SINGAPORE, 25 NOVEMBER 2009 - Companies have a strong awareness of the importance of digital measurement programs. However, they still have to overcome the tactical challenges of executing an effective program, according to the results from Webtrends digital marketing maturity model (DM3) assessment survey.
Webtrends is a customer intelligence company that turns online and offline data into understanding. DM3 is Webtrends’ standardised model created to determine how effectively organisations measure and use the data generated by their online marketing programs. This survey was released in June this year and more than 160 companies took part.
Preliminary results from the DM3 survey indicate enterprises have geographic and industry-specific strengths and weaknesses. For instance, financial services companies exhibit higher levels of maturity in the ongoing optimisation category than technology companies. Similarly, enterprises operating in the United States show lesser maturity than those in the United Kingdom for the categories of data integration and data visualisation.
Difficult to run effective programs
While companies may be interested in tapping the online marketing opportunities, it is important to measure its effectiveness to see if it is delivering the desired results.
Webtrends has come up with DM3 framework that assesses and builds digital marketing maturity over time in the areas of measurement strategy, analytics resources and domain expertise, data integration and visualisation, data analysis and insight, adoption and governance, and ongoing optimisation.
All these are core areas, and there are four levels of maturity among these areas. The model also considers profiles that describe the measurement practices common to each areas.
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Webtrends vice president of marketing, noted that today, organisations understand the importance of a digital measurement program and resources to maintain it. But they have yet to overcome the challenges of executing an effective program.
Kaykas-Wolff said measurement tools alone are not sufficient to help them manage a successful digital measurement program. Organisations can have better results if they tie up with Webtrends and leverage their knowledge and expertise to effectively apply the data they’re collecting.
“These findings prove that companies are investing thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in measurement tools without fully understanding how to get the most out of them.”
Digital marketing still new in Asia
This survey has further revealed some interesting findings. Most respondents paid a lot of attention to their measurement strategy and analytics resources, which Webtrends believe are the two most fundamental pillars of a successful digital measurement program.
More than half of the respondents received low scores in website marketing and marketing analysis and nearly three quarters scored low on social media analysis. About three quarters have problems achieving enterprise-wide adoption of measurement and establishing governance standards. More than half received low scores in ongoing optimisation area.
“Digital marketing in many Asian organisations are still at its infancy stage. Many businesses are aware of the power of the Web, but do not know how to design a marketing programme which leverages the platform,” said James McDermott, vice president, partnerships and general counsel. “DM3 is as an ideal framework and guideline for these organisations and is cost-efficient for the large number of small-medium enterprises in Asia.”
