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Managing Digital Marketing 2014Best practices in integrating digital technology and marketing to fuel business growth
Author Dr Dave Chaffey
Research in collaboration with TFMampA 2014
Published December 2013
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 2
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Contents
Executive summary 3
Managing Digital Marketing in 2014 3
1 Review Digital Marketing Contribution and Capabilities 9
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing 13
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced 19
4 Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change 22
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014 25
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing 30
Appendix 33
Methodology 33
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summaryManaging Digital Marketing in 2014
This research from Smart Insights and TFMampA explores approaches businesses use to plan and manage their investments in digital marketing Findings and recommendations are grouped in 6 areas to improve the commercial contribution of their digital marketing
1 Review digital marketing capabilities
thorn Our respondents showed high-levels of conviction for the power of digital marketing
with 58 saying they are convinced of the value that investment in digital marketing
can deliver and that they can measure ROI
yacute A significant proportion (39) see opportunities from digital marketing but find ROI
measurement challenging - a key area for managers to address
yacute Over half (56) of businesses have significant potential for improvement describing
their digital marketing capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44
had advanced or optimised digital marketing capabilities
thorn Good practice Audit your digital marketing capabilities and create a roadmap for
transformation to improve capabilities over the medium to long-term
2 Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
In business itrsquos recognised that plans help companies to prioritise set goals and allocate
resources to meet targets Yet a planned approach often isnrsquot followed in digital marketing
or marketing
yacute Nearly half (46) of businesses surveyed do not have a defined digital plan or
strategy although they are active in digital marketing
yacute Nearly half (44) also donrsquot have a defined marketing plan in the business to align
strategy against
thorn Good practice Donrsquot just execute Create a long-term digital strategy and plan
aligning with marketing and business priorities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Integration of digital channels into marketing was identified as a major challenge in the
research - only a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of
digital marketing and traditional communications
yacute The main barriers to integration are
1 Lack of integrated strategy and plans (28)
2 Teams structured in silos (21)
3 Lack of skills in integrated communications (17)
thorn Good practice Avoid the creation of digital marketing silos and improve
integration through integrated planning and collaboration during campaigns
4 Development of digital skills and managing change
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
deeper learning about digital marketing approaches particularly in Big Data and CRM
(62 want to improve their knowledge) content marketing (55) digital strategy (52)
and social media marketing (48)
thorn Good practice Review and develop your personal digital skills Are you a T or
W-shaped marketer
5 Investing in digital marketing in 2014
thorn The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels
with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed
by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind
with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
thorn Many marketers are planning to increase investment across these channels with
Email marketing (53) SEO (49) and AdWords (44) leading the pack
thorn Good practice With the diversity of paid owned and earned media itrsquos important
to focus resources and optimisation on core channels that drive value
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
6 Innovation and optimising digital marketing
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to execute this continuously Around
a quarter to a third of companies have embraced optimisation with these leaders running
frequent tests or continuously optimising The percentage of leaders who optimised
individual channels or contact points was 32 for website (desktop experience) 20 for
Mobile (mobile site andor apps) 32 for landing pages 40 for email marketing 35
for social media marketing 32 for content marketing and 31 for paid digital media
thorn Good practice You canrsquot compete if you update your website your
communications approaches every few years Create a plan for ldquoAlways-onrdquo
optimisation of media and customer experience
Methodology
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK The survey was completed online during October and November 2013
There were 720 respondents with the majority (62) in senior management roles
Respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more
than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
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2 Developing strategies
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Contents
Executive summary 3
Managing Digital Marketing in 2014 3
1 Review Digital Marketing Contribution and Capabilities 9
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing 13
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced 19
4 Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change 22
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014 25
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing 30
Appendix 33
Methodology 33
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summaryManaging Digital Marketing in 2014
This research from Smart Insights and TFMampA explores approaches businesses use to plan and manage their investments in digital marketing Findings and recommendations are grouped in 6 areas to improve the commercial contribution of their digital marketing
1 Review digital marketing capabilities
thorn Our respondents showed high-levels of conviction for the power of digital marketing
with 58 saying they are convinced of the value that investment in digital marketing
can deliver and that they can measure ROI
yacute A significant proportion (39) see opportunities from digital marketing but find ROI
measurement challenging - a key area for managers to address
yacute Over half (56) of businesses have significant potential for improvement describing
their digital marketing capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44
had advanced or optimised digital marketing capabilities
thorn Good practice Audit your digital marketing capabilities and create a roadmap for
transformation to improve capabilities over the medium to long-term
2 Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
In business itrsquos recognised that plans help companies to prioritise set goals and allocate
resources to meet targets Yet a planned approach often isnrsquot followed in digital marketing
or marketing
yacute Nearly half (46) of businesses surveyed do not have a defined digital plan or
strategy although they are active in digital marketing
yacute Nearly half (44) also donrsquot have a defined marketing plan in the business to align
strategy against
thorn Good practice Donrsquot just execute Create a long-term digital strategy and plan
aligning with marketing and business priorities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Integration of digital channels into marketing was identified as a major challenge in the
research - only a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of
digital marketing and traditional communications
yacute The main barriers to integration are
1 Lack of integrated strategy and plans (28)
2 Teams structured in silos (21)
3 Lack of skills in integrated communications (17)
thorn Good practice Avoid the creation of digital marketing silos and improve
integration through integrated planning and collaboration during campaigns
4 Development of digital skills and managing change
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
deeper learning about digital marketing approaches particularly in Big Data and CRM
(62 want to improve their knowledge) content marketing (55) digital strategy (52)
and social media marketing (48)
thorn Good practice Review and develop your personal digital skills Are you a T or
W-shaped marketer
5 Investing in digital marketing in 2014
thorn The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels
with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed
by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind
with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
thorn Many marketers are planning to increase investment across these channels with
Email marketing (53) SEO (49) and AdWords (44) leading the pack
thorn Good practice With the diversity of paid owned and earned media itrsquos important
to focus resources and optimisation on core channels that drive value
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
6 Innovation and optimising digital marketing
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to execute this continuously Around
a quarter to a third of companies have embraced optimisation with these leaders running
frequent tests or continuously optimising The percentage of leaders who optimised
individual channels or contact points was 32 for website (desktop experience) 20 for
Mobile (mobile site andor apps) 32 for landing pages 40 for email marketing 35
for social media marketing 32 for content marketing and 31 for paid digital media
thorn Good practice You canrsquot compete if you update your website your
communications approaches every few years Create a plan for ldquoAlways-onrdquo
optimisation of media and customer experience
Methodology
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK The survey was completed online during October and November 2013
There were 720 respondents with the majority (62) in senior management roles
Respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more
than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summaryManaging Digital Marketing in 2014
This research from Smart Insights and TFMampA explores approaches businesses use to plan and manage their investments in digital marketing Findings and recommendations are grouped in 6 areas to improve the commercial contribution of their digital marketing
1 Review digital marketing capabilities
thorn Our respondents showed high-levels of conviction for the power of digital marketing
with 58 saying they are convinced of the value that investment in digital marketing
can deliver and that they can measure ROI
yacute A significant proportion (39) see opportunities from digital marketing but find ROI
measurement challenging - a key area for managers to address
yacute Over half (56) of businesses have significant potential for improvement describing
their digital marketing capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44
had advanced or optimised digital marketing capabilities
thorn Good practice Audit your digital marketing capabilities and create a roadmap for
transformation to improve capabilities over the medium to long-term
2 Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
In business itrsquos recognised that plans help companies to prioritise set goals and allocate
resources to meet targets Yet a planned approach often isnrsquot followed in digital marketing
or marketing
yacute Nearly half (46) of businesses surveyed do not have a defined digital plan or
strategy although they are active in digital marketing
yacute Nearly half (44) also donrsquot have a defined marketing plan in the business to align
strategy against
thorn Good practice Donrsquot just execute Create a long-term digital strategy and plan
aligning with marketing and business priorities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Integration of digital channels into marketing was identified as a major challenge in the
research - only a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of
digital marketing and traditional communications
yacute The main barriers to integration are
1 Lack of integrated strategy and plans (28)
2 Teams structured in silos (21)
3 Lack of skills in integrated communications (17)
thorn Good practice Avoid the creation of digital marketing silos and improve
integration through integrated planning and collaboration during campaigns
4 Development of digital skills and managing change
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
deeper learning about digital marketing approaches particularly in Big Data and CRM
(62 want to improve their knowledge) content marketing (55) digital strategy (52)
and social media marketing (48)
thorn Good practice Review and develop your personal digital skills Are you a T or
W-shaped marketer
5 Investing in digital marketing in 2014
thorn The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels
with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed
by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind
with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
thorn Many marketers are planning to increase investment across these channels with
Email marketing (53) SEO (49) and AdWords (44) leading the pack
thorn Good practice With the diversity of paid owned and earned media itrsquos important
to focus resources and optimisation on core channels that drive value
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
6 Innovation and optimising digital marketing
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to execute this continuously Around
a quarter to a third of companies have embraced optimisation with these leaders running
frequent tests or continuously optimising The percentage of leaders who optimised
individual channels or contact points was 32 for website (desktop experience) 20 for
Mobile (mobile site andor apps) 32 for landing pages 40 for email marketing 35
for social media marketing 32 for content marketing and 31 for paid digital media
thorn Good practice You canrsquot compete if you update your website your
communications approaches every few years Create a plan for ldquoAlways-onrdquo
optimisation of media and customer experience
Methodology
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK The survey was completed online during October and November 2013
There were 720 respondents with the majority (62) in senior management roles
Respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more
than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 7
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Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 8
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Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Integration of digital channels into marketing was identified as a major challenge in the
research - only a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of
digital marketing and traditional communications
yacute The main barriers to integration are
1 Lack of integrated strategy and plans (28)
2 Teams structured in silos (21)
3 Lack of skills in integrated communications (17)
thorn Good practice Avoid the creation of digital marketing silos and improve
integration through integrated planning and collaboration during campaigns
4 Development of digital skills and managing change
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
deeper learning about digital marketing approaches particularly in Big Data and CRM
(62 want to improve their knowledge) content marketing (55) digital strategy (52)
and social media marketing (48)
thorn Good practice Review and develop your personal digital skills Are you a T or
W-shaped marketer
5 Investing in digital marketing in 2014
thorn The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels
with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed
by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind
with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
thorn Many marketers are planning to increase investment across these channels with
Email marketing (53) SEO (49) and AdWords (44) leading the pack
thorn Good practice With the diversity of paid owned and earned media itrsquos important
to focus resources and optimisation on core channels that drive value
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 5
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Executive summary
6 Innovation and optimising digital marketing
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to execute this continuously Around
a quarter to a third of companies have embraced optimisation with these leaders running
frequent tests or continuously optimising The percentage of leaders who optimised
individual channels or contact points was 32 for website (desktop experience) 20 for
Mobile (mobile site andor apps) 32 for landing pages 40 for email marketing 35
for social media marketing 32 for content marketing and 31 for paid digital media
thorn Good practice You canrsquot compete if you update your website your
communications approaches every few years Create a plan for ldquoAlways-onrdquo
optimisation of media and customer experience
Methodology
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK The survey was completed online during October and November 2013
There were 720 respondents with the majority (62) in senior management roles
Respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more
than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 7
SHARE THIS
Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 8
SHARE THIS
Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 9
SHARE THIS
1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides
Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 11
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Executive summary
6 Innovation and optimising digital marketing
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to execute this continuously Around
a quarter to a third of companies have embraced optimisation with these leaders running
frequent tests or continuously optimising The percentage of leaders who optimised
individual channels or contact points was 32 for website (desktop experience) 20 for
Mobile (mobile site andor apps) 32 for landing pages 40 for email marketing 35
for social media marketing 32 for content marketing and 31 for paid digital media
thorn Good practice You canrsquot compete if you update your website your
communications approaches every few years Create a plan for ldquoAlways-onrdquo
optimisation of media and customer experience
Methodology
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK The survey was completed online during October and November 2013
There were 720 respondents with the majority (62) in senior management roles
Respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more
than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
The need for managing digital transformation
2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Bernerrsquos Lee1
Digital media are not ldquonew mediardquo any longer But digital media and technology are
evolving rapidly Given the rapid consumer adoption of the web and the launches of new
mobile technology and social network platforms over this time businesses have been
adapting to a moving target
The commercial importance of digital channels requires companies to react but
significant changes to our marketing communications are needed since itrsquos now clear
that digital is more than ldquojust another channel to marketrdquo where we can apply existing
marketing techniques
Instead digital media and technology demands significant changes to company marketing
processes resources skills and structure At the same time we need to take care not
to create digital silos with integration with more traditional marketing activities important
to success
How well do companies manage digital marketing
Reporting on digital marketing often excitedly follows every last innovation as if it
presents a new commercial nirvana witness the clamour about Snapchat Twitter Vine
and Instagram video in 2013 for example Yet the reality is that many organisations
arenrsquot fully exploiting the existing web social and mobile platforms and their time could
be better spent on improving the fundamentals
At Smart Insights we believe that successful marketers look beyond chasing every
latest technology innovation following a more strategic approach based on optimising
key customer touchpoints So in this research we wanted to go beyond reviewing the
digital marketing tactics deployed and explore the strategic approaches businesses take
to manage the transformation needed to manage digital marketing as part of broader
marketing activities
1 CERN The Birth of the Web
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 7
SHARE THIS
Introduction
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed
online
Our 50000 Basic members use our blog sample marketing templates and weekly
Emarketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the
developments that matter in digital marketing
Our Expert members use our planning and management templates video courses and
guides to map plan and manage their marketing using the RACE Planning framework
thorn Here are 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources
About Technology for Marketing
We teamed up with TFMampA to research and present this research and recommenda-
tions The Technology for Marketing and Advertising conferences have charted the rising
importance of digital technologies and media to marketing for over 15 years and today is
the UKrsquos largest multichannel marketing media and advertising event
To share best practices in managing digital marketing Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
will be presenting the research and recommendations at a keynote and in 3 seminars at
TFMAamp 2014 - you can register for more information
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 8
SHARE THIS
Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 9
SHARE THIS
1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides
Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 11
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 8
SHARE THIS
Introduction
About the author
Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing
management advice site Smart Insights He is author of 5
bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing
Strategy Implementation and Practice and has been recognised as
one of 50 marketing lsquogurusrsquo worldwide who have shaped the future
of marketing
Research findings and recommendations
In common with all our Smart Insights resources we want this report
to be practical and actionable to make a difference to your business
So the results presented from this research are structured around practical activities
companies can use to follow a more strategic planned approach to digital marketing
As always with Smart Insights each section is based around questions the marketer can
ask to review and so improve his or her approach to managing digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 9
SHARE THIS
1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides
Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 11
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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1 Review digital marketing contribution and capabilities
Does digital marketing create value for your organisation
Ever since marketers started talking about the potential of Internet marketing in 1994
they have asked what can it do for me any my business ldquohow much value can we
create using digital technologies and digital mediardquo
Although digital channels have been called ldquothe most measurable everrdquo complex
customer journeys and different measurement techniques can make assessment of ROI
challenging Given this we wanted to understand the strength of conviction about digital
marketing in terms of value and the extent to which measurement of ROI is practical
58 of respondents showed high-levels of conviction about the power of digital marketing
and their ability to measure it but with a significant proportion finding ROI measurement
challenging (Q11)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
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1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
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1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
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2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
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2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
10
1 Importance of digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides
Does your company have the right capabilities in place to make the most of digital marketing
Whether companies are able to deliver on this potential of digital channels to contribute
value depends on whether they have the right capabilities in place across the company
for all the digital touchpoints that need to be managed We will review the details in more
detail later in the report but for now letrsquos look at the extent to which companies have
embraced digital marketing overall with a stage model (Q15)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 11
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
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3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
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3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
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4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
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5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
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5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
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6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 11
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 1
Use analytics to prove the value of digital channels
Customise tracking using digital analytics to create dashboards which review the value generated by digital media and digital content You should be able to use analytics to assess value as Revenue per visit and Page value of content and track back to ldquoassistsrdquo from earlier visits to a site
Over half (56) showed potential for improvement describing their digital marketing
capabilities as inconsistent basic or non-existent Only 44 had advanced or optimised
digital marketing capabilities
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Smart Insights Benchmarking Tools
We have developed a series of tools to help develop strategy and to make the case for more investment in digital marketing These are
thorn Digital Marketing Healthcheck Score your company or clients in the 5 key areas of RACE Planning Best suited to small and medium sized companies
thorn Digital marketing audit benchmark A detailed spreadsheet based technique for assessing a company in 6 key areas Best suited to larger organisations An Ecommerce option is available
thorn Business case template Improvement needed can be justified through this template and the companion Ebook
How will digital marketing evolve in future
How will digital marketing look like in the future Will it disappear a distinct digital
marketing activity as some have suggested
We canvassed respondents for their views on the integration and alignment of digital and
traditional marketing These are a representative set of viewpoints
ldquoDigital Marketing has to be driven by an overall marketing strategy In the future I
believe that every marketing activity will involve digital technology Both marketing and
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 12
SHARE THIS
1 Importance of digital marketing
sales will use digital from TV ads to In-store trade shows catalogs telephone or even
the salesperson Online marketing will be a distinct activity but everything will be digital
marketing Every marketing person will work with digitalrdquo Ecommerce Manager
ldquoI donrsquot think it (digital) will disappear Coming from a constructionmanufacturing industry
background where we are only just seeing the opportunities in digital engagement
and activities I strongly believe that digital ndash with greater integration with traditional
activities ndash will help us deliver more measurable and strategic marketing communication
campaigns For us digital marketing has become effective as it delivers one message
to a wide audience and the results can be measuredrdquo Digital marketing manager
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 2
Score your digital capabilities to review how you can improve and to win the case for investment
Assess what your current capabilities are overall and then for key digital channels to communicate to colleagues where you need to improve
ldquoI believe that digital is here to stay and will become completely integrated with traditional
marketing No need for different departments depending on whether online or offline
as the fundamentals of marketing remain the same but digital is just another set of
channels to be usedrdquo Head of Department
ldquoDigital marketing gains more and more significant role vs the traditional media
However digital marketing should be aligned and integrated within a holistic approach
of offline and online channels so as to achieve best results and increase of engagementrdquo
Marketing manager
ldquoDigital marketing will remain a distinct set of disciplines for several years yet and then I
believe will merge with direct marketing but even then they will remain distinct from brand
marketing with its holistic and proposition focus Increasingly the marketing services
area - including TVradio etc will become more rather than less similar to digital as
technology continues to evolve and this will provoke further integration in the se
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 13
2 Developing Strategies And Plans For Digital Marketing
Is digital marketing based on a planned approach
We believe that to gain the most from digital platforms a structured planned approach
based on a solid strategy will give the best results Plans help businesses to prioritise set
goals and resource at the right level to hit targets Thatrsquos true for business and marketing
plans surely but what about digital plans We wondered whether businesses take a
planned approach Without these there is a danger you will be subject to ldquoshiny object
syndromerdquo as Jeff Bezos has referred to
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 3
Create a specific digital marketing plan
Create a detailed digital marketing plan defining the digital channel strategy for each major market proposition to provide focus and direction for the future
We found that a majority of organisations responding to the survey do use a planned
approach to digital marketing (Q17) This is an improvement compared to previous polls
on Smart Insights where the majority did not have a defined strategy for digital marketing
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 14
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
ldquoNearly half of businesses do not have a digital strategy but they are doing digital
marketingrdquo
Equally itrsquos important that creating a separate digital plan or separate resource to focus
on digital marketing doesnrsquot create a silo of digital resources and practice So we see
a digital plan as a short-term tool to define your digital future and help transform your
business until it becomes part of planning for business as usual
BEST PRACTICE TIP 1
Ensure your plan is integrated
Although you may initially need a separate digital plan to help you create a strategy and get buy-in for investment in digital channels itrsquos important to keep it well integrated That means supporting common business goals and consistent with brand and communication strategy The long-term aim should be to integrate your digital plan into your marketing communications plan
Integration requires a clear marketing strategy and plan The survey results suggests
that lack of a marketing plan in a substantial proportion of organisations (Q16) may make
it difficult to align a digital plan against
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 15
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
This shows the importance of digital marketing managers working with their colleagues
to agree how digital marketing can support and integrate with marketing
What should the planning horizon for digital planning be
Traditionally business and marketing planning in many larger businesses has been
long-term Long-term planning enables consistent strategies to be followed in line with
forecast changes in the marketplace and resources allocated We recommend that
although digital media change rapidly the long-term transformation needed by digital
means that you wonrsquot be able to transform the organisation in 3 6 or even 12 months
This research suggests that many do not have a long-term planning horizon with less
than one fifth looking beyond the current year (Q18)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 16
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
To help develop a more coherent approach to planning we suggest you develop a hierarchy of plans as shown below with longer term plans too
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Planning Templates
We have developed a series of spreadsheet tools to help with plan These are
thorn 90 Day Planning template This template defines activities to Reach-Act- Convert and Engage your audience over the next 90 day period
thorn Example marketing Plan Template An example marketing plan and blank template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 17
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
How should digital marketing and traditional marketing be integrated
There is danger that separate digital marketing plans and teams lead to silos for digital
marketing so itrsquos important to think about how you manage integration The research
shows marketers are making solid progress to integration although relatively few
describe their approach as fully integrated (Q21)
ldquoOnly a quarter of companies (26) were happy with their level of integration of digital marketing and traditional communicationsrdquo
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 18
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
The research showed that again the lack of a planned approach is most damaging to
integration Creation of separate teams for digital marketing and traditional marketing
also presents problems for integration showing the importance of developing processes
and developing skills that involve collaboration across silos
BEST PRACTICE TIP 2
Allocate and ringfence time for collaboration
The lsquootherrsquo choice was high when asked about integration with many citing time budget and resource This suggests there was poor realisation that time needs to be allocated by management for collaboration
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 19
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing Digital Marketing Internal and Outsourced
How many digital marketing specialists do companies employ
Although itrsquos often said that digital marketing will become part of ldquomodern marketingrdquo the
reality in companies is that specialist resources and agencies are required to manage
specific digital marketing techniques To find the importance of this we asked how many
specialist digital marketers were involved Across respondents there were an average
of 115 in the marketing organisation of which 33 were digital marketing specialists an
average of nearly 1 in 3 (283) digital marketing specialists in organisations
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 20
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Which resources are used for digital marketing
With the growing importance of digital marketing in driving leads and sales a key
resourcing question is which digital marketing activities should be managed internally
and which can be outsourced Results from our research suggest that in companies
of the types surveyed managing digital marketing activities in-house is widely used
particularly for social media email marketing and SEO (Q20)
This chart also shows the activities that companies arenrsquot investing in Significant numbers
are failing to exploit the full range of tools available
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 21
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Are we resourcing sufficiently in different digital marketing activities
With the range of digital channels available there is also the challenge of investing the
optimal amount in different digital marketing activities This is not straightforward given
the challenges of
yacute Attributing sales to the right channel using analytics
yacute Fragmented decision-making on digital marketing investment
yacute The pace with which new digital marketing channels are introduced
yacute lts suggest that the perception is that insufficient time is spent on planning
measurement and optimisation (Q23 - respondents could choose multiple answers)
This is potentially a management failing since managers are responsible for
ringfencing time for these activities
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 22
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
Although best practice advice usually recommends a planned approach to digital
marketing using the dynamic benefits of digital technology to optimise campaigns and
creative many felt that organisations werenrsquot devoting enough time to this with around
40 believing that insufficient time was spent on planning and optimisation to improve
ROI
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Structuring digital teams and job descriptions
We have developed a series of templates to help define the best ways to manage digital marketing These are
thorn Digital marketing team structure toolkit
thorn Digital marketing job descriptions and roles template
thorn Business case template
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 23
SHARE THIS
3 Resourcing digital marketing
4Development of skills and talent within marketing employees will help companies
compete on digital marketing Given this we wanted to explore the personal challenges
for marketers of keeping up-to-date and the skills requirements
First we asked about the ease of keeping up-to-date given the changes in digital
marketing (Q9) A majority (55) found it challenging with over a quarter (27) stating
that it had become more difficult recently
Development of Digital Skills and Managing Change
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 24
4 Skill development
We then drilled down to see about specific personal needs for skills development (Q12)
Many marketers are now confident in their knowledge of digital channels with nearly half
(46) saying they are confident with in-depth knowledge or sufficient knowledge for what
they need across different digital marketing techniques However there is still hunger for
new learning particularly in Big Data and CRM (62 want to improve their knowledge)
content marketing (55) digital strategy (52) and social media marketing (48)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 25
SHARE THIS
4 Skill development
Given the range of potential techniques to master there has been much talk within digital
marketing of the necessity for Marketers to broaden their skill-sets and to embrace and
learn broadly while focusing on key areas - this is the T-Shaped Marketer
The T-Shaped Marketer is a Marketer that has broad knowledge covering a wide range
of digital tactics with in-depth knowledge in 1 or 2 specific areas1
This representation of the T-Shaped marketer shows content marketing at the heart of the skillset
1 Smart Insights Are you a T-Shaped Marketer
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 26
5 Investing In Digital Marketing In 2014
Which are the most effective digital marketing channels to invest in
To choose the right level of investment in digital marketing requires an assessment of which channels will produce significant volumes at an acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) for new customers Reviewing your marketing channels through comparing these two factors shows which channels warrant most investment
The most effective channels as rated by our respondents for their expected performance
in 2014 are shown in the chart below (Q26)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 27
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
BEST PRACTICE TIP 3
Review channel volume against ROI to select the best mix
Plot volume of leads and sales on the vertical axis against cost-effectiveness on the Y axis You should move beyond the limited channels shown here to show more specific media types such as AdWords remarketing or paid social media marketing techniques
The research shows the ongoing importance of the core digital marketing channels with Email marketing rated highly or very effective by 51 of respondents followed by SEO (44) and Adwords (34) Organic use of social media wasnrsquot far behind with 32 but with only 21 believing paid social media was effective
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 28
5 Investing in digital marketing
We also asked how allocation of investment in digital channels would vary in 2014 which is
an alternative view on the most effective techniques (Q28) Many marketers are planning
to increase investment across these channels with Email marketing (53) SEO (49)
and AdWords (44) leading the pack
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 29
SHARE THIS
5 Investing in digital marketing
Finally we also reviewed the breakdown of Paid and Earned media
Paid media
There are a substantial proportion of businesses that donrsquot use each of the paid media
options shown in the next chart (Q29) Generally there are many are looking to increase
investment in paid media particularly for advertising in social media
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 30
5 Investing in digital marketing
Earned media
Within earned media we reviewed content marketing techniques Across these content
formats the majority of marketers said they would increase investment in these tactics
(Q30)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 31
SHARE THIS
6 Innovation And Optimising Digital Marketing
Are marketers managing digital marketing activities continuously
The concept of Always-on marketing has emerged to show a change in focus from burst
marketing campaigns to generate awareness and response to the need to continuously
drive and meet changing demand for products and services as consumers search and
review what Google has called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)1
For Always-on marketing to be effective efforts should be made to increase the
effectiveness of different digital channels through testing review and optimisation We
explored the use of digital marketing optimisation through this question which reviews
the use of testing across channels
The opportunity to dynamically update and test digital media has always been claimed to
be one of its main benefits compared to traditional media but we were interested to see
to what extent companies have processes in place to manage this continuously
The response to Q19 shows a core group of respondents have moved beyond intermittent
to more regular structured testing and optimisation programmes
1 Smart Insights Googlersquos ZMOT
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
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7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 32
2 Developing strategies
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
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2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 33
SHARE THIS
2 Developing strategies
A relatively small proportion (around a quarter to a third of companies) have embraced
optimisation with these leaders running frequent tests or continuously optimising The
percentage of leaders who optimised individual channels using continuous optimisation
or structured tests were
thorn Website (Desktop experience) 32
thorn Mobile (Mobile site andor apps) 20
thorn Landing pages 32
thorn Email marketing 40
thorn Social media marketing 35
thorn Content marketing 32
thorn Paid digital media 31
It seems that many marketers are frustrated by the barriers to innovation in digital
marketing How could this be changed We wondered which factors are limiting
innovation The main factors limiting innovation are shown below (Q25)
It is expected that budget will restrict innovation but there are other challenges of process
and structure that are limiting innovation it appears
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 34
AppendixMethodology
The survey was completed online during October and November 2013 In this section we
summarise the characteristics of respondents to the survey
Respondent profiles
We surveyed Smart Insights Expert members who are based around the world and
previous attendees of Technology for Marketing and Advertising which is a conference
based in the UK so the emphasis is on UK attendees
Since this research explores how digital marketing is managed our research focuses
on the views of marketing managers digital marketing managers and company owners
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
Managing Digital Marketing 2014
copy Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited Please go to wwwsmartinsightscom to feedback or access our other guides 35
SHARE THIS
7 Appendix
Our respondents are typically experienced in marketing with nearly two thirds having more than five years experience and over a third having more than 10 years experience
Types of business
Businesses respondents represented a wide range of sectors and sizes including Retail
Financial services Consumer brands travel and public sectoreducation
Size of company was assessed based on the resources devoted to marketing in terms
of spend on marketing services and media Spend on marketing services was skewed
towards smaller businesses but with 52 of respondents planning to invest more than
pound50000 on marketing services and media in 2014
We also wanted to assess the relative importance of digital marketing in terms of dedicated
resources for digital marketing To do this we asked how many people worked in the
marketing team overall and how many were focused primarily on digital We explore this
further in the section on resourcing (section 3)
![Digital Marketing at Asset Management Firms [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://img.dokumen.tips/doc/110x75/587a1b961a28abb4238b6631/digital-marketing-at-asset-management-firms-infographic.jpg)
