searchlove boston 2015 | craig bradford, 'creating digital strategy
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Creating Your Digital Strategy
SearchLove Boston 2015
@CraigBradford
Craig BradfordVP, LondonDistilled
3
4
Ginger hair
5
Likes beer
6
Can usually be found in the Scottish highlands
7Excellent mechanical mind
10Image source
This is hard
Scale matters
Good strategy
Bad strategy
Hitting target
Good strategy
Bad strategy
Dad
Hitting target
“It’s important to make good decisions. But I spend much less time and energy worrying about
‘making the right decision’ and much more time and energy ensuring that any decision I make turns
out right.”
Scott McNealy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems)
Strategy is about placing bets and shortening odds
1. What is strategy 2. What makes strategy hard 3. 6 steps to creating a digital
strategy
What is strategy?
Image sourceHitting hard isn’t a sustainable strategy
Image source
Build more links
Get more tweets
Make a ‘viral’ video
A sustainable strategy is choosing what not to do
The airline folded in 1995 after losing what has been reported in the press as between $140 million or $300 million.
The law of raspberry jelly (trade-offs)
Strategy isn’t a strapline
Limited passanger service
Frequent, reliable
departures
Short-‐haul, point-‐to-‐point routes between midsize cities and secondary
airports
Very low ticket prices
High aircraft utilisation
Lean, highly productive ground and gate crews
No baggage transfers
No connections with other airlines
Standardised fleet of 737 aircraft
Limited use of travel agents
No meals
No seat assignments
15-‐minute gate
turnarounds
Automatic ticketing machinesHigh
compensation of employees
Flexible union
contracts
High level of employee stock
ownership
“Southwest, the low-‐fare airline”
Source
“fit”
Limited passanger service
Frequent, reliable
departures
Short-‐haul, point-‐to-‐point routes between midsize cities and secondary
airports
Very low ticket prices
High aircraft utilisation
Lean, highly productive ground and gate crews
No baggage transfers
No connections with other airlines
Standardised fleet of 737 aircraft
Limited use of travel agents
No meals
No seat assignments
15-‐minute gate
turnarounds
Automatic ticketing machinesHigh
compensation of employees
Flexible union
contracts
High level of employee stock
ownership
“Southwest, the low-‐fare airline”
Source
Digital fit
The balanced digital scorecard
Platform
MeasurementConversionAudienceContent
The balanced digital scorecard
Platform
MeasurementConversionAudienceContent
“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same
direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any
competition, at any time”
Patrick Lencioni
Strategy is a tailored set of activities which when combined create a potential
solution to a problem
What makes strategy hard?
#1 The Paradox of Choice
#1 The Paradox of Choice (The sofa problem)
39
40
41This is an optimisation problem
#2 Fear of regret
Would you rather miss a flight by 2 minutes or two hours?
Image source#3 Magnitude of the downside
Risk
Probability * Downside =
Fear of commitment#4
Decision(to cut)
Decision(to cut)
Decisive Scissors Concise Incisive
Image SourceStrategy isn’t sniping
Image SourceReady-aim-fire
Image Source
Ready-fire-aim
Execution doesn’t mean sticking to the
plan
6Steps to creating your digital strategy
#1 Choose a good question to answer
We need a strategy to increase traffic
We need a strategy to increase Google organic traffic to the widget page by
15% in the next 4 month.
#2 Move from should to could
Advantage - Scope - Activities
Increase revenue from conferences by 20% over the next 12 months
Leverage our existing conference brand to create a lower cost, digital-only SearchLove, which aims to target those that can’t
attend in our existing locations. They key activities would be to focus on growing our earned and owned audience through
DistilledU, the Distilled blog and public speaking.
Leverage our existing conference brand to create a lower cost, digital-only SearchLove, which aims to target those that can’t
attend in our existing locations. They key activities would be to focus on growing our earned and owned audience through
DistilledU, the Distilled blog and public speaking.
#3 Challenge the status quo
Medical Decision Making in Situations That Offer Multiple AlternativesImage source
#4 Ask what must be true, not what is
“That’s a terrible idea, we’d cannibalise our existing conference
ticket sales.”
“For me to get behind this idea, I’d need to know that we wouldn’t
cannibalise our existing ticket sales.”
“That’s a terrible idea, we’d cannibalise our existing conference
ticket sales.”
If you permit wallflowers during the planning phase, they are likely to cast
long, passive shadows over the organization when it comes time for
execution.
Robert H. Miles
#5 Test what is true
#6 Make a bet
Choose a good
Question
What could you
do?
Challenge status quo
Test Make a betWhat
must be true
6Steps to a digital strategy
Thank You
@CraigBradford
The secrets of consulting Which strategy when
Bringing science to the art of strategy Simple rules for a complex world
What is strategy The big lie of strategic planning Your strategy needs a strategy
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