Taking Marketing to the Next Level – Innovate!
Marketing Fearture in Volume 1 Issue 5
September 6, 2002
by Greg Jarboe, Backbone Media
BOSTON MA - How do you prepare a marketing plan for 2003 when forecasts
for the life science marketplace look like Charles Dickens wrote them
in 1859?
Is it the best of times? IDC’s Bio-IT Market Forecast says IT spending
is growing at a compound annual growth rate of more than 24% and will
hit nearly $38 billion in 2006. Or, is it the worst of times? The Ernst
& Young Beyond Borders report says private investment in biotech companies
dropped more than 75% last year and IPO activity fell off a cliff.
If long-term customer demand is fundamentally at odds with short-term
investor appetite, what is the right marketing solution?
You can do “more with less” – and there’s only one
proven way to do that: innovate!
While you can do “less with less” using a traditional marketing
mix, you can’t do “more with less” unless you innovate.
So, how do you innovate? eMarketing is a good start.
An eMarketing Plan
An eMarketing plan is more focused than a traditional marketing plan on
the innovative marketing opportunities and strategies created by the Internet.
The eMarketing plan works as a standalone plan and as an extension of
your traditional marketing plan. When designing your eMarketing plan,
take into consideration the components which are specific to Internet
marketing: database strategies, traffic management, profiling etc. Spend
some time thinking about how you can use the technology and globalization
of the Internet to optimize visibility and ROI. Exhibit 1 contains a sample
outline of an eMarketing plan. You could also get some free advice from
a marketing professor on preparing an eMarketing Plan. (Contact me directly
at greg.jarboe@backbonemedia.com and I’ll email you a White Paper
entitled, eMarketing Planning: Accountability and eMetrics, written by
Prof. Michael Griffin of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.)
E-Marketing Executive Summary
E-Market Situation Analysis
E-Marketing Research
Online Target Market(s)and Profile(s)
Online Marketing and Promotion / Advertising Objectives
Online Branding Concepts / Objectives
Online Product, Price and Distribution Strategies
Sales Projections
E-Marketing Budgets
E-Commerce / Internet Marketing Strategy
E-Advertising
E-Sales Promotion
E-Public Relations
E-Direct Marketing and Database Strategies
Viral Marketing and Affiliate Programs
Traffic Management
Global Aspects of E-Marketing
Implementation and Control |
Exhibit 1: eMarketing Plan Outline
(Source: KMT Software’s eMarketing Suite)
eMetrics
Then you should get your hands on some examples of eMetrics to forecast,
manage, and track results, since you are accountable for achieving them.
The term eMetrics refers to measurements and ratios of the success of
online media initiatives.
As you implement your eMarketing plans, you may invent new eMetrics
of your own. The more you work with eMetrics, the more ideas you will
have about developing new measurements or refining existing ones. Perhaps
you can combine data to create new benchmarks of eMarketing performance.
For example, Backbone Media (www.backbonemedia.com), a web-marketing
agency, helps its clients calculate how much search engine optimization
(SEO) is worth using the following four-step process:
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Click Through Rate (CTR)
To estimate your click through rate, multiply the
total number of monthly searches (above) by 10%.
Conversion Rate
To estimate your web site’s conversion
rate, multiply your monthly search engine traffic (above) by
4%.
Monthly Revenue Generated by Search
Engine Optimization
To estimate the monthly revenue generated
by search engine optimization, multiply the number of online sales
(above) by the average price of your best-selling product or service.
Backbone Media then uses these calculations
to tailor Search Engine Optimization programs for its clients.
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Formula 1.8
To estimate how many times the top 25 keywords and phrases
related to your web site were searched upon last month, use Overture’s
free term suggestion tool (www.overture.com/d/Usm/adcenter/
tools/index.jhtml).
As you develop a toolbox of eMetrics, ask yourself:
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Which eMetrics help measure success of my business
model?
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Which eMetrics are unique to the business model?
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Which eMetrics can be derived from data (i.e., server
logs) that you control?
The more you think about and invent useful eMetrics, the more innovative
your eMarketing campaigns will become – enabling you to do “more
with less” in the life science marketplace.
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(Greg Jarboe is Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Backbone
Media (www.backbonemedia.com).
Contact Greg directly at greg.jarboe@backbonemedia.com
to get (via e-mail) a White Paper entitled “eMarketing Planning:
Accountability and eMetrics.” Written by Prof. Michael Griffin
of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, this complimentary white
paper: outlines the eMarketing planning process and short-cuts through
it; offers a sampling of eMetrics for forecasting and accountability,
and provides an overview of KMT Software's eMarketing Suite, an integrated
set of tools and templates for Microsoft Office.
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