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

You may think the question completely irrelevant, but the fact is that many potential employers are now asking, “what qualifies you to work in digital marketing?”

Although online has been around for sometime, the digital marketing professional, as we know them today, is a relatively new beast. Part uber geek, part ultimate marketer, these are the people bringing creative, content and branding to us with technology led solutions. So where have these people come from, and what gives them the right to call themselves digital marketers?

For my own part I started studying design before the days of the Internet. I followed many of my peers into the early days of web design, and ultimately, some years later, got an MSc degree in information systems. That knowledge allowed me to understand the databases, programming languages and usability that went into building successful eCommerce solutions. It enabled me to look objectively at digital solutions, to see past the cool designs and answer the pertinent question:  “Is the solution fit to deliver it’s intended payload?”

I have interviewed people for digital jobs in Japan, Singapore and the U.K. this year and feel I have seen a good cross section of people looking for digital roles. These digital professionals have fallen broadly into two camps:

Uber Geek

The uber geek has spent way too many nights in his/her bedroom hacking away at code, building websites and perhaps even apps. They only really come to life when you start talking about the jackrabbit content repository behind the enterprise level CMS and the bag of restful web services you can call into play to serve up content to your latest app.

I love uber geeks and there are many occasions when I would be happy to consider myself one.

Ultimate Marketer

The ultimate marketer has served at the frontline: hacking email templates, haggling display costs and stressing out the night before a big event. They may well be CIPD qualified and know and accept the time honoured marketing team hierarchy. They could have been “the one” team member who could actually make sense of the web analytics report, or the person who worked with the agency to build the new website. Either way, they have tasted the good (digital) life and want more.

The ultimate marketer is the foundation of our industry and I feel as closely affiliated to them as I do to the uber geek.

More alarmingly, There also seems to be an increasing number of people who have a passion for facebook who feel that qualifies them as social media experts and grants them membership to the digital camp.

Digital Marketer

For me, the ideal candidate is an integrated marketing professional without boarders or distinctions. It is essential they understand the full marketing mix and appreciate that digital is just one aspect of that.

On the technical front they should be able to hold their own with web developers, but not necessarily be one themselves. They need to be able to cut through sales talk and see the values of a solution (CMS, SEO, PPC, Social, Email, etc.), both for the technical and marketing benefits it will bring.

They must be completely at home working in digital and should be able to prove this with reference to both work achievements and a personal online presence. But most importantly they should appreciate that as marketers we bring value to a business by communicating with relevant people in an appropriate manner, and not by broadcasting on the cool channel of the day.

I have yet to meet anyone qualified (in the academic sense), to be a digital marketer. However, what is exciting it that I am seeing more blended candidates. Primarily mainstream marketers who are smart and savvy and have assimilated the skills required for digital life.

Marketing has changed for the better but we have been slow to keep pace with the skills required to leverage this to our advantage. I don’t see the future as being split between online and offline, I see it as one entity with content as king. It’s the message that’s critical, get that right and everything else should fall into place.

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

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.

Greate article in wired magazine comparing the reach of iOS v’s Android when ALL iOS devices are counted. Whilst the guys at Nielson are calling a princely 20 million iPhone sales last quarter they neglect to mention  the other iOS devices that brings the number of iOS compatible devices sold to nearly 37 million. Which is a lot in anyones money.

If like me you are campaigning for marketing budget to roll out apps this is a big deal. Depending on your industry (professional services in my case) you probably want to cover off the major smart phones. RIM have a trillion interfaces and a terrible apps store which in my optinion make them better suited to mobile web solutions. Android and iOS both have blossoming app stores where getting something in the top 10 will makes a huge difference to download figures.

Considering it costs pretty much twice the proce to develop for iOS and Android a better understand of compatible devices is no bad thing. So thank you Wired for bringing the matter to my attention.

In the last 12 month I have taken at least two sales calls per day, for everything from CMS to social media monitoring and a lot of stuff in between. Discounting the weekends, the 4 weeks Holiday I have taken and the blissfully quiet time I have spent in the air, that’s at least 240 calls, at an average of 5 mins per call. Quick sum: that’s 20 hours or almost three working days spent on the phone, speaking to people I have no real interest in.

Have the calls been fruitful? Far from it, in that time I have bought zero products and services from callers (and believe me, I have bought a lot). Engagement has always come from recommendation or from real evidence that the company are subject matter experts. This has usually come from published articles, podcasts, conferences, etc, etc.

To illustrate this, hop over to iTunes and search on “internet marketing”. You should have found the number one Internet marketing podcast created by Kelvin Newman for Site Visibility. I initially downloaded an episode to listen to an interview with Seth Godin and over the course of the next few weeks worked my way through a significant chunk of their back catalogue. There is no sales pitch in there, just great, relevant content that made we want to speak to them. In fact I had to make an effort to find them.

Adobe-Day and their contributions to the open source community are another great example of businesses putting their knowledge out there for others to benefit from.  I think it tells you a lot about a company and their ethos if they are willing to share, it shows cranking out widgets is not the only thing they care about, they care about what they do, what they believe in,  and they want to share that fact.

There are plenty of organisations telling you how good they are, but very few actively demonstrating that (without charging you a fee). My friend Ricky Kalsi is a fantastic coach, trainer and Director of an excellent Wordpress consultancy. Ricky is always willing to help and I often see him coaching people to bigger and better things because he has a real desire to see others succeed. His digital work for his Church is fantastic and has bought him business from all over the world. Yet I know it was done out of passion, rather than a desire to make money. If anyone deserves to reap what they sow, it’s Ricky.

So what’s my message?

1. Believe in your product or your personal brand enough to be willing to share.
2. Don’t call me unless I already know who you are and love what you do and finally
3. Please give me back those 3 days!

Im on my way to Berlin for the Day Ignite 2010 conference. Just in case you didn’t know Day produce the awesome CQ5 content management system and recently announced they were to be acquired by Adobe.

Being a new Day customer I am particular interested in the product roadmap and to find out more about the Adobe acquisition. The conference is also going to be fully. Digital with iPads for all attendees and a conference app already in the iTunes store. i presume this will mean there is going to be good wireless at the event.

I will take notes and post them as and when I have a chance, and tidy the whole thing up when I get back home. Please get in touch or comment if you have anything you would like to share on the conference, the product or CMS in general.

I finally got around to buying a new camera while I was in Singapore a few weeks ago. The Funan centre, mecca for all things shiny and digital is only 1o minutes walk from my office, so I dodged the rain and went into battle.

I really hate haggling over prices, maybe I am too British, but it just doesn’t feel right to me. Having spent the previous week in China with Asian colleges who haggled on my behalf for everything from a dress for my daughter to old communist propaganda posters,  I felt I would be letting the side down if I didn’t at least try. I had done some research in the UK (well checked out Amazon anyway) so had a price in mind. Anything less was ok in my book.

It really wasnt difficult to get what seemed like a great deal on the camera. All was well until the salesman reminded me that I would be foolish if I didnt let him hook me up with a spare battery, a super high speed memory card and a case. I should have known better, but never learn, so took the deal and scooted off to my next meeting.

When I got home and got back to Amazon I realised I had payed well over the odds for the camera and the battery – the whole package was still less that I would have payed for the camera alone in the U.K. but I had missed the golden rule: walk away when your on a winning streak.

The new camera is a lovely Canon P95 and the picture above is a hand held twilight shot taken of Waterloo Bridge and the South Bank in London. Hopefully I will get a chance to add some pictures to my photo travel blog at flickr.com/thecriticalpath soon.