This document summarizes a presentation given by Dr. Dave Chaffey at Manchester Metropolitan University on best practices in digital marketing. The presentation discusses whether best practices are always best, provides an overview of Dave Chaffey's background and qualifications, and examines frameworks for understanding digital marketing strategy, capabilities, and performance management. It also addresses topics like search engine optimization, multichannel customer journeys, content marketing, conversion rate optimization, social media, mobile marketing, and conclusions about using a test-and-learn approach to digital marketing.

1. Best Practices in Digital Marketing:
Are they always best?
6th September 2012, Manchester Metropolitan University
Faculty of Business and Law
Dr Dave Chaffey SmartInsights.com/mmubs2012
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2. About Dave Chaffey
 Books  Online advice and consulting
www.smartinsights.com
 Qualifications and training
www.theidm.com
 Insights Director
www.clickthrough-marketing.com
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3. 3

4. Ling‟s Cars
Ling‟s Cars 4

5. This month (Feb 2012) so far, I have sold 18 Merc C-
Class (to chose a significant car). That is a £30k car.
Payments will typically be more than £12,000 of payment
commitment over 3-years. Try converting and getting an
order for £12,000 from a website! Therefore I have to try
harder than most websites...
Yes, many people will take one look, or make one visit
and leave, never to come back. Many people complain
about retina burn etc. But, so what?
I *HAVE* to polarise visitors, and get them to choose
to stay or go. It's no good being average, no one would
commit to £12k of payments over 3 years if I was
average. So the argument that I get drop-off is very valid.
Source: Ling‟s cars and the art of persuading visitors to buy
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6. What is “best practice”
for digital marketing?
 A process?
 A technique?
 A mindset?
Need?
 A framework
 Capability review
 The right people
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7. 7

8. 8

9. https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/Enduring_ideas_The_7-S_Framework_2123
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10. The Journey:
Capability review gives context
Strategy process
Structure: Senior
E-commerce and performance Marketing Online marketing
Location of E- management
maturity stage improvement integration focus
commerce buy-in
process
Stage 1. Uncontrolled Content:
Limited Limited Discrete
Unplanned experimentation Brochureware
Stage 2.
Stage 1. Low-level Common Traffic:
Diffuse Diffuse Aware
Unplanned objectives initiatives visitor acquisition
management
Stage 3. Specific Conversion &
Stage 1. Annual planning
Centralised organisational Centralised Involved customer
Unplanned collaboration
management objectives experience
Stage 4. Refined
Stage 1. Driving
Decentralised online channel Decentralised Partnership Retention
Unplanned performance
operations improvement
Stage 5. Integrated
Stage 1. Whole lifecycle
Integrated & multi-channel Integrated Integral Complete
Unplanned optimisation
optimised improvement
Source: E-consultancy (2005) report „Managing an E-commerce team‟ Author: Dave Chaffey
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11. Source
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12. Source: Smart Insights – Burberry / Rossignol case 12

13. Where does “best practice”
originate?
 Opinion
 Beware the gurus!
 Experience
 Relevant case studies
 Testing
 Using analytics
 Research
 What sample
size/frame, sector?
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14. Mobile and social are sexy, and important for the future. But today
98% of your revenue comes from Email, Affiliate, Display, Search.
At least 50% of your attention / love / obsession should be to
continuously get good at 98% of your revenue.
You'll likely survive longer. : )
Will you get the balance right?
Investment in CRO?
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15. Performance management
Figure 9.4 The five diagnostic categories for e-marketing measurement
from the framework presented by Chaffey (2000)
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16. Measure Reach Encourage Convert Engage customers
Audience Action incl lead To sale to retain and grow
generation
Tracking  Unique visitors  Online opportunity  Online sales  Email list quality
metrics  New visitors (lead) volume volume  Email
 Visits  Offline opportunity  Offline sales engagement
 Conversation (lead) volume volume quality
volume generated from generated from  Transactions
online online
Performance  Share of audience  Page engagement  Conversion rate  Active customers
drivers  Share of search rate (Bounce rate, to sale % (site and email
(diagnostics)  Brand/direct visits duration)  Channel active)
 Lead conversion rate conversion rates  Active social
by engagement tool  Category followers
conversion rates  Repeat
conversion rate
Customer-  Cost per click and  Cost per lead  Average order  Lifetime value
centric KPIs cost per sale  Customer satisfaction value  Customer loyalty
 Brand awareness  Cost per sale index
 Conversation  Customer  Customer
polarity satisfaction advocacy
(sentiment)  Products per
customer
Business  Audience share  Goal value per visit  Revenue per visit  Retained sales
value KPIs (owned media) or  Online lead  Online-originated growth and
 Share of voice contribution contribution to volume
(earned media) (n,£, % of total) sales, revenue  Revenue per
and product channel and
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category

17.  PLAN:
 Insight
 Journey
analysis
 OVP
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18. Harnessing insight
http://bit.ly/smartbenchmarking
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19. Group common search behaviours
NOT keyword LISTS:
Need: treatment/surgery
Concerns: risks/costs
<Need> + <Qualifiers>
Google Agency Toolkit
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20. 20

21. 21

22. From insight to targeting:
an example from eBay
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23. Not easy…. Need:
1. Contact rules (email)
2. Personalisation rules (site)
3. Conversation calendars (social)
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24. Customer journey analysis
FROM THIS TO THIS
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Source: Nate Elliot, Analyst at Forrester Research

25. Making the 3 layers work together
Transaction Interaction Reach
layer layer layer
Example:
Sneakerpedia
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Source Nate Elliot, Analyst at Forrester Research

26. Attributing complex behaviour
Any Click 1st Click Last Click Best Click
14/01 SEO
The first click or view
15/01 MSN banner The last click or
within the campaign view which has
defined click window the highest
23/01 PPC campaign priority
within the defined
click or view
24/01 Tradedoubler window
3/02 Email
4/02 Direct Without deduplication,
each „tracked‟ The last click or view
campaign will report a
5/02 SEO
whole sale and claim
full commission
Hiscox example
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27. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSoCsoqJ41c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gavgc43x4XU
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28. Use Google Analytics MCF
to understand true value
Measuring assists in Google Analytics
Google‟s new social reports
28 2
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29. Understanding
multichannel journeys
Smart Insights: ROPO summary of Google case
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30. Consistent OVP through customer journeys
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31.  REACH
 Mix
 SEO
 Viral
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32. 32

33. A balanced traffic mix?
Source: Google 2010 33

34. c2008 version
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35. Is ethical SEO “best practice”?
 Dark Inky Black Hat SEO: So evil he‟s a typosquatter installing spyware. Plain illegal, too.
 Charcoal Hat SEO: Optimizes really unrelated pages for all kinds of queries, but within the bounds of
legality.
 Dark Gray Hat SEO: This SEO is e.g. a splogger stealing content from other sites. (What, that‟s better than
charcoal?)
 Slate Gray Hat SEO: An SEO creating link farms and such.
 Gray Hat SEO: An SEO who actually reads the search engine‟s webmaster guidelines, but then tries as
much “evil” as she can get away with.
 Light Gray Hat SEO: This SEO creates original content (lots of it), but the content is still only aimed at
search engines.
 Off-White Hat SEO: This guy not only ensures the site is indexable – he‟ll also make sure to get lots of
backlinks from friends.
 White Hat SEO: This person puts up the content that people are actually searching for, and prepares the
site to make it very accessible. White Hat SEOs only optimize those of their pages they deem worthy to be
ranking top in search engines.
 Luminescent Pearly White Hat SEO: Not only does this SEO do everything the White Hat SEO does, the
LPW Hat SEO also makes sure pages will not show up for irrelevant queries.
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36. A case in point…
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37. Google+ matters (to SEO)
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38. H&M + Google+
Case study
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39. Source: Digital Buzz Blog
Dollar Shave 39

40.  ACT
 Content
marketing
 UX
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41. 41

42. TEFL Taster example
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Smart Insights Explainer example

43. Bad design isn’t hard to find…
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44. Source: Jakob Nielsen useit.com
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45. Persistent UX myth 1:
3 click rule
Source: UIE
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46. Persistent UX myth 2:
Make the home page scrollable
Source: CX Partners
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47. Source: CX Partners
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48. Persistent UX myth 3:
The home page is most important
to get right / optimise
In 2003, 39 percent of the page views for a large research website
were for the homepage. By 2009, it was down to 19 percent. In
one month in 2008, of the 70,000 page views a technology site
received, 22,000 were for the homepage. For the same month in
2010, of the 120,000 page views the site received, only 2,500
were for the homepage.
Another technology website had roughly 10 percent of page views
for the homepage in 2008, and by 2010 it was down to 5 percent.
One of the largest websites in the world had 25 percent of visitors
come to the homepage in 2005, but in 2010 only has 10 percent.
Gerry McGovern: The Decline of the homepage
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49.  CONVERT
 CRO
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50. 50

51. 51

52. How Facebook Test
Source: Facebook Engineering
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53. How effective is your feedback cycle?
Source: ACSI
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54. 54

55. Ask “Why” as well as “what” - use feedback tools Key
Point
iPerceptions http://www.4qsurvey.com
“Bad web site. Difficult to
find item as no search box
provided for short cut”
“I can't find any prices on
your website”
“Would like to see where I
can buy products from” .
Satisfaction : Intent tools
http://bit.ly/smartfeedback
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56. www.whatusersdo.com 56

57. Gaining site and business innovation
ideas through Uservoice
Tools: http://bit.ly/smartfeedback
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58. 58

59. How we encourage conversion...
Discount for MMUBS
Code: MMUBS-20
Valid Sept 2012
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60.  ENGAGE
 Customer
comms
 Social
media
 Mobile
marketing
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61. 61

62. Parasuraman,A.;Berry,Leonard L.;Zeithaml,Valarie A.,
“A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research”,
Journal of Marketing, 1985, 49, 4, 41-50.
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63. Loiacono, E., Watson, R., Goodhue, D. (2007) WebQual: A measure of Web Site Quality, Journal
International Journal of Electronic Commerce archive, Volume 11 Issue 3, Number 3 / Spring 2007 Pages 51-87
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64. Source: Dan Zarrella
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65. There’s life in Email
(RE)Marketing
 1. Generic branded follow-up
email :
+10% conversion rate.
 2. Personalised remarketing
email with a promotional code
for a 5% discount time limited
to 72 hours:
+100% conversion rate.
 3. Personalised remarketing
email with a promotional code
for a 5% discount time limited
to 48 hours:
+200% conversion rate.
Source: Smart Insights: Email re-marketing
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66. Your email marketing capability?
Presented by Grant Baillie of Argos at 2008 Email marketing conference, with permission
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67. The ? growth of mobile
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68. Source: Craig Sullivan (Belron/Autoglass)68

69. Mobile best practice?
Source: Mobile marketing 2015
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70. 70

71. Social CRM?
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72. 72

73. A glimpse of the future
Rue La La (Flash Sales)
April 14th 2012
53% mobile
(Apps and Site)
30% mobile
Weekends
40% mobile
Weekdays
Source: InternetRetailer.com 73

74. Conclusions?
 You can run an online business by best practice alone,
but… to make the most of opportunities you need…
 A digital marketing strategy
 To analyse and test, test, test what works in your sector
 Be relentless!
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75. Digital marketing pioneers
Where are you on your journey?
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76. http://www.smartinsights.com/analytics-conversion-optimisation-alerts/dell-international-web-analytics-case-study/
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77. Take a health check!
http://bit.ly/smarthealthcheck
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78. Let’s Connect!
Questions & discussion welcome
SmartInsights.com/mmubs2012
 Blog
uk.linkedin.com/in/davechaffey
www.smartinsights.com/blog
 Feeds
www.feedburner.com/smartinsi
www.facebook.com/davechaffey
ghts
 Email Newsletter
www.smartinsights.com
www.twitter.com/DaveChaffey
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