Econsultancy: What We're About

What Econsultancy’s about
A guide for all of us
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Econsultancy: What we’re about
A guide for all of us 2
Contents
Page
What this is for 2
Who we are 3
What we believe 9
What we do 15
Who we do it for 22
The value we deliver 27
How we’re different 32
Our culture and values 38
Where we’re going 42
Where you fit in 45

What’s all this then?
This is an experiment.
It’s an attempt to capture who we are, what we do best, how we do things and why.
It’s about our culture, our values, our brand and our reasons for living.
We’ve come this far without one of these, but it feels like the right time.
Why do we need it?
Because we’re a complex business – we do a lot of different things for a lot of different people.
Because we’re growing fast – and we want to make sure we protect the things that make us special.
Because we have so many opportunities – and need some guiding principles to prioritise them.
Because we believe in letting people make decisions – and need something to hold those decisions up against.
Our heartbeat
To some degree, who we are depends on where we are.
We’re one thing in the UK – where we started and where our offering is the most complete – and another in the
US or Asia. But there are things unique to Econsultancy wherever we are. This is about that heartbeat – the
sum of what we believe, how we behave, who we employ, who we serve and why.
You’re reading this because you’re an important part of the Econsultancy mission.
I hope this document will help make you as happy about that as I am.
Ashley Friedlein
CEO & Co-Founder

Who we are
4

Who we are and why it’s not so easy to sayWho we are
“Our name is a bit
of a curveball. It’s
easy for people to
assume we’re just
another consulting
house. We need to
show them we’re
much more.”
We’re a publisher.
We’re a research house.
We’re a training company, a community, an online resource.
We’re analysts, editors, researchers, teachers, bloggers and event organisers.
If your goal is to sum all this up in a sentence, it’s a bit of a problem.
But our overall aim is to help people and companies to succeed online, making the variety and
diversity of our offer a very powerful thing.
Instead of trying to over-simplify what we do and boil it down to a strapline, let’s embrace it.
We’re many things.

We are what we doWho we are
Some Econsultancy verbs
educate
publish
curate
interpret
research
analysetrain
connect
facilitate
validate
crowdsource
sharedistilprogram
advise
brief

Fine, but you still kind of need an elevator pitchWho we are
Okay then:
Econsultancy is a publisher and curator of best-practice content about
doing business better online.
We serve a global community of marketers and e-commerce professionals
with a wide range of reports, analysis, training, consulting, events and
online resources.
We could write dozens of these and they’d all be pretty accurate.
As long as the two most important things are here: content and community.

Content and CommunityWho we are
Content Community
One of the cool things about our model is that our content feeds
our community and our community feeds our content.
Our content makes our blog, forums,
events, training and consultancy
much better.
Our community means we can find the
right expert for any challenge… and
‘crowdsource’ the answers to others.

Experts or Facilitators?Who we are
We play different roles all across the guru spectrum:
Facilitators Experts
At Digital Ski, we just
get people together
and add alcohol.
At Innovation
Briefings, we bring in
an expert to make
sense of latest trends.
We shape agendas
and source speakers
for our clients’
conferences.
Our consultants help
companies build the
best teams for their
specific challenges.
Our research is
original and
authoritative.
Our trainers are front-
line practitioners who
know their stuff.
Our blog is one of the
best-respected in the
marketing world.
We program many
events through the
year, but give the
stage to the experts.

What we believe
10

We believe it’s an incredibly exciting time to
be a digital marketer.
11
Especially if you like steep
learning curves.

We believe the internet is the world’s biggest
sandbox, chemistry set and battleground.
12
And we’re all in it playing,
experimenting, competing and
trying to figure it out as we go.

We believe that a community of people openly
sharing their experiences is the very best way
to improve the web for everyone.
13
We’re not just marketers or
analysts, we’re consumers too.

We believe that doing business with integrity
and transparency is not only more effective,
it’s a lot more fun.
14
We work hard to add real value
to the marketing conversation as
an independent analyst. Our
endorsement cannot be bought.

We believe in hiring smart people who are
passionate about digital.
15
And we like working with other
people who share these
qualities.

What we do
16

Our portfolioWhat we do
This varies by region and keeps changing but here’s a snapshot:
Events
Content
Training
Online
resources
Market Data
Template Files
Best Practice
Trends and
Innovation
Supplier Selection
Public Courses
Qualifications
Custom Training
Digital Excellence
Conferences
Roundtables
Briefings
Social Events
Blog
Forums
Jobsboard
Directories
Consulting
Digital Marketing
and E-commerce
Auditing
Supplier Selection
Strategy

Practical and immediateWhat we do
Some analysts like to theorise about the grand trends over the next 5-25 years.
We like to help people do their jobs today.
PracticalTheoretical
Long-term
Now
“We tend to forecast no further
than a year ahead. In the online
world, that’s a generation.”
“We’re into strategy, tactics and
the finer points of doing.”

Our model is uniqueWhat we do
There are a lot of ways to sell content and community to digital marketers.
Some sell individual reports. Others give discounts to members.
Some charge many thousands, aiming at only the most senior people.
Others are free, supported by advertising and sponsorship.
Econsultancy is member-focused with an ‘all you can eat’ model.
Once you take a paid membership, all of our content is yours to use.
This model has important benefits to our members:
• It encourages people to turn to us more often for more things.
• It lets us reach deeper into companies and teams.
• It lets us cover the ‘long tail’ topics that might not sell in large volumes .
and, most importantly:
• It keeps us independent, beholden to no one.

Our domainWhat we do
We started by serving digital marketers and e-commerce professionals and our focus is still:
helping people improve the way they do business online.
As the internet has grown, this has encompassed an ever-wider range of professionals:
marketing, e-commerce, customer service, support, public relations and beyond.
We focus on wherever a business touches its customers.
(Not so much the back-end stuff, but it’s all getting more and more connected).
Are we exclusively digital?
All of marketing now touches the digital realm and every online campaign or tactic affects
everything offline.
Our heritage and our heartland is digital marketing, but we’re extending out to engage with the
context of digital, helping marketers look at the big picture: integrating online and offline.

Where we came fromWho we are
A bit of history
The
dotcom
bubble!
1998
Ashley is working for a
web agency, the night
before a pitch.
Needs a statistic fast.
Nowhere to go…
30 or so internet
pros get together
for a drink or two
1999 Ashley starts
Econsultancy with
Matthew O’Riordan
1999 Ashley writes
first book ‘Web
Project Management’
2001 – Ashley
leaves agency to
write a second
book
100,000 members
8,000 members
450 members
2002 – Time to get
investment and
grow this puppy
2003 – First paid
memberships
Add events, jobs
and advertising to
proposition
2004 – Tim Berners-Lee
presents at internet
Decade event
2005 – Launch
Future of Digital
Marketing
conference
2006 – Training
launches, business
trebles in size
2007 – first Digital
Ski, we head to
the Alps with
Econsultancy
members
2008 –
Brand and
site relaunch
2009 – Open first
US office, active in
Middle East and
Far East, win
every single award
we enter
2010 – JUMP
event and
magazine
launches,
1,500+
delegates

Onward and upward
22

Who we do it for
23

Predominantly client-sideWho we do it for
Our membership includes marketers in some of the world’s best and fastest-growing brands.
It also includes agencies, independent consultants and suppliers of tools, software and services
to marketers.
We serve both sides of the agency-client divide, but we lean towards the
client-side marketer.
If we do this well, the rest follows.
Accenture • Adobe • American Express • BBC • BSkyB • Cadbury • Capital One • Chevrolet • Citi • COI • Dell • Deloitte • Disney • DuPont •
eBay • Financial Times • GSK • Harper Collins • HSBC • IBM • Institutional Investor • IPC Media - IQPC • Lloyds TSB • Microsoft •
Myspace.com • Oxfam • Random House • Sony Ericcson • Tesco • Thomas Cook • TimeWarner • Cabinet Office • Virgin Atlantic • Visa • WPP

We help at every levelWho we do it for
Our members range from beginners to some of the world’s most experienced digital marketers.
We help digital marketers from the first day of their careers and are there
for them as they grow into senior strategists and industry leaders.
We’re always acutely aware of who each report, training class or event is for.
That way, we pitch the content to the right expertise level.

And every industryWho we do it for
Our members are in financial services, consumer products, media, entertainment, business-to-
business markets, you name it.
We believe that it’s important to learn from people within your own market
and from people in other markets.
This cross-fertilisation is one of the main advantages of a thriving, diverse community.

But all our members have something in commonWho we do it for
They’re all trying to rise to the challenges
of change, complexity and competition.
Digital never stands still.
There is always more to
learn.
It may not be rocket science,
but it’s not far from it.
If our members don’t get it
right, they lose traffic,
revenue and market share
to the companies that do.

The value we deliver
28

We drive online performanceThe value we deliver
We make our members more effective at what they do. That means:
Better decisions
Faster insight
Sharper execution
In the dizzying digital landscape, we provide a map.
A kind of framework for all the different digital disciplines and a trusted way to systematically fill
your knowledge gaps.

Our killer KPIsThe value we deliver
Our members are chasing a wide range of Key Performance Indicators.
Some want to master mobile others to improve search or affiliate marketing.
Others have hit a plateau in their PPC or email marketing and need a boost.
To simplify, we can boil most of these metrics down to a few:
More visitors
Higher conversions
Better customer retention
And these, in turn, add up to:
Increased Customer Lifetime Value
It’s reductive but it can help keep us focused.
“Will this blog post,
conference session,
training course or
research report help
build Customer
Lifetime Value?”

And some more immediate metrics
On our way to the killer KPIs, we also help people in more immediate ways, relating to three
spheres of influence:
My Career My Team
My Company
Save me time
Help me look smart
Help me build a case
Improve our skills
Inform our decisions
Sharpen our tactics
Boost our performanceSharpen our strategy
Help us master a new
discipline
The value we deliver

Inspiring engagementThe value we deliver
Like so many things in life, Econsultancy gives more value to members who put more into it.
The ones who ask questions in the forums, read and comment on the blogs, attend the events
and training sessions.
An important part of all our jobs is to inspire and reward deeper
engagement.
It’s easy when you’re totally convinced their time and attention will be amply rewarded.

How we’re different
33

Our competitive frame
Because we’re so diverse, we compete against a wide range of competitors and substitutes.
Publishers
Analysts and
Research Houses
Search Engines Social Media
Communities
Training
Companies
Event Companies
Inertia

Our strongest assets
No matter who we’re competing with, these are the critical things we bring to battle:
Our brand
Our reputation
Our energy
and passion
Our experts
The quality of our
content
Our community
Our experience Our model

Our strongest assets
No matter who we’re competing with, these are the critical things we bring to battle:
Our promise to
the market.
Here since the dot in .com.
The very best digital
marketers in the world.
In-house and close friends.
Our brand
Our reputation
Our energy
and passion
Our experts
The quality of our
content
Our community
Our experience Our model
Earned the hard way. 100,000 and growing.
All-you-can-eat.
Great value.
We love this stuff
and it shows.
Original, authoritative,
exhaustive, peer-reviewed.

Our credentialsHow we’re different
It’s easy to take for granted but no competitor has anything like our combination of assets.
In short, we’re very, very good at what we do, and the market validates it every day.
One of the leading
marketing blogs
on the web
100,000+ members globally
20,000+ LinkedIn
connections
25,000+ Twitter
followers
30+ Roundtables and
Breakfast Briefings a year
6,000+ marketers
trained
Over 200 training
sessions a year
Over 150 in-company
sessions a year
Average training course
rating: 4.5 out of 5Over 60 reports
published each year
140,000+ downloads of
internet Stats Compendium
Consistently high
Google rankings
35,000+ page views a day
Best Online Business
Publisher: AOP
Best Editorial Team:
AOP

Our reputationHow we’re different
This deserves a page of its own…
Our reputation for quality, authority and independence is probably our
most precious asset.
We enhance it daily by producing consistently excellent content, by
delivering it in high-quality, professional ways, and by focusing on
delivering real value to our members.
That’s not a small thing, it’s a huge thing.

Our culture and values
39

This is us
Culture and values may seem like fuzzy things but they’re very real.
Culture is ‘the way we do things around here’ and values are ‘the things we respect’.
Entrepreneurial and democratic
We like to start new things and give our people responsibility for growing them.
Because our business is so interconnected, we like to talk about decisions.
Innovative and experimental
Digital marketing is in a permanent state of furious innovation. So are we.
We don’t know what will work, so we try something and measure it, just like digital marketers.
Independent and member-focused
We only answer to our members and make sure we give them the best advice we can.
We’re drive by giving great value and getting people to come back for more.
High-quality and professional
Everything we do is thorough, informed, rigorous and actionable.
We keep our promises and make good our mistakes.
40

And we also work hard to be…
Open and transparent
We err on the side of exposing our motives and methods.
We stay in dialogue with our members and respond to their comments and requests.
Passionate evangelists
We love the power and potential of digital. It’s what keeps us coming into work.
And we genuinely want to improve the web for everybody.
Unpretentious
We make it our business to be experts, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still learning.
We’d rather give credit than steal spotlights.
Honest
We believe in doing business with integrity.
No exceptions.
41

We hire smart, entrepreneurial people with a passion for
digital, a strong moral compass and a sense of humour.
We manage them with a long leash and an open door.
Our senior execs are here to make the people who work for them succeed.
42
Our culture and values The kind of people we hire

Where we’re going
43

As far as the internet and Econsultancy have come, these are still very
early days indeed for both.
Digital never stops evolving, disrupting and advancing.
We’re committed to being there, out in front of each zig and zag so that
our members are the first and the best informed.
We have no idea where it will all lead, but we’re just as excited about
finding out as we were on our very first day of business.
And we’re thrilled that you’re along for the ride.
44
Where we’re going Still early days

We know we’re getting It right when:
The commercial metrics are going up.
Things like revenues, profits and revenue per employee.
Renewals are rising or staying high.
Membership renewals, follow-on training, sponsorship re-bookings…
Unprompted feedback is strong.
Our members are advocates and evangelists.
We’re still enjoying ourselves.
That’s the best sign that we’re on the right track.
45
Where we’re going How we know we’re getting it right

Where you fit in to all this
46

Each one of us is an important part of the Econsultancy mission.
Our culture, values and beliefs persist only if we live them.
If we cut corners, make bad decisions and go for easy compromises, we
lose the very things that got us here and that make this a great place to
work.
But if we stay true to who we are, who we’re serving and why we’re in
business, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together.
Thanks for staying with us and for giving us your energy and commitment.
47
Where you fit in We are the sum of our actions

Econsultancy: What We're About

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