Is your web marketing joined up?

With so much money spent on web marketing, why do so many companies get such poor results? I believe that 95% of UK business web sites fail to deliver good results. For me, there are 2 key requirements for marketing to be successful:-

• understanding what marketing is
• making sure that your marketing is joined up

What is marketing?

Web design; producing an ad or a logo or a direct marketing leaflet in isolation does not constitute marketing. Marketing is a process designed to solve customers' problems profitably. This process consists of a series of key steps related to the 4 power words used in the definition:-

1 Customer - What defines your target customer? e.g.

• How many are there? 
• What are they worth?
• Is the market growing or shrinking?
• How is the market segmented?
• What are their key attitudes?
• What drives their buying behaviour?
• What factors might change their buying behaviour?

2 Problem - what customer problem are you trying to solve? e.g.

• if the problem you were trying to solve is 'needing good quality 35mm photographic film', the move to digital cameras has probably destroyed your business
• alternatively, if the problem was 'How do I capture memories?' then new technology can enable new solutions for a timeless problem.
• In much of the world, where people have few needs and many wants, the problem often has an emotional driver rather than just a rational driver. People don't need lager. Most don't buy brand A lager because it tastes better than brand B. For a significant segment, holding a bottle of the right brand makes an important statement about them - either to themselves if they are inner directed or to others if they are externally directed.

3 Solution - what is your solution to your target customers' problem?

• Can it be defined in a simple brand thought?
• Does your target customer agree that it solves their problem?
• Is the communication message clear and compelling for your target audience?
• Is it distinctive from your key competitors?
• Does it have legs? - is it robust or will it collapse after a short time?

4 Profitably - (or efficiently for a charity)

• there have never been so many ways to waste your money. Marketing is about making the right choices to get the best return for your marketing investment (MROI)
• this means you need to define what means 'the best return' for your organisation and then measure performance (we metrics) to ensure the best results are being achieved

What is joined-up marketing?

Doing 1 or 2 or 3 elements of the marketing process is not enough. You need to look at the whole process and ensure that all parts are effectively integrated or joined up e.g:-

• There is no value in having a pretty web design if you don't know who your target customers are or have a solution to their key problem. 
• Having a successful Google Pay Per Click Strategy is fine but it is not enough if you don't have a strategy to convert web visitors to valuable customers

Successful marketing has to look at the whole process from:-

• creating the right message for the right audience
• delivering the message to the right people at the right time in the right way
• measuring and analysing the prospect's reaction to the message - do they see it / ignore it / click it / interact with it / visit / return / buy?
• refining the campaign based on learning
• measure and refine again and again

Why is it so hard?

It's hard because most client companies do not know about the marketing process. Most agencies do not know about the process either (even if they are experts in their bit of the process), so inevitably they will sell you their bit of the process. That's fine if the client company has the expertise to integrate the various marketing elements but most do not have this expertise. 

As a result marketing can too often become a lottery where the risk is significantly increased in relation to the missing components from the marketing process.

If you haven't got web marketing expertise in-house, then make sure your web marketing expert has.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.