Digital Technology… Great, But It’s Still All About People.

Came across a great piece from the Chief Marketer website http://chiefmarketer.com/disciplines/online/0707-digital-tips/ the other day as I was doing a little reading catch up. I couldn’t help but shake my head in the affirmative as I read through it. Jeff Maling makes some great points in his post. I thought I’d add my $.02

Great Web Experiences Can Be Golden Eggs

1. Lead with a great site. Many marketers get so caught up in digital advertising, lead generation, etc., that they forget about the ultimate destination for the traffic: their Web site. Companies that focus too much on what is going on outside of their sites risk neglecting the centerpiece of their experience.

Too many sites, particularly ad-selling media sites, deliver experiences that fail to attract repeat users and sub-optimize advertising revenue. By redesigning the site experience, moving video forward and focusing on more lucrative video advertising, one cable television site raised advertising revenue 100%.

Troy’s .$.02 – People buy experiences, and interacting with a web site is part of their overall experience with your brand. Who cares how many people you attract if those visitors have a horrible experience, think the site sucks, don’t engage or buy and tell everyone else about their negative impressions.

My time spent with Jim Fortin at Mind Authority has further reinforced my belief that all of the technologies, widgets, and gadgets will not provide equity to your brand in and of themselves. They have to speak to the “emotional” decision-making brain and contribute to part of a great user experience. That’s why web usability should be a vital part of any new site design or site re-design.

Is Your PPC Campaign Burning Money?

2. Reevaluate display ads and paid search. Consider whether search engine marketing efforts are fully integrated with an overall marketing strategy. Most search firms often claim that clients are getting positive ROI for certain keywords, ending the discussion. However, the UK’s IPA Search Group recently reported declining click-through rates and rising cost-per-clicks (CPC) from January 2008 to March 2009.

Today, with budgets tight, marketers must determine where they are getting the best ROI. Developing SEO, SEM, and multivariate testing, coupled with site experience improvements, can substantially improve ROI. SEO can help reduce the bleed from increased CPC’s while increasing acquisition through improved ranking and relevancy. Conducting multivariate testing on landing pages can improve site experience and guide marketers’ efforts.

Troy’s $.02 – Yes, PPC/SEM, whatever you want to call it, can have positive impact in an online campaign. However, one look at the EyeTools Google Golden Triangle Study shows us just how much impact the PPC ads really have in terms of visual activity.

If people have been turned off of ads in traditional media because they don’t engage and are many (ah hell, most) times irrelevant, how long will it be before the PPC ads fall into that same pile? And Jeff couldn’t be more on the mark in bringing up the topic of Multivariate Testing. Why spend tons of time and money on something that isn’t going to produce? Why start, and re-start, and re-start 10 or 15 more times? Test, and test multiple elements of your online efforts to make sure they are working for you. Make sure they are adding, and not detracting, from the overall user experience. And don’t expect to have all the answers in 24 hrs. Yes, sometimes this is rocket science. Utilize the available tools (e-mail me and I’ll give you a list) that will help you determine what is working and what isn’t. Those analytics tools won’t give you answers without you putting forth a little effort.

The Ticket to an Engaging Experience

3. Turn advertising into an experience. The digital realm offers possibilities that are difficult to execute in traditional media. Advertising itself can be positioned as a value-added experience, and the key is to provide content that enriches an audience’s interaction with and perception of the brand. For instance, Xbox presented an online world and gaming experience with the launch of Halo 3. Scientific instrument-maker Varian introduced the Varian Experience to showcase its products in a new light; it obviated expenditures on a major trade show and provided client data impossible to communicate from a magazine ad or a trade show booth. By expanding such advertising experiences over time, marketers achieve long-term ROI.

Troy’s $.02 – See my response to question one. If you don’t want a revolving door of customers, create something that will keep existing customers coming back while bringing a few friends with them.

Make Digital a Social Experience

4. Integrate social media. Social media has exploded. The Conference Board recently found that 43% of Internet users utilize a social networking site, up from 27% last year. The social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) are consistently among the highest traffic sites online. Brands must fold sustainable social media into every campaign, not a one-off idea, to build awareness and loyalty as well as take advantage of viral potential.  Major sites such as InforWorld have made social media the cornerstones of their site redesigns.

Troy’s $.02 – Again, technology at it’s core, should be about improving the lives of PEOPLE. We are all trying to communicate and create lasting relationships with people. So, why wouldn’t we want to be social? Remember,  your customers own your brand now. Bring the “toys” you have to the sandbox and place nice with everyone. Oh, I know there is an opportunity for people to say “bad things” about you. Well, let me reassure you, some people will only say bad things, that’s their nature. And, people will always say worse things about you behind your back than if you are involved. So, be engaged. If someone in “cyber world” is bullying you, call them out on it. Expose the truth. If the truth is that you screwed up, then acknowledge, make amends, and become even further engaged to help prevent the same mistake from happening twice.

Again, use the monitoring tools available (Techrigy, Tealium, dna13, etc.) so you know what’s happening in your world.

There's an App for That!

5. Make the product digital. To add value, consider making digital one of your products by creating new ways to experience a product or enhance its value. First, evaluate if there is a market opportunity to make a digital product based upon your brand. For instance, a respected source of financial information could develop an online desktop for financial advisors. Second, explore opportunities to integrate a Web experience into your product. Apple, for example, created interactive digital marketplaces (i.e. iTunes, the AppStore) as a value-add for iPhones and iPods.
Troy’s $.02 – Brilliant, Jeff. Brands shouldn’t just jump into creating a smart phone application for the sake of creating an application. Make sure it brings value to the customer. Mobile marketing is growing at rapid rates. During my research for an internet marketing presentation for the Moscow Business School, I discovered just how rapidly mobile interaction is growing on a global level. Just when I thought no one could possibly text more than American teenagers, I found out that Russians text more than any people around the globe.
While product creation is not always in the realm of marketers, it should be. What better way to way to create positive brand impressions than through a dedicated group of online customers.

Analyze So You Don't Crash

6. Focus on the numbers. Ultimately, embracing digital is about driving business and revenue. With tools that capture clickthroughs, visits, costs, etc., marketers have greater opportunity than ever to demonstrate the value of their campaigns. Many companies do multivariate testing with products such as Autonomy Optimost to optimize offers. For instance, if searching for flights to Los Angeles, a landing page may differ depending on search terms or personal information. Over a period of time, offers change and optimize automatically. This technique increases conversion and creates an impact offline. By optimizing offers online for little time and money, marketers can apply newfound knowledge for subsequent direct marketing efforts, reducing costs and raising conversion rates.

To monitor the effectiveness of a comprehensive strategy, set up a marketing dashboard to understand which campaigns and mediums are delivering results and which are not. Experiment with the marketing mix to see how adding or removing certain elements can affect overall goals.
Troy’s $.02 – What isn’t measured really doesn’t matter. Understand what you want to see as an outcome and measure against it. However, think about metrics other than the standard click-through. A recent study from Eyeblaster provides insight into another form of brand engagement called Dwell. Remember, we want potential and existing customers to develop a solid relationship with us and our brand. If the only thing we’re looking at is CTR and purchase activity, we miss out on all of the information and intelligence we can gather from our customers when they are between purchases. Creating a truly engaging relationship by understanding the available data.

TV and Radio Are Not in the Trash Heap.

7. Don’t overcorrect for digital. With today’s focus on digital, it could be easy to abandon other marketing methods. However, digital should integrate with other mediums as part of a holistic approach. Digital can support other mediums as well as feed off of them to support an overarching strategy. Testing different media mixes to achieve optimal conversion is an excellent way to bring the measurability of digital to your entire marketing effort.

Troy’s $.02 – There is no silver bullet in marketing. Jumping on a medium because it’s a new fad is not the best exercise. It takes more than a hammer to build a house, but it would be pretty difficult to build a house without one. The same holds true for digital in marketing. Use the right tools for the right job and things will, more likely than not, work in your favor.  Remember, create engaging experiences. Develop relationships. Create evangelists. And your long-term relationships will far outweigh the casual acquaintance customer.

Hitting The Experience Marketing Bulls' Eye