Using Web Traffic Analysis for Customer Acquisition and Retention Programs in Marketing

Abstract This paper draws heavily on the author's recent sojourn into the field of web traffic analysis. Based on this experience, the paper argues that web traffic analysis provides an interesting and useful set of procedures for learning about consumers' navigational paths through companies' web sites. Once these navigational paths have been logged and analyzed, it is then possible to determine how web site visitors—both new prospects and returning customers—react to marketing offers online. Web traffic analysis offers a variety of metrics that can be used to evaluate web sites, and intelligent executives can then modify these web sites in ways that improve visitor response. The paper demonstrates how web traffic analysis fits into the academic literature in marketing, and a number of software and web metrics issues are presented. An illustration is used to demonstrate some of the ways in which web traffic analysis can be used to drive customer acquisition and customer retention programs in marketing.

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