If you're reading this article there's a good chance you're a marketer. You're probably a marketer who knows that the online channel is powerful and has earned its place within the marketing mix. And like a lot of marketers, you'll probably be the first to admit that it's hard to keep track of the changing world of online marketing, but are willing to try. The good news, then, is that you are not alone. However, there is some bad news too...

I'm guessing you're like most Australian marketers and struggle to demonstrate the value marketing brings to your organisation. And that's probably because you're not in a position to demonstrate how the activities that you perform contribute to the bottom line. As a result, you never get the budgets you want, spending half your time begging the CFO for additional dollars and the other half developing online campaigns that you know are going to fall short of the mark (because you don't have the budget to do it properly).

But don't despair, there's hope - and money - available to you. It's just a matter of knowing how to release the finances from the vice-like grip of your CFO. And it doesn't have to be as difficult as it sounds. CFO's tend to more easily distribute budgets if they know what the impact of the spend is on the bottom-line. Fortunately, that's pretty easy to do in the online channel, because almost everything can be measured if engineered correctly.

So what do you need to do?

Step 1. Define Objectives

Know what you are trying to achieve. Are you simply attempting to drive traffic, and if so, how will this affect the bottom-line? Probably very little. Or is your objective to sell, and if not directly, then indirectly? Hmm... I wonder which is the more attractive option to the bean counters?

Step 2. Develop the strategy

Know exactly how you are going to achieve those objectives. Have you written a marketing plan? What's more convincing: hyperbole or a documented approach backed up by research? Reduce perceived risk.

Step 3. Calculate the risk

Know what the benchmarks are for the activities you wish to perform. If your Web site is not eCommerce enabled, then make sure you understand the impact that customer loyalty has on sales conversion.

But before you move to Step 4, you need to address a critical part of the story - measurement.

If you want ongoing budgets, if you want buy-in from the CFO and the rest of the management team, if you want to actually get results, then you need to measure.

You must have the framework that will allow you to measure against your objectives and the trip-wires to allow you to identify any barriers that prevent your customers or prospects from making that journey.

We all know that marketing is not an exact science. It's very difficult to get things completely right the first time. We must understand what works and what doesn't - and then fix what doesn't and improve what does.

And be prepared to share (i.e. communicate to the CFO) the good with the bad. The bad does not look so bad when you can identify where the problem is and then recommend how to fix it.

And finally ...

Step 4. Sell the Concept

Understand that while you shouldn't have to, you do in fact need to sell the concept to the CFO (or whoever else it is that holds the purse-strings). In order to do so, you must (a) clearly communicate what you plan on undertaking; and (b) clearly communicate the financial benefits of the activity. Don't set unreasonable expectations but demonstrate that your objectives are in line with their objectives. Trust is critical in sales... but you know that.

Labels: Process and Methodology, Web marketing