One Red Hot Country Mama!

I get e-mails all the time from recruiters asking me become a Webtrends or Omniture specialist for the firms that they represent. But, rather than the technical skill of setting up the report suites, I have the interpretive and the creative skill of taking the findings from the reports and making them into strategic recommendations. A few examples:

• Finding what legislation users click on to see what is driving demand so future direct mail campaigns can explore those legislations – getting more bang for the direct mail buck.
• Seeing conversion by lead-source (eg. banner ads vs. direct mail) , facilitating future buying decisions. Cost-per-lead analysis can also be done – with the ability to compare against other sources (such as cold-calling).
• Seeing which link on the page leads to the most conversions (people usually think it will be at the end, when people are convinced by the copy, but actually it is usually the link closest to the top.)

So – really, these are interpretive, integrative, and creative skills… not the technical skills people are seeking…

Unfortunately, since interpretive, integrative and creative skills are more difficult to measure, sometimes they get ignored in the hiring process… which is a shame. I would rather have the big ideas from the report, rather than a nice report that never gets understood.

And we are supposed to be living in a world where creativity is more important than ever! How does this affect where you work?

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