Don’t know these guys? Tealium is a nascent consultancy based in San Diego, CA. It was formed in March by three former consultants at Visual Sciences – Olivier Silvestre, Mike Anderson  and Ali Benham. I’ve worked with (as client and teammate) all three and would recommend them to just about anyone needing help with web analytics – wait, that’s what I’m doing here!

One of their first offerings – beyond consulting – is a little service to help you integrate online analytics data into your CRM system. Wait … what? WebToCRM does just what it says – helps you get your web analytics data into your CRM system for a more comprehensive view of your marketing efforts.

It’s interesting (to me) that they should launch WebToCRM so closely on the heels of eMetrics because while I was there I went to dinner with Eric T. Peterson, Judah Phillips and June Dershewitz. At dinner, we discussed (among other things) where web analytics is going. Eric declaimed that the next battlefront in our market is open systems vs. closed systems. Open systems let data come in and go out. Closed systems, on the other hand, are like roach motels – data might get in, but it will never get out!

Essentially what Tealium is doing with WebToCRM is eliminating the need to wait for the platforms (web analytics and CRM) to offer easy, true pass-through of data. WebToCRM is configured for several popular web analytics applications and two CRM platforms with options for ‘other’. As the service grows, I imagine that the preprogrammed options will grow too.

With the free version, you can pass a campaign ID and up to three (3) campaign attributes from your analytics system to your CRM platform.

So how does it work? After going through the WebToCRM configuration process you will receive a JavaScript, in email, that can be deployed across your site in one of your global includes (header, footer, etc). This JavaScript is programmed to "listen" for activated campaign ID and campaign attributes variables encoded on the destination URL. When a potential lead enters your site via a campaign that is properly encoded WebToCRM grabs that data and stores it in a cookie so that when the lead gets to your sign-up form, the campaign information can be passed to the CRM app.

Pretty slick right?

So now you can use online campaign data to inform offline marketing processes. For instance, you can get a ‘whole view’ of the campaign from online acquisition to offline conversion. It becomes a relatively simple matter to judge which online-to-offline track offers the best conversion rate. Or to see that some online campaigns that convert-to-lead really well don’t fulfill the backend promise of conversion.

WebToCRM Vital Info

• Cost: Free!
• Preconfigured Web Analytics Applications:
  • HBX
  • Site Catalyst
  • Google Analytics
  • WebTrends
  • IndexTools
  • Core Metrics
• Preconfigured CRM Applications:
  • SugarCRM
  • SalesForce
• Campaign Variables Tracked: 4 (campaign ID + 3 attributes)
• Implementation: Global JavaScript File
• More Information: User Guide
• Learn More: WebToCRM Information Page
• Get Started: Sign Up Page
• Offered By: Tealium, Inc.

Tags: Closed-Loop Marketing, Tealium

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Web Analytics, business intelligence, tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.