understanding omnichannel the next generation of content strategy kevin p. nichols director &...
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Understanding OmnichannelThe Next Generation of Content Strategy
Kevin P. NicholsDirector & Global Practice Lead, Content Strategy, SapientNitro
@kpnichols
Rebecca SchneiderPresident, Azzard Consulting
@azzardconsult
@kpnichols • @azzardconsult • #intelcontent
AGENDA① Introductions & Expectations ② Key Concepts③ Considerations④ Roadmap⑤ Roadmap: Workshop Exercise⑥ Lunch!⑦ Cross-Channel Journeys (Including Workshop Exercise)⑧ Break!⑨ Metrics & Analytics⑩ Governance & Tools
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About Your Presenters
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Kevin Nichols Director, Global Practice Lead, Content Strategy, Sapient/Nitro 18 Years experience in the Web Development Industry Key Clients: MIT Open Courseware, Hewlett Packard, Sprint, Intel
Rebecca Schneider President, Azzard Consulting, a content strategy consulting & staffing
firm. 19 Years experience in Information Management Industries: Retail, Auto Manufacturing, Financial Services,
Telecommunications, Luxury Goods
What is your experience with omnichannel? What are your expectations for this workshop?
About You
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Everybody has a say Parking lot for tangents Limited electronic interruptions please!
Ground Rules
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If someone likes you, they'll buy what you're selling,
whether or not they need it.Gene Simmons
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KEY CONCEPTS
① Intelligent Content ② Omnichannel & Multichannel③ Personalization④ Content Marketing⑤ User Journeys⑥ Performance-Driven Content
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“Intelligent content is structurally rich and semantically categorized and therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable.” – Ann Rockley
Understanding Intelligent Content
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Source: https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/69264/137386/
Enables you to create one instance of content and publish to many different channels with optimized content per channel.
Using Intelligent Content
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Desktop Experience Mobile Experience Packaging
Builds logic into the content experience to support personalization, cross-sell/upsell, recommendations based on previous content viewed and contextually relevant content experiences.
Using Intelligent Content: Benefits
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Recommendations’ Logic Cross-sell & Promo Logic
Omnichannel content assumes the overall user engagement with a particular user journey, and serves up content to each step in the process, optimizing channel experiences. Think Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia!
Multichannel considers more than one channel.
Understanding Omnichannel and Multichannel
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Makes content contextually relevant and builds the consumer relationship Provides singular view of the customer & integrated product inventory across
channels
Using Omnichannel
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Home In-store Commerce Experience
Personalization is contextual content targeted to a user based on his or her needs and behaviors.
Understanding Personalization
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Content is served up to a user based on any of the following:
Who is the user Where the user is Why the user engages What the user engages with How the user engages with the
experience When the user engages with the
experience
Understanding Personalization
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Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AN_OREGON_PERSONALIZED_LICENSE_PLATE_WITH_THE_LETTERS_%22WET%22_HOWEVER,_LACK_OF_RAIN_CREATED_A_SERIOUS_ENERGY_CRISIS_IN..._-_NARA_-_555432.jpg
Develops a deeper relationship between the user and brand, providing specific value or use to the consumer.
Using Personalization
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Ratings, Personalized Selections Contextual Targeting
“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” – Joe Pulizzi
Understanding Content Marketing
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Source: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/06/content-marketing-definition/think
Increases consumer loyalty and sells more products through meaningful and timely communication.
Using Content Marketing
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Related Narrative Crowdsourcing Enriched Content
“User journeys include the end-to-end processes a user follows to complete a particular task.” – Kevin Nichols & Donald Chesnut
Understanding User Journeys
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Source: UX For Dummies, Page 62
Maps out the path of a user to ensure his or her needs are met by serving up the most useful and relevant content.
Keeps the solution and content user-centered. Helps the business make decisions around end-user needs and motivations. Increases conversion and success metrics (when done well) because user is
able to complete tasks seamlessly and easily. Provides insight into cross-channel user behavior; can set a baseline which
can be further tested for validation.
.
User Journeys: Benefits
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Performance-driven content is content an organization measures and evaluates after publishing in order to make decisions on future content priorities.
Understanding Performance-Driven Content
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Drives the best, most effective and relevant content to a user.
Optimizes the work from analytics, insights and competitive assessment so organizations can respond to a user’s content needs.
Helps an organization build a publication model around performance.
Using Performance-Driven Content
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Falling in love was the easy part; planning a wedding -
yikes!Niecy Nash
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CONSIDERATIONS
① Planning for Omnichannel② Content Strategy & Omnichannel③ Omnichannel Challenges
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How does omnichannel further your business goals? Do you understand your customer and know how omnichannel will benefit
them (and by extension, your company)? What channels do your customers use? What if omnichannel is not the answer?
Considerations: Business Goals
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Who are your target audiences? Do you have any developed personas and/or user data? What do they need/want? What is the plan to provide your audiences with what they need/want?
Considerations: Target Audiences
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Executive Support Budgetary Support (over multiple years) Who needs to buy in? What are the political ramifications?
• Marketing Plan (internal use)
What else is going on? (IT initiatives, budget cycles, marketing campaigns) What is a realistic high-level timeline for rollout (staggered is best)?
Considerations: Operations
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What do you need in terms of technology support? Integration with systems and collaboration with IT will be important. What is the technology infrastructure costs and ongoing maintenance needs? What sounds great in theory, may not work in real life.
Considerations: Technology
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What are your content priorities? Channel priorities? How will the content be created?
• Externally (e.g. agencies, content creators)• Internally (e.g. publication units, content authors)
Have you done a content inventory and audit?• Findings & Analysis?
Is this effort dove-tailing with a website redesign or CMS implementation?
Considerations: Content
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Personalization – do you have the data you need?• Customer Profiles (active, passive)• External Data (e.g. Axiom)
Can data be shared across systems?• Do you need a data warehouse?
How will you measure results (positive or negative)• Metrics are more difficult to put in place after the fact.• Baseline metrics are very important
Considerations: Data Needs
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Customers are sensitive to data use (e.g. creep factor) Any regulatory or compliance rules specific to your industry? Privacy laws differ from country to country
Considerations: Legal Issues
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Technology Staff Time
• Project vs. “Day Job”
Consulting/Agency Costs Ongoing funding needed (not just implementation)
Considerations: Costs
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Big things to consider: Understand your content gaps and needs
(inventories!) Content production costs and timeline System integration Prioritize your channels (bring on additional
channels later)
Content Strategy & Omnichannel Planning
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Siloed business units Conflicting incentive structures
• If a purchase was started online, but completed in-store – who gets the credit?
Organizational acceptance of omnichannel (why bother)
Challenges: Operational/Business
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Cost to create and maintain content• This is not a simple short-term marketing campaign.
Additional staffing (or different) staffing model may be required. UX does not always consider all content types. SEO requirements can twist content.
• E.g., Keyword overload, Synonyms in navigation
Challenges: Content
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Single View of Customer (SVOC) may be difficult due to system integration issues.
Integrated cross-channel inventory is costly Product metadata is often not consistent across back-end and consumer
facing systems. Metrics definitions may not be consistent across systems
Challenges: Technology
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Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the
axe.Abraham Lincoln
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ROADMAP
① Overview② Team Planning & Goals③ Current State④ Stakeholder Interviews⑤ Omnichannel Personalization Roadmap⑥ Roadmap Exercise
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Plots prioritized and scheduled approach to achieving the short- and long-term omnichannel recommendations.
Identifies bottom-up projects to feed it, and immediate opportunities to improve processes and demonstrate value.
Start big, not small Revisit roadmap and course correct as needed
Roadmap: Overview
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Start with a multidisciplinary team• Content Producing Group(s)• Information Technology (architects)• Sponsoring Business Unit Representative(s) (with budget authority)• Marketing (MarCom)• Subject Matter Experts (as needed)
Establish core group members, meeting intervals Each meeting should have clear goals and action items A RACI or similar tool may be useful
Roadmap: Team Planning
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What is the long term vision for the company? What are the business goals within context of corporate strategy? What are the objectives in place to meet those goals? How will omnichannel advance business goals? Who are your audience(s)? What channels are important to your business?
Answer the above as part of a discovery phase.
Roadmap: Business Goals
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Conduct a content inventory • Content-producing systems, customer facing systems• Metadata-producing systems
Evaluate Content• Gaps• Overlaps• Overall Quality (Keep/Kill/Edit)
o Currencyo Voice & Tone
Roadmap: Current Content Ecosystem
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Meet with key stakeholders (cast of 1000+ not necessary)• Business Sponsor(s)• MarCom• Content Producers• Information Technology
Ask same/similar questions (interview protocol) Provide findings & analysis report Use report to inform roadmap
Roadmap: Stakeholder Interviews
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Use workshops to define high-level roadmap that plots strategy for next 2-3 years
High-Level Example: Omnichannel Personalization Roadmap (next slide) We will go through a workshop exercise today.
Roadmap: Workshops
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Omnichannel Personalization Roadmap
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Launch [Foundation]
1. Identify initial personas and segments to target per channel.2. Establish the content needed to support each group (what do you
want to serve up to each segment and persona and to what degree?)3. Establish the rules for serving up content (if User X indicated he or
she is Y in user profile then serve up this content . . .) per channel per user task.
4. Account for taxonomy and controlled vocabularies to enable the experience.
Evolution [9-12 months post launch]
1. Test existing content by running ongoing metrics and audits to see how consumers interact with the content experience.
2. Identify additional content areas, such as enhanced cross-sell, up-sell.
3. Test assumed customer journeys across channels to verify accuracy and optimize content performance.
4. Roll out enhanced personalization per channel.
Enrichment [18+ months post launch]
1. Integrate omnichannel for all channels.2. Continue to create immersive content.3. Leverage new or emerging technologies and techniques.4. Optimize per business needs, analytics and consumer trends.
Sample Company: All Dressed Up (Salad Dressing Company)• See company information handout
Use Roadmap Grid Poster with Roadmap Cards to define your strategy, focusing on channel
Careful, there may be a few roadblocks placed in your way!
Roadmap: Workshop Exercise
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A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong
is to think you control it.John Steinbeck
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CROSS-CHANNEL JOURNEYS
① Overview② Creating a Cross-Channel Journey③ Journey Exercise
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Places the consumer and customer at the center of the experience
Allows content decisions around user needs
Helps to create a publishing model centered around end-user needs and content types, as opposed to internal business silos
Keeps the focus cross-channel
Why Journeys?
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Start with tasks the user would need to complete a particular objective or goal
• Review business goals, objectives, etc.• Define key consumer objectives (Purchase a product, download a paper, create a
profile) Ask yourself: what is everything a user would need to do based on our
objectives
Creating Your User Tasks
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Use personas and user states to plot out which users perform which tasks. User states could include:
• Anonymous—we know nothing about her• Repeat visitor—she comes to our site or properties• Existing consumer—she has used our products or services and created a user
profile with us• Influencer—she writes about us
Determining Which Users Complete Which Tasks
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Start with persona, user state and high-level user journey task
Turning Tasks Into Journeys
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Persona User State User Journey
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product
Soccer Mom Anonymous But a Product
Create a set of steps that drive the user to complete it
Turning Tasks Into Journeys
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Persona User State User Journey
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step One: searches for product in Google
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step Two: clicks on product in carousel goes to product detail
Soccer Mom Anonymous But a Product – Step Three: Add to cart
Map Channel to each task (Answer the question: which channel is the user in?)
Turning Tasks Into Journeys
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Persona User State User Journey Channel
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step One: searches for product in Google
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step Two: clicks on product in carousel goes to product detail
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Soccer Mom Anonymous But a Product – Step Three: Add to cart
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Map content to each channel by content type or function
Turning Tasks Into Journeys
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Persona User State User Journey Channel Content
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step One: searches for product in Google
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Product information in home page carousel
Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step Two: clicks on product in carousel goes to product detail
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Product detail page
Soccer Mom Anonymous But a Product – Step Three: Add to cart
Website (Desktop)Mobile (App)
Shopping cart
Validate exercise with key stakeholders May require user testing to document assumptions Refine as needed
Complete the Mapping
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However beautiful the strategy, you should
occasionally look at the results.Winston Churchill
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METRICS & ANALYTICS
① Overview & Definitions② Metrics for Omnichannel③ Workshop Exercise
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Metrics: Tangible measures of inputs and outputs.
Analytics: Conclusions drawn from metrics.
Don’t forget to create a baseline!
Metrics & Analytics: Overview
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“Web analytics is the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting and analysis of quantitative internet data to optimize websites and web marketing initiatives.”
– Avinash Kaushik
Source: Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
Understanding Analytics and Metrics
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Quantitative measurements: numbers, facts. It’s the “what.” Examples:
• Web & Mobile o Conversionso # Visitso Time on Site
• Mediao Click-through Performance on Advertisements/Banners
• Searcho Internal, Organic, Paid – keyword usage
When to use:• There is a need to demonstrate a quantifiable return on investment.• Too much anecdotal information is being used to make decisions.
Metrics & Analytics: Hard Metrics
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Qualitative: stories, feelings/motivation. It’s the “why.” Examples
• Primary Researcho Focus Groups
• Secondary Researcho Marketing Trends
• Social Listening – Digital Anthropologyo Online Behavioral Analysis
• Surveyso Customer Satisfaction
When to use• Trying to understand customer behavior (needs, motivations, perceptions).• Further understand the hard metrics data.
Metrics & Analytics: Soft Metrics
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Channel interactions: is the journey effective?• Trending content• Conversion rates post-content interaction.
User satisfaction: is the customer satisfied with the Omni experience?• Sharing on social• Downloaded content• Survey data• Bounce & exit rates
Metrics for Omnichannel
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Allows you to constantly evaluate your content so that you can make decisions on what to do with it.
Helps identify under performing content – which may require rethinking or user experience changes.
Provides opportunity to communicate content success (or content failure) to management.
Using Analytics and Metrics
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Metrics by Channel (Favorites)
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Desktop Bounce, Exit ratesConversion rates (however defined)Click path
E-mail Response to e-mail CTASign-up for e-mail alerts
In-Store In-Store pickup from online orderQR code usage
Packaging QR code usage
Print Advertising QR code usageCoupon usage
Metrics by Channel (Favorites)
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Product/Technical Docs
Number of downloadsNumber of requests (via form)Bounce, Exit Rates
Smartphone/Tablet App
Use of social mediaAcceptance of location awareness promptsUse of specialized app vs. websiteConversion ratesWhat is sold in an app vs. website (mobile or other)
Smartphone/Tablet Web
Orientation changesUse of social mediaAcceptance of location awareness promptsLocation of use (in-store?)What is sold in non-app vs. website (mobile or other)
Metrics by Channel (Favorites)
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SMS Number of messages sent (based on message type)Number of SMS CTA responses
TV/Radio Nielsen RatingsSpecialty code usage
Cross Channel/Platform
Use of content between platformsSwitching from mobile to desktop to app experienceCommodity content – preferred method of ingestion
Review business goals/objectives Determine which metrics will best measure an objective’s success Use the SMART approach:
• Specific• Measureable• Assignable• Realistic• Time-related
Metrics Selection
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Review your roadmap. What metrics would you use to measure success?
Workshop Exercise
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If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up
someplace else.Yogi Berra
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GOVERNANCE & TOOLS
① Governance Benefits② Team Model③ Tools
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Provides a structure for content creation and maintenance. Provides a forum for content-related issues. Group members can collaboratively define success measures (reduce silos).
Governance: Benefits
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Governance: Team Model
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Governance Team
Working Groups
BrandAccessibilit
yLegal Taxonomy ContentStrategy
Operations Technology Marketing Publishing TaxonomyStrategy
Executive Sponsor
Provides central area for content planning and production. Should align with other calendars (technical implementations, marketing
campaigns, product releases, etc.) Include go-live dates, dependencies, responsible party
Governance Tools: Content Calendar
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Provides information on content creation (or other) progress. Helps to identify potential roadblocks. Help to plan for future initiatives.
Governance Tools: Dashboards
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Can be used in conjunction with a RACI chart.
Provides clear steps in approval process.
Shows hand off points.
Governance Tools: Governance Workflow
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What went well? What could be improved?
Workshop Review – Input Needed!
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Kevin Nichols
[email protected]: @kpnicholsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpnichols
Rebecca Schneider
[email protected]: @azzardconsultLinkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaschneider
Contact Information
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omnichannelcontentstrategy.com
LCP Consulting. The Omni-Channel Dilemma. October 2014.http://www.lcpconsulting.com/2014-omni-channel-study/
Trager, Lisa. Stop the insanity! Planning for a Unified Omnichannel Strategy. May 13, 2014.http://www.slideshare.net/tragester/stop-the-insanity-l-tragerfinal5914
Havas Worldwide. Prosumer Report. Building Brands That Matter: The Sweet Spot Between Trust & Dynamism. 2013.http://www.prosumer-report.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/11/HWW-Prosumer-Report-Brand-Dynamism-Hi-Res.pdf
Deloitte Consulting. The Omnichannel Opportunity: Unlocking the Power of the Connected Consumer. February, 2014.http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/consumer-business/unlocking-the-power-of-the-connected-consumer.pdf
Forrester Consulting (commissioned by Accenture and hybris). Customer Desires vs. Retailer Capabilities: Minding the Omni-Channel Commerce Gap. January 2014.http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Accenture-Customer-Desires-VS-Retailer-Capabilities.pdf
Retail Systems Research (sponsored by hybris). Omni-Channel 2014: Double Trouble. 2014.Request report at: http://hybris.com/en/downloads/analyst-report/rsr-omni-channel-2014/715
Jones, Colleen. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content. New Riders: Berkeley, CA. 2011
Suggested Reading
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