664 The Marketing Book
website: is it controlled by marketing or by
technical or some other function? Many web-
sites actually damage the brand with their
broken links, dead ends, cumbersome down-
loads, out of date content, impossible naviga-
tion and unanswered e-mails. Regular reviews
should not be devoted to reviewing the latest
technology but, rather, they should be focused
on customer reviews.
Actions
According to John Stubbs (executive director,
CIM), up to 40 per cent of marketing expendi-
ture is wasted through poor execution. So, the
action stage may be the weakest link in the
planning process. So tactics break down into
actions; in fact, a series of actions, for example
to build a website or run an on-line advertising
campaign. Each tactic becomes a mini project.
Each tactical e-tool requires careful plan-
ning and implementation. Whether building a
website, a banner ad, an interactive TV ad, a
viral campaign or an opt-in campaign, good
project management skills and diligent atten-
tion to detail are required.
Typical actions that may be pursued for
achieving different website objectives are:
1 Traffic building actions. To generate visits and/or
traffic to your website or portal or iTV
channel, you will probably be using links or
banners on other sites, sponsoring other
on-line activities, possibly using competitions
or creative content ideas to generate interest.
You’ll need creative input and a budget to buy
media space.
2 Actions to achieve customer response. To capture
user enquiries – thus turning visitors into sales
prospects, capturing data, using enquiry data to
analyse customer needs, plan development –
you’ll need a response mechanism for
customers to enter their data on-line and a
database logging and processing the data as
they come in.
3 Actions to gain sales. For collecting sales orders,
use interactive TV or a website to generate
actual sales, handle money transactions and
initiate the order process system.
4 Fulfilment actions. Efficient data transfer to
warehouse to get products off the shelf and
into the box for despatch. Orders might be
one-off products or subscription services.
More software and hardware solutions to
implement here: ideally, dovetail into the
parent’s existing systems used for mail order
and phone order businesses, then you know
the processes which are invisible to the
customer have been installed, tested and
proven already.
5 e-CRM actions. To build better relationships by
creating dialogue with customers you might be
running on-line polls, using rewards and
competitions to secure commitment and
response; you could also set up and moderate
an on-line user group. In this way, you
empower customers by means of interactivity- respond to feedback, listen to customer
response and visibly act on it.
Success in all these actions requires good
implementation. It is possible to have a poor
strategy but to mask it with outstanding actions
which bring the company success, but the best
strategy in the world will achieve nothing if it is
not implemented well.
Action, or implementation, also requires
an appreciation of what can go wrong from
cyber libel to viruses, to mail bombs, hackers
and hijackers to cyber squatting and much
more; contingency planning is required. What
happens when the server goes down or a virus
comes to town? What happens if one of the
e-tools is not working, or is not generating
enough enquiries? Something has to be
changed. A risk management approach to
e-marketing is useful. This involves: Brainstorming a list of all the things that could
go wrong.
Assessing their impact and likelihood.
Taking actions to minimize the risk of the most
highest impact, most probable risk.
Revising and refining according to lessons learnt.