Friday, April 26, 2013

Before Launching a Digital Campaign . . .


People usually know that they need a better online presence for their business but, given all the options, it's often hard to know where to start.  Similar to traditional forms of marketing, putting together a strategy takes a lot of planning and consideration.  Below are five important things to understand before developing a digital marketing strategy and launching a new campaign.


1. The Goals


Before developing a digital marketing strategy, one must know what they want to achieve for their business. This seems simple but there are several ways to market a product or service online and, in today's digital world, more outlets than ever through which to do it.  Different outlets are designed to meet different goals and the results will be evaluated differently.  Goals may include things such as getting content in front of a certain percentage of the target market, building a brand or converting a specific percentage of people into sales.  If you have a specific goal in mind to begin with, the campaign and strategy will often be built around that goal.


2. Your Market


Who do you want to reach? Knowing your audience is crucial. Before a strategy or any content can be created, there must be a target in place.  General information gathered should include demographic data such as age, gender and geography as well as psychographic information such as interests, lifestyle and buying habits.  After these parameters are established, a strategy and campaign can be formed around them.  If there are still questions about who the best target market is, testing should be performed to answer them.  Not knowing the market will lead to an ineffective campaign.


3. Defining Success


What needs to happen for the campaign to be considered a success?  There are various ways to measure success in the digital landscape. Whether your goals are tied to a sales number, response number, awareness or something else, that needs to be taken into consideration before the campaign can be put together. It's fine to have multiple goals, but, it's important to know what kind of measurements are available and understand that the measurements used will vary depending on the tools used.   Depending on whether or not you are looking to track conversions, impressions, interactions, etc., that might influence they type of promotions and platforms used.

4. Brand Values & Guidelines


How is the campaign going to affect your brand? Regardless of whether you are looking for your digital campaign is to build brand awareness, create buzz or drive a certain number of conversions, your digital brand image will be affected by the content you use. So, marketers must have an idea of what kind of content supports and strengthens their brand. Knowing the values that should be associated with the brand ahead of time will allow a strategy to be formed the enhances the brand image and identity and, ideally, brand equity as well. 

5. How to Build on Previous Results

In order to build on previous successes and improve on previous failures, any content previously used should be evaluated prior to putting together the next plan. This includes any previous print ads, digital ads, websites, logos, videos, flyers, etc.  As it is important to send the same message through all channels used, there should be a solid understanding about what is being done offline and what has been done perviously.  Any new content created will be based on your brand and the market you want to reach, but, there should be consistency between all marketing material. 


Taking time to think about and gather information related to the above five factors will lay a solid foundation on which to build a strong digital strategy. While there are more digital options available than ever before, the additional options can make things more challenging if the initial parameters are not clearly defined.  

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Newsjacking: Not all News is Good News


As I notice the amount of content I read that consists of blogs and opinion pieces (often shared via social media) is higher than ever, I find myself wondering what my former journalism teachers are thinking.  None of us predicted that in a period of less than ten years we go from emphasizing that the best journalism is objective and unbiased to openly talking about how to take newsworthy events and "inject your ideas" into them. Today, however, that seems to be becoming the norm. 

David Meerman Scott describes Newsjacking as "the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business." When you think about all the digital media sources we skim,  Newsjacking is everywhere.  People and businesses are constantly adding in their two cents, not only to contribute and help steer the conversation in their desired direction, but also to get a piece of the spotlight.  Perhaps the most obvious and successful incident of Newsjacking this year is Oreo connecting itself to the Superbowl blackout.  During the Superbowl blackout, Oreo was able to take advantage of the frustrating but harmless situation by promoting their brand on Twitter in a way that tied it to the situation. 

While Newsjacking can be effective way to draw attention to a brand or organization, not all headlines are available to be shared. Last week we saw one of the most self destructive attempts of Newsjacking this year.  When Epicurious tweeted about offering a bowl of breakfast energy in relations to the Boston bombing, quite rightly, they only ended up hurting themselves. 

In this situation, the Epicurious failed to realize that consumers are not oblivious and are often well aware of the self-serving intentions behind Newsjacking.  While consumers might be tolerant of and open minded about these self-serving intentions under events or incidents that are slightly frustrating, they will not tolerate them in the aftermath of a tragedy.  There is a huge difference between Newsjacking with events that are well known or being debated and news events that are deeply emotional. 

In the age of social and digital media, the laws of Newsjacking are determined by the consumers and those who break them by Newsjacking content that is "off limits" can expect to be judged harshly.  Companies need to be quick to be effective, but, they also need to take the time to put thought into the news they are working with.  When deciding when to tie themselves to a situation, businesses need to realize that not all news is good news and not all spotlights are acceptable to try to get a piece of.  


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Department Stores for Online Travel

Anyone who has used travel sites like Expedia or Orbitz can tell you the experience is much different than booking on the site of your go-to airlines. I recently booked a vacation through Orbitz and while it was great to be able to search through such a wide variety of options, I found myself feeling exhausted after the experience. I also find the experience of shopping for hours in a large department store to be exhausting for similar reasons. While I tend to go to boutiques or smaller retail stores because I find the experience to be more enjoyable and that it's generally easier to get what I want, I still go to department stores when the timing is right. That was when I began to see similarities between the user experience on these type of travel sites and the department store shopping experience.


Think about Macy's. It's easy to go into Macy’s to get a shirt, get distracted, and come away with two shirts as well as a new pair of shoes and socks. Well, on sites like Orbitz, it’s easy to go shopping for flights and come away with a plane, a rental car and tickets to see SeaWorld too. This is a very different experience than a user has when booking with their preferred airlines or hotel chain with which they know what they're going to get, have faith in the brand and are familiar with the experience.

While various travel websites can offer similar services, the user experiences are very different.  Below are five types of users that these sites might appeal to. 


Those who like to juggle options 

For the open minded traveler who wants to explore ads or is perhaps headed to a destination unknown, travel sites can be a great way to develop their itinerary. While lots of advertisements and options might seem like clutter to the destination shopper, they might spark an idea for the shopper who is still weighing options. 


Patient Shoppers

Travel sites were designed to allow consumers to compare rates between airlines. Then they went on to compare hotels, transportation, rental cars, packages, cruises, activities, etc. This requires more effort on the part of the consumer as there are simply more choices to make.  Like searching through racks in a department store, it takes patience, but, if you have it, there are some good things that can be found with a little digging.  


Those who dream of deals

I say “dream” because, let's be honest, the deals on these sites aren't actually anything different than any deal you can find on an individual hotel or airline site. The difference is that all the deals on the web are aggregated to one site where you can compare and combine them.


Travel tribe outcasts

For those who have no loyalty to a particular airline or hotel chain and are open to experiencing new brands, sites like Orbitz can be a great way to get introduced to them.  However, for the club member who prefers their familiar and comfortable experience, both on the plane and on the web, the extra advertisements and options are likely to make things seem clouded and complicated.

Open-tab keepers

For the planner who is looking for that rental car and open to a variety of hotels and activities, the abundance of options on these sites can be worthwhile. These sites allow users the convenience of adding multiple purchases to one tab and having a single itinerary as opposed to having five separate emails to track down later.


Similar to the shopping for handbags, consumers who are have their minds set on a specific brand and nothing more should stick to the boutiques. However, those who are willing to take the time to “sort through the sale racks” might come out with some exciting things.  

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Emotion vs. Function . . . Does Either One Win On the Web?

In an age where there is an unbelievable amount of content on the web, everyone is fighting to get their website noticed. Whether an e-commerce site, reference site or website for a brick and mortar business, it's tougher than ever to get in front of the consumer. Bids for ads on Google and Facebook continue to increase and there is more "noise" than ever surrounding ads and organic links. With all that noise going on, people and businesses should not only be concerned with being found but also captivating the consumer so that they actually pay attention and engage with their website.

Creating an Emotional Experience


In the Mashable video, Why Emotion Makes for Great Web Design, behavioral expert Kare Andersen
discusses the importance of connecting with the consumer on the web on a deeper, more emotional level similar to how you'd connect with them in person. In the same way people can be attracted in person before they really know that much information about one another, people can decide to stay on a website before they really scroll down or know all of the content they will find. After hearing two speakers talk about the same thing, it can usually be agreed that one can "say it better" than the other . . . well, one website can say it better too.

Kare Andersen’s theory that emotion precedes rational thought can and should be applied to the web design process. If a person or site can show that they understand another person's needs, they will create that emotional connection.  Andersen points out how a less intelligent but more likable person can get ahead. This is true in web design as well. Similar to how people can make you smile by smiling at you, your website can make someone happy based on the emotions it triggers when they encounter the site.  Because emotion can be a main reason why people connect with something, emotions triggered by a certain design should be taken into account when it comes to creating a website. The business or person that is able to bring about emotion in a user and wipe off the “screen face” they have from spending too much time on the web is going to have a better chance of keeping that consumer’s attention and eventually getting a new transaction or follower.

Providing a High Quality and Well Functioning Platform 


Design Thinking
While one must connect with the consumer emotionally in order to get them to stay on the site,they must also deliver quality content in order to keep the user coming back. Emotion may precede rational thought, but that doesn't mean that rational thought won't eventually happen, and possibly be more influential than emotion, after logical thinking comes to town. Designing a clean, attractive and flashy website might get you a "first date" with the consumer, but if you can't offer more than physical attraction, you might not see them again. 

In order to determine the best web design possible, it is necessary to consider the practical and analytical aspects of the desired message as well as the more intuitive and emotional aspects.  This entails a process sometimes referred to as Design Thinking.  A site that the consumer can truly connect with emotionally will also offer useful content in a way that is easy to digest.