the six stages of an awesome digital marketing strategy

www.cass.city.ac.uk

Tom van Laer

Twitter: @tvanlaerEmail: tvanlaer@city.ac.ukLinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/tvanlaer/

The six stages of an awesomedigital marketing strategy

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Where’s the lettuce?A digital marketing parable

33Traffic versus Targeting

Select, don’t accumulate: A parable

YES, WE HAVE LEAFY GREEN VEGETABLESGorgeous Market

YES, WE HAVE LETTUCE

Decent Market

Menu

• How to use digital marketing?

1. Know the room2. Dress appropriately3. Tell a story

• The case of your own start-up 1

4. Make a connection5. Brag modestly6. Observe & adjust

• The case of your own start-up 2

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Outbound marketing:The opposite of awesome digital

marketing

You oughta knowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-lGe5MnBlY

Cold calling is for losershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3yCB7AvvAk

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The cure for accumulation: Strategic digital marketing

• Strategic digital marketing ensures that you– Know your audience,– Target them with an appropriate message, – Observe their response,– Adjust the message accordingly.

• I will SELECT. • I will INTERACT. • I will no longer ACCUMULATE.

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• Digital marketing can be done on a small budget• Companies/individuals that use digital marketing generally:

1. Have a story to tell

3. Know their limitations

Who can use strategic digital marketing—

small, poor start-ups?

2. Are ready to commitfor the long term

Matthew Harding & Kickstarter

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Why strategic digital Marketing?• Strategic digital marketing

– is quick and transparent– shows people that the company is there, and that the

company is listening– is about dialogue,

not monologue

• A mediated conversation in real time

Menu

• How to use digital marketing?

1. Know the room2. Dress appropriately3. Tell a story

• The case of your own start-up 1

4. Make a connection5. Brag modestly6. Observe & adjust

• The case of your own start-up 2

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1. Know the room (aka get selective)

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Audience

The group the company is trying to communicate with and persuade

• Personas (personae) – Who?A precise description of a user and what he wishes to accomplish

• Workflow – How? A simple, commonsense map that describes how a persona moves through a web site — it may include a single visit, but typically spans several, and ends with some desired conclusion

• Calls to action - What next? Opportunities in the workflow to help personas move forward

Meet “Lily”, one of the personas of Alice’s Pig, a London fashion brand

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Workflow

Include a Call to Action

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Call to Action

• “Have a look”• “Download our white paper”• “Join us”• “Vote for me”• “Sign up for our newsletter”• “Take a test drive”• “Buy this”Addresses a need of one or more personas

ANDPresents opportunities to measure audience response

(aka Observe & adjust)AND

Answering means a persona does something you want them to do

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2. Dress appropriately

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Empathize with the audience

• DressThe appearance of the web site.

• AppropriatelyCatering to and delivering an experience expressly designed for your audience

– Appropriately ≠ cool– Audience ≠ you

• Design matters, first– For about 15 to 20 seconds– Stay or go decision

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Audience-focused design

Processing order...1. Colours2. Textures and effects3. Typefaces4. Complexity5. Layout and positioning

...before content

6. Interaction

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3. Tell a story

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Content: The 800-pound Gorilla

• Riddle– Where does an 800-

pound Gorilla sleep?• Answer

– Anywhere it wants to

The viral power of storytelling

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Stories are universal and ubiquitous

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Stories are central to all human culture

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Stories are the way we learn and remember

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Stories are powerful, because our lives are

stories

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Stories are the way we make sense of the world, from a

young age

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The mind is narrative.

Stories are the essential

building blocks of all human

thought

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Storytelling takes centre stagein digital marketing

“Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories”

Laurie Anderson, performance artist

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Stories are also the most effective content for business

• Stories– Engage customers and employees

on multiple levels

– Enter the mind naturally

– Provide a vicarious experience

– Create energy and excitement

– Lend themselves to viral transmission

– Can be told about virtually any product or service

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL3sqS-y32k

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Content basic guidelines

• Try to have no more than 250 words on a page• Use headings to divide the page into digestible chunks• Write simply, whenever possible• Compress photos as much as possible but keep quality

– Compress photographs using JPG compression– Compress line art using GIF compression– Use a program like Adobe Photoshop, JASC Paint Shop or

Macromedia Fireworks to resize before placing on the page• Don’t use video or audio unless for a really good reason• Remember, everything on the page should have a

purpose!• Tell a story

Menu

• How to use digital marketing?

1. Know the room2. Dress appropriately3. Tell a story

• The case of your own start-up 1

4. Make a connection5. Brag modestly6. Observe & adjust

• The case of your own start-up 2

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The case of your own start-up 1

1. Apply stage 1, 2, and 3 of awesome digital marketing to your own start-up.

What can you do to

i. know the room? (Who is your persona?)

ii. dress appropriately? (How do you design for her or him?)

iii. tell a story? (What story will you tell her or him?)

Menu

• How to use digital marketing?

1. Know the room2. Dress appropriately3. Tell a story

• The case of your own start-up 1

4. Make a connection5. Brag modestly6. Observe & adjust

• The case of your own start-up 2

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4. Make a connection

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Fundamentals of Email Marketing

• Make the campaign targeted – 80/20 rule• Gain and Confirm Permissions• Keep it small

– ≤ 15 kilobytes– Make sure the e-mail message looks good

in a Microsoft Outlook or Eudora preview pane and on smartphones

• Avoid the one-image gag• Personalize• Message and Copy

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Fundamentals of Email Marketing (cont.)

• Be honest– Clear subject line– Source Address: ‘From’– Reply-to address that goes to a

human being– Clear Unsubscribe link

• Test, test, and retest• Track, report, and mine results

– MailChimp, arpReach, WordPress plugin MyMail

• Collect and follow up responses• Spam blocking

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5. Brag modestly

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Scenario 1 – Self-promote

“I am the best [whatever] in town and you’d be stupid not to hire me.”

On the internetAds

Scenario 2 – Be recommended

“He is that [whatever] I told you about—you could really use his services.”

On the internetA search engine– Used by > 92% of internet

users to find what they want online

Why search engines?

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Other modest brags

• Newsletter sponsorship

• Press releases– www.prweb.com– www.adweek.com/

prnewser/

• Contextual ads

• Social media

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6. Observe and adjust

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The anatomy of the perfect dashboard

• A good dashboard should:– Inform on business health quickly– Make time comparison easy– Encourage deeper investigation

• 5 key elements1. Conversions first, always2. Path to conversions3. Compare online media effectiveness4. Clearly visualise growth5. Show detail sparingly6. A brief glimpse at content

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Conversions and the path to conversions

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Clearly visualising growth

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Clearly visualising growth (cont.)

4343

Show detail sparingly A brief glimpse at content

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Is this just for marketing?The drive for action

“Have a look at this”“Download our white

paper”“Join us”

“Vote for me”“Sign up for our

newsletter”“Take a test drive”

“Buy this”

A polite, measurable two-way interaction in an effort to sell

something.

Menu

• How to use digital marketing?

1. Know the room2. Dress appropriately3. Tell a story

• The case of your own start-up 1

4. Make a connection5. Brag modestly6. Observe & adjust

• The case of your own start-up 2

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The case of your own start-up 2

2. Apply stage 4, 5, and 6 of awesome digital marketing to your own start-up.

What can you do to

iv. make a connection? (What email campaign cuts through the clutter for your persona?)

v. brag modestly?(What modest brags would work for her or him?)

vi. observe and adjust?(What responses to which calls-to-action will measure success?)

www.cass.city.ac.uk

Thank you

Tom van Laer

Twitter: @tvanlaerEmail: tvanlaer@city.ac.ukLinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/tvanlaer/