Webb dialogues (5): Robert Sahlin (webbstrategi.se) by lk9

So while contemplating on and trying to create a good webstrategy for the next project in hand, we asked a couple of questions to Robert Sahlin over at webbstrategi.se about web strategy in general and his thoughts on the subject.

Can you share some information on yourself, your work etc…

Well, I got interested in Internet and its implications on business when I studied industrial engineering, management and communication systems at KTH. After graduation I began my career as a management consultant at Capgemini with focus on telecom, media and entertainment. That was a very exciting and valuable experience, but I got more and more interested in how to leverage businesses on the web and since one year ago I work as a web strategy consultant at Webupdate.

Thus, the last 10 years have pretty much revolved around Internet and business in one way or another and as if working with web strategy is not enough, I can’t keep myself from blogging about it on my spare time =)

What is your perspective on how well Swedish companies use the web to support their business offer?

Swedish bricks-and-mortar companies have not grasped the full potential of the web yet, but they are getting better as they realize that the role of the web as a communication channel has changed from a company monologue to customer participation.

I would like to see that the Internet/web get some more airtime in the company management as the web has a significant influence on virtually all customer buying processes. Also, the company management must start to set goals for the web presence and demand better reporting. In other words, I get the impression that most Swedish companies don’t have a clearly formulated web strategy, at least not one that has the support and input from the company management.

What would be the single most important advice you could give to companies concerning their web strategy?

It may sound as a cliché, but ensure that your web presence supports your business and addresses the needs of your key stakeholders. If I may emphasize two things that companies often miss out when formulating their web strategy:

Understand the buying process of your customers rather than focusing on the company’s sales process when identifying contact points in which the web presence can make the most impact. The company’s offer may only be a component of the customer’s complete need. For example, a company selling taps must consider that a customer buying a new tap may think that the tap is only a small issue when renovating his/her whole kitchen or bathroom.

What companies also need to understand is how the customer use the web for different purposes and in different parts of the buying process.

You get what you measure – measure what drives the business. I think anyone working with management control would agree with that. Too often I see companies not measuring their web presence at all or using measure points such as total unique visitors to assess how successful the web presence is. This may result in sub-optimization, investing in activities generating irrelevant traffic rather than enhancing the order flow to improve the conversion rate. What should be measured are the Most Wanted Actions that drives your business. MWAs differ from one business to another and examples are number of orders, requests for information, newsletter registrations, downloads, etc. Web analytics is not given the attention it deserves as a strategic tool in continuous improvement of the companies’ web presence and as feedback on the web strategy. I have seen examples where small efforts have improved conversion rates from 7% to 25% as a result from proper use of web analytics.

How would you characterize the state of the web in Sweden?

Sweden has a long engineering tradition and our design is internationally renowned. It is my opinion that this is also true when it comes to web development and web design. However, the culture and climate for entrepreneurship could be better I guess but that does not only concern the web.

Sweden is no longer in the absolute forefront of web development, however we are not far behind. Many countries have caught up when it comes to consumer behavior on the web and Internet infrastructure (especially in the mobile area). Furthermore, I can’t help feeling that Sweden may suffer from a bigger “dot.com-hangover� than most other countries and that may cause a too careful position now.

Last year we started to see some Swedish web 2.0 sites, many of them copies of successful American sites. This year we will see many more ventures (especially in the mobile Internet area) which is fun.

Unfortunately we are also seeing examples of web 2.0 ventures without solid business models (again).

If you could only read 3 blogs any given day, which ones would they be?

Hard to limit the answer to three blogs as I prefer to read posts rather than blogs, i.e. browse the feeds of 50 blogs and portals and read the posts I find most interesting by headline or ranking. But ok, three of my favorites are Beta Alfa, Startup Review and Web Strategy by Jeremiah.

Finally, which company’s web strategy has impressed you the most in recent years?

Well, you can’t write about successful web strategy without mentioning Amazon, that successfully has kept on being in the forefront of optimizing their business on the web ever since the start.

When it comes to �Swedish companies� I rank Schibstedt/Aftobladet, Eniro, SVT and SR as the most innovative and impressing “companies� when it comes to web strategy. They have been able to turn a threat into an opportunity to leverage their business. One interesting observation is that two of them are public service (SVT and SR) and one of them was a public company

7 years ago (Eniro). In general, it is said that privately owned companies are more innovative and responsive to customer needs than public owned, but in this case it seems to be vice versa.

In addition to these companies I would like to mention stardoll.com that in an excellent way identified and addressed a need among millions of young girls for which a virtual paperdoll today is as real as one made of paper was 40 years ago.

Bloggar.se: , , , , [tags]Web strategy, strategy, internet strategy, Robert Sahlin[/tags]

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February 16, 2007 / 2 Comments.

2 Comments

  1. Webbstrategi.se » Blog Archive » Intervju i labs:kloud9 replied:

    […] Idag publicerade labs:kloud9 (killarna bakom kloudberry och ebento) en intervju i vilken jag fick svara pÃ¥ lite frÃ¥gor om bl.a. webbstrategi. Förutom att utveckla de webbapplikationerna för eventhantering sÃ¥ arrangerar Jonas och Jonathan dessutom connection07 (27/3) en konferens om den nya webben med flera intressanta personer. […]

    February 16th, 2007 at 9:55 pm. Permalink.

  2. Miami Steam Cleaners replied:

    your post is really awesome specially when you're giving some example, you really had such a brilliant mind

    May 25th, 2009 at 5:10 am. Permalink.

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