How to Talk to Your CEO About the Web
Key managers within an organization can often become the greatest proponents of a strong Web marketing strategy. They can also get in the way by being too involved or not involved enough. This happens because the Web is a unique challenge for the business leader.
The CEO, or business leader, is drawn to the Website or avoids it for the following reasons:
• It is a doorway to the world
• There is a lack of expertise in Web strategy on staff
• The CEO is too close to the business
• The CEO may not understand the technology of the Web and its impact onthe business
How does one deal with the CEO who is either not interested enough in the Web or too involved?
When the CEO is too involved in the Website the first step is to understand their role in the company. Their job is to lead and provide the vision for the company, and a good CEO will provide a vision that relates to the company’s stakeholders. Here is a summary:
• Their role is to provide direction, leadership and focus
• Not to micro-manage
• Delegate to the right people
• Build a team and build momentum
• Avoid sample size of one conflicts and a dis-association from the needs of the Web user from an over involved CEO.
Another problem is the CEO who is not involved or doesn’t think the Web is viable for marketing. The challenge here is to get them interested. How? Well education, strategy, ROI and stats are the key. When working with a business leader that does not get the Web do the following:
• Develop a strategic Internet plan
• Educate your CEO on this plan
• Show simple and clear ROI data
• Present regular Web stats to the CEO or manager such as:
- Visitors
- Pages Viewed
- Entry and exit pages
- Search engine key words
- Referrers
- Conversion and ROI data
By the way, this will work with an over involved CEO as well.
These are a few ideas to help in working with the CEO or other business leader who generally has budget control and therefore control over your Website.
Add comment March 15th, 2006
