Carly Smith and Thad Donovan lead a marketing services company that have aided businesses and non-profit organizations across Northwestern Indiana

Smith and Donovan have been providing photography and video services for a wide variety of businesses and non profit organizations in northwest Indiana and the Chicago area.  Carly Smith and Thad Donovan has created a number of corporate videos, including a video supporting the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission's Comprehensive 2040 plan for Gary, Hammond, and the communities of northwest Indiana.

Carly and Thad record Zimana founder Pierre DeBois for the NIRPC CRP video

Their latest project is an original TV program called Alexis Ronan, a mystery which follows the journey of a mother finding her lost son Elijah. Produced by Thad and conceived by Carly, the program features South Bend native Lisa Varga in the title role, Tony Casale, Jeff Puckett, Kim DeJesus, and Joyce Porter.

The team recently ran an Indiegogo project. The campaign has exceeded its crowdfunding goal, so the program seems set to have a promising launch and an exciting future. You can learn about the program at alexisronan.com.

Zimana has had the distinct pleasure of offering SEO services for two Smith and Donovan clients, and looks forward to providing more analytics services in the future. "I loved that I had an opportunity to help improve website optimization," says Zimana founder Pierre DeBois. "Carly and Thad are great professionals, and even moreso, great people."

Paul Dark (right) has been providing quality insurance and financial consultation to many firms in the Chicago area

One of Zimana's favorite clients is the right company to turn to when it comes to planning the right health care coverage for your company.  Started by Paul Dark, Benefit Management Associates (BMA) provides guidance on health care coverage and insurance plans.

From small businesses to large corporations, the team offers quality consultation that saves organizations time and money.  United Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield calculators are available through the company site to aid important decisions in coverage plans.  Benefit Management Associates vets the impact of the latest issues in health care to provide guidance that work in the best interest of clients for the long term.

Zimana provided a social media strategy for the team that matched resources with content ideas.

For more on Benefit Management Associates, check out their website at www.benefitmngt.com. Also check out this video in which Paul outlines what goes into a health insurance program based on the number of employees.

Pierre DeBois of Zimana will be conducting a free web analytics workshop at the City of Chicago Small Business Expo

Are you based in Chicago and need a brief overview of how to use Google Analytics effectively? Well you are in luck!

Zimana founder Pierre DeBois is conducting a free overview workshop of Google Analytics. Learn how to make the most of the key reports, as well as how to best organize your business resources and digital media to leverage Google Tag Manager and Google Webmaster.

The workshop will be at the 2014 Chicago City Treasurer's Small Business Entrepreneur Expo, held at the University of Illinois Chicago Forum, on Friday, October 3rd. The workshop will start at 12:45pm (The expo is free to the public from 8:30 am to 3:30pm).

The expo is sponsored by the City of Chicago Treasurer's office and features a host of resources and panels to aid the small business community in Chicago.

To learn more about the expo and register, go to www.chicagosmallbusinessexpo.com. Also feel free to follow the official Twitter feed at @CHIBizExpo.

Adding an analytics solution can be simple or complex depending on the site structure.  That complexity can be enough to have more than a few hang ups occur. Is the site an e-commerce site?  Are there cross domains? What about adding custom dimensions or event tracking for specific objectives? Even the easiest solutions can become an organizational nightmare when conducting a quality assessment.

But for simple sites, adding a analytics tag to a website can seem pretty easy  – if you have a five page site, adding Google Analytics, Piwik, Woopra or another solution can be done with a text file editor.

In these cases, you have a few options to check if you have installed the tracking code and no data is being seen. Check out the possible reasons below and see if these fit the bill (Note: Some of the tips are focused on Google Analytics, but the protocol is sound enough for most analytic solutions.  Check your analytics solution to learn of slight differences in implementing these tips).

Ensure the correct tracking code is installed 

If you have not updated a site in a while, you may be using an outdated version of an analytic solution. That can happen if you are hosting the ga.js file locally, or using a solutions that is no longer supported, such as Urchin – the original version of Google Analytics which was discontinued in March 2013.

Verify that you have the most up-to-date version of your analytics solution.  You can click the "Check Status" link on the Analytics Settings page to find the new code.

Verify that Script Interference does not exist….

Other scripts on your pages could be using some of the same variables as the ga.js file, and therefore interfering with the tracking code execution. If you're using additional scripts on your pages, consider moving the tracking code into the <head> section of the page. This way, the tracking code will work correctly, and it won't interfere with the rest of your scripts.             

Also verify that pages load correctly.  Packet sniffers can verify the loading sequence, providing a cascading graph of calls to the hosting server.  Charles and Fiddler are among the most widely used among analytic practitioners, but cloud page optimization solutions like Pingdom are also useful.

…and ensure data is correctly reported.

The most common reason for missing report data is because of a tracking code error. Copying the tracking code from your account to a word processor may add an extra space or change the quotation marks in the tracking code by the time you paste it to your website. Try copying the code again, then pasting it directly onto your website with a dedicated text tool.

A proper editing tool like BBEdit will let you compare lines of code and search for errors.  For a list of suggested tools, give this Zimana post a try. The Google Analytics tracking code is account- and profile- specific, so verify that the tracking code installed on your website matches the code shown in the account.

Make sure the filter settings are correct

Incorrect filter settings can affect the data you see, and may unintentionally filter all of your data from your reports. This happens most frequently due to multiple inclusion of IP filters. Keep a basic profile with no filter for comparison. Verify your IP setting. Also consider using the bot filter to remove the question of bot interference in the data.

Journal the progress of site updates….

Use the annotation matrix to keep track of changes to a site.  Each annotated message includes a date and permits users to add their name - useful if multiple users have access to a Google Analytics account.  Also use alerts to note significant rises or falls in metrics that are of interest to your strategy.  Assume a 10% increase or decrease for an alert, then adjust as volume and strategic needs change over time.

….and insure associated accounts and feature settings are set

             Increasingly Google Analytics has added a number of easy ways to combine data sources within its user interface.  You can link an Adwords account to incorporate Adword accounts and use additional metrics to gain insights about conversion.  Since the introduction of the Adwords features, there have been other linking features, such as BigQuery, Webmaster Tools and Adsense. On top of that, there’s the setting the E-commerce reports and data import, not to mention a data layer used by Google Tag Manager to manage event tracking.

In all, make sure the right accounts are linked and that features are set. Make a check list, then add an annotation note in the matrix as a record that the accounts and features have been checked.

Before you can measure your analytics results, it's important to have great media that attracts customers and interest.  That interest is reflected in the referral traffic, day in and day out.  Thus creating great copy is an essential step.

To aid that essential copywrite step, Vertical Response has created an infographic outlining the various difference on email, social media, and website copy.   You can learn more about their outlook at the Vertical Response site. In the meantime, use the infographic below to make your copy the best it can be.

Pierre DeBois of Zimana (right) was named one of 50 Follow Worthy Marketing Measurement and Digital Analytics Experts by Automated Insights

The analytics firm Automated Insights named Pierre DeBois, founder of Zimana, one of 50 “Follow-Worthy Marketing Measurement and Digital Analytics Experts”.  The list was compiled by Automated Insights, a multi-disciplinary team consists of experienced technologists, business professionals, and writers.  The company produces Wordsmith, a big data analytics platform that spots trends then translates the correlated data into text.

The 50 Follow Worthy list included some great names in analytics as Aurelie Pol, one of the architects of Mind Your Privacy; Jim Sterne, founder of eMetrics (and author of Social Media Metrics; Justin Cutroni, Google Analytics evangelist (whom I met and taught me during an epikOne training course back in 2006), and Gabrielle Endress-Balhiser of Endress Analytics, a well-respected firm that specializes in Adobe Analytics.

“I am pleased to be selected among a terrific gathering of professionals dedicated to the analytics space," says Zimana founder Pierre DeBois. “I am truly grateful for the recognition from an advanced analytics team such as Automated Insights."

You can view the who list and read the selection criteria at the Automated Insights site.