Today, PulsePoint released new research in conjunction with The CMO Club and Digiday on what they are terming the Digital Divide. This report examines digital marketing capabilities, top challenges and priorities of brands, agencies and publishers.

PulsePoint first decided to conduct a study to analyze the gap in perception between publishers, advertisers and agencies and how they use digital channels. Surprisingly, there was not much difference between the groups but rather between what they were doing and what the consumer expected.

With digital, consumers are moving fluidly between channels and devices but most marketers still have basic priorities in this space.  They are measuring performance and optimizing in silos without consistent messaging across customer touch points. This is because most marketers are still looking at the separation of channels at the core of what they are doing instead of adopting a customer-centric approach.

The best way to look at the marketing mix is to get the point of real-time interactive marketing. This leverages real time interactions to automate the delivery of the most relevant messages and content across all of your marketing channels.

The majority of marketers are still in the multi-channel phase where their marketing program uses two of more digital channels but not in a unified way. The good news is that they are moving to the middle ground of cross channel marketing where lessons from specific channels are used to inform marketing activities in other channels.

How are agencies rating themselves?

According to the survey of over 400 senior marketers which underlies the research, agencies rate themselves the highest in terms of where they are in the mix of multi-channel/cross channel/ real time interactive marketing. 

But is this an indication of what agencies are really doing? Dr. Karl Lendenmann, PulsePoint’s SVP of Research, believes this feels aspirational. Agencies often have to create a reality in their client’s minds to show what is possible. As they are in the middle of the marketing landscape, they are good at best practice but also can add more complexities to the mix. 

Marketers are looking for automation to make their supply chain more effective. Due to the current funding models, there can be an inertia with agencies in this area as they rely on fee based commissions to cover head count. Automation is a threat as less head count would be needed to fulfill the same goals. But the way we currently work won’t bring us to the way we are meant to be.

One of the main takeaways of the Digital Divide report, shows that we, as marketers, have to move toward two specific goals in order to bring real time interactive marketing to the table.

1. Real-time intelligence 
   We need to apply the learnings of digital interactions to enhance relevance and performance
    
2. Unified automation 
   Seamlessly execute marketing strategy with unified customer views and attribute the results across all channels and programs.

While our priorities are still channel driven and campaign and campaign driven, the unifying principle will never be the consumer, which it must be. As Rose Ann Haran, CMO of PulsePoint, put it “Don’t stop making the donuts.”

Yes, you still have to figure out mobile, for instance, but you have to do both. The initiative in companies has to be to get to a unified customer view.

Then everything you do, no matter what channel you are in, will feed the marketing beast.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

The social media revolution was an over-hyped lie. Digital marketing is forcing marketing communications to evolve, not re-invent itself.

Mass media ideas that aren’t working anymore (like branding) are winding down as “what works” is becoming increasingly evident: direct response marketing. Like it or not, whether you’re a small business owner or a brand manager, surviving this evolution means embracing and practicing traditional direct response marketing.

“Well, we didn’t get nearly the number of leads we wanted to from our LinkedIn Group this quarter but at least we got some good branding out of it.”

Sound familiar? You could replace the words LinkedIn Group with trade show booth and you get my point. Branding is not enough to create sales. Nor is branding—or its “kissing social cousin” engagement—able to produce customer behavior (e.g. business leads). Why? Because they are rarely executed as processes aimed at producing behavioral outcomes.

Branding and engagement use tools like creativity to create, at best, brand name recall and preference. Hence, direct response must be added in to social engagement campaigns for leads and sales to manifest. It doesn’t “just happen.”

It’s What Has Always Worked

The Web and social media are built for direct response and that’s where we’re heading as an industry. In fact direct response is where the ecommerce action has been since day one. Witness the multi-billion dollar affiliate marketing industry, Google Adwords. These innovations fueled rapid growth of ecommerce in the early days.

“We’re all direct marketers now. The Web is one big direct marketing machine and everyone is invited to the party,” says Mike Moran, formerly of IBM, a distinguished engineer and author of Do it Wrong Quickly, who says marketers come from two distinct backgrounds:

Brand marketers are the ones whose work you see on TV. They are all about branding, brand image, brand awareness—use whatever word you want—and their success has made Coca-Cola and many other consumer products into household names. Direct marketers are decidedly less sexy … constantly searching for the next idea that increases response. They are all about sales, and couldn’t care less about brand image as long as the cash register rings.

Moran says social engagement marketers with an interest in driving sales have much to learn from the practice of direct response marketing. David Ogilvy said this too. In short direct response works and it’s never been more needed by those of us with things to sell online.

Customers Expect Proof, Upfront, for Free

Based on my own research while writing my book I’ve come to discover that people are buying in business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts using social media. Yes, they’re buying as a result of content marketing. However, customers only purchase when the business behind the content is willing to prove the effectiveness of the product or service (in some small but meaningful way) prior to the purchase. Executing this requires use of direct response.

What I’m getting at here is “engaging content that provides value” does not work nearly as well as engaging content that delivers a result before the sale. That translates to solving a related problem, or giving an actual sample of a unique experience. It’s the difference between telling a customer you’re the best choice and proving it to them. It’s the difference between ascribing characteristics to your brand as bait for customers and letting customers’ actual experiences create your brand for you.

“We develop brands to help customers achieve outcomes that they can’t achieve through products and services alone,” says Brian Phipps, an independent brand strategy consultant.

“Thus, a ‘brand’  is much more than an identity, a stylized sales stimulant, a promise or a reputation. It’s a deliverable that acts as a supra-product method of creating value, limited only by the brand imagination of the company.”

Results in Advance

This idea of being less artsy, creative or funny (branding) and more useful (content-rooted direct response) is what’s fueling the success of Frank Kern and his clients. The concept begins with you/your brand giving materially useful things to prospective customers—like tools and utilities that solve problems for them. This often includes multimedia, educational content that proves your worth, builds trust. In the end, prospective buyers factor the seller’s ability to actually produce a result for them into consideration when the call-to-action arrives. 

In this context your product is nothing more than an extension of benefits customers already received from you (for free). Your product suddenly becomes a chance to solve a prospect’s nagging problem, avoid a risk or exploit an opportunity. Good deeds (deliverables) using helpful tools, advice, free samples of experiences all help buyers see your product as a logical investment rather than an expense.

By providing what Mr. Kern calls “results in advance” we marketers can do something remarkable. By moving prospects closer to their goal before we ask them to buy anything we bring customers closer to joy… so much so that they appreciate what we’ve given them and WANT to pay us to reach their ultimate goal.

What do you think?

photo credit: gnackgnackgnack

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

One question that we often get asked is ‘how can we develop world class digital capability.’ It often comes after companies have tried traditional methods that, when done in isolation, are doomed to failure. 

A common tactic tried by many is to hire ‘digital gurus’ to come and magically fix their problems. They are then frequently isolated and over stretched so they often move on after six months due to frustration and a lack of understanding of their role. Or, in todays job market where digital skills are at a premium, they simply get a better package elsewhere.  

On the flip side, some companies invest in training for their ‘traditional marketers’ without considering that there are organizational elements of the business that need to change as well. Add to this a market that constantly evolves and the resistance to change most people have and you have a heady concoction of failure.

We have spent the last five years working with clients and developing tools that allow us to measure maturity and competency across the digital landscape. This has given us some unique insight into what does work. Here are my top eight.

1. Understand where you are now


Many companies come to us wanting help to train their teams to be more effective digital marketers. Very few have any real knowledge of what digital marketing skills they currently have. 

We all logically know it’s hard to plot a course if you don’t know where your journey starts. Making sure you have some form of understanding of people’s current skills is an essential first step. 
Start with some form of assessment although be careful to manage the process and not start an exam and failure culture.

2. Define excellence for YOUR business

Digital excellence can be very different for different types of companies, operating in different markets. For example a large global B2B business with a few hundred global customers doesn’t need to understand advanced email segmentation strategies that would be essential for a retailer. Knowing where your journey ends can then help define the program you need. We do this using a set of maturity frameworks we have developed but you can start with a simple audit of key marketing outcomes/techniques.

3. Map against competency frameworks

It’s not enough just to have a list of skills that are needed. They need context and relative weight. Many of our clients are using frameworks that map skills in context – job roles, desired behaviors etc. Others have developed their own. Either way it’s an essential stage in achieving digital excellence.

4. Understand that skills alone don’t achieve digital excellence

We call it the four pillars – skills, process, tools and culture. 


• Skills: While skills are clearly important, they are not the only piece of the puzzle. Look deeper and we find that there are a range of reasons why adoption has failed.
   
• Process: Its fine training people how to develop advanced SEO strategies based on content marketing in social media but if it takes 3 months to get a simple change process for the website through IT then all we get is FAIL.
   
• Tools: If you want a valid working Social Strategy people need to be able to access the right tools and networks and yet many companies block usage and access. You wouldn’t stop people having access to Office so why block access to the tools of the trade for digital marketers. Other tools such as CMS, email, analytics etc are either not fit for purpose or have been installed poorly.
   
• Culture: Digital marketing relies on agility, testing, the ability to fail (in a managed way). Senior management need to have REAL understanding of how digital works and pave the way for a change. Digital Excellence is rarely achieved without a properly managed process of change and sponsorship at a very senior level.

 5. Ensure support staff have the skills to recruit and manage (HR, senior managers)

HR are a pivotal part of the people process (or should be) but often lack understanding of what skills are really required for digital roles. This leads to poor job descriptions, poor recruitment, poor assessment, poor reward mechanisms.

Likewise senior managers who are responsible for digital need to have a clear understanding of how to manage digital teams. They might not need detailed delivery skills but they do need to understand how digital functions, how its measured, the value of proper KPI’s etc.

6. Ensure senior execs understand the business environment needed

I mentioned this under culture above but I think it bares reiteration. Without senior buy in to the digital process and without an understanding of the strategic benefits of digital now and over the coming years, programs simply fail to get proper business wide engagement. Digital doesn’t work in a bubble so don’t act as if it can. 

People often miss this group out of skills development programs and we often find they need it most.

7. Digital marketing is digital business

Increasingly you can’t separate marketing from the business functions that accompany it. Increasingly the very proposition of the business is based around a digital product set. Stop thinking in a silo and think about doing digital business instead. This means your program needs to extend to a wider audience in the business rather than simply hoping marketing can manage alone.


8. Change isn’t easy

Busy people programed by years of repeated behaviors find it difficult to change on their own. You need to help them. Econsultancy and our partners have developed a tested methodology for managing this process. We call it ‘do something different.’ It works because its easy and reaches way beyond just digital, developing your people so they can work in a more agile way regardless of the roles they move to.


Our process, as you might expect, is always evolving. Each new client brings renewed challenges and new learning for us but by adopting these core principles we know that we can make a real difference to our clients digital capabilities.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

Can BFF’s lead to more effective marketing?

That’s the topic of discussion for the PRSA Digital Impact Conference opening keynote featuring Caryn Marooney, vice president of technology communications for Facebook.

Before going to Facebook, Caryn explained that she ran an agency, however  she talks about having felt like a mechanical bunny always chasing something and not catching it.

Why? Everything is constantly changing. And we as PR and Marketing Pros have to be ok with that. What’s remains constant is what remains important.

3 important things we need to remember:

1. What audiences are we trying to reach
2. What are our goals
3. What tools can we use to reach our goals

As we think about audience, that of Facebook is expansive and exponential which is why it can be so effective in terms of online marketing.

There are more than 845 million people on Facebook and more than 100 billion friend connections.

On average more than 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook each day. In addition, users generate an average of 2.7 billion likes and comments per day.

The ability to share a message with a few and have it reach the many has never been so available. As marketers we have to start thinking about exponential reach. If we share content that’s valuable or unique or solves a problem and make it easy to share, there are no limits.

Whether your community is 30, 300 or 3,000 may not matter. What matters is that it’s the right people who are interested and want more of what you have – whether information, products or services.

To help you find the perfect blend of community members, Caryn next talks about tools.

Let’s think about it this way, the tools to help yourself and the tools to help your brand.
First, we start with the tools for you (and me).

What is not new with timeline:

• There is no new information in timeline, just a new format
• No changes in privacy settings

Caryn suggests spending time on the Activity Log, which includes all information you have shared on Facebook. You can highlight/remove items from your timeline via the activity log.

What’s new:

• Can add high-res images
• When you add location or check-in, it pre-populates a map which you can drill into and find the information/photos you shared while in those locations

Even at the personal level, we need to keep audiences in mind. Who are you trying to communicate with and with what message?

A couple newer features include:

Spring Cleaning
When you activate the tool, it takes you through your list of friends (note – requires over 300 friends for this to be available). The tool will make suggestions based on those who you have not been interacting with on a regular basis.

If you leave them ‘checked’, they will be moved to acquaintances and less of their information will populate in your news feed.

Subscribe
Anyone can turn on subscribe, via account settings.
Once you activate this feature, anyone can subscribe to your posts.

Want to know what works for journalists?

• Commentary on current events – 3x as many likes and 2x as many shares
• Reader shout-outs
• Behind the scene images

Interest Lists
This feature brings interests to your newsfeed.
If you subscribe to an interest list, it allows that information (i.e. tech news) to come into your news feed. Use this tool to keep up-to-date on topic areas you are interested in, provided directly to you.

Brands
Brand pages were recently transitioned to the timeline feature as well.

A couple quick tips:
1. Star – if you star an image on the timeline, it will be positioned as a double-wide image spanning the whole page.
2. Pin – use this feature to ensure content stays at the top of the page and won’t move down when new content is added. This content will stay ‘pinned’ for a week or until something new is pinned.
3. Friends Window – allows users to see a brand page through the lens of their friends. This means brands are instantly personalized.
4. Message – allows users to directly message with a brand.
5. Admin Panel –  quick and easy access to happenings on the page.

Caryn suggests checking out the Hunger Games brand page for a great example of leveraging the timeline feature and apps.

She wraps up by reminding us that we are in an incredible time which allows us to do things we never thought of, specifically through tools. Signs are posted all around Facebook asking this question, ‘What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?’.

And with that we wrap up with Q&A.
Q: What’s your favorite part of the Facebook atmosphere?
A: I have this moment every day where the ambition and excitement can be overwhelming, but that itself is very exciting.

Q: Do you expect that your list of preferred developers is going to change?
A: No, we work with so many different developers and they are all up-to-speed on the changes. I don’t think it takes a different skill set, so we don’t expect it to change – but maybe to grow.

In summary, it’s interesting to get insight into how Facebook (and someone from the inside) views the opportunities that exist within the channel. And how they push themselves to make changes, even if at first they might get push back from the community.

Like it or not Facebook (and other social channels) will continue to evolve. Our job is to identify opportunities with our audiences in mind. If we deliver what they need and want, we’ll ultimately be closer to reaching our goals.

Connect with TopRank Online Marketing on Facebook to find more information on the intersection of Search, Social and Online PR.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
BFF’s for Increased Online Marketing Reach? PRSA Digital Impact Conference Keynote | http://www.toprankblog.com

Online Marketing Blog

Econsultancy recently launched the UK’s first university accredited Digital Certificates, which focus on strengthening digital marketing skills for those looking to begin or develop their careers in this industry. 

Academic accreditation is provided by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and courses currently available include analytics, SEO, and social commerce. 

I’ve been speaking to Vivien Underwood, our Head of Professional Development, about the certificates…

Why do you think these Digital Certificates are needed? 

First of all, we received a lot of requests from our members, so we knew there was a demand out there. 

As this space matures, there’s a need to support ever more junior levels, and provide training to those looking to hone their craft after they’ve worked in the industry for a number of years, as well as those just starting out. 

While there is no substitute for experience, having a frame of reference against which to establish professional standards is extremely powerful, both for the individual and recruiters. 

How has the industry responded to the Digital Certificates?

There’s still a certain amount of circumspection around formal digital marketing qualifications in industry, and for specific skillsets, I think anything that claims to teach in the classroom is seen as fair game.

We did suffer a bit of a backlash on Twitter about the idea of making someone an expert in SEO within six months, but that’s not our claim.

Our Digital Certificates aim to make candidates confident practitioners with real world experience within six months. The certificates are there to create a ‘learning space’ within which people can practice, share experiences, seek guidance and gain confidence with access to an expert and away from commercial pressures.

We actively encourage real world application either through business or personal projects, so we are very keen not to divorce the learning from the real world.

Despite this, however, we have received a lot of interest. Analytics starts in May with ten delegates from organisations such as AXA, Sportingbet, RS Components, Department of Work and Pensions and the Cooperative Group.

The Digital Certificate in SEO is due to start in June, with five places already taken and well over 60 people currently considering application. The certificates are the first UK accredited qualifications to address such specific digital skillsets, and there’s always work to do to gain momentum, but the response has been very positive and interest is growing steadily.

The reputation for delivering robust and relevant qualifications gained by our MSc courses also provides a great foundation for confidence in the certificates. 

What was the importance of the accreditation with MMU? 

Accrediting a qualification requires the creation of a robust framework of knowledge and skills against which recognised levels of competence can be assessed.

As the digital industry matures and core best practice is established, organisations are increasingly looking for ways to make confident hiring decisions.

Individuals with an accredited qualification stand out from the crowd and come with concrete evidence of their skills and knowledge, but organisations can also use the qualification framework as their own reference for unqualified applicants, so they can ask questions or test knowledge based on the content of a recognised award. 

Accredited qualifications are a required element of professionalisation, and we’ve certainly seen the MSc courses gain significant recognition as valuable awards.

Graduate certificates provide an ideal stepping stone for those who have perhaps studied an unrelated subject at undergraduate level and are now looking to prove their credentials for a career in digital, or those wishing to switch industry after some experience.

The new award level also helps to create a cohesive learning journey for those wishing to be seen as professionals in the digital marketing field. 

Who has signed up to the courses to date?

Although the certificates are well designed for those coming from unrelated disciplines, as expected, we have initially attracted an industry audience.

Job titles including e-commerce marketing manager, internal comms manager, digital campaign manager, events marketing assistant and community manager.

In general we find applicants have around two years’ digital experience.  Applicants for SEO come from LV=, Holidays 4 Travel, Wilson Cooke and a freelancer so far. Most are coming from general junior roles and people looking to specialise.

How do these fit in to digital career development?

Digital careers tend to follow this idea of ‘T’-shaped people, with new entrants to industry displaying a broad and shallow knowledge or all areas of digital, before specialising in order to take on specific management responsibilities and then broadening out again as they start to develop strategic responsibility for businesses as directors or CEOs.

The certificates support the specialisation phase perfectly, providing a structure within which people can confidently gain thorough specialist skills, and make the move into a managerial position.

They are also an ideal way for non-digital people to demonstrate their passion and interest in a particular specialism in order to gain entry to the industry. Successful completion of a certificate also guarantees automatic entry to our MSc courses, so they really do set individuals up for a specific career development path. 

With entry to university becoming increasingly challenging, Econsultancy is keen to ensure we’re supporting individuals in terms of skills development throughout their careers, and the certificates are another step in this journey.

Ideally, we would look to help school leavers find their first digital marketing positions at age 18, supporting them through their first two or three years through various training initiatives with a view to having them complete a graduate certificate by the time they are 22.

They would then have a qualification accredited at the same level as an undergraduate degree at roughly the same time as a university graduate, but with three years of solid experience.

By the time they decided to move on to the MSc stage, they would be on an even playing field in terms of qualifications, but with significantly more work experience and probably a deeper understanding of digital.

To find out more about Econsultancy’s Digital Certificates, you can find details of the courses on offer here. 

To read more about careers in digital, see Econsultancy’s Digital Marketing and E-commerce Careers Guide: For Senior Digital Professionals and For Students and Graduates 

Posts from the Econsultancy blog