7 Steps Digital Marketing Optimzation Smart Insights

Digital Marketing Optimization
Set the right Vision, Goals, Objectives and use the right People,
Process, Tools and KPIs to boost returns from Digital Channels
Author: Dr Dave Chaffey, SmartInsights.com
Part of the Integrated Lifecycle Marketing Toolkit

DIGITAL MARKETING OPTIMZATION
Define top-level goals

Seven Steps to Success Guide
Table of Contents
Set your vision

Introduction – Why a focus on optimization is needed 4
What is Digital Marketing Optimization? 4
Align objectives with

business goals
Why Digital Marketing Optimization? 6
A process for goal-setting and optimisation for digital marketing 7
How is this guide structured? 8
ONE – Review the full-range of top-level goals using the 5Ss 10
conversion model
Create a
Understanding the difference between Vision, Goals, objectives and KPIs 10
Introducing the 5S goals for digital marketing 15
5S: Sell – Have we set goals to grow sales? 16
Create performance
5S: Speak – Have we set goals to get closer to customers? 18
dashboards
5S: Service – Have we set goals for online customer service? 18
5S: Save – Have we set cost-saving goals? 18
5S: Sizzle – Are we adding value to our brand online? 19
Set up tracking
and evaluation
TWO –Define your vision for digital marketing contribution 20
Introduction - the importance of vision setting 20

Some examples of vision statements for digital channels 21
What should go into your vision statement? 22
Optimise your
performance
Linking the vision to the 5Ss 22
7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

2 © Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited. Please go to www.smartinsights.com to feedback or access our other guides.
!
THREE – Align your business and marketing goals with
specific SMART objectives 25
Introduction to setting SMART objectives 25

Examples of SMART objectives aligned with strategies 26
Making sure digital strategy impacts business strategy 27
FOUR – Create a conversion model 28
Setting realistic objectives with conversion budget models 28
Set your vision

FIVE – Define performance dashboards 29
Select the right KPIs for dashboards 29

What makes for an effective KPI? 29

business goals
Using VQVC to check you’re using the right digital marketing KPIs 30
Three objective setting and performance improvement frameworks for you to modify33
Objective setting and reporting framework 1 Web Insights 34
Objective setting and reporting framework 2: RACE online lifecycle performance driver
conversion model
grid36
Create a
Objective setting and reporting framework 3: Balanced scorecard 37
SIX – Set up tracking and evaluation 38
Create performance
Goal-tracking for non-e-commerce sites 40
dashboards
Q. Why do I need to setup goals in Google Analytics? 40
Q. Which types of goals can we use? 40
SEVEN – Creating a Digital Marketing Optimization process 43

Set up tracking
and evaluation
Introduction to creating an Optimization process 43

Frequency of review and involvement 44
Optimise your
performance

!
Introduction
Why a focus on optimization is needed

We’ve devoted an entire guide to Digital Marketing Optimization since we believe that, in
many businesses, there is a failure to deliver on the potential of digital marketing. Although
digital media and platforms have been called ‘the most measurable ever’, the wealth of data
we collect about our customers and visitors to our ‘owned media’ such as websites, mobile
apps and social network pages is not fully utilised in many businesses.
We can see that it’s relatively rare for businesses to apply their analytics to improve
performance on a structured basis from our research on Managing Digital Marketing where we
Set your vision

asked businesses to assess their capabilities across our 5 stage digital capabilities framework.

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
What is Digital Marketing Optimization?
We see Digital Marketing Optimization (DMO) as a technique to give a focus on improving the
effectiveness and efficiency of key digital marketing activities across the full range of digital Set up tracking
and evaluation
marketing channels and experiences that businesses must manage.
What is it? Digital marketing optimization (DMO)

DMO should be focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of key integrated
digital marketing activities across the full range of digital marketing channels and
experiences businesses must manage.
Optimise your
performance
Some have referred to DMO as only relating to channels to reach audiences such as search,
display or affiliate marketing, while others have used it to reference web conversion optimisa-
tion activities, widely known as Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).
We think it’s most effective to use an integrated approach to increase the effectiveness and
efficiency of digital marketing across all four steps of Smart Insights RACE (Reach, Interact,
Convert, Engage) since that reflects real-world customer journeys and experiences where

!
decisions to purchase are typically multichannel, that is influenced by different touchpoints.
We have defined key DMO activities in the table.
RACE touchpoints Activities to improve Activities to improve

efficiency (tactical) effectiveness (strategic)

Reach – Increase þþ Search Engine Optimisa- þþ Refine audience targeting plan
brand touchpoints tion (SEO) across range of ad placements
across paid, owned þþ Tests to improve þþ Develop content marketing
and earned media campaign and always-on strategy for demand generation
ad creative (offer, þþ Selection and varying the mix of
messaging) for PPC and paid media to optimise Cost per
Display Acquisition (CPA) for campaigns
Set your vision

þþ Programmatic and RTB and “Always-on” acquisition
advertising communications
þþ Outreach (PR), Partner
and affiliate marketing
þþ Social media optimisation

business goals
(SMO) to improve sharing
Act – Increase þþ CRO for Landing pages þþ Improve content marketing
deeper brand to boost leads strategy for demand generation
interactions and þþ Updating email welcome including content asset quality
leads sequences þþ Improve profiling and targeting
þþ Improve paid remarketing approach for lead follow-up
conversion model
to drive leads
Create a
Convert – Increase þþ Web personalisation to þþ Improving (online value)
conversion to sale encourage sale proposition and how it is com-
(by online and offline þþ Improve paid remarketing municated across channels
channels) to drive sales þþ Improve profiling and targeting
Create performance
þþ CRO for basket and approach for lead follow-up
dashboards
checkout þþ Define preferred customer
þþ Abandoned basket email journeys
sequences þþ Improve assisted selling as
needed (e.g. Live chat and
phone)
Engage – þþ Social media optimisation þþ Improving email and web Set up tracking
and evaluation
Increase long-term (SMO) to improve sharing targeting and contact sequences

engagement, þþ Improved customer for customers
satisfaction and service þþ Improving social media
advocacy for existing marketing
customers
Optimise your
performance
You can see that the activities to improve performance across RACE include a range of
tactical improvements to efficiency across different channels and platforms including website,
email, SEO, earned and paid media. In the column on the right we have more strategic DMO
techniques that involve updating targeting and proposition that can be under-emphasised
without a planned approach to DMO.

!
Why Digital Marketing Optimization?
The use of Digital marketing is now mature or reaching maturity in many organisations as
suggested by the first chart in this report. This will be clear from how digital activities are
planned and managed, for example, a more mature approach to digital marketing will be
evident if a business has a defined digital channel vision and strategy with buy-in at a senior

level both in the marketing organisation and from business managers. The digital strategy
will define clear goals, target audiences and strategies for how to reach, convert and engage
these audiences. A mature use of digital marketing will also be evident in the process for
reviewing and improving key digital activities. There will be a clear dashboard with defined
KPIs that will be reviewed regularly in line with objectives set from shorter-term plans and
review at a 90 day planning plus monthly and weekly level.
Set your vision

At a practical level, a business will have invested to create an effective website which is
mobile optimised, will be active in social media on the channels relevant for their audiences
and will have established programmes for reaching new prospects through the key channels
such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and online advertising. In terms of
personalised messaging, they will have Marketing Automation in place to deliver relevant,
contextual messages to prospects and customers using Email marketing and CRM. These

organisations will also have approaches to manage customer journeys between digital and
business goals
offline communications and assisted sales or service channels such as Phone and Live chat.
Bringing together these features of a more mature organisation, if we think of progress for a
business in Digital Transformation, within the context of the Smart Insights capability maturity
map shown below, these businesses are moving from Stage Three - Defined to Stage Four -
Quantified to Stage Five - Optimized as shown at the end of this section of the report.
conversion model
Actionable Analytics are at the heart of Digital Marketing Optimization
Create a
If we think about what makes for an effective Digital Marketing Optimization programme, it is a
data-driven marketing approach based on a solid evaluation or measurement platform.
However, having the right analytics tool in place is only the very beginning for making analytics
actionable. We believe there are three other key capabilities that are needed for actionable
Create performance
analytics as shown on the diagram, these are having the right people in place who are
dashboards
responsible for managing the process to make it effective and keeping staff engaged with
analytics. Then we need to select the right KPIs to review and drive future performance.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance

!
The challenge with defining KPIs is two-fold, first in the standard range of reports available in
a Digital Analytics system, where we are bombarded with KPIs in many reports, it’s difficult to
know where to focus. Second, in a default analytics tagging installation, the KPIs that really
matter to a business such as conversion to goals like leads and sales are not set up. Customi-
sation is needed to identify which pages indicate these key marketing outcomes.

A process for goal-setting and optimisation for digital marketing
Through setting specific targets for your online marketing as specific objectives for different
KPIs such as online visits, conversion rates, leads and sales you then have a baseline to
review and adjust your progress against targets. Without a review process in place you can
still do digital marketing, for sure, but chances are, you are not making the most of the oppor-
tunities and you’ll almost certainly be wasting your time and money.
Set your vision

Strategy Recommendation 1 Create a process for improvement based on KPI review
A regular process of KPI review against target and actions to improve performance should
be used to get the value from measurement. We explain how you can establish a timeframe
for review of different KPIs in Step 7. You should also define processes for ongoing optimisa-

tion based around structured tests to improve review.
business goals
Processes to review KPIs are closely related to Conversion Rate optimisation programmes too
since, as a starting point, these require definition of which metrics to optimise against. We like
this process for optimisation defined by Rich Page1.
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
1 Rich Page: Website Optimization, an hour a day

!
Recommended resource? Resources for managing continuous improvements using KPIs
þþ Conversion Rate Optimisation briefing – Business-level members guide showing how
to run structured AB Tests

þþ 90 day planning template (part of digital strategy toolkit) – define areas of digital
marketing to optimise each quarter in the context of RACE.
þþ Website conversion optimisation planner – define hypotheses on which pages and
elements to test.
þþ Website conversion and revenue model calculators – create models to assess return
on investment from structured testing.
Set your vision

Recommended resource? Improving results through Google Analytics
Our 7 Steps Guide to Google Analytics shows how to use different reports and measures
in GA to optimise performance. In Step 6 of the current guide we cover Goal Setup in GA.

Recommended resource? Improving results from your website and landing pages
business goals
Our Improving results from your website guide describes a process for improvement in
Step 7. The introduction to our landing page guide also covers factors which impact optimi-
sation.
How is this guide structured?
conversion model
The 7 steps covered in our Guide to Digital Marketing Optimization are:
Create a
þþ Step 1 Review your top level goals – Understanding the difference between goals,
objective and KPIs and how you need to relate them; using the 5S s of digital marketing to
set top-level goals.
þþ Step 2 Define your vision for digital – Many businesses don’t have a long-term vision
Create performance
for how digital channels will develop their brand. A clear vision, linked to goals is also
dashboards
important to bring your colleagues and partners with you on the journey to digital transfor-
mation.
þþ Step 3 Align business goals and SMART digital objectives – since analytics systems
contain so many reports and measures, it’s important to define the measures that matter
as KPIs you set specific targets for and then review against.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
þþ Step 4 Create a conversion model – A short section featuring our conversion budget
model spreadsheet.
þþ Step 5 Define performance dashboards – We’re big fans of using Dashboards to help
communicate and review performance, but KPIs need to be structured in a logical way.
Here we review three alternative groupings with full, recommended KPI listings.
þþ Step 6 Setup tracking and evaluation – An introduction to customising Google Analytics
Optimise your
to report on key marketing goals and events - explained in more detail in our guides to
performance
Google Analytics and Tag management.

þþ Step 7 Optimize your performance – Finally, we look at an example of a potential review
process with different checkpoints through time.

!
Define top-level goals Set your vision Align objectives with Create a Create performance Set up tracking Optimise your
business goals conversion model dashboards and evaluation performance
1
© Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited. Please go to www.smartinsights.com to feedback or access our other guides.
AIMING FOR DIGITAL
Take your digital marketing to the next level with our
capability assessment. Use our visual checklist to audit
MARKETING EXCELLENCE
how well your business or clients are exploiting their digital
marketing and then plan how to take it to the next level.
FIVE. Optimised
FOUR. Quantified
THREE. Defined
TWO. Managed
Digital
Capability ONE. Initial Business-aligned
Agile strategic
Defined vision and approach
strategy and roadmap
Prioritised marketing strategy
A. Strategic activities
No strategy
Approach
B. Performance Quality-based KPIs Value-based KPIs
Volume-based KPIs Lifetime-value KPIs
Improvement No KPIs ‘Last click’ attribution Weighted attribution
No dashboards Continuous CRO
Process Business dashboards Ad hoc CRO
C. Management Verbal support, but Sponsorship and Active championing and Integral part of
Limited
Buy-in inadequate resourcing increased investment approriate investment strategy development
D. Resourcing
Core skills centralised or Centralised hub and spoke Decentralisation and Balanced blend of

and No specific skills
agencies Dedicated resources reskilling marketing skills
Structure
E. Data
Limited / no Separate data, tools Partially integrated Integrated systems Flexible approach to
and
customer database and IT services systems and data and 360o data sources optimise resources
Infrastructure
F. Integrated Integrated, Personalised,
Core push activities Integrated inbound Media optimised for ROI
Customer Not integrated Paid-Owned-Earned
synchronised approach and to maximise CLV
Communications media
G. Integrated Partially personalised Integrated, Personalised Full contexual personalised
Desktop and mobile
Customer Website not integrated desktop and mobile web, mobile, email and experiences and
support, not personalised
Experience experience social media recommendations
“Developing “Competent average “Above-sector average “Market leading
!
“Laggard” capability” capability” capability” capability”
Refine your Digital Marketing Strategy Check out our hub page http://bit.ly/smartstrategy Join our Expert members to download digital marketing
with Smart Insights member toolkits. for our free blog articles and planning template. planning templates and our 7 Step guides to digital strategy.
9
ONE
Review the full-range of top-level goals using the 5Ss

rr Q. Top level, broad goals for digital marketing set?
A good management system for Digital Marketing Optimisation covers the full range of
1
relevant measures to help set, review and control performance across all your digital
marketing activities. As we explained in the introduction, it’s best to start with the top-level
goals which are related to the vision before going onto specific objectives. We’ll get into how to
set specific SMART objectives in Step 3, first, let’s explore how Vision, Goals and Objectives
relate. In this step we will consider the 5S goals as a way of setting vision and top-level goals.
Set your vision

Understanding the difference between Vision, Goals, objectives and
KPIs
When developing a performance management system for digital marketing, we suggest you
think about different levels of measurements for setting goals and reviewing performance. For

example, strategists and managers won’t be interested in the full range of analytics KPIs like
business goals
page bounce rates or dwell times – they are interested in the commercial measures. But for
the hands-on marketer reviewing landing pages for an Adwords campaign these bounce rates
and dwell times will be important to getting more from their Adwords budget.
Strategy Recommendation 1 Define different levels of measures for managing digital

marketing activities for a common understanding within an organisation
conversion model
Definitions of Goals, Objectives and KPIs are often hazy within a business since depending
Create a
on previous experience of team members, the terms may change in meaning. For example
sometimes “Goals” are described as SMART, on other occasions “Objectives”, the approach
we prefer. Clear definitions with a hierarchy as shown in the diagram will help.
Create performance
dashboards
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
Let’s look at defining the terms in the chart in more detail. We suggest this hierarchy of
performance management measures, it is particularly relevant for larger organisations, but
smaller business can benefit from these too:
Vision > Goals > Objectives > KPIs > Measures

10
!
Prefixes can help you remember the scope of these:
Long-term Vision > Broad organisational goals > Specific SMART objectives > Performance
driving KPIs
So, vision and goals are long-term statements about the future direction of a business,

objectives and KPIs give specific targets and measures that your goals are measurable and
help review progress towards overall goals. So, businesses should use specific objectives to
measure their success and progress toward their goals. Without them, goals can seem out of 1
reach.
Best Practice Tip 1 Clearly define the relationship between different types of measures
To help common understanding within your company clarify different measure types
Set your vision

through definitions and examples like those in the table and in Step 5.
Here are some definitions to help understanding, more details and an example are given
in the table at the end of this section. You should define similar for your performance
management framework.

business goals
1. Vision. A mid to long term vision to help communicate the transformation needed in a larger
organisation.
What is it? Digital marketing vision

A mid to long-term vision of how digital channels can support the organisation and how
marketing needs to change to compete effectively
conversion model
Create a
2. Goals. Top-level broad goals to show how the business can benefit from digital channels.
What is it? Digital marketing goals

Goals are the broad aims used to shape your digital strategy. They describe how your digital
Create performance
marketing will contribute to the business in key areas of growing sales, communicating with
your audience and saving money.
dashboards
Note that confusingly, goals in Google Analytics Goals are specific quantifiable metrics which
are often used as KPIs and link to specific objectives.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
3. Objectives. Specific SMART objectives to give clear direction and commercial targets
What is it? Digital marketing objectives

Objectives are the SMART targets for digital marketing which can be used to track
performance against target.
Optimise your
performance
4. KPIs. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to check you are on track.
What is it? Digital marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are specific metrics which are used to track performance to make sure you are on track
to meet specific objectives. They are sometimes known as performance drivers or critical
success factors for this reason.

11
!
To summarise these terms describing different measures and give examples we have created
a summary table. This also distinguishes between measures which are individual data
points such as page views which aren’t typically valuable as KPIs and specific ratios such as
revenue per visit which tend to be more useful.

Level of Typical Examples from digital marketing
measurement
characteristics 1
Vision þþ Long-term business aims þþ Broad aims about commercial
þþ Qualitative success or improving customer
experience - see Step 2 for
þþ Aspirational
details
þþ Transformational
Set your vision

Goals þþ Broad, medium-term þþ Increase sales in defined market
aims of business þþ Improve customer satisfaction
þþ Not quantitative þþ Reduce costs if activity

Objectives þþ SMART, i.e. þþ Increase online sales by 20% in
business goals
þþ Quantitative next year
þþ Time-limited þþ Reduce cost of acquisition
for paid media by 5% in next
quarter
CSFs þþ Marketing activities þþ Increasing viral amplification of
conversion model
which support achieving content
objectives
Create a
þþ Reducing churn
þþ Not quantifiable but
linked to KPIs that define
success
KPIs þþ Significant metrics þþ Revenue per visit
Create performance
þþ Quantifiable þþ Repeat customer conversion %
dashboards
þþ Help track performance
to meet business goals
and CSFs
Metrics þþ Quantifiable þþ Revenue per visit, bounce rate
þþ Ratios or þþ Conversion rate Set up tracking
and evaluation
þþ Counts (totals) þþ Customer satisfaction

Measure þþ Individual data points, þþ Page views,
data þþ Visits
þþ Require context for
meaning
Optimise your
performance
The difference between dimensions and metrics

To plan your future use of measures and dashboards, it’s useful to understand the difference
between these terms. It’s also necessary for customising dashboards in services such as
Google Analytics. When consulting, we find these terms help clarify the different ways data will
be broken out in different dashboard views and reports.

12
!
What is it? Dimensions vs Metrics
A metric is a specific measure or KPI that you want to display in a dashboard or report. They
may be strategic measures like revenue or profitability or more tactical measures like bounce
rate or time of visit. A dimension defines how a metric is reported or broken down to show
variation between, for example, different channels, different countries and different time

periods.
Typically, in a table or report, there will be a one or two dimensions and multiple metrics.
Charts tend to just display one or two metrics across a dimension like time. For example, this
simple custom report in Google Analytics has three visitor volume metrics of users, sessions
and page views. These have a dimension of time - here defined in months (which isn’t
Set your vision

available in standard Google Analytics reports).
2

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
This example also has an additional feature of a ‘filter’ which enables the measure to be
restricted to a specific value, in this case organic visits.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance

!
Standard dimensions used in digital marketing
There are some standard dimensions that occur again and again within digital analytics that all
marketers should be familiar with for planning their reporting. Examples include:
Dimensions Examples

Geography þþ Region, country
Time þþ Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year
Medium (Channel) þþ Direct, organic, cpc, email, social
Source þþ Names of website
Campaign þþ Names of campaigns
Category / Product þþ Category and products
Set your vision

Site section or content types þþ Home page, Signpost, product page type(s), Site
search, Product catalogue, Service pages 2
Device type of user þþ Smartphone, vs tablet, vs desktop
þþ Screen resolution
þþ Browser

User types þþ Signed-in, Registered
business goals
Dimensions used in the Smart Insights RACE Dashboard
Do you have a digital marketing dashboard that enables you to easily review how well different
channels are contributing to your goals? We’ve found that although Google Analytics has
conversion model
improved their standard and custom reports over the years, it still didn’t quite give us what we
Create a
need for our monthly performance reviews which look at visits broken out by channels like
organic and paid search, email and social.
To report on channel performance we built our own dashboard in Google Sheets using the
free Google Analytics API plug-in to pull the data through we needed. If you’re looking for
reporting by dimensions of Channel and Time (monthly) then review our members sheet2.
Create performance
dashboards
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
2 Smart Insights: RACE Channel dashboard created in Google Sheets

!
Best Practice Tip 2 Use APIs available from analytics tools to improve visualisation
Our Google Analytics dashboard shows how you can use services like the Google
Analytics API to enable data to be presented from multiple data sources in other services
like Google Sheets, Excel or specialist dashboard software like Tableau.

The trend to use of a single data store
The 360 degree view of the customer has long been an aspiration of businesses, but it has
proved difficult for vendors to deliver on this since data about customer interactions has
grown through time with the growth of digital marketing meaning that many more interactions
with audiences and customers can be recorded on-site and off-site. At the same time, the
number of systems companies use for recording interaction has increased, so increasing the
Set your vision

challenge. Many businesses are now looking to consolidate data from different systems into
a a single system for storing and analysis all interactions through time This is a return to the 2
‘data warehouse’ concept from several years ago.
Strategy Recommendation 2 Larger businesses should consider the use of ‘data

warehouses’ for integrated customer data
business goals
Data warehouses provide a single source for reporting and analysis populated using data
feeds and API from other systems.
A process for goal-setting and optimisation for digital marketing?

A failure to set the right types of goals and define objectives is a common failing in digital
conversion model
marketing, but we believe it’s an essential part of getting the most from digital channels.
Create a
Without goals you’re directionless and a lot less likely to achieve commercial success.
Goal setting isn’t an isolated process, or rather it shouldn’t be if it’s to be effective. Although
digital channels have been called the most measurable ever, they introduce a whole range
of new channels, goals and measures that can make setting objectives and reviewing
Create performance
performance difficult if you’re new to it. This is why we cover objective setting in more depth in
this guide specifically for managers grappling with this option who are looking to get more from
dashboards
online channels.
Through setting specific targets for your online marketing, you can review and adjust your
progress against targets. Without goals in place you can still do digital marketing for sure, but
chances are, you are not making the most of the opportunities and you’ll almost certainly be
wasting your time and money. Set up tracking
and evaluation
Setting the right types of goals will give you a more controlled approach to your digital
marketing. In this guide we’ll show you how to put the right goal-setting and tracking in place
to give you the confidence of a directed, structured digital marketing programme.
Think of the captain of an airliner, they naturally have an ETA, but to achieve this target they
and their team have to make many decisions en-route based on many different measures
collected through different measurement systems around the aircraft.
Optimise your
performance
It’s pointless setting goals, unless you review progress against them. So setting goals requires
thinking about how often you are reviewing against them and taking actions. Although this
might seem like an academic process, it is the engine that should drive your online business.
Introducing the 5S goals for digital marketing

The 5Ss of digital marketing is a good, simple starting point to help check you’re covering the
whole of digital marketing, not just sales!

!
PR Smith, my co-author on Emarketing Excellence developed the 5Ss of digital marketing
around 2000, and although basic they’re still used by many when planning their digital
marketing strategy.
As we run through each of the 5Ss, I’ll show some questions you should be asking in each
area.

5S: Sell – Have we set goals to grow sales?
rr Q. Sales goals set?
Start with the commercial goals for your most important transactions which will lead to specific
objectives for revenue and profit! That’s online sales or sales , or if you don’t sell online, the
leads that your online marketing will deliver that will convert through to sales or donations if
Set your vision

you’re a not-for-profit.
2
Here are some key questions to answer to help increase the quality of your sales goals:
Q. Do we have a conversion model to help define realistic objectives?

rr Q. Conversion model used to calculate realistic targets for goal volume?

business goals
Strategy Recommendation 3 Develop conversion models to set realistic online channel
objectives
Conversion models can help you set realistic goals for online marketing.
A conversion model helps set quantitative targets to hit. Use these spreadsheets we have
conversion model
developed to help set the right goals:
Create a
http://bit.ly/smartdownloads
Q. Have we looked at options to increase sales through expanding our reach?

rr Q. Options to extend reach reviewed?
Often online marketing can focus on selling to existing markets without looking for new op-
Create performance
portunities. Use benchmarking and search demand tools to prove how it’s possible to increase
dashboards
sales beyond your typical customer base.
Q. Have we looked at options to increase sales through conversion enhancements?

rr Q. Options to increase conversion rate possible?
We have said it’s worth looking at how to add more prospects to the top of the funnel, but Set up tracking
and evaluation
there are also opportunities to increase sales through increasing the efficiency of customer
journeys on the site, both at the top of the funnel as they navigate to find relevant services and
further down the funnel in the add-to-basket and checkout processes.
Q. Have we reviewed attribution of different communications channel on the path to

purchase
rr Q. Role of different marketing channels reviewed
Optimise your
performance
If you’re investing a lot, it’s essential to put time into the tricky discussion3 of which channel
gets the credit – last or first referring, or is it weighted? Keep it simple initially and pick one.
Even if you’re not investing so much, you can use free tools like Google Analytics Multichannel
analysis4 and the Modelling Tool to understand your customer journeys. More detail on this are
available in Step 5 of the Google Analytics Guide.
3 To read more about crediting your channels, read our in-depth attribution guide.
4 An introduction to Google Analytics multichannel Social Reports

!
Strategy Recommendation 4 Analyse your customer “path to purchase” to credit channels
and keywords correctly
Use attribution modelling to adjust your investment in the media mix based on which
channels affect first, last and intermediate touchpoints that influence purchase.

More on this in the section on selecting the right mix, but we wanted to flag it up here, since
it’s so important.
Q. Do we have separate sales tracking from existing and new customers?

rr Q. Separate objectives and tracking defined for new and existing customers?
To manage online sales, it’s useful to isolate incremental online sales and new sales.
Set your vision

Keeping incremental sales volume trending right is most important. You can use analytics or
ecommerce sales systems to deliver this insight.
Q. Are both online and offline sales tracked through analytics?

rr Q. Goal types and value defined in analytics?

Many businesses gain sales through offline touchpoints, such as by phone or in-store, if this is
business goals
the case it’s important that measurement systems like phone tracking are put in place to track
these. 3
Q. Define multichannel goals

rr Q. Online channels goals defined as online contribution to offline revenue or profit?
Sales maybe purely online if a product or service can be sold online, but often online research
conversion model
will also prompt offline sales, so it’s important to evaluate this. Many people research
Create a
online and then purchase offline, so it’s key for many companies to think how they use
online channels to influence offline sales. A ROPO analysis as shown in the visual can help
communicate the importance of the different channels.
Strategy Recommendation 3 Ensure your goal-setting reflects channel switching
Create performance
Users switch channels during the purchase process, so make sure you set goals,
dashboards
measures and support these cross-channel behaviours.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
Specific research usually has to be completed to review this impact, such as matchback of

17
!
coupons or customer research surveys. Here’s one example5, showing the importance of
offline purchase (37% of mobile phone contracts after online research).
5S: Speak – Have we set goals to get closer to customers?

rr Q. Communications goals defined?
Digital channels are not only sales channels, they excel as communications channels to
engage your audience.
We recommend creating detailed conversion or budget models which allow you to set targets
by channel for reaching and influencing your audience.
Set your vision

On a website, it’s useful to know how many people are at the top of the funnel who are
searching, and browsing products in different categories. These visitors have engaged with
the site.
Best Practice Tip 4 Don’t forget goals for the top of the website purchase funnel
Set goals for how many visitors search for and engage with products at the top of the

business goals
purchase funnel.
3
Since digital channels work best when joined with other channels, the goals here should also
include online visits prompted by traditional offline media.
5S: Service – Have we set goals for online customer service?
conversion model
rr Q. Are goals set for customer care, service and satisfaction?
Create a
The company website and social customer service sites are a natural place for customers to
go to get their questions answered or to complain. Paying attention to the quality of service
you offer is also key to support your capability to Sell, Speak, Save and Sizzle.
So you need customer satisfaction goals to assess how you good you are at customer service
Create performance
and then improve it further.
dashboards
You can also add value through other types of content.
Give customers extra benefits online, and guide new product development with online
dialogue and feedback6.
Strategy Recommendation 5 Build in feedback mechanisms to your sites Set up tracking

and evaluation
Get feedback on online experience and experience of the brand into your site and then
prioritise and improve.
5S: Save – Have we set cost-saving goals?

rr Q. Goals set around cost savings?
Optimise your
performance
Less glamorous than the sizzle of building your brand and social media engagement, but you
can also show the value you gain through using online cost savings to reduce service costs
and save on traditional media like print and post.
This is most relevant for a multichannel retailer or service company who can set goals for
number of catalogues downloaded or number of service transactions compared to other
5 GFK-Ropo-Vodafone multichannel ROPO study
6 For feedback tools see http://bit.ly/smartfeedback

18
!
channels.
If you’re fighting for budget for online channels, the savings you can demonstrate to your
finance director or budget holder will help your cause.
5S: Sizzle – Are we adding value to our brand online?

rr Q. Goals set for brand engagement and advocacy?
Putting the Sizzle into your digital marketing will really help your sales and speak goals, but it’s
not to easy to set goals for and then to track. So what is the “Sizzle in your Sausage”?
Sizzle is about building your brand online. Think about what makes for a positive online brand
experience for your audience and you.
Set your vision

We have already said it’s important to set goals and track the quality of the experience online,
but you should also check the temperature of your sizzle through how shareable and likeable
your brand is.
Strategy Recommendation 6 Encourage and measure sharing of your brand

Provide tools to support and track viral sharing and recommendations about your brand.

business goals
You will also want to track positive and negative sentiment.
3
If the experience is effective, the benefits of engaging with your digital presence will be clear;
the interactions within the site and with other channels will be smooth and the visitor will want
to use your online services again, and tell their friends and colleagues about it.
conversion model
So key goals here are about levels of satisfaction and recommendations or advocacy. On-line
Create a
fashion retailer ASOS.com have invested heavily in community platforms and social media to
deliver the sizzle!
Create performance
dashboards
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance

19
!
TWO
Define your vision for digital marketing contribution

rr Q. We have a defined vision for the future contribution of our digital marketing channels?
Introduction - the importance of vision setting

We believe that developing a specific vision or mission statement for your digital channels can
really help explain the need for digital channel initiatives within a company. They also show
where the focus of digital marketing activities and investment should be.
You’re probably thinking ‘we’ve already got a corporate mission statement that everyone
Set your vision

pokes fun at, so why would we want to define a vision statement?’ or ‘why should we bother?
It’s too corporate and we’re just a small business, we just get on with selling our products.’
Good questions! But we still think it’s helpful to have a vision for your online marketing or
digital transformation for different types of organisation. We say this since the opportunities
from digital marketing are too big to not have a vision of how you will use digital media in the

future. If you don’t define the opportunity you won’t be able to grasp it because there will be
business goals
too many other distractions.
A good vision statement for your digital marketing activities can help:
þþ Show how digital marketing and digital business can transform your organisation in the
future if you innovate and invest
þþ Show where you need to focus your effort – is it customer experience and service to build
conversion model
loyalty or are you also looking to expand your reach into new markets?
Create a
þþ Energise colleagues by showing the future potential of digital marketing and communicat- 4
ing that it’s a strategic priority through a senior manager or director who is a sponsor of
digital marketing
þþ Set top-level goals without going into detailed KPIs. We’re not talking about mission
Create performance
statements of what your company currently is, instead, a vision is an inspiring, ideal future
dashboards
state. A vision is almost certainly not going to be 100% attainable, but you must feel as if it
is possible.
Strategy Recommendation 7 Define a vision for how digital channels will support your
customer and brand
Provide tools to support and track viral sharing and recommendations about your brand. Set up tracking
and evaluation
You will also want to track positive and negative sentiment.
Let’s look at some examples of inspiring vision statements taken from past US SEC filings for
these companies:
þþ Amazon.com
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people
Optimise your
performance
can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
þþ Dell
Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and
value.
þþ eBay
eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by
opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a local, national and

20
!
international basis through an array of websites that focus on commerce, payments and
communications
þþ Facebook
Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their
friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the

sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world
social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they
know in a trusted environment.
þþ Google
Google’s aim is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and
useful
Note that some of these examples are better described as mission statements and for use
Set your vision

beyond a company. Remember that mission and vision statements are two very different
things and we’re focusing on digital vision statements here. At a corporate strategy level, a
company should have a vision statement, and a mission, and goals by which to achieve these.
The mission is what your company currently is; a vision is an inspiring, ideal future state.

Some examples of vision statements for digital channels
business goals
Here’s a real example of a digital vision statement for a multichannel company.
1x2x3
þþ Largest online audience share (No.1) in Europe by XXXX
þþ By XXXX, 1 in 2 of total sales will be generated on-line
conversion model
þþ 1 in 3 of our people and our customers love our online services and will recommend them
Create a
to a friend
4
þþ 2 in 3 customer service contacts will be electronic by XXXX
You can see this is simple yet specific enough to link to future targets unlike many vague
mission statements.
Create performance
Here’s another example of a vision statement for a retailer which is less specific about goals
dashboards
but emphasises the strategic focus:
“Our digital channels will make it easy for shoppers to find, compare and select products using
a structured approach to merchandising and improving conversion to produce an experience
rated as excellent by the majority of our customers.”
Different aspects of the vision statement can then be expanded upon when discussing with
Set up tracking
and evaluation
colleagues, e.g.
Digital channels = the web site supported by email and mobile messaging
Find = improvements to site search functionality
Compare and select = Using detailed product descriptions, rich media and ratings
Merchandising and improving conversion = Through delivery of automated merchandising
Optimise your
facilities to present relevant offers to maximise conversion and average order value. Addition-
performance
ally, use of structured testing techniques such as AB testing and multivariate testing will be
used.
Experience rated as excellent = We will regularly review customer satisfaction and advocacy
against direct competitors and out-of-sector to drive improvements with the web site
You can see this example focuses on the online experience, but is not so good at highlighting
channel integration.

21
!
What should go into your vision statement?
In their book Strategies for E-business, Professors Jelassi and Enders� suggest that a vision
statement should provide definition of:
þþ Business scope (Where?) Markets including products, customer segments and

geographies where the company wants to compete online.
þþ Unique competencies (How?) A high-level view of how the company will position and dif-
ferentiate itself in terms of e-business products or services.
þþ Values (Why?) This is an emotional element of the vision statement which can indicate
what inspires the organisation or its e-business initiative.
We think you should include these features in your vision statement.
Set your vision

Linking the vision to the 5Ss
If you want to go into more depth showing how your vision of digital channels will contribute
to the business, you can use the 5S for this. Here is an example shared by a Smart Insights
Expert member who we were mentoring was used to communicate from a central digital team
to regional and country marketing teams.

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
5
A vision for optimisation

You can also produce a specific vision for improvement of results. Here is the journey Dell
have followed in their quest to improve their online marketing7: Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
7 Dell Web Analytics case study - Smart Insights

!
Set your vision
Dell have defined a specific vision for their optimisation programme as well as the contribution
for Dell.com.

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Using a simple summary of your vision statement
To help communicate the changes a business needs to make in it’s processes we’ve
commonly seen and recommend a one sentence call-to-action as shown on the next page.
Create performance
Best Practice Tip 5 Create a one-line Call-to-Action for digital transformation
dashboards
Examples we have seen: 5
þþ ‘Digital by Default’
þþ Digital DNA
þþ Digital First
Set up tracking
and evaluation
þþ Digital by Design
þþ Digital 1X2X3
Here’s a visual summary for ASOS.com.
Optimise your
performance

!
Checklist – essential features of a vision statement
rr 1. Shows how digital channels will help the customer. What value will you provide?
rr 2. Shows the benefit to the company in terms of efficiencies or profitability
rr 3. Link vision to specific goals in the future?

rr 4. Is inspirational?
rr 5. Is there a simple and memorable version?
Set your vision

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
5
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance

!
THREE
Align your business and marketing goals with
specific SMART objectives

Introduction to setting SMART objectives
rr Q. Our digital marketing strategy aligns with business strategy?
The reasons for this step are straightforward; your goals for digital should support your wider
marketing strategies.
Set your vision

We recommend this template featured in our strategy toolkit as an efficient way to ensure
linkage between goals, the situation analysis used to inform them; the strategy to implement
them and the KPIs used to track performance towards targets. It’s effectively a one-page
summary of a digital marketing strategy.
To really get the most from your digital marketing, SMART objectives are essential. The

examples of goals in the previous section are all SMART.
business goals
Best Practice Tip 6 Use Smart Goals
Ensure your goals are SMART since this helps you set targets and check their achieved
through your analytics and reporting systems.
conversion model
The Smart mnemonic is well known and for good reason, it stops vague aims. The most
Create a
important features are to have numerical goals which are tied to a time frame.
For us, the main SMART means:
þþ Specific – Make sure the goal targets relates to real-world problems and opportunities of
customer acquisition or retention?
Create performance
þþ Measurable – Be sure to use a quantitative attribute be applied to create a metric which is
dashboards
tracked against target.**
5
þþ Actionable – Ensure the goal can inform improvements. If the objective can’t be used by
staff to help them improve performance, there is little point in it!
þþ Relevant – Again the goal isn’t valuable if it doesn’t relate to marketing activities.
þþ Time-related – Targets have to be limited by time to be useful. Decide whether monthly, Set up tracking
and evaluation
weekly or even daily targets are appropriate to improve performance.

The Wikipedia definition of SMART is helpful in showing that there are lots of alternatives
including the SMARTER acronym. Take your pick, build your own!
Optimise your
performance

!
Examples of SMART objectives aligned with strategies
Here are some examples of how objectives can be linked to strategies and KPIs:
Objectives Substantiation Strategies to achieve KPIs (critical success
(informed by situation goals factors)
analysis or insight)

1. Reach objective. Growth forecast based on Start affiliate marketing Overall CPA for online sales.
Acquire 50,000 new current sales of 40,000 sales programme and improve SEO. Incremental number and % of
online customers per year, but with incremental Existing media mix based sales from affiliate marketing
this financial year at sales arising from new on pay-per-click and display programme Number of
an average cost per affiliate programme and SEO advertising supported by strategic keywords ranked
acquisition (CPA) of development offline media for in top positions in natural
£30 with an average search results page
Set your vision

profitability of 5%
2. Acquisition (or Extrapolation of current Direct marketing campaign Number and percentage of
conversion) objective. natural migration coupled with using direct mail, phone existing customers registering
Migrate 40% of existing increased adoption from offline prompts and online persuasion to use online service Number
customers to using direct marketing campaign to encourage adoption. Use of and percentage of customers

online ‘paperless’ bill incentive to encourage change actively using online services
business goals
payment services and at different points after initially
e-mail communications registering
within 3 years
3. Conversion Growth estimated based on Use of new merchandising % of site visitors responding to
objective. Increase the current AOV of £35 plus model system to show users related merchandising / cross-selling
average order value of suggesting 20% increase in ‘next best product’ for different messages
conversion model
online sales to £42 per AOV product categories
Create a
customer
4. Conversion Model showing separate Combination of strategies: Variations in conversion rates
objective. Increase site increase in conversion for new rr Incentivized e-mail for new and existing customers
conversion rate to 3.2% and existing customers based follow-up on checkout aban- in different product categories
on strategies shown on the donments for new customers
Create performance
right rr Introduction of more
dashboards
competitive pricing strategy on
best sellers 5
rr AB and multivariate
messaging improvement of
landing pages
rr Refinement to quality of
Set up tracking
and evaluation
traffic purchased through pay-
per-click programme
5. Retention objective. Business case based on rr Delivery of personalized rr Increased conversion rate
Increase annual limited personalization of offers product offers by e-mail of retention e-mail contact
programme
repeat new customer to encourage repeat purchases rr 5% second purchase
conversion rate by 20% via e-mail. discount voucher rr Conversion to sale for
second purchase discount
campaigns
Optimise your
performance
6. Growth objective. Model based on encouraging Supported by direct mail rr Response rate to direct
Increase new prospects 2% of customers to and e-mail recommendation mail campaign
recommended by recommend friends annually programme

friends (viral marketing (based on trial scheme)
or ‘member get
member’) by 10,000
per annum

!
The next table is for reference when you are selecting and defining relevant goal, objectives
and KPIs, it summarises potential goals and specific objectives and KPIs across the RACE
planning framework and 5Ss.

RACE goal Goal KPI Specific objective
and KPI target for
category Metric
specific time period
Year/Quarter/Month
Reach Increase site visits Unique visitors 200,000
Set your vision

5S: Speak Increase brand mentions Social media brand 40,000
mentions
Increase brand search Brand searches 30,000
Act Improve audience Bounce rate 55%
engagement (new visit
5S: Speak Pages per visit 3
segment)

business goals
Improve social media Combined shares/follows 2,500
interactions across social networks
Improve lead conversion Lead conversion rate 4.3%
Convert Increase online sales Sales 200
5S: Sale Improve sales conversion Sale conversion rate 2.3%
(% of visits)
conversion model
5S: Save
Improve average order Average order value €£$90
Create a
value / selling price
Improve profitability Average margin 35%
Reduce Acquisition cost Cost per acquisition (CPA) €£$90
Improve offline sales Offline referred sales 4%
Create performance
impact of online (% of visits)
dashboards
Engage Improve customer Customer conversion rate 5.2%
conversion 5
5S: Speak
Improve loyalty Customer churn rate 24%
5S: Sale
Improve satisfaction Net Promoter Score 80%
5S: Serve Improve customer service Resolution time
Set up tracking
and evaluation
5S: Save Improve advocacy Brand mentions in social 12,000
media
5S: Sizzle
Making sure digital strategy impacts business strategy

rr Opportunities for digital marketing to impact on business strategy reviewed?
Although we have said alignment is important, it’s also important to think through options to
Optimise your
performance
impact business strategy through digital marketing. How can digital channels be used to do
things differently like target new audiences (market development) and offer new services
(product or service) development?

!
FOUR
Create a conversion model

rr Q. Have we created SMART objectives based on a conversion model?
Setting realistic objectives with conversion budget models

rr Q. Goals checked for realism with a conversion model?
To check goals are realistic, conversion budget models are an essential approach, particularly
for transactional businesses.
Set your vision

Use our spreadsheet templates for these. See the ‘Read me’ on the spreadsheet or drop us a
line if you’d like more information on how to set these up.

business goals
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
5
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Bear in mind the limitation of this technique which is a “last click” model. It will not take into
account where channels have influenced digital sales earlier in the relationship.
Our Acquisition budgeting spreadsheet for Expert members gives a more sophisticated
technique for goal-setting at a monthly level8.
Optimise your
performance
8 Smart Insights resource: Acquisition budgeting spreadsheet

!
FIVE
Define performance dashboards

rr Q. Create performance dashboards based on a measurement framework?
Measurement frameworks are essential to give you focus – rather than reviewing hundreds of
measures you can just focus on top-level performance measures that are critical to improve
performance.
Strategy Recommendation 8 Define the right measurement framework and dashboards

You can’t measure everything, far from it! So define the measures and KPIs that you can
Set your vision

review regularly to really drive your business and develop an automated method of reporting
via dashboards.
This should be simplified to a dashboard to limit the information that needs to be reviewed to
the “critical few” “measures that matter”. Here are a few of the specific issues to review:

business goals
rr Q. We have a defined measurement framework to review and take action?
rr Q. Our KPIs are aligned to business success?
rr Q. The dependencies between KPIs is clear?
rr Q. Individuals are responsible for KPIs?
conversion model
rr Q. Measures can be distributed in reviewed in a top-level report or dashboard?
Create a
In a moment we’ll look at three examples of a performance management framework. But first
let’s look at how you check your KPIs are effective.
Select the right KPIs for dashboards

We’re certainly not short of measures to use when we look to improve results from our
Create performance
marketing activities! Indeed, the range of potential measures can seem overwhelming. So, to
dashboards
use insight to manage and control these activities we have to be quite clear on the measures 5
that REALLY matter for different activities.
Best Practice Tip 7 Select the measurements that really matter for dashboards
Review the available measures and then simplify to dashboards to limit the information that
Set up tracking
and evaluation
needs to be reviewed to the “critical few” “measures that matter”.
In this section we will look at different tests or filters that you can apply to select the most rel-
evant KPIs for your dashboards.
To help simplify it’s useful to distinguish between performance metrics used to evaluate
and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing process and key performance
Optimise your
performance
indicators (KPIs). As we have noted, efficiency refers to how well the process makes use of
its resources and effectiveness refers to whether the process is meeting its goals.
What makes for an effective KPI?

The diagram below shows that for KPIs to be useful they have to help support the business,
i.e. marketing or digital marketing goals must be aligned to business goals. The KPIs must
also be owned by individuals or who can will own them and look to adjust activities to create

!
the right goals. Here’s how they relate:

Set your vision
business goals
conversion model
When creating performance improvement dashboards it’s useful to look hard at each measure
Create a
and ask “is it essential”. A useful series of 10 tests outlined by Andy Neely are defined below.
Ask these questions for your KPIs as you develop them.
The Ten Measures Design Tests
þþ The truth test. Are we really measuring what we set out to measure?
Create performance
þþ The focus test. Are we only measuring what we set out to measure?
dashboards
þþ The relevancy test. Is it the right measure of the performance measure we want to track?
5
þþ The consistency test. Will the data always be collected in the same way whoever
measures it?
þþ The access test. Is it easy to locate and capture the data needed to make the
measurement?
Set up tracking
and evaluation
þþ The clarity test. Is any ambiguity possible in interpreting the results?
þþ The so-what test. Can and will the data be acted upon, i.e. is it actionable?
þþ The timeliness test. Can the data be accessed rapidly and frequently enough for action?
þþ The cost test. Is the measure worth the cost of measurement?
þþ The gaming test. Is the measure likely to encourage undesirable or inappropriate
behaviours?
Optimise your
performance
Using VQVC to check you’re using the right digital marketing KPIs
As a starting point for creating a dashboard for digital marketing activity based on Google
Analytics or another digital analytics system, consider the VQVC measures.

!
Best Practice Tip 8 Have you customised your analytics to report VQVC KPIs?
By using the Volume-Value-Quality-Cost measures you can check you have a balanced set
of measures in a dashboard. There is a tendency to focus on Volume, but it’s Quality, Value
and Cost that really matter. You should also segment these KPIs by referral channel.

VQVC defines four types of measures that you should review within your analytics:
rr 1. Traffic volume measures. Google Analytics is great at showing these simple measures
of what we often call “traffic”. You will see these in the standard audience overview report.
Key Measures include:
þþ Unique visits - the number of individuals who visit the site in the specified period.
Set your vision

þþ Visits - the total number of times the site was accessed by different individuals.
þþ Pageviews - the total number of pages viewed by individuals.
rr 2. Quality measures. For meaningful use of analytics to improve digital marketing it’s
essential to go beyond volume measures to understand the quality of traffic on the site.

The reason? It’s really challenging to deliver relevance to web users, they’re impatient
business goals
if the content, design and experience doesn’t match their intent as they search for a
product or service, or their expectations based on visits to other sites. These traffic quality
measures give an indication of how a visitor has engaged with a site, these examples of
site engagement benchmarks show typical range for these metrics.
þþ Bounce rate - The percentage of visitors who leave immediately after viewing only one
conversion model
page. Generally, unless they’re on the site for specific information such as a support
Create a
question, a high bounce rate is a sign of poor quality traffic and/or experience.
þþ Duration - The dwell time - measured as Average Time on Page or Average time on site.
þþ Pages per visit - I find this more useful than dwell time since it gives you an idea of
how many pages your visitor views on average. It’s opportunities for a marketer to
communicate their messages.
Create performance
þþ Conversion rates to lead and sale. These are the most important of the quality measures
dashboards
since they show what proportion of visits convert to commercial outcomes. 5
While these don’t vary much from one week to the next unless there is a big change to the
content or design of a site, they become really important to review for different site visitor
segments. For example, if you’re paying for Google AdWords and your bounce rate for this
traffic source is 90%, then you’re not getting great value from your ad investment. If you’re Set up tracking
and evaluation
involved in managing search day-to-day you will know this, but if you review search marketing
with an agency or team, you do need to get into how traffic quality varies for different types of
search marketing. But yet still more important are…
rr 3. Value measures. Value shows the communications effectiveness and commercial
contribution of our digital marketing to a business. Here we’re looking for outcomes which
show intent to purchase or purchase itself. For an Ecommerce site this is straightforward,
Optimise your
we can look at measures like sales transactions and average order value. However, it’s
performance
less obvious for the many non-transactional sites, like many B2B sites. Here it’s necessary
to setup goals for customised for the business in Google Analytics for when user actions
are completed for qualified leads. Taking the example of a brochure or whitepaper
download, you specify the thank you page address, give the goal a name and your goal
is set up. Many will do this, but often not set a value against it based on the conversion
of brochure download to sale and their average order value. Since it’s so crucial to have
Goals customised for a business I have inserted an example. Most agencies will get this

!
right as part of their onboarding for new clients, but many businesses still don’t have this
right I find.
Once you have Ecommerce or Goal tracking setup you can then use these Value measures.
It’s vital to review these if you’re serious about improving marketing effectiveness by seeing
which online campaigns and site pages are working best for you in terms of value rather than

visits and those that aren’t.
þþ Goal value per visit. If you assign a value to a goal such as a download, you can then
compare how different visitor sources contribute value to the site. For example, how does
social media marketing compare to Email, is LinkedIn more or less valuable than Twitter -
this is very powerful for checking your marketing investments.
þþ Revenue per visit. For sites with Ecommerce tracking, Google will report Revenue per visit
Set your vision

which enables you perform similar analysis to that for goal value.
þþ Page value. If you review this measure for your pages you can work back to see which
pages are prompting the creation of value enabling you to improve customer journeys and
messaging.
rr 4. Cost measures. Cost measures are historically limited in Google Analytics, although

you can now import Google AdWords costs and using Google’s new Universal Analytics
business goals
you can import information about product costs.
Here’s a summary of some of the key VQVC measures.
Volume KPIs Quality KPIs Value KPIs Cost KPIs

þþ nVisits þþ Bounce rate þþ Total revenue þþ Cost per click, cost
conversion model
þþ nNewsletter þþ Time on site þþ Average order per sales, e.g.
from AdWords
Create a
signups þþ Average page value
þþ nContent views þþ Revenue per visits
shares þþ % visitors sharing þþ Value from non-E-
þþ n new and content commerce goals,
returning þþ Conversion rate e.g. Newsletter
Create performance
visitors (visits to order) signup, Leads
dashboards
þþ n mobile and þþ Conversion rate þþ Margin % for 5
desktop visitors (baskets to order) Ecommerce site
þþ Conversion rate
(bounces filtered)
þþ Conversion rate to Set up tracking
and evaluation
offline sales
The VQVC checklist is mainly related to a dashboard for traffic to a site, so it can’t cover
everything like satisfaction, so here’s an additional checklist to consider. You also need to
check you have the right range of digital marketing KPIs. We think these include all the types
Optimise your
performance
of measures you potentially need. You’ll see many of these metrics in the frameworks in the
next section.
Checklist - the range of measures for digital marketing dashboards
rr Commercial measures: Revenue, different cost types, profit and margin.
rr Contact volume and reach measures: Number of prospects, customers, site visitors,
fans, followers and subscribers
rr Quality of interaction measures: Bounce and conversion rates, engagement measures,

!
and hurdle rates9
rr Media cost measures: Cost per click, Cost per thousand, Cost per acquisition
rr Revenue measures: Average order value, revenue per visit or contact
rr Customer sentiment measures: Customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score10, Sentiment

or polarity from social listening
rr Long-term relationship measures: Lifetime value, Loyalty measures and hurdle rates
rr Multi-channel measures: channel influences, e.g. sales generated offline from online
presence and offline from online presence
rr Media type measures: breaking down performance by media type of paid, owned, earned
as described in the digital marketing strategy guide
Set your vision

rr Brand measures: Awareness, Familiarity, Favourability, Purchase intent
What are the dependencies of KPIs?

Another practical question to ask as you develop KPIs is how the KPIs inter-relate. This helps
show alignment with business goals. Here is a great example showing how measures for

an online retailer must be related back to value generated as profits based on the revenue
business goals
generated and the costs to generate this.**
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
5
Set up tracking
and evaluation
KPIs for an online retailer. Source: eCommera (www.ecommera.com)
Three objective setting and performance improvement frameworks

for you to modify
We have found that still, many companies don’t have a clear objective setting and reporting
Optimise your
system summarized as digital marketing dashboards. But there seems to be a hunger to

performance
create and use these.

There isn’t a “one-size fits all” dashboard, so in this section we present three alternative
frameworks since we have found that different frameworks will work best in different
companies of different types and sizes.
9 Hurdle rate definition

10 Net Promoter Score

!
So you will probably want to develop your own framework which takes different elements of
these approaches, so we have provided these in template form for different types of organisa-
tion.
Objective setting and reporting framework 1 Web Insights

This is the simplest framework and as such may work best in a smaller company. It was
developed by Dave Chaffey way back in 2000, but can still be applied to digital marketing
today. It starts by considering the commercial contribution of online marketing to a business
based on the marketing outcomes or online goals delivered. Site now refers to a range of
platforms including web site, mobile sites and social network presence.
Here is a summary of the Web Insights framework
Set your vision

business goals
conversion model
Create a
1 Business contribution
These are effectiveness measures comparing the performance of the online channel with
other channels. Examples:
q Online revenue contribution (€, %) – direct and indirect (i.e. transacted online and
Create performance
referred online from offline)
dashboards
q Online profit contribution (€, %) – Profit contribution to the company in the period 5
q Online sales transaction contribution (n, %) – direct and indirect (% sales online
may differ considerably from % revenue or profit contribution if there is a different
average order value or profitability online).
q Online service transaction contribution (n, %, €) – what percentage of different Set up tracking
and evaluation
types of customer service occur online. Cost savings can be calculated for these also.
q Online reach % – Share of online users attracted to the site in an industry category in
a week or month assessed by services such as Hitwise or Netratings. Strictly, reach
should be assessed through reaching customers via third party sites.
q Online market share – % of online market revenue captured in comparison with
Optimise your
offline. This is difficult to establish in some markets, dependent on industry collabora-

performance
tion.
q Online customer migration – % of existing customers using online services
2 Marketing outcomes
q Sales (n, €) (If relevant)
q Leads (n) (registrations or other opportunities to sell)

!
q Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – Promotional cost of obtaining a first time sale
q Other costs – Cost of goods sold and average margin. Cost of service.
q Average order value (Basket size)
q Lifetime value (€) for different customer groups

q Average touch frequency – for example, for e-mail marketing
3 Customer satisfaction
q Customer satisfaction index
q Number of comments from site and e-mail (% favourable and unfavourable)
q Brand metrics (brand favourability)
Set your vision

q Site performance and availability
q E-mail enquiry response time and accuracy
4 Customer behaviour on different platforms

q Site engagement rates (Bounce rates overall and for different pages)

business goals
q Site conversion rates (Visit to Sale, Visit to Opportunity and Opportunity to Sale)
q E-mail conversion rates (Newsletter and campaign related)
q Visits involving a page view in different categories (Product pages, Service pages,
Where to Buy, Contact Us). Visits / customers can be scored according to this.
q Visits to purchase/Time to purchase – indication of number of visits involved with
conversion model
purchase
Create a
q Number of products purchased per customer
q Transaction behaviour (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value analysis for different
categories and customer types). RF analysis also relevant for site visits, e-mail
response and different service types.
Create performance
q Activity or participation levels (Percentage of customer base / registrations who are
dashboards
actively using online service(s)). nActivated, nActive, nDormant, nLapsed, etc 5
q Loyalty or churn metrics (% of customers repeat purchasing in given time, e.g. 1
year)
5 Site or platform promotion Set up tracking

and evaluation
q Referrer mix from different sources (direct, search, affiliates, etc)

q Share of search (main terms within market)
q Cost Per Click (Visitors) average and CPM average for online ads
Optimise your
performance

!
Objective setting and reporting framework 2: RACE online lifecycle
performance driver grid
This next approach is powerful since in the columns it effectively isolates, the key areas of
customer acquisition, conversion and retention for which different organisational units (people
or teams) are responsible. Retention is an area that often seems to receive insufficient focus,

this tool helps to identify its importance.
In the rows of the table, it isolates more detailed metrics which drive performance from the
Customer-centric KPIs and Business value KPIs, so it identifies the measures that really
matter or “Key Key Performance Indicators” (KKPIs) at the bottom of the matrix. More senior
managers will review the performance drivers at the bottom of the grid.
This Acquisition, Conversion, Retention approach is adapted from an approach taught by Neil
Set your vision

Mason when I was tutoring on the IDM Diploma. You can see it is most practical to use in a
larger organisation with different tiers of management needing access to different KPIs.
Metric Reach Encourage Convert Engage

audience Action and Leads to Sale customers to

Retain & Grow
business goals
Tracking rr Unique visitors rr Online opportunity rr Online sales volume rr E-mail list quality
metrics (lead) volume
rr New visitors rr Offline sales volume rr E-mail response
(Digital rr Offline opportunity (online influenced) quality
rr Visits
specialists) (lead) volume
rr Transactions
rr Conversation (online influenced)
volume
conversion model
Create a
Performance rr Share of audience rr Bounce rate and rr Conversion rate to rr Active customers
drivers compared to duration measures Sale % (site & e-mail
(diagnostics) competitors active)
rr Macro-conversion rr E-mail conversion
(Digital rr Share of search rate to opportunity rate rr Active social
managers) and followers
Create performance
rr Brand / direct visits
micro-conversion
rr Repeat conversion
dashboards
efficiency
rate
5
Customer rr Cost per Click and rr Cost per rr Cost per Sale rr Lifetime value
Centric per Sale Opportunity
rr Customer satisfaction rr Customer loyalty
KPIs
rr Brand awareness rr Customer index
satisfaction
(Brand and rr Conversation rr Customer
Product Polarity (sentiment) advocacy index Set up tracking
and evaluation
managers)
rr Products per
customer
Business rr Audience share rr Goal value per rr Revenue per visit rr Retained sales
Value visit growth and volume
rr Share of conversa- rr Online originated
KPIs
tions rr Online product sales revenue and profit rr Revenue per 1000
(Business requests (n, £, % of total) emails sent
Optimise your
managers) (n, £, % of total)

performance

!
Objective setting and reporting framework 3: Balanced scorecard
This approach takes similar types of measures from the previous approach and groups them
according to the four areas of the balanced business scorecard. It’s particularly useful in
companies that are already using this framework for more general business or marketing
performance review. The Innovation and Learning category will often identify internal

measures and measures of development, while the other types of measures are self-explana-
tory.
We have included this framework to stress the importance of including both efficiency and ef-
fectiveness measures in your measurement approach:
rr Q. Our measurement framework includes the right efficiency measures?
rr Q. Our measurement framework includes the right effectiveness measures?
Set your vision

It is useful to identify efficiency and effectiveness measures separately, since often, online
marketing and web analytics tend to concentrate on efficiency.
Simply put, Efficiency is ‘Doing the thing right’ and Effectiveness is ‘Doing the right thing’. For
example, efficiency involves increasing conversion rates and reducing costs of acquisition. Ef-

fectiveness involves supporting broader marketing objectives and often indicates the contribu-
business goals
tion of the online channel.
Here is the template:
Balanced scorecard Efficiency Effectiveness
Sector
conversion model
Financial q Profitability q Online contribution
(direct)
Create a
q Margin
q Online contribution
(indirect)
q Profit contributed
Customer
Create performance
q Online reach q Sales
dashboards
q Cost of Acquisition q New customers
(CPA / CPS) 5
q Online market share
q Database/E-mail list
q Customer satisfaction
quality
ratings
Operational q Conversion rates q Fulfilment times Set up tracking
and evaluation
q Average order value q Support response times

q List size and quality
q E-mail active %
Innovation and q Novel approaches q Novel approaches
Learning tested deployed
Optimise your
performance
q Internal education q Performance appraisal

review
q Internal satisfaction
ratings

!
SIX
Set up tracking and evaluation

rr Q. Setup tracking and evaluation to create dashboard?
For our digital marketing objectives to be tracked, we have to make sure that they are tracked
accurately as outcomes using an analytics systems. In this section we will introduce how to
measure and report upon objectives for different types of sites using Google Analytics, the
web analytics system used by the majority of companies.
We’ll look at Google Analytics setup separately for transactional sites which need Ecommerce
Set your vision

tracking setup and other types of sites which don’t have a checkout or application process
where we need to setup goals.
This summary is taken from the introduction to our Google Analytics 7 Step Guide.
rr Q. Have goals and funnels been setup to track business contribution?
Goal-tracking for e-commerce sites

business goals
If you’re running an e-commerce site, then the tracking of sales transactions in Google
Analytics is almost always setup by the e-commerce provider, although there are often
teething problems with accuracy or managing international sites.
If you need to know about e-commerce tracking this is the relevant GA help page� or feel free
to ask questions online.
conversion model
For an e-commerce site, your main site goal is simple, it’s to achieve a sale registered through
Create a
the checkout completion page. But that’s only the end of the funnel process, so you also need
goals for other points in the funnel, for example:
þþ Category/list pages.
þþ Browse products.
Create performance
þþ Search products.
dashboards
þþ Add-to-basket.
5
þþ Start checkout.
þþ Individual checkout steps.
These are sometimes known as micro-conversion steps.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
What is it? Micro-conversion
An intermediate step on the path to purchase. Through improving micro-conversion rates
we increase overall conversion rates.
The graphic on the next page shows steps at different levels in the funnel:
Optimise your
performance

!
Set your vision
Strategy Recommendation 9 Set up micro and macro-conversion goals for the full funnel
It should be possible to view micro-conversions at the top of the funnel, i.e. what proportion
of visitors view and interact with category, product and search pages as well as the more

obvious bottom of the funnel macro-conversions, i.e. add to basket/cart and checkout.
business goals
In previous version of Classic Analytics it was possible to structure your goals clearly in
different groups to show different parts of the funnel as with this example:
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
5
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Optimise your
performance
Structuring of goals in this way is not practical within the new analytics since new goals are
added in sequence and automatically applied to groups. However, it is possible to add some
structure through custom reports to create “horizontal visualisation” of funnels.

!
Best Practice Tip 5 Use a custom report to review funnel steps horizontally
A custom report can be created where you each funnel step as a column with each row
showing how many in each funnel step for a week or month or different traffic sources.

Set your vision
business goals
Goal-tracking for non-e-commerce sites
For non-e-commerce sites it’s more difficult to think of different goal types. So often we see
that they’re not set up when we review client accounts. However, a goal is simply a record
of a page you specify being viewed or a button being clicked which shows that a visitor has
engaged with your website showing interest in your products and services.
conversion model
In the examples below you will see that goals can and should be set for all types of site,
including non-e-commerce sites. Tick off and then set up the ones which apply to you but that
Create a
you don’t already have set up.
Strategy Recommendation 10 Goals should be setup for all site types

Visits to page types which indicate a visitor has engaged with your site (or brand) and
Create performance
progressed along the path to purchase should be setup for all types of site.
dashboards
5
Q. Why do I need to setup goals in Google Analytics?
All sites should have some kind of measurable purpose or outcome; in most cases goals
are used to track these outcomes. We often find that goals aren’t set up in Google Analytics
because they require some configuration. Because of this some time will need to be invested Set up tracking
and evaluation
to set them up and get them working. How do you justify this?
Setting up goals in Google Analytics is indispensable for any business looking to get the most
from their digital marketing because with them you can:
þþ Go beyond measuring visits and start measuring events on the site that show how, and the
degree to which, customers have engaged with your business.
Optimise your
performance
þþ Track the value that the site is generating for your business via these events.
þþ See which traffic sources you’ve invested marketing in give rise to these goals.
þþ Review which content types and customer journeys on the site are helping achieve the
goals.
Q. Which types of goals can we use?

Different goal types to consider, as shown in the example above, are prompted by these
questions:

!
Q. Do we have goals for lead-generation and email communications?
rr Q. Contact Us or phone call-back thank you page goal?
rr Q. Lead-generation thank you page goal?
rr Q. Goals for content marketing pages which generate leads, e.g. whitepapers, guides?

Q. Do we have site engagement goals?
rr Q. Time on site engagement goals?
rr Q. Pages viewed engagement goals?
These is a special class of Google Analytics goal where you can set ‘hurdle rates’ for
engagement.
Set your vision

Best Practice Tip 6 Set hurdle rates for engagement
Hurdle rates are the proportion of customers or prospects that fall within a particular level
of activity. For example, the percentage of members of an e-mail list that click on the e-mail
within a 90-day period, or the number of customers that have made a second purchase.

business goals
Q. Do we have top of funnel product engagement goals?
If you can encourage site visitors to view product-related pages they’re closer to buying, so
you should assess the success of the site in getting visitors to these types of goals:
rr Q. Product search page viewed?
rr Q. Category page viewed?
conversion model
Create a
rr Q. Product page viewed?
How easy it is to set these up will depend upon the URL structure used as part of the site’s
specification. As an example, if product pages include /product_id or products they will be
relatively easy to identify within a goal.
Create performance
Q. Do we have checkout process goals?
dashboards
The need for goals for checkout may be obvious but are often not setup since e-commerce
5
sales can be tracked without goals being setup. But goals are essential to create a purchase
funnel.
rr Q. Add-to-basket goal?
rr Q. Start checkout goal? Set up tracking
and evaluation
rr Q. Intermediate steps as part of checkout process, e.g. credit card payment?

rr Q. Checkout complete goal?
For some types of goals where there isn’t a separate web page Google Analytics Events11 or
virtual page views need to be setup and goals can be assigned to these. More details, if you
need them, in Step 6.
Optimise your
performance
Q. Do we have social engagement or participation goals?

Encouraging participation helps develop social proof to new visitors that you’re a credible
brand to do business with. Goals in this category to set or track include:
rr Blog comments.
rr Product comments, reviews and ratings.
11 Smart Insights: Google Analytics Event tracking and Event Goals.

!
rr
rr Favouriting or sharing of pages through social bookmarking.
rr Sharing content or linking through to social presence like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Q. Do we have content engagement goals?

Video is a powerful tool that is increasingly being used to support the sales and marketing
message. Event tracking can be used to measure interaction with key areas of content
such as video. Goals can also be set up to track events which in turn may be set up to track
interaction with video content such as Start, Stop or Pause a video which has a bespoke
player.
Q. Have we included offline events?
Set your vision

rr Q. Have offline events been included?
Up to this point, we have reviewed online events. But don’t forget value events such as sales
generated by phone numbers. You should aim to track these through using unique phone
numbers, perhaps for different parts of the site.

business goals
Best Practice Tip 7 Track offline sales
Remember to take into account telephone sales influenced by the website when assessing
a site’s contribution to a business.
Q. Have we assigned value to our goals?

rr Q. Has a value been assigned to goals?
conversion model
Create a
Once you have worked out which are the best goals for you, the next step is to assign a
monetary value to them. As we’ll see in the next section, if you set a value you’ll then be able
to report the value your site is generating to your colleagues, even if it’s a non-commercial
site!
You’ll also be able to compare how good your different traffic sources or pages are at
Create performance
generating value so you can boost the good value sources and fix the poor ones.
dashboards
Setting the precise value is difficult, but it’s not that important for comparing relative value. 5
The best way to set a value is to work back from a business event which you can put a value
on. For example, if you’re looking to set a value for ‘Add-to-Basket’, you know that the average
order value is £100 and that if conversion from Add-to-Basket to Sale is 10 percent, then you
would set the ‘Add-to-Basket’ conversion goal at £10. Set up tracking
and evaluation
Similarly, if you’re setting a value event for a lead such as a brochure or PDF download and
you know the value of each lead on average is £100, then set this at that level.
If you’re not sure what value to set, as with an enewsletter signup, then we recommend setting
it to a nominal value of £1 if you want to include that in a value calculation, but you may not in
this case since you can’t really attribute it to business value.
Optimise your
performance
Customisation instructions – assigning value to your conversion goals

Detailed instructions on setting up goals showing screenshots are available in Step 1 of the
Google Analytics 7 Step Guide.

!
SEVEN
Creating a Digital Marketing Optimization process

rr Q. Do we have the right processes, people and measures in
place to improve performance?
Introduction to creating an Optimization process

This final step is brief since it builds on the introduction to Digital Marketing Optimization at the
start of this report. We have talked a lot about putting the measures in place and the tools to
collect them, but it’s the people that really matter to take the actions you need!
Set your vision

Strategy Recommendation 6 Invest sufficient time in the people, process and tools
to support performance improvement
If you don’t invest sufficiently in the supporting processes and people your careful specifi-
cation of goals and objectives will have been pointless. So make sure you put in place the

right approaches to review and take action depending on your numbers.
business goals
Avinash Kaushik, the web evangelist at Google highlighted this well when he famously said:
“If you have $100 to make smart decisions on the web, invest $10 in tools, spend $90 on
people. This is the 10/90 rule.”
conversion model
Create a
Create performance
dashboards
These are classic problems of a broken improvement process, do you recognise any?
Set up tracking
þþ You have your site tagged for analytics, but no one has time to log-in
and evaluation
þþ You create reports which are circulated, but they are ignored
þþ You just look at the top-level dashboards, but don’t drill-down
þþ Your review of the analytics involves WILFING (“What was I looking for”)
þþ Review meetings looking at analytics reports don’t lead to actions
The diagram introducing this section shows what we think you need in place to take the action
Optimise your
performance
your business needs:

7
þþ The right performance improvement measures?
þþ The right supporting tools?
þþ Are measures reviewed at the right time?
þþ Are the measures acted upon?

!
Frequency of review and involvement
In a larger company there is the big issue of who? reviews which? digital marketing
measures when?
þþ Have we defined the frequency of measurement review and action?
þþ Have we defined the frequency of measure review?

This grid is used in conjunction with the measurement frameworks in the previous
section to decide who should review which measure and when.
This example of a review summary is for the WebInsights framework we introduced
earlier.
How often should control reviews occur?
Set your vision

Who is involved in review and action?
Metrics Hour Day Week Month Quarter Relaunch
category
1 Business Senior
contribution
Mgt team

business goals
2 Marketing Sales
outcomes
3 Customer Availability/ On-site E-mail
satisfaction survey
Performance feedback
4 Customer Conversion
conversion model
behaviour Rates
Create a
5 Site PPC SEO Affiliates
(Network)
Promotion (Agency)
In the introduction to this guide we showed a recommended process for creating an
Create performance
optimisation programme which involves structured tests to improve different parts of a
dashboards
website. This will help enforce continuous improvement too.
This section is brief since we have other, more detailed guidance and tools on running
structured experiments - we recommend you start with the CRO optimisation guide
which explains the people, process and tools needed to start structured experiments.
Set up tracking
and evaluation
Recommended resource? Resources for managing continuous improvements using KPIs
þþ Conversion Rate Optimisation briefing – Business-level members guide showing how
to run structured AB Tests
þþ 90 day planning template (part of digital strategy toolkit) – define areas of digital
marketing to optimise each quarter in the context of RACE.
þþ Website conversion optimisation planner – define hypotheses on which pages and
Optimise your
elements to test.
performance
þþ Website conversion and revenue model calculators – create models to assess return 7
on investment from structured testing.
Best wishes for your optimisation efforts!

!

7 Steps Digital Marketing Optimzation Smart Insights

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

7 Steps Digital Marketing Optimzation Smart Insights

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Digital Marketing Optimization

Author: Dr Dave Chaffey, SmartInsights.com

Part of the Integrated Lifecycle Marketing Toolkit

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

What is Digital Marketing Optimization? 4

Align objectives with

ONE – Review the full-range of top-level goals using the 5Ss 10

TWO –Define your vision for digital marketing contribution 20

Introduction - the importance of vision setting 20

Linking the vision to the 5Ss 22

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Introduction to setting SMART objectives 25

Define top-level goals

FOUR – Create a conversion model 28

Setting realistic objectives with conversion budget models 28

Set your vision

Select the right KPIs for dashboards 29

Align objectives with

SIX – Set up tracking and evaluation 38

SEVEN – Creating a Digital Marketing Optimization process 43

Introduction to creating an Optimization process 43

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

marketing channels and experiences that businesses must manage.

What is it? Digital marketing optimization (DMO)

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

RACE touchpoints Activities to improve Activities to improve

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

Increase long-term (SMO) to improve sharing targeting and contact sequences

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

1 Rich Page: Website Optimization, an hour a day

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

How is this guide structured?

Google Analytics and Tag management.

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

Strategy Recommendation 1 Define different levels of measures for managing digital

7 Steps to Digital Marketing Optimization

Define top-level goals

Set your vision

Align objectives with

What is it? Digital marketing vision

What is it? Digital marketing goals

What is it? Digital marketing objectives

4. KPIs. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to check you are on track.

What is it? Digital marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

What is Digital Marketing Optimization? 4

ONE – Review the full-range of top-level goals using the 5Ss 10

TWO –Define your vision for digital marketing contribution 20

Introduction - the importance of vision setting 20

Linking the vision to the 5Ss 22

Introduction to setting SMART objectives 25

FOUR – Create a conversion model 28

Setting realistic objectives with conversion budget models 28

Select the right KPIs for dashboards 29

SIX – Set up tracking and evaluation 38

SEVEN – Creating a Digital Marketing Optimization process 43

Introduction to creating an Optimization process 43