Vision-setting examples for digital examples

When we discuss goal-setting and measurement for Internet marketing and Ecommerce, it's all too easy to start reviewing nitty-gritty measures from analytics like bounce rates, conversion rates and average order-value.

But if you do this, you fail to capture the big picture and create a long-term vision of how the Internet and other digital channels can really contribute to your business as a whole.

Using BHAG thinking can help you think out-of-the-box and think BIG.

BHAG stands for "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" and was popularised in a 1996 Harvard Business Review article by James Collins and Jerry Porras on Building Your Company's Vision.

Here are two examples of how companies define their long-term vision with BHAG.

Case study 1. How ASOS reports it's Ecommerce KPIs

Pureplay fashion retailer Asos has been very successful in taking on the established providers…

Burberry case study

I’ve shown how many of the leading brands who use digital media successfully have clear statements of their vision for digital media to transform their brand and using BHAG to support these. Increasingly, these statements show how community and social media are important to support this transformation. I think this is a really good example of how to articulate such a vision: You may have seen the video late last year - it’s also a great example of how to use a customer testimonial by Salesforce.com as part of their “social enterprise" proposition, which promises to ‘incorporate social elements into every aspect of a business”. I find many like this clarification of video, but many have seen it! If you have, take a look at the new video from Salesforce client Rossignol on how Social media has transformed their business. In it, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts…

Examples of using vision statements to give focus to your digital marketing

I believe that developing a specific vision or mission statement for your digital channels can really help explain the need for sufficient investment in digital marketing within a company. They also show where your focus should be. So in this post I look at some examples which show effective vision statements.

As you read, you're probably thinking we've already got a corporate mission statement that everyone pokes fun at, so why would we want to define a digital vision statement? or  why should we bother?s too corporate and we're just a small business, we just get on with selling our products.

Good questions! I still think it's helpful to have a vision for your online marketing for all different types of organisation. We say this since the opportunities from digital marketing are too big to not have a vision of…