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Advice on setting up an online division

 
Based on my experience working at and with a wide range of agencies, here are my thoughts.  I hope they're useful!

1) New business pipeline

You need to make sure you have a strong sales pipeline that's looking for new clients and generating potential projects.  In my experience, a strong pipeline is created by good Account Managers, so that would be one recruitment priority.  Make sure that they have 'real world' digital experience, as it's easy to come seriously unstuck pitching for digital projects if you don't know the potential pitfalls.

2) Project management

I agree completely with Stephen that good project management is vital to any digital group.  Digital projects are very different to print projects and you'll need someone who understands how to manage them well so you're delivering on time and on budget.

3) Design and technical

These are the two key foundations of good digital work.  You'll need someone to make your products look fantastic and someone who makes them work brilliantly.

If you're starting from scratch, I'd advise hiring the most experienced designer and developer you can afford - you're effectively recruiting your Creative Director and CTO.

4) Outsourcing

Again, I agree with Stephen that you don't have to recruit all the skills you've listed - you can buy them on the open market.  I'd start with a small core team and a range of freelancers and partners to assist with specific needs.  You can then bring skills in-house as your needs develop.

5) Strategy

Finally, I recommend that you have a really clear strategy about what you want to achieve and what sort of work you want to do.  There's a huge variety of work out there from technically-led web engineering to creatively-led Flash 'experiences'.  Different types of work require different skill sets and this will drive your recruitment at a basic level. 

I've barely scratched the surface of this subject, but hopefully you'll find the above useful.  I do consulting work with agencies on this kind of thing, so feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.

Mike Heroys




 

 
  • Advice on setting up an online division, KSJ, 30 May 12:43
    We are looking at starting an in-house client side online department, except rather than set it up like an online marketing dept, we would prefer to set it up more like an agency a ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, DenisK, 30 May 16:29
      A lot of those things can be combined I think.  It all depends on the type of work that you want to be taking on, and how niche those areas are.  If you would like to discuss in de ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, WebSecurity, 2 Jun 09:39
      Compliance and security specialists? Colin ...
      • Advice on setting up an online division, BertieB, 2 Jun 17:07
        This is how New Media is set up at Breast Cancer Care. We are a charity and New Media sits in our core service delivery team so this model may not be 100% applicable. From my ex ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, StephenFoxworthy, 2 Jun 17:08
      Hi Kerry, As an agency digital director, I'd suggest you focus on in-house strategy, brand strategy and project management, rather than in-house design and production. If you ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, MikeHeroys, 4 Jun 10:08
      Based on my experience working at and with a wide range of agencies, here are my thoughts.  I hope they're useful! 1) New business pipeline You need to make sure you have a s ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, ChrisCarter1, 6 Jun 19:00
      I have managed both large blue chip digital teams and currently a small B2B focused digital team. The thing that is crucial is the account management function. Without a thorough u ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, DaveChaffey, 9 Jun 13:27
      The main roles you have defined seem a good fit - as part of the update to the E-consultancy  (http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/managing-ecommerce-team/) Managing an E-com ...
    • Advice on setting up an online division, Jim, 1 Aug 13:52
      Hi, I've just completed this on behalf of Bacardi in London. The task was to close down an interactive function in Washhington DC and create a new team in London so I have dire ...
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