594 Part 3 Digital marketing: implementation and practice

Introduction

Business-to-consumer (B2C) markets have made a significant contribution to the commer-

cial development of the Internet, encouraging wide-scale use of transactional e-commerce
sites by a diverse and increasingly global range of consumers.
This chapter explores some of the key issues which have an impact on the growth and
development of online B2C markets. It focuses on the retail sector and begins with looking
at online consumers (who they are, their expectations, how online experiences affect the
motivation to shop online) and then retailers (the meaning and scope of the term online
retailing and the different ways in which digital and Internet technologies are used to create
a virtual retail channel). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the factors affecting
the development of successful e-retail strategies.
We start with a review summary of key digital marketing practice questions which applies
to companies discussed in both Chapters 11 and 12. These are key management questions
marketers have to review to develop a digital marketing plan (see Digital marketing insight 11.1).

Digital marketing insight 11.1 The Smart Insights planning template for digital strategy
development

As an alternative perspective on strategy from that which is covered in Chapters 4

and 5, the RACE Planning framework we introduced in Chapter 1 gives a structure to
review the opportunities and challenges for managing digital marketing in the different
types of organisations covered in Chapters 11 and 12. These are some of the key
strategic questions that need to be addressed by managers and can be viewed as a
summary of actions to be taken.

Planning questions
These overview questions review strategies to maximise efficiency and effectiveness
of the channel. Key questions to consider are:

Q1. Do we have a clear strategy to support growth of our online channels?

Q2. How do we align our online marketing activities to support our business goals?
Q3. Which audiences are we targeting and how do we attract them to do business
with us online?
Q4. Which insights do we have about our customer characteristics (profiles), needs
from online services (requirements and intent) and perceptions of our service
(quality gap)?
Q5. Have we analysed our marketplace to understand the types of online sites and
influencers that affect sales?
Q6. How is our value proposition and brand offer supported by online channels?
Q7. How do we integrate channels to support customer journeys?
Q8. How do we achieve sales growth through customer lifecycle strategies, i.e. reach
strategy, interaction and conversion strategy and ongoing engagement strategy.

Reach strategy questions

These questions should be asked to determine approaches to reach prospects,
existing customers and raising awareness on a website or other online presences to
encourage visits and interaction. Key questions here are:

Q1. Do we have visibility of actual and target performance for volume, quality and
value for our online visitors?
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  Q2. What is the right channel media mix of paid, owned and earned media
(inbound/content marketing) to meet our goals?
  Q3. Have we maximised the efficiency of each channel? Which are the
priorities?
  Q4. Which audiences are we targeting or not targeting through online media?
  Q5. What are our core messages and offers to encourage use of online
channels?
  Q6. Are we putting sufficient time into managing relationships with partners and
influencers?
  Q7. How do we route traffic and manage customer journeys to maximise
effectiveness?
  Q8. How do we best integrate ALL channels?
  Q9. How do we leverage the viral/word-of-mouth effect from viral channels?
Q10. Are our social presences effective and are we measuring reputation?

Act and conversion strategy questions

Act and conversion refers to achieving interaction and participation to deliver sales
leads. For a retail site, this is initial engagement with a site to browse products and
then add them to product categories. In financial services this is encouraging a quote
or application, while in travel it is encouraging interest in destinations. Conversion may
happen online or offline, so steps are taken to facilitate these customer journeys. Key
questions are:

Q1. How do we appeal to different audiences, needs, behaviour, referrers?

Q2. What are our key value messages?
Q3. How do we improve the customer experience to improve conversion and satis-
faction across different hardware and software platforms such as desktop and
mobile access?
Q4. How do we reduce friction to make more efficient customer journeys through
the right call-to-action?
Q5. Is our content effective in supporting conversion?
Q6. Are social media and user-generated content ineffective in supporting
conversion?
Q7. Are we maximising the value generated per visit?
Q8. Are we following up on leads effectively?
Q9. Are we using web analytics effectively to improve results through combining
the right metrics, process, people and tools?

Engage and retention strategy questions

The final set of questions refer to approaches to build long-term relationships with
customers through online media:

Q1. How well do we know the needs, wants, characteristics and value of existing
customers?
Q2. How do we increase customer lifetime value?
Q3. What is the gap between customer satisfaction needs and delivery and do we
improve satisfaction?
Q4. What content, offers, experiences will engage different audiences?
Q5. How should we manage customer communities to grow our brand?
Q6. How do we create an integrated lifecycle email + social media customer
communications programme?
Q7. How can we use customer advocacy to improve results?