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Posts Tagged ‘lessons learned’

8 Daily Digital Marketing Challenges

2 comments Written on January 3rd, 2013 by Brian McDonald
Categories: Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Strategy
Tags: communication, lessons learned, Raleigh Social Media, Social Networks, tips, Web

It’s not as difficult as being President of the United States, but digital marketing is hard work. Most people think we just play on social media all day and create a few web pages. I wish that was true. Digital marketing is a fun career choice but can be very challenging due to several factors.

Digital marketing is in a state of constant change. Search engine result pages (SERPs) change more than 75% on a daily basis. New social networks and tools pop up every few days. Just when you think you’ve figured it out Facebook announces privacy changes or Instagram changes its terms of service. Whatever the state of flux what works today, may not work tomorrow.
Educating others as to what’s important. For those that don’t live, eat and breath digital, there’s a large knowledge gap. A big part of my day can be spent educating others as to why certain aspects of digital marketing are unique and important.
You have to play the long and short game. Even B2C ecommerce sites that can show quick conversions from email, paid search and social. But they still have to consider where there brand will be positioned a year from now, 5 years from now, etc. B2B with longer sales cycles know this well enough but again you have to educate your co-workers that
It’s hard to find quality relevant data. Yes there are tons of stats on Mashable, Techcrunch and other news blogs on conversion rates, open rates, etc. But many times they are aggregated across millions and billions of sessions, users stats, log files, etc. Finding relative comparative benchmarking data is challenging and can be expensive.
You have to be a part time geek. Not just someone that loves technology but you have to understand how the web and other digital platforms work at certain levels. Digital marketing works when the underlying infrastructure and technology support the goals and objectives of the campaign. Without a robust framework and platform the best campaigns can quickly fail. Understanding how the pieces work together is critical for success.
You have to test on many browsers, operating systems and mobile devices. Sure your website, app, email looks great on your computer but what about the person in the cube next to you on an older browser. Or your CEO that is on his iPad. Or your customer that still uses a Blackberry. At some point you have to cut bait and fish but the testing and revisions are important and time consuming.
Traditional marketing is still important. The old rules may not always apply but lessons learned from past campaigns can provide insight into how people may respond to your campaign. Marketing is not about selling, it’s about creating interest, awareness and demand for your product. The selling comes afterwards.
There are many digital channels and associated strategies. Do I create a mobile website or mobile app? Are microsites the best strategy for a campaign. How much organic and paid search do I need to reach my goals? Add in video, social, email, content marketing, and whatever is around the corner. Not every digital channel is applicable for each campaign, but each must be considered and reviewed.

So what do you think? Is digital marketing hard work in your opinion?

Tagscommunication, lessons learned, Raleigh Social Media, Social Networks, tips, Web
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Strategy

6 Marketing Myths Busted!

6 comments Written on July 8th, 2011 by Brian McDonald
Categories: Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Tags: blogging, branding, challenge, lessons learned, Raleigh Social Media, Social Networks, Web

Some days I get down when reading blog posts, discussions, seeing speakers talk about new marketing channels like social media or paid search. I have to remind myself that we live in a world where everyone is getting their mega horn on to blast out opinions. Some are on target, others a bit skewed and some are extrapolating case studies into generalizations.So here’s my take on some current marketing myths I see. Please note that I’m not saying these tactics don’t work in a well developed marketing plan that works in conjunction with multiple marketing channels. I’m debating those presenting these tactics as a single, standalone strategy.

Social media will kill email. Email can be a burden and require time to manage the flow of messages, archiving, etc. It’s true that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn allow us to message and communicate with other in place of email. But these new communication channels are not killing email, they may be reducing it for some users, however email is not going anywhere. Corporations are not going to use Twitter, Facebook or texting to communicate directly with customers for e-commerce ordering and other secure communication, for example.
Paid search is all you need to drive traffic and conversions to your website. For some business, paid search is a great tool for driving online conversions, acquiring customers and generating revenue. These businesses tend to be e-commerce with short sales cycles and low price points. For businesses with longer sales cycles, more expensive and intensive purchases, paid search may drive people to your site but will not covert into a sale immediately. Paid search can generate some awareness but other forms of advertising may be best for specialty products and markets with complex buying cycles. For these companies paid search may not be the best spend of their marketing budget. Also paid search works best with a strong organic SEO plan that continues to drive traffic when the paid search budget dries up!
Book authors are experts because they have been published. Some authors are experts because they have demonstrated their expertise through years of experience and professional work. Others may be great writers that have worked in publishing and see the value of a specific technology. While others may just be lucky enough to be first to market and in the right place at the right time. I follow Tom Webster’s advice and tend to be skeptical until I see some evidence and thought leadership that supports claims of expertise.
Anyone can be a blogger. While it is true that anyone can create a blog easily with platforms like Blogger and WordPress a blog is more than just writing posts and a blogger is more than being the writer. It involves being an advocate for your readers, staying abreast of your subject matter, digging for answers to questions, creating an editorial calendar, focusing on a subject and being consistent. Heck I don’t even consider myself a blogger. I’m a marketing professional that writes a blog. A blogger is someone so dedicated to their audience they post 3-5 times a week. There’s a difference.
Social media is the only channel that allows you to have a conversation with your customers. True that social media allows for interactive communication between a company, its employees and customers. But it does not allow you to communicate with all your customers since not everyone is on social media and you it may not be a preferred channel of communication for every situation. Email, phone conversations and going into a store to talk to a real person are all still alive and well and will always be viable alternatives to a social media conversation.
Traditional marketing is dead. While social media has created a new channel to communicate with customers, it’s not a replacement for traditional media. The challenge for marketing professionals always has been and always will be to find the right marketing mix for their customers. If the majority of customers are heavy social media users then yes social media can be the primary channel. Yet we still see billboards, commercials, print ads, posters and other traditional forms of advertising that have not died since the social media exploded the past few years.

What do you think about these myths? Do you agree or disagree with my myth busting?

Tagsblogging, branding, challenge, lessons learned, Raleigh Social Media, Social Networks, Web
Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Strategy

What’s Your Data Crisis Communication Plan?

No Comments » Written on May 23rd, 2011 by Brian McDonald
Categories: Digital Media, Marketing, PR
Tags: communication, lessons learned, Social Networks

Klout (@klout), the online standard for influence and scoring site suffered a severe system error that caused users social media profile scores to drop in value yesterday. I noticed a few people questioning their scores on Facebook so I went to my Klout page and noticed that my score dropped by 50%. I was not really bothered by the drop but more intrugued since it appeared to be happending to several users.

Between 8:30 and 12 noon I watched how Klout dealt with the situation. They did a great job of informing their users that there was an error and that they were sorry for the problem. They quickly sent tweets out informing their users that there was a glitch and they had not changed their algorithym as many people speculated on Twitter. By noon, Klout CEO Joe Fernandez had written a post explaining the problem and offering an sincere apology. Looking at the comments people were forgiving and appreciated the company explaining the problem and offering an apology.

With data being the currency of the social web, it’s vital that you have a crisis communication plan in place to deal with unplanned data loss or corruption. All systems can fail at any given time no matter how much we plan. Humans and machines make mistakes and often do. We are a forgiving culture as long as we know someone is listening and responding.

Klout did several things right. First it used Twitter as a customer support channel by addressing some of the first people asking why their scores had dropped. Secondly they acknowledged the error and informed users that they were working on the problem. Within a few hours it was fixed and they issued a nice post explaining the issue in more detail and apologizing for any problems it may have caused.

Sometimes when we have a crisis we can get unfocused fast. The first reaction is to find and fix the problem. But it’s equally important to have a crisis communication plan in place and enacted at the same time. Those responsible for the social media and outbound communication channels need to have a plan in place to know how to adquately react to consumer and customer questions. Chain of command needs to be properly identified and contingency plans in place in case spokespersons are travelling, on vacation or unavialable.

Let’s face it in today’s instant gratification and social media world you are being judged on how well you react, communicate and respond in a very short period of time. Klout’s example happened in less than 4 hours! Klout’s glitch has no life or death implications. But for a company that relies on accuracy and awareness of their service it’s important for them to have a reliable scoring system that does not frequently crash!

Do you have a crisis communicatoin plan for your data?

Tagscommunication, lessons learned, Social Networks
Posted in Digital Media, Marketing, PR

10 Ways to Boost Virtual Office Productivity

11 comments Written on February 22nd, 2011 by James Adams
Categories: Productivity, Strategy
Tags: communication, lessons learned, tips, Web

Virtual teams present special challenges, primarily because they are so geographically dispersed. Because you never meet face to face, out must rely on technology to get your workers trained. Remote workers in the form of IT specialists or personal assistants are great ways to save money or assemble teams with unique skills, but they require some special handling to keep them focused on their assigned tasks. Here you will find 8 ways to boost virtual office productivity so you get your money’s worth.

Set your expectations early: You need to make sure you discuss your communication methods and how often you must get updates. Be specific concerning the outputs you want to see and when you must see them. By setting the standard early you can develop a better relationship and also have a framework by which you can provide evaluations and take corrective action if necessary.
Route tasks effectively: A thorough knowledge of your virtual workers’ skill will help you route work properly. Virtual workers all have different specialties, so make sure that you delegate appropriate work to each person. This will help your virtual workers be more productive and you will get the results you need.
Get an address: Your virtual office can include physical space services that have a real address with a real receptionist to sign for packages and provide notary and other services. Space services give you the ability to maintain a prestigious address without the overhead associated with the high rent district. With a virtual address you don’t have to worry that anyone will find out that you do most of your work in your pyjamas.
Use software tools: Training and planning can be done with online project management tools such as the online BaseCamp subscription service. With online tools you can stipulate that all work be documented and you and your team can pick up and move on should one of your virtual workers quit unexpectedly.
Trust, not fear should characterize your relations with virtual workers: As with any employee or contractor you take a risk, although you never get to see most of your virtual team. You also should recognize that your virtual team may have never seen you either, so they have a lot at stake too. Rather than trying to keep your team members on a short leash, let them go about their work and while you go about yours. Most of the time your worries will prove to be unfounded.
Start smart: With a lot of deadlines looming you may feel pressured to assign a lot of work to new virtual workers. Realize that they have to get used to you and the way your organization works just as much as a physical employee would have to do. Start small with simple tasks while your team learns the ropes and gradually allow them to develop into the productivity engine you need them to be for your business to succeed.
Get some legal advice: If you are new to virtual work environments, take some time and money to get competent legal advice. You want to form relationships that don’t leave you vulnerable to legal action should one of your virtual workers become unhappy.
Be culturally savvy: If you have foreign workers on your virtual team, take some time to learn about their cultural nuances and practices. Be aware of their holidays and work routines and be careful not to unintentionally insult or offend them. Everyone must have respect for each other in order for the global workforce to succeed.
Provide support: Virtual workers will have concerns from time to time that you need to address promptly to keep them productive. Pay issues are probably near the top of the list with workflow issues being close by. If your workers need online or other tools to get their work done, go ahead and support them by getting them what they need. If you’re willing to work to accommodate them, they will be more likely to accommodate you.
Respect: To have a productive virtual office, you must show your workers respect. Take the lead in this area and be patient while your workers adjust to you and their virtual surroundings. After you’ve been fair and respectful with them for a few weeks, demand respect in return (if you haven’t received it yet). The virtual office is just like a physical office: everyone must get along in order to accomplish the mission.

Chart your course to success with these 10 ways to boost virtual office productivity. You will you’re your experience with this modern workforce to be fun, exciting, and profitable.

John Brook is a regular contributor to other blogs where he posts about improving productivity. He works at OfficeKitten.co.uk where he writes about presentation supplies and office supplies.

Tagscommunication, lessons learned, tips, Web
Posted in Productivity, Strategy

Educating Staff on Your Company Website

3 comments Written on October 26th, 2010 by Brian McDonald
Categories: Digital Media, Marketing, Productivity, Strategy
Tags: branding, communication, lessons learned, tips, Web

I had a call from from a staff member asking where our partner information was on our web site. The partner was at a trade show and promoting our company and could not find their information. A couple of things jumped out at me, most notably, “did they try searching for their company name on the site?” Needless to say the bigger issue is that the staff member was not familiar enough with the site to adequately answer their question. The final resolution was to put their logo and link to their partner page on the home page.

Now in the past I’ve dealt with staff not being aware of what’s on the website and consistently asking me for some piece of information. To which my answer usually is, “it’s on the website, did you look for it?” Of course we are a lazy society and the answer is usually “no.”

Therefore when designing and rolling out sites it’s imperative to do user training with your key staff to make them aware of your site content and more imporantantly how to navigate the site efficiently. Most of the time they and the sales staff are managing the relationships with customers and other key stakeholders. An in-depth understanding of the site is key to building relationships that lead to revenue producing opportunities.

Typically when a new site is created and launched the training does not go beyond an email announcing that the company has a new website, congrats to the web team, yadda, yadda, yadda. What is needed are small groups of cross functional teams to spend time exploring the site for several reasons:

They can help you find areas where navigation or content is confusing. When building interactive media we can glaze over small details that seem clear to us but confusing to others. Ideally this should be done in the review stages but small details can be fixed quickly with a good content management system.
You can engage them in helping create content for the web. If you company has a blog then it’s important to review and enlist staff in developing content. A content strategy will help you explain how content is created for the web, who governs each stage and how it goes live.
You don’t want to junk up the home page every time someone needs their part of the business promoted. Too many pages get cluttered up with icons, ads, banners, etc. I used to work at a trade association where this was the key problem. Again the reason was “nobody can find X, so put a banner for X on the home page.” Next thing you know we had too many banners and it was confusing. Good site planning helps eliminate this problem.
The website is our main company view to our customers. Even if you don’t do conversion optimization on your site, customers and others will go to your site first to see who, what, how, and why they should do business with you. First impressions are key and when they have questions, everyone should be able to do basic blocking and tackling versus going to the person that owns the site every instance.

By taking time on a regular ongoing basis, communicating the website features and content can pay off big time for the entire organization. This training should occur quarterly if not monthly depending on your business. Most eCommerce sites do this because that’s their entire business model, but there is no reason why B2B and B2C companies should not do the same.

What’s your website communication process? Do you communicate with staff on an on-going basis?

Tagsbranding, communication, lessons learned, tips, Web
Posted in Digital Media, Marketing, Productivity, Strategy

How to Change Your Logo and Not Look Stupid!

18 comments Written on October 13th, 2010 by Brian McDonald
Categories: Marketing, Strategy
Tags: advertising, branding, lessons learned, tips

Worst Logo Ever! The past few weeks have witnessed some major consumer brands changing their logos: Belk, MySpace, The Gap, etc. Most notably was The Gap who changed their logo to one of the worst designs I’ve seen in my 20 years of marketing communications. After much public disapproval and constant web and social chatter, The Gap decided to go back to their old logo. However in the meantime they also said they would crowdsource a new design, another bad decision.

I’m not going to question what the decision makers were thinking at The Gap, they don’t pay me to do that. Instead I reflected back on the fact that several of the companies I’ve worked for have changed their name, identity and other marketing symbols and done so without the uproar that we witnessed last week. So what are the considerations when deciding to change, modify or update your company name and/or logo?

Why the change? Has your product become synonymous with something that leaves a bad taste in your customer’s mouth? Has technology moved past your current product or service offering? This was the case in my first company that sold mainframe software. The company name was VM Systems Group based on the VM and related IBM mainframe platforms. When we acquired a new modem software company we had problems calling customers who heard the term VM and said, “we don’t use VM,” and hung up. So a name change was necessary to sell beyond our traditional customer base.
What is the impact? There are several facets to this question. There will be impact on the brand equity. How much will you throw away and how much effort will be required to generate awareness of the new name and logo? Operations and finance will want to know how much is it going to cost. If your company has a large library of printed collateral, trade show booths and graphics and other corporate swag, how much money will you have to spend to recreate, reprint and rebuild all of the physical stuff?
What is the commitment? The Gap demonstrated that there was a total lack of commitment in several areas to both the old and new logo. When I first saw the new design my first question was, is this a joke? A name and identity change should involve commitment from all levels and department of management. This process also allows you to get feedback on every aspect from design to practicality. For example does the new design work on delivery trucks, packaging, uniforms, web, event materials, etc. By involving the different functional teams in your company you can get this feedback before final decisions are made in a vacuum.
Finally there should be a communication plan. Traditional designers will rollout a spec book or guidelines on where the new logo is placed on literature or how to display on dark backgrounds. This is only half of the plan. A communication plan should also include the elevator pitch your employees need to know and believe in to build a strong brand experience. If you’re brand ambassadors answer the question of why did your company change the name/logo with “I don’t know,” or even worse “I don’t like it” then you did not do your job. Employees, partners and all stakeholders need to be comfortable in communicating why and how important the change was to your company moving forward.

To use my old company from the first point, the answer to the question would not be, “because we don’t just sell VM software,” it was, “our new offering includes a whole new suite of products for the corporate PC user.” (Note: it was 1993 and corporate PCs were new back then!)

Your corporate identity precedes your current and future employees. Don’t muck it up because you did not take the time to research, listen and perform due diligence to make the change a success rather than the next marketing case study!

Tagsadvertising, branding, lessons learned, tips
Posted in Marketing, Strategy

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