www.cass.city.ac.uk Tom van Laer Twitter: @tvanlaer Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/ tvanlaer / The six stages of an awesome digital marketing strategy
www.cass.city.ac.uk
Tom van Laer
Twitter: @tvanlaerEmail: [email protected]: 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: [email protected]: uk.linkedin.com/in/tvanlaer/