The Fundamentals of digital engagement ------------------------------------- Five key challenges facing digital professionals in 2014

Simon Nash

----------------------------------------- Planning Director, Reading Room

--------------------------------

Some of our consultancy clients

Successful engagement isn’t about tinkering with social

media or starting a blog. It’s a major shift in thinking and

requires co-ordinated action.

The Fundamentals of Digital Engagement

------------------------------------------------------------------ Five key challenges facing digital professionals in 2014

----------------------------------------------------

Audiences – Strategy – Content – Multi-channel – Change

Technology is advancing at a bewildering pace Technology is advancing

at a bewildering pace

Digital technologies are changing the way we sell and market products and services.

And they’re transforming the relationships we have with our audiences.

And then there’s the Internet of Things

The only constant is change itself. And the only

organizations that will prosper in this context are

those that adapt.

Challenge No.1 -----------------------------------------

Understanding your audience

-----------------------------------------

Culture is increasingly embracing the opportunities afforded by new technologies with open arms.

People are now integrating the internet seamlessly into their daily lives using an increasing range of devices to access the

internet at home, at work and on the move.

New styles of interaction are driving the development of

new formats of bite sized content

“There are 200 million people on the U.S. ‘Do Not Call’ list. Over 86% of TV viewers admit to skipping

commercials. Forty-four percent of direct marketing is never opened. Roughly 99.9% of

online banners are never clicked. Buyers wait until they have completed 60-80% of their research

before reaching out to vendors”

Michael Brenner, Senior Director of Global Marketing at SAP

Major companies like BT are taking these changes very seriously. Hiring analysts to understand how they need to

adapt their services channels for hyper connected customers.

Our audiences expect transactions and experiences to be increasingly seamless and connected as they wander

aimlessly between on and offline touch-points.

And the way they interact with us has changed too;

they share their experiences with their networks in real time.

And the way they interact with us has changed too;

they share their experiences with their networks in real time.

And the way they interact with us has changed too;

they share their experiences with their networks in real time.

And the way they interact with us has changed too;

they share their experiences with their networks in real time.

And the way they interact with us has changed too;

they share their experiences with their networks in real time.

Traditional barriers between organizations and their audiences are giving way to new forms of relationship. Transactions have gone beyond the confines of simple

monetary exchange and people are increasingly playing a participatory role in campaigns and product

development and engaging in dialogue about services .

New expectations are being set by innovative and progressive organizations who are blessed with either

the agility or the budget to set new benchmarks for the way we interact with our audiences.

Meanwhile the rest of us are all playing catch-up – we have to take established processes, entrenched

technology, decades of experience and conservative organisational mindsets – and steer our organisations toward bold new frontiers.

Challenge No.2 -----------------------------------------

Developing a coherent strategy

-----------------------------------------

Most organizations seem to be facing the same basic challenge. We’ve been on the back foot, developing platforms & infrastructure and adopting new channels & technologies.

Whilst we’ve kept our audience in mind, the limitations enforced by organisational structure, marketing imperatives

and operational processes have conspired against us.

Generally, despite individual successes this path has led to web presences cluttered with good intentions, inconsistent

platforms, incoherent messaging and legacy campaign assets. Our audiences often have to wade through ‘digital landfill’ to

access what they need - it’s a wonder they bother.

There are a vast number of digital options available to us. So how do we make the right choices?

“A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions,

policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important

end. Many organisations don’t have this. Instead, they

have multiple goals and initiatives that symbolize

progress, but no coherent approach to accomplishing that

progress other than ‘spend more and try harder’ “

Richard Rumelt – Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

You must set tangible strategic outcomes as objectives. Attention

matters, but engagement itself is not an outcome.

Target 55+ males

Using digital channels

Convert from blends

Upsell to higher SKUs

Encourage advocacy

Taste The Glenlivet

Awareness +58%

Consideration

(amongst those who are aware but not buying TGL) +75%

Preference

(vs. Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie) +113%

Brand I trust

Brand for me

+24%

+37%

Consumption / Sales

regular buyers of TGL 52%

Challenge No.3 -----------------------------------------

Giving your content a life of

its own. -----------------------------------------

Content strategy meant thinking about what content you were going to put on the website, who was going to produce

and approve it etc.

Content now lives well beyond your website and there are some key considerations that can make all the difference in

ensuring your content is conveying your message effectively.

.

And a whole science has emerged in relation to the development, creation and deployment of content and its

role in conveying your message implicitly & explicitly.

Concentrate on making your content interesting, entertaining, useful, helpful, & rmost of all elevant.

As interesting as your product message might be, the fact is that your audience is very

unlikely to be sat at their desk waiting for you to issue your next product promotion. In order to grab their attention you need to think like a publisher and offer them a compelling reason to engage with your content, some sort of value exchange.

The fine art of editorial calendars

“If I like your content it’s not because I like your

brand it’s because I like my friends.”

Henry Jenkins

‘Spreadable Media ‘

Think about what your content means to the end user, if they share it – what’s in it for them?

Ongoing scheduled moderation and publishing according to strategy

2015 Campaign

2016 Campaign

Time

Size of Social Following

2014 Campaign

Don’t lurch between campaigns. Communicate and engage consistently in an always on fashion.

Conversational

• Responsive • Promotional • Engaging • Positive

Content Led

• Proactive • Content creation • Advocacy driven • Campaigning

Narrative Led

• Strategic • Story telling • Dialogue driven • Always On

Embark on a journey from conversational engagement

toward a storytelling narrative

• Huge and complex marketplace

• Reductions in funding

• Consolidate technology

• Focus on inspiration

• Work with the sector

Slice and dice and focus on spreadable formats

Multiple formats increase the chances of engaging users who have a preference for a particular content type. And publishing on third party

syndication sites increases your visibility in search results.

•The growth of the multi-channel web means that structured content is growing in importance

And don’t forget Google glasses, a car dashboard, an

internet fridge…..

More visually appealing, more findable, better for SEO, incorporation of reviews and other data plus deep links into

site sections and taxonomy.

More visually appealing, more informative and more likely to catch the eye in the newsfeed.

Structured Content

Much more real estate, more visually appealing, more shareable and more likely to generate a site visit.

But if you are starting from scratch you can go deeper and prepare for the future. Foundations First

Challenge No.4 --------------------------------------------

Becoming a smooth ‘multi-

channel’ operator ---------------------------------------------

Someone who can handle multiple situations in a fashion that can only be described as "Awesome, spectacular, and, above all else, awesometacular". Usually a smooth operator is someone who tends to be "on top of things", and is usually in control of any given situation. If he/she isn't in control of a situation, they usually find a way to gain control of it to make it more awesome for everyone involved.

Definition: Smooth Operator

Digital channels are expanding exponentially. 2009

Digital channels are expanding exponentially. 2013

Our audiences have adapted comfortably & they move seamlessly across channels & platforms both on and offline. But most organisations are failing to rise up to the challenge.

We need to consider experiences from our audience’s point of view.

Keep things neat and tidy!

Rethinking search for the multi-channel web.

Findability not SEO

The Internet of Things has arrived and multi-channel experiences just gained a whole new dimension.

CRM has been a buzzword for many years yet many organisations still struggle with unsatisfactory

customer data and few have properly integrated their various touch-points. This is problematic

because it introduces dissonance as your audiences move between them. But the real problem is that

you cannot then identify people and use that information to add value to the experience.

Unlock the potential of the multi-channel web

Challenge No.5 -----------------------------------------

Moving from digital owner to digital leader.

-----------------------------------------

Stuff Marketing

control

Stuff we need to

change

Stuff IT Manage

You simply cannot conceive or implement a successful digital strategy without collaborating with teams across

the organisation.

Marketing

Operations Human

Resources Product

IT Dept

Organic Growth (Silos,

Fragmentation)

Customer focused

approach

multi-channel

customer

engagement

Marketing

Technology

Culture

Operations

Customer focused

approach

Organic Growth (Silos,

Fragmentation)

Customer focused

approach

multi-channel

customer

engagement

Marketing

Technology

Culture

Operations

Customer focused

approach

You need to develop a pan-organisational framework for engagement. Develop a distributed structure with guiding

policies and enable teams to own implementation.

London Business School have placed engagement at the centre of their digital strategy and have invested across all of their digital channels to support this. We helped them

develop an engagement strategy and a framework to support that.

So to summarise

Five challenges facing digital professionals in 2014

• Understanding your audience

• Developing a coherent strategy

• Giving your message a life of its own

• Becoming a smooth ‘multi-channel’ operator

• Moving from digital owner to digital leader

More on this subject…

Email: Yes please to freebook@readingroom.com

slideshare.net/readingroomstudio

More on this subject…

A practical guide to content marketing featuring insights gleaned from Reading Room projects and case studies provided by industry peers from a range of backgrounds.

Recently presented at Internet World, this presentation by Simon Nash outlines the importance of connecting engagement activity with real world outcomes.

Thanks ------------------------------ @ReadingRoomUK @SimonNash