E-Marketing

Dr. Karim Kobeissi

Chapter 3: The E-Marketing Plan

3-2

E-marketing Plan - Definition

An e-marketing plan is a strategic document developed
through analysis and research that aims at achieving
marketing objectives via electronic medium. It has same
principal as the classical marketing plan which supports the
general business strategy.
A digital plan is needed to support a digital orientation of an
organization, and most importantly to align its goals,
strategies and tactics.
Each product /brand should have its OWN e-marketing plan.

Is a Distinct E-marketing Plan

Necessary?
A separate e-marketing plan is not
necessary as part of the marketing
planning process e-marketing can
and should be integrated into existing
marketing plans (Chaffey (2005).

A G e n e r i c Fr a m e w o r k f o r E - m a r ke t i n g
Planning
In "E-Marketing excellence" Smith and Chaffey (2005) use
the SOSTAC framework to suggest an approach of
Web-marketing planning which is adopted in this
chapter.
The SOSTAC framework is particularly applicable to the
digital marketing context, as it helps to evaluate,
structure and manage the key strategies, tactics and
actions of a company combined with digital marketing
communication techniques (Chaffey and Smith, 2013).

A G e n e r i c Fr a m e w o r k f o r E - m a r k e t i n g P l a n n i n g ( c o n )

The stages involved in the SOSTAC framework can be summarized as:

S= Situation Analysis Where are we now?

O= Objectives Where do we want to be?

S= Strategy How do we get there?

T= Tactics How exactly do we get there? Details and tools

A= Action Who is going to do what and when? Processes and

systems.
C = Control Did we get there? How do we monitor and measure the
process? Metrics.
These stages are not disconnected but there is some overlap during
each stage of planning, previous stages may be revised and
redefined as indicated by revised arrows in the next slide for creating
an e-marketing plan.

Add the 3M's

Additionally, a plan needs three key resources,

referred to as 3Ms, which are the three key
resources, Men, Money and Minutes.
1) Menmeaning men and women, expertise and
abilities to do different jobs.
2) Moneymeans budgets - have we the money?
3) Minutesmean time - what are the time
scales,

schedules

enough time?

or

deadlines?

Is

there

The RACE framework

The RACE Planning System represent a useful tool for
structuring the online marketing strategy, with the
purpose of reaching and engaging customers to meet
e-business strategic objectives (Chaffey and Smith
2013).
RACE or Reach-Act-Convert-Engage cycle is focused on
achieving defined targets in digital marketing with the
help of SOSTAC model steps. In other words, the
ultimate goal at the heart of the Multichannel Marketing
Growth Wheel is achieving broader corporate and
strategic goals.

The RACE framework

The key steps for a digital strategy to achieve online
growth are:
Reaching: segmentation and targeting, publishing and promoting

content to customers and prospects, getting visitors, acquiring

followers and fans through search engines, social networks,
publishers, blogs, online PR, affiliate and partner marketing (KPI:
unique visitors, value per visit, fans/followers)
Acting: brand positioning and online value proposition, achieving

interaction, getting shares and creating leads through enjoyable

and clear customer journeys and relevant, inspirational and
useful content on website, blog, community and via interactive
tools, lead generation techniques, (KPI: leads, lead conversion
rate, time on site, shares/comments/likes).

The RACE framework (con)

Converting: content strategy, driving sales, capitalizing on
marketing investment with CRO1, marketing automation
and

remarketing,

home

page

and

landing

page

optimization, 4 Ps (KPI: sales, profit, AOV2, Google

analytics)
Engaging: integrated communication strategy and content
marketing, customer service and support, social CRM, enewsletters and promotion, boosting customer experience,
engaging

through

time,

thrilled

customers,

customer

advocacy through social media marketing, repeat sales and

referrals (KPI: repeat purchase/lifetime value, satisfaction,
loyalty, advocacy).

Multichannel Marketing Growth Wheel Framework

The Multichannel Marketing Growth Wheel framework introduced in

2015 by Smart Insights, is the newest tool available for planning an
integrated digital marketing strategy. It combines the SOSTAC

model, and the RACE Planning System in one framework. The tool
includes key activities that help planning, managing and optimizing
multichannel marketing. The Multichannel Marketing Growth Wheel
(MMGW) provides a structured framework for producing an integrated
digital marketing plan, by applying the SOSTAC and RACE models to
digital marketing tools. The framework is focused on achieving business
value through customer interactions, and shows broader goals in the
RACE lifecycle (Dave Chaffey, SmartInsights.com). The RACE framework is
embedded into the Multichannel Marketing Growth Wheel (MMGW) model
and is situated at the centre of the wheel.

I. Situation Analysis
The aim of situation analysis is to understand the current and
future environment in which the company operates in order that
the strategic objectives are realistic in light of what is happening in
the marketplace. Situation analysis is supposed to give a
distinct image where the firm is now.
The traditional tried and tested analytical areas are:
KPIs key performance indicators which identify the businesss
success criteria, results, data and measurements against
benchmarks
SWOT analysis identifying internal strengths, and weaknesses, as
well as external opportunities and threats.
PEST political, economic, social and technological variables that
shape our marketplace.
Demand how many customers are online, how many customers
prefer iDTV are there new channel segments emerging?
Competitors who are they? New online adversaries or the same
old competitors as always?
Distributors are new, online, intermediaries emerging while old
offline distributors are being wiped out (disintermediation)?

Demand Analysis
An effective marketing plan requires an understanding the demand
dynamic of market. This can involve analyzing the current demand
and projecting future demand of the whole market or narrowing
scope of analysis to gain knowledge of demand for specific market
segment. Demand analysis focuses in number of issues that are:
- The level of connectivity of the internet by customers
- The level of interactivity
- The number of customer who purchase product and services via
internet
- The number of customer who assess the website but does not
purchase via internet
- Identifying the barriers using the internet for purchasing purpose
(Combe 2006, 121)

C o m p e t i t o r A n a l y si s
Competitor analysis or the monitoring of competitor use of ecommerce to acquire and retain customer is especially
important in the e-marketing due to dynamic nature of
internet medium (Chaffey2004, 324).
Earlier competitors were well known but with the growth of
internet in the global marketplace there may be new entrants
that have the potential to achieve significant market share.
Now copying the concept and approach are possible but in
some occasion it can be controlled by patenting.
Benchmarking is used to compare e-commerce service within
market. Companies need to review internet based
performance of both existing and new players. When
benchmarking companies should review competitors sites,
identifying best practices, worst practices and next practices
(Chaffey, 2004).

C- SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is the overall evaluation of the companys
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. (Kotler
& Keller 2011, 89). The purpose of SWOT analysis in an
e-marketing plan is to be able to benefit from the
strengths and strengthen the weaknesses.
The objective behind the SWOT analysis is to understand
the

companies

capabilities.

resources,

competences

and

SLEPT / PEST Analysis

II. Objectives
While the situation analysis explains where we
are now?, objectives clarify where we are
going - where we want to be. There are five
broad objectives of e-marketing (Chaffy, 2013).
These can be summarized as the 5 Ss. We must
decide whether all, or only some, are going to
drive our e-marketing plan.

The 5 Ss

1) Sell Grow sales (through wider distribution to customers you

cant service offline or perhaps through a wider product range
than in-store, or better prices).
2) Serve Add value (give customers extra benefits online: or inform
product development through online dialogue and feedback).
3) Speak Get closer to customers by tracking them, asking them
questions, conducting online interviews, creating a dialogue,
monitoring chat rooms, learning about them
4) Save Save costs - of service, sales transactions and
administration, print and post. Can you reduce transaction costs
and therefore either make online sales more profitable? Or use
cost-savings to enable you to cut prices, which in turn could
enable you to generate greater market share?
5) Sizzle Extend the brand online. Reinforce brand values in a
totally new medium. The Web scores very highly as a medium for
creating brand awareness, recognition and involvement.

Objectives (con)
All of the 5S objectives have to be measurable, therefore each
of the objective should be a SMART objective. SMART refers to:
Specific (with focus), Measurable (performance assessment,
qualitative/quantitative

analysis),

Actionable

(assisting

in

improving performance), Relevant (digital marketing domain),

and Time-related (specific time period).
Smart objectives can be for instance lead generation, reach,
acquisition,

engagement,

conversion

or

retention.

Goal

performance and key performance indicators (KPIs) have to be

set.

III. Strategy
E-marketing strategy guides the choice of target markets, positioning
and propositions, which in turn guide the optimum marketing mix the
sequence of e-tools (such asweb sites, opt-in email, e-sponsorship,
viral marketing), service level and evolutionary stage (from
brochure-ware sites to two-way interactive sites to fully
integrated e-business systems). One ultimate (medium- to longterm) part of e-marketing strategy is the development of the dynamic
dialogue (including a contact strategy) via the integrated database.
Regardlessof how the customer comes intocontact, he or she must
be dealt with as a recognizable individual with unique preferences.
This affects customer retention which, in itself, is a strategic decision
(e.g. to improve customer retention levels requires a complete
integrated database and contact strategy. The strategy
determine how social media will be used.

can also

IV - Tactics
Tactics represent the details of the strategy. We need
to list all the e-tools we plan to use, in the sequence
or evolutionary stages set out in the e-strategy.
Tactical e-tools include not only physical tools [e.g.,
PCs, lap-tops, Integrated Digital Television, i-radio,
mobiles devices (SMS, GPRS, WAP...), hand-held
devices, and Interactive self-service kiosks] but also
traffic tools such as banner ads, text messages,
opt-in

e-mail,

optimization...

viral

marketing,

search

engine

Emarketing Mix
E-marketing tactics focuses on deciding the optimum marketing
mix. The marketing mix refers to 4Ps of Product, Price, Place and
Promotion that is used for formulating and implementing marketing
strategy.
In e-marketing there are additional 4Ps which also needs to be
taken into consideration i.e. Presentation, Process, People and
Physical evidences.
Regardless of the approach to the mix, the same principle applies
stick close to customers; use marketing research to learn what they
need and supply it better than competition by mixing the right mix.

V - Action
Tactics break down into actions- in fact, a series of
actions that need to be managed. Each tactic
(such as a banner ad, an interactive TV ad, a viral
campaign or an opt-in campaign...) becomes a
mini project, requiring a series of actions.
We need to produce a project action plan for each
tactic project, with key steps allocated to
specific people with specific timescales. Good
project management skills and attention to details
are essentials.

VI - Control
Without control mechanisms, e-marketingdepends on
luck. It's a bit like playing darts in the dark. How do
we know if you are hitting the target or are just
shootingblindly and wildly? How do we know if we're
targeting the right customers? Who are they? What
do they likeand not like? How many of them become
repeat customers? Which e-tool works best? How
much does each customer actually cost us?
The control mechanisms provide answers to these
important questions.

Performance Measurement
Good marketers build in control systems toensure they
know what's working and what's not early rather than late.
Why wait until the end of the year? Why not have a
system in place that keeps track of key performance
indicators? We have done the work specified the tactics,
performed the actions . . . now, is the plan working? Have
we achieved the objectives, is the strategy working, did
we choose theright tactics . . . have we spent the money
and time wisely? To find out we must measure the KPIs
and review what we did Performance Measurement. This
is the Control section of the e-marketing SOSTAC cycle.

Key Performance Indicators

(KPI)
Sales Key
Performance
Indicators

Marketing Key
Performance
Indicators

Hourly, daily, weekly,

Site traffic

monthly, quarterly, and

Unique visitors

annual sales

versus

Average order size

returning visitors

(sometimes called

Time on site

average market basket)

Page views per visit

Average margin

Traffic source

Conversion rate

Day part monitoring

Shopping cart

(when site visitors

abandonment rate

come)

Customer Service
Key Performance
Indicators
Customer service email
count
Customer service
phone call count
Customer service chat
count

Sales Key Performance Indicator Conversion rate

Theconversion rateis the percentage of users who take
a

desired

ofconversion

action.
rateis

The
the

archetypical
percentage

of

example
website

visitors who buy something on the site. Example: An

e-commerce site is visited by 100,000 people during
the month of April. During that month, 2,000 users
purchased something from the site. Thus, the site's
conversion rate is 2,000/100,000 = 2%.

Marketing Key Performance Indicator - Click

Through Rate
The click-through rate (CTR) of an advertisement is
defined as the number of clicks on an ad divided by the
number

of

times

the

ad

is

shown

(impressions),

expressed as a percentage.For example, if abanner

adis delivered 100 times (100 impressions) and receives
five

clicks,

then

the

click-through

rate

for

the

advertisement would be 5%.

The Click-through rateis a way of measuring the
success

of

anonline

advertisingcampaign

for

particular website by the number of users that clicked on

a specific link.

Customer Service Key Performance Indicator

-Average Resolution Time

Average Resolution Time (ART) helps organizations track the average

amount of time spent resolving customer issues.

The greatest interest in ART tends to be in the domain of technical

support, where organizations and their customers share the common goal
of resolving customer issues as quickly as possible. For customers, this
means returning to operational status as quickly as possible; for
employers this means controlling support costs while maintaining
customer satisfaction.

ART is typically measured in hours or days depending on the nature of the

product or system being supported, and is measured from the time a sup
port

request

is

logged

until

the

time

the

case

is

closed.

Performance
should
inform
business
decisions and

Web Performance Analysis

We previously mentioned that our objectives have to be
SMART: Specific, Mesurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time
related. Now we test whether they were! Essentially, all the
objectives listed inthe objectives section need to be
measured and monitored some of them quarterly, others
monthly and others daily. This putsus in control. In addition,
there are other controlsthat need to be in place: usability
testing; concept testing; A/ B testing. Time has to be made
for a regular review of what's working and whats not Web
Performance Analysis. Then our e-tactics, or even estrategy, can be modified (or changed) through corrective
actions if necessary.

Web Performance Analysis Softwares