UK shirks responsibility for website management

88 per cent of UK senior marcomms managers are not involved in managing their website, versus 67 per cent in the US, research for SDL Tridion has found. Furthermore, with 77 per cent of senior IT managers in the US getting involved, compared with just 37 per cent in the UK, US businesses are leaving the UK trailing behind when it comes to prioritising website communications.

Senior IT and marcomms staff more likely to delegate web management to juniors than US counterparts

British businesses are risking the success of their communications by leaving web content management in the hands of junior IT and marcomms staff, Terry Hall at SDL Tridion believes. “Senior staff who shirk responsibility for their websites are missing a trick. Websites remain a vital channel of communication with customers, prospects and partners,” he commented.

Indeed, IT and marketing staff do not even know how many people are working on their websites. IT puts the figure at 47 (on average), whereas marketing puts it at 56, with the biggest discrepancy being how many IT and web development staff they thought were involved. This leaves organisations’ brands in the hands of many, and shows a lack of control over web content management, warns Hall.

Despite this, the vast majority of marketing and IT managers in both countries recognised that new and current customers are the top communication targets for their websites.“The problem is not a lack of awareness of how important the website is for communicating with customers, but rather that senior staff are happy for it to be someone else’s problem,” said Hall.

Research findings:

Who is involved in managing web content?

Senior marketing involvement in web content management:
- 33 per cent of senior US marketing managers are involved in managing the website
- Implementing changes to the website: 32% in the US compared with 12% in UK
- Monitoring website activity: 37% in the US, 21% in the UK

Senior IT manager involvement in web content management:
- Monitoring of website activity: 82% in the US compared with 49% in the UK
- Implementing changes to the website: 80% in the US, 48% in the UK

Who is the website for?

At the broadest level, senior Marketing and IT managers in both the UK and the US are in total agreement that the main focus of web content design are customers, both existing and potential. Marketing managers in the US are a little more likely to nominate new customers (90%) as the main content priority rather than existing customers (76%) whilst the opposite is true of their IT colleagues (84% existing, 73% new). In the UK neither Marketing nor IT managers make this distinction. Overall marketing managers (89%) are considerably more likely than IT managers (74%) to cite potential customers as the main content focus.

The research was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research, and was completed in April 2008. 200 IT and marcomms personnel were questioned in the US and UK.

For a full research report, please contact SDL Tridion