Using Business Intelligence or Analytics can help us all work smarter and focus our online marketing activity. This is especially important as we face the uncertainties of 2009.

Most corporate organisations understand the phrase "BI" but do you? Do you know how Business Intelligence can help focus the marketing activity for your company and increase your Return on Investment (ROI)? Can you accurately identify your successful marketing activity so you can replicate it for other products or services within the business?

Business Intelligence or "Analytics" is the translation of data to enable further growth, focused sales activity and increased revenue. Google Analytics specifically works in relation to a website, however the principle is still the same. It allows you to look at your Marketing and Sales approach and do more of the things that work for your company. Understanding how visitors have found your website previously can help you improve the search to click through ratio and ultimately your click through to contact ratio. To know what they are looking at is to understand how you can sell other products and services.

How does Tesco manage to post time-sensitive mailings through the post on subjects that are of interest to you personally? Without tracking your buying trends, looking at your purchases on-line or through the store using their Club Card loyalty facility and then analysing the data efficiently, they would never have become the UK's most successful BI business.

From experience many smaller companies either choose not to spend time studying statistical information relating to their website visitor traffic or simply do not understand what they are looking for. So why not take five minutes to invest some effort in analysing your customer base? I'm sure you'll find it a very interesting excercise.