Change Impetus Group

Websites Not at Campaign Core: Alterian Survey

Though online investments are the focus of many campaigns, one-fifth of respondents claimed that their website was only ‘basic’ and not at the core of its marketing activity. With increased investment predicted in online marketing channels, companies need to better understand the importance of the website in effectively underpinning its online presence, Alterian said, adding that this statistic demonstrates a need for companies to better understand the channels available to them before investing their marketing funds.

“Marketers must not forget that their own website is the destination that many of their activities drive customers and prospects to, and they need to be extracting the maximum value this cornerstone of any forward-thinking company’s marketing activity,” Eldridge added.

About the survey: The Alterian 2008 Survey polled a total of 1,545 marketing professionals. The annual survey, now in its sixth year, was conducted in North America and the UK October 1 - December 4, 2008 through a dedicated website landing page, and hardcopy, in-person interviews at the 2008 Direct Marketing Association Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, the 2008 Ad:tech Exhibition in New York and the 2008 Interactive Marketing Show in Manchester.

Our understanding of the 20% who have basic websites is that they need to get that in order to deliver effective Social Media Marketing initiatives, their web platforms need to be moved to Web 2.0. Hoarding the masses to a useless website is not a strategy, it's a disaster in terms of moving people from awareness to interest when the destination website essentially kicks them in the intellectual shins.

Becoming aroused in a program, service or product offering and then finding there is no way to sign up, comment, take a poll, download a coupon, create a profile, participate in a forum, share a link or download a webinar or source a retailer/ on line agency to place and order is suicidal. In terms of abandonment, it is a too common scenario which leaves the visitor permanently turned off.

Many companies are still spending time and effort on the look and feel of their web properties in terms of graphic design, interesting flash vignettes or outlinked Blogs. Getting to a web 2.0 enabled platform should be a priority one objective.

For the other 80% of companies using websites for marketing purposes, they also need to gear up for the use of Social Media Marketing tools and best practices-beyond basic Blogs. There are many best practices which can be drawn from. Social Media Wave can assist in getting your marketing strategies to the next level.