econsultancy what we're about

What Econsultancy’s aboutA guide for all of us

Econsultancy: What we’re aboutA guide for all of us 2

ContentsPage

What this is for 2

Who we are 3

What we believe 9

What we do 15

Who we do it for 22

The value we deliver 27

How we’re different 32

Our culture and values 38

Where we’re going 42

Where you fit in 45


What’s all this then? This is an experiment.It’s an attempt to capture who we are, what we do best, how we do things and why.

It’s about our culture, our values, our brand and our reasons for living.

We’ve come this far without one of these, but it feels like the right time.

Why do we need it?Because we’re a complex business – we do a lot of different things for a lot of different people.

Because we’re growing fast – and we want to make sure we protect the things that make us special.

Because we have so many opportunities – and need some guiding principles to prioritise them.

Because we believe in letting people make decisions – and need something to hold those decisions up against.

Our heartbeatTo some degree, who we are depends on where we are.

We’re one thing in the UK – where we started and where our offering is the most complete – and another in the US or Asia. But there are things unique to Econsultancy wherever we are. This is about that heartbeat – the sum of what we believe, how we behave, who we employ, who we serve and why.

You’re reading this because you’re an important part of the Econsultancy mission.

I hope this document will help make you as happy about that as I am.

Ashley Friedlein

CEO & Co-Founder

Econsultancy: What we’re aboutA guide for all of us

Who we are

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Who we are and why it’s not so easy to sayWho we are

“Our name is a bit of a curveball. It’s easy for people to assume we’re just another consulting house. We need to show them we’re much more.”

We’re a publisher.

We’re a research house.

We’re a training company, a community, an online resource.

We’re analysts, editors, researchers, teachers, bloggers and event organisers.

If your goal is to sum all this up in a sentence, it’s a bit of a problem.

But our overall aim is to help people and companies to succeed online, making the variety and diversity of our offer a very powerful thing.

Instead of trying to over-simplify what we do and boil it down to a strapline, let’s embrace it.

We’re many things.


We are what we doWho we are

Some Econsultancy verbs

educatepublish

curateinterpret

research

analysetrain

connect

facilitate

validate

crowdsourcesharedistilprogram

advisebrief


Fine, but you still kind of need an elevator pitchWho we are

Okay then:

Econsultancy is a publisher and curator of best-practice content about doing business better online.

We serve a global community of marketers and e-commerce professionals with a wide range of reports, analysis, training, consulting, events and online resources.

We could write dozens of these and they’d all be pretty accurate.

As long as the two most important things are here: content and community.


Content and CommunityWho we are

Content Community

One of the cool things about our model is that our content feeds our community and our community feeds our content.

Our content makes our blog, forums, events, training and consultancy much better.

Our community means we can find the right expert for any challenge… and ‘crowdsource’ the answers to others.


Experts or Facilitators?Who we are

We play different roles all across the guru spectrum:

Facilitators Experts

At Digital Ski, we just get people together and add alcohol.

At Innovation Briefings, we bring in an expert to make sense of latest trends.

We shape agendas and source speakers for our clients’ conferences.

Our consultants help companies build the best teams for their specific challenges.

Our research is original and authoritative.

Our trainers are front-line practitioners who know their stuff.

Our blog is one of the best-respected in the marketing world.

We program many events through the year, but give the stage to the experts.


What we believe

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We believe it’s an incredibly exciting time to be a digital marketer.

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Especially if you like steep learning curves.


We believe the internet is the world’s biggest sandbox, chemistry set and battleground.

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And we’re all in it playing, experimenting, competing and trying to figure it out as we go.


We believe that a community of people openly sharing their experiences is the very best way to improve the web for everyone.

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We’re not just marketers or analysts, we’re consumers too.


We believe that doing business with integrity and transparency is not only more effective, it’s a lot more fun.

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We work hard to add real value to the marketing conversation as an independent analyst. Our endorsement cannot be bought.


We believe in hiring smart people who are passionate about digital.

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And we like working with other people who share these qualities.


What we do

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Our portfolioWhat we do

This varies by region and keeps changing but here’s a snapshot:

Events

Content

Training

Online resources

Market Data

Template Files

Best PracticeTrends and Innovation

Supplier Selection

Public Courses

QualificationsCustom Training

Digital Excellence

Conferences

Roundtables

BriefingsSocial Events

Blog

Forums

Jobsboard

Directories

Consulting

Digital Marketing and E-commerce Auditing

Supplier Selection

Strategy


Practical and immediateWhat we do

Some analysts like to theorise about the grand trends over the next 5-25 years.

We like to help people do their jobs today.

PracticalTheoretical

Long-term

Now

“We tend to forecast no further than a year ahead. In the online world, that’s a generation.”

“We’re into strategy, tactics and the finer points of doing.”


Our model is uniqueWhat we do

There are a lot of ways to sell content and community to digital marketers.

Some sell individual reports. Others give discounts to members.

Some charge many thousands, aiming at only the most senior people.

Others are free, supported by advertising and sponsorship.

Econsultancy is member-focused with an ‘all you can eat’ model.Once you take a paid membership, all of our content is yours to use.

This model has important benefits to our members:

• It encourages people to turn to us more often for more things.

• It lets us reach deeper into companies and teams.

• It lets us cover the ‘long tail’ topics that might not sell in large volumes .

and, most importantly:

• It keeps us independent, beholden to no one.


Our domainWhat we do

We started by serving digital marketers and e-commerce professionals and our focus is still: helping people improve the way they do business online.

As the internet has grown, this has encompassed an ever-wider range of professionals: marketing, e-commerce, customer service, support, public relations and beyond.

We focus on wherever a business touches its customers.

(Not so much the back-end stuff, but it’s all getting more and more connected).

Are we exclusively digital?

All of marketing now touches the digital realm and every online campaign or tactic affects everything offline.

Our heritage and our heartland is digital marketing, but we’re extending out to engage with the context of digital, helping marketers look at the big picture: integrating online and offline.


Where we came fromWho we are

A bit of history

The dotcom bubble!

1998Ashley is working for a web agency, the night before a pitch.Needs a statistic fast.Nowhere to go…

30 or so internet pros get together for a drink or two

1999 Ashley starts Econsultancy with Matthew O’Riordan

1999 Ashley writes first book ‘Web Project Management’

2001 – Ashley leaves agency to write a second book

100,000 members

8,000 members

450 members

2002 – Time to get investment and grow this puppy

2003 – First paid memberships

Add events, jobs and advertising to proposition

2004 – Tim Berners-Lee presents at internet Decade event

2005 – Launch Future of Digital Marketing conference

2006 – Training launches, business trebles in size

2007 – first Digital Ski, we head to the Alps with Econsultancy members

2008 – Brand and site relaunch

2009 – Open first US office, active in Middle East and Far East, win every single award we enter

2010 – JUMP event and magazine launches, 1,500+ delegates


Onward and upward

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Who we do it for

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Predominantly client-sideWho we do it for

Our membership includes marketers in some of the world’s best and fastest-growing brands.

It also includes agencies, independent consultants and suppliers of tools, software and services to marketers.

We serve both sides of the agency-client divide, but we lean towards the client-side marketer.

If we do this well, the rest follows.

Accenture • Adobe • American Express • BBC • BSkyB • Cadbury • Capital One • Chevrolet • Citi • COI • Dell • Deloitte • Disney • DuPont • eBay • Financial Times • GSK • Harper Collins • HSBC • IBM • Institutional Investor • IPC Media - IQPC • Lloyds TSB • Microsoft • Myspace.com • Oxfam • Random House • Sony Ericcson • Tesco • Thomas Cook • TimeWarner • Cabinet Office • Virgin Atlantic • Visa • WPP


We help at every levelWho we do it for

Our members range from beginners to some of the world’s most experienced digital marketers.

We help digital marketers from the first day of their careers and are there for them as they grow into senior strategists and industry leaders.

We’re always acutely aware of who each report, training class or event is for.

That way, we pitch the content to the right expertise level.



And every industryWho we do it for

Our members are in financial services, consumer products, media, entertainment, business-to-business markets, you name it.

We believe that it’s important to learn from people within your own market and from people in other markets.

This cross-fertilisation is one of the main advantages of a thriving, diverse community.



But all our members have something in commonWho we do it for

They’re all trying to rise to the challenges of change, complexity and competition.

Digital never stands still.There is always more to

learn.

It may not be rocket science, but it’s not far from it.

If our members don’t get it right, they lose traffic,

revenue and market share to the companies that do.


The value we deliver

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We drive online performanceThe value we deliver

We make our members more effective at what they do. That means:

Better decisions

Faster insight

Sharper execution

In the dizzying digital landscape, we provide a map.

A kind of framework for all the different digital disciplines and a trusted way to systematically fill your knowledge gaps.


Our killer KPIsThe value we deliver

Our members are chasing a wide range of Key Performance Indicators.

Some want to master mobile others to improve search or affiliate marketing.

Others have hit a plateau in their PPC or email marketing and need a boost.

To simplify, we can boil most of these metrics down to a few:

More visitors

Higher conversions

Better customer retention

And these, in turn, add up to:

Increased Customer Lifetime Value

It’s reductive but it can help keep us focused.“Will this blog post, conference session, training course or research report help build Customer Lifetime Value?”


And some more immediate metricsOn our way to the killer KPIs, we also help people in more immediate ways, relating to three spheres of influence:

My Career My Team

My Company

Save me time

Help me look smart

Help me build a case

Improve our skills

Inform our decisions

Sharpen our tactics

Boost our performanceSharpen our strategy

Help us master a new discipline

The value we deliver


Inspiring engagementThe value we deliver

Like so many things in life, Econsultancy gives more value to members who put more into it.

The ones who ask questions in the forums, read and comment on the blogs, attend the events and training sessions.

An important part of all our jobs is to inspire and reward deeper engagement.

It’s easy when you’re totally convinced their time and attention will be amply rewarded.


How we’re different

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Our competitive frameBecause we’re so diverse, we compete against a wide range of competitors and substitutes.


Publishers

Analysts and Research Houses

Search Engines Social Media

CommunitiesTraining

Companies

Event Companies

Inertia


Our strongest assetsNo matter who we’re competing with, these are the critical things we bring to battle:


Our brand

Our reputation

Our energy and passion Our experts

The quality of our content Our community

Our experience Our model


Our strongest assetsNo matter who we’re competing with, these are the critical things we bring to battle:

Our promise to the market.

Here since the dot in .com. The very best digital marketers in the world.

In-house and close friends.


Our brand

Our reputation

Our energy and passion Our experts

The quality of our content Our community

Our experience Our model

Earned the hard way. 100,000 and growing.

All-you-can-eat.Great value.

We love this stuff and it shows.

Original, authoritative, exhaustive, peer-reviewed.


Our credentialsHow we’re different

It’s easy to take for granted but no competitor has anything like our combination of assets.

In short, we’re very, very good at what we do, and the market validates it every day.

One of the leading marketing blogs

on the web

100,000+ members globally

20,000+ LinkedIn connections

25,000+ Twitter followers

30+ Roundtables and Breakfast Briefings a year

6,000+ marketers trained

Over 200 training sessions a year

Over 150 in-company sessions a year

Average training course rating: 4.5 out of 5Over 60 reports

published each year

140,000+ downloads of internet Stats Compendium

Consistently high Google rankings

35,000+ page views a day

Best Online Business Publisher: AOP

Best Editorial Team: AOP


Our reputationHow we’re different

This deserves a page of its own…

Our reputation for quality, authority and independence is probably our most precious asset.

We enhance it daily by producing consistently excellent content, by delivering it in high-quality, professional ways, and by focusing on delivering real value to our members.

That’s not a small thing, it’s a huge thing.


Our culture and values

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This is usCulture and values may seem like fuzzy things but they’re very real.

Culture is ‘the way we do things around here’ and values are ‘the things we respect’.

Entrepreneurial and democraticWe like to start new things and give our people responsibility for growing them.

Because our business is so interconnected, we like to talk about decisions.

Innovative and experimentalDigital marketing is in a permanent state of furious innovation. So are we.

We don’t know what will work, so we try something and measure it, just like digital marketers.

Independent and member-focusedWe only answer to our members and make sure we give them the best advice we can.

We’re drive by giving great value and getting people to come back for more.

High-quality and professionalEverything we do is thorough, informed, rigorous and actionable.

We keep our promises and make good our mistakes.

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And we also work hard to be…

Open and transparentWe err on the side of exposing our motives and methods.

We stay in dialogue with our members and respond to their comments and requests.

Passionate evangelistsWe love the power and potential of digital. It’s what keeps us coming into work.

And we genuinely want to improve the web for everybody.

Unpretentious We make it our business to be experts, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still learning.

We’d rather give credit than steal spotlights.

HonestWe believe in doing business with integrity.

No exceptions.

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We hire smart, entrepreneurial people with a passion for digital, a strong moral compass and a sense of humour.

We manage them with a long leash and an open door.

Our senior execs are here to make the people who work for them succeed.

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Our culture and values The kind of people we hire


Where we’re going

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As far as the internet and Econsultancy have come, these are still very early days indeed for both.

Digital never stops evolving, disrupting and advancing.

We’re committed to being there, out in front of each zig and zag so that our members are the first and the best informed.

We have no idea where it will all lead, but we’re just as excited about finding out as we were on our very first day of business.

And we’re thrilled that you’re along for the ride.

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Where we’re going Still early days


We know we’re getting It right when:

The commercial metrics are going up.Things like revenues, profits and revenue per employee.

Renewals are rising or staying high.Membership renewals, follow-on training, sponsorship re-bookings…

Unprompted feedback is strong.Our members are advocates and evangelists.

We’re still enjoying ourselves.That’s the best sign that we’re on the right track.

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Where we’re going How we know we’re getting it right


Where you fit in to all this

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Each one of us is an important part of the Econsultancy mission.

Our culture, values and beliefs persist only if we live them.

If we cut corners, make bad decisions and go for easy compromises, we lose the very things that got us here and that make this a great place to work.

But if we stay true to who we are, who we’re serving and why we’re in business, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together.

Thanks for staying with us and for giving us your energy and commitment.

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Where you fit in We are the sum of our actions

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