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Top Ten Strategic E-marketing issues today and tomorrow

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Subject:  Top Ten Strategic E-marketing issues today and tomorrow Dave Chaffey
Author:   Dave Chaffey:   view profile | all posts by this author | add to favourites
Date:   12:19:51 26 March 2004
 
Next Wed there is a event hosted by the E-marketing SIG of the IDM which is aimed at improving the way E-marketing/Internet marketing/E-business is taught at University level. It will mainly be attended by academics who specialise in this area, but also practitioners.

To help integration between the real-world and academia I am presenting 10 key issues of e-marketing as I see them from my training and consulting work. We are then going to look at how well these are covered and how significant they are.

I would love to know what other e-consultants see as the key issues in E-marketing as viewed by senior marketing managers/directors.

I have presented my notes below...Apologies for the long post and jargon.

An e-marketing definition:

E-marketing is:

Applying?

Digital technology?
(Web, e-mail, databases, plus wireless & digital TV)

to?
Profitably acquire and retain customers (through a multi-channel buying process and customer lifecycle)

through?
Improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles, behaviours, value and satisfaction drivers), then delivering targeted communications and online services that match their individual needs


Top Ten Strategic E-marketing issues

Issue 1. The E-marketing planning process

What is it?
The integration of e-marketing-specific objectives, strategies and activities into the traditional annual marketing planning process.

Key questions:
? Do we have a separate e-marketing plan?
? What should the e-marketing plan contain?
? Which objectives do we set to drive the contribution of e-marketing to the organization?
? How do we use align e-marketing activities with business strategies of market and product development?
? How do we integrate e-marketing communications with traditional communications?
? Which Internet-specific strategies should we review?
? New channel structures - How do we partner / form alliances with online intermediaries, develop new intermediaries and manage channel conflicts?

Issue 2. Organising and resourcing for e-marketing

What is it?
As the importance of online channels increase, the structure of the marketing organization and responsibilities may need to change to maximize the opportunities available through new media.

Key questions:
? Do we change the structure of the marketing organization?
? Which new responsibilities do we identify for e-marketing?
? How do we develop e-marketing specific skills within the marketing team?
? Does the organization have the database marketing and analytical skills to support e-CRM and e-mail marketing?
? Which e-marketing activities do we outsource?

Issue 3. Defining the Internet value proposition

What is it?
To achieve increased customer usage of online channels (web, e-mail, wireless), a distinct, detailed proposition must be developed for these online channels and it must be clearly communicated online and offline.

Key questions:
? How can we vary the elements of the marketing mix online?
? How do we research the proposition?
? How powerful is the IVP?
? What are competitors offering as IVPs?
? Are there cannibalization issues?

Issue 4. E-brand value
What is it?
How does the Internet contribute to and influence brands?

Key questions:
? How do we extend our brand online?
? Should we use brand variants?
? How effective is the emotional connection of an online brand?
? How is the online brand experience perceived by customers?
? How is online service delivery perceived by customers?

Issue 5. Setting the e-communications mix

What is it?
Defining the proportion of online spend on different elements of the communications mix

Key issues:
? Percent of communications budget allocated to e-communications
? Online spend % on advertising, direct mail and PR
? Demonstrating return on investment for e-marketing tools
? Continuous vs campaign spend
? Relative spend on different online tools, i.e. search, affiliates, online ads, rented e-mail lists, online sponsorship, etc
? How do we partner / form alliances with online intermediaries or develop new intermediaries?

Issue 6. E-mail marketing integration (Touch strategy)

What is it?
Integrating different forms of marketing e-mail, i.e. rented list, house list e-blasts, service e-mails and e-newsletters with traditional communications, i.e. direct mail, advertising, etc to achieve maximum response (and avoid annoyance)

Key issues:
? What is our touch or contact strategy defining minimum and maximum number of touches per customer in a period?
? What communications preferences do we offer customers for media type, format, frequency and content?
? How are e-mail newsletters used as strategic communications tools?
? How do we maintain responsiveness of e-mail marketing?

Issue 7. E-CRM

What is it?
Using online channels (web, e-mail, wireless messaging linked to customer databases) to build and deepen relationships with customers.

Key issues:
? How do we manage customer data (See Issue 8)
? How well does the web site/e-mail support cross-selling/upselling?
? What methods do we use to target and personalize messages for online customers?

Issue 8. Building and exploiting customer knowledge

What is it?
Customer knowledge is profiling information and research characteristing customers including their characteristics, communications preferences, behaviours and perception of service.

Key questions:
? Who is responsible for customer knowledge?
? How do we assess the quality of customer knowledge?
? Integrating separate databases to achieve a 360 degreee view of the customer.
? How do we segment online audiences using customer information?
? Which models do we use to assess customer value?
? How do we motivate staff to improve knowledge quality?
? How is this data exploited using targeted marketing communications?

Issue 9. E-marketing automation

What is it?
Developing personalized marketing messages delivered by web and e-mail in response to customer events and behaviours.

Key questions:
? How can we support the sales process and relationship-building through automated e-mail dialogue based on web-based event triggers?
? How do we build related-products personalization into the web site?
? How do we integrate personalization technology into our existing infrastructure?

Issue 10. E-channel optimization

What is it?
Developing a continuous improvement process to monitor the effectiveness of web and e-mail marketing.

Key issues:
? Which web analytics tools do we use?
? What metrics/dashboards to we use to review e-marketing effectiveness?
? What testing programmes do we use to improve e-marketing?
? How do we optimize different e-marketing activities ? traffic building, web site design, e-mail marketing
? What is the internal process for review and improvement?

Dave Chaffey
============
Internet Marketing trainer, consultant and author
eResources and Books: www.marketing-online.co.uk
 
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