Laura Thieme to Speak at New York Search Engine Strategies Conference on Value of Web Analytics

To counter increasing customer acquisition costs, retailers are realizing rapidly the necessity and benefits of using web analytics to track and measure the return on Internet marketing initiatives and their impact on profitability. It's also becoming increasingly important to quantify the value of organic versus paid search, says Laura Thieme, president of Columbus-based Bizresearch (www.Bizresearch.com), a full-service search marketing company.

"While costs for customer acquisition on the web are skyrocketing, search marketing is still one of the most cost effective forms of acquisition, with the average cost per customer being $8.50 compared to $70 for acquiring customers through direct mail," said Thieme. "But, rising costs and increased competition are putting pressure on web marketers to increase their conversion rates, and that fuels a real need for web analytics to measure how the site and search marketing programs perform in achieving objectives like brand awareness, parity-plus positioning, and sales."

Thieme will focus on the real value of web analytics in presentations at the Search Engine Strategies Conference at the Hilton New York on April 10-13.

To illustrate her point, Thieme cites a recent industry survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO). "SEMPO's survey found that brand awareness was the primary objective of 62 percent of e-tailers' websites, and 60 percent of those surveyed also listed selling products as a key objective for their websites," said Thieme. "But companies need help to determine what works, what doesn't work and why, and to measure more accurately their true return on ad spend."

During the presentation "Web Analytics and Measuring Success" on April 11, from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Thieme will educate attendees on the benefits and advancements in web analytics.

Among the featured content of this session, Thieme will share examples of how advanced web analytics and funnel path analysis were used to measure the effects of blogging or social media and its impact on organic rankings, search marketing campaign performance and bottom line profitability. She will also cover new information on key performance indicators and problems that can occur with web analytics data when ad campaigns are not properly tagged with tracking strings.

Thieme will also educate retailers on how to optimize their database-driven e-commerce content at "Fun with Dynamic Web Sites" on April 11, from 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Thieme will talk about new challenges in getting retail website content listed in Google, MSN and Yahoo! and will share the two most crucial elements that retailers should change on their sites to improve organic or natural visibility.

"Retailers, marketers and webmasters must understand and apply the right strategies to index and rank their online stores in search engines," said Thieme. "This workshop provides tips, tactics and best practices on how retailers can achieve the highest visibility and sales when establishing and promoting virtual stores."

Thieme, professor of the Principles of Electronic Marketing taught at Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, will share conference highlights with students through blogs placed on Bizresearch's website.