Online marketplace analysis for digital marketing

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Why is marketplace analysis important for digital marketing and what does it involve?
For me, marketplace or situation analysis is a key part of creating a digital marketing strategy.  We've included it as the starting point in our RACE digital strategy planning framework - it includes these key areas for defining the future opportunity or potential for digital marketing for which I've added examples at the end of this post.



But some, maybe many, would ask "what's the point of situation analysis? We don't have time, why don't we just get on with our search, social and email marketing to hit our sales targets".

The problem with this, is that if you're always operating in "campaign execution mode", you don't really know what's possible from digital marketing; you're "shooting in the dark".

For us, taking time out regularly for situation analysis is essential since it allows you to be realistic about what you can achieve from online marketing and prioritise to get the biggest uplift from your efforts.

I remember one Ecommerce Director I talked to saying it's benefit is allows you to "Size and Seize the Prize!" But it's not just the size it's about identifying all manner of strategic opportunities or current inefficiencies which are missed if you're sweating the tactical.

The benefits of marketplace analysis
I'm sure you would agree that the growth of the Internet has vastly increased competition for acquiring new customers for most businesses. As Google explained in it's Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) whitepapers it's now natural for consumers to turn straight to a search engine to review competitors or check out reviews on comparison sites or in social media to help select the best product or supplier for them.

Marketplace analysis can help you compete by becoming more customer-centred in your online marketing since it will show you:

How customers research and select your products. Research gathering insight on how users search and use social media will help you understand how you can gain visibility on search engines and with relevant influencers.
Where you need to improve the marketing effectiveness of your site. Competitor benchmarking using personas can show you how well your site and marketing is appealing to different audiences and you can learn from marketing approaches used by other competitors for traffic
Potential revenue improvements from gap analysis. You can justify increased investment in digital marketing by showing what potential lead and sales increase you can achieve for based by creating conversion budget models of the size of online audience searching for your products or services and potential sales
How your marketing capabilities compares. How your digital marketing capabilities compare to direct competitors or out-of-sector sites to help create a roadmap of new projects or to implement "quick wins"
Where the quick wins lie. Where are your biggest inefficiencies in search, email marketing or different parts of your website which you need to fix.
Future opportunities and threats. Using a SWOT analysis will highlight  future opportunities and threats from new digital or marketing platforms, for example currently communities, mobile and branded applications or utilities.

Courtesy-Dave Chaffey