MediaBuyerPlanner: Though some 59 percent of seniors marketers acknowledge that their website is “critical” to their global brand and marketing strategy, they say nearly 70 percent of website-based marketing campaigns do not get launched on time, leading to a potential loss of new business leads and eroded customer satisfaction, according to a new survey.
A combination of lengthy internal approval processes, IT department backlogs, and the type of web content management (WCM) system they use makes getting web content approved and published “painfully slow” or “bumpy” at best – just 17 percent of those surveyed said the process of updating their websites is “quick and easy, the study found, writes MarketingCharts.
The survey of 120 senior marketers in the U.S. was conducted by PK Data on behalf of WCM solutions provider SDL Tridion.
A large majority of the marketers, 76 percent, change their website content at least once a week – and nearly 42 percent say daily – yet less than one-third (32 percent) say website publishing/updating deadlines are regularly met.
When asked which departments are most involved in managing their website, 46 percent of respondents said marketing as the most involved, and 39 percent said IT was most involved. (See detailed chart of corporate departments most involved in website management.)
Overly complicated internal approval processes and dissatisfaction with WCM systems, whether software or manual, were noted as the reasons behind delays by 52 percent of the respondents. (See chart of the most common reasons cited for delays in website updates/launches.)
And 48 percent attributed delays to overloaded IT departments. That confirms that IT is bogged down with web content requests that could be more easily handled by marketing and communications departments, SDL Tridion said.
As for the impact of such delays:
- 54 percent said the delays have a negative impact on new business inquiries.
- 50 percent said they impact customer satisfaction.
- 35 percent said they impact web marketing budgets.
- 30 percent said they impact brand image.
- 20 percent said they impact employee satisfaction.
“As the web picks up speed daily, there are internal forces at work that are slowing it down,” said Erik Aeyelts Averink, president, Products & Solutions, SDL Tridion.
“This can have a huge impact on a company’s ability to compete globally and meet business goals. These days, a customer who can’t find what they need, or…has a frustrating experience on your website, can easily go elsewhere.”
About the survey: PK Data completed the survey of 120 senior marketing decision makers in the consumer products, electronics/telecommunications, healthcare, financial services, and automotive industries; 70 percent of the respondents work at companies with annual sales ranging from $250 million to more than $1 billion, and annual sales for the remaining 30 percent range from $50 million to $250 million.
