalytics 8 is their chance to say they are technically competitive again, though from a revenue standpoint they have always been the leader." The addition of the data warehouse is important for WebTrends' attempt to gain market share against competitors like Websidestory, Omniture, and Core Metrics. . WebTrends Analytics 8 and WebTrends Marketing Warehouse are both available as software or as hosted on-demand services. Software will be available Monday, March 20. On-demand versions will be available in April. Customers that have on-demand service or have bought support services will be automatically upgraded to the new WebTrends Analytics. The marketing warehouse carries an additional fee. Some specific markets could be quickly attracted to the offering, according to Hieggelke. "It should benefit any company that has a strong need for individual data, like retail and financial services." *According to a WebTrends survey conducted last month. Related articles: Google's Free Web Analytics--A Stalking Horse? Web Metrics With Bid Management Tools WebTrends' 7.5 Includes a Recipe for Cookie Cutters