Managing an E-commerce Team: Integrating Digital Marketing into your Organisation

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Managing an E-commerce Team

Managing an E-commerce Team:Integrating digital marketing into your organisation

E-consultancy

June 2005

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................2

Executive summary.............................................................................................................................3

Research aims ..................................................................................................................................3

Results ..............................................................................................................................................3

1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................................5

1.1 About this report ........................................................................................................................51.1.1 Who is this report for? ............................................................................................................51.1.2 About E-consultancy ..............................................................................................................51.1.3 About the author .....................................................................................................................6

1.2 E-commerce defined ..................................................................................................................61.2.1 Types of online presence .......................................................................................................7

2. Research aim ...................................................................................................................................8

3. Research method ............................................................................................................................93.1 Research questions ...................................................................................................................9

3.2 Research sample ......................................................................................................................103.2.1 Sample frame .......................................................................................................................103.2.2 Sample size ..........................................................................................................................11

3.3 Research analysis ....................................................................................................................12

4. Appendix 1. Interview script .........................................................................................................13

5. Appendix 2. Questions used in online survey ............................................................................15











Executive summary

Research aims

As the importance of digital media in influencing and supporting purchase increases, companies face

many new management challenges to integrate E-commerce and digital marketing into their marketingactivities.

E-consultancy commissioned this interview and survey-based research to assess for a range of medium to large UK organisations:

• Common issues and challenges faced by managers responsible for digital marketing

• Different strategies and best practice approaches to meet these challenges

• Practical solutions to these challenges

• A typical stage model of development in E-commerce capability

Results

A 5 stage capability maturity model for E-commerce has been defined which enables organisations to

benchmark their E-commerce capability with other organisations. The capability levels are:1. Unplanned – Uncontrolled experimentation with limited integration. Content focus.2. Diffuse management – A more structured approach in some areas. Visitor acquisition focus.3. Centralised management – Organisation level objectives and control. Conversion focus.4. Decentralised operations – Execution integrated with marketing activities. Retention focus.5. Integrated and optimised – A refined approach to improve digital marketing. Optimisation focus.

The research also aimed to answer other E-commerce strategy questions posed by E-commercemanagers and senior managers:

How significant is E-commerce?Many of the companies surveyed believed that E-commerce was very significant to their organisationand its importance would increase. Around half of companies involved in the survey felt that E-

commerce was already very important to the organisation (the top choice on a five point scale), withthis increasing to around two-thirds of companies in five years. This was seen across all benefitscategories including online sales, lead generation, information delivery and branding.

What is the potential for capability improvement?The majority of surveyed companies saw potential for “Large” and “Very large” capabilityimprovements on a five point scale in areas such as Site visitor acquisition (70%), Conversion toaction (75%) and Customer retention (64%). This indicates the potential for further improvement andsuggests the need to invest in this.

How is E-commerce located and controlled?A range of different approaches have been used with the largest single group (44%) making E-commerce control and management part of marketing. However, nearly a quarter of companies

controlled E-commerce through a separate E-commerce team and nearly 11% through the directchannel.

How do companies plan for E-commerce?A majority of companies develop detailed plans for E-marketing with integration of E-marketing intoother forms of marketing plans most common. Surprisingly around a third of participants had nodetailed plan for e-marketing at organisation or product group level. This can lead to under-resourcingof E-marketing activities, poor integration of digital media at campaign level and misdirected E-commerce investments if objectives are unclear and there is no performance management system.





What are the challenges of E-commerce?Managing interfaces with other parts of the organisation were mentioned by interviewees as the mainchallenges rather than specific problems of implementing E-commerce within their groups. Thefollowing challenges were assessed in the survey and found to be widespread:

• Gaining IT resource / technical support (69% agreed that challenging)

• Gaining senior management buy-in or resource (68%)

• Gaining buy-in / resource from traditional marketing functions / brands (66%)

• Finding suitable staff was also mentioned (60%)

How much do companies spend on E-commerce?The mean expenditure on E-communications as part of total communications budgets wasapproximately 11% which is significantly higher than the 3.9% online proportion of advertising spendindicated by UK Internet Advertising Bureau research for 2004. There was a wide variation inexpenditure, with over 30% spending less than 5% of their communications budget on e-communications, but over 30% of respondents ‘the believers’ spending more than 10% and 16% of respondents spending more than 20%.

Best practice recommendations for E-commerceFrom the interviews with E-commerce managers, 20 best practice recommendations have beenidentified with detailed checklists of approaches to consider. Five key recommendations include:

1 Balance resources between acquisition, proposition development / conversion andRetention. Less mature organisations tended to focus on online customer acquisition and conversionactivities, so deferring the more profitable initiatives to drive retention and growth.

2. Allocate sufficient organisational resources for customer insight. Customer management or E-CRM initiatives can include customer data quality, customer loyalty and response analysis, touch-strategy definition and e-mail marketing. These often seemed to be neglected since focus tended to beon increasing the web site efficiency and effectiveness.

3. Create detailed E-marketing plans to provide focus and direction. A lack of structured planningfor E-commerce is evident in relatively unsophisticated E-commerce adopters. A surprisingly highproportion of respondents reported no detailed e-marketing plan for the organisation as a whole or

within business units.

4. Achieve senior level sponsorship and involvement in planning and review. As with other change management initiatives, it is essential to have senior-level sponsorship of the project and thisshould extend to active participation in planning and review. All advanced adopters of E-commerceused this to align E-commerce objectives and resources with business objectives.

5. Leverage corporate initiatives to gain budget. Several E-commerce managers mentioned thevalue of using corporate initiatives to fund or support E-commerce initiatives. For example,organisational re-branding or cost-control initiatives can be harnessed to enhance and develop digitalchannels.











1. Introduction

Digital media continue to grow rapidly in importance as the means by which consumers andbusinesses are made aware of products and then select and purchase them.

As the contribution of digital media in influencing and supporting purchase increases, many newmanagement challenges are faced by managers. A key challenge is to define how teams of staff with

specialist digital marketing skills are assembled and integrate with other non-specialist staff andexternal suppliers.

E-consultancy commissioned this research to:

• Identify common issues and challenges faced by managers responsible for digital marketing

• Highlight different strategies and approaches to meet these challenges

• Define practical solutions to these challenges

The research covers common management issues in a range of different organisations who haveadopted digital marketing including e-retailers, brand owners, business-to-business and not-for-profitorganisations.

Since E-commerce and digital marketing is a relatively novel approach we also wanted to establish

whether a stage model of capability maturity could be defined i.e. whether it is possible to define aseries of common stages organisations pass through during their adoption of digital marketing as itsimportance increases and they refine their approach.

1.1 About this report

This report describes the research approach used, details the findings and also presents 20recommendations for best practice in planning and implementing E-commerce.

The research involved 2 main phases of primary research:

Phase 1 was designed to identify the challenges faced in managing E-commerce and the approachesused. The first phase involved interviews with E-commerce/Digital marketing managers at: Alliance &

Leicester, BCA Interactive, BP, Carphone Warehouse, DTI, Henderson Global Investors, Lloyds TSB,MTV, MyTravel, Orange, Ordnance Survey, Shell, Sony, TUI and Wheel.

Phase 2 was designed to validate the results of Phase 1 and to assess the overall maturity of E-commerce management in the UK. Phase 2 of the research involved an online survey of a wider rangeof UK organisations with turnover from less than £500,000 to over £10 million.

1.1.1 Who is this report for?

The main audience of the report is those responsible for E-commerce and digital marketing within alltypes of organisation from small to large and including business-to-consumer and business-to-business. It is designed to enable digital marketing specialists to assess their current E-commercecapabilities and provides best practice recommendations to help them refine their approach.

The report is also intended to inform non-digital marketing specialists about the management issuesand success factors involved with successfully integrating E-commerce into an organisation. Thisaudience includes members of the senior management team and those responsible for marketing andIT. To help understanding, key concepts and activities involved with E-commerce are explained at thestart of the report.

The report will also help agencies understand the challenges of their clients and indicates the futurepotential for different E-marketing services

1.1.2 About E-consultancy

E-consultancy is the UK’s leading online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research

and how-to guides. It also publishes buyer’s guides and has a directory of 100,000+ third party internetmarketing white papers.





Since moving to a paid-content model in 2003 E-consultancy has amassed thousands of payingsubscribers, around 30,000 registered users and 115,000 unique users sessions per month. Its weeklynewsletter is sent to 21,500 users. Subscribers pay from £99 per year to access the exclusive andhighly practical content, which helps internet marketers get the most out of their websites.

E-consultancy has around 70 events lined up for 2005, including roundtables and monthly ‘Supplier Showcases’, where six suppliers pitch to an audience of pre-qualified buyers (typically between 100-

200) in a Central London venue. E-consultancy also provides a range of in-house trainingprogrammes, such as seminars and workshops.

http://www.e-consultancy.com/about/

1.1.3 About the author

Dr Dave Chaffey is a specialist E-marketing trainer and consultant for MarketingInsights Limited (www.marketing-insights.co.uk) and E-marketing Director at Ripe(www.ripe.co.uk). Dave is proud to have been recognised by the Chartered Instituteof Marketing as one of 50 marketing "gurus" worldwide who "have shaped thefuture of Marketing".

He is a prolific e-business author whose books include ‘Total E-mail Marketing ’,‘Internet marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice’ and E-business and E-commerce Management . Dave’s blog site (www.davechaffey.com) supports thebooks and courses through E-marketing Essentials – the 5 “must-read” articlesabout online marketing from the hundreds Dave reads each month.

1.2 E-commerce defined

The focus of this report is on managing E-commerce and digital marketing within an organisation.Since they are relatively new terms, they require careful definition to scope the activities that need tobe managed within an organisation. Alternative terms are Internet marketing, e-marketing, new mediamarketing and E-business.

Digital marketing or sell-side E-commerce can be simply defined as:

“ Achieving marketing objectives by applying digital technologies”

This definition emphasises the importance of deploying E-commerce to align with and impact businessand marketing objectives and using technology to support this, rather than leading with technologiesand applications. It is useful to extend this definition to indicate the scope of digital marketing in termsof tools and approaches:

Digital marketing involves:

Applying these technologies which form online channels to market :Web, e-mail, databases, mobile/wireless, digital TV, kiosks)

To achieve these objectives:Support marketing activities aimed at achievingprofitable acquisition and retention of customers…within a multi-channel buying process and customer lifecycle

Through using these marketing tactics:Recognising the strategic importance of digital technologies anddeveloping a planned approach to reach and migrate customers to onlineservices through e-communications and traditional communications. Retentionis achieved through improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles,behaviour, value and loyalty drivers), then delivering integrated targetedcommunications and online services that match their individual needs.




http://www.marketing-insights.co.uk/

http://www.ripe.co.uk/

http://www.davechaffey.com/


http://www.marketing-insights.co.uk/

http://www.ripe.co.uk/

http://www.davechaffey.com/




The first part of the definition illustrates the range of access platforms and communications tools thatform the online channels which e-marketers use to build and develop relationships with customers.The access platforms or hardware include PCs, PDAs, mobile phones and interactive digital TV andthese deliver content and enable interaction through different online communication tools such asorganisation web sites, portals, search engines, blogs (online personal or group diaries), e-mail, textmessaging. Some also include traditional voice telephone as part of digital marketing.

The second part of the definition shows that it should not be the technology that drives digitalmarketing, but the business returns from gaining new customers and maintaining relationships withexisting customers. It also emphasises how digital marketing does not occur in isolation, but is mosteffective when it is integrated with other communications channels such as phone, direct mail or face-to-face. Online channels should also be used to support the whole buying process from pre-sale tosale to post-sale and further development of customer relationships.

The final part of the definition summarises approaches to customer-centric digital marketing. It showshow it should be based on customer insight or knowledge of customers developed by researching their characteristics, behaviour, what they value, what keeps them loyal and then delivering tailored weband e-mail communications.

Despite the negative perceptions of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) held by some, it is

also useful to assess the marketing activities involved with E-CRM which also help to scope E-commerce and its integration with other communications. Some organisations interviewed havecreated teams or individual responsibility for E-CRM. We consider E-CRM activities to include thesethree areas:

1. Managing the online customer experience

• Supporting different customer personas and customer journeys through usability evaluationand web site design. This includes facilitating multi-channel customer journeys involvingswitching between digital and traditional media.

• Interactive dialogue to support enquiries and sales using techniques such as online salessupport assistants (avatars and recommendation services) and co-browsing.

• Providing web-self service facilities giving access to a knowledgebase and customer supportapplications.

• Customisation and personalisation to provide recommendations at individual and customer segment level.

2. Customer insightManaging the quality and usage of our knowledge of customers including their:

• Characteristics (who are they?) including managing profiles, segments and e-mail lists.

• Behaviour (what they do and when?) including response and purchase behaviour.

• Value (how much are they worth?) including customer lifetime value.

• Attitudes (what do they think?) including surveying perceptions, satisfaction & loyalty drivers.

3. E-mail marketing

• Outbound – to support initial and especially repeat sales through campaigns and e-

newsletters to a house-list. Includes integration with other outbound communications includingvoice, direct mail and SMS.

• Inbound – answering customer enquiries from e-mails and web-based enquiry forms.

1.2.1 Types of online presence

The survey was designed to be representative of the different types of organisational web site andother access platforms including interactive TV and mobile. The following different types of onlinepresence were covered (note that sites are commonly in multiple categories, but usually have a mainemphasis):

1. Transactional e-commerce site. Products are available for purchase online. The main businesscontribution is through sale of these products. E-retailers, online financial services and travelcompanies are in this category. The sites also support the business by providing information for

consumers that prefer to purchase products offline.





Example participants: Carphone Warehouse, Thomson (TUI), Alliance & Leicester.

2. Services-oriented relationship building web site. These sites provide information to stimulatepurchase, build relationships and generate leads. Products may or may not be available for purchaseonline.

Examples: Henderson Global Investors, Ordnance Survey

3. Brand building site. These sites provide an experience to support the brand and interact withcustomers. Products are not typically available for online purchase, although merchandise may be.Typically FMCG brands, although these were not covered in the survey.

Examples: BP, Shell

4. Portal or media site. These sites provide information, news or entertainment about a range of topics. Portal refers to a gateway of information.

Examples: MTV, DTI

2. Research aimThis research was commissioned by E-consultancy to identify solutions to common managementissues faced by managers of e-commerce, new media or digital marketing teams. We wanted to definebest practice approaches both to managing these teams and their relationship with other parts of theorganisation.

Since E-commerce and digital marketing is a relatively novel business approach, we also wanted toestablish whether a stage model of capability maturity could be defined i.e. whether it is possible todefine a series of common stages organisations pass through during their adoption of digital marketingas its importance increases and they refine their approach.

A capability maturity model for digital marketing has several benefits for managers. Capability maturityor stage models can be used to:

1. Review current approaches to digital marketing to identify areas for improvement.2. Benchmark with competitors who are in the same market sector / industry and in different sectors.3. Identify best practice from more advanced adopters.4. Set targets and develop strategies for improving capabilities.

One of the best known capability maturity models has been devised by Carnegie Mellon SoftwareEngineering Institute (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmm.html) to help organisations improve their software development practices. While the field of application is quite different, the concept is readilytransferable to improving other businesses. The Carnegie-Mellon SEI describe its role as to “identifybest practices useful in helping organisations increase the maturity of their processes”. Morepertinently, stage models of E-commerce and Information Systems capability have been developed(See references).

Capabilities refer to the processes, structures and skills adopted for planning and implementation of digital marketing.


http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmm.html

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmm.html




3. Research method

The alternative tools for research and their purpose are summarised in Table 1. A combination of techniques was used to best understand the challenges of E-commerce.

Table 1 Summary of research method

Research phase Purpose

Literature review Existing literature was reviewed to identify issues and stages of managing organisational change associated with new technology andnew marketing or management approaches.

Qualitative research:In-depth interviews

Initial in-depth interviews used to establish challenges and issuesinvolved with E-commerce adoption and to identify best practice for managing these. It also aimed to establish how different levels of E-commerce capability could be established. The interview script is given inAppendix 1.

Roundtable discussion Interviewees and E-commerce managers from similar organisations wereinvited to discuss the findings of a draft report based on the first in-depthinterviews.

Quantitative research:Online survey.

The survey was designed to assess the prevalence of the challengesidentified earlier in the study. It also aimed to establish the capability

maturity across different types of organisation. A short pilot survey wasused to establish the reliability and suitability of the questionnaire. Thequestions used are given in Appendix 2.

Research report Learnings from the four research instruments were combined to detailcommon responses and best practice to issues of organising an e-commerce team.

3.1 Research questions

The overall research aim was to:

‘Identify best practice in managing e-commerce and digital marketing resources / teamsto support organisational aims’

Specifically, we wanted to understand best practice for managing different elements of strategy for E-commerce from the classic McKinsey Consultants strategy elements shown in Table 2. This well-established framework can be usefully applied to E-commerce with each “S” representing a key issuethat needs to be addressed for successful E-commerce implementation.

Table 2 The 7S strategic framework and its application to e-commerce and digital marketingmanagement

Element of 7Smodel

Application to digital marketingteam

Key issues from practice and literature

Strategy The significance of digitalmarketing in influencing andsupporting organisations'

strategy

Gaining appropriate budgets anddemonstrating / delivering value and ROI frombudgets. Annual planning approach.

Techniques for using digital marketing toimpact organisation strategyTechniques for aligning digital strategy withorganisational and marketing strategy

Structure The modification of organizational structure tosupport digital marketing.

Integration of team with other management,marketing (corporate communications, brandmarketing, direct marketing) and IT staff Use of cross-functional teams and steeringgroupsInsourcing vs. outsourcing

Systems The development of specificprocesses, procedures or information systems to support

digital marketing

Campaign planning approach-integrationManaging/sharing customer informationManaging content quality

Unified reporting of digital marketingeffectiveness





In-house vs. external best-of-breed vs. externalintegrated technology solutions

Staff The breakdown of staff in termsof their background andcharacteristics such as IT vs.Marketing, use of contractors/consultants, age and

sex.

Insourcing vs. outsourcingAchieving senior management buy-in/involvement with digital marketingStaff recruitment and retention. Virtual workingStaff development and training

Style Includes both the way in whichkey managers behave inachieving the organizations'goals and the cultural style of theorganization as a whole.

Relates to role of digital marketing team ininfluencing strategy – it is it dynamic andinfluential or conservative and looking for avoice

Skills Distinctive capabilities of keystaff, but can be interpreted asspecific skill-sets of teammembers.

Staff skills in specific areas: supplier selection,project management, Content management,specific e-marketing approaches (SEO,PPC,affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, onlineadvertising)

Superordinategoals

The guiding concepts of thedigital marketing organisation

which are also part of sharedvalues and culture. The internaland external perception of thesegoals may vary

Improving the perception of the importance andeffectiveness of the digital marketing team

amongst senior managers and staff it workswith (marketing generalists and IT)

Subsidiary research questions were:

Q1. Can a sequence of stages be identified in the structure and processes which organisations use tomanage digital marketing?

Q2. Identify common characteristics and variances in processes used for long-term, annual andcampaign-level planning for digital marketing.

Q3. What are the management challenges and problems faced by a manager of a digital marketingteam?

Q4. What are effective solutions to dealing with these management challenges?

Q5. What are the success factors in managing digital marketing which help increase the contribution of new media to an organisation?

3.2 Research sample

The research investigated the issues faced by managers of e-commerce, new media or digitalmarketing teams in medium to large organisations involved with managing the change associated withadopting e-commerce for marketing. Typically, medium to large organisations will have several

specialist staff with specific responsibility for digital marketing or e-commerce strategy andimplementation. These staff may work in existing marketing or IT teams or new teams specificallycreated for digital marketing.

3.2.1 Sample frame

The sample frame was chosen so that common experiences of managers directly responsible for digital media and E-commerce could be identified. Perceptions of other managers and staff or marketing agencies were not polled for comparative purposes, but this could form the basis for futureresearch.

The sampling strategy was to select research respondents from a range of different types of UKorganisations including:

• Business-to-consumer involved in different markets including e-retail, travel, financial services

and international brands.

• Business-to-business organisations





• Not-for-profit organisations including charities and public sector

Respondents were responsible for an online presence that supported e-commerce transactions or were non-transactional, i.e. brand building or relationship building sites or a combination of both.

Respondents to phase 1 of the research programme were from a range of companies who arecorporate subscribers to E-consultancy, some with the focus on transactional E-commerce and others

non-transactional. One hour interviews were conducted with E-commerce/Digital marketing managersat UK organisations: Alliance & Leicester, BCA Interactive, BP, Carphone Warehouse, DTI,Henderson, Lloyds TSB, MTV, MyTravel, Orange, Ordnance Survey, Shell, Sony, TUI and Wheel.

Input on the findings to help shape the second phase of the research was also provided at an E-consultancy roundtable discussion by AKQA, Bradford & Bingley, John Lewis Direct, Littlewoods /ShopDirect Group, Prudential UK and Europe and Signet Group (H.Samuel, Ernest Jones).

Phase 2 of the research involved an online survey of a wider range of organisations to validate theresults of Phase 1 and to better assess the overall maturity of E-commerce in the UK.

The survey involved companies with a range of sizes from small and medium to large corporations.The range of sizes is indicated by Figure 1 which suggests the variation in communications budget

where this was disclosed. There was also a wide range of spend in e-communications from four organizations spending less than 1% of their communications budget on e-communications through to12 organisations spending more than 20% on e-communications. Respondents included both thoseresponsible for transactional (60%) and non-transactional sites (40%).

Figure 1 Variation in company size as indicated by total marketing communications budget(columns) against importance of e-communications indicated by percent of budget spent on e-communications.

3.2.2 Sample size

Fifteen in-depth interviews were completed with managers representative of the range of organisations

listed above.

The online survey was completed by 90 E-commerce managers who are corporate subscribers to E-consultancy with 85 valid responses. Respondents were recruited by e-mail with completion of theonline survey incentivised by subsequent access to the results of the preliminary findings from the in-depth interviews.

There was a diversity of job titles encompassing virtually every method of describing digital media,typical job titles included: Head of E-commerce, Head of E-communications, Head of OnlineOperations, Channel Development Manager, Online marketing manager, Head of New media, Senior Manager – eMedia, Internet operations manager, Internet Marketing manager, Head of E-Business, E-Commerce Manager, E-marketing manager, Head of Interactive, Director of Digital marketing andWeb Manager





Some traditional marketers also participated, for example: Head of Marketing, Sales and MarketingDirector, Marketing Planning Manager, European Performance Marketing Manager and VP Marketing.

3.3 Research analysis

The Clicktools analysis tool used for the online survey and analysis enabled categorisation of answersby filtering on particular responses. The following filters were used to better understand differences instage of adoption of e-commerce:

• Filter by company size (for example organisation turnover less than and more than £ 1 million)

• Filter by organisational location of e-commerce (centralised control of E-commerce)

• Filter by importance of direct online sales (companies for which this was currently important or very important)

• Filter by proportion of communications budget spent on e-communications (for example, morethan 10% of budget)

• Filter by type of organisation such as financial services, retail and travel











4. Appendix 1. Interview script

Name:Position (including name of team):Company:Date:

Purpose of interviewThank you for agreeing to take part in this research, we hope the output will be a useful tool for youand your contemporaries. The structured interview will take between 45 minutes and an hour.

E-consultancy is researching the management challenges involved with managing a digital marketingteam. We want to share best practice on managing the integration of the team with other parts of theorganisation. We will produce a framework enabling benchmarking between organisations based onthe stage of their development in managing different aspects of E-commerce. The final report“Managing an E-commerce Team: Integrating digital marketing into your organization” will also specifyguidelines on success factors in the areas of structure and integration, strategy, processes and skills.

The questions

Section 1. Role, structure and responsibilities of an E-commerce / digital marketing team.

Q1. What are the roles and responsibilities of those in your team?Please provide a list/diagram of different groups/team and individual job titles / outline job descriptionsif possible.How has this evolved through time?

Q2. Please sketch an organisational chart summarising which other organisational units your teamworks with: Senior management, marketing (including different functions or brands), IT and Finance.

Q3. How is the performance of your group evaluated?And by whom?We will look at how you set targets / budgets later

Section 2. Barriers and success factors for an E-commerce / digital marketing

Q1. What are the three main management challenges (or barriers) you face as manager of the team?

Q2. Which approaches have helped you most in encouraging adoption of digital marketing by theorganisation?Name two or three things that you really wished you knew would be important when you started out.

Q3. What approaches do you use to manage change associated with selecting and implementing newE-commerce functionality?

Section 3. Influence and strategy of an E-commerce / digital marketing team

Q1. How would you describe your level of influence in determining strategic direction in theorganisation?

Q2. How is your team regarded by other parts of the business – what do you think their perception of the importance of digital marketing and your contribution is?

Q3. To what extent is digital marketing strategy integrated with other strategy – organisationalstrategy, marketing strategy, IT strategy. How does this integration occur? Will a diagram help here.

Q4. How would describe the style and culture of the organisation in terms of how it develops strategyand how readily it responds to change in the marketplace such as new competitor offerings or newopportunities for using technology?

Section 4. Planning processes





Q1. How is the long-term vision for digital marketing in the organisation determined?

Q2. Please talk me through the annual planning process for your group highlighting difficult issueswhich occur at each stageWho is involved?

How are objectives set? What informs themWhat type of objectives are set?How well do you think the process works – how could it be improved?

Q3. Now talk me through the annual planning process for different marketing groups/brandshighlighting difficult issues which occur at each stageWho is involved?How are objectives set? What informs themWhat type of objectives are set?How well do you think the process works – how could it be improved?

Section 5. The future

Q1. What do you see as the two main opportunities to improve how you manage digital marketing inyour organisation in the future?

Q2. What do you think are the ideal attributes of an E-commerce Manager?











5. Appendix 2. Questions used in online survey

Part 1. About the importance of E-commerce to your business A. Please rate the importance of E-commerce NOW to your organization for these business aims (NB

following is a section asking the same questions but for in five years):

1. Online Sales2. Leads or sales enquiries3. Information delivery4. Branding

Choice:Very importantImportantNeither important or unimportantSome importanceNot important

B. Please rate the importance of E-commerce IN FIVE YEARS to your organization for thesebusiness aims:

5. Online Sales6. Leads or sales enquiries7. Information delivery8. Branding

Choice:Very importantImportant

Neither important or unimportantSome importanceNot important

C. Select the options below which describe your organization's approach to planning for digitalmarketing *Detailed E-marketing plan refers to online specific e-communications objectives/measures andstrategies

9 Selected one of Detailed, separate E-marketing planDetailed E-marketing plan integrated in to other No detailed E-marketing plan

For Whole organization and each business/major product group

D. Please rate the potential for improving your online marketing capability in the following areas:

10. Creating and maintaining quality online content11. Increasing site visitor numbers and quality12. Converting visitors to sales or marketing outcomes13. Achieving repeat sales/repeat visits to content14. Continuous evaluation and improvement

Choice:Very large improvements in capability possible

Large improvements in capability possibleModerate improvements in capability possible





Small improvements in capability possibleNo improvement possible – already optimized

Part 2. About your adoption of E-commerce or digital marketing 15. Which is the main location for control/management of E-commerce in your organisation

Separate E-commerce teamE-commerce part of direct channel/operationsE-commerce part of marketingE-commerce part of ITOther :

Select the responsibility for execution of these e-communications activities in your organization:

16. Search engine optimization (SEO) If applicable, please specify "Other" :17. Pay Per Click marketing (PPC) If applicable, please specify "Other" :18. Affiliate/partnership marketing If applicable, please specify "Other" :19. Interactive display advertising20. Online PR

21. Retention E-mail marketing

Choice:Central E-commerce / digital marketing teamIn brand or product marketing teamOutsourced, but managed centrallyOutsourced, but managed by different marketing teamsNot used / not applicable

22. Select the extent to which these management activities of E-commerce are a challenge for you:Gaining senior management buy-in/resourceGaining buy-in/resource from traditional marketing functions/brands

Gaining IT resource/technical supportFinding suitable staff Finding suitable digital media agencies

Choice:Strongly agreePartially agreeNeither agree nor disagreePartially disagreeDisagreeOther (please enter challenge)

23. *Your E-mail Address

*Note: you do not have to give us an e-mail address. However, without it we cannot send you the freereport and have no way of contacting you. 24. Your Job Title

25. Sector and Market (e.g. E-retail (clothing), Financial services, B2B services (software))

26. Total (all channels) marketing communications budget (£) for organization (or your part of organization)If applicable, please specify "Other / Comments" : 27. Percent (%) of marketing communications budget spent on e-communicationsIf applicable, please specify "Other / Comments" :

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Managing an E-commerce Team: Integrating Digital Marketing into your Organisation