The Age of 101: Key Points Of Digital Marketing Strategy

There are 10 types of companies in the world. Those who understand digital and those who don't.

"Being digital" is the saying-du-jour for most companies. Companies believe that being digital is WHAT they have to do but they have no idea HOW or WHY. 

Companies looking to dip their toe into the waters of the digital world (or even those who have been in for a while) need to analyze what I feel are the five key points of any digital campaign.

Audience

You have to know your audience. This is the key for any campaign but something that can be easily lost sight of when focusing on digital. Companies may think that since it costs nothing/little to be on facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Google+ and the list goes on that you should have a presence on there. You shouldn't.

Where are your customers? The customers must be the center of every campaign. If you're selling acne medication, it will not be effective to buy ads on LinkedIn. If your desired demographic is male, Pinterest would not be the place to have a page. 

You can't be everything to everyone and you can't be everywhere else you'll be seen nowhere. 

Expectations

The next crucial aspect to understand is setting the right expectations & goals for the campaign. If you don't have what you expect to achieve from the campaign set at the get-go, you will only meet disappointment. 

With digital marketing it can be even more difficult to set concrete goals and benchmarks since there is rarely a direct path from the customer to the company. You may be looking for increased orders, to build your email database, or for people to donate money; whatever your goal, set the benchmarks and measurements that you're able to capture and use.

You will use your set goals to influence every action that the company does from here on. If an action/medium doesn't fit your goal and reach your desired customer; don't do it.

Story Creation/Authenticity

Now comes problem the most difficult aspect for companies to get their heads around - content. This is where the company receives its voice and talks to its customers. You want to intrigue the customers - entice them to learn more about your product/service. 


All your communications, whether tweets, facebook updates, YouTube video or banner ads, must match the tone of your brand. It must seem authentic to the customer. No one will trust a "serious" brand that makes slap-stick commercials or sarcastic tweets. 

To the left is an example of good content creation by Irrational Games for Bioshock Infinite, "Columbia, A Modern Day Icarus?" This video hits perfectly with the demographic of the game, 25-35 year old males. It's reminiscent of the informative videos shown in science classes around the country in the 70s and 80s 


Below are a series of TED talks that give insight on storytelling and how to be a better storyteller. 

Social

If corporate heads don't say the words "We need to be digital" than a large percentage of the remaining time they will say "We need to be social." 

I want to emphasize that "being social" doesn't just mean being on a social network. You can be on facebook and twitter but if you're not engaging your followers - not being social - then you're not doing it properly. You will need to set up the campaign with more than just tweets of "Buy our product," "Sale Today," "Come to our store." You need to start conversations with your followers. Go back to the true meaning of social.

Mobility

Finally, once all the content is done and created, companies have to ensure that their customers see it. As I discussed in my previous blog post, "Call and Respons(iv)e: Responsive User Design," people are increasingly using smartphone and mobile devices as their primary devices. This means that a website that has been created for a PC/laptop may not have a similar user experience when being viewed by someone on the tablet. 

Here is an example of the Bioshock Infinite website viewed from a smartphone. The banner is un-scrollable. You're not able to scroll to the "Buy Now" or forums links on the site. 

#mobilefail

When creating websites, or any content, ensure that it is viewable from any device. You want your customers to be able to view you wherever they are. 

Keeping these five aspects in mind when creating a digital campaign will bring you a long way to ensuring it's a successful one. 

So, Remember...
Identify your audience. Identify your voice. Use it. 

Huey Lewis and the News(jacking) : Poor Attempts At Newsjacking

*Whisper*  

Hey...

Yeah... you. 

Come here, I need to tell you something. 

No, come closer... 

It's a secret, I need to whisper it. 

DON'T NEWSJACK DURING A TRAGEDY!

Newsjacking is a term coined by David Meerman Scott that he defines 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.

Most companies by now know that newsjacking a tragic event, such as the Boston Marathon bombing, is off limits. Others... do not. 

Epicurious is one company who has yet to learn this lesson. Read the two tweets below. 

*FACE PALM*

During a time of tragedy, it's ok to break away from your social media strategy and just express your thoughts of concern, well-wishes or ways for people to help. Do NOT shill for a scone recipe. 

They were called out for this insensitive newsjacking and tweeted these...

Those tweets sound frank and apologetic. 

They should have followed that with tweets/retweets of ways to help those who are hurt or stranded in the area. Put out a call for followers who are willing to take in marathoners. Tweet restaurants that are still open and willing to feed/charge phones/serve as meeting points for displaced friends, family, and marathoners. This would have been a great use of their feed. 

Instead... they decided to use their energy using a canned reply to people tweeting at them.

This explains how I feel about that...

Epicurious, don't feel so bad. You're not alone. Just ask Kenneth Cole how well he does with newsjacking. Here are good examples of an appropriate newsjacking of The Academy Awards, read and learn.

So... lesson learned, hopefully. Don't do it again. 

Call and Respons(iv)e: Responsive User Design

2013 will not be known as the Year of the Snake. Nor is it a year until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil or the Winter Olympics in Sochi. It also isn't the year of my 31st birthday. Ok... it is ALL those things but more importantly according to Mashable, 2013 is...

 “The Year of Responsive Design” 

If you’re not familiar with the term responsive design, in simple terms, it means creating websites that adapt to whichever medium it’s being viewed on.

Responsive design has come about as the usage of devices with various dimensions - smartphones and tablets have increased. You'll see that in less than two years, Smartphone usage increased from 29% to 50%. This increase in smartphones has also been accompanied by tablet sales looking to overtake PC and notebook sales. 

This means that companies designing websites for just the PC are going to bring a poor user experience to their customers, unless you love the  annoyance of scrolling left and right just to read a page.

 Above is the website for the video game developer Square - Enix. The website delivers a pretty dull - useful but dull - utilitarian user experience. On paper, it should be a great site. It has sections for community news, social media feeds, even a section to find concert locations where music from their games will be performed. In reality... not so much. To be fair, it does have a floating left scroll bar but that's hardly cutting-edge responsive design.

To get a real sense of how responsive a website is, you need to move from PC/laptop to phone & tablet browsing.

Now here is the same page as viewed from phone browser... sigh...

The website on the phone is identical to the browser version. You must scroll up/down/left/right to view the page in its entirety. This is a poor example of responsive design. There are no differences between browser and phone. For this to be a true responsive design, the site should have been minimized for the phone, banner head picture shrunk and made to one fewer column.

What few things the browser page had going for it have gone out the window with the mobile page. You still have the floating scroll bar with the mobile navigation but everything else remains the same. This site becomes even less useful when trying to view it from a mobile device.

It is becoming easier and easier for companies to create response sites so the fact that sites do not make it becomes that much more egregious. Companies, get with the picture!

Do you have any favorite examples of good/bad responsive design?

Where's The Any Key?!?

User experience has come a long way since the "dark ages" of DOS and the "any" key but there is still much progress to be made by many companies. To be successful, a company must engage customers and enable them to find what they're looking for in an easy and efficient manner.

A recent Mashable interview of Kare Anderson by Brian Solis, "Why Emotion Makes For Great Web Design" discusses the science behind a better user experience, specifically the science of emotions.  Anderson relates how understanding behavior cues in interpersonal relationships can help businesses provide a better experience between business and customer online. 

Better Listener

Anderson's talking points all boil down to the basic fact that companies (and people) need to be better listeners. 

Increased internet activity and the resulting "screen face" as she calls it are preventing people from truly connecting and being great listeners. She points to the popularity of Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking as a sign of people's increased feelings of introversion and isolation from others. If you read my post "Do I Fascinate You? Do I?!," you'll remember that as an INTJ this book hits close to home. 

Two cues Anderson mentions that I think are particularly true for combating this isolation and making for a better user experience is for a company to  

• "find the sweet spot of mutual benefit"  
• "get specific sooner." 

Mutual Benefit

A company will be unable to achieve these points unless they are actively listening to their customers. Customers will be turned off by a company if all it does is push advertisements and self-serving ads/tweets/facebook posts. Companies like Pampers and Kraft have been successful by creating content that benefits the consumer without the appearance of being self-serving. 

Customers appreciate when they feel that the company is there to help them whether it be soon-to-be or new parents looking for advice or a gamer looking for the newest game release.

Specific

The quicker a customer can find what they are looking for, the better an impression the company will make.

To the left is a screen shot from the "Games" page  at Electronic Arts

This page is a moderately successful showing of a good user experience. The page is set up so you may find games by platform, genre, release date and more, which allows you to find games by franchise, ESRB rating and type of gameplay. You are able to make a selection in each of the drop-down boxes allowing for a cross-reference and narrowing to a game that fits your criteria. 

This page also makes good use of white space, not too cluttered and features large graphics making it easy for gamers to find what they are looking for quickly by multiple methods.

Companies who master these two cues will find their customers happy and happy customers are loyal customers.