In today’s changing digital landscape a key challenge is instilling the up to date skills and expertise within your organisation to embrace and leverage these changes. Choosing the right supplier to help you bridge this skills and expertise gap is crucial in helping you cope. In this discussion we cover some criteria that you should consider when assessing your options.
2. Current Situation?
In-house or External Specialist ?
In-House: Full time resource needed. Considerable
communication activity required. Not straight forward to
drive on results. Not core business.
External Specialist: Use on as needed basis. Result driven.
Core business, constantly challenged to outperform.
Skillset key to low acquisition and conversion costs!
*Source: Responsys Big Australia report / EConsultancy's Email Marketing Census
2012
3. How do I know that my team needs up-skilling?
Digital is highly measurable
•Measurement of interactions
•Bounce from home page
•Opens and Clicks on Emails
•Call Centre Activity
Benchmark Yourselves – Are you improving?
Source: EConsultancy's Email Marketing Census 2012
4. What tools are available for Benchmarking?
eConsultancy
Hub Spot
Monetate
MediaPost
Maturity Assessments
Source: EConsultancy's Email Marketing Census 2012
5. What might I need to assess?
Design – Multiple Device and Browser
Testing Processes – Are they defined?
Reporting – Do you have KPI’s?
Best Practice – Do you meet these?
Legislative – Are you compliant?
Technology Advances – Do you know what is out there?
Source: EConsultancy's Email Marketing Census 2012
6. Design and Optimisation
• Responsive Design
• Testing for multi browser/multi device
• 76% of Australian organisations do not run AB
testing of subject lines or AB testing of images
• Do you team have a process around this?
If an email does not display correctly,
69.7% will delete it immediately.
As of end 2012, more people view email on mobile devices than
on their Desktop or Webmail clients.
7. How do I get the RFP right?
Have a defined strategy
(or get expertise to help you with this)
Digital is highly measurable
RFPs should be written around specific
business outcomes
8. What should I be looking for in the
response?
Strategy
Understanding of your current situation
Partnership Approach
Regular reviews
Focus on your outcomes
Support around expertise
Proactive advice on effective execution
Flexibility and Scalability
9. Budget Beyond Your Platforms
Technology does not drive results
Expertise and strategy do
Expertise can cost as much as the platforms
Skill
+
Expertise
__________________________
Stronger Engagement
Right Content, Right Audience
Right Format, Right Timing
__________________________
Training: The question is if skillset and expertise is how do you get it? Research shows that getting access to specialist skills is far from an easy task. In-house or External Specialist ? In-House: Full time resource needed. Considerable communication activity required. Not straight forward to drive on results. Not core business. External Specialist: Use on as needed basis. Result driven. Core business, constantly challenged to outperform. Skillset key to low acquisition and conversion costs! 2 Options: In-house or External Specialist Services? In-house: A simple Digital Marketer will not cut it Digital Marketing itself is now represented by a whole host of distinct skills (Social Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, SEM, Email Marketing and within a specific skill (ie. Email Marketing) further specialisations such as creative, display optimisations, deliverability, audience management etc. External Specialist: Advantage of having the ability to use on an as need basis. Performance judged and possibly renumerated purely on results given the possibility to align to core business objectives. Constantly innovating and improving skillset as core to the business. As a result providing and incentivised to provide best practice. Sure cost of skills can be high and off-putting in comparison to platform costs however consider this contradiction…. For an organisation that owns a database of customers with email addresses who have requested to receive marketing communications from the brand in question, surely spending thousands on email marketing directly targeting these customers with information they want is a better spend than hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in driving these customer back to their site using PPC and Affiliate marketing.
10 years in SAS (Web Analytics, Search and Merchandising, Digital Comms) Always same pattern. Clients focus on features to solve business issues Platform get’s implemented and results don’t follow or capabilities get under used.
10 years in SAS (Web Analytics, Search and Merchandising, Digital Comms) Always same pattern. Clients focus on features to solve business issues Platform get’s implemented and results don’t follow or capabilities get under used.
10 years in SAS (Web Analytics, Search and Merchandising, Digital Comms) Always same pattern. Clients focus on features to solve business issues Platform get’s implemented and results don’t follow or capabilities get under used.
Only 40% of responding companies use an email platform for more than the basic broadcast of email. (EConsultancy Email Marketing Census 2012) Companies using their email platform for additional functionality report higher ROI. Less than a third of companies regularly test their email marketing campaigns. Over 33% of companies have no strategy in place for email on mobile devices. 36% of marketers report the lack of skills and training as a major barrier to effective email marketing. **Marketers are not investing in the right pieces of the email marketing puzzle. Email marketing is not that of yesteryear – basic and straightforward. Customers expect greater privacy, permission, relevancy and timeliness from any email communication they receive. Evidence shows that we are investing $millions into purchasing the use of platforms, but underutilising its features due to a lack of strategic direction, impacting the potential ROI.
RFPs written around specific business outcomes. Digital is measurable – solutions need to be accountable and comparable in achieving specific KPI outcomes. As a result motivations are aligned, suppliers understand and work to your ROI. Does your Business Plan drive partner selection: The onus should on the supplier and not the client to point out features that match the needed business outcomes. Multiple digital channels (Email, Social, PPC, Affiliate Networks, Advertising) are available to achieve conversion (whatever conversion may be a purchase, a page view, a subscription, a renewed purchase etc…). The immediate benefit is you and your supplier are aligned as to the expectations of what you are hoping to achieve through the technology investment.
Pricing: Too often pricing models and not aligned to support intended business outcomes. Digital Communications are not about volume but relevancy. Does a pricing on volume work for you? Ensure pricing has a component that supports your business goals. For digital communications it is no longer about volume but relevancy. The irony is …. Most communication platforms still price on volume! How does that work. You have a partner saying our tool helps you to improve relevancy and communicate less more efficiently but we charge per email sent?? Does your supplier really have the right incentive here to deliver on their promise?? It is critical to ensure that you pricing model has a component that is aligned with your business goals. What are you trying to achieve. Acquire leads, Increase Engagement, Boost Sales, Drive Traffic etc….
Technology does not drive results. Expertise & strategy do. Expertise can cost as much as the platform .. But Skill + Expertise = Right content, audience , display format, timing … = Stronger Conversion It is important to consider that an technology investment always come with a strategy and execution cost. Too often a digital communication budget is spent solely on the platform. In reality a minimum of half of the budget needs to be set aside for definition and execution of the digital communication strategy. A platform will never deliver results. Expertise and strategic use of the platform will. This generally involves man time and therefore has a non negligible cost which needs to be accounted and budgeted for. With Digital Communication opening or conversion of the communication is not solely linked to the platform. A platform will not provide the content, ensure relevance of content to the receiver, ensure optimal display of the content based on device or know the best ways to segment your audience. These activities are driven by skills, skills which are then put into action in the platform.
Only 40% of responding companies use an email platform for more than the basic broadcast of email. (EConsultancy Email Marketing Census 2012) Companies using their email platform for additional functionality report higher ROI. Less than a third of companies regularly test their email marketing campaigns. Over 33% of companies have no strategy in place for email on mobile devices. 36% of marketers report the lack of skills and training as a major barrier to effective email marketing. **Marketers are not investing in the right pieces of the email marketing puzzle. Email marketing is not that of yesteryear – basic and straightforward. Customers expect greater privacy, permission, relevancy and timeliness from any email communication they receive. Evidence shows that we are investing $millions into purchasing the use of platforms, but underutilising its features due to a lack of strategic direction, impacting the potential ROI.