ClickTracks Merges Now Offers Services Including SEO

ClickTracks Merges, Now Offers Services Including SEO

By: Lee Odden
2006-08-22

I received an email from John Marshall (as did other bloggers and pubs) announcing the merger of ClickTracks into a group of companies owned by J.L. Halsey that includes: Lyris, EmailLabs, and Hot Banana in a deal worth about $10 million.

I must say, congratulations to John, hes a great guy, entertaining speaker, smart and very passionate about web analytics. The combined resources of the J.L. Halsey companies is sure to help ClickTracks offer a very valuable set of services to each group of customers as well as attract a new set of clients.

I am posting about this a little late because I wanted to make sure I had a chance to get some additional questions answered first.

Basically, J.L. Halsey made the best offer to allow ClickTracks to grow in the way John had envisioned. There will be some minor up/down pricing changes and training will remain a critical part of ClickTracks plans to evangelize and educate marketers on the value of web analytics.

One thing I thought was particularly interesting and that I did not see mentioned in other coverage of this news was ClickTracks plans to offer a set of professional services including search engine optimization at $200/hr. PPC and Basic SEO are now offered as Premium Training Modules as well.

How did the merger come about? How do you see it affecting the vision youve had for ClickTracks?

The approach was from Halsey, resulting from their vision of complete set of online marketing services incluing email marketing, search analytics, web analytics and content management. I wouldnt have done this if it didnt fuel the vision Ive had for ClickTracks in the first place. You might imagine that we were approached by several suitors. Only Halsey offered the chance to accelerate our plans and integrate with a family of world class products.

Will ClickTracks pricing be affected in any way, short term or long term?

As for pricing, of course we already offer a free product, ClickTracks Appetizer, that has been quite successful at helping us to engage and teach online marketing the smaller business. Yes, there will be some pricing changes, both up and down, but I cant announce exactly what just yet. Our real focus will be on teaching our customer and prospect base how to use and interpret web analytics results.

Will there be more or different training available? Online and/or offline?

More training? Definitely! We have just updated our training to include web analytics basics, navigation analysis, data mining and segmentation, campaign tracking, revenue tracking, search engine keyword and ranking analysis and my personal favorite, funnel report interpretation.

We also offer free, monthly online marketing classes with guest speakers like Bryan Eisenberg, Jennifer Laycock, Dr. Ralph Wilson, and every once in a while, they let me teach. They are real live classes with no annoying product pitch, and we foot the bill for the online webcasting and audio connections.

What kind of future enhancements are in store for ClickTracks products? Will you be expanding into services or consulting?

Anticipating the deal, weve expanded our professional services with custom packages to perform click fraud analysis, search engine optimization and ad campaign optimization. I think its already up on the web site as a current service.

Thanks John!

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About the Author:
Lee Odden is President and Founder of TopRank Online Marketing , specializing in organic SEO, blog marketing and online public relations. He's been cited as a search marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering daily news, interviews and best practices.