A friend is contracting with a design firm for work that will include web analytics, so I asked my colleague and expert Marko Hurst for resources that would provide a gentle introduction, mostly from a marketing perspective. He recommends:
- Web Analytics Demystified — A bit more technical, but not a tech book geared for someone who wants to learn analytics
- Call To Action — Good mix of marketing & analytics
- Waiting For Your Cat To Bark — More of a marketing first, then analytics, but a fantastic read that everyone should read regardless. Introduces Persuasion Architecture, very cool stuff.
btw, congratulations to Marko and Lou Rosenfeld who are teaming up to write the Search Analytics book.
I think “Persuasion Architecture” is little more than a buzzword designed to appeal to web site managers who don’t know how to talk to creative people and don’t trust information architects.
That said, the Eisenbergs’ books (#2 and #3) are surprisingly good reads. Very well written, chock full of ideas and historical insights. I read them both recently for research and was pleasantly surprised that they are completely different from the insubstantial and often wrongheaded opinions featured on their FutureNow blog.