Forrester Research says that the effectiveness of conventional stand-alone web analytics software is limited by the "action chasm." The action chasm is the delay in action between when an analytics report is generated vs. when it is read, reviewed, and acted upon. The longer the delay between metric measurement and corrective action, the more money you leave on the table.

Everybody talks about using multiple channels to reach consumers. Unfortunately, discussing it and doing it - successfully, anyway - are two very different things. Let's look at the fiction, the reality and the undeniable future of multichannel marketing.

The amended Telemarketer Sales Rule (TSR) from the Federal Trade Commission says that automated sales communications can be delivered only to recipients who have provided their "express written consent" to receive them. Having an existing business relationship will no longer be sufficient approval for organizations to attempt to sell goods or services via an automated phone call.

By targeting your e-mail campaign, you can boost loyalty and improve your overall retention rates.

A recent "New York Times" article described an approach where words reveal one's thoughts. It is a process that marketers have been testing for years and it is referred to as text mining. The notion of making critical decisions based on words and phrases, and relationships between them, is rousing interest among marketers and analysts faced with more words and documents than they know what to do with.

n an April 2009 study conducted jointly by COLLOQUY and my customer loyalty agency Direct Antidote, we asked more than 2,000 US consumers in an online panel how relevant they found loyalty program communications on a 10-point scale. Just 32% of consumers surveyed rated the relevance of program communications at an 8 or higher. However, many of their responses sustain hope.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers are faced with the growing challenge of how to connect and interact with consumers in efficient, targeted and value-added ways. Retailers account for such a large portion of CPG sales - and the resulting data - that manufacturers are in the dark about exactly who they should be targeting. The retail "middle man" knows what consumers want, while manufacturers spend billions dollars on advertising and marketing to figure it out. With such vast consumer insight, big-box retailers have created their own brands—private labels that copy manufacturer products at lower prices.

Because I travel on a regular basis for my job, membership to the airlines and hotel loyalty clubs are a necessity. When not on the road, I belong to the grocery and warehouse clubs. I am always surprised that with all the information they seem to gather on my travel to food choices — why almost none can predict with accuracy my next purchase.

Some prognosticators see green shoots of growth beginning to emerge from the long economic winter. Others say the lean times will linger. Most agree, however, that businesses are facing a fundamental 'reset' - markets with profoundly different customer behaviors and internal business models that have been ravaged by quick cost-cutting measures.