Online Marketing Controlling – Making Marketing Successful

Online marketing controlling is a central topic in the work of the E-Commerce Institute, along with strategic analyses and e-commerce controlling. The task of online marketing controlling is to plan and control all measures in online marketing in such a way that the potentials of the company and the market are used with the highest yield. At the heart of online marketing controlling is the analysis that determines the marketing success for each channel and campaign and forms the basis for optimizing campaigns.

Online Marketing Controlling – no campaign without analysis

The great attractiveness of e-commerce and e-business is essentially based on the marketing possibilities on the Internet, which go far beyond the possibilities of traditional advertising media. Every customer or user contact is recorded in data records, for which analysis tools are available immediately and inexpensively.

Much more important: in online marketing, companies can directly enter into a dialogue with customers and very efficiently convert marketing communication into dialogue-oriented communication. E-commerce marketing is, therefore, dialogue marketing; every single landing page in an online shop or on a website can and should be used to enter into a dialogue with the users who are to become customers.

So much for the good news! However, in order for this news to remain good, companies that use the online channel as a communication channel and as a sales channel must be very aware of one fact. Online marketing always means competitive marketing, or better yet, highly competitive marketing.

For stationary retailers who have primarily implemented location marketing in stationary retail, increasing the intensity of competition when entering e-commerce is the most important challenge. Online Marketing Controlling means the success-oriented control of all activities and instruments in online marketing and is therefore essential.

Tools in online marketing

Companies that face the competition and that work consistently and strategically on their marketing concepts have achieved good results in online marketing. It is important to focus on suitable target groups and the very targeted use of the marketing instruments of e-commerce marketing. This should not only include online marketing, but also classic advertising media for large target groups or customer segments. The most important marketing tools are:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing (Search Engine Marketing or SEM, usually Google Adwords)
• Email Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Increasing awareness of online marketing through social media and classic advertising media such as TV
• Customer relationship management to control customer lifetime value
• Content marketing with text, image and video contributions

Conductor in Online Marketing “Orchestra” – Online Marketing Controlling

The online marketing instruments and channels described above each offer a wealth of possibilities and potential for success. However, the greater the number of instruments used, the greater the interdependencies. At the same time, intense competition leads to significant online marketing costs, so that budgets are becoming tighter.

At some point it becomes clear: Individual online marketing channels can no longer be viewed in isolation but must be viewed in conjunction with one another. It is about the effective and efficient orchestration of the instruments with which the company’s online marketing goals are to be achieved.

This orchestration – or somewhat less musically: the control – is the task of online marketing controlling. In online marketing controlling, online marketing activities are designed, planned, analyzed and controlled. Online marketing controlling is a permanent routine in the company and is closely linked to the daily web analysis. The controlling does not stop with the usage figures of the website but connects them with cost and revenue figures. In this respect, Online Marketing Controlling connects WebAnalse with cost and performance accounting. The basis for effective online marketing controlling is first of all a powerful online marketing concept.

Development and implementation of online marketing concepts

Online marketing is first of all marketing. The marketing of products and services is given very extensive attention in the business literature so that this literature can be used for the development of concepts in e-commerce marketing and among them in online marketing. With the famous “4 Ps” – Product, Price, Promotion, Placement – a roadmap is given, the adherence to which enables a structured and sustainable marketing concept.

When selecting channels and marketing instruments, the precise target group segmentation is a key success factor. Only a targeted approach to the user and then customer groups ensures sufficient efficiency, especially in online marketing measures.

E-commerce is decided in terms of conversions

All online marketing efforts remain fruitless if an online store with its product or landing pages is visited but no transaction, i.e. a “conversion” of users or site visitors into buyers or customers or newsletter subscribers, takes place. Low conversion rates are the main cause of losses in e-commerce, as high marketing efforts remain fruitless.

Therefore, every step in the conceptual design process must be aligned with the objective of conversion. The funnel model is helpful for checking the conversion strategy. Each step in the marketing process is like a layer in a funnel that narrows downward. The fewer target persons per layer are “lost”, the higher the conversion probability. This makes it immediately clear that e-commerce marketing should only be conducted holistically.

The E-Commerce Institute offers you support in the conception and implementation of your online marketing or e-commerce marketing concepts. Are you interested or have any questions? We look forward to hearing from you: info@ecommerceinstitut.de.