12 tests to review how well digital marketing is managed in an organisation - a presentation hosted by the Chartered Management Institute at Liverpool John Moores University
I was invited to give this talk by Gillian Cosser, principal at the CIM Liverpool Study Centre, so we also had many CIM members at the event too.
In the presentation I looked at approaches to managing digital marketing successfully by applying 12 tests to review how a business is managing marketing now and how it can improve it.
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A practical guide to help you manage your website more effectively
Web Governance is the discipline that describes how to manage a website in a controlled and orderly way. Until quite recently few online professionals were interested in Governance. There were too many other problems that needed fixing first, like poor design and content. But not any more!
A new generation of Executives for whom the web is neither cool nor cryptic are lifting the lid on operations and discovering teams that are poorly structured and under-resourced. What is the answer? To set things right, they need a practical Framework upon which to build a revised system of Web Governance.
In this article we’ll explore a new model that explains in clear language how Governance works and a first step towards changing it for the better which can be applied to companies of different sizes.
A new system of Web Governance
At its most basic, governance…
Which media give the best clickthrough rates?
I shared this engaging call-to-action on our Pinterest last week. Since size of a call-to-action has an impact on response rates, you would certainly expect this to perform well, although other factors may be at work here...
There was an interesting discussion on Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter about this, thanks if you took part or shared. This tweet was my favourite summary:
HUGE call-to-action, no reason to scan, no brand message = Epic Marketing FAIL (who drives & scans?) ow.ly/ed7U6 via @smartinsights
— Linsay Duncan (@LinsayDuncan) October 4, 2012
Most labelled it “dumb” since lone drivers aren’t going to scan while driving and even passengers would need to be quick on the draw with their scanners.
In terms of communications effectiveness, while you can’t miss the call-to-action, there…
The 'DARC' framework can help companies in selecting staff with the right digital skills
The rise in digital marketing has created a wealth of opportunities and at the same time, removed barriers to entry to a number of sectors where a start-up, sole trader or large corporation is now competing with one another globally. Smart Insights recently reported on a survey showing the digital marketing skills that employers are looking for, yet many of these skills aren't widely taught at college or university.
For an example of a sector with increasing need for digital marketing, take online retailing: A recent article from Internet Retailing reported that in the UK, shoppers spent £5.8bn online in March, a rise of 14% compared to the same time last year and this is within the retail sector, a sector that has taken a pounding within the current economic climate, witnessed by the …
Part 3 of "Life's a Pitch"
In previous posts in this series I wrote about my experiences of managing the agency to client pitch process and writing a creative brief. In the final part of the series I look at issues to consider when selecting the preferred agency.
It is not uncommon for clients to go about the pitch process in a less than ideal way, with problematic outcomes including having to ask agencies to re-pitch, or even not choosing any agencies.
Like many, I have experienced such issues on a number of occasions. A recent example of this would be with a cosmetic surgery brand, who invited us to a 3-way pitch, for their new hair transplant business.
We thought we'd done a good job; were told it was “the best agency pitch I’ve seen in 30 years” etc and then we waited… And we waited… And we waited… After 2 weeks…
An infographic showing how to plan and manage inbound marketing
I'm a big fan of the inbound marketing model, sometimes incorrectly referred to by the narrower marketing activities of content marketing or social media marketing. Inbound incorporates both content and social media marketing and more.
Although there is a lot of advice available on best practice on inbound marketing activities, there isn't so much on how to manage it, so I liked this infographic from a US agency. I think it's a pretty good stab at the describing the end-to-end process.
It's a different take on the inbound marketing process to our inbound marketing funnel we published in February. It does miss a number of key activities (namely the importance of creative, a 'big idea' and outreach) by the nature of simplifying process for an infographic, yet crucially communicates the importance of leads and sales (step 4…
Smoothing the way to digital enlightenment
Working in digital marketing is without doubt one of the most rewarding ways in which you can spend your days. The rate at which new products and services are churned out means that apart from having to spend a large part of your working week just keeping up, the new and emerging trends and strategies mean you can never rest on your laurels.
That being said working as a freelancer in digital marketing doesn’t come without its share of problems, after all why should we be any different from the rest of the world. Simply getting across the importance of an online strategy is the start of the journey with any new client and following a process that makes it easy for others can be a challenge, but one that’s ultimately worth taking.
A rocky road
In my…
"Need-to-know" changes in July 2012
In this “fat-free” round-up we update you to what we see as the biggest changes from the last month in the world of digital marketing. You’ll certainly know some, if not most already, but we hope it will be worth scanning to see whether you missed anything which could affect the way you approach marketing in future.
These alerts are mainly changes on the platforms like Facebook and Google which are so important to digital marketing, but we also include a selection of our most popular briefings on best practice in managing and planning marketing.
I thought the biggest news this month was the announcement of availability of Google Glass and the new gestural interfaces we cover in the UX section below. Is this what we'll be seeing out of our window this time next year?
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Recommendations on managing today's media in a new report from the Altimeter Group
Altimeter's new report, "The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands Must Combine Paid, Owned and Earned Media" by Rebecca Lieb and Jeremiah Owyang is very good read. I'll summarise it with this quote highlighting three obvious and simple words that will not do the report justice:
"Ensure that you break down silos between traditional (paid), digital and earned media."
Don't let that summary put you off, since being comfortable with it doesn't mean you're doing it or even motivated to do it, nor that your marketing partners or agencies are ready to help you do it either...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/altimetergroup/7585322178/
Organise around the customer experience
The report speaks to marketers and their agency partners - urging that they must converge their media efforts by combining social, corporate content, and advertising reach – or risk a lack of connection with the fleeting customer. It's true since whilst consumers don't distinguish…
Setting yourself and your marketing presentations apart using five steps and one change in behaviour
According to some estimates, between 30 and 40 million PowerPoint presentations are created each day. If each presentation averages 35 slides, simple math tells us that enough slides are produced to provide every man, woman and child on the planet with a new slide each week.
But of those millions of presentations delivered each day, how many are effective? How many provide information of value to the audience, making the presentation a good use of their time?
The state of the presentation art
During the past 20 years at my workshops and seminars, I have asked more than twenty thousand people to raise their hands to each of the following statements in turn:
Raise your hand if most of the business presentations you’ve attended in the past few years have made extensive use of visual aids.
Raise your hand again if…
