The integration of an Internet marketing strategy into business and marketing strategies
represents a significant challenge for many organisations, in part because they may have
traditionally considered the Internet in isolation and in part because of the profound
implications of the Internet for change at an industry level and within organisations.
The E-consultancy (2005) research highlighted the challenges of Internet marketing
strategy. The research involved e-commerce managers at companies in markets where
their products could be sold online – for example, mobile phones (Orange, The
Carphone Warehouse), travel (Tui and MyTravel), financial services (Lloyds TSB and
Bradford and Bingley) and direct marketers such as BCA. Respondents were asked what
their main challenges were and these highlighted the issues of gaining sufficient
resource for Internet marketing. Challenges included:
Gaining buy-in and budgetconsistent with audience media consumption and value
generated;
Conflicts of ownership and tensionsbetween a digital marketing team and other teams
such as traditional marketing, IT, finance and senior management;
Coordination with different channelsin conjunction with teams managing marketing
programmes elsewhere in the business;
Managing and integrating customer informationabout characteristics and behaviours col-
lected online;
Achieving consistent reporting, review, analysis and follow-up actions of digital market-
ing results throughout the business;
Structuring the specialist digital teamand integrating into the organisation by changing
responsibilities elsewhere in the organisation;
In-sourcing vs outsourcing online marketing tactics, i.e. search, affiliate, e-mail marketing, PR;
Staff recruitment and retention.Is a separate Internet marketing plan needed?
Should an organisation have a separate e-marketing plan defining its strategic approach
to the Internet, either for the organisation as a whole or for specific markets or brands?
Consider Figure 4.2. You will be familiar with the hierarchy of plans for an organisation,
from a corporate or business plan which informs a marketing plan which in turn informs
a communications plan and campaign briefs for different markets or brands. But where
does the e-marketing plan fit? Does the organisation need one? Figure 4.2 suggests that
an e-marketing plan may be useful to manage the ‘e-campaign components’ which refers
to online communications tools such as online advertising or e-mail marketing or contin-
uous e-marketing activities which may be conducted throughout the year to drive traffic,
for example search engine marketing, affiliate marketing or online sponsorship.
You may be thinking that the marketer already has enough plans to deal with. Surely
the practical approach for companies that are embracing e-marketing is to integrate
e-marketing activities within their existing planning frameworks? But we believe that in
many organisations, a distinct e-marketing plan is initially essential if the organisation is
to effectively harness digital marketing. Since online channels are new, it is even more
imperative to have clarity within the organisation. An e-marketing specialist can create
an e-marketing plan to help inform and influence not only senior managers or directors
and other non-marketing functions, but also to achieve buy-in from fellow marketers.CHAPTER 4· INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGY