10 Benchmarks for
online marketing

Having worked on the creative side in online marketing (advertising to be precise) I quickly figured that there are similarities in a campaign's aim for all briefs that land on my desk. This is my summary of the ten benchmarks for online marketing.

1. Measurement

While coupon counting were one of the essentials of measuring response rates in direct mail, data is king online. Never before the first days of tracking-links and cookies was it as easy to gather information about users and their behaviour. However, over-excitement about the web's possibilities in the early days created dangers that had to be dealt with by a new generation of agencies and experts. Unsolicited email and data manipulation amongst other dodgy practices put the industry's reputation on jeopardy. Today we can limit the attempts of marketing's black sheep through better legal framesets and enhanced methods protecting our client's interests and our long-term relationship with them.

2. Accountability

Your audience has two things of value: Cash and information. If you don't get the first, the second is already included in the price when using the net. Monitoring click-through rates and times are some of the delights for Data Planners and Marketing Managers.

But Click through rates aren't everything. "Don't' count the people you reach, reach the people that count" as David Ogilvy wrote. With all the recent buzz over marketing ROI, it is not necessarily the most appropriate metric for every marketing initiative. While determining marketing ROI is ideal for long-term initiatives, smaller campaigns might fail to prove long-term effects like promotions and seasonal sales. The majority of CFOs will agree and want to set thresholds for when marketing ROI is used as a measure of effectiveness.

3. Being greener

From the recent success of Fiat's "Eco Drive" to HSBC's "greener banking" saving some postage and the forests' trees, the internet is full of potential for CSR specialists. Consumers go out less during a recession staying at home spending more hours watching TV and using the net. Meanwhile companies are trying to encourage their websites' use helping to save the planet. "Everything you do in the internet is green" reminds us Cisco's John Cambers promoting not only his company but a whole industry.

4. Creativity

Outdoor advertising in Hong Kong That's exactly where I come into play. "If your campaign isn't based on a good idea it will pass like a ship in the night". David Ogilvy's words long before the internet was even thought of, are timeless and undeniable. An idea should always serve a function, not the other way around. Art rarely serves utility. In fact, authentic art usually struggles to subvert it. That's why art, by itself, won't sell your products online. However, it won't sell if it doesn't appeal. Compelling copy and visuals stimulate emotional drives that work best in sales.

The space and time constraints of other media don't apply to the web. You can have any content where and when you want it. Need to show a range not a single product? Or need to talk about the intricacies of a financial product? No problem - you can be as detailed, precise, expansive or articulate as you want.

5. Technology

Most experts believe we are only at the early stage of the digital technology revolution. Internet advertising space is forecast to earn more than TV advertising in the UK in 2009, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). In no other media environment do technological circumstances change at the same pace. What Flash achieved for video contents did the Iphone for mobile web users. Convincing innovation - easily said - is the fast track to get attention from early adopters who are powerful opinion leaders. The target audience? Bloggers. Reach one person nowadays and a million people may get to know about it.

6. Personalisation

In the Internet, you only have one second. One second to generate the interest of your target audience. One second to determine if someone opens an email or moves it to the junk folder. The subject line is crucial. A personalized message is a start to gain attention. Testing different subject lines with different recipient lists helps refining results and finding profitable segments. With digital, it's perfectly possible to have as many creative variations as there are people reading it.

7. Timeliness

Perhaps your target audience isn't a 'who' at all. Maybe it's a 'when'. Maybe you have a target moment instead. The web lets you target individual timelines, not just collective ones - birthdays as well as Christmas. People who have just bought a house. People whose insurance is up for renewal. People who are getting married - or divorcing.

People also have a moment in the day - or week - which they reserve for 'dealing with stuff'. Paying bills, answering queries, organising their holidays. Miraculously your mail advertising reaches them at precisely this moment.

8. Stickiness

What's the name? Making it memorisable can be achieved through many ways. It works like learning through repetition and association. For example smoke indicates fire, the Eiffel Tower is associated with Paris, the colour pink with T-Mobile, the colour red with Coca Cola etc. Visual continuity can be maintained even through re-branding processes and campaigns created by different agencies. Long-term engagement and a high retention rate - stickiness - can be measured online by the amount of minutes a user remains on the site or the amount of return-visits (user loyalty).

Remember the award-winning viral campaign from Blendtec:

9. Beyond Borders

Easy, yes but also dangerous. Whilst the Internet offers access to a worldwide audience, a carelessly planned campaign can achieve the opposite of the desired. Copy-and-pasting text into existing creative isn't always enough for a launch abroad. Cultural and legal conditions might vary drastically from the campaign's country of origin. For example UK audiences enjoy colour coded and bright websites while Germans tend to follow very plain and simplistic styles. Also laws about advertisement's "promises", data protection and laws about browser cookies might be different between countries even within the EU. However, is there any other way a skateboarding dog could gain 75 million views, or Susan Boyle! Britain's Got Talent super star not only in Britain. It couldn't have been the result of TV alone.

10. Call to action

On a final, serious note, most small business in the UK depend on the web for their existence. That's not because other media can't do a great job persuading people to buy softer bread or cheaper car insurance. It's because no medium can match the web for translating soft opinions into hard action.

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10 Benchmarks for online marketing