Merge

There's a lot of talk about the power of analytics and "the web is great" because you can track data. The problem is this: Even though you can track almost everything, having the discipline or process in place to actually open up the data and analyze it can prove difficult for many.

Take newsletters for instance. Did you know you can see all the people in your distribution list that open your newsletter? If you knew that information, what would you do?

Here's what Merge does: We follow-up with a casual email to a handful of people who have opened Merge's newsletter. These are people we like, can help, they can help us, etc.

You can use a newsletter to stay in touch, review the analytics to see who's interested--and here's the key: take action on the data--follow-up with the individual for a lunch, appointment or just to say thank you. Taking action makes the newsletter 1000% more effective.

Bottom Line: To make the web effective to help develop relationships, you have to have the discipline and take the time to analyze the analytics. But you have to act upon that information if you want it to really maximize the results of your online efforts.