If you aren't properly measuring your business, than you're running a blind operation. You might as well not spend any money working on optimization, adding new features, marketing, etc. Below are five tools to help you properly measure your website, beginning with the initial design mockup, then measuring product/market fit, and lastly measuring and optimizing a scalable marketing campaign.

1. AttentionWizard: When I first saw this product demoed at TECHCocktail in San Diego, I didn't understand how they could produce heat maps without tracking software. Little did I know Tim Ash has assembled a team of PhD researchers and have developed sophisticated proprietary technology to generate a heat map from a mere Photoshop mockup. The AttentionWizard product is something every designer should be using, and gives you measurable feedback before you write a line of code. The algorithm looks for color contrast, faces, and images, and produces a detailed heat map along with the number of steps the eye will follow when a person first arrives on your webpage. The software offers a free version where you get one upload per day, and with its claimed 70%+ accuracy, it's certainly a service every designer should be integrating into his or her design process.

2. CrazyEgg: Most web designers have heard of CrazyEgg, but few utilize it. Many designers instead opt for the Content Overlay in Google Analytics, but the important difference between the two is that CrazyEgg records every click, including non-links. After installing the tracking code on a recent project I've been working on, I discovered users were clicking on a spot that appeared to be a button, but was instead a background image and linked nowhere. Discovering exactly where your users click, even if it's a non-clickable link, is an important measurement and something Google Analytics cannot tell you. Clicks can also be broken down by several types, such as referral source, ad campaign, browser, operating system, and you can even set your own custom variables. Even though CrazyEgg isn't a comprehensive service, its' affordable $9 starting price makes it a bargain.

3. ZenDesk: I'm sure you've heard of GetSatisfaction or even UserVoice, but few have heard of ZenDeck for gathering customer feedback. ZenDesk is much better value than both UserVoice and GetSatisfaction, and doesn't require your users to login to leave a simple feedback comment. GetSatisfaction forces users through multiple steps to leave simple feedback or support requests, and will certainly limit communication with users. Also new startups will have little success by using feedback forums such as GS or UV, because they'll be empty. ZenDesk allows you to work with your early users directly which is crucial for customer development. With popular clients such as Twitter, Yammer, and Scribd, and integration with popular tools such as SalesForce, Basecamp, and Harvest, it's hard to argue why you should use anyone else. For $9/month, it's certainly worth the test-drive.

4. KISSMetrics: KISSmetrics is the new darling of the metrics industry, and after 2 product pivots, seem to have finally built a product users are excited about. Using the websites setup wizard is a breeze but provides little actionable data and you'll find yourself wondering why the service has such raving fans. To actually generate useful and helpful data, you'll need to get your hands dirty and setup a customized implementation with custom variables. If you're looking for a more detailed write-up, Ash Muarya has written a more detailed description of KISSmetrics on his blog.

5. KISSinsights: Originally located at Survey.IO, Sean Ellis and the KISSmetrics team have built KISSinsights: a new feedback service that allows you to ask specific questions to your users as a pop-up while they're browsing your website. The service just left Beta, and is now publicly available for consumption. The service includes 30+ survey templates and 2 free surveys with up to 30 responses each. Out are the long-winded customer surveys and in are the short specific feedback questions that only grab the important data points. KISSinsights' service is a win-win for developers because the service focuses on what the developer needs to know, and saves the customers time by allowing them to answer a single question. That single question that many developers, and Sean himself, have been using the service is for measuring product/market fit: "How dissappointed would you be if you could no longer use this website?". This the question has become the defining point for entrepreneurs following lean startup and customer development principles, and KISSinsights is based off this methodology.

It's been quite awhile since I've last posted and I finally set aside a day to write an article about something I've been learning a lot about recently. Many internet entrepreneurs do not understand the distinct differences between lead, demand and  relationship marketing, so I'm going to summarize each to clarify any confusion.

Lead Generation Marketing is when you identify your potential marketing and target your advertisements towards your demographic who is actively seeking your product or services. If you sell shoes, and someone searches "shoes" in Google, you would bid on this keyword and offer your services. It has the most advertiser competition since it's the most effective, and also often yields the highest conversion rate. If you are in an established industry or even a niche, lead generation works great because customers are seeking your services, all you have to do is guide them in a frictionless experience towards your conversion goal. Paid search marketing is the most common approach, yet its also the easiest to have a negative return on investment because of saturated advertising networks such as Google Adwords, especially in popular industries such as electronics. Exploiting long tale tactics such as bidding on thousands of less popular keywords, synonyms, and typos, is the best approach to reach a positive return on marketing investment.

Demand Generation is much different and consists of identifying your potential market, and targeting potential customers even though they are not actively seeking your product or service. Cold calling is a classic example: a sales person will often have a list of potential customers and he or she will contact each pitching the companies product or service. The customer has been identified, but has no immediate need or desire for the product, and you must tell them why they need your product if they do not have anything like it, or why you are better than the competition if they already have a rival product. This type of marketing focuses on the businesses unique selling point, and its an uphill battle because each customer must first believe that they need the product, and than they must be converted to a sale. Banner advertising is a common example, and averages .3-.8% conversion rate, which is much lower than paid search marketing which hovers around 1-3%.

Relationship Marketing is considered the new darling of the internet marketing space, and focuses on engaging customers who might not be ready to purchase, but have potential to purchase. Relationship marketing often takes months, or sometimes even years, for the engagement to result in a sale, and is reserved only for those who are willing to consistently invest with little upfront return. The most common form of modern relationship is social media marketing, where advertisers focus on strong content and engaging media to keep potential customers interested long enough until they have converted to a customer. Facebook advertising is considered both demand and relationship marketing, which is why companies have found slow success and often quickly give up. Successfully advertising on Facebook requires engaging content, steady time and monetary investment, and implicit conversion tactics. Relationship marketing's successes are measured much differently than both lead or demand - if a potential customer interacts with the companies brand in any way, its considered a conversion. With Facebook, any "Like", wall comment, or new fan of the companies Facebook page is considered a conversion. After building a target customer profile, businesses must then find which strategy  fits their business. At that point, marketers should then delve into the various ad networks and build micro strategies around each platform. Hope this helps and let me know if anyone has questions!

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