Taking The "This Sucks" Out of Reporting

How many of you have to delivery daily, weekly or monthly custom reports based on Google Analytics data? (If you aren't already, you should be!) We all know that it takes far too much time identifying, retrieving and manually compiling metrics and key performance indicators across multiple Google Analytics reports into a single-page, actionable report. In comes, AnalyticsView! EpikOne developed AnalyticsView to help the rapidly growing universe of Google Analytics users understand which metrics are most important to their online success and easily compile them into a valuable, single-page, custom report in seconds. Save time and wow your bosses and clients using AnalyticsView. Enjoy our free seven day trial today.

USING ANALYTICS | TheKnot.com

EpikOne New Client Announcement - TheKnot.com

It's that time of year. Brides are blissful, catering companies in full swing and people searching high and low for all things wedding. So, where do brides-to-be go online to find information about dresses, cakes, flowers, vows, invitations, etc? TheKnot.com of course! And EpikOne is going to make sure TheKnot.com is ready to analyze what content is most popular, which marketing mediums are most effective and how advertisers can get the most impact from their placements. TheKnot.com chose EpikOne to implement Google Analytics on their world famous wedding site to improve ongoing optimization efforts through web analytics.

USING ANALYTICS | SONY BMG

EpikOne New Client Announcement - SONY BMG

What do Alicia Keys, AC/DC and Dido have in common? Well, for one they are all great musicians, but for EpikOne they are all part of a global analytics intiative we're spearheading for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Sony BMG selected GAAC partners EpikOne for North America and KeyMetrics for Western Europe to launch Google Analytics across their global network of recording artist and label websites. After considering other leading web analytics software providers, they chose the combination of EpikOne, KeyMetrics and Google Analytics enabling them to allocate more resources to the people and process of analytics instead of hefty analytics software fees.

USING ANALYTICS | BVLGARI

EpikOne New Client Announcement - BVLGARI

Italian luxury brand BVLGARI tapped into EpikOne's analytical expertise to improve the performance of their e-commerce website. The image-driven site showcasing their brand and products is now being tracked by Google Analytics and a team of analysts at EpikOne. After a thorough configuration of Google Analytics on the website and interfacing with teams in NYC and Rome, BVLGARI benefited from EpikOne's Discover Analytics solution, which provided a baseline foundation of metrics and actionable recommendations to ensure data-driven online optimization efforts moving forward.

Making the Move

Well, we are excited to announce that as of July 1 we have a new area code and brand new digs. We've vacated our warehouse space that got us started as an e-commerce consulting and fulfillment company to a fancy new office with 20X more windows than we have now (no joke!)

Our new space at 7 Kilburn St. in Burlington gives us ample space to stretch the legs, think more clearly and enjoy the beautiful scenes of downtown Burlington.

Check out some of the amateur iPhone photos to see more of our culture.

Press: Epik CEO Featured in AP Article

A recent AP article Defying the surveys and statistics, some small companies are expanding their payrolls article by Joyce M. Rosenberg, Epik CEO Dave Winslow discusses the topic of growing in a soft economy. In the article Dave makes reference to the fact that businesses will be looking for new opportunities after a disappointing holiday season, "'After the holiday season we saw a lot more inquiries,” Winslow said. This past holiday season was a huge disappointment for many retailers, offline and online, and prompted many to seek help from small businesses like Epik One."

The article was featured in the Press Room on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship and can be viewed at http://sbc.senate.gov/press/record_article.cfm?id=295909&&

For more information, please get in touch with Epik or Dave here.

Christian Science Monitor Interviews Epik About Growing in a Recession

Dave Winslow, CEO of Epik, was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor for a feature business story on the recent layoff news. The article, Amid layoff news, many companies are still hiring by Ron Scherer, highlighted various companies continuing to grow given the current economic conditions.

Notes from the story included:
"From his vantage point, David Winslow does not see a recession or rising unemployment rate. Instead, the founder of a software company in Burlington, Vt., sees a hiring opportunity."

"Epik expects to grow from 20 employees at the beginning of the year to 40 by year's end.
Winslow's company is far from unique."

"Around the nation, a wide range of companies are still hiring. Some of the new jobs are even in areas that are shrinking, such as financial services. Some positions require advanced degrees, but a variety of skill levels are in demand. High-tech companies, including Epik, are especially looking for workers."

For the full article visit the CSM Online.

Google Analytics Setup Guide

So we were contemplating on how to best serve the small business market who want to get the most out of Google Analytics, but may not have the budget to hire a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant or do not have the in-house technical resources.

To serve the small business Google Analytics market, we recently created and launched our own Google Analytics Setup Guide. It is a comprehensive, seven-step guide to get Google Analytics setup and working properly. It was developed by over ten people at EpikOne to ensure the small business would be able to understand the process and get it setup right the first time!

We kept the price point low - only $39 - so it is affordable - but at the same time a good value for the money.

So if you are a small business or know of one who could benefit from a good Google Analytics setup, head on over to our site and purchase one today!

Google Analytics Setup Guide from Epik

New Client: HRSentry

Epik has recently been selected by HRSentry, LLC to provide online marketing consultation for their web-based software solution. We are excited to work with HRSentry because they serve a major need for small businesses: HR! Their site www.hrsentry.com offers details on the solution but in summary it provides a complete outsource for human resource needs.

We'll be working to bring insight into their website through web analytics to start...stay tuned for more.

New Client: Recchiuti Confections

BURLINGTON, VT--FEBRUARY 01, 2007 - We announced today it has partnered with Recchiuti Confections, a gourmet chocolate company located in San Francisco, California.

Recchiuti Confections was started in 1997 by Michael Recchiuti. The company specializes in gourmet and specialty chocolates and has been featured in Williams-Sonoma, Food & Wine Magazine, Saveur, and like publications. The company has also been featured on The Today Show.

“We are very excited to work with Recchiuti Confections,” said Dave Winslow, president of EpikOne. “The company has experienced substantial growth in the last two years with limitless online potential. We have total confidence that Google Analytics is the way to reach that potential.”

EpikOne will begin work with Recchiuti Confections by optimizing their investment in Google AdWords and Analytics. EpikOne will then assign a team of strategists and analysts to identify key performance indicators most critical to Recchiuti’s online business success. EpikOne will provide actionable recommendations for improving the performance of conversion processes, navigation and search engine marketing. Additionally, EpikOne will perform A/B testing to assess the performance of Recchiuti’s online marketing initiatives.

New Business - EpikOne Selected by LifeScript for Online Analytics and Optimization

BURLINGTON, VT--January 28, 2007 - EpikOne, Inc., a leading global consultancy specialized in online analytics and optimization, announced today it has been hired by LifeScript, a personalized health and wellness solutions company headquartered in Mission Viejo, California.

LifeScript offers a variety of health products including personalized vitamins, soy products, meal replacements, and skin care. Additionally, LifeScript provides free and up-to-date health content in the form of daily newsletters and web portals covering a range of health and nutrition categories.

“We are excited to work with LifeScript,” said Dave Winslow, President of EpikOne. “We see a great opportunity to grow their online business by providing insight into visitor trends and site usability. Google Analytics is a great tool for providing them with data and we’ll work to layer our analysis and optimization strategies on top for continued online success ”

EpikOne will begin work immediately by configuring Google Analytics on the LifeScript website and marketing campaigns to enable for ongoing analysis. EpikOne will also provide ongoing executive consulting for online business strategies and intelligence to LifeScript.

Server Load Balancing with Urchin

Urchin Software Question and Answer:
Do I need a Load Balancing Module?

We often get questions concerning Urchin Load balancing module. Many customers are unsure if they actually need a load balancing module. The Load Balancing Module simply provides you with the ability to add another log source to your profiles, rather than being limited to only 1 log source per profile. It also allows Urchin to correlate visitors that may have hit more than 1 server in the server farm during their visit.

For example, if your site is load-balanced over 3 servers, you would need the Urchin 5 base product plus two load balancing modules.

We have heard of people concatinating log files into a single file and then having Urchin process that single file. The results have been mixed.

Custom Segmentation With Urchin 5

Custom segmentation is a powerful analytics technique that can provide you with valuable information about your site visitors. Google Analytics, and most popular analytics packages, provides some type of custom segmentation functionality. Unfortunately, Urchin 5 software does not allow you to segment your traffic based on a custom value. This has always bothered me. I know Urchin 5 architecture will support custom segmentation, so why they didn't include it?

During the past few days I've tried to implement custom segmentation functionality in Urchin 5. I've been using the custom reports architecture to create a number of reports that show visitation statistics based on custom segments. Overall, the implementation is quite good. You don't get the neat cross segmentation functionality available in Google Analytics, but you can identify which custom segments are visiting your site most, what they're looking at and their click paths. I should mention that you need a thorough understanding of Urchin 5's custom reporting functionality to make this work.

Here's a quick overview of how you can implement custom segmentation in Urchin 5:

1. The most recent version of __utm.js script contains the __utmSetVar() function. Use this function in your web pages to set a cookie that puts a site visitor in a custom segment. Instruction for using __utmSetVar() can be found on the Google Analytics Help Site.

2. Create a custom log format for your web server log file. The format should contain cookies. Within your custom log format create a custom field that holds the value of the __utmv cookie. This is an important step. The custom field will be used to create custom data maps in the next step.

3. Create a custom report utilizing the field that contains the custom segment value.

I know this is probably confusing to most people. But if you know how to customize Urchin 5 you should be able to do this. We continue to test this on our internal intranet.

Thoughts?