4 strategies for developing a unified digital experience

4 STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING A UNIFIED DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

2012 FOCUS FOR DIGITAL MARKETING

Mike OsswaldMarch 2012

TODAY’S CONNECTED MARKETING SYSTEM

￭ Your customers are in control and better than ever at being informed on what they purchase and where to get the best deal.

￭ Therefore, all of your marketing efforts must be interconnected...

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If you are still executing in any of these channels independently from the others, you’re not creating a cohesive customer experience.

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Mobile

Local/Retail

Public Relations

Social Engagement

Your Web Sites

Television

Out of Home

Experiential

Online Channels

eCommerce

Print

Product/Service Development

Market Research

Customer Service

Your Customers

EVERYTHING IS COMING TOGETHER

￭ The last 5 years have seen amazing technological growth and maturity

￭ Hardware and interfaces are more interconnected￭ All “content” is now digital￭ Data is moving ever faster, delivered on-demand￭ The Internet is delivering the content and

enabling the social experiences people want

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TO CREATE A UNIFIED DIGITAL EXPERIENCE:

1. Really know your audience

2. Execute content strategically

3. Support all platforms and connect across visits

4. Execute only cross-channel campaigns

REALLY KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Project Trigger

Research Options

Decide on Options

Get Feedback Purchase Project

GuidanceShare

Results


HOW DO YOUR CUSTOMERS SHOP? LIKE THIS?

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Com

plet

e Th

e Pr

ojec

t

Your Site

Deal Site

eCommerce

Social/Forum/Video/Photo

Retail

Their Laptop

Their Tablet

Their Phone

Project Trigger

Research Options

Decide on Options


GuidanceShare

Results


OR LIKE THIS?

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Com

plet

e Th

e Pr

ojec

t

Your Site

Deal Site

eCommerce


Retail

Their Laptop

Their Tablet

Their Phone

Project Trigger

Research Options

Decide on Options


GuidanceShare

Results


OR MAYBE LIKE THIS?

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Com

plet

e Th

e Pr

ojec

t

Your Site

Deal Site

eCommerce


Retail

Their Laptop

Their Tablet

Their Phone


CREATE PERSONAS

￭ Description» Fictional characters created to represent the different user

types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way

￭ Purpose» Gives you a particular role to play in order to more accurately

evaluate the effectiveness of a specific user visit scenario

￭ Elements» What’s their background, what kind of job do they have,

family life, skills and habits» What do they know about your product, what don’t they know» How would they go about researching, purchasing, etc.

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CREATE CROSS-CHANNEL VISIT SCENARIOS￭ Description

» Visit Scenarios (or use cases) are complete descriptions of what a person(a) is trying to accomplish

￭ Purpose» Lets you understand the experience each step of the way,

on different devices and over many visits» Helps you understand what success is, and how you might

measure it

￭ How To» Take each persona and start with the end in mind

(e.g. making a purchase, getting support)» Write out everything that person might do (act like them)

￭ Then: Evaluate where your current initiatives aren’t working

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GET OTHER HELPFUL INPUT￭ Use Quantcast for audience profiling￭ Use it to find similar sites your audience also

frequents (based on lifestyles and demographics)￭ Quantified: If you put a tag on your site, your data

will be directly measured and you can hide it from view

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TAKEAWAY #1: THERE IS NO

SINGLE FUNNEL

Translation: There is no single place you can “fix and be done”

TAKEAWAY #2: YOUR VISITORS

WILL NOT BUY UNTILTHEY ARE READY

But they will buy when they are ready

￭ Combine your data across the channels￭ Analyze connected experiences,

not space by space￭ Make sessions last weeks,

not minutes ￭ Don’t focus on raw

numbers, focus on trends» Time on site means

nothing out of context» Number of pages viewed

means nothing


WHICH MEANS YOU MUST MEASURE EVERYTHING

Integrated Analytics

Web Metrics Paid

Search

Natural Search

Display Media

Email/SMS

Social Conver-sations

TV Mobile/Local

Print

Online Videos

PR Actions

Surveys

Call Center

Radio

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MEASURE EVERYTHING YOU CAN￭ It’s all about Key Performance Indicators￭ Specifically, what defines success in your

interactions — use your personas and visit scenarios￭ Start with the end goal in mind — usually a sale,

or maybe a contact form or locator map￭ Work backward to your original sources —

what value are these Facebook fans?, what value are these contest participants?» What is every step they need to take to become a customer?

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HOW? GET MORE FROM GOOGLE ANALYTICS￭ Virtual Pageviews and Event tracking — behaviors that are important, like viewing

a photo gallery or following a link outside your site can be tracked￭ Goal Conversions and Segmentation — track the specific activities you find

important, be able to segment the audience by source, by actions taken, by location￭ Funnels — multi-steps leading up to Goal conversions

» Can even be parts of a form￭ Multi-Channel Funnels (path length) — not just the last source for that visitor in a

conversion, but understand which connected channels and content are doing the most work, when understood together » Social sources, email sources, organic search, banner ads

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Red Box Original Icon on Pink Improvement

62.7% 45.1% 71.8% +59%

WINNING VARIATION: The red box, while clearly contrasting with the rest of the page visuals and converted better than an initial design, lost to a more subtle pink, which converted 59% better than the original


TEST AND REFINE CONTINUOUSLY

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￭ A/B Testing with Google Website Optimizer (integrates with Analytics)￭ Automatically serves different versions, even showing different content

to different audiences, like returning vs. new segments￭ Reports show how each is performing and confidence level over time


TEST AND REFINE CONTINUOUSLY￭ iPerceptions provides a free tool for surveys: 4Q￭ Integrates with Google Analytics￭ Two stages:

» An initiation to take a survey (after your visit)» Users fill out the survey that is in window

￭ Four questions at least:» Why are you here?» Did you succeed?» If not, why not?» Are you satisfied?

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EXECUTE CONTENT STRATEGICALLY

Let’s talk about SEO...

...actually, let’s talk about Content Strategy

“CONTENT IS THE NEW PRODUCT”

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You do have a content strategy, right?

￭ How often do you introduce new products?￭ What do you talk about the rest of the year?


CONTENT STRATEGY

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￭ Content is your “social product” — publish your own words, pictures, video, rich media

￭ Content fuels your website, PR releases, email, all social activities and specifically with respect to search results

￭ Curate the best content and package it in a useful platform — provide content to “new publishers,” AKA your retailers» Provide richer image assets and any videos you have (and if

you don’t have videos, create some)» Create brand stores (skinned microsites) for them with

additional content

￭ What thought leadership can your business own?

￭ What content is your audience interested in? Consider your multi-channel personas

￭ Plan together with all stakeholders, agencies and partners

￭ Consistent conversations across all channels and executions — US and global

￭ Maintain a shared calendar» Product/service launches» Product/service enhancements» Events, promotions and programs» Industry knowledge


THINK LIKE A PUBLISHER

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Fresh, strategic content matters more than simply aligning for search results(yes, SEO is important too)

SUPPORT ALL PLATFORMS AND CONNECT ACROSS VISITS

￭ 19% of adults now own a tablet￭ Sites need to work in varying

screen size, and with touch interfaces (menus, sliding panels)

￭ Get rid of Flash now

CONNECT ACROSS DEVICES AND VISITS

FORMAT FOR MOBILE

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Percent of Adults who own Tablets/eReaders


HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DOSurf your sites on an iPad, an iPhone and on an Android tablet.

How do they work when you are on a very small screen –can you zoom in?

Do they support a touch interface – big fingers – proper menu coding if you use menus?

Do they provide alternate non-Flash content where it is needed? With the latest HTML specifications you can do a lot of motion-based graphics, thus Flash is on the decline. (Also Apple doesn’t support it. Neither does Google’s Chrome browser for Android.)

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DO YOU NEED AN APP?￭ There are now about 560,000 apps in Apple’s US store,

plus those for Android and other platforms.￭ Should every brand have one?￭ The answer depends on the context of your business.

Some things to consider:

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MOBILE APPS VS. MOBILE SITES￭ Mobile apps are “closer” to the user than a bookmarked link￭ Apps integrate new forms of “push,” such as update

notifications when new content is available￭ Apps integrate with the hardware of the device — for example

taking photos, or manipulating content in real-time￭ Apps need to be interesting and “worthy” of keeping￭ Apps can work offline if need be (upload data later)

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Growth in Apps by Top Brands

avg. of 15 apps each from top 100 brands

iPhone

iPad

Android

BlackBerry

0% 23% 45% 68% 90%

Top Brand Apps by Platform

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

03-2010 09-2010 03-2011 09-20110

750

1,500

2,250

3,000

891 10911631

2343


START WITH APPLE, THEN ANDROID￭ iOS and Android are about

even market share, but Apple is gaining faster than Android

￭ Apple iOS is a hardware+software platform (basically 3 screen resolutions), whereas Android is an OS that is on many, many different hardware devices

￭ Apple owners more likely to install apps, and pay for apps

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CROSS-DEVICE EXPERIENCE

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Understanding that people want to access your data from different places and across many visits, give them a reason to create an account and help them share.


SEND TO MOBILE

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And make sure they can share data across visits.


PERSONALIZE WEB VISITS￭ Deliver relevant, dynamic content to user based on

defined segments￭ Show them their shopping cart or recently viewed

products right on the home page￭ Enhance search results pages with extra offers

and cross-sell

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EXECUTE ONLY CROSS-CHANNEL CAMPAIGNS

CROSS-CHANNEL CAMPAIGNS

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Mobile

Local/Retail

Public Relations

Social Engagement

Your Web Sites

Television

Out of Home

Experiential

Online Channels

eCommerce

Print

Customer Service

Your Customers

The most exciting campaigns out there are unique and interesting because they connect multiple channels together.


￭ For promotions and activities, always connect channels» Print+Mobile = QR Codes to Scan» Social+Web = Coupon Code on Facebook or Twitter» Social+Web = Showcase user-generated content (installations),

use contests that lead to purchase discounts» Web+Retail = Content that helps the retail consideration» Retail+Web = Online warranty registration» Social+Local+Retail = Shopkick offers» Email+Web = Custom offers,

custom landing pages

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Mobile

Local/Retail

Public Relations

Social Engagement

Your Web Sites

Television

Out of Home

Experiential

Online Channels

eCommerce

Print

Customer Service

Your Customers


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Once you have your house in order, don’t be afraid to try new things that might be relevant to your audience.

Mobile

Local/Retail

Public Relations

Social Engagement

Your Web Sites

Television

Out of Home

Experiential

Online Channels

eCommerce

Print

Customer Service

Your Customers


NEW THING: SHOPKICK

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Text

Local, social and coupons in the form of gaming


NEW THING: PINTEREST

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“because people hate reading”


NEW THING: PINTEREST

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“because people hate reading”

GoogleFacebook

StumbleUponPinterest

BingGoogle+Twitter

0% 13% 25% 38% 50%

Traffic Referrals to over 200,000 sites

2012 FOCUS

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￭ Major Initiatives» Make sure you understand your customers» Make your websites work on tablets and phones» Make content, and distribute it strategically» Know how all channels work together and enhance each other» Measure and test everything

￭ Consider» An app if you can make it special (with notifications)» All promotions should be cross-channel» Try new and unique mash-ups

Hanson Inc.

1695 Indian Wood Circle, Suite 200 Maumee, Ohio 43537 419.327.6100

THANK YOU

hansoninc.com

bit.ly/HansonGPlus @HansonInc facebook.com/wearehanson

http://www.facebook.com/wearehanson

http://www.facebook.com/wearehanson

4 strategies for developing a unified digital experience

Technology

audience proling

project research

digital data

goal conversions

end goal

site meanspr email actions

nd important

similar way purpose