It’s Thursday morning, 0600 and I’m on my way to work. I’m probably not as perky as I could be, despite having a nice cup of tea for company. General outlook for the day is good, but my thought for the day is another matter:  I’m wondering, what the hell is digital marketing?

Marketing has always been about communication, regardless of the strategy. Sometimes that’s sneaky-phsyco-spooky communication marketing that makes your dream of a new pair of Nikes’ and sometimes that’s shitty junk mail on your doormat style marketing.  Whatever you think about those efforts to make you fall deeply in love with brand X, they are plain and simple marketing and plain and simple marketing is communication. Or am I missing the point?

The first “Digital” marketing project I worked on was way back in the days when they used acoustic couplers on phone handsets to link modems to the WWW. I vividly remember several pitches where nothing worked and I was left entertaining the room while the tech-heads searched for a longer bit of string. It certainly wasn’t digital then, and it was probably only marketing in the loosest sense of the term. Actually, back in those days anything online was like showing fire to cavemen – total shock and awe. But I digress….

Sometime after that we all started getting email. Then we started email marketing, or spamming as the cognoscenti often call it. It still wasn’t “digital”, but it was marketing. A few years later things really started to hot up, when some donut at Macromedia invented Flash. In one fell swoop we doomed ourselves to years of zero usability self-indulgent dross. But man, it was cool dross. Despite that coolness, we still weren’t called digital marketers (although I did have a great Casio digital watch that told the time in 5 countries and 3 languages….)

Around about that time I remember a brief, and quite successful run at a new world order. A group of marketers and techies so smart, so savvy, and so bloomin awesome became “New Media” experts. I was so “New Media”, right down to my CD-Rom’s but I still wasn’t digital.

“New Media” is now normal-everyday-media and those of us that fancy ourselves as a bit too cool for school are very definitely taking up the “Digital Marketing” moniker and wearing it with pride. But, going back to my original question, “What the hell is digital marketing?” More importantly, how long before it’s so retro that none of my staff have heard of it (I have a special rule, if you are too young to have heard of something I joke about you have to laugh politely and secretly Wikki it or lose you job…..I think that’s fair).

You would have needed to be deep in hiding for a very long time to have missed the latest technology. Everywhere you look everything is digital. Someone bought me a book last week and I found myself turning it over in my hands, subconsciously trying to work out what to do with it. I used to love books, but don’t they come on Kindles these days? My kids have never known a world without iPhones. They assimilate technology into their lives without pause for thought while taking it all for granted.

So why are we using the term “Digital” to describe what we do?  Surely “Digital” is about ready to go the same way as “New Media” and become “Normal”. Then again, we are marketers, and so perhaps it is natural we search out new and exciting brand names for ourselves.

Thanks for reading Phillipjenkins.co.uk, A blog about normal marketing

Previously on the Critical Path

Digital Marketing engagement strategies

Digital Marketing skills and qualifications

It would seem we all have more in common than just our jobs, as our choice of computer and favoured browser seem strangely similar too. I noticed last night that on average 67% of traffic to my blog was from Apple devices as opposed to just 30% on Windows. The popularity of iOS certainly helps to swing the balance here. When you merge the two operating systems in use from Apple together, the dominance really become apparent.

I can’t say I am particularly surprised at this. I work in Covent Garden in London and often eat in Soho, home of many creative agencies (and a number of other “creative” industries). It is rare to see anything other than Apple on display here. In fact, when I was in Starbucks in Brewer Street yesterday, almost every table had a MacBook of some description on show.

Browser choices also surprised me and again it was an Apple product on top with 47% of traffic from Safari. I would have expected Firefox to be closer to the top slot here. With its arsenal of plugins it is a digital marketers dream. However, it trailed in behind Chrome responsible for just 17% of traffic.

I suppose it’s no surprise to see this kind of dominance from Apple, considering their long association with creativity, advertising and online development. I’m typing this post on a MacBook and using an iPhone to provide a wifi hotspot (probably for the entire train). What does surprise me is how quickly Microsoft seems to have lost dominance in the market place. It’s clear they are still the driving force in business, but how long before CEO’s start demanding Apple products on their desk, rather than the super uninspiring DELL’s and IBM currently in favour with CTO’s the world over?

Previously, on The Critical Path…..

Android vs iOS – the battle for market share

If your wondering where to start, or considering a review of your digital marketing strategy these 5 key steps will help you get started. Often the hardest thing is figuring out what your purpose is and where you want to go. Stick to the fundamentals though and you can’t go wrong.

User experience in Content management systems is just as critical as any other peace of software. In his blog post on the 2011 Content Strategy forum Martin Belam’s discusses Karen McGranes talk on CMS as “The enterprise software that UX forgot”

The crux of the post focuses on the multitude of formats we are now outputting our content to and the failure of many CMS to address this issue. The author goes on to quote Karen’s suggestions that we are stuck in antiquated practises where we focus on documents that will “live on the web” rather than investing in the CMS tools that will allow content to be reused across a number of channels.

“Without aligning your software to the real needs of the content production folk in your business, you will never make a brilliant product on the front-end.” - Martin Belam

Whilst I agree that user experience is poor across many CMS I feel many of the issues we are currently facing are far deeper rooted. Consider the cost, pain and suffering your likely to incur in rolling out an enterprise level CMS. Most organisations are going to sweat these assets over many years and shy away from updates to meet the latest demands of the digital world. When big business are still asking questions like “Should we do social media” or “Do we need a mobile version of this” it is hardly a surprise to see a lack of investment in new, content-centric CMS.

You could argue that it is the vendor’s responsibility to roll out updates to meet these new challenges. In most cases that hasn’t happened, or it has happened too late,  leaving businesses stuck with a multitude of content deployment systems.

The argument to write once and publish across multiple channels makes sense, but from a user experience and cost perspective. Yet it is common to see businesses running conventional web CMS systems alongside mobile CMS, email marketing, social and print platforms. These deployment models usual have accompanying individuals or even departments dedicated to each of the channels, pushing out identical, or at least very similar content. I believe the best, integrated marketing campaigns should send the same message across all channels, and unless the content of that message comes from one single platform there will be significant cost overheads and a loss of impact and message.

The simplest solution would probably be to throw everything out and start again. But unless you have just discovered the ability to print money, that’s unlikely to be the easiest to implement.  You certainly need a strategy that’s going to be far-reaching and pervasive. Think about where you need the business to be in 5 years time and work back from there. Look for opportunities to consolidate existing content repositories, take advantage of the fact that you can often write assets off over three years and plan a future where content really is king.

To put this into perspective I am nearing the end of a two-year project to bring all content creation for a global business onto a single platform. This includes multiple PC & Mobile websites in diverse languages, iOS & Android apps, and email marketing. There have been many major issues to overcome, but the journey so far has benefitted from a significant strategy and planning phase and a major review of CMS vendors.  Two years is an incredibly tight timeframe. Three would have been far less stressful. However, the key to success (so far) was starting with the belief that content was the critical factor.

You may not be able to start with a clean sheet of paper, but that should not stop you doing the right thing: Focusing on a world where content is the driver, not the systems that enable you to publish it.

Yes, it will be hard work. Yes, it could will be expensive and Yes, it will be worth while.

“We’ve done a poor job of convincing people of the real benefits of structured content over bespoke digital layout” - Karen McGranes

Link building is one of the corner stones of good SEO as well as being a key battlefield for those gaming Google. By crafting strategic, quality content for your website, and seeding it though appropriate channels,  it will become a successful, and important part of your digital strategy. It will both improve the authority of your domain and increase the level of traffic whilst encouraging your visitors to share content socially.

In March Google launched “Panda” immediately affecting some 11% of search results. The purpose?  To address complaints that lower quality farms were getting higher results than websites featuring quality content. In summary, what this means for your online marketing campaign is that content is king, and that quality is more important than ever before.

“Our site quality algorithms are aimed at helping people find “high-quality” sites by reducing the rankings of low-quality content”

google webmaster blog

I have always believed that a good, engaging, content rich website, properly marketed, will get visitors. You should be thinking about what those visitors want to read, how to encourage more page views and how to bring them back to your website again and again.

Research your market and look at the websites that are currently getting the hits. You may need to think laterally on this. For example, if you’re selling widgets look at the widget news sites, widget associations and professional bodies. What are consumers of your widgets interested in?

When you establish this, it’s not good enough to throw a load of keywords into an article and hope for the best. That kind of strategy is unlikely to fool Google let alone real, discerning people. Consider adding on-page video and infographics to improve dwell time and engagement. People are more likely to share content if it is relevant to their peer group and looks good.

Look at the layout of some of the good news sites. They know how to promote content and take the reader on a journey. Think about the way you link articles together and the flow of the website to improve engagement. You should also think about drafting in a professional to help. Content strategists are as important as SEO’s now, if not more so. This is difficult stuff to get right, and your going to need all the help you can get.

Once the content is sound and regularly updated you can begin to focus on reaching out to others to build links. Once again, it pays to do research to ensure you are approaching relevant websites, bloggers and social channels. I don’t think you can expect someone to link to you without something in return – engaging, high quality content that can be used on their website or blog for example. Consider offering your content in different formats as some will prefer to write articles themselves based on well-researched raw data, whereas others are happy to lift your content wholesale. Be flexible and you will be rewarded.

It is worth remembering that link builders approach popular channels every day. Be prepared to build a relationship and prove your in it for the long haul. A good professional PR will spend significant time and energy building relationships with journalists, and link building shouldn’t be any different.

In summary, I feel we are moving to an online world where quality finally outweighs quantity. In the future, the highest-ranking websites are likely to be the best websites, not the ones with the sneakiest SEO’s (no offence SEO’s). Well seeded, engaging content will generate good incoming links and build the authority and position of your website. Content strategy must now become a key focus of your digital marketing strategy.

“If you’re going to say something, say it well”

Caroline Watkin – Content Strategist

As a digital marketing expert, should I be channel neutral or should my personal likes and dislikes come into play when advising clients?

You would probably agree that adding personal preference into the decision making process may seem unprofessional. It could quite easily get me fired. But despite that, every time someone asks me about Facebook I find myself reluctant to engage. Why? Because in my opinion, and I think it is fair to say I am not alone, Facebook has become a filter for the Internet.

The Internet dream was to open up information to everyone; the freedom of sharing and collaborate across thousands of miles with people we had never met was the very soul of the Internet. Facebook removes you from that openness and cocoons you in a big blue bubble. Despite what you may initially think.

Advertisers get this, marketers embrace it and we increasing see Facebook gearing itself up to provide large scale, far-reaching advertising opportunities for big corporations. Look at Adidas. In the last football world cup they abandoned the traditional online approach in favour of a completely Facebook run campaign. The rationale? That they did not feel they could lure customers out of the blue bubble onto their website to interact with them. The result? A successful campaign which outperformed Nike’s big budget movie despite the swervy football.

If you are an organisation looking for a hot marketing channel, Facebook is the delivery vehicle to get your message to the masses. But at what cost to them?

Most of us have fairly small online horizons. We use the Internet to check out the news, fuel a hobby or research our next holiday. We do that expecting to have unrestricted access to the entire Internet and unrestricted access to the truth. We use our own filter mechanisms to decide what we trust and what we want more off and for most of us, that works.

Facebook reduces those horizons further; it tries to provide us everything we need including news, hobbies and holidays. That may seem like a good idea, but it certainly doesn’t give you everything, and what it does give you is filtered, based on you and your Facebook habits. To be fair, its not just Facebook doing this, Google search results are also increasingly filtered and it is now not uncommon for different people to see very different results.

You may think so what, but pause for a moment and consider that there is no code of conduct for the Internet (save an EU directive on Cookies). What about ethics? What if Facebook decide to filter results to show you not the best match, but the one that pays the highest advertising fee.

Think of the information that Facebook holds on millions of people, your likes and your dislikes, your friends and family, which of you has the most influence over your network of friends. The list is endless, and frankly quite scary. Many of us go to considerable lengths to avoid spam, to control telemarketers and Junk mail, but being an active participant on Facebook is opening your arms to all of these things and more.

Yes, I am on Facebook, and yes I think it has the potential to be an incredibly engaging and useful tool. I will continue to grudgingly engage and discuss it with my clients and I am well versed in the pros and cons of using it to run powerful and successful marketing campaigns. What I would like to see to make Facebook truly great is transparency and control. The truth. Not a version of the truth.

If they deliver that, I will be happy.

You can submit your own thoughts and comments on Facebook below or read a 2010 blog post I wrote that covers the Adidas world cup campaign in more detail or some further thoughts on Facebook likes.

5 things you need to consider when creatting a digital engagement strategy (plus a bonus pearl of wisdom)…..

Who are you talking to?

Before you even get out of bed you need to know whom you are talking too. Getting your digital engagement strategy right means profiling your audience though user groups, interviews, marketing research and existing analytics allows you to build personas. A persona is nothing more than a representation of your typical user. You should have several of these, as it is unlikely one size fits all. Give them names, make friends with them and constantly question them to gain insight into what YOU should be doing to engage with them.

What are they listening to?

Understanding how your audience interacts with your message is critical. Don’t assume they will be on facebook or use apps until you have proof positive. When they do tune in find out how much time they have and craft your message accordingly. Digital is far reaching so consider what other channels they tune into and how you can leverage this.

What have you got to say?

Now you understand you audience you can adjust your tone of voice to improve engagement. Ensure you have consistent corporate styles and messaging across channels, not just online. Just because it’s digital it doesn’t mean you can ignore the basic building blocks of good marketing.

Get a communications plan. Get a content strategy. It doesn’t matter how cool something looks, if the content sucks your wasting your time. Stick to these things like glue and keep coming back to your personas to ask, “What would they think of this?”

Deliver invisible solutions

A digital engagement strategy should never be about the technology. It’s always about the message. Technology shouldn’t be intrusive, it shouldn’t even get noticed, even if it is really cool. Blend your solutions into the lives of your audience to make them stick.

Innovate

What’s hot today is likely to be tomorrow’s leftovers. Look at trends and keep on top of technology. If you’re a big player shifting focus can be a slow process. You need to know where the next game changer is coming from and you need to be prepared for it when it arrives.

Its just communication

Forget the labels, it’s all about communication – something we have been doing for a very long time. Remember that and you wont go far wrong.

I wanted to look at the marketing strategies of some of my favourite brands to see what I could learn from their approach. Trying to understand why clever campaigns work is great way to keep your eye in, and who knows what you will learn in the process.

When I first noticed clothing brand howies, around 4 years ago I instantly felt an affinity with their message*.  Not only did I become a customer, but through recommendations so did a number of my friends. They are clearly doing something right, but what?

Legend

They are a brand you have to love. Like David vs Goliath they fought levis, they gave up the big city for the big country, they canoed to work, they started small and aimed big, they give 1% of profits to good causes and they remembered the journey and how it made them the business they are today.

When a company that sells stuff actively encourages you to use less of it by being more ethical, more organic in your shopping habits you have to take note. The argument to wear stuff out, to purchase wisely and to expect more out of your clothing is clever and makes sense. This stuff isn’t cheep, but it will last a hell of a long time.

Whichever channel you choose to connect, you will be meet with similar stories. The message is consistent and engaging and the Tone of voice spot on.

Friends

Who do you hang out with? Chances are your friends will like each other because they are similar people, yet the volume of crap marketing that comes with other catalogues these days is irrelevant, annoying and way off message.

howies seem to hang out with the other cool kids, so when we get introduced I tend to like them too. The Do lectures, Fforest farm and Micro adventures all have something to interest me. When Howies share them with me it feels personal, more like a friend sharing an awesome discovery rather than a blind date I want to get out of (not that I do blind dates, but…).

Print

The catalogues contain not just good photography in good locations (surprising low budget ones too) but engaging words, book loan schemes, and guides to outdoor activity, creating an aspirational word you want to join.

Messages are either sports focused or environmental, for example a photo essay following the manufacturing trail overland back to china.

I haven’t actually received a catalogue for ages, which makes me think they actually do what they say, think about the environment, and don’t drop to the entire database each season.

Email

Emails look like the website, which looks like the catalogue, delivering strong continuity across channels.  On brand and on message. The actual emails always seem relevant and never intrusive. Like having a message from a mate with something cool and exciting to share. Emails often contain messages from friends, like the Alastair Humphreys micro adventures shown here, which actually seem to add value, rather than diluting the message. My guess is the CTR and conversions are far higher than most marketing campaigns for these reasons.

Online

They have a solid well designed website, all the online shopping bells and whistles you need without being stupid. It could be better, but it doesn’t need to be. The website has a good blog and they seem happy to reach out to customers to include them in their conversation. It is unassuming, but that’s fine. It really doesn’t need to be anything else.

When a package arrives it comes with a returns card that asks how your feeling today – a small touch, but lots of small things add up…..

Social

Probably the least developed aspect of the brand strategy, but what’s delivered is delivered well. A recent competition to submit mobile pictures of your summer sports activities got some great interactions and hundred of uploads to their website. The hook was only a few free t-shirts, but is got a look of people “liking” facebook in order to take part.

A simple, relevant engagement strategy, that works because it is non-evasive, good fun and well targeted.

The Stores

In recent years howies have started to open stores, and just like the rest of the brand the stores have a quirkily personal feel that sets you at ease. More small touches like great staff that seem more interested in you than selling, taps to refill your water bottles (they actively discourage you from using single use plastics, like mineral water bottles,), and a few well chosen products to augment their own range make it a winner.

Summary

Personally, I think a good strategy should be integrated across all relevant channels (notice the use of the word relevant here), it should be accessible, relevant to the consumer and relevant to the brand. I think there should be a clear message that runs throughout, uniting the channels with a common theme.

It’s difficult to be consistent and on message in everything you do. I run online marketing in 21 countries and regularly get shocked at some peoples interpretation of “on Brand”. It may be that the size of the business allows a greater degree of control, or just that the people doing marketing stuff know their stuff. Either way, it’s a lesson in consistency everyone can learn from. Take away as much or as little as you like but think about the overall tone that binds the whole thing together.

It would be great to hear from you if you would like to add anything to this, or have any other good examples of integrated strategies.

*My personal profile: male, professional, father,  forest dweller, city worker, director, digital expert, marketer, surfer, skater, cyclist, comic fan………

Before you start reading this you should know I work in Marketing. You should also know I may be about to shoot myself in the foot.

Yesterday there were 20 emails in my inbox from people or companies I had never heard off. By the power of spam filtration I am never likely to see communications from these people again, but I still took a hit. I had to manually drag them into the kingdom of spam, and that hurt. It chiseled away just a tiny bit more of my patience and resolve. It made it less likely that I would give the next dubious email even the slightest of glances.

My thoughts turned to the subjects, the relevance of those email. They were not from companies I had knowingly engaged with, but 90% of them were more or less in the ball park for my areas of interest. I am the Head of Digital Marketing for a global business; I have a visible public profile, so it stands to reason that people in the world of sales will find me and find ways to target me.

Most marketers can give you figures on the average open and response rates to email, and believe me they are going to be low. So I have to ask, is there a better way? Most people in my position do buy products and services, and unless spent uranium is on the shopping list there are usually a number of suppliers vying to sell them to you. You can, and probably should have preferred suppliers, but unless they are very, very protective that won’t tune out the noise and the hassle of the others.

Critically, the biggest issue is that as soon as you go into survival mode you start to miss things. You may miss the guy with the genius idea for world web domination or the girl with a content strategy so powerful it’s illegal in 27 countries. You are likely to be wearing blinkers 24/7 in an effort to save your sanity and that could seriously impact your success.

LinkedIn was a great idea: bring together business people for mutually beneficial stuff. Now its purpose would appear to bring business people together in order to facilitate easy pickings by sales people and recruitment consultants. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Conferences can be a great way to find new angles on things and let you hook up with the truth. Unfortunately conference organisers usually have other things on their minds, like money, which usually results in your contact details being passed out to number of enthusiastic salespeople, who will send you emails, phone you up………

You could take matters into your own hands, remove your public profile from circulation, firewall your email with CIA style encryption and invest in a kick ass PA to answer your phone while you go out to find some truth for yourself. But where do you start? We all know that everything on the Internet is true*, so that’s an option, albeit a time consuming one. You could crowd source answers from peers, but if you have shelved your public profile you probably don’t have access to this useful resource anymore. You could invest in a middle person to go the hard yards for you. This is a model I like (because from time to time I may be that middle person), but there is always the nagging doubt they are not entirely neutral and may be influenced by the Bahamian hideaway given to them as a sweetener by SuperCorp Inc (I’m open for discussion on this SuperCorp if you’re interested).

If you have read this far eagerly anticipating the answer I have to apologise. I don’t have one. I do however, have a huge amount of enthusiasm and a desire to find a genuinely vendor neutral way to find the best products and services. So if you have a solution, an idea, or just want to say hi, then please feel free to share your thoughts, good or bad. Who knows, we may invent a new way of marketing we can sell to SuperCorp Inc for millions.

*Elements of sarcasm and irony may apply to some of my comments.

Heres the latest Q1 Sales and Marketing Job Updates from Robert Walters