Corporate black holes
by Volker Weber
The Register reports:
Too many company websites are "financial black holes" that gobble up stacks of cash, but deliver few benefits.
More than half of UK and European companies have no idea what return on investment (ROI) they make from their websites, according to a survey commissioned by Comrange and carried out by the European Centre for Customer Strategies (ECCS).
The problem is so bad that some companies are ploughing more than ¢1m a year on Web running costs yet haven't a clue whether they're getting value for money.
I am not surprised, because without an exception all of the firms that I know only look at the cost of their internet presence but not at the benefits. So they clearly have no idea what their return on investment is. Most of them seem to be obsessed with driving the cost down, even if that means they also bring the benefits down. Which will make their ROI even worse.
You need a clear strategy defining the goals you want to achieve with your internet presence and you need a way to measure whether you have achieved that goal.
Comments
The interesting question is what scales do you use for your website. If you do transactions, it seems fairly straigtforward. But what would be good metrics if your site is "only" promoting your brand or gives information about products that are sold by your salesforce.
Unique eyeballs a day? A survey filled in online/by marekting?
What metrics do you think would work?
;-) stw
They would be similar scales to any marketing, I would think. The website is not a lot different from an ad campaign you run locally, in terms of measuring benefits at least.
