Benchmarking Digital Marketing Strategy

Benchmarking to improve your Digital marketing strategy Presented at Omniture Summit London, April 2009 Dave Chaffey, Director, Marketing Insights Ltd Dave’s Right Touching blog: www.davechaffey.com/blog/

We like comparing… www.comparethemeerkat.com

Why benchmark?

Compare to direct competitors

Compare out-of-sector

Highlights failings, but…

Strive to be best-in-breed

Defines progress to goals

“ Marketing & CRM focuses on four core strategic areas...Our broad eCommerce strategy centres on a four point plan which is broken down into a series of individually defined and detailed strategic areas. Our aim is to be exceptional in delivery across each ” Russell Gould, E-commerce Director, Thomas Cook Source: Econsultancy Managing Digital Channels report. Author: Dave Chaffey http://econsultancy.com/reports/managing-digital-channels-best-practice-guide

Q1. How well defined is your plan? Detailed plan: separate (27%) Detailed plan: separate (27%) Detailed plan: integrated (50%) No Plan (22%) Source: Econsultancy Managing Digital Channels report. Author: Dave Chaffey http://econsultancy.com/reports/managing-digital-channels-best-practice-guide

Q2. How have you assessed your capabilities? Download from: http://www.davechaffey.com/Internet-Marketing/C4-Strategy/benchmark-your-internet-marketing-strategy

An alternative benchmarking study Source: Gijsbert van der Sleen, Consultant, Atos Consulting Contact through blog: http://www.maxx-online.nl

Conclusions of 2008 study Source: Gijsbert van der Sleen, Consultant, Atos Consulting Contact through blog: http://www.maxx-online.nl

Q3. What is your capability maturity? Source: Carnegie Mellon University http://www.sei.cmu.edu

Digital marketing governance maturity Source: Econsultancy Managing Digital Channels report. Author: Dave Chaffey http://econsultancy.com/reports/managing-digital-channels-best-practice-guide

Analytics capability maturity

Real-time application:

Landing-page optimisation

Multivariate testing

Journey optimisation

CMS Integration

Modelling:

Response probability

Automatic visitor segments

Content clustering

Content and activity association

Behaviour:

Recency

Frequency

Average Visit Length

Acquisition Method

Event stream

Section stream

Measures

# Users

# Visits

# Page views

Top pages

Top referrers

# Errors

Source: Presented by Julian Brewer, Head of Online Sales and Content Barclays UK retail banking to Econsultancy masterclass Nov 2008

Q4. Do you have the right resources?

% of marketing headcount who are digital specialists?

You: (a) 0-20% (b) 20-40% (c) >40%

Research: 1 in 3

Ratio:

2 A cquisition:

3 C onversion:

2 R etention:

8 IT

Source: Econsultancy Managing Digital Channels report. Author: Dave Chaffey http://econsultancy.com/reports/managing-digital-channels-best-practice-guide

Detail from the research Source: Econsultancy Managing Digital Channels report. Author: Dave Chaffey http://econsultancy.com/reports/managing-digital-channels-best-practice-guide

Q5. Do you have the right team structure?

“ No perfect way to organise structure. A single team has benefit

they’re 100% digital, breathing digital, risk is there is disconnect

with offline world ”

Example of team structure for small-medium retailer

Resources needed for large digital team!

Internet marketing lightbulb jokes…

How many SEOs does it take to change a light bulb?

Just one, but it’s gonna take about 3-6 months to start to see the light bulb change. And that light bulb’s pretty high up there- are you sure you wouldn’t rather change 10 easier light bulbs?

How many PPC experts does it take to…?

Just one but the cost depends on how much the other light bulb changers are currently charging.

How many social media gurus does it take to…

It’s not about the change- it’s about engaging people in conversations about the light bulb change.

How many web analysts does it take to…

It depends which system you use / who you ask.

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/internet-marketing-jokes/9601/

Q6. How automated is your optimization?

Establish the campaign objectives and metrics for success Cross channel strategy meetings to ensure integrated planning approach Analyse user demand, seasonality trends, competitive benchmarking and combine with forecast tools Conduct Visibility, Content & Reputation audits and provide detailed recommendations Provide implementation guidance & hand hold throughout process Observe changes to rankings and traffic levels and refine strategy. Use analytics to understand new user’s intent Update Rankings Report & Campaign Objectives Report and feed insight back into strategy Regular calls and status meetings with client to ensure a partnership approach Analyse user experience, usability and conversion path analysis and feed into audit. Gain further insight by deep diving into Analytics Q7. How refined is your SEM capability? Source:

How good is your keyphrase-level reporting?

Should show:

Potential performance from keyphrase estimators

Your actual performance (position, clicks, conversion, sales, value):

Paid – absolute and relative

Natural – absolute and relative

Q8. How refined is your site conversion optimization

Journey optimisation:

Personalised containers across site

On-site search

Conversion path optimisation

Registration pages

Shopping basket

Checkout

Landing page Optimisation

Brand messages

Product info

Data collection

Home page Optimisation

Brand messages

Engagement

Merchandising

A B2C home page optimization case study Incentivised Lead generation form Conversion Goals + OVP Prominent Unique phone number for tracking Social proof: Brand reassurance Top customer concerns answered

A B2B home page optimization Social Proof Clear response options Messaging targeting key audiences

Salesforce landing page

Source: Webinar with Richard Weaver, Head of eCommerce

Override with known slot Source: Webinar with Richard Weaver, Head of eCommerce

Minority of the searches on home page, so enter here OVP: Online Value Proposition Recommended Score 0-10 Best sellers Based on product Feed of sales Source: Webinar with Richard Weaver, Head of eCommerce

Q9. How refined is your email marketing capability? Presented by Grant Baillie of Argos at 2008 Email marketing conference, with permission

Personalised British Airways Trip Guide Personalized with customer name Direct link to “My booking” area of BA.com Search fields pre-populated with customer travel dates and destination Customized destination information including sightseeing and airport info Source:

Q10. How do you approach benchmarking?