Digital Marketing is Like Building a Skyscraper | Bend WebCAM 2012
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Bernie Borges spoke at Bend WebCAM 2012 on how to build a skyscraper size digital marketing plan using effective processes, skills, data driven strategies and with a social business mindset.
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Digital Marketing is Like Building a Skyscraper | Bend WebCAM 2012
- 1. Digital Marketing is Like Building a Skyscraper Bernie Borges Bend Webcam 2012 #bwc12
- 2. Vision
- 3. Blueprint
- 4. Digital marketing supports brand goals
- 5. Processes
- 6. Roadmap
- 8. 4 Core Elements of a Roadmap • Assets • Content • Social Channels • Tools & Technology
- 9. Digital Assets • Up front planning • Long term maintenance
- 10. Up Front Planning • Architecture • User experience • Online discoverability
- 11. Persona Analysis
- 12. Persona Pain Points/Interest Primary Message Primary Drivers Calorie Burner Manage Weight Maintain weight / Lose Lose Weight Negative Calorie Weight Conscious Weight Negative Calorie Calorie Burning Count Calories Sugar-free Diet Live healthy Lose Weight Live healthier Eat Healthier Healthy Drink Health conscious More exercise Manage Weight Fat Burning Healthy foods Reduce Body Fat Exercise Healthy Fitness Training Fitness tips Be More Active Way More than an Fitness Conscious Fitness training Exercise Fitness Energy Drink More Active Boost Metabolism Metabolism Booster Exercise Ideas Running Tips Cycling Tips walking jogging running cycling, rock climbing Body Building Participatory Sports Exercise Endurance boxing aerobics karate Aerobic Exercise zumba dancing Sports Drink Marshall Arts Fitness Boxing Fitness 12
- 13. Level 1 Level 2 Level 2 Level 3 Tab Name Page title SEF URL Additional Level 2 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Considerations Level 1 level 2 Level 3 Tabs Celsius Modules / Plug Ins What is Scientific About US Celsius Studies Find us Contact Us Thermogemic Community We Are a World's First Find Energy Drinks Health and Healthy Living Homepage Scientific <h2> And Find Way Negative Fitness Company Studies More than Just Calorie Drink .com/health- .com/healthy- .com/thermoge Another Energy .com/negative mic-scientific- fitness living- -calorie Drink <h2> studies company .com/find-energy- drinks Ingredients Why Celsius? Awards Store Flavors Best Healthy Healthy Way More Than Before and After Your Team Your Health and Find Us Enjoy the Great Letter from CEO (ecommerce Taste of Calorie Ingredients - The an Energy Drink Energy Drink Success <2>Real Healthy Living Fitness News Awards Team A Word from our module) Burning Flavor Sugar Free .com/energy- People Real CEO on Calorie Health & Choice. drink .com/best- .com/healthy- com/energy- healthy-energy- Results <2> Burners Fitness Updates com/healthy- .com/before- living-team .com/health- drink-flavor drink .com/calorie- Ready to Drink ingredients after-success fitness-updates burners Weight Metabolic These are Management Study elements of Your New Weight Metabolism community/blog Gerry David Powder Management Booster Clinical Timeline Exercise Best Friend Study that will be and Healthy Healthy Living .com/weight- .com/metabolis managed Living m-booster Live Healthy – management .com/exercise- dynamically Live Longer John Fieldly healthy Shots (category / tags) .com/live-healthy Acute Clinical Study Metabolic etc Before Exercise Thermogenesis Best Exercise Acute Clinical We Support We Drink for Your Study Irina Lorenzo Support a Healthy Get Involved Lifestyle Next Workout .com/metabolic- Be More Active Initiatives .com/exercise- thermogenesis Sports .com/healthy- drink .com/be-more- lifestyle Prolonged Use active Michael J Hopf Sr Endurance Clinical Study Improve Your Sports Drink Exercise Attenuation Endurance Study Staying Fit .com/exercise- Share Your Richard E .com/sports- Exercise | Fitness Cardamone endurance drink- Tips attenuation Negative Calorie .com/exercise- Make Calorie fitness Burning Part of Pre-Workout William H Milmoe Your Next Study Pre- Workout Workout .com/calorie-- Routine Clinical Health and burning Study Fitness Events .com/workout- .com/health- Thomas Lynch routine fitness-events) Reduce Body Fat Jump Start Your Metabolsim with Overweight Fat Burning Study Richard Swanson Testimonials Supplement Overweight Fitness .com/fat-burning- Women and Testimonials supplement Weight Loss .com/fitness- Clinical Study testimonials .com/weight- Facts and Myths loss-study Energy Drink Facts and Myths Partners Our .com/energy- Sedentary Health and drink-facts Study Fitness Partners Sedentary Men .com/health- and Activity fitness-partners Endurance Clinical Study .com/activity- 13 endurance
- 16. Search Strategy • Architecture fixes • Keyword research • Persona research • Organic vs. paid mix
- 17. Long Term Maintenance • Quarterly audits • Retained resources • When – not if mindset
- 18. Content • Parallel effort • Short term need • Long term need
- 19. Social Channels • Select relevant channels • Focus on engagement • Focus on building trust • Be human
- 20. Tools & Technology • GWT (requisite) • CMS • Marketing automation • Email • Site audit
- 21. Skills
- 22. Digital Marketing is a team sport
- 23. 6 Skills Needed • Business • Analytical • Technical/IT • Creative • Marketing • Communication
- 24. Business Know How • Defined objectives • Risks • Resources • Budget • Management buy-in
- 25. Analytical Assessment • Competitive analysis • Needs assessment • Customer segmentation • Web analytics/insights • Data driven approach
- 26. Data Driven
- 27. Three Eras of Modern Marketing • Creative era • 1960’s and 70’s • Advertising centric • e.g., The Marlboro Man, Where’s the Beef? • Direct era • Database marketing direct to the consumer • 1% conversion rates = profitability • Relevance era • A relevant message to each customer segment in the relevant channel
- 28. It’s All About Relevance • 1978 consumers 2,000 ad messages/day • 2007 consumers 5,000 ad messages/day • 2010 consumers 16,000 ad messages/day 95% open rates possible 5% with highly open rate typical relevant with irrelevant messaging messaging
- 29. The Cost of Irrelevant Messaging • 41% of consumers say they would consider ending a brand relationship owing to irrelevant promotions • An additional 22% say they would defect from the brand relationship due to irrelevance • 58% of brand’s marketing content is not relevant to potential buyers, reducing brands’ chances of a sale by 45%
- 30. The customer is in control and knows it!
- 31. The Power of Data Driven Marketing The data (precision) marketing framework relies heavily on several key factors, starting with the collection and analysis of data. Analyze and Model Determine Deploy Objective Measure
- 32. DDM Business Results • Increased revenue • Customer retention • ROI
- 33. Forces Behind DDM • Economics • Consumers affected by down economy scrutinize purchases • Customer loyalty is more important to brands than ever before • Marketing budgets are under heavy scrutiny in C suite
- 34. Forces Behind DDM • Intensifying competition • Lower barriers of competitive entry in digital age • Competitors experimenting with social media, email, content, behavior al marketing campaigns • The WOW factor…Consumers expect to be wowed…
- 35. Forces Behind DDM • Advancing technology • Business analytics • Marketing automation • Marketing optimization
- 36. It’s All About the Customer Relevance will close the chasm between creative and direct marketing, leveraging customer insights to produce truly valuable content and communication that engages the buyer through highly relevant customer touch points.
- 37. Moneyball Marketing at Tampa Int’l Airport Objective: Attract more direct routes to major cities 1 new non-stop air route to major city has $154 M economic impact, 1200 jobs.
- 38. Moneyball Marketing at Tampa Int’l Airport Objective: Attract more direct routes to major cities 35% of Pinellas hotel guests rented cars in Orlando Tampa, St. Pete, Sarasota effective buying rate of $96B TPA is within 1 hour drive for 3.5 million people
- 39. Moneyball Marketing at Tampa Int’l Airport Objective: Attract more direct routes to major cities More than 30 Tampa Bay companies do business with Switzerland. 24 Swiss companies like Nestle SA, Credit Suisse Group AG and Zurich Financial Services that have subsidiaries in Tampa Bay. Many European travelers fly to Orlando but end up in Tampa Bay: 35 percent of Pinellas beach-goers rented cars in Orlando.
- 40. Moneyball Marketing at Tampa Int’l Airport Tampa International Airport has secured new daily routes to Cuba and Switzerland this year. British Airways also added two flights a week and now flies daily.
- 41. Technical • Web, server, mobile • During development • Post launch • Ongoing maintenance
- 42. Creative • Design • Navigation flow • User experience • Key messaging
- 43. Marketing • Integrated mindset • Customer focused • UX focused • Outcome focused
- 44. Internal Communication • Team minded • Proactive • Reactive • Status updates • Ego-less
- 45. Innovation
- 46. New Stuff • Panda/Penguin • AuthorRank • Disavow Links • Pinterest • Mobile devices • OS updates • Open API
- 47. Social Business
- 48. 3 Stages of the Social Media ROI Cycle http://www.slideshare.net/colleencar/increasing-social-media-roi-using-gladwells-tipping-point- framework-4539106
- 49. Stage 1: Launch 50% of businesses http://www.slideshare.net/colleencar/increasing-social-media-roi-using-gladwells-tipping-point- framework-4539106
- 50. Stage 2: Management 40% of businesses http://www.slideshare.net/colleencar/increasing-social-media-roi-using-gladwells-tipping-point- framework-4539106
- 51. Stage 3: Optimization 10% of businesses http://www.slideshare.net/colleencar/increasing-social-media-roi-using-gladwells-tipping-point- framework-4539106
- 52. IBM 2012 Global CEO Study http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03486usen/GBE03486USEN.PDF
- 53. IBM Leading The Way http://www.ibm.com/social-business
- 54. Characteristics of a Social Business • C suite gets it • Marketing is not a department • Employee branding is embraced • Investment in social technology • Data driven marketing mindset
- 55. C Suite Gets It
- 56. Marketing is Not a Department
- 57. Become a Magnet Through Content • Employees • Customers • Influencers • Partners • Stakeholders
- 58. Employee Branding is Embraced
- 59. Investment in Social Technology http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/socialcast/Social-Business-Delivering-Critical-Business-Value.pdf
- 60. Investment in Social Technology http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/socialcast/Social-Business-Delivering-Critical-Business-Value.pdf
- 62. Data Driven Marketing Mindset
- 63. Social Business in Action
- 64. Harnessing Customer Feedback & Taking Action On It “It was nice to be recognized by the airline but being part of this company’s social network meant more to me than they would ever know. You see, by participating, I was constantly encouraged and inspired to start my own travel blog and create my online alter- ego @mrsoaroundworld. I made some valuable business connections and authentic friendships. The people in the Quality Hunters community were the first ones to read my new blog and spread the word. It rapidly became a very popular site for tales of luxury travel.” Ana Silva O’Reily
- 65. The C Suite Gets It
- 66. Marketing is Not a Department • 2010 mobile marketer/year • 26 million mobile transactions • $110 million card reloads • Shares photos on Instagram • Engages with people
- 67. Marketing is Not a Department • 70+ engineer bloggers • About technical topics • Measurable lead flow
- 68. Employee Branding at Kinaxis
- 69. Employee Branding at Kinaxis
- 70. Employee Branding at Kinaxis
- 73. What’s Your Digital Marketing Skyscraper?
- 74. Sources Precision Marketing by Sandra Zoratti, Lee Galagher http://precisionmarketingbook.com/
- 75. Sources CMO Council, Why Relevance Drives Response and Relationships; Using the power of Precision Marketing to better engage customers, 2009. Michael Cannon, Nine Silver Bullets to Increase Marketing’s Relevance, Silver Bullet Group, Walnut Creek, CA 2010 The Economist, A Special Report on Managing Information, February 2010. Jenny Davey, Every little of data helps Tesco rule retail, Sunday Times (London), October 4, 2009 Tampa International Airport playing its own version of “Moneyball,” to bring in new business, Tampa Bay Times, September 2, 2012
- 76. Sources Binders Full of Women sentiment analysis:http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/binders-full-of- women-meme/ Ana Silva O’Reilly, Grow Community: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2012/07/10/case-study- finnair-puts-social-media-community-to-work/ Three Stages of Social Media study: http://www.slideshare.net/colleencar/increasing-social- media-roi-using-gladwells-tipping-point-framework- 4539106 IBM Highlights of Chief Executive Officer Global Study: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03486us en/GBE03486USEN.PDF
- 77. Bernie Borges CEO, Find and Convert Transformational Digital Marketing bernie@findandconvert.com http://www.findandconvert.com/blog
Notas del editor
- I grew up in NYC where I witnessed skyscraper construction projects as I went to work each day. I was always amazed at how what seemingly looked like a bunch of guys doing dirty work, eventually resulted in a beautiful skyscraper. Fast forward 25 years and now I run a digital marketing agency. As we work with client to create digital marketing plans, it has dawned on me that a digital marketing initiative is very similar to a skyscraper construction project in many ways. My hope is that the concepts and stories I share with you today, comparing digital marketing to building a skyscraper will resonate with you at some level and offer you some valuable take aways.
- Any new digital marketing initiative always has to start with a vision. Whether it’s launching a new website for an existing business, for a new business or new offering, or if it’s launching a new app, or if it’s creating a campaign to promote a product or service, it always starts with a vision. That vision must be well thought out, well articulated and it should be written down. And, most importantly it should be shared with every person involved in the effort. Effective vision casting will inspire those involved to give you their best work. Lack of vision casting can have the opposite effect.
- Like a skyscraper, a digital marketing plan needs a blueprint. The blueprint serves as the communication piece that defines “what” we’re building and also contributes to “how” we’re going to build it. But, the vision, defines the “why.”
- But, let me offer a point of alarm. This point has haunted me in own digital marketing career. You’ve heard it said that a good marketing plan doesn’t fix a flawed product. A digital marketing plan exists to support a strong brand or product. Even if it is a spankin new brand, the owner of the brand must know what it stands for, who it stands for, and why. A digital marketing plan for a weak brand strategy is a weak digital marketing plan, not because the digital marketing plan is weak, but rather because the brand strategy is weak.
- So, let’s start with processes. When I walked by those skyscraper construction projects and watched a building erect over the span over months, I realized that those guys had processes. It’s just not possible for a project of that enormity to succeed without processes. For purposes of this presentation, I will use the example of developing a new website for a brand that seeks to attract buyers through digital channels, although not limited to digital channels only. How many of you are in B2B? B2C?
- In digital marketing the blueprint is a roadmap. This roadmap is important because it serves to communicate in an easy to understand manner the scope and elements of the DM initiative.
- This is what a roadmap in our world looks like. It has 4 elements. Each element is mapped out using color coding and a calendar. This document is extremely important because it serves not only the DM project team. It also serves other stakeholders, namely executives who have approved the budget and want to know the big picture plan, but they don’t want to know all the details.
- So, let’s drill down on each of the 4 elements of a DM roadmap. Now, you may be tempted to list other elements in a roadmap. Chances are that just about any other element you list would fall under of these 4 categories.
- Let’s start with your digital assets. Your digital assets really should be thought of as assets. They not only have a value. But, they also have capabilities. In fact, one reason all brands need to create or update digital assets is to increase their capabilities. For example, if a brand’s website is more than 3 years old, poorly optimized, difficult to navigate and generally provides an experience that, in comparison to your competitors is inferior, the capabilities of that digital asset are extremely limiting. Over the years, we’ve been engaged by clients to improve results through SEO and other online demand generation strategies for weak digital assets. That is not a viable strategy. We no longer even accept those client engagements any longer. A brand owner should understand the importance of digital assets that have capabilities.
- There are three aspects to planning your digital assets. Your assets need a sound architecture. In the skyscraper analogy, I liken this to the details the eyes can’t see, but are important such as the foundation, the structure of the building, the plumbing and the wiring. Your asset needs to deliver a good user experience that is relevant. I am not just referring to an experience that is pleasing to the eye, but also relevant to the interests of the user and easy to navigate and find relevant content. And, of course a digital asset needs to be easy to find online through search and social channels.
- In order to build a website digital asset that will deliver a relevant experience, we advocate an approach that identifies and researches the personas of your target customers. Identify the buyer personas by pain points/interests. Also identify influencers by pain points. Don’t limit yourself to prospective buyers. Study influencers too. Map them out in a document using whatever format works for you. For example, if the end user buyer is a consumer who cares about fitness and exercises, influencers can include people who work at a gym, or blog about these topics, just to name a few.
- Once you have defined the persona strategy, then convert that insight into a diagram that shows the relationship between the buyer’s pain and interest points and the primary message that needs to be delivered to that audience. We also like to list the primary drivers for each persona and pain point to remind us to stay focused on relevancy. Notice, that this format does not yet address how the user will navigate the website. This exercise is solely focused on creating the content roadmap that increase the chance of delivering a relevant experience to the website visitor.
- Once you and the digital marketing team are comfortable with the type of content that needs to be delivered on the website, you have what you need to lay out the website navigation plan, aka site plan. The site plan can be a contentious detail. Everyone has an opinion. Sometimes, even a member of the executive team has an opinion on how the site should be laid out. If you’ve done your homework with a persona analysis and the content flow in the previous slide, you will be in a better position to deal with opinions that may run counter to the content flow strategy.
- Another important element to the website asset planning process that follows the previous steps is the URL navigation structure. There are 3 components: 1: relevant keyword theme, 2: title for each page, 3) The URL itself.
- The single largest reason for delays in launch of website projects is the content is not ready. Using a content writing process is very important to keep this on track. Once you have created the siteplan based on personas, the content effort should begin immediately In other words, the content writing process should be a parallel effort to the development. Identify how many people will be in involved in reviewing and approving the content. Use a collaboration system such as Basecamp to build categories to easily manage the iteration process. Using a process such as this will mitigate confusion and version control issues as dozens or hundreds of content documents flow through the review and approval process. Each content writing and review process is unique to each company.
- Another element to the digital asset strategy is the search strategy. Everything I’ve discussed so far supports a sound organic search strategy. A website with a good architecture is a very solid foundation for SEO. Of course, one aspect of SEO that hasn’t changed is keyword research. We believe in segmenting keywords as focused as you need to get based on the persona analysis. These two exercises feed each other. In fact sometimes, keyword research may call attention to topics that warrant a revisit to an element of the persona strategy. For example, you may discover a segment of keywords that need to be correlated to a specific persona. For example, it may not be enough to identify people who are fitness conscious. You may need to get more granular by activity such as weight training, running, cycling, swimming, etc. And, finally, consider which element of the search strategy needs paid support. We frequently see marketers overspend on PPC. A well planned organic plan can allow a marketer to focus on a narrower paid strategy that can deliver the most cost effective results. For example, if your company or product name has more than one meaning, and you don’t own page 1 in Google organic listings for your name, a paid strategy makes sense to make it easy for your customers to find you.
- Your digital assets require maintenance. We advocate no less than quarterly audits at the architecture and content levels. You need retained resources, whether in house or external. Consistency of those resources is strongly recommended so they become familiar with the elements of your architecture. Keep your assets updated properly with version updates, bug fixes, new modules, etc. Plus adding new content, both static and dynamic.
- As I mentioned earlier, the content strategy should be a parallel effort. I can’t stress that enough. Identify search terms that are brand centric and search terms which are audience centric based on user interests. Develop content for both. Remember that people generally don’t care about your products/services. They care about how your products/services meet a need. So, your content needs to answer questions like: how do I improve results of my exercise program.
- Of course, websites need to be supported by social channels. Please note my choice of words. I’m calling them social channels, not social media. For most brands, social channels serve two purposes: build engagement and to build trust. Another way to frame this up is to say that social channels can build relationships with your audience. When you effectively build relationships through social they may tell other people about your brand, and that’s what every marketer wants.
- The 4th and final element of web assets is tools & technology. This is probably an obvious one. But, we’ve seen this element short changed usually due to either a lack of understanding by the marketer of their importance, or budget. Budget constraints are always a reality. There are free tools available such as GWT. In most cases, you are well served to use robust tools such as Pixelsilk for CMS, marketing automation tools such as HubSpot or Marketo, email tools such as Vertical Response, ExactTarget or What Counts, and site audit tools like Majestic SEO, SEO MOZ, SEO Quake. Each tool is different. No one tool does it all. Understand your needs and select tools that will meet your specific needs.
- Okay, we’ve looked at processes and the importance of digital assets when embarking on a new digital marketing initiative such as a website for a product or service. Now, let’s look at the skills needed to be successful.
- I know it’s a little hokey, but digital marketing is a team sport. No matter what your favorite team sport is, what they all have in common is that they all have position players. Each position player has a specific role.
- Let’s look at the skills needed for the members of a DM team. I’ve broken them down into 6 skills. If you think of another skill, chances are it fits under one of these categories. Let’s look at each one.
- The first one is business know how. In my years in DM I’ve seen some initiatives where the top person leading the initiative is a technology person. As you’ll see, technology people play an important role. But, let’s start with the fact that we are usually tasked with driving a business initiative. The DM plan should have well defined and written objectives. You should know a lot about the competitive landscape and how you are different. You should know what resources you do and don’t have including budget. And, most of all, it’s imperative to have management commitment to a DM initiative with the understanding that the tail doesn’t wag the dog. In other words, the DM plan doesn’t fix a product or brand problem, if one exists.
- Analytical skills are very important to a DM initiative. In most cases a competitive analysis is a wise investment. You should know how you compare to your competitors. You should understand your buyer’s needs. We have a client whose primary messaging was focused on a specific need, and as the initiative progressed and insights were learned about their customers, the client learned the buyer’s need was actually different than originally perceived. This was a wake up call that bubbled all the way to the CEO. Segmenting your customers requires analysis so that you know how to address each segment uniquely. Of course, analysis of traffic and buyer behaviors are also critical skills.
- This skill is so important that I want to expand on it because if you get this wrong in your team building, you risk failure.
- Over the past 50 years of marketing, we’ve seen three eras. While the creative era gave rise to some memorable ad campaigns. Eventually, advertising alone became less effective and marketers turned to direct marketing using database marketing tactics with a “1%” mentality. Today, the consumer has revolted. The 99% we reach with an irrelevant message gets angry and goes online to tell the world about how a brand just delivered a totally irrelevant experience. Today we live in the relevance era. Consumers expect brands to know more about them, and message them relevantly. It’s relevance or die!
- ADDM approach to marketing is all about relevance. As consumers, the volume of messages we get each day continues to grow each year. As marketers, if we deliver highly relevant messages, we can enjoy positive results. If we fail at delivering relevant messages, the consequences are severe.
- The stakes are high. The cost or consequence of delivering irrelevant messaging is the relationship with our customer. Recent survey data supports that consumers are willing to sever brand loyalty ties when delivered irrelevant messaging. Unfortunately, most brands are not yet getting this right. And, as a result brand defection is high, due mostly to delivery of irrelevant messaging. When a 40 year old woman in San Francisco is sent the exact same message as a 40 year old woman on Des Moine, Iowa, the brand mistakenly assumes the relevance is the same. And, it’s not.
- The truth is the customer is “mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore!” And, that is because the customer is in control. All we have to do is tweet our dissatisfaction, or post it on a brand’s Facebook page, or post it on a forum and the brand’s customers see the complaints. We live in an open communication, digital world where the customer is in control.
- The way for marketers to increase their chance of winning and keeping customers in the digital age is through data driven marketing. And, it starts with the collection of data from customers.
- DDM marketing produces the results all brands want, more revenue, customer retention and loyalty, and ROI on marketing expenditure. If more organizations practiced DDM, the average tenure of a chief marketing executive would be more than 22 months. In fairness to the CMO though, it takes a village. IT must cooperate in allocation of resources to license, implement and support DDM technology tools. DDM is inherently dependent on technology tools, supported by an analytical mindset.
- Let’s look at the forces of DDM. The first one is economics. Consumers want the best bang for their dollar. They are less loyal to brands who don’t deliver the best bang. And, the C suite is scrutinizing every dollar of marketing spent.
- The next one is intensifying competition. In the digital age it’s easier for competitors to make inroads in almost any industry. Oracle saw Salesforce go from a scrappy startup to a serious threat in CRM software. Google saw Facebook encroach on their turf with the world’s most popular social network despite three attempts by Google to compete. New marketing paradigms allow competitors to reach and engage consumers like never before. And, the consumer that is wowed (in a relevant way of course) develops brand loyalty, provided the wow is backed up with a quality product.
- The third force is advancing technology. The market for business analytics, marketing automation and optimization is growing very rapidly. IBM alone has invested $20B in recent years in acquisitions to be well positioned to capitalize on a $200+ billion market. As technology continues to become available to marketers to reach their customers in very relevant ways, businesses are allocating budget for it as they increasingly understand the need for such technology to use DDM to micro target customers with relevant messaging.
- Again, this all amounts to becoming a marketer of relevance. Reaching and engaging customer segments with messaging that is meaningful and of interest is the winning formula.
- Next, let’s look at how Tampa Int’l Airport uses DDM to attract new airlines.TPA’s objective about a year ago was to attract more airlines with direct routes to major cities. The economic impact of direct routes is substantial - $154 million and 1200 jobs.
- After pouring through a lot of data, TPA official learned that 35% of guests in Pinellas county rented cars in Orlando. That meant that tourists were flying into Orlando with an interest in visiting Florida beaches. With a powerful buying rate in Tampa Bay, TPA officials decided to pitch their airport to Edelweiss, a popular Swiss airline with direct routes between Orlando and Zurich, Switzerland.
- The pitch to Edelweiss was entirely based on data. TPA officials showed them that more 30 Tampa Bay companies do business in Switzerland and that 24 Swiss companies have subsidiaries in Tampa Bay, and how many European travelers fly to Orlando end up in Tamp Bay to visit the beaches.
- The end results was that Edelweiss Airlines cancelled their Orlando to Zurich flight and instead launched their Tampa to Zurich flight. In the past year. DDM has resulted in TPA landing flights to Cuba, Switzerland and UK.
- I make a distinction between data driven skills and technical skills. The technical skills need range from development, through deployment and post launch support and maintenance. As I mentioned earlier, it’s best if you can maintain the same technical people over a sustained period of time and do knowledge transfer along the way so at no point you are faced with an urgent need for technical support from someone who have no background on your DM initiative. I also argue that your technical resources should understand the business goals so they have clarity on the “why” of what you need, not just the “what” and “how.”
- Of course no DM initiative is complete without design skills. Once again, the “why” should be understood by the creative team members. Their responsibility is to create a relevant user experience that makes an emotional connection with the user through a combination of layout, imagery, key messaging delivery and CTAs.
- Another skill needed in a DM initiative is marketing know how. If this seems almost funny, consider that an effective marketer in the digital age must have a key understanding of the business goals, and knows how to integrate offline and online initiatives. For example, event marketing is very popular. Whether a brand participates in an event like this, or delivers webinars, or sponsors their own branded events, the offline physical element of events should be coordinated with online efforts. All that integration should be focused on the customer’s needs, not on your product. Certainly, your product can and should showcase solutions, but the marketing skills needed are to focus on aligning the product with the customer’s needs and interests. A marketing professional is always outcome focused, which comes full circle back to the vision and the roadmap.
- The final skill needed for effective DM initiatives is internal communication. This is a critical skill. It can make or break success. First and foremost, the communication needs to always support the team effort. Each position player should understand their role on the team and communicate proactively and reactively on progress as well as risks. Confronting issues as they arise through professional and positive communication is important. I know that sometimes situations among team members arise that can make things contentious. The leader of the team needs to take charge and handle that situation and that comes down to communication.
- Another element in DM initiatives is innovation.
- One challenge we face as digital marketers is that innovation occurs seemingly on a daily basis. How many of us can say our website displays perfectly on the new iPad Mini? Since new stuff is a way of life, we advocate maintaining a budget for unplanned new stuff. Whether you need to license software, hire outside services or attend a webinar or conference like this, the cost of learning and using new stuff is inevitable. Look at new stuff through the lens of “how does this affect our ability to deliver value to our customers in our DM initiatives?” If you don’t filter it through that lens, you can caught in the trap of wanting new shiny stuff more often than you have time or budget.
- I want to spend a few minutes reviewing with you “the next big thing” in digital.
- Two years ago, a study was published that illustrates the 3 stages organizations go through in the adoption of “social media.” They are the launch stage, the management stage and the optimization stage. http://mashable.com/2011/03/03/social-media-roi-cycle/
- At the time of this study about 2 years ago, approximately 50% of organizations were considered in the launch stage. This is a very tactical stage characterized mostly by the marketing department opening up the requisite social media accounts on sites like Facebook, Twiiter and YouTube and sticking those social media icons on the website. The C suite says “okay, we’re using social media, whatever that means.”
- The management phase occurred about one year into being “on social media.” The organization began to focus more on engagement because they recognized that’s what people want to do on social media, ENGAGE. Businesses began to wake up to the fact that social media is not a platform to push and promote your products, but rather a place to have real, authentic, human engagement. In other words to be SOCIAL. And, along the way, when natural conversations occur about your company or products, that’s good. But, blatant promotion just doesn’t fly because that’s not social.
- About two years into this journey many organizations began to really come to understand the value of being social through relevant content and more authentic engagement and began to piece together either anecdotal evidence, or (gasp) quantifiable evidence that being social on the web is actually good for business. Yes, it is good for business. And, that is why today we are talking about social business.
- One of the most progressive companies in the area of social business is IBM. In full disclosure, IBM has products and services that help organizations become a social business and measure results. That said, IBM is walking the walk quite nicely. Recently, IBM released their 2012 Global CEO Study in which they interviewed more than 1700 CEOs in 64 countries across 18 industries. Their big three take aways from the report are: 1) empower employees through social technology and a culture of being social, 2) leverage partnerships, 3) engage customers as individuals. In other words, don’t think of your business as B2B or B2C, but rather H2H (human to human). Businesses are made up of people and people are social. And, social technology enables everyone to connect and engage in ways that weren’t possible in years past.
- IBM boils it down to two core benefits: empowering the workforce and engaging with customers more effectively. They’ve has invested more than $20 billion in recent years acquiring technology companies and their talent to position themselves as the market leader in social business solutions. Visit them online at http://www.ibm.com/social-business.Allows you to synthesize multiple forms of data. Scalability and processing power that far surpasses human capacity. Tackle unstructured data (big data).
- Let’s look at the five characteristics of a social business. In full disclosure these are my opinion. You may or may not find these characteristics in someone else’s definition of social business. I’ve been a practitioner of social business since 2006 both as a user and as a digital marketing agency and a speaker and trainer, not to mention author of one book and a top 100 digital marketing blog, though it wasn’t called social business until more recently. So, I am confident that my perspective is grounded in sound reasoning.
- Anything meaningful in business always has to have the full support of the top of the food chain in the organization. In a social business, the C suite recognizes that employees are social and that they use social technology, and that restricting their use in the business is like restricting them from talking on the phone. The C suite also understands the role of relevant content as a means to engage with customers, and technology or systems to facilitate usage and measurement of business value. A social business is both content rich and users of social technology to implement, track and measure results.
- In my opinion, one of the most compelling characteristics of a social business is when the organization recognizes that marketing is not a department. The role of the marketing department is to provide leadership to the rest of the organization. The marketing executive should be a part of the leadership team. The marketing plan must be clearly aligned with the business’ strategic objective. The role of marketing certainly includes the launch of campaigns and tactics designed to build brand awareness and produce leads. And, it also includes communicating the vision to the rest of the organization and spelling out exactly how the people in each functional department or division plays a role in the company’s overall marketing efforts.
- A social business is very strong in content marketing. Study after study proves that we humans don’t trust advertising. I’ve seen stats as high as 76% of us don’t believe advertising messages. In the digital age, the most effective way to reach and engage people is through relevant content. The people we can reach through good content runs the gamut across your entire value chain from employees, customers and all strategic stakeholders. Delivering content that addresses the needs and wants of each persona is the name of the game. And, a social business understands that and does exactly that.
- A social business embraces employees as brand ambassadors. Some of your employees have valuable subject matter expertise, and some of them have the capability of building their reputation around that expertise in a way that is valuable to your brand. This phenomenon is made possible through a content mindset which is greatly enabled through our digital channels such as blogs and social networks. While not all employees are qualified to be dual branded, those that do can have a “halo effect” on your brand. When these employees produce valuable content, share it and engage with your market, their personal brand benefits and so does yours. A social business does NOT fret over the personal brand equity of these employees. Rather, a social business embraces it for the halo effect. A social business works in alignment with these employees.
- A social business understands that it requires technology investment to be social not unlike the need for ERP or CRM systems. In April 2012 Forrester Research published a report on social business. Their research shows that 50% of those organizations surveyed either had already invested in social technology or had planned to invest in 2012.
- The Forrester Research report indicates that 60% of the executives surveyed indicated their #1 goal from social technology is better decision making by being closer to the customer.
- The landscape of social technology providers is a fast moving one. In 2012 alone we’ve seen several moves from well known brands. Oracle and Salesforce both made social technology acquisitions, as did Microsoft in their acquisition of Yammer. And, of course as I mentioned earlier, IBM has a big stake in social business with products and services. While this is just a sampling of some of the technology providers in social business, clearly the trend is obvious. Organizations need social technology and these providers are serious about earning your business to help you be a social business.
- Another characteristic of a social business is having a data driven mindset. Earlier I spoke a DDM mindset from the POV of relevant customer messaging. The other DDM aspect is harnessing the amount of unstructured BIG DATA to understand sentiment and trends. This is only possible through social technology offerings.
- Finland’s flagship airline, Finnair and the Helsinki airport set out to collaborate on a social outreach to find ways to make air travel more enjoyable. They were launching a new concept called Quality Hunters. They would choose 7 of the best ideas, and give them a 7 week journey around the world in search of air travel best practices. They used social media to invite people to make any suggestion they want. They held live online chats which sometimes lasted all day. The Quality Hunters social media team listened and engaged with the community, which was growing rapidly. People really responded well to this online community. One of the easiest ideas to implement from the suggestions was a book swap lounge. The community was invited to submit design ideas. The connection made between the community and the airline is a human to human connection. Ana Silva O’Reilly, whose blog post nicely summarizes the whole journey genuinely appreciates the opportunity to make new online friends and she even says she made business connections. The community also helped her spread the word on her new travel blog. This is an example of a social business in action through authentic engagement, listening and acting on the input of the community.
- HubSpot is a marketing automation company. Recognized by Inc., Forbes, Fortune and others for their rapid growth, they are also recognized for the two co founders walking the walk in social business. HubSpot is in the “inbound marketing” business. So, it’s no surprise, and worth noting that the CEO and CTO of a fast growing inbound marketing software company both blog and tweet in a very down to earth, human way. But, even more significant is the fact they empower their 400 employees to tweet, blog and otherwise share thoughts and links to content about relevant inbound marketing stuff. They get it. Of course, they should get it. They are a great example to follow.
- While the Starbucks marketing team may be responsible for their mobile strategy and managing their Instagram account, what they understand is that their most powerful asset is their loyal customers. Through their mobile app, they generate significant revenue. Through Instagram, a more recent endeavor, they allow anyone to follow them.
- Indium Corp is a NY based manufacturer of industrial solder paste. They were an early adopter of blogging. It didn’t happen overnight, but today more than 70 engineers write blog articles on obscure, long tail technical topics that would glaze over most of our eyes. Their blog content is well received by their audience resulting in a healthy steady supply of qualified sales leads.
- Kinaxis is a supply chain management software company located in western Canada. Kinaxis has many social channels where they enable employees, customers and partners to participate through relevant content. One of their content channels is even a comedy video channel.
- Kinaxis has a vibrant blog with more than a dozen contributors from every function in the business, all sharing their thoughts and expertise on supply chain industry topics.
- Kinaxis also has a private community with more than 5000 members. This is a subscription based community of customers, partners and employees discussing topics that interest them in the context of supply chain management.
- When a brand delivers utility to the consumer through social technology, a strong relationship can be built. Mobile technology is one of the best ways to do that. Delta airlines allows me to manage my travel plans from my smartphone. Amazon has cornered the market on “showrooming” with their Price Check.
- The Social Business Index is currently the only independent measure of organizations around the world. The SBI is a free resource from the Datchis Group, a global consultancy in social business. It is a free version whose purpose seems to be to entice large brands to subscribe to their Social Performance Monitor SaaS offering.
- I’ve covered a lot of ground with you today. I hope you’ll think about these concepts as you revisit new or current DM initiatives and ask how clear is the vision and the business objectives? Are the processes well defined? Do you have all the skills you need to succeed? Do you have the tools and technology you need to succeed? Are you leveraging data to deliver a relevant experience and to measure outcomes? And, how close are you to being a social business where both your employees and your customers experience your brand through relevant content and human touch points using social technologies.