Thanks to the gaggle of web analytics packages out there, we have the ability to track digital marketing investments – what Adwords campaign is driving leads, which website refers the most visitors, etc.  It’s connecting the dots between your online efforts and offline conversions that gets a little tricky

A good option is Mongoose Metrics, a phone tracking service that integrates with your existing web analytics package (Google Analytics, Omniture, CoreMetrics, and more).  Simply add a snippet of JavaScript to a designated webpage and one of Mongoose’s trackable phone numbers and you are set.  You can port your existing phone number into their system or they will assign you a toll free number and bridge it to your mainline.   Either way, when a prospect calls that number, the Mongoose server automatically places a browser visit on that webpage.  This means you can measure each phone call as a conversion and access the data from your go-to analytics platform.

Mongoose Metrics offers a starter package at $39/month that includes the phone number, 245 monthly minutes, and no contract obligations.   Businesses with higher call volume can get a custom pricing plan and multiple numbers.   Mongoose also throws in free customer support that will walk you through set-up and the analytics integration process.

If you’re a business looking for an accurate way to measure online leads and ROI, Mongoose Metrics just makes sense.

While Google Analytics and Omniture are the reigning champs of site analytics, they do have limitations.   And with the blink-and-you-miss-it pace of blogs and social tools like Twitter, delayed website analytics can keep you from capitalizing on traffic-driving opportunities.

Keep your finger on the pulse of your website activity with Chartbeat.  Chartbeat is a live analytics tool with a snazzy dashboard that monitors all your site activity as it’s happening.  Literally, watch as users jump around pages, see who is reading, who is writing (effective for blogs and commenting sites), and who is just idling, and for how long.   You also get information on raw hits and linking pages, referring site or search engine, Twitter conversations, and hard links to your site (and how long they have been linking).

Chartbeat is the type of tool you can keep running in the background, checking in as content changes or a new link to your site gets published.  If you don’t have the time or the inclination, you can set-up system alerts (text or email notifications) when your traffic spikes or pages load too slowly.  You can also use Chartbeat’s widget suite to monitor the number of people on your pages, top pages, top referring sites, and more.

Chartbeat costs $10/month per account, but you can have multiple domains and users accessing your account.   The service is offering a free month upfront, but you will need a Paypal account to get started.  Setting up Chartbeat is as simple as adding a line of JavaScript to your site.

Your website is arguably your most important digital marketing investment.  Paid search, social media, and interactive advertising are really just vehicles for driving traffic to your site – and the more tools you utilize, the greater visibility you need.

One of the benefits of the mobile application boom is the easy access to business information when you are on the road or away from your office.  There are apps for customer relationship management (as we discussed in Touchy Feely), client invoices, expense tracking, flow charts -  heck, you can even use an iPhone as a credit card processor.

We particularly like Analytics Pro.  This iPhone app connects you directly to your Google Analytics account, giving you access to multiple profiles and over 50 reports.   It’s perfect for marketers, SEO professionals or just about anyone who needs web analytics on demand.  It provides the same raw stats and charts you are used to, even mimicking the look and feel of your web-based Google Analytics account.

The app costs $3.99 to download, and if you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, you can get one here for free (just add a few lines of code to the HTML of your site, and you are good to go).  Login to Analytics Pro with your Google Analytics username and password and manipulate the filter settings – which account, profile name, and date range – to view the corresponding report.   You can see:

• Analytics Dashboard
• Map Overlay
• Visitor Overview
• Site Usage (visits, pageview, bounce rates, etc)
• Content Overview
• Traffic Sources (referring sites, search engines, and keywords)
• Goals/Conversions

For so many marketers, tracking web traffic isn’t just a nice to have. Once you’ve embraced digital marketing, your website will likely represent the one place where all of your marketing investments come together. Here’s a way to make sure that these analytics (and the answer to “how are we doing”) are accessible wherever you might be.

There are a number of web analytics tools, but they’re not all created equal. With some, there’s a delay of up to a day before you have access to visitor data.

Not so with Clicky. Clicky is a free web analytics tool, designed to provide hyper-detailed information about your site visitors and their activities. With Clicky, you get real time specifics- location, language, operating system, browser, and screen resolution- for each visitor and a log of their every click on your site. Clicky is Ajax and Flash-friendly, so interactions that were hard to track before are now possible.

Clicky has you covered in the information delivery department too, with a slew of widgets and plugins:

• iGoogle Clicky Dashboard- mimics your real Clicky dashboard in look and functionality, displaying all available traffic data.
• Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget- displays basic daily stats in your sidebar; details are a mere click away.
• Feedburner RSS- get your Clicky stats in a convenient RSS feed.
• WordPress Plugin- integrates seamlessly in your self-hosted Wordpress blog. Automatically tag blog visitors for analysis.

Of course, if you prefer the old fashioned way, Clicky offers its own user-friendly interface. To get started, create a Clicky account and add your site(s). Clicky will generate a two-line code, unique to each registered site, to place on your site. The basic service is free, but premium plans are available. Every new sign-up gets a free 21-day trial of the Professional service, which goes for $9.99/ month.

Remember, web data is so important, you might just want to use multiple services to make sure you’re not missing something.

If you’re launching a new product or service, it can be tough to gain insight into your targeted user. One way to do it is to find information about other sites that you would assume your target would use.

One way to do that is to use a service like Quantcast. Quantcast is a free internet ratings system, generating traffic statistics and audience make-up for millions of registered web sites and blogs. The system measures visitor characteristics like gender, age, ethnicity, education, and income, as well as popularity and frequency of your site and any featured media. Quantcast is able to do this by blending panel-based estimates (sampling a small portion, then extrapolating larger data) and direct information from “tagged” sites.

If you don’t have a large site or one that’s already been tracked, you can simply use this service to identify a large, but similar site. You’ll find all sorts of interesting demographic and tracking information that you can then use to inform your own decisions.

To join the fun (and have your site added to the database), submit your url and site description to Quantcast, stipulating what information you would like to be public. The system will generate a personalized tag to be placed in your website code and any flash-based media you would like to measure, whether it’s a video, widget, or game. Quantcast will begin measuring your site immediately, providing metrics like play and reach for your media, even if it’s served on sites other than your own.