The GDPR is coming, are you ready?

Tags

Digital, Europe, GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It addresses the export of personal data outside the EU. The GDPR aims primarily to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. When the GDPR takes effect, it will replace the 1995 Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC).

It becomes enforceable from May 25, 2018, after a two-year transition period. Unlike a directive, it does not require national governments to pass any enabling legislation and so it is directly binding and applicable.

As the deadline (May 25th, 2018) for GDPR approaches, companies should not only be thinking about compliance but also be looking at the regulation as an opportunity to better engage with customers and build trust. Learn more about the GDPR.

 

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The Importance of Experience Design and the Future of Brand

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Brand, Brian Solis, Digital

Following his keynote presentation at Adobe Summit, Brian Solis and CMO.com’s Giselle Abramovich went back stage to discuss the importance of experience design and the future of brand in a digital economy. Brian shared the inspiration behind his best-seller, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.

In this in-depth interview, Brian shares insights from his research, work and ideas about how every company should re-imagine brand for an era of digital Darwinism.

The questions and answers cover a broad range and will get your mind running and hopefully inspire you to blaze new trails for others to follow.

• How does digital transformation and experiential marketing intersect?
• What does it take to be an experience-driven business?
• What is the role of data in crafting these experiences for consumers?
• Every brand claims they are experience-led. How do you get everyone on board?
• Which consumer trends should marketers pay close attention to?
• How should brands think about experience?
• What else are marketers prioritizing?
• How did you become a digital anthropologist?

Who holds the future in their hands?

Tags

Change, Digital, Speed, Transformation

We have choices to make about where to work, what to buy and what to invest in. Many are conspiring to get you to believe that isn’t true. To insist it is true is a fabrication and perhaps even a lie. “They” know it. There is a lot to be lost.

There is an advantage to living and thinking in a different way. It is a power thing, for sure, to prevent you from seeing the world differently. Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and others have invested trillions to get you to believe you don’t have a choice. At one point they were the future.

In technology, and now our digital world in general, the speed of change is staggering. Consider the simple world of web browsers. In 2009, Internet Explorer (Microsoft) had 70% of the market. By 2012, 4 short years later, they were tied with Chrome (Google) at 30%. Chrome now in 2017 has a 62% share.

But the question is, who will dominate next? It is unlikely it will be Google. If you dominate your industry now, who is going to disrupt you? Can you disrupt yourself? Corporate life and death is dependent on this issue.

This can be multiplied industry by industry. What has digital transformation brought forth in the market place?

The simple answer is massive, speedy disruption and obsolescence?

The good news is; you have lots of choices. Don’t let “them” make you believe otherwise.

 

What is LaaS (Leadership as a Service) all about?

Tags

CDO, Digital, Digital Invaders, Fortium Partners, LaaS

The chaos and intrusion caused by traditional consulting firms often makes things worse long before they get better. More importantly, the learning curve required by often inexperienced consultants is a costly risk to any client. If those firms do finally begin to bring value, it is always compromised by their use of a library of reusable work product and templates designed to standardize your solution. In other words, these standard templates help them make more money while using teams with far less experience. Unfortunately, the answer to your problem will always require educated decisions to be made, and they are not equipped to do so.

Fortium’s revolutionary executive services model is superior to traditional consulting. LaaS (Leadership as a Service) can benefit you immediately. While others leverage teams with a mix of experienced and inexperienced consultants and use live client situations to train them on real world situations, Fortium aligns one individual or a small team of experienced (25 years or more) executives to the conditions of your specific engagement. Our partners, among the best technology and digital leaders in the world, bring the credentials, deep-industry expertise and hands-on experience to confront risks and opportunities with the skills and commitment they demand. And while consulting firms consistently look for opportunities to expand their presence within your organization, Fortium is there to help you solve problems and move on to your next challenge.

Your situation may not demand a small army of consultants. Fortium aligns the delivery model with your need. For very focused situations, the best approach may be to help you through project leadership. In other conditions, it may be best to place the Fortium partner in the CIO, CTO, CDO or CISO seat or other strategic leadership role on a short-term or long-term interim basis. When you’re ready, the Fortium partner can be replaced by a permanent resource without the complexity and cost associated with termination of a permanent, long-term employee. Throughout the delivery process, you and the Fortium partner have the immediate support and expertise of our entire firm of technology experts to fulfill your needs and minimize your risk. Would LaaS (Leadership as a Service) benefit you?

Fortium Partners offers what no one else can: instant access to some of the world’s most experienced technology and digital leaders (CIOs, CDOs, CTOs, and CISOs). Our clients often need interim leadership, fractional/part-time leadership, strategic program management and guidance, coaching, or other roles that expand the capabilities of the management team. Fortium clients get the technology and digital leadership they need in a matter of days, obtaining an immediate competitive edge, often at a lower cost with more return. We also offer specific solutions to address your technology and digital challenges.

Missing Your Technology or Digital Leader? Break from Tradition

What if you could fill your technology leadership slot (CIO, CDO, CTO, or CISO) immediately, in a matter of hours? What if you could guarantee that your new technology leader would be a true strategy partner with more than 25 years of experience, and not just an technology operational generalist? What if you never had to pay for search fees, employee benefits or severance? What if you had immediate access to a technology and digital executive with exactly the right experience to help guide your team toward a new strategic direction? Leadership as a Service (LaaS) can help immediately.

Enter Fortium Partners

Fortium’s partners have served in C-suites of the most respected companies in the world. Unlike consulting firms, with Fortium your service level is exactly what you need and you will never be subject to unnecessary fee expansion or lower-level resources. Best of all, our Partner becomes your company’s CIO, CDO, CTO, or CISO – a dedicated member of your senior staff reporting directly to executive leadership, yet equipped with world-class processes of the largest provider of technology and digital leadership services in the world.

Strategic Issues in the LaaS Model

Strategic issues to be considered in the LaaS model is having a knowledge that digital invaders exist and that they are experts at rapid disruption. As a result, the entire C-suite now sees digital as the biggest game-changer. It can fuel growth, but drastically change the landscape.

While most CxOs believe they see the “Big Picture,” few actually know how to create that view and execute a series of initiatives to get there.  Industry leaders are looking beyond the immediate future, and employing a full range of strategies.

Coming to market second or third is a luxury few can afford. Creating a business model that offers both speed and scale can be tricky. Nonetheless, some leading enterprises are using their resources to out think the competition.

Do you want to:

• Be First – this approach is costly and risky but may be your cup of tea. If so, we have ideas that no one else has tried yet that could catapult you ahead.
• Be Best – this approach has costs but excelling in most areas, particularly the giving and post giving experience will pay off.
• Be left behind – this approach is to be avoided. Unbeknownst to you, someone may be about to disrupt your business model.

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Are our digital donor experience goals relevant?

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Digital, Donor, Donor Experience, Goal, Nonprofit, SMART Goal, Strategy

The fourth criterion for SMART goals stresses the importance of choosing goals that really make a difference in improving the donor experience. A digital executive’s goal to “Make 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by 2:00pm” may be specific, measurable, attainable, and time-bound, but lacks relevance to the donor. Many times you will need support to accomplish a goal: resources, a champion voice, someone to knock down obstacles. Goals that are relevant to your boss, your team, your organization and but most importantly, your donor, will receive that needed support. Being able to frame up simply how it will benefit the donor is very powerful.

Relevant goals (when met) drive the team, department, and organization forward in creating stunning experiences for the donor. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other donor goals would be considered a relevant goal.

A relevant goal can answer yes to these questions:

1. Does this seem worthwhile to the donor?
2. Is this the right time in the donor experience lifecycle?
3. Does this match our other donor journey efforts/needs?
4. Are you the right person/team to focus on this?
5. Is it applicable in current socio- economic- technical environment? Will it move digital change (transformation) ahead to the next phase?

How many times have we been “handed” a goal and we all have said, this isn’t going to move the needle. It’s just not relevant. Having employees and donors engaged is a “big deal”. Relevance is the key.

Without relevance, it is hard to know what we want to accomplish. When a goal is irrelevant, we all see the air go out of the balloon. There is nothing more demoralizing.

The digital executive is responsible for accessing “does it pass” the relevance test. This cannot be delegated. Having a pulse of donor goals helps a lot. Even if it is not relevant to an employee, a case should be made that it is relevant to the donor. How relevant it is becomes the driver.

Relevance can be given a score so that ideas that produce the best results are funded. We may need to do a series of quick tests to determine the winners. With limited funds and budget, the digital executive must focus resources.

Here are the key ideas:

1. Start focusing employees on the issue of donor relevance.
2. Begin testing and scoring the results of ideas.
3. Encourage listening to donors to know what is relevant to them.
4. Have clear goals for testing programs.
5. Know why this is important to the donor.
6. Involve donors and employees in generating ideas.
7. Be clear about resource constraints.

Donor Experience SMART goals are specific and unambiguous

Tags

Digital, Donor Experience, Nonprofit

Donor Experience SMART goals are specific. Does your goal sound too general? It is probably not a SMART goal yet.  The aim is for something very clear and absolutely unambiguous. SMART goals are stripped of vagaries, platitudes and jargon. They must tell a team exactly what is expected, why is it important to your donors, who’s involved, where is it going to happen and what experiences are important to the donor.

A specific goal will usually answer the five “W” questions:

1. What: What do I want to accomplish?
2. Why: What are the specific reasons, purpose or benefits to the donor of accomplishing the goal?
3. Who: What donors will be involved?
4. Where: Where is the location? Digital? Physical? Both?
5. Which: What are requirements and constraints?

It is important to be specific. For example, your goal may be to grow your business. That is pretty general. It would be more specific to say you want to acquire 3 new donors for your nonprofit. Or you might say you want to increase revenue from X to Y. A digital approach might to increase revenue from online donations from X to Y.

Being specific brings greater clarity in know what is to be accomplished. Clarity is the key. When you are building a digital nonprofit, as a leader, the more specific you can be about your goal, the better. It isn’t a goal to say we need to have a great presence on Facebook. What is the outcome you want on Facebook? Likes? Driving people to your content? Do you want donors to take some kind of action? What are the outcomes that your donors want? What does that experience look like?

In any kind of business, we can’t do everything. Resources are very limited and constrained. Getting specific with our goals creates great focus and great experiences for our donors.

Here are the key ideas:

1. Create goals that are very, very specific
2. Think through the digital outcome that will amaze your donors
3. Focus the outcome on your donors goals

Is it really “location, location, location” anymore?

Tags

Digital, Internet, Location, Strategy

We all have the “location, location, location” mantra emblazoned in our minds. While specific to the real estate market, we have tended to believe it applies to products and services as well. For a long time, it did.

But not so much anymore. And less and less every day. We know it is true. Are we ready to pick up the pace? Are we evolving fast enough?

Slowly location isn’t so important. Of course, the internet is one of the main culprits. Federal Express can take some credit. Television has an impact. Credit cards enable transactions at a distance. Call phones un-hooked us and cut the cord. And my favorite, air conditioning, transformed the south and manufacturing.

What percent of your business today has nothing to do with location? Is that true of the competition? How fast is it accelerating in your industry?

China Will Be the World’s Largest Digital Market by 2018

Tags

China, Digital, Economy, Statista

According to Statista, “China will soon overtake the United States in the digital economy.”

• “According to calculations by analysts at Statista, greater China’s digital market will outstrip the US market as early as 2018. As a result, China will be the largest digital economy before becoming the world’s largest economy.”
• “These projections are based on data from Statista’s Digital Economy Compass, a new comprehensive compendium on the global digital market. It examines the competitive development of the platform business in eCommerce, eTravel and Digital Media. Already, the four major Chinese players Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei have achieved impressive figures and are increasingly operating on a global level. “In the foreseeable future, the growth of the US big four will be increasingly challenged by their Chinese counterparts,” says Tobias Bohnhoff, Head of Market Analytics with Statista. “Furthermore there is no major player from the West that has comparable reach or impact on the global digital landscape.”
• “The Statista Digital Economy Compass highlights the figures and factors behind these developments and provides a comprehensive overview of the platform business in the key markets of the United States, China and Europe. It analyzes the trends and gives deep insights into the hard facts of different sub-segments, from media and marketing to connected cars, smart homes, and fintech.”
• “Special attention is given to the influence of the driving forces cloud, social, mobile and voice-control. In addition, specific chapters cover the topics of venture capital, “Who will beat who in the platform business?”, and cutting-edge technologies like AI, AR, and VR. “With the Digital Economy Compass, we have created a standard work for the digital business,” says Felix Wegener, analyst for digital markets at Statista. “It is a reference work full of fundamental and useful statistics, which every decision-maker in the digital business should definitely bookmark.”
• Source: • Chart: China Will Be the World’s Largest Digital Market by 2018 | Statista

Understanding the customer in the digital age — Data is about insight

Tags

Customer Data, Customer Insight, Data, Digital, Insight

Customer Insight

Data is very useful if it allows us to understand our customers better. Collecting data is of no value if it doesn’t lead to insight. Think data, insight and action.

There are all kind of insights that will lead to further action.  Here are several:

1. The value and potential of the customer
2. The next step in building the relationship based on other similar customers
3. Channels they may prefer
4. What is the level of engagement
5. Companies and organizations they may have a relationship with.
6. Summaries of how recent and frequently of buying and engagement.
7. What kind of experience they are having. How satisfied they are.
8. What they are interested in. What type of content should be sent to them? How to render the content via static content, graphics or video.
9. Who is in their network and who influences them?
10. What kind of referrals do they make?
11. Real time data from Smart devices

The list goes on and on. In thinking about what data to gather, always think through what insight that it will give and where it will lead the relationship.

The intent is to develop a deep understanding of customers, using a disciplined approach, which can be leveraged across the organization to improve the experience for the customer and profitability for the corporation. Deeper knowledge of customers assists in uncovering and clarifying opportunities. In addition to data you may already have, there may need to be in-depth interviews, focus groups, surveys and industry analyst sources.

There could be several types of insight to look at:

1. A predictive model
2. Attitudinal understanding
3. Product behavior

The digital executive should also consider leading the charge to go beyond traditional quantitative and qualitative approaches. A new model is emerging know as real-time experience tracking (RET).

Real-time experience tracking was born of two insights. First, while a market researcher can’t easily follow customers around 24 hours a day, those customers’ cell phones can, and unlike human observers, they don’t sway people’s perceptions of experiences. The second insight was that although customers may interact with a company in thousands of ways, you really need to know only four things about each encounter: the brand involved, the type of touchpoint (TV ad, say, or call to the service center), how the participant felt about the experience, and how persuasive it was. (Did it make the customer more inclined to choose the brand next time?)

Source: Harvard Business Review Article

The digital executive has to be obsessive in understanding the customer. Without that passion and commitment, the voice of the customer may not be heard. This, at its core, is not about collecting data just because we can. It is all about understanding the customer, improving the experience and increasing the top line for the corporation.

Gaining the type of insight that brings real results may require investing in getting the right kind of data, different tools to analyze the data and staff that can accurately understand the data. Looking at the total economic benefit will be useful.

Here are the key ideas:

1. Start with a clear commitment to understanding the customer with deeper levels of insight.
2. Begin with some questions that need to be answered with the eye toward action to improve results.
3. Encourage a collaborative approach that cuts across departmental silos.
4. Obsess about understand the customer.
5. Create a culture that always looks at what we know from our customers before proceeding with an initiative.
6. Assess the total economic benefit of understanding the customer

What is the value of offline data?

Tags

Data, Digital, Digital Executive, Insight, Offline, Offline Data

Not all data is as valuable as others. The human resources to manually enter offline data can be daunting and so many times it is the last priority.

There are great services that automate the collection of offline data at a reasonable cost. The first step in the automation process is to create a data value strategy. That will help justify the cost of capturing the offline data and integrating it into your customer systems.

The opportunity to collect offline data for most companies is huge. We tend to underestimate how much of it we really have. For some retail oriented businesses it is close to 100 percent. Think about what you know about customers online and what you know about them offline.

Offline can include knowledge gained in the call center, by sales staff, from surveys, point of sale transactions and retail interactions from service personnel. It may be helpful to do a quick audit of all that you really have. If may be more than you think. And it may lead to great insight than online data which leads to action and engagement.  It also getting easier and more cost effective to get the data via scanning / OCR technology.

Digital executives are passionate about getting insight on what is important to customers. Think about a world where you could act on the insights gained from your offline data. The cost of integrating may be worth its weight in gold.

The other side of this is that when customers give us information and tell us something, they expect us to remember it to provide them better service. The point of integrating offline data is to gain insight into customers that can’t be gained otherwise and to be able to act for better service.

Everyone can be involved in the effort. Imagine having a simple card that service personnel fill out with the answers to 3 questions what will give you great insight. They ask the questions and write down the answers. You have a service scan it and integrate it with your other customer data. What if you could get their email address? It may not be as difficult as you think. You can get everyone involved in the effort.

There is always the constraint of the budget. It is just too costly you think. Creating a value framework is not that difficult. A simple table can help you assess what offline data you have, what it would cost to get it into your systems and what insight it will give you to build relationships (leading to greater sales).

Alert!! Do you have a privacy policy? Is it up to date? How good is your data security? Has someone independent from your technical team assessed risks in your customer data security? Not having a budget to look at this is a high risk. The damage to your credibility is at stake.

Ask yourself:

1. What is the value of the offline data you have about your customers? How much of it do you have? What would it cost to get it integrated with your other data?
2. If you have that additional insight, what could you do with it to increase engagement, cross-sell, and up-sell?
3. What don’t you know, that if you started asking and integrating the data, would be hugely valuable?

Here are the key ideas:

1. Start by creating a strategy based on your offline data value framework.
2. Begin by testing high insight data integration. Have a plan of what action you will take based on that insight.
3. Encourage frontline staff to gather critical data that provides a high level of insight you can act on.
4. Focus on insight and action.
5. Create a team to oversee the effort and serve as ambassadors.
6. Establish a budget to do something to get started.
7. Pay attention to privacy and security.

Humanizing Digital Interactions model

Tags

Bruce Temkin, Conversation, Digital, Temkin

Here are some highlights from a recent Temkin Group Report:

• They developed The Human Conversational Model, which is made up of seven elements – Intent Decoding, Contextual Framing, Empathetic Agility, Supportive Feedback, Basic Manners, Self-Awareness, and Emotional Reflection.
• Share over 35 examples of best practices from companies that are designing digital experiences across the seven elements of The Human Conversational Model.
• Demonstrate how you could apply The Human Conversational Model to three types of digital activities: opening a new bank account online, purchasing a pair of shoes through an app, and getting technical support online.

According to Temkin, a gratifying conversation requires two processes:

• Cooperative Interface. Each participant is required to collaborate with her partner to achieve the shared goal of the conversation – be that casually catching up, gathering information, sharing knowledge, etc. This is the part of the model that a conversational partner sees and responds to, and it consists of five elements: contextual framing, intent decoding, empathetic agility, supportive feedback, and basic manners.
• Background Mindfulness. This portion of the model is not observable within what would normally be considered the scope of the conservation as it pertains to what happens internally within person. Each participant has a pre-existing notion of who he is as an individual (self-awareness) and throughout the course of the conversation, learns about how he affects other people (emotional reflection). Though not directly observable, “background mindfulness” informs the way in which each participant communicates with his current and future partners.

Source: Report: Humanizing Digital Interactions – Customer Experience Matters®

Lead your Digital Transformation – No Fancy, Schmancy Job Title Required!

Tags

Corporate title, Digital, Job Description, Transformation

We all have a chance to lead. Every business, nonprofit, department, government agency, and school must transform to the new digital reality. We don’t have a lack of talent to rise to the challenge across the board.

It is everyone’s job. It is my job. It is your job.

Do I need a title? Do I need a job description?

There is no doubt about it. Or is there?

“What is your company doing about digital transformation?  What are you doing about digital transformation? Digital transformation is not a question of “if”.”

Source: Lead your Digital Transformation – No Fancy, Schmancy Job Title Required!

Most CEOs Can’t Lead A Digital Transformation

Tags

CEO, Digital, Jim Collins, Transformation

I am a big fan of Jim Collins. It is nice to hear again about his influence.

It is also sad to hear about CEO’s that don’t seem “to get it” when it comes our new digital world. It is also sad for the stock holders.

It is not a question of “if they will get it” but when, if at all. The velocity of digital transformations is stunning.

Years ago, Jim Collins wrote the best-selling book, Good to Great, praised by business leaders and academics alike. Collins noted seven characteristics common to firms that go from “good to great,” one of which was their ability to get the right people “on the bus.” This obviously includes the bus driver as well—the executives who guide their organizations. Unfortunately, more and more companies are concluding that they don’t have the right leadership. Significant CEO departures like Jeffrey Immelt leaving General Electric and Mark Fields stepping down at Ford highlight the struggle many companies face to find the right leadership in the digital age. As Michael Useem, professor at the Wharton School, said to the NY Times, “Who ever thought Ford would be competing with Google? But they are, and Mark Fields wasn’t moving fast enough.”

Speed is a serious concern for incumbent organizations. While their leaders are “driving the bus,” Jeff Bezos is flying past in a Prime-branded rocket ship. What has changed in the past sixteen years? The evolution of new, more profitable business models using new technologies like social, mobile, cloud, analytics, and platforms. The underlying technologies and rapid speed of evolution required to succeed with newer business models are real challenges for the average executive. Incumbent companies and traditional boards need new thinking and skills to succeed.

Source: Most CEOs Can’t Lead A Digital Transformation

Understanding your Digital Business Model by its Business Functional Requirements for Operational Technology

Tags

Digital, Digital Business, Technology, Transformation

Digital Transformation

Am I focused on making this goal or process or people issue supported by a digital component?

Am I thinking digital in terms of potential solutions to my daily challenges?

Am I a digital champion?

Digital Business Transformation must, by definition, mean a wider consideration of exactly how an enterprise does functional operate when its business model becomes based not only on Technology, but also on external Technology and Services provided by new deployment models.

This is not an argument for the chaos of Enterprise wide transformation in response to the introduction of IT, and PCs and ERP technologies as in the past. Instead it is an argument for managing a graceful change by letting go of non-core activities and re focusing on what will increase competitive differentiation in support of Digital Business.

via Understanding your Digital Business Model by its Business Functional Requirements for Operational Technology | Constellation Research Inc..

All this technology is making us antisocial … or is it?

Tags

Anti-Social, Digital

Who says history doesn’t repeat itself.

Unifying the experience for the donor

Tags

Digital, Donor, Donor Experience, Insights, Journey Mapping

Donor Experience

This is not all about data. At the end of the day, donors will expect a great (unified) experience across multiple channels. While it takes data to know the donor and systems to remember them, only great experiences lead to amazing service.

If I call you, I reasonable expect you have a history of my transactions regardless of channel and how long I have been your donor. I also probable expect for you to remember other issues and challenges I’ve had and how they were resolved. A breakdown in that at any point creates painful experiences.

This speaks to having worked through the donor journey, what is working and what isn’t, and improving the experience for the donor. This journey should identify data that is useful to know and insights that can create for you in delivering stunning service.

While journey maps are about much more than data, it is important to look at what data you have, what data you could use and what insight that could create in improving the whole experience.

Pay particular attention to data (structure and unstructured) that you already have from donors via your call center, web site, social media comments and email responses. There is a richness here that can inform the donor journey and the data that can used to improve it.

Improving the experience for the donor by providing front line staff better insights is foundational to the digital executive obsessed with the donor.  Journey maps without great data and insight could just be someone’s opinion.

Staff who are closest to the donor usually have a handle on what data and insight would be most useful to the journey mapping process. Be sure to engage them regularly.

Journey maps can be tedious and budgets may be constrained to bring in external resources to help. Consider an investment in training at least one of your staff who be the subject matter expert and facilitate the process, even if it just part time.

Here are the key ideas:

1. Start with one segment or persona and develop a simple journey map.
2. Begin by identify data that you have or gaps that exist in providing great insight.
3. Encourage a focus on insight and improving the journey.
4. See this as a holistic process integral to your ecosystem.

Involve staff closest to the donor.

Social Media & Content Are Top Priorities for Marketers in 2017

Tags

Content, Digital, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

Social Media & Content Are Top Priorities for Marketers in 2017 – “Marketing in the digital world has come a long way from the ugly banner ads that made our eyes bleed in the early days of the internet. Whether it’s paying to show up in search results, sharing content on social media or having a YouTube star use your product in one of his/her videos – these days there are countless ways to promote products, services and brands online.

“Over the past few years, social networks in particular have risen in significance from a marketing point of view, as hardly any other channel can match Facebook & co. in targeting a specific group of people. According to a study from Econsultancy and Adobe, who surveyed almost 3,500 international marketers on how their spending on various digital marketing channels would change this year, social media marketing remains a top priority for brands in 2017.

“56 percent of the respondents plan to increase their social media spending while just 5 percent plan to do the opposite. Content marketing and personalization are also high on marketers’ agenda this year, while spending on display and search advertising won’t be further increased by the majority of marketing professionals.”

Who’s responsible for building a digital business?

Tags

CEO, Digital, Executive Suite

A board room set up for a meeting

Who’s Responsible for Building a Digital Business? While someone with a specific title may be accountable for the digital business, leadership in this area is the responsibility of the entire C-Suite. Ownership in this area is huge.

This is not an area that the C-Suite can punt on. Without a willingness to change the culture, not much of value will happen. If this is not a priority, those with the titles in the digital world will be frustrated.

So if you ask me who is responsible for an organization’s digital success, my answer is that the entire executive team needs to develop a collaborative approach to creating value in this new space, and all of them own the responsibility for a company’s success. In my opinion, in excellent organizations this is true of everything that gets accomplished.

via Who’s Responsible for Building a Digital Business? Larry Bonfante is a practicing CIO and founder of CIO Bench Coach, LLC, an executive coaching practice for IT executives. He is also the author of Lessons in IT Transformation, published by John Wiley & Sons. He can be reached at Larry@CIOBenchCoach.com.

 

Meet the new nonprofit donor, digital and connected

Tags

Connected, Digital, Donor, Non Profit

Digital Transformation

We are beginning to know a new donor. These donors are a blend of the traditional, the digital and the connected. They may still be some who use traditional media and occasionally read a magazine or paper, but most have moved to the web (digital) and social world (think Facebook and Pinterest) and are rapidly becoming connected via smartphones and tablets.

It is still a blend for most but for many, the connected world is becoming predominant. It will help you from being disrupted by thinking in a blend of digital and connected with more and more moving to connected.

The connected donor is perhaps the most disruptive for you. What percent of your donors would you classify as either traditional, digital or connected? How fast do you think the digital and connected will grow in your mix? Have you allocated your investment portfolio adequately to avoid being disrupted?

Now would be the time to begin the hard analysis so you have greater insight into how to create great experiences for our digital and connected donors. With the insights we gain, we can develop relevant and meaningful strategies. Those strategies can create real return on investment (ROI) for your nonprofit.

Our connected donors are closing traditional touch points and constantly opening new digital and connected avenues in real time. The expectations of the digital and connected donor are for an experience that is enjoyable, simple and relevant to their needs is fast locking the doors on the traditional approaches.

It isn’t helpful to focus time and energy on the closed door. It is helpful to define the experience in the digital and connected world by understanding that they are two-way channels for learning and engagement.

What we want to learn is how to design experiences that lead donors down a path that alter the decisions they make to engage with your mission. With our new digital and connected donor, we can see what paths work best and how engaged or disengaged donors are as a result of that experience.

Is managing the donor experience an art or science?

Tags

Anthropology, Art, Digital, Donor Experience, Psychology, Science, Sociology

Is managing the donor experience an art or science? It is part art and part science and a whole lot of social science. It is about people.

It is more social science than technology. In understanding how donors connect with our mission, it helps to understand a little about psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

It is all about the experience. Understanding “why” an experience wasn’t enjoyable is important. Falling into the trap that it is all about “likes” on social media can be misleading. It doesn’t matter how many likes we get if the other experiences aren’t enjoyable, simple and meet what the donor needs.

The digital experience is about people. It is about how they feel about all their interactions with us. They may have just attended an amazing event and had a lot of fun. They enjoyed it. When they went to your website afterward to find out how the event did, they couldn’t find what they wanted. Then, no one bothered to thank them after the event.

A few days after the event, they got an email asking them to give clearly indicating you don’t know them. What is their overall experience with us?

Both digital and real world experiences add up to answer that question. Focusing on what people said to you on the way out the door of the event can give a false impression.

A totally branded donor experience will come down to the role we play in listening, engaging, and meeting the needs (translate deliver value) before, during and after a transaction. That is precisely why the habit of direct mail applied to the connected donor is so dangerous. What is that habit? Ask for a gift. Ask more. Then ask again. Ask 12 times. Finally wonder why they haven’t given.

Being thoughtful and intentional about unifying the donor experience ensures we are listening and connecting. The kind of content we create or curate needs to be engaging and consistent with our brand promise. Do we understand the psychology of why a donor experience was inconsistent with a donor expectation and hence unenjoyable?

Disruption 101: Transforming an Innovative Idea into a Sustainable Business

Tags

Customer Experience, Digital, Disruption, Software

Are you a software company? Should you be a software company? Are you about to be disrupted because you don’t see yourself as a software company?

The new capital of the digital world is the customer experience. Without that, technology will fail us.

It is happening across myriad industries: New companies are rolling out solutions and services that tap into changing customer behaviors and expectations, forcing incumbent firms to keep up or become obsolete. But for every company that disrupts an industry like Airbnb, Uber, and Spotify, there are others that quickly fizzled out (MySpace) or lost touch with its customers (BlackBerry).

via Disruption 101: Transforming an Innovative Idea into a Sustainable Business.

How You Need to Change Your Social Media Strategy

Tags

Content, Digital, Personalization, Segmentation, Social Media

What Makes Successful Social Content?

First of all have a goal that is measurable, as having a goal is critical to effectively measure success. Based on your goals, you have to produce content that can have the maximum impact on your potential customers. Here are some content types that are found to be the most effective on social media:

• 34% of the US audience use webinars to make a purchase decision. (Source: Eccolo Media).

• Hashtagging is found to generate a fair amount of response. Map an evergreen hashtag and your followers will automatically start tagging content with it. This is an excellent way to grow your followers and generate publicity.

• Personalization and segmentation will remain the key factors for deciding the content success. Add a human touch to your posts. Use personal comments from the CEO, use pictures, personalize or segment sharing for a particular user/group, engage with campaign participants etc.

• Content that considers audiences a part of it will be most effective. Offer prizes, free product samples, discounts or even simple public recognition in order to boost participation in your campaign.

Per Statista, the numbers of social media users are expected to reach 2.13 billion in 2016.

Source: How You Need to Change Your Social Media Strategy in 2016

Social Media is about the customer, not us

Tags

Customer, Digital, Social Media

We all know that the social media scene is shifting fast.

What we may think is a trend may have already become a digital business reality for enough of our customers that we need to have them in our current mix of initiatives.

The biggest shift is that it is all about the customer. They decide what is important not us. It requires an obsession with the experience they are having in our digital business.

Social media has introduced a completely different way of interacting with both people and organizations. From a little-known channel just a few years back, social has grown to become an important tool in brands’ marketing and service arsenal and investment in social channels have quickly become a necessity for those companies that want to succeed. Source: 6 Social Media Shifts to Prepare for

 

Here are some to have in your mix:

1. A picture perfect medium
2. You snooze, you lose
3. Quality over quantity
4. Bring social to your property
5. It is all about collaboration
6. A customer-owned experience

Why Digital Transformation Must Begin with You

Tags

Digital, Leadership, Transformation

We can agree that transformation is mission critical. Our business survival may depend on it.

Where does it all start?

If starts with me as a leader. I must transform myself and my approach. Not much will happen without that.

Let’s face it.  Your organization is not going to transform unless you transform as its leader.  Your personal transformation will affect the way you spend your time and what you talk about.  You must develop a laser-like focus on speed, flexibility, and customer obsession.  And these tenets will also change the way you lead.

Source: Why Digital Transformation Must Begin with You

What are the fundamental elements for the digital C-Suite?

Tags

Digital, Digital Business, Transformation

Digital Transformation

If you are a member of the C-Suite or a senior manager, what does it really mean to “be digital”?

Here are some things to focus on:

• Developing your digital business strategy
• Identifying areas for business model disruption
• Connecting with other market leaders and fast followers
• Sharing best practices
• Vendor selection
• Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
• Implementation partner selection

The digital mindset applies to every aspect of what we do.

The stage is set for Digital Transformation to be one of the hottest trends for 2015. Market leaders and early adopters have already embraced the movement. Yet, massive hype is coming soon as digital transformation hits mainstream awareness. While digital may be applied as an adjective to every movement or trend, Constellation defines digital transformation as the methodology in which organizations transform and create new business models and culture with digital technologies.

via Quips: Digital Transformation – Defining The Fundamental Elements For Digital CXOs | Constellation Research Inc..

What does it take to win in a post-digital world?

Tags

Customer Obsession, Digital, Forrester Research, Post-Digital

The pace of change is stunning. Consumers have now moved from feeling empowered by digital technology to being entitled to it. That is a huge shift.

What the implications? Thought leader, Forrester Research has some ideas.

Is it all about transformation? What about agile initiatives to solve urgent problems?

Tags

Agile, Digital, Leadership, Speed, Transformation

I am an advocate for transformation. I am also an advocate for speed.

There is work to be done that can’t wait for the culture to change.

What about that website that isn’t mobile friendly and sucks from a customer experience point of view? Should that really wait? NO. It shouldn’t.

And there are a 100 more things like that we some urgency around to change. They need to change now. They need to change fast. We need to urgent and agile.

We know those will be consistent with transformation change. Move ahead and move on in peace.

It needs to change now. We need agile transformation.

So … it isn’t either / or. It is yes / and.

In the world of business technology, speed is huge. Executing is huge. Results reign supreme. Experiments are the norm. We ought to obsess about the customer and sweat the details about executing what helps them.

We should keep moving and never stop thinking of what the customer experience is like. No stone should be left unturned in our pursuit of amazing customer service. It is in fact the small courtesies that great an emotional connection to our products and services. Is every contact with us memorable? Did we add value?

Are we doing it? Are we getting it done today?

We have a strategic plan. It’s called ‘doing things.” —Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines CEO and Founder

I don’t think I would advocate not having a strategic plan but they probably could be simpler than we make most of them. Regardless of what you call it, the focus should be on getting the right things done fast. The focus should be execution.

Rise of Digital Music Stops the Industry’s Decline

Tags

Digital, Music

“2015 was a pretty good year for the music industry. According to IFPI, worldwide recorded music revenues totaled $15 billion, up 3.2 percent from the previous year’s total of $14.5 billion. This marks the first significant uptick for the struggling industry after nearly two decades of gradual decline.

“Interestingly, it has been the transition to digital formats that has both fueled the decline and helped stop it. A 45 percent increase in streaming revenues propelled total digital music revenue to $6.7 billion in the past year, offsetting the ongoing decline in physical format sales and surpassing them for the first time.

“It appears as if the music industry has finally bottomed out as both consumers and the industry have come to accept that the future of music is digital. IFPI estimates that the number of paid streaming subscribers has grown from 20 to 68 million in the past three years. It will be interesting to observe if the industry can maintain its upward momentum going forward, now that it has successfully completed the transition to the digital age of music.”

Source: • Chart: Rise of Digital Music Stops the Industry’s Decline | Statista

Why is your website losing search engine traffic?

Tags

Digital, SEO, SERP, Web design

SEO

Why is your website losing search engine traffic? Probably because it is old.

As a digital executive who is building a digital business, keeping websites fresh and up to date functionally should be a high priority. Committing funds in your operating and capital budgets for this annually ensures that we don’t have to scramble to find money to make this happen.

In addition, how frequently do you review web traffic reports? Knowing the data on a regular basis helps identify if this is an issue or not.

Here are some things to think about:

• Is my content stale?
• Is my design ugly?
• Do I pay attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

 Classic cars only get better with age as their designs capture the essence of a by-gone era. People love to see and buy classic cars that haven’t been updated in any way, maybe even have their original tires from 1964. Unfortunately, not everything gets better with age. Case in point: your website.Unlike a classic car, your website will drop in value if you keep everything original intact. Older websites, even those with a large user base making numerous repeat visits, will start to slide on search engine results pages (SERP’s).

Read more …

 

CEOs: Before calling for more digital innovation – answer 3 essential questions.

Tags

CEO, Digital, Innovation, Mark Raskino

Innovation

We all want to be more innovative. We embark on a new “very big deal” approach. It is highly visible. Lots of resources are devoted to it. It fails miserably. What is up with that?

Sustained innovation isn’t easy. It isn’t easy in a small organization and it is even more difficult in large organizations.

So who is going to lead the charge for the next one? In fact, should there be “a next one”? What will make the “next one” different?

A new innovation management initiative will fail unless we all can agree, and very simply articulate 3 things. It does start with the CEO but understanding and commitment is necessary at the C-suite and middle manager level.

What are the questions?

1) Why must we innovate?
2) Where must we innovate?
3) How much must we innovate?

Source: CEOs: before calling for more digital innovation – answer 3 essential questions. – Mark Raskino

Am I ready for disruption?

Tags

Digital, Disruption, Forrester Research

Am I ready? Am I ready for someone else to disrupt my company? Can we disrupt ourselves?

These are essential questions for all business today. The ability to disrupt our business is a reality to be considered. Do it ourselves or have someone do it to us seems to be the issue to think about.

The Digital Executive needs to enable processes to foster self-disruption. This is essential as a part of transformation.

One of them — who self-identified as a Gen Yer who had recently received $15 million in funding for his startup — explained to me that the cost of disrupting has fallen so low that he doesn’t even think people like him need to go for the big funding anymore (not that he refused it when it came!).

He said, ‘Especially in software, it only takes $30,000 to build anything in software today.

Source: Are You Ready To Disrupt Yourself? | Forrester Blogs

What are the current mobile and app marketing trends?

Tags

Apps, Digital, Forrester Research, Mobile

Mobile Devices

Forrester has released its mobile predictions for 2016, highlighting how mobile will act as a catalyst for business transformation and explaining why the battle for mobile moments will redefine the vendor landscape.

A year ago, Forrester argued that most brands would under invest in mobile in 2015. This is likely to remain the case this year, since too many marketers still have a narrow view of mobile as a “sub-digital” medium and channel. This is good news for the 20% of marketers who told them they have the budget they need and for the 33% who said they know how to measure mobile ROI. In 2016, this growing minority of leading marketers will start to fully integrate mobile into their marketing strategies.

These mature mobile marketers will measure the impact of mobile across channels, see a clear opportunity to differentiate their brands, and increase their investments in mobile initiatives. Here’s what else we expect to happen:

Integrating mobile into your marketing strategy will become a key differentiator. While most brands are trying to mobilize their ads, few are going the extra mile: serving their customers in their mobile moments by transforming the entire customer experience. Only those that do go that extra mile will differentiate their brands via mobile. Leaders will also start measuring the impact of mobile on offline channels and will end up allocating up to 20% of their marketing budgets to mobile.

The line between the mobile Web and apps will start to blur. Consumers will continue to spend their time in fewer apps. UK and US consumers use an average of about 25 apps per month. However, the typical smartphone owner spends more than 88% of their app time on just five downloaded apps; they give most of their attention to messaging apps, which are set to become standalone application ecosystems. However, the gap between mobile web and app experiences will slowly start shrinking, and it will become easier to move between these environments.

Mobile will enable brand innovation via artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the IoT.While it’s still early days for adjacent technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile will start using them to drive brand innovation. AI and voice-based personal assistants will inspire conversational apps. VR will start opening up experimental opportunities for brands ― primarily in gaming and entertainment but also for automotive companies, travel brands, or high-street retailers. Lastly, consumer adoption of wearables and smart home products will reveal new opportunities for B2C marketers.

Source: 2016 Mobile And App Marketing Trends | Forrester Blogs

Digital goals are lagging indicators

Tags

Digital, Goals, Lagging Indicators, Leading Indicators

Lagging indicators is a concept used a lot in the economic world. For the digital executive, it is important to know that most business goals are lagging indicators as well. Lagging indicators confirm long-term trends, but they do not predict them. In the economic world, some examples are unemployment, corporate profits and labor cost per unit of output. Interest rates are another good lagging economic indicator; rates change after severe market changes.

In a business sense, increasing revenue, year over year or month over month, is a lagging indicator. In a digital business, increasing the number of unique visitors to your website is a lagging indicator.  Goals that are lagging indicators are  the result but certainly not a predictor of the result. Well written strategies are usually leading indicators. Lagging indicators always report the outcome but it is too late to do anything about it. Strategy (leading indicators) should predict the goal, i.e. the outcome.

Lagging indicators are metrics that measure end-state objectives or desired outcomes. They include all financial metrics. Nonprofit and public sector enterprises have additional nonfinancial lagging indicators that measure desired outcomes, such as students who graduate, incidence of crime and lives lost to terrorism. Leading indicators are a defined set of metrics that are predictive of financial or other desired outcomes. Source: Gartner

Goals (and SMART goals) should always proceed developing strategy. The clarity of the end result, even though it is a lag indicator, cannot be overstated. Strategy, absent a clear goal, is usually useless. Unfortunately, for leaders building a digital business, it is easy to get distracted with a strategy, without know why it is important. Having a clear goal clarifies why the strategy is important.

It is very important to involve and consult with as many people as you can in framing and understanding the goal. At the end of the day, however, it is leadership’s responsibility to make the final decision on what the goals are and to inform the relevant people the decision.

Goals can be set at all levels. Certain goals set at the department or location level should tie out to overall digital business goals. Others may be specific to a department or location and may not tie out. It is important to not focus on too many goals at one time.

Goals should be specific and using the SMART goal framework helps give the goal the focus that is much needed so that a goal doesn’t sound like a vague generality. Inspirational but not effective. If the goal can’t become SMART it may be more like a vision or mission statement.

One of the best books on this topic is “The Four Disciplines of Execution” written by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling . More information is available on this site.

Here are the key ideas:

1. Most goals are lagging indicators.
2. Use the SMART goal framework to make sure the goal is focused on clear outcomes.
3. Gaining consensus is helpful but make a decision as a leader.

As a bonus, here is a great video on execution (and lag goals).

 

How companies become digital leaders

Tags

Digital, McKinsey, Transformation

Great podcast from McKinsey. Digital transformation isn’t going away. It is only accelerating at an unprecedented pace.

Just about every industry is undergoing some level of digital disruption, and the transformation is only in its infancy, according to McKinsey Digital global leader Paul Willmott, and Jay Scanlan, leader of McKinsey’s Digital Strategy Practice. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, they speak with McKinsey Quarterly executive editor Lang Davison about the simple metric McKinsey has developed—Digital Quotient—to measure the digital maturity of companies, and how learning from the best digital performers can help companies find their own ways to excel. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

Source: How companies become digital leaders | McKinsey & Company

Business Transformation

Is it being digital or being customer focused?

Tags

Customer Obsession, Digital, Digital Business, Mobile

Digital Marketing

Recently David Cooperstein from Forrester Research invested a fair amount of time with CMOs and agency executives, working through the challenges that marketing faces, especially as shiny new objects like social and mobile develop some patina and digital gets categorized as a mature channel. In a past post on Forbes he called the era we now live in a “post-digital” world for marketers, because the strategies that matter most are those that don’t start with the channel (i.e. mobile-first or digital-first).

Marketers need to put themselves in their customers’ seat and define the marketing activities they take on from a customer-first perspective.

I agree that it is important to focus on the customer first. That is to some extent all that matters but it doesn’t tell the whole story. This is not an either or story. We have to be obsessively focused on the customer and become more digital in out approach.

Here are some issues to consider:

• Customers are empowered.
• Digital disruption is forcing change.
• The business is directing the technology budget.

Digital leaders need to develop the capability to:

• Optimize their business through data.
• Present value in context.
• Engage with buyers when they are most interested.
• Create value in marketing through content.

Read more in this blog:  The Age Of The Customer Requires An Obsessive Focus By CIOs And CMOs | Forrester Research

How to make our content readable

Tags

Best practice, Digital, Search engine optimization, Usability, Usability testing, User experience, Website

Strategy

We all want our content read. That is the objective. Here are some great ideas on how to improve the readability of our sites. As a digital executive, while you have staff devoted to content, you should pay attention to some basic concepts to focus on a content strategy. Strategy is your job.

When your content is highly readable, your audience is able to quickly digest the information you share with them — a worthy goal to have for your website, whether you run a blog, an e-store or your company’s domain.

Best Practices for Improving Your Website’s Usability (from Mashable)

Here are some best practices:

• Use visuals strategically
• Keep content as concise as possible
• Use headings to break up long articles
• Help readers scan your webpages quickly
• Use bulleted lists and text formatting
•  Give text blocks sufficient spacing
• Make hyperlinked text user-friendly

Digital executives understand the basic concepts and make sure the experience for the customer is supported by a great content strategy.

In the digital world, it is “Just the facts” ~~ Please!!

Tags

Customer Experience, Data, Digital, Google, Google Analytics, Joe Friday, Web analytics, Website

Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday character frequently implore informants to provide ‘Just the facts‘. We have all kinds of “facts”, data from analytic platforms and internal operational systems. Take the call center or a website. There is so much there that can help improve digital experiences dramatically because it separates fact from fiction.

To mine data for experience improvement opportunities, we should focus our efforts in examining the actual behavior of customers. Many companies use Google analytics on their website. It helps us understand where visitors are going and what they do when they get there. Nothing like the facts.

When analysts at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) mined web analytics data for design opportunities, they found users pogo-sticking between search results and hotel landing pages, which tipped them off to the fact that users were digging for specific information.

What should we look out for?

• Study customers’ mobile and tablet behavior
• Examine customer behavior across channels
• Look at the moments that matter

This is powerful for improving the customer experience. We have the facts.

Is the digital space coming of age for marketers?

Tags

Culture, Digital, Marketing, Measurements, Peter Drucker, Technology

Digital Marketing

The digital space is coming of age. While there are many new and maturing digital marketing technologies, many have begun to mature as well. Debbie Qaqish, principal and chief strategy officer at The Pedowitz Group, emphasizes that those new to the digital marketing space must master vital skills and establish the groundwork if they are to succeed.

And, it is not all about technology as well. A lot of it is about culture. And as Peter Drucker wisely said, “Culture eats strategy for lunch!”

“The following elements are critical for both those in the early stages of development, as well as those who need to reevaluate their current strategies:

Technology: Alex Lustberg, CMO at Lyris, encourages digital marketers to embrace technology with an open mind. While the “four Ps” of marketing—product, place, price, and promotion—will always be relevant, marketing automation and optimization software have the power to facilitate new processes and new types of engagement. Inadequate data management investments, specifically, will hinder future efforts, as real-time and predictive capabilities are crucial factors.

Measurement: While monitoring an established set of metrics isn’t new to the marketing realm, digital marketers will find themselves looking to optimization and measurement more and more as quantitative analysis becomes essential. Though the tools used may be more sophisticated and complex, Kapel notes, this numbers-based approach remains at the heart of good marketing.

Culture: Raj indicates that internal philosophy pertains to how the given company defines and embeds its digital marketing vision throughout the organization in terms of breadth of strategy, ownership, and investments in skill sets. By developing an enterprisewide approach, said brands establish an understanding that lays the necessary foundation for continued growth and success.

Understanding: Qaqish highlights that those marketers who are accustomed to more traditional methods will need to shrink the huge gap present in their customer understanding skills. Because these professionals are used to one-way communications, they often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to engage today’s consumers. Thus, said digital marketers must embrace the new tools at their disposal to acquaint themselves with their customer base and this digital body language.

Smart marketers avoid the ‘bright, shiny objects’ by focusing on the importance of data.”

via Spotlight | Mature Marketers: The Digital Space Comes of Age.

How do you combine technologies to innovate?

Tags

Business, Digital, Education, Harvard Business Review, IBM, Innovation

This makes so much sense. It is the combination of technology that becomes so powerful in this model.

Well worth reading and thinking through as an enabler of innovation. Adam really nails this one.

These technologies can be combined in numerous ways, and we are just starting to see companies really taking advantage of the possibilities. These four technologies will have a disruptive impact on your business, almost regardless of which industry you’re in. The question is whether you will choose to adopt them before a competitor does.

What are they?
1.  Microprocessors
2.  Sensors
3.  Wireless connectivity
4.  Databases

The Four Technologies You Need to Be Working With – Adam Richardson – Harvard Business Review

10 Digital Marketing Mistakes Every Brand Makes and How to Recover

Tags

CMO, Digital, Digital Disruption, Marketing

Marketing

We are hearing a lot about digital transformation. If we are honest, we have to admit it isn’t easy. I think these, when posed as questions to the C-Suite team, could generate some traction.

Here are 10 important issues to think about around digital marketing.

1. Traditional marketing and digital marketing teams frequently operate as two separate entities
2. Companies often attempt to rush progress, inevitably implementing the wrong technology and creating confusion
3. Digital marketers implement programs simply because they can
4. Brands produce content for the sake of having content rather than offer relevant messaging that speaks to customers’ specific interests
5. Marketers think they can (and should) monitor and measure every point possible
6. Companies dream of an omnichannel strategy, but fail to centralize the incoming digital data
7. Marketers rarely look to consumer behavior for guidance, ultimately failing to uphold the brand promise
8. Executives invest in the necessary technology, but not the resources that drive success
9. Brands neglect to establish one program manager to monitor metrics and goals
10. Marketing teams lack the enterprisewide buy-in needed to advance digital strategy development

Despite digital marketing’s relative infancy, organizations across industries recognize that these emerging channels require significant attention. From smartphones to social media, digital has become an integral element in the way consumers operate day-to-day.

Yet, while all companies currently reside at different levels of digital adoption, all run the risk of committing the very faux pas that may hinder future progress and success. Here, we examine the 10 most common digital marketing mistakes in the space today, while also offering advice on how companies can rectify their approach as they work to realign their mindset:

via Spotlight | 10 Digital Marketing Mistakes Every Brand Makes and How to Recover.

You’re Doing Social Wrong. Your Teenager Does It Right.

Tags

Cliff Watson, Digital, Facebook, Kik, Online Communities, Social Media, Social network, Twitter

Facebook Logo

It seems that everyone is freaking out about teens abandoning social media sites like Facebook. By “everyone” I mean advertisers. They’re racking their brains trying to figure out why it’s happening. If you’re puzzled too, read this lovely piece in Medium by Cliff Watson, who argues that the number one reason kids don’t need Facebook is that they “literally don’t need Facebook.”

After running through a host of theories as to why, including the fact that parents (ew) and even grandparents are on Facebook now, he comes up with a much more reasonable reason: Young people are gravitating toward messaging services such as Kik, and in doing so, they’re recapturing the intended meaning of social: “Making contact with other human beings. Communicating. Back-and-forth, fairly immediate dialogue. Most of it digitally.”

In other words, it’s not a post; it’s an exchange. Snapchat anyone?

What should you do to start the journey of constituent experience?

Tags

Business, Business Services, Customer Experience, Customer Management, Customer Service, Digital, Nonprofit, Social Media

The effect of everyone jumping on the constituent experience bandwagon is a slowdown in the maturation of this new business discipline. Confusion abounds as does disbelief. Reasonable questions surface around does improving the donor experience really pay off now and in the future. It is important to know whether it works or not.

Customer Journey Experience

No one wants to risk exposing their constituents (and their job security) to new engagement practices that might increase instead of decrease frustration and churn.

However, the growing confusion opens unique opportunities. Here are a couple of strategies to start action plans around.

• Creating a disruptive mindset by reimagining your business and constituent relationships in a digital world.

• Making trusted content as the center of your business strategy and constituent experience.

• Infusing social constituent experience across all business functional and digital touch points.

• Repeatedly measuring and proving the financial results.

If you haven’t begun the journey, now would be the time to start.

“Lithium’s blueprint is in direct response to customer requests for advisory and insight services to help them make their social customer experience strategy a reality.” He defines social customer experience as “unlocking the passions of your customers in the digital world in a way you can capture those insights, measure them and empower your organization to bring your customers along.” ~~Rob Tarkoff, Lithium Technologies President and CEO

What is the real cost of email?

Tags

Digital, Education, Email, Harvard Business Review, Marketing, Social Media

Email

Tom Cochran  believes that email is the most abused method of communication in every office environment. And the widespread perception that it has no incremental cost is chronically damaging workplace efficiency. According to Tom, the challenge we are facing isn’t an aversion to technology, but change. I think that sums it up very well.

Tom suggests there is an entrenched level of comfort with email, making it habitual and a communications crutch. We have to take a holistic view and see email as one of many channels for collaboration. Adopt a breadth of tools to connect people, teach them the appropriate use of each and encourage smarter use of the right technology.

I also find that an open office environment creates less of a dependency on email as “literally” walls come down and teams naturally collaborate.

The good news is that tools exist to fix this mess — collaboration software, social communities, instant messenger, telepresence, all powered by the omnipresent cloud. A few months ago, we moved the entire company to Google Apps, improving mobility and collaboration. Immediately, there was a massive shift in communication culture. One employee summed it up best when she commented that a “collaboration bomb exploded” in the office. Walking around the office now, you can see everyone using instant messenger to communicate. There’s no need to email documents with collaborative editing in Google Docs. Early results are anecdotal, but initial data shows that it has been successful at decreasing our email abuse and increasing collaboration. My own email use has gone down by about 15%.

More here: Email Is Not Free – Tom Cochran – Harvard Business Review.

4 key steps to improve your nonprofit Digital Community Building?

Tags

Digital, Educate, Leadership, Online Communities, Policy, Social Media, Strategy

Social Media

As a digital nonprofit executive, you’ve decided that communities and social media are an important strategy. With so much to do, where do you begin?

Here are four key steps.

1. Create your strategy
2. Engage your leadership
3. Establish a social media policy
4. Educate all staff and volunteers

This is a case where many hands make light work.

When it comes to building community and increasing brand awareness, some organizations hire communications, marketing, and engagement staff to handle these activities. And that makes sense — someone needs to be charged with keeping a close eye on the organization’s community growth.

Jamie Millard and Lori L. Jacobwith also suggest that building awareness for your important work in an increasingly cluttered space can’t be the responsibility of just one person or even a department. When an organization embraces the culture of creating and empowering all staff to become “brand ambassadors,” authentic and exponential growth starts to happen.

More here: Ctrl+Alt+Delete: Rebooting Your Digital Community Building | NTEN.

Is Twitter just for people who like to say what they ate for lunch?

Tags

Digital, Leadership, Social Media, Tom Peters, Twitter

Social Media

Is Twitter and social media just for people who like to say what they ate for lunch? Is it a useless tool for self gratification?

I don’t think so. Here is a great resource on who to follow for leadership ideas. Tom Peters is one of my favorites but there are some others I wasn’t familiar with that have great insights.

Mary Jo Asmus @mjasmus  Mary Jo is a great sharer. Following her will not only give you her insights, but will point you to great ideas and insights of others as well. She, like several others on this list, is a jump start to finding the best new leadership thinking online.

Wally Bock @WallyBock I’ve known Wally a long time (and not just on Twitter!). He is an early leadership Twitter adopter and uses it in a powerful way to share his ideas and others.  Watch for his Boss’s Tip of the Day!

Lolly Daskal @LollyDaskal Lolly started the #leadfromwithin Twitter phenomenon. If you know Twitter, search on that hashtag and you will see what a reach and influence she has. If you don’t, following her stream will give you a great sense of how developing yourself plays an important role in your ability to lead others.

Mike Henry @MikeHenrySr Mike, like Lolly, leads a movement that has a place on Twitter. He is the founder of the Lead Change Group, and very active in Twitter-land. He shares his insights, links to other great resources, quotations, and more. A must-follow if you want to get connected to great leadership thinking.

Michael Hyatt @MichaelHyatt Michael is the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing.  This gives his tweets in many cases a different perspective and the nature of his experience provides ideas and concepts that are different from many others.  He is one of my favorite people to read — both his Twitter feed and his blog <-  http://michaelhyatt.com/ .

Steve Keating @LeadToday Steve’s Twitter profile says it all. “Builder of People, Improving the Sales Profession, Developing the Next Generation of Leaders, Not selling a thing on Twitter, only giving back.” Here’s proof.  When looking at his feed as I wrote this, I retweeted two of his recent posts.  GREAT stuff always.  And he gives back a lot – with over 43,000 tweets (and over 255,000 followers) at this writing.

Michael McKinney @LeadershipNow Mike is a great blogger and does Twitter right. A blend of his stuff and that of others.  He even tweets me sometimes!  There is no question that Mike belongs on this list.

Mike Myatt @mikemyatt Mike Myatt is one of the smartest and most thought provoking people online. He consults and coaches CEOs and writes for Forbes (among much more), and fewer than 10,000 people follow him.  He is a gem.  Follow him.

Dan Rockwell @leadershipfreak Dan is prolific, smart and a consummate sharer.  This is another guy that had to be on this list.  In fact, he is the first name Becky and I mentioned when we started the list.

Jesse Lyn Stoner @jesselynstoner Jesse is a smart consultant, speaker and author.  Her book Full Steam Ahead (with Ken Blanchard) came out in a second edition this year.  You don’t do second edition of books that didn’t sell well.  Jesse’s Twitter feed is full of great insights for leaders, especially about her expertise on vision.

http://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leadership/top-leadership-tweeters/

Is it productive to work at home or anywhere other than the office?

Tags

Digital, Facebook, Google, Marissa Mayer, Mobile, Sheryl Sandberg, Silicon Valley, Telecommuting, Twitter, Yahoo

Certain subjects just naturally incite opinion wars. The big ones, like political preferences, or whether you’re Team A or Team B, are better left out of polite conversation. But when it comes to doing your job effectively, where do we draw the line? Should the nature of a person’s autonomy — or lack thereof — be at the whim of the boss, or the discernment of the employee?

The four corners of the Internet nearly came to blows recently when tech-world darling and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer boldly put a stop to employees working remotely. Needless to say, people are a little upset.

I’m definitely in the let them work at home camp. Here is a pretty good infographic on the state of things.

Can you eliminate the need for email?

Tags

Digital, Email, IBM, Social Media, Suarez, Tumblr, Twitter, Wordpress

Email

With some careful application of social media tools, could you actually eliminate the need for email?

Luis Suarez, who works for IBM, ditched email. He still has an email account, but since 2008 he’s tried to wean himself off email.

Suarez documents the decreasing amounts of email he receives with blog posts tagged “A World Without Email“. When he started, Suarez received more than 30 emails per day; by 2011 he received 16 emails per week. (I always imagine the phrase being read with the deep voice of movie trailer narrators, “In a world without email, one man stands alone…”)

Headlines highlight Suarez’s lack of email as an oddity. In 2012, Wired ran a story titled “IBM Gives Birth to Amazing E-mail-less Man“. The idea that a tech professional could do actual work without email boggles! Bah. Nearly impossible!

Headlines about Suarez should read “Man Chooses to Work in Public”. Suarez replaced email with a mix of internal and external social networking tools. He posts to his WordPress-powered blog at elsua.net several times a month. He uses Twitter and Tumblr to share what he’s doing. He even uses Google+ now and then.

Suarez’s choice to share his work came as a result of thinking and practice. He worked for years in the field of Knowledge Management. And he’s highly proficient at learning new tools and ways of working: he started blogging back in 2005.

So, can you eliminate email? Yes, with the careful use of social media and the willingness to “work in public”, it can be done. What is the value? Knowledge is shared. Work is collaborative.

Are we shaping the digital world with agility?

Tags

Agile, Digital, Multichannel

Agile

Digital leaders shape the digital enterprise with agility. They are all about doing things better and faster; with elasticity: scale up and down seamlessly and resilience.

A digital organization is empowered by digital tools and rely on a winning combination of face-to-face and virtual initiatives. It involves the creation of an interactive multi-channel communication and sharing process to generate awareness about new digital tools including processes to help accelerate and secure workforce buy-in.

Are we leading in this area regardless of our role? Are we moving faster and with agility?

Digital Nonprofit Report: May 29, 2015

Tags

Digital, Nonprofit

Nonprofit Constituent Experience

The challenge is that donors don’t always give year after year – OK, so donor retention isn’t part of your job description. Your boss probably doesn’t religiously count how many donors were retained and how many were lost every year. You just have to get money in, by any means necessary. Meanwhile, that grant needs to get written, that trade show with potential sponsors is next week and you’ve got to craft your pitch, and your big event is coming up in two months and there’s still so much to do! Read more …

Digital goals are lagging indicators – Lagging indicators is a concept used a lot in the economic world. For the digital nonprofit executive, it is important to know that most business goals are lagging indicators as well. Lagging indicators confirm long-term trends, but they do not predict them. In the economic world, some examples are unemployment, corporate profits and labor cost per unit of output. Interest rates are another good lagging economic indicator; rates change after severe market changes. In a business sense, increasing revenue, year over year or month over month, is a lagging indicator. In a digital business, increasing the number of unique visitors to your website is a lagging indicator.  Goals that are lagging indicators are  the result but certainly not a predictor of the result. Well written strategies are usually leading indicators. Lagging indicators always report the outcome but it is too late to do anything about it. Strategy (leading indicators) should predict the goal, i.e. the outcome.  Read more …

Remember the Kodak moment? It is now the Instagram moment.

Tags

Brian Solis, Digital, Instagram

Instagram Logo

Remember the Kodak moment?

It is now the Instagram moment. Great short video from Brian Solis promoting his new book, “The Future of Business”.