What are your business objectives?

According to Avinash Kaushik*, they should be:

Doable
Understandable
Manageable
Beneficial

When fleshing out your business objectives, they must be rational. Expecting to realize a 20% increase in revenue in the first month is not only “dumb” in the truest sense of the word, but is completely unrealistic. By using the “DUMB” construct, you can devise objectives that are within reason, and are specific toward reaching your overall brand strategy. Goals must be centered on creating awareness, cultivating interest, generating desire, and stimulating action.

Business Specific Goals

Depending on the type of business you have, these steps will all be different. Make sure they are specific to your business. This requires identifying the key performance indicators (KPI) that track progress in the realization of your business objectives.

These KPI’s Must Also Be Realistic.

Awareness Phase:

Create an analytics report that measures Visits/Unique Visits

Interest Phase:

Create a report that measures page views, number of pages viewed, and time spent on site.

Desire Phase:

Create a report that measures specific item landing page visits, and if you have one, a membership enrollment page, and a wish list creation

Action Phase:

Create a report on shopping cart fulfillment and conversions would be appropriate.

Satisfaction Phase:

Results in a completed Conversion report, and a positive comment on the feedback page.

Why Analytics Are Important

These analytical reports are positive aspects of solid business goals. They would be useless without setting realistic targets to measure progress, or indicate problems to be addressed. Analytics reveal the good and the bad. Capitalizing on the good, and rectifying the bad are all part of setting business goals.
When creating a strategic marketing plan, creating analytics reports to monitor all facets of that plan is a good business practice. The ability to adjust keyword strategy, content composition and keyword placement, replace poor performing landing pages, correcting and eliminating broken internal links, and ultimately, increasing conversion rates are all segments that are correctable, and being aware of their existence is a direct result of monitoring analytics reports.

* Digital Marketing and Measurement Model: Web Analytics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/?utm_source=analytics academy&utm_medium=text lesson&utm_campaign=lesson 2.4

Strategy formulation involves understanding a firm’s analytical capability, the innovative capacity of the firm’s culture, the buy in of marketing managers, and the support of upper management (Ramaseshan, B., Ishak, A., & Kingshott, R.J. 2013).

It also requires understanding external environmental factors like competitiveness, changes in technology, and product alternatives in the market (Ramaseshan, B., Ishak, A., & Kingshott, R.J. 2013).
Implementing the strategy requires constant control and evaluation, a credible strategy, and marketing managers to commit to the strategy while allowing them the autonomy to carry out the strategy (Ramaseshan, B., Ishak, A., & Kingshott, R.J. 2013).

Finally, implementing a strategy is dependent on the performance of the firm, both strategically, and financially (Ramaseshan, B., Ishak, A., & Kingshott, R.J. 2013).

Addressing the internal cohesion requires adopting internal principles that are “firm specific” and “uniquely reflect a firm’s strategy and context rather than simply emulating other firms or theories” (Challagalla, G., Murtha, B.R., & Jawarski, B. 2014). This allows for consistency between the marketing strategy and marketing activities, because “marketing activities are often diffused throughout the organization (Challagalla, G., Murtha, B.R., & Jawarski, B. 2014).

Ultimately, the strategy must develop product awareness; grow interest in the product, animate consumer demand, and convert a sale. In view of the various channels that are available to reach consumers, brand identity and messaging must be cohesive.

Approaching firms with a credible multi – channel marketing strategy that complies with the attributes mentioned above is part of engaging in the Internet marketing environment. Having knowledge in the multiple areas for reaching consumers is essential for success in the field. The ability to understand the firm’s culture, brand message, and market identity are necessary for implementing a firm specific marketing campaign.

References:

Ramaseshan, B., Ishak, A., & Kingshott, R.J. (2013). Interactive effects of marketing strategy formulation and implementation upon firm performance. Journal Of Marketing Management, 29(11/12), 1224 – 1250. Doi:10.1080/0276257X.2013.796319. Retrieved March 30, 2015

Challagalla, G., Murtha, B.R., & Jawarski, B. (2014). Marketing Doctrine: A Principles – Based Approach to Guiding Marketing Decision Making I Firms. Journal of Marketing, 784 – 20. Retrieved March 30, 2015

The first, an ideal world of limitless information at your fingertips, free to search millions of websites for any topic you find of interest.

The second, a world of government surveillance, ad tracking, and privacy concerns.

From a marketing perspective, any opportunity to place ads in front of potential customers is a good thing. For web surfers, the intrusion on website viewing by popup ads, banner ads, and automated ads that crawl across the page can be annoying.

Finding that the ads presented are based on programs that track your online behavior, can be downright scary. As Americans, We are naturally leery of government surveillance of our communications. Is it acceptable that something we find dangerous from our government is acceptable for corporations that may be manipulating our behavior solely to increase their profits?

This behavior is not new. Back in 1957, it was alleged that advertisers inserted messages in ads that were too subtle for the conscious mind to interpret. That the report was later found to be a hoax, and the author admitted as much, did little to deter the feeling that subliminal persuasion is still suspected of being in use according to some.

That advertisers and marketers would engage is tactics that attract customers is not doubted. When and where these tactics are acceptable is still up for debate. When we address this subject, it is helpful to look at a similar practice, telemarketing. This form of advertising created such a negative response from consumers, that the FCC implemented a National do not call registry.

With the advent of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), is there a need for an Internet style do not track list? More importantly, is the tracking of our online behavior a threat to personal privacy, or just the cost of accessing the Web? Is a tradeoff between privacy and access a necessary condition of online life?

Balancing the needs of consumer privacy and competitive pressures to succeed presents a conundrum for marketers. Finding a balance that provides information to consumers without becoming so intrusive that it provokes a negative response is tricky. Allowing consumers to opt-out is a good start. Providing consumers with knowledge about tracking programs might lessen the intrusive feeling such programs elicit. Presenting third party ads that have no relationship to a consumer search may have negative consequences, increase bounce rates, and provoke the consumer to use your competitor.

Finally, the fact that Internet access is a contract between the consumer and the ISP, gives pause to the idea that all Internet activity is a private act, and thus afforded Fourth Amendment protections. This would be a salient argument if the Government controlled Internet access. However, since access is contractual, privacy claims are limited. A balance between online vendors and consumers that secure sensitive personal information, and allowing consumers to decline or opt out of tracking is an acceptable compromise. Divining demographic data from Internet activity is just the latest avenue for market research. Acclimating consumers to behavior tracking by making the process transparent and allowing consumers to decline inclusion should provide a balance that meets the need to both sides.