Set the right goals for digital marketing using the 5Ss
Do your set of goals for online marketing cover all the bases? A good set of digital marketing goals covers a range of different measures to help set, review and control performance across all digital marketing activities.
The 5Ss of digital marketing is a good, simple starting point to help check you’re covering the whole of digital marketing, not just sales!
PR Smith, my co-author on Emarketing Excellence developed the 5Ss of digital marketing around 2000, and although basic, it’s still used by many planning their digital marketing strategy. So I thought I’d share it here by showing how it applies today to ASOS.com, a dynamic online business. To measure the goals suggested, see my post on goal setup in Google Analytics.
1. Sell – Grow sales
Start with your most important transactions that lead to revenue and profit! That’s sales, or if you don’t sell online, the leads that your online marketing will deliver which will convert through to sales or donations if you’re a not-for-profit.
Notice how ASOS aim to increase sales through boosting trust in the online purchase process and offering free delivery.
Tip. Use a conversion models helps set quantitative targets to hit. Use this Excel digital marketing budgeting spreadsheet we have developed to help set the right goals.
2. Speak – Get closer to customers through dialogue and participation
Digital channels are not only great sales channels, they excel as communications channels to engage your audience through the 6 main digital marketing tools.We recommend creating detailed conversion or budget models which allow you to set goals by channel for reaching and influencing your audience.
Since digital channels work best when joined with other channels, the goals here should also include online visits prompted by traditional offline media.
Although ASOS.com is a pureplay, it’s customer magazine is important in building the brand and influencing sales.
3. Serve – Add value
The company website and social customer service are a natural place for customers to go to get their questions answers or to complain… Paying attention to the quality of service you offer is also key to support your capability to Sell, Speak, Save and Sizzle.
So you need customer satisfaction goals to assess how you good you are at customer service and then improve it further.
ASOS have invested in a choice of customer service channels as this example shows.
4. Save – Save costs
Less glamorous than the sizzle of building your brand and social media engagement, but you should show the value you gain through using online cost savings to reduce service costs and save on traditional media like print and post.
This is most relevant for a multichannel retailer or service company who can set goals for number of catalogues downloaded or number of service transactions compared to other channels.
If you’re fighting for budget for online channels, the savings you can demonstrate to your finance director or budget holder will improve help your cause.
5. Sizzle – Extending your brand online
Putting the Sizzle into your digital marketing will really help your sales and speak goals, but it’s not to easy to set goals for and then to track. So what is the “Sizzle in your Sausage”?
Sizzle is about building your brand online. Think about what makes for a positive online brand experience is for your audience and you.
If the experience you create is effective, the benefits of engaging with your digital presence will be clear; the interactions within the site and with other channels will be smooth and the visitor will want to use your online services again, and tell their friends and colleagues about it.
So key sizzle goals are levels of satisfaction and recommendations or advocacy. ASOS have invested heavily in community platforms and social media to deliver the sizzle!
See our ideas on these tools for getting website feedback
Source of 5S image: Multimedia Marketing. The 5Ss are introduced in Emarketing Excellence.