BT tablet email does work on iPad - sort of

You've gotta laugh. I got an email from BT Broadband recently with the subject title "Get your tablet connected for free with BT Wi-fi".
I assume this would have been a useful newsletter telling tablet users how to connect their device to their home connection to save on mobile data usage.

However, the irony is that when opening and viewing this email on my iPad... I get the view you see. No content and no imagery. Oops!

For me this highlights the need to test any emails you send out across a range of devices and different email clients. Especially the one you want to target.

Note: I am using a first generation iPad which has (purposely) yet to be upgraded to the very latest version of iOS.

Becoming a top UK blogger

Blogging is its own reward. I blog here because I want to and for no other reason.

However, I was nicely surprised to be included in a list of one of the top UK online marketing bloggers; recognised not just for blogging but for my overall social sharing about online marketing.
http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/01/online-marketing-bloggers-uk/

This list was produced by Lee Odden from TopRank for his presentation to Search Engine Strategies in February and after its publication I was contacted by Lee for my perspective on the following questions:

Q: Please share one tip for others that are trying to stand out in the online marketing space. How do you become one of the most influential people about online marketing or whatever thing you want to be "known" for?
A: The best way to stand out from the crowd is to have a well thought-out perspective on a topic. It is not enough to merely copy what others say or even to aggregate lots of other sources. It’s your voice, use it. In my blog I try to go into some detail on specific subjects, which means I not only have to understand it, I have to be able to know it enough to explain it clearly to others.
(This actually helps me develop a rounded knowledge rather than just facts)

Q: Content is the vehicle for connecting with fans, friends and customers. Share an example of really creative digital content that you've seen from a UK company. It can be something you've worked on for a brand, or just something you've seen in your experience as a digital citizen.

A: For me, although 2012 was dominated by everything quintessentially British… The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in the rain and the Olympics where nearly every person in the UK was stunned at how well we did…. for content marketing it wasn’t a British thing that I was most impressed with. It was the Red Bull Stratos mission where Felix Baumgartner’s jump from space saturated digital channels such as YouTube (where it was shown across the world) and obviously across Social Networks. Red Bull has now completely turned itself from a drink (via being a lifestyle product) into a brand that creates its own events and consequently generates a whole raft of content behind it.

Getting recognised for being a top UK online marketing blogger is a huge accolade and one I'm incredibly grateful for, thanks.

Multi-channel digital attribution – what's next?

If you had read the recent eConsultancy report called‘Making Sense of Marketing Attribution’, you would know that the majority of websites are either not carry out any form of attribution or are still apply a last click approach. In this report the client-side marketers responding said that only26% were doing marketing attribution beyond last click … where the last channel used gains all the credit for the acquisition.

The online sector has been gradually moving towards digital multi-channel attribution, although it is still early days. The aim of these efforts is to understand the different online channels or touch points used by customers in their online paths to conversion on eCommerce sites, but:

• There is still little maturity of the attribution market, meaning there are several bespoke offerings and no real common standards between suppliers

•  The current attribution methods used are basic in their mathematical modelling

•  They are online-only, with no consideration for other non-digital channels (e.g. TV or outdoor)

In my experience, there is very little being done to look at the bigger picture that appropriately considers not just the journey and interactions across the disparate online channels, but also the offline ones…and it is here I think there is an opportunity.

I really think that businesses and their agencies need to move away from single channels of data (e.g. website analytics. TV viewing figures, etc.) and also beyond the basic online only attribution models. They need to understand the entire user journey that leads not just to a transaction, but to a longer-term relationship. Only then can business truly understand the influence that different devices, channels, proportional activity and other factors (such a peer recommendations) have on purchasing and subsequent behaviour.

Are you wasting your digital analytics?

It's pretty clear to me that a lot of organisations still haven't moved their website analytics beyond the collecting and reporting stage (and some haven't even done that very well).

What's the point of collecting data and getting it turned into pretty graphs? Especially when all it does is:

1. Get ignored or misunderstood
Have you ever had a report sent to stakeholders who really don't do anything about it? ("so this 90% average bounce rate is good?")

2. Not get sent to those who actually need it
Has anyone considered that your content / editorial / CMS team might find key metrics on site engagement useful?

3. Not get actioned
"Yes we know that users aren't finding content down at the 4th level of navigation, but it would take too long to change things now"

If you find this happens in your company, then you're missing out on the contribution of a valuable business resource. I'm not saying you need to send analytics reports to everyone all the time or that every single observation needs to be acted on immediately... But there is a role in:

• Educating specific staff and partners about what these figures and graphics mean.
• Making sure that you have the correct reporting structure
• Prioritising and escalating the changes required that could deliver meaningful improvements.

Are you going to do this or waste an opportunity?

Ecommerce and SEO advice : what to leave out

In my latest opinion piece for The Drum, called 'Search Engine Optimisation fundamentals for e-commerce sites', I have spent several hundred words explaining how ecommerce sites can use Search Engine Optimisation techniques to improve their organic rankings.

This is my 5th article in my online column about eCommerce and rather than it be a subjective piece, I wanted to produce a more factual article and dip into some technical elements too. However, in writing it there was quite a lot of SEO topics that I missed out, mainly because I wanted the article to be understood by the majority of The Drum's readers, who are more likely to be creative and marketing types rather than those at the sharp end of online site optimisation.

So what did I miss out? Well here's some things I didn't cover:

1. Webmaster tools insights that are relevant to online retailing

2. Micro formats, such as the star ratings for products that can then get fed into organic results

3. Canonical references and robots.txt techniques to reduce crawl bleed

4. Multiple sitemap.xml files for content, catalogue, etc

Was I wrong not to include these? I don't think so. Besides, it would then have meant I couldn't write this article :-)

Blue Monday : tips to help beat winter depression

If you haven't heard already, today is officially Blue Monday. Yes, the 21st January is the most depressing day of 2013.

If you find yourself at a low point at this time of year then you're not alone. Although today is supposed to be the worst day (although it was apparently originally given this title by a travel company, one of the many retail markets that usually see January as a busy month for bookings) a lot of people generally find January pretty hard-going. Me included. Although I do not officially have a recognised condition such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), there is no doubt in either my mind, or my wife's, that I get a form of winter depression.

For myself it is undoubtedly a combination of factors, including a lack of daylight and weather (and moving to Scotland 6 months ago surely hasn't made a positive contribution to this), as well as a post-Christmas dip in energy and finances. This is then amplified by the need to sort out and pay not-only my quarterly company VAT bill but my yearly personal taxes.

But if you suffer a similar effect, here's a few things I have found that can help counteract the January blues:

Exercise:
Regardless of whether you feel the need to shake-off those extra Christmas pounds or not, get out and get your heart pumping (personally I've just ordered myself cycle trainer and have set my sights on competing in Scotland's only closed road cycling competition in May). But even if you don't have much time or the hefty credit card bill means you can't get that gym membership you wanted... any form of exercise can potentially release endorphins. So go walk the dog briskly, run to work or just get out and get some air through your lungs.

Light:
I'm lucky that the office I currently work in has big and wide windows that let lots of light in. However previously I've worked from home at this time of year in a north-facing room shadowed by trees and sometimes even worse... in an office with no natural light, where I really felt the effects. If you work in a similar environment, I really recommend you doing all you can to get the most chance of daylight. Swap seats with a colleague near the window, walk outside in your lunch break or even get yourself a SAD lamp such as this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lumie-Brightspark-Lightbox-Stylish-Aluminium/dp/B001JJEI5O
(My friend Alan swears his lamp really helps his productivity in the winter months)

Tell people how you are feeling:
Yes, I know it may sound a bit daft, but tell you family, friends and colleagues how you feel can help... Particularly if you're a bit down. Don't bottle it up and stew in your own juices... share your thoughts during the winter months.

Here's hoping you have a good 21 January. But if you suffer in a similar way or have any other tips on how to combat the winter blues, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Russell & Bromley finally gets going with eCommerce

I’ve been fairly critical of shoe retailer Russell & Bromley in the past, mainly because their online property has been poor. So I was surprised and somewhat pleased to hear that they have eventually launched an eCommerce site.

But hardly setting the world alight, Russell and Bromley have decided not to launch with an all singing and dancing multi-channel tablet-optimised site… but have gone for a very mediocre online trading site instead.  Using Venda’s Software-as-a service cloud offering (BTW: shouldn’t that be shop-as –a-service) they have finally put women’s shoes, men’s shoes and handbags for sale via their site.
So given my criticisms of their site before; I thought I’d provide my initial thoughts on this Internet retailing launch by one of the last High Street entrants:

Design :
It’s not that I dislike the creative approach they have taken…  OK, perhaps I do slightly… but what I would have liked from a brand that clearly sets itself up to be of high quality is a site that oozes prestige and refinement. Instead we get a ‘me too’ formulaic & grey-on-grey site that fails to impress. Model shots are scare & aren’t particularly good quality and  product zoom functionality was hard to find (and even non-existent on some product detail pages)…perhaps the only saving grace is the high quality of the actual product photographs.

Usability:
Grey text on white backgrounds (or sometimes vice versa) is never good for on-screen legibility. But add in the use of serif fonts and a small point size and you’ll have even a hearty share of the good-sighted users squinting at the screen. It’s therefore unsurprising that there’s no obvious accessibility page/ statement anywhere… 
Even the navigation seems to be missing a forth menu item, perhaps they are waiting for another product category to come online soon?

Technology:
With no 360 product spin (surely a useful way of showcasing women’s and men's shoes these days?) , no video and no further useful fit functionality the site hardly cuts new ground. Yes, with a Google Page Speed of 92% the site is fairly optimised, but I have the feeling that’s more down to Venda’s platform and system than anything else.

Content
With no blog, short & basic product descriptions, no user generated reviews and no text on the category landing pages… R&B is showing how not to use content to sell product. Maybe it doesn’t need to and the products sell themselves?

Ideal Interface website gets its sitelinks back

In October last year I rebuilt the Ideal Interface site, with the aim of making content easier to update and creating a mobile-specific version. The effort to do this was mentioned in this post:
http://press20.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/rebuilding-new-ideal-interface-website.html

One of the consequences of moving to Wordpress's own hosting service was the need to change from a 'www' URL prefix to http://blog.idealinterface.co.uk . This unfortunately meant that our listing in the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) not only dropped in comparison to what it was before, but also lost its sitelinks.

For those who don't know, sitelinks are those links shown below some of Google's search results that allow users to jump straight to pages below the homepage, thus allowing them to quickly find the information they're looking for. However, Google only shows sitelinks for those sites it deems appropriate, based upon how easy it is for the search engine to find key pages and their relevance.

For now, we have just two sitelinks, compared with four that are presented for larger and more relevant sites, however this is a good step forward in the recognition of our site by Google (and in the SEO work of our own site).

Bye bye Blockbuster

Only last week we had the news that Jessops has gone into Administration and then yesterday HMV the entertainment retailer announced its plans to do the same.  I'm also pretty sure that some of you also had the conversation around "who's going to be next?" in some sort of retail Dead Pool.

However, I don't think anyone was expecting an announcement within 24 hours that another major retailer had gone the same way. But today it was announced that Blockbuster, the video and game rental chain has gone into Administration too, making that three large High Street operators already this month.

There's no doubt that Blockbuster faced increasing competition from Internet-based services such as LoveFilm, as well as the overall trend of downloading and streaming movies and even games via the Internet. Blockbuster did make in-roads into a streaming service, but this functionality was not  available outside the United States.
http://www.blockbuster.com/download

A lot of commentors will no-doubt mention that this result has been predicted for some while, but I think this episode from South Park a while back pretty much sums up the situation...

Why I want the Samsung Galaxy S4

It may seem strange to readers that I'm looking forward to the launch of a mobile phone that hasn't even been announced yet. But yes... I admit it, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of the new Samsung flagship phone, the Galaxy S4 despite it not even being announced yet.

You see... I currently have an iPhone 4S that I've had since the end of 2011 (so only 14 months in reality). But, several weeks ago the power button broke on it, just a few days after its 12 month warranty period had passed. Despite a trip to my friendly local Apple store, the annoying news was that a fix required a replacement phone, which would cost me £130 (just a few weeks before Christmas).
Not willing to trade the kids presents in for a replacement mobile, I now I have a leading smart phone with one major issue: turning it off and on is no longer a feature.

So now I really want a new phone and to be honest, I want an Android handset again. In fact, I missed having an Android handset the day I took delivery of my iPhone 4S. And I missed it even more when I dropped the bloody Apple product in the first week of ownership and shattered its glass rear. Normal glass, the type that breaks into a million child-unfriendly pieces and makes a lovey crunching noise when you then go an buy a cover to put over it. Glass people. GLASS FFS !

Could I go and get myself a Samsung Galaxy S3? Or is that a Galaxy SIII? I'm not so sure Roman Numerals really look good on a modern communication device... which in that case would make the phone I now want the "SIV" (and I'm pretty sure that could be pronounced "sieve").
Sure I could! But now I'm pretty sure the S4 is due to be announced pretty shortly and made available not long after that.... and I want one!

I was teased even further last week when Samsung unveiled a flexible, foldable smart phone prototype at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jim6l2jRGQw&feature=youtu.be
But even seeing a folding LED screen due out in a couple of years couldn't abate my desire for the new Android S4.

Let Jessops survive online

The retail world was again hit with more doom and gloom on Wednesday, as it was announced that the troubled photography chain Jessops had gone into Administration. Having managed to avoid a similar situation in 2009, when its bank HSBC swapped debt for equity, the Administrators were called in as Jessops became the first large retailer of 2013 to topple. However today things went from bad to worse as PWC closed all the stores and put the following holding message up on the website:

Customer Notice

The Jessop Group Limited (in Administration)
Edward Williams, Robert Jonathan Hunt and Matthew David Hammond of PwC were appointed as joint administrators of The Jessop Group Limited on 9 January 2013. With effect from 11 January 2013, Jessops online and retail stores have ceased trading.

A gloomy forecast for the year ahead, as well as increasing completion from online traders, has been given as the cause. But is there still life in the Jessops brand and proposition?

I hope so. As a previous customer in the store, I found it to be a really positive shopping experience, staffed with friendly and knowledgeable people.

As a Multi-channel retailer, with a presence on the High Street and online, it may well not survive. However as an online could surely be some possibility that it continue:

1. The brand still exists in the hearts and minds of its customers
2. The domain name still has a lot of clout online

As of today (according to alexa.com), the domain jessops.com had::

• A global ranking of: 17,441
• A GB ranking of: 472
• And 1,682 in-bound links

Although it may not be possible, the best thing to do right now to preserve the integrity of the online brand is to bring the website back. Shutting the eCommerce site has not only stopped visitors looking at the available products (you stopped being able to buy them on Wednesday) but is slowly ruining the online credibility of a once successful site.

Or to put it another way... even if the Administrators redirected the URL to the Cameras landing page on amazon.co.uk via an affiliate arrangement, they would still get around 5% of every subsequent sale!

Where are all the Scottish eCommerce Consultants?

I've lived in Scotland for around 6 months now, having moved here from London. I've therefore been doing all I can to promote and develop the eCommerce market north of the border... I've met with quite a few prospects, clients, industry leaders, agency folk and anyone else I can to increase my business network in Glasgow, Edinburgh and further afield.

However, there's no getting around it, the ecommerce market in Scotland is on average) less mature and smaller in scale than that of London or The Midlands.

This also means that I've not found many eCommerce consultants knocking about, who do what I do:

• Strategic advice (incl multi-channel retail)
• Business analysis and benchmarking
• Programme Management of large / complex projects
• User experience best practice and conversion improvement
• Digital analytics and insight
• Online marketing optimisation

In fact, a search on Google for "Scottish eCommerce Consultant" just tends to mainly bring up old job adverts for roles that are neither really eCommerce or Consultant focused.

So if you are a digital or eCommerce consultant based in Scotland, or just want to know what one does in more detail, please get in touch.

Hayden

Making predictions for the year ahead

In my newer blog in The Drum website, I've made seven predictions for 2013:
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2012/12/31/e-commerce-2013-some-predictions

My list comprises of the following:

1. Site traffic will continue to increase
2. The number and range of online retailers will grow
3. Mobile e-commerce will continue to bloom
4. Regional e-commerce will mature
5. Average order value drops
6. Multi-channel focus on the customer
7. Attribution becomes more than a concept

From this list, it will be interesting to see which ones will actually come true and which will ones might not happen (or at least until 2014).

And all that remains of this year is for me to wish you a prosperous New Year.

7 reasons your content marketing is crap

There, I've said it and it's time to admit it. Basically a lot of the current hype around content marketing is crap and so are a load of blog posts about the subject.

Here's my thoughts on why a lot of efforts into the latest online marketing trend are going to be poor, very poor:

1. You have no content plan
Are you publishing content with no editorial calendar and therefore no schedule for seasonal changes? Good content begins with a good plan of what you're going to write and when you're going to publish it,

2. You have based everything around search engine optimisation
On-page optimisation of your content is one of the key focuses of SEO, however just writing content for the search engines (and not really for your readers) isn't the right way to get engaged readers

3. You're not encouraging sharing
So you're making it harder for your readers to post the URL to different social networks or to share content with their peers. Why exactly?

4. You're not linking off to other parts of your site
Part of your reason for writing content should be that it actually drives people around your site and triggers your other site KPI's. Have you got an eCommerce site and yet you're not linking off to products you feature in your blog?

5. You're not reading what you're writing.
The way to create a sustainable audience of any long term value is with the deployment of quality, original and engaging content. Like a chef who doesn't eat what they make, you need to write stuff that you believe in. which ultimately means you have to be the first consumer of your content.

6. You're not properly measuring what you're doing
How are you going to optimise your content if you don't actually collect data about what is working for you and what isn't? Ensure you have the right goals measured and that you get regular feedback on these.

7. You're not learning
Content marketing optimisation is a slow process of test and learn, where you not only have to spend effort producing content... you have to also gain insight into what is actually working. And then you have to actually tell yourself some home truths about what isn't!.

UK finance comparison sites are pretty optimised

Today I did a check on the top four finance aggregator sites to see how they compare with each other. The results were found using the Firebug and Google page speed plugins for Firefox (in case you wondered) and make for interesting reading...

moneysupermarket.com
Homepage weight: 539.1K
Number of items: 47
Page Speed Score: 82/100

comparethemarket.com
Homepage weight: 488.9k
Number of items: 42
Page Speed Score: 84/100

confused.com
Homepage weight: 339.9k
Number of items: 63
Page Speed Score: 88/100

gocompare.com
Homepage weight: 800.4k
Number of items: 65
Page Speed Score: 87/100

It's good to see that as an industry matures and as companies within it fight for supremacy, they optimise their web presence in every way. The high page speed score shows they are all taking download / display time seriously, with perhaps only gocompare.com having a worrying page weight of over 800k

Writing an ecommerce specific blog

Here on my blog I cover a range of topics, from digital strategy through to tactical online marketing things.
I like this range, as it means I'm able to dip in and out different subjects that take my fancy (or get my goat).

However I've now been asked to write a blog specifically on digital commerce for The Drum.

You can read my first post here:
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2012/12/11/basic-facts-e-commerce-12-essentials-online-trading

My aim is to keep both blogs going, but to obviously focus my online retailing thoughts on the new platform.

The great content marketing discussion

An imaginary conversation…

Firstly what do you mean by the term content marketing?

The term has been increasing in its usage for the last year and  especially over the last few months… but content marketing is usually known as the use of content (such as text and imagery) across an organisation’s owned channels (website, social networking page, etc.) to get users to a site and build engagement.

Isn’t this search engine optimisation?

No, SEO is about optimising a site (code, configuration, links AND content) to get a higher placement in search engines. Although content markers do need to consider SEO factors such as keywords, they aren’t really bothered about how sites are set up or algorithms for ranking.

So how do you get traffic via content?

You build up user traffic by being useful and relevant to the reader. This therefore makes your content more sticky (readable) and social (sharable).

So content marketing is a sub-set of SEO?

Well, not really. Content marketing also deals with topics such as internal linking to other content around a site to encourage the user to complete a specific goal. For example: to purchase a product or to sign-up for a service. 

So it’s about writing link bait then!

It’s all about producing quality content, not rubbish articles that pander to the lowest common denominator and get instant traffic based on sensationalistic headlines. The modern web user is very savvy and they tune out things they are not interested in any more, it’s an attention economy out there.

Then it’s about getting eyeballs to look at your page?

Yes, that’s right, you should write good and free content, which then allows it to be shared so it can work harder and reach a bigger audience for your brand.

But isn’t that syndication?

No, however the content that is written can be syndicated out, such as via an RSS feed.

So what Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) should a Content Marketing person measure?

Although usual website metrics, such as visitors, visits and subsequent conversions should obviously be measured, one important measurement of content marketing success is repeat visits from the same visitor. You should be able to find this information in your website analytics package and further segment it by the content areas on your site. As a rough guide, the more users come back, the more they’re engaged.

But doesn’t this affect conversion rate for an eCommerce site?
Yes, repeat visitors could affect your ‘look to book’ ratio, because just increasing the number of ‘looks’ to your site will make your site look like it is less effective. It is therefore just as important to look at how your content pushes users to convert (book).

So how will this area evolve?
Content Marketing Optimisation (CMO) is not a term currently well known, but a lot of people jumping on the content marketing bandwagon right now will quickly be asked to justify their investment of time, 3^rd party copywriting, etc.  So just as SEO took a while to emerge as a longer-term disciple that observes, learns and improves the bottom line; so content marketing optimisation by using insight gleaned from analytics packages will tell website owners what content is working and what is not.

Choosing a new ESP isn't always the right answer

A friend was asking me today about how he should go about evaluating an email service provider for his client. The current ESP being used is a well known one, but in his due diligence efforts he wants to be understandably thorough.

Here's roughly what I said:

The main ESP's are all pretty good these days and usually the same names tend to appear when large companies want to change. In short, it's a mature market and they all have reasonable products. Sure, there are lots of benchmarking stuff reports that compares the major players, but you're not going to go significantly wrong with any of the key ones (hopefully),

However, the principle areas of risk with any email system are:

- understanding all the functionality (e.g. Dynamic, automation, etc)

- using the package correctly (e.g. Improving deliverability)

- developing a coherent testing & learn approach

- integrating it with back end systems (e.g. CRM)

- integrating it with website analytics 

In short, a decent ESP is a good tool in the right hands, but then so is a chainsaw

Content Marketing confusion

I think there’s a huge confusion over what Content Marketing is (for example, even the Wikipedia entry defining what it is gets very confused). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_marketing 

In my opinion, Content Marketing is not just about acquisition of visitors via sharing, search, syndication and so on… it is about engagement. Or in other words, about getting users to come back to your site once they have already visited. Therefore an important success criteria is not just the typical ones such as visitors and subsequent conversions. It is also about returning users and how frequently they come back to your site.

Let's also be clear, content marketing is not search engine optimisation. Although the two are potentially mutually beneficial, SEO deals with the optimisation of the code, configuration and the content of the site. SEO is also typically is seen as a way of acquiring visitors who convert… not a way of retaining them.


Therefore an admission... I need to make an amendment to my recent presentation on content marketing optimisation, where I show the feedback loop from both search rankings and website analytics.


The example KPI's I give as the metrics to use to update content are visits & visitors, bounce rates and conversion. However I didn't give engagement or return frequency as one of these figures... and should have.

Are data silos holding your company back?

In a recent blog post I commented on the issues with collecting data across the organisation. But one it is collected, it's the storage that's the next problem.

You see, data in businesses is still pretty much silo based, with information retained within specific people, units and departments. Decision making is consequently restricted to this data and is therefore restricted in its scope, outlook and ultimately its potential. And typically where there is a lack of data, this leads to assumption and inherent inaccuracies. In short, silo-based thinking leads to silo-based data capture, which leads to silo-based-decision making.

This isn't a new phenomenon and there are articles that exist online since the beginning of the web that talk about this. But with the increase in the amount of data being captured about people, their activities, their multi-device habits and transactions they perform all the time ... the world is collecting and storing more information than ever before (often with little consideration of how it will be used subsequent) and this creates a growing problem. For example, I remember just a few years ago working on the implementation of a large eCommerce site, where a key requirement was to capture every possible piece of  web analytics data (including the complete user journey for every visitor) in another database not accessible by the rest of the business . When I asked why this was, the only rationale given at the time was "I don't know, but we might want to look at it later".

However this issue is something that 'big data' practitioners are now starting to get their teeth into. Products like Autonomy are now worth billions of dollars (although perhaps only to HP at the beginning of 2012 now) because they can make sense of huge amounts of structured and unstructured data to provide business insight.
So maybe there was a reason for storing all that individual website visitor data back then...