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WELCOME
We’re really excited to share the results of this research
with you – it delivers some valuable insights for marketers
and those interested in digital.
We commissioned this survey because we recognise that
the opportunities presented by digital marketing – and the
resulting changes to customer expectations – are changing
the way brands interact with their customers.
We brought in the research house OnePoll/72Point who surveyed a sample of 2,000 consumers and workers to
discover their views on social media, online branding, what makes them want to purchase online and more…
The emerging insights can help marketers to better understand the changing expectations of the digital
consumer-worker and how that can – and should – impact their own marketing activities. Because, as every
marketer knows, to plan effectively we need accurate information.
We hope that the insights emerging from this research will help you to develop your own online strategies and
to tailor your digital marketing in order to meet these new customer expectations and benefit from the
opportunities they present.
Happy marketing!
The team at The Wee Agency
www.theweeagency.co.uk
CONTENTS
OUR CHANGING WORLD
2
THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS
4
HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMERWORKER PREFER TO INTERACT?
12
HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND
16
CONVERTING WEB TRAFFIC TO WEB PURCHASES
20
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
22
THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG
26
CONCLUSION
27
ABOUT THE WEE AGENCY
28
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1
OUR CHANGING WORLD
The way we communicate is
changing. We live in a
technological age and the
single biggest area where
consumers are recognising
and embracing new
technologies is in personal
communication.
49%
Of survey respondents
named the smartphone
as one of the best
technological advances
in modern life.
2
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This is affecting our working lives and
business environment too. Our love for the
latest personal communication devices is
driving the ‘consumerisation of IT’ and has
spawned the growing ‘bring your own device’
(BYOD) trend. This is when people take their
own devices into the workplace.
We love technology, and see it as a great
enabler for business growth, so we were
keen to find out what people love and where
they have gripes. When we asked our survey
respondents to name the three best
technological advances in modern life all top
three answers were advances in the field of
personal communication.
•
•
•
Almost half (49%) named the smartphone as
one of the best technological advances
in modern life.
This was followed by wi-fi with 33%
Then tablets/iPads came third on the list
with 21% of the vote.
It is fascinating to think that none of these
technologies existed 20 years ago. Personal
communication has changed rapidly in this
time – presenting some interesting and diverse
opportunities for marketers.
However, our expectations have changed too.
When we asked our survey respondents to name the
three most irritating innovations in modern life, the
top three were also in the field of communication.
•
•
•
1st
1st
2nd
Automated telephone services came out on top,
with 42% of respondents naming them as the
most irritating innovation in modern life.
Call centres made it to second place with 29%
And, in third place, email spam was named by
25% of respondents
3rd
Marketers be warned:
it’s easy to get communication wrong!
It’s also interesting to note that the characteristic
shared by the three innovations which topped
our ‘poll of the worst’ is the lack of ‘the
personal touch’.
Furthermore, in fourth place, self-service
supermarket check-outs were also voted an
irritation, with 21% of respondents naming them.
Although outside the field of communication,
they also represent a move away from
‘the personal touch’.
This supports the view that, while we may be
embracing the opportunities for closer and more
immediate communication that technological
innovation has brought us, we still want that
communication to feel human.
Technological innovation or technological efficiency
cannot replace good customer service. The
challenge for marketers, then, is to leverage the
opportunities for closer communication that
technological innovation is bringing while still
maintaining the personal touch.
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3
THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS
Which sectors are best at digital communication?
When we asked our survey respondents to name the
top five business sectors they thought were best at
digital communication (including everything from
their website to social media profiles to email
newsletters to blogs)
•
•
•
•
•
Retail came out on top, gaining a vote from 43%
of respondents.
Food and drink came second, named by 33%
of respondents
Technology was named by 32% of respondents
Finance got 31% of the vote
25% of respondents named the tourism sector as
best at digital communication
50%
IAL
EC
P
S
SALES
4
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%
Which types of businesses do you think are the best at digital
communication with consumers?
Agriculture
Construction
3.55%
6.10%
Health
Food and drink
31.40%
Legal
13.35%
33.30%
Finance
leisure
25.60%
Manufacturing
Renewable energy
3.00%
Technology
Tourism
Utilities
8.00%
Retail
42.65%
5.70%
31.90%
24.85%
29.35%
Telecoms
18.85%
Voluntary sector
3.50%
None/dont know
Other
14.65%
1.75%
Retail was
voted the sector
best at digital
communication.
43%
33%
Food and
drink came
second with
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5
THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont
THE POWER OF GETTING IT RIGHT
A quarter of respondents said that
travel was one of the top five
sectors in digital communication.
This high rating is borne out by the
behaviour of our sample.
When we asked ‘How did you research your last
hotel stay?’ offline sources totalled just 10%* of
respondents. Trip Advisor came top with 45% of
our sample using it to research their last hotel stay.
38% checked the hotel’s website, while 36% carried
out a Google search.
It isn’t hard to conclude that by being good at digital
communication, businesses are able to drive a large
proportion of enquiries online. Digital tools and
resources can quickly replace traditional business
and communication models when they are done well.
* This is made up of ‘asked friends for recommendations offline’
at 8% and ‘other offline research’ at 2%
Holy Cow!
Agriculture was
perceived as
the worst with:
of who
identified
this sector as poor
in digital communication
40%
When we asked which business sectors are worst at digital communication, our survey ranked the worst
offenders as follows:
6
•
•
•
•
•
Agriculture was perceived as the worst; it was named by 40%** of people respondents
Construction came second with 33%** of the vote
The voluntary sector was named by 28%** of people who answered.
Healthcare was perceived as one of the worst by 24%** of our sample
Closely followed by the legal sector with 23%**
**
Slightly smaller sample because 25% of our sample said they didn’t know or answered ‘none’ to this question.
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Trip Advisor came top
45%
Tourism was voted one of the top
five sectors in digital communication
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7
THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont
HOW DID YOU RESEARCH YOUR LAST HOTEL STAY?
Trip Advisor
44.90%
Asked friends for
recommendations online
8.15%
Google search
35.95%
Checked hotel websites
38.20%
Checked hotel’s social media pages
8.00%
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Asked friends for
recommendations offline
7.85%
Went back to somewhere
we’ve visited before
7.65%
Looked for deals on group deal
site such as Groupon, Itison
7.45%
Emailed to request
information
4.40%
Other offline (not on the internet)
1.75%
None/not applicable
2.80%
THE WORST AT DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
Which types of businesses do you think are the worst at digital
communication with consumers?
Agriculture
29.70%
Construction
24.85%
Finance
13.35%
Food and drink
17.90%
Healthcare
17.75%
Hospitality
6.85%
Legal
16.90%
Renewable energy
2.95%
Technology
3.85%
Leisure
Telecoms
5.70%
8.90%
Manufacturing
14.45%
Retail
3.85%
Voluntary sector
21.00%
Other
1.50%
None/dont know
25.20%
Tourism
4.60%
Utilities
18.20%
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9
THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont
POOR DIGITAL PERFORMANCE
It’s interesting that ‘legal’ should rank among the worst five sectors
at digital communication.
This presents significant opportunity for
companies in this sector to gain a competitive
advantage. Especially when one considers the
changing way consumers are researching
professional services providers.
Of course, the traditional way to find a solicitor or
accountant would have been by personal
recommendation and 49% of respondents said
they would seek recommendations this way.
However, digital marketing is taking on greater
significance:
•
•
41% of respondents said they would
research the professional services providers’
websites.
43% said they’d use a search engine.
Indeed, social media is now a more important
source when looking for a new professional
services provider than the Yellow Pages.
The trend here is that people tend to use a
combination of online and offline sources of
information, so whereas previously a
recommendation from a trusted contact would
win a firm the business, these days it needs to be
backed up with a positive web presence as
potential customers draw up shortlists from
recommendations, then do online research to
make the ultimate decision.
Based on these results, legal and other
professional services firms may wish to
reconsider the importance they attach to digital
communication. There is an opportunity here for
professional services/businesses to conduct
research into what customers want and expect
from them online and adapt their digital
marketing accordingly. There is evidence to
suggest that, by doing this, they could secure
significant competitive advantage.
How would you research finding a professional services
(accountant, solicitor, etc.) provider?
Linkedin
8.55%
Browsing social media pages
12.20%
Recommendations in person
48.90%
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Recommendations over social media/online
14.80%
Researching their website
41.15%
Using a search engine
42.75%
Directories such as The Yellow Pages
10.05%
Other
6.30%
AN INTERESTING CORRELATION?
We can certainly see a correlation between those sectors
perceived to have good digital communication and a greater
reliance on online sources to find suppliers.
Similarly, there is also a correlation with those
sectors perceived to have poor digital
communication and a greater reliance on
offline sources to find suppliers.
If this is the case, then there are interesting
opportunities for marketers in the sectors
perceived as the worst at digital communication.
Improving digital communication could help
businesses to gain significant competitive
advantage and also help to drive business online.
This is, potentially, good news for new entrants in
sectors perceived as being poor at digital
communication. An effective digital
communications strategy could help these new
entrants to carve out a valuable niche in the
sector with clear differentiation based on
improved digital communication. Because of
the relatively low cost of digital communications,
new entrants could establish this positioning with
relatively low capital expenditure.
There is evidence to suggest that, by doing
this, they could secure significant competitive
advantage.
@
SMS
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11
HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMER/
WORKER PREFER TO INTERACT?
£
£
£
£
£
12
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How important is digital communication to the consumer?
We asked our survey respondents how they preferred to interact with a company when buying for a
personal need and when buying to meet a business need. Their responses highlighted some
important differences between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C)
communication.
How do you prefer to interact with a company when buying a product for a personal need?
In person/ in store 32%
Online via email 31%
Online forms and ecommerce 16%
•
•
•
How do you prefer to interact with the company when buying a product for a business need?
Email 35%*
In person/ in store 26%*
Telephone 15%*
Online forms / ecommerce 14%* ~
•
•
•
•
*
These results are based on a slightly smaller sample – 26% said this question wasn’t applicable to them/ they don’t buy for business needs.
32%
31%
In person
Online via email
Preferred route to interact with a company when
buying a product for a personal need
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13
HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMER/
WORKER PREFER TO INTERACT?...cont
When buying a product or obtaining a quote for a personal need,
how do you prefer to interact with a company?
In person/in store
31.50%
Online via forms and e-commerce
15.15%
Online via social media
8.00%
Online via email
Other
31.00%
2.40%
By telephone
10.6%
By post
1.35%
When buying a product or obtaining a quote for a business need,
how do you prefer to interact with a company?
In person/in store
18.80%
Online via forms and e-commerce
10.25%
Online via social media
6.00%
14
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Online via email
25.60%
By telephone
10.95%
By post
1.05%
Other
0.90%
£
35%
@
Here, we begin to see differences between the
individual’s preferences in their different roles of
consumer and worker. When buying a product for a
personal need, the highest ranking type of interaction
is in store or in person, favoured by 32% of
respondents. But when buying a product or obtaining
a quote for a business need, the largest group of our
respondents preferred to use email (35%).
of respondents involved with
purchasing to meet business
needs prefer to interact
with a company via email.
For both groups, both email and in store rate
highly – they are the top two methods of interaction in
both cases. For retailers – whether they are selling to
businesses or consumers – the strongest promotional
strategy, then, would be to augment in-store activity
with email. By integrating in- store campaigns and
promotions with digital marketing (in particular email)
retailers can create the strongest possible engagement
with consumers.
Augment in-store activity
with email for the best
possible engagement.
Given our earlier findings, it’s likely that the immediacy of interacting
in store or via email is a significant factor in this order of preferences.
These results also strengthen the notion that ‘the personal touch’ is an
important influencer in consumer attitudes and buyer behaviour.
These results are also a warning for B2B marketers not to think that statistics
about consumer preferences in digital marketing can necessarily be directly
translated into a B2B context.
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15
HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND
Our survey also found that there are some key differences in the
expectations the digital consumer-worker has of websites for
personal versus business use.
We found that the best way for B2C marketers to improve the users’ experience is to ensure that the
website is fast to load, but for B2B marketers a much more complex set of factors come into play:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of information was the most common reason for not choosing a supplier; it was cited by
52%* of people who answered this question.
41%* of people are turned off if a website is poorly designed and doesn’t look professional.
A difficult to navigate website annoys 30%* of our sample.
29%* found a lack of information about a company when searching online a real turnoff.
Slow to load was cited as a turnoff by 26%* of people.
No case studies on the website could also count against you; this was cited as a problem by
22%* of people who answered the question.
Team profiles on the website are also important. 18%* of people who answered the question
said a lack of team profiles would prevent them from choosing a supplier in a work context.
No links to social media pages was cited by 12%* of our sample as a reason not to select
a supplier.
Finally, difficult to access via tablet or smartphone got 6%* of the vote.
*
These results are based on a slightly smaller sample - 23.65% of respondents said this question wasn’t applicable to them
because they don’t source suppliers at work.
What would prevent you from choosing a supplier at work
when researching online?
Website is poorly designed
and doesn't look professional
31.18%
No team profiles
on website
13.38%
Lack of information about
company when searching online
22.21%
Slow to load
Lack of information
39.85%
No case studies on website
16.65%
16
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No links to social media pages
4.26%
8.75%
Other
1.67%
Difficult to navigate website
22.97%
Slow to load
20.08%
TAKE-AWAY FOR B2B MARKETERS
Much of the data about digital marketing in the news relates to B2C
attitudes and engagement – be wary when trying to apply this to B2B
digital campaign planning or strategy.
For instance, B2B purchasers are much less likely to
accept online shops and ecommerce than they are
when purchasing to meet personal needs.
Given this reluctance, B2B marketers must be
prepared to adapt online activity and content.
It appears that in a B2B context, online has a greater
role to play in driving enquiries, capturing prospect
contact details, lead generation, and answering FAQs.
Online content therefore needs to be shaped and
created to support these activities.
To enhance conversion rates, one solution might be
to augment B2B online shops with massaging or
video massaging tools, so that B2B customers can
get the immediate responses and personal service or
advice they are looking for.
These preferences take on even greater importance,
when one considers that in our survey, of the 34% of
respondents involved in researching suppliers in a
business context, only 19% didn’t use the internet.
The remaining 81% of respondents involved in
sourcing suppliers at work used online tools of one
sort or another to find a supplier.
Do you use the internet at work when researching potential
suppliers for your business?
No, my job doesn't need me to
research suppliers
30.65%
My job does require me to
research suppliers, but I don't
use the internet to do so
Yes, on my business tablet/
smartphone
8.75%
Not applicable / I don't know this is not my role
35.05%
Yes, on my personal tablet
/smartphone
5.55%
16.65%
Yes, on my business desktop
computer/laptop
22.95%
I research business
suppliers outside office
hours when at home
2.80%
If the majority of business sales are being researched and sourced through digital channels, B2B marketers need
to ensure their online offering meets – or exceeds – customer expectations.
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17
HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND...cont
B2B MARKETERS’ CHECK LIST FOR YOUR BRAND’S ONLINE PRESENCE
In order of importance:
Populate your website with plenty of (relevant!) information.
Ensure your website looks professional and is well designed.
Think about how users will use the website and ensure it is easy to navigate.
Make sure your business has coverage on other online sources – whether these are listings sites,
directory sites, news sites or paid-for PR: back up your website with other online content.
Is the technology fit for purpose? Are you using images at the right resolution? Make sure the site is not slow to load.
Include customer case studies on your own website.
Include team profiles on your own website.
Include links to your own social media pages from your own website.
Ensure your website has a responsive layout, or consider developing a mobile site so that the web site is easily used
by tablet and smartphone users.
Treat your digital presence and digital marketing as a long term investment into your business.
Don’t assume that “If you build it, they will come…” a plan covering content, social media, pay per click, search
engine optimisation, email marketing and online PR will drive crucial traffic to your website.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In contrast to the complex combination of factors that
influence B2B buyer behaviour, the results of our survey
suggest that, when purchasing for a personal need,
consumers have a much more straightforward set of
requirements from a website.
respondents); and a lack of information annoyed 35%
of our respondents.
These were followed by doesn’t look trustworthy (24%)
and if a website hasn’t been updated for a long time this
annoys 22% of our respondents.
When we asked consumers what three things annoy them
most about a website ‘slow to load’ was our standout
Design features were low on users’ list of annoyances:
response: 58% cited it as an irritation.
suggesting that getting the user experience right on a
website matters more than what it looks like – surprising
The next batch of complaints included difficult to navigate for such a graphic medium.
(39% of respondents cited this as annoying);
a lack of contact details (which annoyed 40% of our
Standing out with a massive percentage
was loading time on website
58%
Slow load time
Loading...
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What annoys you most about a website?
(Please pick your top 3 things)
Slow to load
57.95%
Too many different colours
Hasn't been updated
for a long time
5.70%
22.45%
Lack of information
35.15%
Difficult to navigate
Website doesn't work well
on mobile or tablet
39.35%
8.20%
No contact details
39.80%
Doesn't look attractive
11.35%
B2C MARKETERS’
CHECK LIST FOR
YOUR WEBSITE
In order of importance, make sure that:
Doesn't look trustworthy
Other
0.65%
24.25%
Too much information
4.90%
•
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•
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19
CONVERTING WEB TRAFFIC TO WEB PURCHASES
Once a visitor to your site has decided to stay on your site, we
found a range of factors can make the difference between that
individual remaining a visitor or becoming a customer.
Again, here our survey revealed a surprise stand-out answer: 54%* of our respondents (56% of our
respondents who make online purchases) cited low postage charges as a key factor in whether they
bought or not from a website.
Other significant factors included:
•
•
•
•
The website is easy to navigate was cited as a factor by 37%* of respondents who
make online purchases
Information about products needs to be clearly displayed, according to 29%* of our
respondents who make purchases online
26%* of our respondents said it is important that the site offers online customer service
Finally, not having to create an account when purchasing was cited by 23% of
our respondents.
* smaller sample size because 4.9% of our respondents said they don’t buy goods for personal use online.
What makes you want to buy online from a company?
Online customer service
Website is easy to use on tablet
and smartphone
Website is easy to navigate
35.40%
24.45%
20.40%
Low postage charges
53.55%
Don't need to create an account
when purchasing
Quick response to enquiries
15.85%
21.55%
No contact details/seeing a photo
of who you are dealing with
8.40%
Clearly displayed information
on the products
Strange or very long URL/web address
0.85%
27.65%
Good interaction on social media
7.00%
Nicely designed website
14.50%
None - I don't buy online
4.90%
Other
3.55%
20
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YOUR CONVERSION MAXIMISER CHECK LIST
Want to turn more of your site visitors into customers?
Test these approaches on your site to see how they affect conversion rates.
1
4
Postage Charge
Reduce or wave postage charges,
perhaps building them into the
topline costs that products are
advertised at.
2
Support
Offer instant massaging and video massaging customer service or
customer support tools alongside your
usual email or phone enquiries.
5
Navigation
Improve on-site navigation, with
different devices in mind.
Shopping Checkout
Offer visitors a ‘fast checkout’
option where they don’t need to
create an account to purchase.
3
6
Information
Include detailed product
information so that customers
can access it if they need to.
Analytics
Use analytics to review customer
behaviour and identify any
potential issues.
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21
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
When we consider the role social media plays in so many of our
lives today, it is astounding to think that Facebook celebrated only
its tenth birthday earlier this year.
There has been a huge shift in the way
we communicate, the way we shop, the way
we interact with brands, and the amount of
information available to marketers about the way
we behave and buy online in those ten years.
When we asked our survey respondents what
engaged them most on social media we were
conscious of the fact that these results will
hopefully be of the most practical use. They
are easy to test and verify with minimum
financial outlay.
Social media offers exciting opportunities to test
out campaigns in a meaningful way: marketers
Perhaps it is for these reasons that the
have access to metrics like never before.
answers to this question are among the
least surprising.
What engages you the best with brands on social media?
Interesting content relevant to me
31.95%
News on the latest products
When my friends are engaging
with the brand
16.95%
5.20%
Videos
9.10%
Quick response to enquires
27.10%
Offers and discounts
39.45%
Sharing funny photos
9.00%
Friendly tone
15.25%
When brands ask questions
or for opinions
6.70%
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Other
3.20%
None - Not applicable -
24.85%
Offers and discounts are mostly likely to engage
our audience according to 39.45% of our total
survey. 52.43% of our survey respondents who
use social media cited offers and discounts as a
key factor in their engagement with brands on
social media. However, beware of purely using
offers to engage with your audience, often the
people who enter competitions aren’t always
those who would be interested in buying your
products or services at full price.
Other high-scoring factors included:
•
•
•
•
Interesting and revelent content 42%*
A quick response to enquiries 42%*
News on the latest products 23%*
Friendly tone 20%*
* smaller sample because 24.85% do not use social media, or don’t follow brands on social media.
TAKE-AWAY FOR B2C MARKETERS
Given our findings about what makes consumers want to buy online from a
company, which placed high emphasis on low postage charges, it would
make sense to try out free postage offers on your social media accounts
and monitor conversion rates.
Offers and
discounts
as a key
factor
If you aren’t doing this already, initiate a trial social media campaign offering
free postage as your first actionable change based on this research.
57%
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THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG
When we asked consumers what they didn’t like brands doing on social media their top were:
Too much spam annoys 46% of our sample.
Being too slow to respond to enquiries irritates 40% of our sample.
38% don’t like irrelevant posts.
34% don’t like uninteresting posts.
And 33% of our sample are unhappy when digital communication is too sales led.
•
•
•
•
•
What don't you like brands doing on social media?
Slow to respond to enquiries
Irrelevant posts
39.92%
38.46%
Lack of updates
Too sales led
27.08%
32.73%
Uninteresting posts
Looking at these responses, it is not hard to see
why ‘content marketing’ is such a buzz-phrase in
modern marketing. Marketers must ensure
content is valuable to its recipients. The good
news is that social media offers unparalleled
opportunities to segment audiences, track
behaviours and target messages and content in a
truly personalised way. Social media can become
a really positive force for engagement for those
brands which do this.
It is also clear that it is worth investing in quality
content if you want to ensure that your social
media engages your customers rather than
annoying them.
These findings are also consistent with the
findings from our questions about our survey
respondents’ views about the technological
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4.59%
Other
1.13%
Too much spam
33.93%
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Too focused on the brand/product
46.31%
advances of modern life. As we saw there,
automated communications are unpopular; the
human touch is important.
The human touch is important when responding
to enquiries – and is easy to get wrong.
The second biggest complaint, of course, was
being too slow to respond to enquiries on social
media. This presents a new challenge to brands
to be ‘always on’; monitoring social media
enquiries, responding and being active on all
social media accounts. This will include
responding to crises quickly – and postponing all
pre-scheduled posts and tweets until the issue
is resolved to focus on communicating about
any issues.
Less than
1 /3
of employees aware of their
organisations’ social media
guidelines.
Only 12% of companies where
our respondents work have a
dedicated social media manager
There are obvious pitfalls brands must avoid, then, in the new social media world. And yet, our survey
found that only 12% of respondents’ businesses had a dedicated social media manager.
Who is most responsible for corporate social media updates at
the company you work for?
The marketing team
23.15%
The PR team
16.70%
The product team
9.50%
A dedicated social media manager
12.00%
An unexperienced intern
4.45%
Everyone shares responsibility
for social media
5.45%
The management team
7.90%
I don't know
18.75%
None - we don't
have social media
24.80%
Even more worrying, 32% of respondents didn’t know their company’s social media guidelines
for employees. Less than a third said they knew and fully understood their company’s social
media guidelines.
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THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG...cont
Do you know your company's social media guidelines
for employees?
We don't have social media
guidelines for employees
20.10%
I do know our social media
guidelines and understand fully
what I am and am not allowed to do
30.25%
We have social media guidelines,
but I don't know what they are
17.60%
I don't know
32.05%
It’s unclear whether the lack of resources
devoted to social media reflects a lack of internal
skills, a lack of confidence in the benefits to be
gained from these emerging channels, or simply a
lack of understanding of the changing skills set
these new channels demand from marketers.
It’s clear that some businesses are expecting
other departments to pick up social media
marketing tasks. This may explain the lack of
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internal awareness of social media policies if
those departments are lacking the skills, time or
resources that digital marketing requires.
Given the increasing importance of social media
as a communication tool, there are significant
opportunities for brands to gain competitive
advantage through the better management and
leveraging of their social media accounts.
Digital communication is a potential
source of real competitive advantage.
CONCLUSION
The new digital consumer-worker values new personal
communication technologies highly.
This presents exciting new opportunities for
sectors where existing digital communication
marketers to communicate with their customers, performance is perceived as poor.
particularly in sectors where existing attempts at
digital communication are perceived as poor.
Given this potential, it is surprising that so few
businesses are investing in dedicated social
However, it is also clear that new personal
media managers and ensuring that digital
communication technologies are also a source
communication strategies and policies are clearly
of great annoyance to the new digital
communicated throughout the business. If
consumer-worker when brands get
organisations have largely been slow to recognise
communication wrong.
the potential of digital marketing, then the
rewards for those brands that do exploit the
Therefore the new technologies also present
opportunities it presents are evident.
significant challenges to marketers, and place
further demands on marketers as consumer
Our research suggests the best way to maximise
expectations change. Those businesses that are the potential of digital communication is to:
already doing digital communication well are
Provide personalised and relevant to the
setting the agenda for customer expectations
individual
and helping to drive commerce online.
Offer immediate resolution to enquiries and
complaints
Digital communication is a potential source of real
Retain a human voice and the
competitive advantage, particularly in those
personal touch in all communication
•
•
•
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ABOUT THE WEE AGENCY
The Wee Agency is an award-winning full-service marketing agency
which brings together specialist expertise in every aspect of design,
digital, PR and marketing.
The agency was established in response to the
new opportunities digital communications
present as well as a gap in the market for a
full-service offering for clients seeking to brief
one team on a business challenge and receive a
joined-up, full service response with a creative
idea at the centre.
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From website design and build to social media
strategy and international PR campaigns, The
Wee Agency can provide a wide range of services
to support clients from multiple sectors.
The Wee Agency
36 South Gyle Crescent
South Gyle Business Park
Edinburgh
EH12 9EB
First Floor
The ERG Building
12-14 Seafield Road
Inverness IV1 1SG
01463 214 995
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