Things seem to be moving so fast now eChannel owners have finally realised that they need to understand the digital channel as the massive P&L it has become. This requires hardcore business discipline and things like web analytics needs to start to become a core part of everything that the eChannel owner does (you've got to know exactly what your largest channel is up to and what you can do to further improve it). The good news is that the digital channel can provide a lot of data and more opportunities to use it than with other channels, but with this increased opportunity comes the challenge of how to focus on what is really important and build your data / analytics capability.
Whilst there is a lot being written and said on this subject little of it is easily understood and is often written by the experts for the experts. Time has come now for this space to demystify what it does and start to focus on the question: how are we going to identify meaningful data and turn this into insight / make decisions from it? A bit like the shift in focus towards web analytics prompted by channel scale this question is going to be more easily answered by those with the hardcore analytics and insight expertise and few companies can provide both.
Good news - I will have some more on this subject in the not too distant future so watch this space / expect an update from me shortly.
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This 'expert to expert' communication also doesn't help with the constant cries of 'what will my ROI be??' when investment in less traditional forms of eChannel implementation (mobile, social networking etc) is sought.
ReplyDeleteTrying to bridge the gap between implementation, marketing and the powers which hold the purse strings will always be tricky. Hopefully this better understanding will ease internal communication and future innovation within companies.