Internet benefit remains neglected

Thinking Virtual Ltd, the Internet management marketing and maintenance company, has conducted a telephone survey of 917 companies with a turnover of between £1.5-5 million in Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire to find out how many of them had websites and whether they had any Internet monitoring or marketing in place.

83% either had, or were planning to have, a website by the end of June 2001. Of the 17% that had no website, 60% were not planning on having one within the next year.

85% of companies that had a website had no specific monitoring of the site’s performance and no procedures in place to assess their effectiveness. 84% had no specific marketing plans for their websites on either the Internet or in print, over and above their normal marketing plans.

“We were surprised by the number of companies that were not planning on having a website in the next year,” said Francis Jeffcock, Development Director at Thinking Virtual Ltd, “but even more surprised at the apparent lack of understanding in those companies with a website at senior management and board-level. Many companies couldn’t say whether their website offered any real benefit to the company at all – because they had no way of measuring it.”

“Some companies had spent quite large sums on the development of their website and in truth couldn’t even tell if they had any visitors at all, let alone understand how to improve the site by analysing visitor behaviour."

The survey also found that Internet marketing did not feature as a priority. “The lack of marketing plans for the websites”, continued Mr Jeffcock, ”was equally as surprising. It’s like printing a corporate brochure and then leaving it in a box under your desk, or opening a shop and not telling anyone where it is. You can’t just create a website, stick it up on the Internet and expect it to perform if no one can find it.”

“Overall we felt that companies seem to realise that they need a website, but they don’t really understand why, what to do with it or how to assess the benefits. Companies still appear to think that getting a website on the Internet is the end-game – whereas in fact, it is just the beginning of the process. They need to be monitored, measured and treated like any other business investment. At the end of the day why invest in a website if there is no return on the investment?”

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