Self Help

Digital Marketing Strategy - Kingsnorth, Simon

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Matheus Puppe

· 54 min read

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Here is a summary of the key points from the praise for Digital Marketing Strategy:

  • The book provides guidelines for marketers of all levels to succeed in digital marketing by avoiding common mistakes.

  • It combines detailed knowledge of digital channel management with classic marketing theory.

  • It is an essential reading for digital marketing practitioners at all levels.

  • It is a valuable one-stop guide that is great for newcomers and an excellent reference for more experienced marketers.

  • It navigates the discipline of digital marketing comprehensively.

So in summary, the praise highlights that the book provides practical and theoretical knowledge for marketers of all experience levels. It is seen as an invaluable and comprehensive reference guide for digital marketing. The reviews commend its integrated approach and ability to empower marketers to succeed in this field.

  • A digital strategy is a plan to achieve long-term goals through digital channels. It should have a clear vision, methodology to achieve it, and metrics to measure success.

  • The book aims to provide a comprehensive guide to developing an integrated digital marketing strategy that considers all relevant channels and organizational alignment.

  • It will cover understanding the business/market context, customers, possible challenges, optimal planning, digital channels/touchpoints, measurement, and gaining buy-in.

  • The early chapters provide background on digital marketing models and how the strategy must align with the wider business.

  • Understanding challenges that could impact the strategy is also covered early on.

  • Effective planning processes are then discussed before examining key channels like SEO, paid search, display, social media etc.

  • The goal is to help the reader create a robust, agreed strategy that can be clearly articulated and implemented to deliver on the organizational vision.

Here is a summary of the key points from the introduction provided:

  • Digital marketing has evolved beyond just online marketing to encompass marketing across all digital channels and how digital is integrated into overall marketing strategy.

  • A brief history of digital marketing is provided from the early 1990s with the first banner ads and search engines to the rise of Google, social media platforms like MySpace and Facebook, and proliferation of mobile devices and apps.

  • Several marketing models and frameworks are introduced that will be explored further in the chapter, including the 4Ps of marketing, Porter’s Five Forces, customer lifetime value, segmentation, and the BCG matrix.

  • The goal is to understand how these marketing concepts apply to developing a digital marketing strategy and integrating digital across the overall marketing mix.

  • Key is that digital marketing should not exist in a silo but must be fully integrated with the broader marketing strategy and activities like PR, branding, product development, pricing, etc.

That covers the key summary points provided in the introduction regarding what will be covered in the chapter on digital marketing strategy and history. Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.

The passage discusses several key models and concepts in digital marketing strategy:

  • The 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) are the core components of the marketing mix. In digital marketing, these factors take on new considerations like online product flexibility, price comparisons/deals, ease of online navigation, and short-form promotional messaging.

  • Affiliate marketing is an important promotional tactic where third-party sites are paid commissions for referrals. It requires careful tracking and management.

  • Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) involve understanding customers to communicate the right message to the right groups.

  • Customer lifetime value looks at true profitability beyond initial sale by considering ongoing customer spending over time.

  • Other frameworks mentioned include Porter’s five forces for competition, brand positioning mapping, and Boston Consulting Group matrix for product categorization.

The key theme is that while strategic models remain relevant, digital channels require adapting the 4Ps and other plans to the unique opportunities and challenges of online marketing. Testing and adapting to customer behavior is emphasized.

  • Every possible outcome of marketing activities and decisions needs to be considered so that the marketing culture is constantly testing and improving. Being in a state of continuous testing and evolution is vital for continuous improvement.

  • Continuous improvement is a key value of effective marketing. Marketing should always be testing new approaches, evaluating outcomes, and making improvements based on learnings. This keeps the marketing efforts evolving and optimizing over time.

  • Taking every possible outcome into account and having a test-and-learn approach ensures all learnings are captured and implemented. It prevents marketing from becoming stale or resting on past successes.

  • Constantly testing, evaluating, and improving keeps the marketing culture focused on optimizing performance. This helps maximize results and stay ahead of the competition through innovative testing of new strategies and tactics.

  • In summary, considering all possible outcomes allows for constant testing and evolution, which drives continuous improvement - a core value for effective marketing over the long run.

  • Companies need to make a profit to stay in business and therefore compete with each other. Strong suppliers have more control over pricing and quality, weakening a company’s ability to make profit. Weak suppliers can be more controlled, maintaining competitive advantage.

  • Factors that increase suppliers’ bargaining power include few suppliers, high switching costs for buyers, and suppliers being able to produce goods themselves.

  • For digital marketing, reliance on few wholesalers for products reduces margins due to high bargaining power. Increasing supplier options or self-producing can help.

  • Buyers have more power with few buyers vs many sellers, low switching costs, and ability to produce themselves. Social media reviews give buyers more information and power over brands.

  • Positioning maps show how brands compete based on consumer perceptions of attributes like price vs performance. They help identify opportunities for new products.

  • Customer lifetime value is the total profit from a customer over their lifetime, affected by factors like loyalty programs, cross-selling, costs, and segmentation. It is a better metric than just acquisition cost.

  • The customers spend $21.69 per week on average. Multiplying this by 52 weeks gives the annual customer value of $4,399.

  • The company has a 10% profit margin, so the annual profit per customer is $439.

  • On average, customers stay for 15 years. So the customer lifetime value (CLTV) is $439 x 15 years = $6,585.

  • This $6,585 figure gives the target budget to acquire new customers. The company can spend up to this amount to acquire each customer over their lifetime.

  • For digital marketing, the CLTV model should be integrated rather than just focusing on cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition metrics. Digital marketers have a lot of customer data that can help understand variables that influence CLTV in more detail.

  • This can help optimize acquisition spending and create more personalized campaigns tailored to customer segments and behaviors. The goal is to maximize acquisition within the identified CLTV budget.

  • Digital marketing strategy must be aligned with overall business strategy to be successful.

  • Customer centricity - strategy should match the genuine level of priority placed on customers vs financial goals. Putting customers first may require financial sacrifices.

  • Business model - strategy must fit the business model, e.g. aggressive e-commerce won’t fit B2B relationships model. Content/social strategy won’t deliver sales for retailers.

  • Models discussed include mass market B2C targeting broad consumers affordably, B2B selling more specialized products/services to businesses, and hybrid subscription models like Software as a Service.

  • Strategy should consider the business vision, culture and values, global goals, the brand’s positioning, insights into customers, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Research and understanding these areas is key to alignment.

The main message is that digital strategy cannot and should not be developed independently - it must integrate with and support the overall business goals and model to be truly effective. Understanding different parts of the business is important for alignment.

  • The passage discusses different business models for digital marketing, including B2C, niche B2C, B2B, and freemium models.

  • It notes the differences in approaches for each model, like using broadcast media for B2C but more focused content and CRM for niche or B2B audiences.

  • Examples are given of companies like Facebook and Google that have adapted their business models over time as their businesses evolved.

  • Global strategies are also discussed, highlighting important considerations like understanding local cultures, languages, technologies, lifestyles, and customs. Thorough research is important for effectively implementing a global digital strategy.

  • Key cultural factors mentioned include things like working hours, technology adoption rates, religious customs, and colors/symbols with different meanings across cultures.

  • Language is identified as a major consideration, both in terms of branding and ensuring sites support various scripts and character sets for global audiences.

  • A digital strategy needs to be aligned with various aspects of the business, including payments methods, brand, values, visual identity, vision, culture, and research/insights.

  • Payments methods vary significantly across countries and regions, so it’s important to account for local payment preferences.

  • The brand encompasses both the values and personality of the company as well as the visual identity (logo, colors, etc.). The digital strategy should stay true to the brand.

  • Values refer to the core principles and personality of the organization. The digital strategy must express these values consistently.

  • Visual identity guidelines need to work for digital formats and consider accessibility, affiliate sites, limited spaces, etc.

  • The vision statement outlines the company’s ambitions - the digital strategy should fit within and support achieving this vision.

  • Company culture, whether results-focused, service-oriented, etc. will impact how certain digital channels are applied.

  • Internal and external research/insights are needed to inform strategy, identify opportunities, and understand behaviors beyond just digital data.

The key takeaway is that a successful digital strategy requires aligning various business factors like these to present a coherent online experience that matches the overall company goals, brand and culture.

  • Digital marketing faces challenges from changing technologies, skills shortages, limited budgets/resources, competing business priorities, and increasing regulations.

  • Technology challenges include keeping up with new developments and integrating digital systems with existing infrastructure. This requires investing in new technology and systems.

  • skills shortages can arise as new digital skills are required that current employees may not have. Recruiting and training staff helps address this.

  • Budget and resource constraints are common, requiring digital strategies to demonstrate ROI. Prioritizing activities and proving value can help secure necessary funds.

  • Competing business priorities mean digital may not always be the top focus. Aligning digital goals with overall strategic objectives helps gain support.

  • Regulations around privacy, data usage, etc. are increasingly stringent. Ensuring compliance requires monitoring regulations and adapting practices accordingly.

  • The chapter suggests being aware of potential barriers, aligning digital strategically, investing selectively in priorities, and maintaining compliance to help overcome challenges to a digital strategy’s implementation and success. Both challenges and approaches to tackling them must be considered early in strategic planning.

Here are some key techniques to help ensure customers feel comfortable with your use of their data:

  • Be transparent - Clearly explain what data you collect, how you use it and protect it. Give customers full visibility into and control over their data.

  • Make privacy and security a priority. Invest heavily in protecting customer data and ensure they understand the steps you take to keep it secure.

  • Provide value in exchange. Customers will be more comfortable sharing data if they understand the benefits they receive in return, such as a personalized experience or targeted offers.

  • Give customers control. Provide easy ways for customers to access, edit or delete their data at any time. Empower them to choose how their data is used.

  • Earn trust over time. Build a strong reputation for responsible data practices and customer-first policies. Trust takes time to develop but is essential in data-based industries.

  • Simplify communication. Explain your data policies and practices clearly and simply without legal jargon. Make it easy for customers to understand.

  • Be transparent about datasharing. If data is shared with third parties, obtain proper consent and ensure customers understand who has access to their data and why.

  • The passage discusses potential barriers and considerations when developing a digital marketing strategy, including recruitment, budget/resources, and business priorities.

  • It notes that recruitment can be slow and expensive but brings new experience and viewpoints. It’s important to recruit a blend of senior and younger/digital native individuals.

  • Budget and resource constraints are common, making it difficult to grow the digital footprint without bringing in needed people or leaning on existing staff. Project management techniques like Gantt charts can help create a path to success within these constraints.

  • Business priorities may change, forcing redirection of funding or support from strategic pillars. Having a structured strategy with clear milestones and being able to demonstrate impact can help mitigate this risk and argument for continuing strategic work if priorities shift. Understanding broader business goals also allows having backup plans for potential challenges.

In summary, it outlines typical barriers around recruitment, budget, resources and shifting business priorities, and emphasizes planning and communication strategies to help address these challenges when developing a digital marketing strategy.

Here are the key points I would highlight in a summary:

  • The digital marketing strategy has resulted in improved branding visibility and organic search performance. Provide metrics like increased site traffic, leads, or sales to demonstrate tangible results.

  • A continuous improvement approach including testing and learning has allowed ongoing optimization of the strategy. Outline how this program identified opportunities to further enhance performance.

  • Changing consumer behaviors have been considered as part of the strategy. Explain how the strategy adapts to shifts in the digital landscape.

  • Quick wins from initial implementation helped gain stakeholder buy-in for longer term objectives. Cite any immediate impacts on key metrics.

  • Receiving feedback validated the strategy’s effectiveness. Include any anecdotes from customers or users.

  • Reviewing performance on an ongoing basis ensures the strategy evolves with the business. Highlight plans to continually refine the approach.

The summary emphasizes demonstrating measurable outcomes, continuous improvement, adaptability, stakeholder value, and validation to showcase how the digital strategy is delivering for business priorities now and in the future.

The passage discusses some key barriers and considerations when implementing a digital marketing strategy. It covers viral marketing and regulation.

For viral marketing, the key point is that regulations in many regions require companies to clearly indicate if they are encouraging promotional content to be shared, to prevent using customers to spread messages without proper disclosure. Successful viral campaigns tend to involve charity, selflessness, simplicity, vanity, uniqueness, and use of social media.

Regulation also varies significantly by region and covers many different bodies like advertising standards, charities, data protection, etc. It’s important for strategies to understand regulations in target markets. Airbnb is used as a case study of how understanding regulations and implementing simple solutions allows businesses to operate globally while respecting rules.

In summary, developing a flexible strategy that accounts for “unknown unknowns” as much as possible is important given the many potential challenges like technology changes, skills needs, resources, and complex regulations that can impact digital marketing goals. Understanding applicable regulations fully is recommended before implementing any data collection or email campaigns.

Here is a summary of the key points about planning from the passage:

  • Effective planning is essential for delivering a digital marketing strategy successfully. It provides structure, coordination, and integration of strategy elements.

  • Two main planning models discussed are vision-based planning and real-time planning.

  • Vision-based planning follows a six-stage process: vision, mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and action plans. It sets future targets and takes a structured approach.

  • Real-time planning retains more fluidity to allow plans to adapt to changing circumstances. It does not produce formal documentation and evolves continuously through regular reviews.

  • Other aspects of planning discussed are setting goals and objectives to achieve the vision, developing strategies and action plans to accomplish objectives, allocating resources like people and budgets, and continuously evaluating and evolving plans.

  • Having a clear planning process and sticking to it is important, according to Pablo Picasso’s quote. Planning translates strategy ideas into concrete steps and prevents wasted efforts.

In summary, the passage examines different planning models and emphasizes the critical role of planning in successful digital marketing strategy implementation through structure, coordination and ongoing evaluation.

  • Real-time strategy approaches are more flexible and can adapt quickly to changing internal and external conditions. However, they lack formal documentation.

  • The main disadvantages of this approach are lack of a formal document to share internally or externally, which can cause confusion about strategy and make it difficult to communicate.

  • Effective communication is important to address this, such as through internal update meetings and sharing the core principles even if details change.

  • Real-time strategies still involve processes like research, goal-setting, and planning, but these can evolve more quickly as conditions change compared to formal documented strategies.

  • Real-time strategies require close management and communication as the direction evolves based on learnings and factors, while documented strategies provide clear guidance but may become outdated.

  • The key advantage of real-time strategies is maintaining high relevance, while documented strategies risk delivering an outdated result if the environment changed substantially during planning and implementation.

  • Phased planning can involve splitting a strategy into calendar-based, theme-based, or business-based phases to help structure and align implementation.

In summary, it discusses the pros and cons of real-time flexible strategies compared to formal documented strategies, emphasizing how real-time approaches maintain better agility and relevance over time. Effective communication is important for real-time strategies due to the lack of formal documentation.

  • Goals are long-term targets that deliver the vision and bring it to practical reality. Goals should be relevant, resonating, responsive, and recognizable.

  • Objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound steps to achieve goals. The SMART framework helps define objectives.

  • Strategies outline specific actions and plans to achieve objectives. Strategies address factors like awareness, consideration, findability, information, and ease of use.

  • Action plans provide detailed steps for implementing strategies. They indicate who, what, where, when, and how each strategy will be carried out.

  • Goals feed into objectives, which feed into strategies, which then have action plans. This waterfall approach structures how visions and goals are broken down into concrete deliverables.

  • Setting aspirational yet achievable goals can motivate teams while unrealistic goals demotivate. Balancing ambition and feasibility is important.

Here is a summary of the key points about r experience, customer service, and conversion funnels from the passage:

  • Customer service is important indirectly for sales even though it doesn’t directly generate sales. Good customer service leads to higher retention rates, repeat business, cross-selling opportunities, and word-of-mouth promotion, all of which can increase sales.

  • R experience refers to the experience users have when interacting with a product or service. A good user experience can help increase conversion rates.

  • Conversion funnels refer to the process of moving customers from awareness to consideration to purchase. Optimizing the funnel through things like content marketing, website usability, and call-to-action design can improve conversion rates.

  • Strategies to improve these areas could include increased targeted display ads, developing a strong digital product/service offering, improving SEO, implementing a content strategy, and optimizing conversion rates through the user experience.

  • It’s important to break strategies down into specific action plans that define the concrete tasks and steps needed to execute the strategy successfully. This includes timelines, milestones, metrics, responsibilities, budgets, and ensuring all factors are considered.

  • The chapter covers search engine optimization (SEO), with a focus on how to integrate SEO appropriately into an overall digital marketing strategy.

  • It discusses the history of SEO and how to research an SEO strategy.

  • Technical aspects of SEO like site structure, content, mobile, location, and penalties are addressed.

  • The chapter also touches on structuring an SEO team within an organization.

  • Key terms related to SEO are defined, like on-page and off-page optimization, metadata, keywords, backlinks, crawl, index, and more.

  • The overall goal is to understand how to approach SEO holistically across technical, content, and organizational dimensions in a way that aligns with business objectives. Effective planning and integration with the broader marketing strategy are emphasized.

Here is a summary of the key points around developing a digital strategy:

  • As soon as you have a website, you are engaging in SEO whether you realize it or not. So it’s important to have at least a basic SEO strategy.

  • Trying to rank #1 for a single keyword can be costly and risky. A better approach is developing a strategy to improve performance across multiple relevant keywords.

  • While technical aspects of SEO are important, the strategic side is more closely aligned with traditional marketing. If you have a marketing background, you likely already have many of the skills needed for a good SEO strategy.

  • SEO strategies should focus on optimizing for users, not just search engines. High-quality, engaging content aligned with user intent will serve you well both now and in the long run.

  • Google’s algorithms have evolved significantly over time from purely technical signals to prioritizing user experience factors like engagement. A mix of content, user experience, links and other factors is now needed for success.

  • Researching user personas and understanding your target audience should be the starting point before diving into keyword research for your SEO strategy. Develop a few high-level personas to help guide your efforts.

The key takeaways are having at least a basic SEO strategy in place, focusing on multiple keywords and user experience over manipulation, understanding your audience well, and aligning your efforts with Google’s goal of improving the user experience online.

  • Personas are useful for SEO to understand what types of keywords and search terms different customer types might use. Insights from personas can inform initial keyword research.

  • The first step of keyword research is to segment products/services into logical categories. Then prioritize the most valuable segments.

  • Mine existing site data like most visited pages and past analytics (if possible) for initial keyword ideas. Brainstorm additional keywords for each persona.

  • Use keyword research tools like Google Adwords Keyword Planner or SEMrush to expand the initial keyword list based on search volume data.

  • Sense check the expanded list - consider commercial value of keywords, ability to realistically compete, and get feedback from others.

  • Technical SEO factors include optimized title tags and meta descriptions on pages. The site structure and URL structure should also be logical and intuitive for search engines.

  • While technical details were not covered in depth, it’s important to work with an SEO agency that has expertise in these areas if they are not core strengths internally. Getting the technical fundamentals right is important for search engine optimization.

  • Create two site maps - one for users and one for search engines (XML file submitted to Google Webmaster Tools)

  • Provide alt text for images to help search engines understand visual content

  • Avoid overusing Flash as it can’t always be read by search engines

  • Avoid duplicate content both within the site and by copying other sites’ content

  • Familiarize yourself with Google Webmaster Tools for crawl errors, XML sitemap submission, robots.txt management, metadata issues, popular searches, unwanted links, and quality guideline notifications

  • Key is to optimize for users, not search engines. Provide useful functional and engaging content.

  • Ensure the site is responsive for desktop, tablet and mobile. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites.

  • Optimize location information like address and Google Business Profile for local searches.

  • Avoid penalties by managing backlinks, no purchased links, no duplicate/scraped content, and following quality guidelines.

  • Using the nofollow attribute on outbound links ensures that Google will not use those links for SEO purposes and punish your site. Nofollow prevents the passing of link juice or authority to the linked sites.

  • Organizational structure is an important but often overlooked area of SEO. For a full SEO strategy to be successful, it needs buy-in from senior leadership down.

  • MoneySupermarket’s success with SEO was due in large part to restructuring teams into an “Organic Performance” department that better integrated SEO, content and social media. This allowed these areas to work more closely together toward shared goals.

  • Restructuring integrated these functions and removed barriers between teams, improving performance. SEO, content and social media must be aligned to strengthen each other.

  • For effective SEO, organizational structure and buy-in across the organization is key, as SEO touches many parts of a business. Leadership needs to understand SEO’s importance.

This passage discusses paid search advertising (also called pay-per-click or PPC advertising).

The key points are:

  • The channel is commonly referred to as paid search, PPC (pay-per-click), SEM (search engine marketing), or biddable media.

  • Higher bids result in higher positions for ads, but advertisers only pay when ads are clicked, not just displayed. This makes it compelling for advertisers.

  • Setting up campaigns involves keyword research, organizing ads into logical ad groups within campaigns, and crafting relevant ad copy within character limits.

  • Match types (broad, phrase, exact, negative) determine how keywords trigger ad displays. Negative keywords exclude irrelevant searches.

  • Quality score affects ad position and is based on relevance, clicks, time advertising, etc.

  • Measurement involves metrics like impressions, clicks, cost per click, and conversion rates to optimize the campaign.

So in summary, the channel is usually called paid search or PPC advertising, where advertisers bid to have their ads displayed and only pay when users click the ads.

Here is a summary of the key points about paid search advertising metrics from the passage:

  • Click-through rate (CTR) measures the ratio of clicks to impressions. It is influenced by ad position, copy, and brand recognition.

  • Cost per click (CPC) is the average amount paid for a click. It fluctuates based on bidding and competition.

  • Average position refers to the average position of the ad on search results pages. Higher bids influence position but quality score also impacts it.

  • Impression share measures how much of available impressions an advertiser captures, with 100% being first position all the time.

  • Quality score impacts ad position and traffic potential, though it is not a traffic metric itself. Higher quality scores lead to higher positions.

  • Conversion metrics include orders, leads, conversion rate, and average order value to measure traffic quality and monetization.

  • Efficiency metrics like return on investment, cost per lead/order, and lifetime value assess how cost-effective paid search efforts are.

The passage emphasizes continuous testing, learning, and refinement to improve performance over time as competition remains high in paid search. Advanced techniques and tools can provide more optimization and competitive intelligence. Both human and automated management have roles to play for different advertiser needs.

The passage argues that while display advertising can be effective, it is necessary to run campaigns yourself to ensure they are done properly. Working with the right advertising agency is vital, as discussed earlier, because agencies have the expertise to effectively plan, execute, measure and optimize display advertising campaigns. Simply buying display ads through an automated system without proper oversight risks wasting budget on low quality inventory and ineffective placements. Working closely with an experienced agency allows for managing campaigns strategically and human oversight to achieve the best results.

  • Programmatic advertising allows advertisers to assess individual ad impressions in real-time as they become available, and decide whether to show an ad based on contextual factors like the website, user location/characteristics, etc. This helps optimize campaigns.

  • Pioneered by Advertising.com, programmatic helps match ads to relevant impressions. Real-time bidding (RTB) adds an auction element.

  • Advertisers like Nestle are able to improve campaign performance using programmatic to more precisely target audiences, exclude known customers to reach new people, and optimize for high viewability rates on quality sites.

  • Common display ad formats include in-page banners, rich media like video/interactive ads, and in-stream video placements before, during or after online video content. These formats continue evolving with new technologies.

  • Ad servers are databases that store and manage advertising creatives, tags, and pixels. They deliver the right ad creative to users based on targeting criteria and campaigns.

  • Ad servers help advertisers, agencies, and publishers track ad delivery, measure performance, and provide reporting. They optimize which ads are shown to maximize revenue.

  • There are three main types of display advertising campaigns: awareness campaigns to build brand recognition, direct response campaigns aimed at new customer acquisition, and retargeting campaigns that re-engage past website visitors.

  • Planning display campaigns involves determining the right audience, contextual, environmental, and data-modeled targeting methods. Combining targeting methods is effective, especially for programmatic campaigns.

  • Campaign planning tools like ComScore and Nielsen provide audience data to help publishers and advertisers understand where target audiences can be found online and assess if a campaign reached the right people. Qualitative survey data also enriches audience profiling.

  • Ad inventory at a better price and allowing planners to understand where they should be buying advertising space. This is done through audience targeting using demographic and behavioural data.

  • Demographic data includes information like age, gender, location that is collected from browsing habits or public records. Behavioral data looks at content consumed and browsing habits to infer interests, considerations and other attributes.

  • Contextual targeting places ads by relevant content on websites and mobile apps. Keyword contextual targeting analyzes page content and allows targeting by specific keywords regardless of site.

  • Other targeting options include time of day, device type, and location targeting down to street address level depending on data.

  • Audience modeling uses statistical analysis to identify patterns in customer data and target people with similar behaviors to expand reach through lookalike and act-alike modeling.

  • A case study showed how a publisher enriched their first-party audience data with a third-party data provider, getting an 800% lift in CTR and hundreds of qualified leads for an advertiser, proving value of continuous optimization.

  • Display advertising is often incorrectly measured due to its interactions with other channels. Its effects are not always immediate.

  • The metrics used should be tailored to the campaign objectives, such as awareness, consideration, or clicks/leads. Broad metrics like view-through conversions can account for display’s indirect “halo effects”.

  • Common display metrics include click-through rate, engagement, video completion rate, cost per completed view, brand recall surveys, and return on ad spend.

  • It shares some metrics with other digital channels but also has format-specific metrics for rich media and functionality like video views.

  • Viewability is an emerging metric that measures the percentage of impressions that were actually visible on screen.

  • Display should be seen on a continuum from awareness to consideration to purchase. Different campaign types are measured differently depending on their objective along this continuum.

  • Social media has grown tremendously since 2005, but its origins can be traced back to bulletin boards in the 1970s.

  • Some of the major social networks today like LinkedIn launched in 2003, while Facebook and Twitter launched in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

  • Companies often debate whether or not they should have a social media presence. The argument for is that customers are increasingly using social media, so brands need to be where customers are.

  • Customer service and reputation management are important reasons for brands to be on social media. Companies can respond to customer queries and monitor conversations.

  • Social media can also help with search engine optimization as content shared on social platforms can help rankings.

  • When starting a social media strategy, companies need to consider which platforms to use based on their audience and goals.

  • Creating engaging content is important for success on social media. Regular posting is needed to build an audience.

  • Social advertising allows brands to promote posts to wider audiences. Measurement of campaigns is important to understand effectiveness.

  • The chapter discusses the various types of social media platforms and considerations for building a social media strategy and presence.

  • Most internet users are active on social media, with around 2 billion people on social platforms globally. 81% access social media on mobile devices.

  • Asia has the largest social media user base, especially China with popular platforms like Weibo, QZone, and WeChat. This presents opportunities for global businesses to expand into new markets.

  • Social media use is ideally suited for mobile. The majority of social engagement happens through apps rather than desktop. Mobile and social are intrinsically linked.

  • Brands can influence customers via their social pages, but more importantly can be influenced by customers. Successful brands join customer conversations rather than just owning them.

  • Customers increasingly vent satisfaction or dissatisfaction on social media, especially Twitter. Good customer service on social platforms is important for reputation management. KLM Airline is an example that masters this.

  • Social media can help with search engine optimization as it increases discovery and word-of-mouth recommendations for brands.

  • When starting out on social media, brands should listen first to understand audiences before engaging. Consistency with brand personality is important.

The passage discusses different types of social media and lists some of the major platforms in each category. It covers social networking sites like Facebook, which allow sharing with friends or publicly. It also mentions professional networking sites like LinkedIn and blogs/microblogging platforms like Twitter.

Visual media sharing sites discussed include YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. The passage notes the rise of short-form video through platforms like Snapchat and Vine.

It also touches on reviews/ratings sites like TripAdvisor, as well as forums, which are presented as still having active communities despite being considered outdated by some.

Content curation platforms like Storify and Reddit are referenced as ways to discover new content. Social publishing tools like Hootsuite and Buffer that help manage posting across different social networks are also covered.

Finally, it acknowledges that while social advertising was initially thought to be incompatible with platforms like Facebook, improvements in ad placement have made it more effective in recent years.

  • The chapter discusses user experience (UX) and how its principles can be applied more broadly to digital transformation.

  • UX focuses on enhancing the user’s interaction and experience when engaging with a digital product or service. It has become increasingly important as the web has evolved to be more interactive and mobile.

  • Digital transformation refers to how digital technologies can be adopted within an organization to fundamentally change how it operates and delivers value to customers. This often involves changing business models and customer experiences.

  • When designing for UX, it is important to consider factors like usability, accessibility, satisfaction, and achieving the desired outcomes from the user’s perspective. User research methods help inform the design.

  • UX roles and responsibilities include UX designers, who focus on the overall experience, and content strategists, who ensure information architecture and content meet user needs. Developers also play a key role in implementation.

  • Applying UX principles to digital transformation can help organizations reimagine processes and services from the user’s point of view to create better customer experiences and outcomes through digital channels. User research is key to informing transformation strategies.

So in summary, the chapter discusses how focusing on enhancing the user experience through UX principles and practices can help guide organizations as they undergo digital transformation projects. User-centered design is important for both.

Here is a summary of the key points about user experience (UX) from the passage:

  • UX refers to the overall experience a person has when using a product like a website or app, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.

  • Understanding the user’s context is important for UX, including factors like which device they use, location, goals, etc. Context has become more complex with many access points.

  • UX designers research users through methods like interviews, observation, and heatmaps to understand user needs and behaviors rather than making assumptions.

  • The goal of UX is to create the best experience by putting oneself in the user’s shoes and addressing what they actually want, not what is assumed.

  • UX optimization is important for digital marketing success as it impacts whether goals like conversions can be achieved.

  • Tools for UX research include heatmaps to see where users click/hover, and usability testing where users directly test the product/site.

  • Ethnographic research focuses on understanding human behavior and interactions in a cultural context, giving insights into user needs and motivations rather than just behaviors. Methods include observation, interviews, diaries, and scrapbooks.

  • Usability testing focuses more on the technical interaction with technology, while ethnography is more about understanding the “why” from the user’s perspective.

  • Tactical or technical UX ensures good interaction design and optimization to improve conversions. Methods include A/B testing and analyzing metrics like conversion rates.

  • Strategic or human UX is about uncovering user needs and designing experiences that meet needs in a way aligned with the brand. It brings brands to life through digital experience design.

  • A case study showed how a supermarket increased online financial product conversions by 40% through specific error messages and clear signposting, based on UX research findings about navigation and form issues.

  • Brand manifestation through digital experiences can create an emotional connection, and different approaches may be appropriate depending on the brand goals around entertainment, solutions, thought leadership, community, or exclusivity.

  • Direct customer interactions through social media, chat, email need to be well managed to avoid real damage or behavior issues.

  • Digital transformation is a major topic of discussion today as companies aim to transform digitally. It involves focusing on the customer experience through design thinking and co-creation.

  • Design thinking follows a process of discovery, definition, development and delivery to solve problems in an iterative way. Co-creation involves designing solutions directly with customers.

  • Companies often embark on digital transformation to address strategic drivers and the business case must show how this will create value and return on investment. Generational differences can make it difficult to convince boards of its importance.

  • CRM refers to developing relationships with customers to promote loyalty and retention. Retention focuses on winning back customers who want to leave.

  • Effective contact strategies are important for CRM and retention programs. This includes cross-selling, up-selling, and predictive analytics to personalize interactions.

  • CRM systems help manage customer data and schedule interactions. Social CRM differs by leveraging social media channels.

  • Success factors for CRM/retention include personalization, segmentation/profiling, predictive analytics, loyalty programs, and integration across contact channels.

  • Case studies show how companies overcome legacy systems barriers through middleware solutions to begin digital transformations and strengthen CRM.

  • Embracing digital fully requires reviewing business models, as customer and competitive landscapes change with new digital services. Middleware can provide an incremental approach when full overhauls are not practical.

The key takeaway is that CRM and retention require an integrated, personalized approach across all contact channels to develop strong customer relationships and loyalty over time. Digital capabilities like predictive analytics and social media enable more effective CRM/retention strategies.

Here is a summary of key points about segmentation and profiles in Chapter 1:

  • Segmentation involves dividing customers into groups that are similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as demographics, behaviors, needs, etc. This allows companies to better understand and target different customer segments.

  • Customer profiles involve developing detailed information about individual customers or customer segments. This can include demographics, purchase history, preferences, needs, behaviors, etc.

  • Good segmentation and profiling helps companies personalize communications and offers. It provides insights to develop targeted messaging, content, products/services for each segment.

  • Data from various sources like customer transactions, surveys, website usage can be analyzed to develop customer segments and profiles.

  • Maintaining and updating customer profiles is important as customer needs, behaviors change over time. Profiles should be regularly reviewed and segmented groups refined as needed.

  • The goal is to better understand customers so the company can meet their unique needs and build stronger relationships through personalized interactions. This can improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and business performance.

  • Strategy worked with Cineworld, a major UK cinema chain, to review their email marketing program and maximize engagement/bookings.

  • They created a single customer view by merging visit and email data and segmented customers into groups based on factors like visit frequency and spend.

  • A six-stage email lifecycle program was developed to encourage loyalty and action at different customer journey stages.

  • The program allowed targeting customers at specific stages to prompt actions like increased awareness, sales, advocacy, win-back, or referrals.

  • The results were £350,000 in incremental revenue for Cineworld in the first eight months, showing how contact strategies can drive significant gains.

  • Common contact strategy elements include warm-up, follow-up, surprise/delight, reward, and win-back messages targeting loyalty and actions.

  • Cross-selling and up-selling target getting customers to buy additional products or upgrade for more revenue.

  • Predictive analytics like propensity models can predict customer behaviors like churn to introduce retention programs before customers leave.

  • CRM systems allow companies to centralize, manage and automate customer support, marketing campaigns, sales forces, and reporting on customer activity. Popular CRM platforms include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP, and Zoho.

  • Social CRM (SCRM) uses social media services and techniques to engage customers, such as managing customer service interactions on social media and analyzing customer sentiment through social conversations.

  • Collaborative filtering uses customer behavior data to segment customers and make personalized product recommendations, as done by Amazon, Netflix, and Apple.

  • Propensity modeling assesses the “next best action” or next conversation to have with a customer, such as offering discounts to save at-risk customers from leaving.

  • The “ladder of loyalty” describes the stages from suspect to advocate that customers progress through to become loyal, including suspect, prospect, customer, client, and advocate.

  • Loyalty programs aim to force loyalty and increase average sales by offering high perceived value rewards to regular customers through points, discounts, or other incentives. They must balance rewarding customers without overspending.

That covers the key summaries provided in the passage about CRM, retention strategies, social CRM, collaborative filtering, propensity modeling, loyalty ladders, and loyalty programs. Let me know if you need any part summarized or explained further.

  • The chapter discusses personalization in digital marketing, which is growing in importance as consumers expect more relevant and tailored experiences.

  • True personalization goes beyond just inserting basic contact details and involves either user-defined or behavioral personalization.

  • User-defined personalization allows customers to provide their interests, preferences, etc. directly. However, it relies on accurate self-reported data and not all customers may be willing to provide information.

  • Behavioral personalization learns from customers’ online behaviors and interactions to personalize without relying on self-reported data. It can observe browsing patterns, purchases, website activity, etc.

  • Having a single customer view that consolidates all customer data is important for effective personalization across channels.

  • Personalization is different from segmentation in that it aims to treat each individual customer uniquely rather than grouping them.

  • The chapter discusses the benefits of personalization for marketing but also some of the challenges in accurately collecting and using customer data.

The chapter discusses the ultimate goal of personalization in direct marketing - to understand customers and serve them relevant messages at the right time.

It talks about how big data allows for behavioral personalization, where a customer’s online behaviors can be tracked and used to personalize their experience in real-time. Examples given include offering deals to potential customers, personalizing email content/timing, and messaging customers in physical stores.

While powerful, the chapter notes behavioral personalization comes with challenges - data must be used strategically and assumptions from data need careful consideration. It also discusses privacy concerns from collecting large amounts of customer data.

The chapter emphasizes that user-defined and behavioral personalization should not be viewed as an either-or choice but used together situationally. It also stresses the importance of a single customer view to provide consistency across all customer touchpoints.

In summary, the key points are how personalization has evolved due to data and technology, but must be implemented carefully with the customer’s privacy and experience in mind at all times. Both behavioral data and directly collecting customer preferences are valuable to personalization.

  • Customer service and marketing are highly integrated, as customer satisfaction is a key marketing goal. The digital customer experience must support service and messaging goals.

  • Understanding customers through data, trends, and individual interactions is crucial for effective service. Trend analysis helps prioritize issues, while personalized service builds trust.

  • Responsiveness is incredibly important to today’s customers who expect near-instant responses via digital channels. Companies must structure processes to acknowledge and respond to customers quickly.

  • Transparency has become an expectation, as customers want more openness about business practices due to data scandals and the influence of startups. Being clear, open and honest builds trust with customers.

  • Measuring service performance is key to continuous improvement. Metrics should consider response times, resolution rates, customer satisfaction, and issue tracking to understand what’s working and where to focus efforts.

  • Consistent, knowledgeable agents across channels help customers get the right information at the right time to resolve issues quickly. Training and integrated systems support this.

The key themes are understanding customers, responding quickly and transparently, measuring performance, and empowering agents to provide excellent consistent service across channels. This builds trust and satisfaction in the digital world.

  • Ethical businesses should operate transparently and with honesty wherever possible. Hiding information from customers is likely to backfire now more than ever as information is widely available online.

  • When issues arise, they can quickly spread online through word of mouth and social media, potentially going viral. It is important for businesses to respond quickly and transparently to crises.

  • Toyota’s slow response to a vehicle recall in 2010, where they took too long to publicly comment, cost them $21 billion in lost market value and damaged trust in the brand.

  • Transparency and open communication have become more important for businesses dealing with customers and issues. A tone of empathy is also important in communications.

  • Consistency across customer touchpoints is vital to provide a good customer experience and avoid confusion. Integrating customer service with the broader business is also important.

  • For customer service to be effective, agents need appropriate knowledge about the business and products. Forcing customers through specific channels is not ideal - choice and relevance are important.

  • Businesses should actively provide online content, FAQs, guides etc. to help customers and reduce support inquiries, but this content needs to be kept fresh. Live chat can also be an effective digital support channel.

Here is a summary of the key points about the customer service representatives mentioned in the passage:

  • Live chat representatives need to have good product knowledge, access to a customer service system, and follow customer service principles like being helpful, friendly, and responsive.

  • Live chat allows agents to provide direct links to helpful product information instead of describing it over the phone. Agents can also consult colleagues without putting customers on hold.

  • Email customer service allows customers to communicate on their own time and provide supporting information, while also giving the company time to research and respond. Automated responses are important to manage expectations.

  • Forums can be useful for self-service, but require moderation to prevent inappropriate content and ensure the brand is represented positively. Company representatives should participate to provide guidance.

  • FAQs are an important resource to proactively address common questions and reduce customer concerns that may prevent sales. They need to be easy to find and logically organized.

  • Callbacks allow the company to control call volume but take control away from the customer, so timeframes given should be clear and commitments met.

So in summary, the key aspects are providing multiple contact channels, responding helpfully and promptly, having knowledgeable representatives, and utilizing self-service resources like FAQs to address issues proactively. Moderation and company participation are also important for community channels.

  • Co-browsing allows a customer service agent and customer to view the same web pages simultaneously. This helps the agent understand the customer’s needs and context, enabling a more personalized experience than phone or chat alone.

  • Co-browsing is especially useful when a conversation is proving difficult without visual context or when helping a user complete an action like a purchase. However, upselling should not be the primary goal.

  • Live communication channels like phone, chat and co-browsing have higher customer satisfaction ratings than asynchronous channels like email and self-service according to a 2011 study.

  • Social customer service faces challenges like maintaining quick response times to amplified complaints. United Airlines turned a lost golf clubs complaint into a positive PR opportunity through quick, empathetic response on Twitter.

  • Key customer service metrics include content engagement, hold times/abandonment rates, response times, first-contact resolution, and net promoter score (which measures likelihood to recommend). These measurements are important for evaluating digital customer service performance.

Here is a summary of the key points about content strategy:

  • Content marketing has been around for a long time but is now a hot topic in digital marketing. Content that was good 100 years ago is still good today, it’s just the delivery that has changed.

  • Content should be credible, shareable, useful or fun, interesting, relevant, different, and on-brand to be truly effective.

  • Credibility comes from expertise, facts, and authenticity. Shareability means others will want to spread it. Useful content solves problems while fun content entertains.

  • Interesting content is remarkable and worth spreading. Relevance means understanding the audience and their interests. Differentiation sets the content apart from others.

  • Everything should align with the company’s brand for cohesion. A strong content strategy considers the audience, metrics, distribution, and internationalization. People and processes need to be in place to consistently create engaging content.

  • The passage discusses how content strategy has resulted in amazing ideas but zero progress for some companies. This is because they forgot about their brand. It’s important for content to be aligned with and reinforce the brand.

  • It then provides definitions and examples of different types of content, noting that content can take many forms beyond just written articles.

  • When deciding which content types to use, companies should consider their target audience, where the audience is in the buying cycle, and using multiple types of content together for greater reach. Publishing on your own site alone is often not very effective.

  • Content marketing has become so popular due to changes in consumer behavior and Google’s focus on content. Consumers now research products online through various sources before deciding. Google also puts more emphasis on quality, engaging content in its rankings. Companies need to provide the right content in the right places to reach consumers at different stages.

Here is a summary of the key points about content strategy and processes from the passage:

  • Content marketing requires collaboration across departments like marketing, PR, SEO, development, etc. It needs to be led from the top like the CMO.

  • Companies like Adidas have created “digital newsrooms” staffed with content experts who can rapidly produce and publish content on breaking sports news and events.

  • Important processes for content include setting objectives and strategy aligned to business goals, analyzing audience data, generating content ideas, planning, creation and distribution.

  • Objectives may include brand awareness, changing perceptions, engagement, lead generation, transactions, and retention. Content can aim for brand engagement or demand generation.

  • Functional content serves an on-site purpose like product pages while engaging content is shared off-site to drive links, discussion and improve search performance.

  • Detailed audience analysis informs the content brief and strategy. Proper people, processes and collaboration across teams are needed to execute an effective content marketing program.

Here is a summary of the key points about analysis and target groups from the passage:

  • Perform analysis to inform your content approach, with the most important consideration being the target audience.

  • Review brand guidelines, competitor analysis, customer research (interviews, surveys), and your own analytics to understand the target audience and inform content.

  • Define target groups based on understanding their problems, where they are digitally active, and how they like to communicate. Different groups have different preferences.

  • Target groups don’t care about your brand - content must fill a need or solve a problem for them. Deep understanding of target groups is needed.

  • Customer research tools like Hitwise and GlobalWebIndex provide insights into where target audiences spend time online and how they like to consume content.

  • The goal is to articulate how your product or service solves problems for target audiences based on a deep understanding of their needs and behaviors.

So in summary, thorough audience analysis and definition of target groups is critical to inform content that will actually appeal to and solve problems for those audiences. A deep understanding of audiences is needed.

Here is a summary of key points about using content for digital marketing:

  • Paid content options like Google search ads, Outbrain/Taboola content distribution, Facebook/LinkedIn ads can help promote content and drive traffic. Social media requires paid promotion to reach wide audiences.

  • Content should be measured using various metrics like volume/reach, engagement, conversions/sales to understand what’s working. Common metrics include social shares/likes, webpage views, download rates, comments, leads/sales generated.

  • Both success and failure of content should be analyzed to improve strategy. Understanding content topics, channels, timing can provide insights.

  • International content requires consideration of local personas, platforms, cultural norms, legal issues, events to ensure relevance and appropriateness in different markets. Localization is important.

  • Conducting a content audit is critical to evaluate existing content and identify gaps/opportunities to inform new content development. A checklist helps guide the audit process.

  • Hertz Europe case study showed how developing a large volume of localized functional content plus creative campaigns drove significant booking and revenue growth through improved search visibility and brand reach.

Here are the key points about analytics and reporting from the passage:

  • Analytics and reporting are crucial parts of implementing and measuring the success of a digital marketing strategy. Without effective measurement, it’s impossible to know if the strategy is working or how to improve it.

  • There is a lot of data available from digital channels, referred to as “big data”. The challenge is strategically implementing reporting and analyzing the data to gain useful insights.

  • Data-based decisions have some limitations due to human factors. Humans are involved in setting up data collection, analyzing reports, and interpreting the data, so there is room for error.

  • Data sources may not always align perfectly due to different definitions, systems not integrating, etc. It’s important to understand what is being measured.

  • Key analytics tools mentioned include Google Analytics for website data and systems for other data like finances, sales, costs. Attribution modelling can help understand credit for conversions across channels.

  • Effective reporting communicates results clearly to stakeholders in a consistent way and tells the story of the digital strategy’s performance and how to adapt going forward.

So in summary, analytics and reporting are crucial to implement, measure and improve a digital marketing strategy, but require strategic use of data sources while being aware of their limitations.

Here is a summary of the key points about analytics:

  • Analytics refers to reporting tools that measure and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) for a website or digital marketing efforts.

  • The two main types are server-based analytics (using server log files) and tag-based analytics (using tracking code added to pages). Tag-based is now more common.

  • Server-based analytics provides better SEO data but tag-based allows more robust user behavior tracking and counts cached pages.

  • Google Analytics is the most popular tag-based tool due to its robust free features and data. Other major players include Adobe Analytics, Webtrends, and others.

  • Analytics provide important data like traffic sources, keywords, page views, conversions, demographics, devices used, and funnel/journey tracking.

  • Tools like Google Analytics are critical for any digital strategy to understand performance and inform decision making. Tag-based tools allow capturing novel data like Nissan did to understand vehicle preferences.

  • Selection of an analytics tool depends on needs and budget. Major tools generally provide the core metrics needed while premium versions offer more customization and data.

Social analytics tools are crucial for understanding how effective a company’s social media efforts are. They allow businesses to monitor key metrics on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and through social listening tools.

Some important metrics to track include engagement, reach, impressions, visits, click-through rate, conversion rate, and sentiment. Major social analytics platforms mentioned are Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, Brandwatch, and Radian6/Hootsuite.

These tools provide data on audience demographics, content performance, influencers, and conversations around a brand. This data helps companies understand what content and messages resonate best, and improve their social media strategy accordingly.

While follower count and social rank can look good, businesses should avoid over-focusing on superficial “vanity metrics” and prioritize metrics that indicate real user engagement and business outcomes. Overall, social analytics enables optimized social media strategies through data-driven insights into user behavior.

Here are the key points about SEO analytics from the summary:

  • SEO analytics tracks signals that determine organic search performance like backlinks, search visibility, site speed, rank tracking, etc. It provides visibility into SEO achievements and risks.

  • Specific SEO tools are needed to monitor these metrics since search engines do not fully disclose their algorithms. Combining different metrics gives a powerful view of overall SEO performance.

  • Major SEO analytics tools mentioned are Searchmetrics, Moz, CognitiveSEO, and Majestic which track various metrics like backlinks, content performance, rankings, etc.

  • Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) allows basic SEO submission and monitoring through site maps, crawl errors, etc.

  • SEO analytics helps focus SEO efforts by reporting how content/design changes impact performance. It provides data to gain investment by showing ROI of the SEO channel.

  • SEO analytics tools are important for digital marketers to understand SEO properly since it is often misunderstood due to opaque search engine algorithms.

In summary, SEO analytics tools provide visibility into key SEO metrics and signals to help optimize strategy, focus efforts, and demonstrate ROI from the organic search channel. Major players in this space were mentioned.

  • Tag management is a solution that empowers marketers to manage tags and the digital strategy independently. This frees up IT resources and allows marketing to be more agile.

  • Integration is important to ensure analytics tools work with existing systems to avoid data discrepancies. Privacy and compliance with regulations should also be considered.

  • Future-proofing is key - will tools scale with increasing traffic or data volumes over time? Changing tools later could disrupt data.

  • Reliability of the supplier is important - will they be in business long-term to support the solution? But innovative startups also offer opportunities.

  • Performance metrics like uptime guarantees are important to include in service level agreements.

  • Ownership of data needs to be clarified, as tag-based solutions may not give full ownership of user data.

  • Attribution modeling allows marketers to measure impact and value of different marketing channels and activities to inform budget allocation and avoid conflicts between channels. Rule-based is simpler but data-driven attribution provides a more accurate picture.

  • Strong reporting is needed to translate analytics data into insights and inform the digital strategy going forward.

  • A strong dashboard is necessary to report progress to stakeholders and see challenges. The dashboard needs to be tailored to stakeholders’ goals and objectives, which may require different versions.

  • There are two primary areas to consider when building reports: data and presentation. The data must be tailored to the audience and aligned with your strategy and goals. Regular reporting is important but quality should not be compromised for timescale.

  • Key metrics to include are how objectives are being met through comparisons to targets, historical data, and predictive analysis. Different comparisons like year-over-year have advantages and disadvantages.

  • Effective presentation is important. The report should tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. Use graphics and labels appropriately. Check reports thoroughly.

  • Understanding decision makers and gaining budget approval is important. Emphasize benefits to key channels and how they interact. Highlight website optimization. Consider further factors in your proposal and advocate for your strategy. The 6S framework can help structure the written plan.

  • Decision making processes depend on the individuals and organization’s culture. It could involve one sole decision maker, a group vote, or consultation across stakeholders. Understanding this “matrix of power” is important.

  • Models range from individual decision making to full group consensus. Factors like personality types (Myers-Briggs) and common biases can also influence decisions.

  • Proposals should address key criteria like logic, rewards, risks, execution capabilities, and competitive positioning.

  • Budget is crucial - the proposal must convince decision makers it’s a good use of resources. Principles include channel optimization, website optimization, leveraging free channels, and understanding budget cycles.

  • Resource allocation considers keeping skills in-house vs. agencies. Proposals should highlight specific benefits of each digital marketing channel, even ones with small budgets, to justify investment.

Here is a summary of the key points about search terms for the best possible cost per visit:

  • SEO strategies take time to implement and see results, but can generate significant traffic volumes at a relatively low cost per visit once optimized. It’s important to focus on rankings and visibility rather than direct costs.

  • Paid search offers high control over targeting and placement, allowing testing of keywords, audiences and messages. This enables optimizing costs per visit and acquisition.

  • Social media provides huge audiences that can be targeted demographically. Insights from platforms like Facebook help inform strategies. Viral success is unpredictable but more likely using social channels.

  • Display can build broad awareness but has low click-through rates. Its value is in attribution modeling that tracks full consumer journeys not just direct clicks.

  • Affiliate marketing delivers targeted traffic but requires lead validation and attractive affiliate terms. It provides traffic otherwise difficult to obtain.

  • Email has very low delivery costs and supports reactivation, referrals, cross-sell and retention. External lists require vetting but can yield strong returns on cost per acquisition.

  • Mobile growth is enormous globally and must be a strategy focus given its dominance in internet access trends.

So in summary, the focus is on optimizing organic rankings, digital advertising targeting, attribution modeling, and leveraging low-cost acquisition channels like email and affiliates to achieve the best possible cost per visit.

Here is a summary of the key points about global mobile device sales forecast by device from the provided topic:

  • Smartphones continue to be the largest and fastest growing category of mobile devices. Smartphone sales are forecast to rise from over 1.5 billion units in 2019 to over 1.8 billion by 2023.

  • Basic and feature phones are gradually declining as smartphones become more affordable and accessible globally. Basic and feature phone sales are expected to drop from over 800 million in 2019 to under 600 million by 2023.

  • Tablet sales have declined in recent years as consumers prefer the flexibility of large-screen smartphones over separate tablets. Tablet sales are projected to remain fairly flat around 180-190 million units annually through 2023.

  • Wearables like smartwatches and smart bands are a growing category driven by health/fitness tracking features. Wearables sales are predicted to increase from over 200 million units in 2019 to around 280 million units by 2023.

  • The Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, remains the largest market for mobile devices globally due to the huge user base and steep adoption rates of new technologies. North America and Western Europe are mature markets where growth is slower.

So in summary, the smartphone continues to dominate the mobile landscape, while tablets remain steady and wearables show most potential for future growth. Asia remains the key region driving overall mobile device sales.

  • Explain the benefits of any proposed website or digital investments clearly to decision makers. Provide examples of how competitors’ similar functionality has proven successful. Look for dominant models or processes that could save time and money developing custom solutions.

  • Build realistic financial projections under different scenarios to show how the approach could play out financially and obtain approval. Use the company’s own data and KPIs wherever possible.

  • Consider how proposed changes to a website’s “look and feel” may impact key metrics like load speed, usability, marketing effectiveness, customer insights, revenue per customer, etc. and address these points.

  • Ensure any design refresh is consistent with the company’s broader marketing to boost recognition and conversion across channels.

  • Address relevant trends, seasons, competitor strategies, customer behaviors, legal/compliance issues, technology availability and in-house vs external resource choices in the proposal.

  • Include testing elements to continuously improve and prove concepts, while appropriately managing decision makers’ expectations. Provide a thorough and data-driven rationale to gain approval and maximum benefit.

  • The proposal is addressing where to best invest resources and what the total cost will be for an outsourced marketing project.

  • Factors to consider include agency management fees, contract termination periods, potential savings on salaries/overheads, and flexibility of resourcing.

  • Table 15.1 lists the pros and cons of outsourcing to an agency, such as flexible scaling, expertise in marketing, negotiated media buying terms, vs less control, higher costs, and losing opportunities to build in-house capabilities.

  • The proposal should be structured using the 6S Framework - Synopsis, Scene Setting, Story, Sums, Steps, Surprise.

  • The Synopsis is an executive summary of key takeaways and recommendations.

  • Scene Setting provides background, objectives, assumptions, budget, and approach to frame the proposal.

  • The Story section showcases the plans and expertise to achieve the objectives.

  • Sums quantifies the costs and expected returns to demonstrate value.

  • Steps outlines the action plan, timelines and responsibilities for implementation.

  • Surprise prepares for potential questions or objections from decision makers.

Here is a summary of the key points about presenting a digital marketing strategy proposal:

  • Understand your objectives and ensure your proposal is aligned with what the decision-makers want to achieve. Know if they want growth, profit, brand value, reach, etc.

  • Research the decision-makers to understand their perspectives and decision-making styles. Tailor your proposal and presentation to their needs.

  • Be clear on the proposed digital marketing channels and benefits. Know all the details of each channel, how they work and interact, any website developments, etc.

  • Rigorously challenge and test your own proposal. Address any gaps, weak assumptions, or details that may be questioned.

  • Present the proposal as a compelling story, not just facts. Link points logically with summaries. Be confident yet address challenges anticipated.

  • Include key financial details like capital needed, revenue forecasts, profit projections, timelines, risks, etc. Back these up rigorously.

  • Prepare for challenging questions by knowing the material inside out. Have factual responses ready to any objections.

  • Consider how others can advocate for your proposal if needed. Ensure they understand the goal and present well.

The key is to understand decision-makers, have a clear and convincing proposal, address all potential challenges beforehand, and present compellingly to gain approval. Strong preparation is essential for success.

Here is a summary of the key points from the book:

  • A digital strategy must be integrated with the overall business strategy to be effective. Working in silos reduces effectiveness.

  • Marketing is becoming more integrated with other parts of the business like customer service. Consumers expect consistency across all touchpoints.

  • The book covers developing digital channels, user experience, analytics, and customer service. It also discusses strategic models and alignment with business goals.

  • An integrated strategy requires integrated teams working together to deliver results.

  • Both digital and offline marketing have roles to play. The focus is on making all channels work together synergistically.

  • It’s important to understand technology trends to future proof the strategy.

  • People are a key part of successfully implementing the strategy.

  • Following the principles in the book will help create a robust, supported, and future-proofed digital strategy aligned with business goals. An integrated approach considering all elements is important for success.

Here is a summary of the key points about metadata, Facebook, and mining from the provided text:

  • Metadata refers to data that provides information about other data. It can include things like author, date created, tags, etc.

  • Facebook gathers large amounts of metadata about its users through their activities on the platform like likes, shares, comments, and interactions. This metadata can then be mined or analyzed.

  • Facebook uses metadata and insights from its massive userbase to better target advertising and understand audience interests and behaviors. Metrics like engagement, demographics, and interests can be tracked.

  • The collection and analysis of user metadata is how Facebook is able to effectively deliver customized experiences and advertisements to its users. However, it also raises privacy concerns about how much personal data is being collected and used.

  • Metadata mining refers to the process of analyzing metadata to discover patterns, trends, and correlations for purposes like personalization, recommendations, and market research. Facebook engages in extensive metadata mining of its social graph.

  • The document provides an overview of digital marketing and key components of a digital strategy.

  • It covers contexts like aligning digital with business objectives, overcoming barriers, and planning an effective strategy.

  • Technical aspects like search engine optimization, paid search, display advertising, and social media are explained.

  • It also looks at user experience, customer relationship management, personalization, customer service, and content strategy.

  • Analytics, reporting, and presenting the digital strategy to stakeholders are additional topics covered.

  • The document aims to give readers an understanding of developing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy by outlining important concepts and considerations across various channels and functions.

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