The contribution of digital marketing to your bottom line is dependent on whether you have the right capabilities in place, to manage all of the digital touchpoints. But which capabilities are important, which do you need to review? Last year, James Carson and Dave Chaffey identified these in our Managing Digital Transformation Guide for Expert members illustrated in the top-level capability review visual below.
By Digital Marketing Capabilities we are referring to reviewing 7 core capabilities which are strategic approach, performance improvement process, management buy-in, resourcing and structure, data and infrastructure, integrated customer communications and customer experience. You can see that the first four, A-D are around process and management for digital marketing with E-G focused on the tactics to reach and engage audiences.
How do businesses compare - how advanced are they?
When we repeated our Managing Digital Marketing research in association with TFM&A this year we were interested to see how advanced companies were relative to our new framework.
So, in our survey, we assessed where respondents felt which stage they were at, in terms of their digital marketing capabilities, rating this through different levels from 1 'initial level' to the more advanced 5 'optimized'.
Where do you rank?
Interesting - many companies still have limited digital marketing capabilities. So if you have been frustrated by your capabilities, at least you now know your not alone...
According to our findings, the majority of companies are still actively working on the transformation of their digital marketing capabilities, with less than 20% rating their digital communications, customer communications or performance improve process at an advanced level. Only 20% of businesses had a transformation plan, but with 33% planning to implement a programme within the next 12 months.
We asked our report reviewers for their take, Daniel Rowles, a specialist digital marketing trainer and consultant at Target Internet.com interprets the results this way:
I think the best practice of auditing digital capability is of huge significance and this is in line with other findings around a lack of strategy and internal skills. Organisations are just waking up to the need to step back and look at their digital capability and assess what it is that is holding them back, and what they need to change in order to make effective digital possible.
The emergence of Digital Transformation as a key issue that organisations are thinking about is great news. Understanding the gap between where we are now and where we need to be is essential.
To take action to improve it's important to assess your current overall capabilities in more detail, so you know which key digital channels to improve. You can undertake this audit, using the example in or guide below or Expert members can complete a more detailed spreadsheet-based digital benchmark assessment.
Free Download for members
This research from Smart Insights in association with the TFM&A 2015 event explores approaches businesses use to plan and manage their investments in digital marketing. Findings and recommendations are grouped into 6 areas to improve the commercial contribution of their digital marketing.
Download our Managing Digital Marketing 2015 report.
By Susanne Colwyn
Susanne is a Marketing Consultant and Trainer, with over 20 years marketing experience in the public and private sector. She's passionate about supporting companies with practical result driven marketing, to help focus companies on evaluating and driving their marketing forward. Experienced in Integrated Strategic Marketing Planning, Data Segmentation, Customer Relationship Management Systems, Customer Insight and reviewing internal systems, data and processes, to maximise conversion strategies and the customer experience. You can connect with her via her LinkedIn or follow her @Qtymarketing.
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