© 2014 EPiServer
Best Practices Are Killing Marketing - It's Time to Get Agile
Donna PahelDirector, Digital Marketing &
eCommerce Strategy
@hapagirlpgh
Joakim HolmquistDigital Marketing Manager
@mjholmquist
© 2014 EPiServer
What’s for lunch? Food for Thought.
• #RIPBestPractices – Donna: @hapagirlpgh– Joakim: @mjholmquist– EPiServer NA: @episerverus
• Your new CMO• Why best practices are dead• How and why marketers need to be agile• How to overcome challenges• The nitty, gritty and EPiServer successes and insights
© 2014 EPiServer
I’m a die-hard for the Customer POV.
I’ve been a brand marketer for over 18 years – living from your Customer POV is the only way to truly understand and effectively deliver on their needs.
Now more than ever, the connectivity, mobility and social-ability of customers make this an absolute imperative.
Brands who derive their go-to-market strategy from their Customer POV will #thrive!
© 2014 EPiServer
Meet Your New CMO
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer© 2014 EPiServer
Meet Your New CMO
To keep up with your connected customer you need to:
• Follow & Engage• Create an Omni-Channel Experience• Unify Content + Commerce
© 2014 EPiServer
Best Practices are Dead
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer© 2014 EPiServer
Best Practices are dead
Marketing is full of:
• Content that doesn’t get read• Emails that are ignored or deleted• Messaging that doesn’t resonate with your customers
So why are you still following best practices?
© 2014 EPiServer
The Problem with “Best Practice”
The commonly accepted methods of sharingbest practices is inherently flawed.
March 2013Campaign starts in response to a perceived ‘problem’
September 2013Campaign ends with brilliant results
January 2014Call for papers–campaign is submitted as a case study
June 2014Conference–campaign is showcased as a ‘best practice’
Best Practices are insights from snips of time and must be evaluated and considered accordingly.
© 2014 EPiServer
The Problem with “Best Practice”
Bottom line:Consumer behavior changes fast, and the issues you’re facing today aren’t the same ones that “industry best practice” has already solved.
© 2014 EPiServer
“Best Practices” Marketing vs. Agile Marketing
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer
Break Free from “Best Practice” Marketing
Become an Agile Marketer
• Be curious• Take apart your marketing to see how it works• Discover its strengths and weaknesses• Face up to (and move on from) mistakes• Take creative risks• Experiment with new approaches• Learn and get better every day
© 2014 EPiServer
Five agile principles for finding and fixing marketing problems
1. Live from Your Customers’ POV2. Keep the Big Picture in Sight3. Build a Great “MarkOps” Team4. Prioritize the Problem5. Test, Test, and Test Again
Not best practices—we want to help you create a framework you can implement for your unique situation.
© 2014 EPiServer
Principle #1: Live from Your Customers’ POV
Being able to monitor customers’ changing needs is one thing—how you respond is more important
You need to be quick and nimble by using a platform that allows you to combine content + commerce
© 2014 EPiServer
Principle #2: Keep the Big Picture in Sight
It’s easy to get carried away with daring experiments and lose sight of what your brand is about
Remember your goals and have the KPIs and tools to track whether you’re meeting them
© 2014 EPiServer
Principle #3: Build a Great “MarkOps” Team
Empower everyone on the team to share ownership, make decisions and implement them—even if it means taking a risk or making a leap of faith
MarkOps can only be effective if the team can work together to respond quickly to opportunities and problems
© 2014 EPiServer
Principle #4: Prioritize the Problem
Nothing beats hard data for uncovering the root causes of problems
The agile marketer pays attention to gut instinct, but trusts hard data infinitely more
© 2014 EPiServer
Principle #5: Test and Learn, Act and then
Do It Again… and Again.Iteration, not perfection
Have an idea for something that might work, test it, monitor the results, and make decisions
Real-time testing is a great way to understand which option has the greater impact, and then efforts can be poured into that one
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer
Open + Agile + Scalable
© 2014 EPiServer
Technology that is learning and optimizing the experience of each
customer in real time
© 2014 EPiServer
DNA of an Effective Exchange =Content + Design + Function
Content:What is being delivered
Design:How it appears
Function:How it is experienced
© 2014 EPiServer
The right data and analytics informour marketing programs
© 2014 EPiServer
4. Move at the pace of your customer.
© 2014 EPiServer
The Nitty, Gritty -- Our insights
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer
Overcome challenges
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer
#1 The HiPPO* Challenge
* HiPPO = Highest paid person’s opinion.
Don’t let the HiPPO decide on what your customers want.
HiPPO definition - Avinash Kaushik
© 2014 EPiServer
Which one of these DHL landing experiences do you think generated significantly more
leads?
+ 133 %
© 2014 EPiServer
How to deal with the HiPPO Problem
“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
/ Dr. Linus Pauling
© 2014 EPiServer
How to deal with the HiPPO problem. Part 2.
• Embed experimentation into the process of content marketing.
• Empower your marketers to try out many small ideas continuously.
© 2014 EPiServer
• HiPPO = Highest paid person’s opinion.
#2 The Data Challenge
© 2014 EPiServer
Find the metrics that measures your biggest problems. Ignore the rest.
Make data actionable. At all cost
© 2014 EPiServer
#3 The challenge of being slow
© 2014 EPiServer
The biggest risk is doing nothing
© 2014 EPiServer
Our insights
© 2014 EPiServer
© 2014 EPiServer
Driving action with agile experimentation
Awesome!
Now Next target
© 2014 EPiServer
Step 1: Identify your biggest problem
© 2014 EPiServer
Step 2: Define what constitutes success
© 2014 EPiServer
Step 3: Formulate a hypothesis on how to improve and then execute
© 2014 EPiServer
Step 4: Evaluate, learn and share
© 2014 EPiServer
Step 5: Start over and speed up
Sprint planning Execute Evaluate
© 2014 EPiServer
Make sure you obsess about the right things
© 2014 EPiServer
Listen to visitor intent
What we obsess aboutWhat we should obsess about
2 % Converting visitors
The other 98 %
© 2014 EPiServer
Conversion!
Total traffic to website:
Understanding visitor intent
CareersResearchSupport
Micro Conversions
© 2014 EPiServer
If you don’t know what your visitors want. Ask them.
1 What was the purpose of your visit?
2 Did you accomplish what you came for?
© 2014 EPiServer
Let the voice of your visitors guide improvement efforts
Get support 30%
Find contact info 15%
Buy 25%
Research 20%
Buy 39%
% of visitors responding “no”
Purpose of visit
© 2014 EPiServer
The upside of being agile and executing on lots of ideas
Research 20%
1 Reduces waste by failing quickly and often.
2 Empowers you to discover stuff that you could never anticipate.
3 Let’s your customer be the ultimate judge of what experience they want.
3
2
1
© 2014 EPiServer
Let’s connect.
© 2014 EPiServer
Let’s converse.
Donna Pahel
Director, Digital Marketing & eCommerce Strategy
@hapagirlpgh
Joakim Holmquist
Digital MarketingManager
@mjholmquist
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