Setting Up Custom Analytics

John Gunther — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:59:26 +0000

We have talked in the past about all the great integrations available in Bronto. Bundled with these integrations comes several analytics options that you can use for tracking purposes, the best known of which is our Google Analytics integration. Google Analytics is a phenomenal tool to have in your marketing arsenal, but we realize not everyone uses it. Maybe you have another analytics solution already in place, or maybe you have gone and built yourself a custom analytics solution. Whatever the case, we haven’t forgotten about you. With our Custom Analytics integration, you can utilize your custom analytics solution in tandem with Bronto.

Setup

First things, first. You need to enable and setup the Custom Analytics integration in Bronto.

To setup the Custom Web Analytics Integration:

Go to Home->Integrations.
Click the Custom Analytics box.
Click Options.
Click the Enable Custom Analytics check box.

Specify The Data You Want To Track

Now you need to add custom Keys and Values in their respective text boxes. The Key should be used to designate the type of data being tracked in the URL. The Value is the actual data you want to track. You can hard code values by adding them into the Value text box, or use the dynamically populated Keys and Values we provide. The dynamically populated Keys and Values we provide are:

Key	Value
message_name	%%message_name%%
message_subject	%%message_subject%%
contact_email	%%contact_email%%
link_title	%%link_title%%
link_caption	%%link_caption%%
link_url	%%link_urk%%
date_sent	%%date_sent%%

So What’s Going On Here

The Key and Values that you specify add specific parameters and data onto the end of all URLs (or specific URLs if you choose) contained in messages you send from Bronto. Your custom analytics solution can then look at these parameters and grab the data contained in them. For example, let’s say I sent out a birthday email with a link in it to www.bronto.com. Before sending this message, I enabled the Custom Analytics integration and choose to include the following Keys and Values:

Now let’s say I sent this message to john@bronto.com and he clicked on the link to bronto.com contained in the message. When he did this, the Keys and Values I specified earlier will be added on to the URL like so:

(Click to image to enlarge)

Your Custom Analytics solution should then be able to identify the parameters, get the data, and use it for reporting purposes. Depending on your analytics solution, you may need to adjust certain settings within the analytics tool you use to look for these specific URL parameters. Consult the documentation for your analytics solution for specifics on how to do this. Hopefully you have a better idea of the data that Bronto can offer up to you for use in your custom analytics solution. If you have any additional questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

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Getting Integrated: Integrations In Bronto

Frank Chapman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:02:48 +0000

At Bronto we believe in always trying to make our product better. One of the ways that we attempt to do this is by creating partnerships with companies and products that we can integrate with. Here are some short descriptions of a few of the companies that we have active integrations with.

Omniture

Omniture’s primary product, SiteCatalyst, helps clients measure Web site traffic, visitor activity, advertising effectiveness, and e-commerce transactions. Using our integration you can track the paths of the traffic and see conversions generated by your email in the Omniture interface. You will also be able to create targeted lists from your Omniture data to use in your marketing Initiatives. It is important to remember that you must have an Omniture Genesis account to implement this integration.

Baynote

Baynote delivers the industry-leading recommendation engine for products and content websites, intranets, and portals. This allows you to better understand your contact’s intent and context. Using this information, the integration automatically displays the best content and products in an email sent to a specific contact. This is extremely useful for including recommendations in transactional emails after a purchase has been made. You must have a Baynote account to employ this integration.

Ticket Return

TicketReturn™ delivers flexible ticketing solutions for venues of all sizes, with secure access to Box Office, outlet, and online e-ticket sales. When integrated with Bronto, you will have access to many different pieces of data for all of the contacts that have purchased tickets to your event using the TicketReturn service. This allows you to send transactional emails to contacts before or after events, or segment them based on purchase or attendance history. To use this integration you must be a client of TicketReturn.

Google Analytics

Google analytics is a cost efficient web analytics tool. It will show you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. With this information, you can improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web. With a Bronto integration you will be able to create your emails so they contain links with information that is recognized by Google Analytics. Using these links you will be able to view how your contacts respond to your email and move through your website. You must have Google Analytics set up on your web site to properly use this integration.

Future Plans

As time goes on we will continue to look for partners that will give our clients a marketing edge. These are just a few of the integrations that we have available now. If you are interested in implementing any of these integrations, please contact Bronto Client Services.

Frank Chapman
Bronto Client Services

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Brontoversity » Integrations