# Charities not advanced enough to use web analytic tools, says Jason Potts

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/12/15/charities-not-advanced-enough-use-web-analytic-tools-says-jason-potts/
- Published: 2006-12-15T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Charity sector new media expert Jason Potts told a meeting of charity data analysts
recently that charities are not yet sufficiently advanced in the use of web analytics
to make use of the current generation of sophisticated web analytic tools.**

Presenting on web analytics to the Institute of Fundraising’s Analysis in Fundraising
Special Interest Group, Potts said most charities could not make use of tools such
as Red Eye and Intellitracker.

“Almost all the charities that have gone for these big tools have found they are
barrier to web analytics rather than facilitating it because they provide way too
much information – more than the charities know what to do with,” said Potts, director
of digital activities at THINK Consulting Solutions.

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“They just don’t know where to start in incorporating it into their online strategies.
Charities first need to do much more work about understanding what their sites are
for and what it is they want them to do.”

Potts told delegates that many charities were not conducting even basic analytics,
such as finding out who their unique visitors are, who signs up to the e-newsletter,
or who visits the donations page.

“Web analytics and use of e-metrics is at a very early stage in the not-for-profit
sector, which, as a sector, is not using it to encourage navigation around a site
or analyse data of those who are visiting,” he added.

Potts said that, as a start, charities should make more use of cookies and registered
user data, “but using cookies alone, or even IP addresses can provide an idea of
what’s going on; key metrics such as how monthly donor sign-ups are varying year
on year.

“And one of the most basic things they don’t often do is to ask people through relatively
simple pop-up survey forms. You can find out everything you need to know about the
usability of your site from just 15 people. It may be great to have Red Eye, but
the starting point is to ask people, in English, why they came to your site and 
what they think of it.

“Charities will in time need to invest in these sophisticated tools, but they will
have to invest more time and money in measuring some basic e-metrics first.”

Potts compared charities’ sophistication with testing direct mail fundraising with
their levels of skill in testing online fundraising. “I am surprised why people 
don’t spend the same attention to online donations forms and spend the same amount
of time testing variations of the forms as they do for printed direct marketing 
materials.

“I used to pore over mail packs trying to work out how to get a 0.1 per cent increase
in the response rate.

“But the website is the perfect medium to test this variability. It is pretty easy
to configure a website so that every third visitor to a donation page is presented
with a different version.”

The Analysis in Fundraising SIG meeting was attended by more than 40 people at Cancer
Research UK’s headquarters in central London. Potts also took part in a panel discussion
with Bertie Bosredon, head of new media at Breast Cancer Care, and Matt Trimmer,
principal consultant and managing director of ivantage Limited and a consultant 
to Google.

The Analysis in Fundraising Special Interest Group aims to support, share knowledge
and experience, and form an open learning circle with individuals who analyse and
interpret data for fundraising. It meets every three months, and aims to move the
profile of data analysis up the fundraising agenda.

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