There were two very interesting blog posts related to the use of analytics by small businesses over the last week.  Both caught my eye as interesting examples of the trend towards analytical software and automation.

The first comes from Tim Berry's blog via MyVenturepad.  Tim writes about the Huffington Post using A/B testing to pick article headlines.  Online A/B testing is a process where different people are randomly shown different versions of a web page, or in this case different article headlines.  After testing with a number of people, the version with the most success (in this case clicks) is then shown to everyone else. 

A/B testing has been in use for a long time in the direct mail industry and is commonly used by larger online firms.  It is interesting to see the use has spread to things like article headlines.

The other post comes from the American Express Open Forum blog and is written by Anita Campbell.  The article, Are You Ready For the Trend towards Marketing Automation, discusses the growing number of systems a small business can use to automate marketing processes.

The use of analytical tools is becoming key to business success, regardless of the size of the firm.  Small businesses need to be aware of this trend and understand how analytics can improve their performance.  These two articles are a good place to start.


Link to original post