As a Web Analytics consultant at easynet, I deal with lots of interesting questions. This week, one of our clients (in this case, a SEO + PPC client) asked us if they should finish their CRM implementation before starting with the Web analytics service. It got me thinking…

I made a small research on the web about the relationship between CRM platforms and Web Analytics and I found a very good article on the subject: Why Integrate Web Analytics with Your CRM? A few excerpts taken from the article that exemplify the importance of both CRM and Web Analytics as a “team”:

Integrating Web analytics with CRM systems should come as no surprise as an important step to tying the entire lead generation and sales process together. The three main reasons for integrating Web analytics with CRM are:

1. Better marketing investment prioritization (both time and money ROI)
2. Measure marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline
3. Enable sales intelligence for improved selling context.

(…)once Web leads are generated, they move into the black hole of the sales force automation (SFA)/CRM system with almost no ability to tie results such as closed deal quantities and sales values back to the marketing campaign costs, thus leaving fully measured ROI (or return on marketing) unan­swered. To provide concrete answers to these ROI and other related questions, marketers should endeavor to integrate their Web analytics/campaign management solutions together with their SFA/CRM applications.

Although the article describes the importance of having both Web Analytics and CRM running together, it does not answer to their question of whether to implement it right now or wait for CRM implementation to be up and running.

One analogy that would help to explain the necessity of starting Web Analytics for my client right now is repairing a house: if you would like to fix both the water installation and the electricity installation would you finish one and then do the other? Both require breaking some walls and changing pipes, and in some places they may even need to be positioned one against the other. So why not change everything together? (Jim Sterne says Web Analytics Is A Fire Extinguisher, I say it is like fixing electricity, what will come next?)

The point here is that we might need to make changes to the website and try to match both technologies so that they can work together smoothly. If the client implements their CRM and then we find out that in order for vendor xyz to function properly we need to change the CRM it might be too late.

Conclusion: start doing Web Analytics right now!