Scottish Archive Network

Scottish Archive Network             Phone (+44) (0)131 242 5814

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United Kingdom                         

Marketing & Development Report

On the future of the Scottish Archive Network and www.scottishdocuments.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2003


 

 

 

Scottish Archive Network Marketing & Development Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background.. 2

Executive Summary. 3

Online Catalogues. 5

Internet Resources. 6

Testaments. 9

Marketing & Promotion.. 11



Background

 

The Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) project was officially launched in August 1999 and is scheduled for completion in December 2003.

 

As the Scottish Archive Network project nears its official completion date, it is an opportune moment to examine all the products created by the project and look at their future relevance and development, considering opportunities for the future of all our products and the project itself.

 

The original aims of this project have already been set out in detail in other reports including the Project Initiation Document (PID) available at s:/hlf/ and these aims will therefore not be detailed in this report. A study of the marketing strategy used to date and it’s effects have already appeared at S:/marketing/reports and this will be updated shortly to take account of recent events.

 

The following report looks at progress on each of the core aims of the project and, based on this and the marketing experience gained to date, lays out some key recommendations for the future development and marketing of each of them.


Executive Summary

General

 

o         The Scottish Archive Network project is nearing completion

 

o         The future of the products created by the project should be considered now

 

o         Everything created by the project has value

 

o         The experience accrued by the project staff is a valuable asset

 

Websites

 

o         The websites created by the project have proved popular

 

o         Both the websites will require maintenance and future development

 

o         The Scottish Documents website in particular requires constant monitoring and admin assistance for customers

 

Ecommerce

 

o         The Scottish Documents website has sold 8076 products since its launch in April 2003

 

o         The income produced from the sale of testaments is not enough to sustain the project in its entirety

 

Catalogues

 

o         It is not yet known what the impact of the availability of online catalogues will be

 

o         It may be sometime before funding is available to enable cataloguing to be extended to item level

 

Marketing

o         Marketing activity used to promote Scottish Documents has had a direct impact on visitors, registrations and sales

 

o         Sustaining a level of marketing and promotional activity will continue to ensure that sales and visitors increase

 

o         Applying a similar approach to other Scottish Archive Network products will ensure that the resources created by the project receive wider recognition

 

 


 SWOT Analysis

Strengths

 

o         Products created by the project

 

o         No direct competitors

 

o         Equipment owned by SCAN

 

o         Income produced by Scottish Documents website

 

o         Physical relationship with NAS

 

o         Experience gained by staff

 

o         GSU volunteer staff

 

Weaknesses

 

o         Short time span remaining

 

o         Unavailability of Online Catalogues

 

o         Staff movement to NAS

 

o         Insufficient income produced by Scottish Documents website

 

o         Relationship with NAS

 

o         Only one product currently available for sale

 

 

Opportunities

 

o         Genealogical market

 

o         Overseas market

 

o         Current emphasis on genealogical tourism

 

o         Scottish Family History Service development

 

o         Demand for other document types

Threats

o         Lack of funding from NAS

 

o         Lack of marketing and promotional activities


Online Catalogues

 

Although the work of the online catalogues team is nearing completion, the products created by the team are not yet available to the general public so we do not have any statistics regarding usage for analysis here. However the following factors are worth noting at this stage:-

 

o         A project which is similar in terms of aim and scale is the HE Archives Hub (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk ) receives on average 4000 visitors per month carrying out approximately 8000 searches. About 20 enquiries are received every month.

 

o         The Online Catalogues section of the SCAN website received over 19,068 visits since the beginning of 2002 (when our statistical monitoring package was initiated). This represents 5.4% of the total visitor numbers to the SCAN site (356,260 to end March 2003).

 

o         This is therefore a conservative estimate of the likely quantity of visitors that the Online Catalogues part of the site will receive in future.

 

o         1047 website users have registered online and expressed an interest in receiving news updates specifically on the Online Catalogues project.

 


Internet Resources

 

The products created by the Internet Resources team are chiefly, the Knowledge Base, Exhibitions, Discussion Forum, Directory, Featured Documents and Virtual Vault. In addition to these are the creation and hosting of microsites for historical and archive-related bodies in Scotland. All of these products were designed to complement the Online Catalogues part of the website. As the catalogues facility has not yet been launched, it is not possible to analyse directly how successful this approach has been, however one could draw attention to the results of the National Archive Network User Research Group (NANURG – available at http://www.resource.gov.uk/information/research/respubs2002.asp#nanurg) which compared the websites created by SCAN, A2A, AIM25 and the Archives Hub and the user response to each of the sites. Amongst other things, the report suggested that non-archive users enjoyed viewing the supplementary information provided by the SCAN-site.

 

Progress and usage of the main Internet Resources products can be demonstrated in the following charts:-

 

Fig 1. Website visitors www.scan.org.uk January 2002- March 2003

 

 

Fig. 2 – Most popular parts of www.scan.org.uk January 2002- March 2003

 


Fig 3. Statistics for SCAN-hosted microsites usage January – March 2003

 

 

Figure 4. Quantity of registrations (and interest areas) for updates on SCAN site September 1999- March 2003

 

 

 

When compared with the statistics of usage of a top level finding aid site of a similar scale to SCAN such as the Archives Hub http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk (about 145 visitors per day compared to SCAN’s 1000), this clearly demonstrates that the complementary resources created to enhance the finding aids have a high level of interest for users in their own right. It seems likely that their relevance and interest can only increase with the availability of the catalogues themselves.

 

Allowing these products to remain undeveloped or unaltered for any considerable period of time would have the following results:-

 

o         Users would be less likely to revisit the site

 

o         Information about participating archives would not be updated and users would be disillusioned with the site and the archives listed on it

 

o         The Knowledge Base would not reflect the questions mostly frequently asked in Scotland’s archives as it was intended to do. Participating archives may therefore find themselves the recipient of more frequently asked questions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Development - key recommendations

 

o         Re-design SCAN website to remove Scottish Testaments, create Online Catalogues as focus of content and allow easy integration of future content (site updates) and maintenance

 

o         Canvass users and participating archives on additions they would like to see. Integrate any suggestions into redesign of site

 

o         Test new website design on cross-section of users

 

o         Make provision for updating content of SCAN website on a regular basis

 

o         Make SCAN website responsive to participating archives

 

o         Place some responsibility on participating archives to provide regular and up-to-date content for the site

 

o         Continue to maintain SCAN-hosted microsites and continue to provide platform for hosting microsites

 

Marketing - key recommendations

 

o         Create SCAN newsletter specifically for participating archives to encourage contribution and keep informed on progress and site usage statistics

 

o         Monitor enquiries and visitor numbers on site

 

o         Monitor effects on participating archives – number of enquiries, visitors etc. – especially once the Online Catalogues are available

 

o         Send out newsletters to lists of registered users to increase awareness and publicity regarding the SCAN Website

 

o         Update site content regularly to increase user ‘stickiness’ – repeat visitors

 

o         Send out press releases for major new events and additions

 

 

 

 


 

Testaments

 

Figure 1. Visitors to www.scottishdocuments.com April 2002- March 2003

 

 

 

Figure 2. Scottish Documents site registrations April 2002- March 2003

 

 

Figure 3. Scottish Documents – documents sold by month July 2002- March 2003

 


 

Economic development  - outlook

 

o         The site as it stands has the potential to make around 60-85k over a 12-month period. Precedent and unique nature of products suggests that, though this may ‘plateau’ it is unlikely to drop dramatically.

 

o         It will require ongoing marketing work to maintain this growth and development phase

 

o         The products themselves fit neatly into the ‘SFHS’ concept.

 

o         To rebrand the site would negate a lot of the hard work that has already gone into creating and publicising the brand.

 

o         Customer loyalty is an important factor in maintaining the site and should not be neglected in the future life of the site

 

o         Any transfer of the brand or products should be carefully planned

 

o         There is a need to look at problems associated with maintaining SFHS brand and Scot Docs brands

 

 

Marketing development  - key recommendations

 

o         Continue sending out newsletters

 

o         Look at other site enhancements to improve customer experience

 

o         Consider implications of adding other products to the website

 

o         Periodically monitor and review site usage and statistics and customer feedback

 

o         Maintenance – outlook and suggestions

 

o         Liaise with Scotlandspeople regarding future development and marketing of the site and products


Marketing & Promotion

 

There has been a concentrated effort during the latter stages of the SCAN project to market the Scottish testaments and look at promoting the resources we have created. A summary of this marketing activity and it’s effects can be found at S:\Marketing\Reports\Sales and Marketing Report January 2003.doc This will be updated to take account of subsequent developments.

 

The effort expended thus far has demonstrated the following key points:-

 

o         Online marketing activity (Google advertisements, banner ads, search engines placements and newsletters) has a positive effect on numbers of visitors and also on sales of documents

 

o         Traditional marketing (press etc) has a positive though short term effect on visitor numbers

 

o         Maintaining good customer care is a time-consuming but worthwhile part of the administration process and promotes customer confidence and repeat purchasing

 

o         Distribution of the online newsletter to registered users has a very positive effect on sales and visitor numbers

 

o         A responsive website is important for managing customer expectations

 

 

Marketing development  - key recommendations

o         Continue existing marketing work and monitor results continuously

 

o         Look for new marketing and partnership opportunities

 

o         Continue to monitor and respond to customer feedback

 

o         Look at ways of marketing any new resources added to the Scottish Documents website

 

o         Promote the Scottish Documents service at key events