This is a succinct guide for getting your digital marketing strategy right. Full of research to back up tips for data, mobile, video, programmatic and more. Written by the Head of Digital Marketing Advisory for TORI Global, Dominic Yacoubian.

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Getting Digital Marketing Right

2. Contents
• Introduction 03
• Mobile 05
• Video 06
• Programmatic 07
• Personalisation 08
• Data 09
• Summary 10
• TORI’s Key Pillars of Digital Marketing Success 11
• About the Author 12
• About TORI Global 13
2

3. Introduction
I increasingly hear that we should stop talking about digital because everything is digital, and how true that
is, digital is now the norm for how brands interact with their customers and audience. By 2020, 30 billion
devices will be wirelessly connected, supporting a global digital services market worth as much as the entire
UK economy1! However with the pace of change in digital it can sometimes be easy to forget that the digital
revolution is still in its early days.
What this does mean is that brands and advertisers alike must focus on that all important customer
experience… sounds like I’m stating the obvious? BUT can you honestly not recall a bad experience online
recently, or an experience where you were frustrated over how a brand you interact with regularly just didn’t
seem to know you?
Just like in the noughties when brands started waking up to the importance and indeed value of customer
service and started making efforts to improve it, it took quite some time, many years in fact and several
shamings of major brands by the likes of Watchdog before major changes were actually achieved (and much
of that was thanks to technology). We seem to be in the same place today with user experience (UX). For a
good few years now brands have been increasingly focussed on UX but few if any have found that UX
nirvana across the digital journey and not just at the individual touchpoints that too many still focus on.
With digital media consumption continually growing, and already representing nearly 50% of all media
consumption in the UK, consumers now vote with their browser and 25% of us will switch to the next best
choice in the blink of an eye2. Organisations will do well to recognise digital as a new basis of competition,
and determine what the “perfect marriage” of online and traditional is for their customers.
31 Gartner, Forecast: The Internet of Things, Worldwide, 2013
2 Research by Thunderhead and Populus 2015

4. Introduction
And nowhere is this more pertinent than in the digital marketing
strategy; how your brand is seen by your customers, your target
audience and your coveted future customer. With >71% of UK
consumers starting the path to purchase online1 and in financial
services over 55% of consumers doing their research using digital
channels2,
never has it been truer that Getting Digital Right is the Chief Marketing
Officer’s single biggest business opportunity; Simply put, know how
the consumer interacts anywhere and everywhere with your
brand and develop a strategy to improve it.
But I still see stats like:
• 53% of European businesses have no enterprise-wide digital
strategy3
• 38% of organisations set digital marketing strategies in silos3
• 41% of organisations have yet to centralize brand strategy
planning3
And it goes on……
Excellence in digital marketing, from search engine optimisation to
using great design to achieve outstanding and memorable user
experiences to personalisation, will reap the reward for those
businesses selling products or services online and build brand loyalty.
4
1 GI Insight
2 McKinsey consumer research 2016
3 Millward Brown Digital “Getting Digital Right” study

5. Mobile
In 2015 e-commerce transactions among digital retailers in the UK
accounted for 45.6% of total ecommerce transactions1.
According to eMarketer predications, there will be 43.6 million
smartphone users in 2017 with the UK ranking third highest globally
for smartphone penetration at 81% and tablet penetration in the UK
reaching nearly 70%.
According to Zenith Optimedia 71% of UK internet is now mobile.
Mobile shopping in the UK is big! In 2017 there will be more than 40
million mobile shoppers representing some 89% of all digital
shoppers, with 29% saying they pay for things via a mobile device “a
few times a week”, this will only continue to grow.
Data from Deloitte forecast that in 2016, mobile influenced $689bn in
US in-store sales, up from just $158bn in 2012 – a compound annual
growth rate of 45%.
More than 80% of agencies and advertisers expect to increase mobile
marketing budgets in the next 12 months2 and over 72% of UK
agencies and marketers surveyed said they already used location-
based mobile marketing of some kind, and a further 21.3% planned to
do so3.
5
1 Q4 2015 data from Criteo
2 Publicitas Marketing Priorities 2016
3 Pinpoint research April 2016

6. Video
Video advertising platforms and technologies erupted in 2016 and will
certainly continue at pace for the coming years. Advertisers are
spending more on video advertising, more than $10m annually,
representing 85% growth 2014 to 20161. This is faster growth than
any other form of digital advertising so video should certainly not be
overlooked.
With more and more consumers moving to video media consumption,
71% of UK users consume video content on four or more devices
compared to 0.1% on a single device, there is no better way for
brands to connect with their audience in a meaningful way, if done
unobtrusively. For instance, in-article video ads drove purchase intent
27% higher than skippable preroll ads or video ads in social feeds!
But it is important to define the ROI objective for video campaign
measure and, if viewable video impressions (viewability) are
important, understand clearly what that means for your video tech
provider, as it varies considerably! Last year view through rate (where
viewers watch the entire ad) beat viewability, increasing from 53% in
H1 to 62% in Q32. In the same period viewability became the main
campaign objective for just 5% of campaigns2.
In 2016 mobile outperformed desktop for video ads in viewability with
73% compared to 64% respectively.
61 2016 IAB Video Ad Spend Survey
2 Videology analyses
Source: 2016 IAB Video Ad Spend Survey

7. Programmatic
Programmatic has had a bad time of it and still leaves a bad taste for many marketers. Programmatic has a
reputation for being just cheap unsold inventory, which is far from the case if done correctly. Think of
programmatic as simply a bit of tech that enables an automated way of buying inventory, whether directly
from the media owner or via auction. The technology has transformed the industry, making
media buying faster, more efficient and more effective.
With more than 73% of display advertising now transacted programmatically and expected to reach 82% by
next year1, it is clear marketers are starting to get it, it’s all about audience over environment. Programmatic
technology uses data driven algorithmic buying to find the audience, rather than just putting advertising on a
specific media.
Think of it in these simple terms; a fashion brand knows their target audience is a female, aged 18-34, AB1,
interested in Fashion and News and a prolific mobile user. The perfect media for the brands target might be
ELLE or Vogue, which is great. But those same users probably visit 10’s if not 100’s of other sites. So, what if,
instead of investing the budget with specific media, you were able to place your ad across 100’s of selected,
brand safe sites looking for that specific audience, think of how that could improve your results!
In fact this data driven technology has proven so successful it is now being applied to other marketing
methods such as TV, out of home and even print.
71 eMarketer Programmatic Ad Spending Forecast September 2016

8. Personalisation
Personalisation has proven its value to marketers across all digital
marketing, and personalised email influenced 40.2% of UK internet
users to click through for further information in 2016; it was the
strongest single influence on the clickthrough rate (CTR), surpassing
the design or timing of the mail, for example1.
Three-quarters of UK marketers polled by the Institute of Direct and
Digital Marketing (IDM) in August 2016 agreed that personalisation led
to higher email CTRs, and 82% reported a higher email open rate.
More than half of respondents noted an increase in sales and customer
satisfaction, as well. Only 1% of these marketers said they didn’t
believe personalising emails brought any benefits. Moreover, just 4%
said personalising emails was not effective.
Personalising email communications increases appeal to your
audience and by doing so increases brand appeal for the advertising
brand.
It is very likely that 2017 will see increased quality in email with
increased level of personalisation as more brands recognise the value
of personalisation, and mobile will be a preferred platform.
Good email marketing is critical to the overall marketing strategy to
increase brand appeal and indeed conversions.
81 Mailjet study July 2016

9. Data
Data underpins much of what this paper talks about from customising
the user journey to personalising marketing communications, to
understanding that perfect marriage of online and traditional for the
customer. How else can we deliver the right message to the right
person at the right time?
Most companies think they already know their customer but I can’t
count the number of clients that thought their customer was a certain
demographic only to be astounded by the post campaign conversion
data.
56% of US & UK marketers feel that bad data has had a negative
impact on their organisation, led to loss of sales opportunities and
increased inefficiency within the overall strategy1. This leads to a
situation where, whilst organisations have come to rely on data driven
decision making, is that decision making accurate or is it creating
unwanted outcomes?
Most, in fact 70% of marketers believe the best tactic is to utilise
outsourced resources to improve their data strategies and results1.
Whatever method you chose, getting your data strategy right is critical
to overall effectiveness and ultimately success.
91 Research by Loudhouse published by Experian Data July 2016
2 Ascend2 survey November 2015

10. Summary
This paper just touches on the main elements of digital marketing with
each having so many more layers. There are also many other options
and martech available with new tech appearing almost daily, this
document could go on forever, or at the very least a very, very long
time. So if you’d like to learn more please contact the author.
A successful digital marketing strategy will encompass perhaps all of
those discussed here, or perhaps some of them, or it will include these
and many others. The important thing is the digital marketing strategy
is not set in a silo, there needs to be information sharing and planning
across marketing teams to create an effective, cohesive and connected
marketing strategy across all customer touchpoints in the path to
purchase.
Basic marketing principles remain; developing a cohesive & effective
strategy and understanding the customer, these are not new, but
achieving them in the ever evolving world that is digital adds new
challenges for todays marketer.
Getting Digital Right is the Chief Marketing Officer’s single biggest
business opportunity. In fact I could argue that the single best
opportunity to grow great brands is getting digital right.
Where the audience goes marketers must will follow;
Don’t get caught by The Innovator's Dilemma! 10
Happy
customers
& positive
ROI
Execute the
customer
acquisition &
retention strategy
Define the customer
Journey and achieve
outstanding customer
experience
Understand the customer, what is the
target audience, understand the
customers requirement

11. Key pillars
11
Technology
Marketers continue to face
challenges when it comes to
using marketing technology. Yet
technology underpins digital
success. TORI can help de-
mystify the adtech helping you
set a strategy that utilises the
most useful and relevant tech
for your organisation
Performance
Getting a marketing strategy
right can increase ROI by as
much as 49% and should drive
real measurable results. TORI
can guide you through all the
steps to achieve maximum
performance from your digital
marketing spend
Data
Data is the key component to
ensure your strategy reaches
the right audience, at the right
time with the right message.
Execution of the data strategy
can be the difference between
success & failure in your
customer centric marketing
strategy
Media planning & selection
Appropriate media is essential
to the digital strategy and we
have unsurpassed global media
experience to ensure
campaigns are matched to the
correctly with every campaign
targeted to your desired
audience
Innovation
Engaging and immersing your
audience in your marketing can
increase brand appeal &
purchase intent by as much as
88%! People are time pressured
in today’s digital world, and as
attention spans decline,
marketers have less time to
influence
Customer experience
At TORI we know customer
experience is at the heart of
digital and we start all digital
activity with the customer
journey, creating interactive &
engaging campaigns, relevant
to your audience that drive real
ROI
Simply put, know how the consumer interacts anywhere and everywhere with your brand and develop a
strategy to improve it

12. About the author
12
Dominic is a consultant in TORI’s digital practice and heads up the
Digital Marketing Advisory.
A technology and digital native with more than 25 years’ experience in
business and the application of digital technology to support business
strategy, Dominic has helped deliver digital products, e-business
solutions and digital marketing strategies for a number of household
brands including Debenhams, Sainsburys, The NHS, Toys R Us,
Robert Dyas and Blockbuster as well as launching many successful
start-ups, including pureplay internet retailer 247 Electrical, Vendari
Ltd, the basis of global voucher and coupon portals such as
mycouponcomparison.com and vouchercomparison.com, and Purify
Digital, a leading global performance mobile & digital marketing
business with an impressive and prestigious client and digital product
portfolio.
As Head of Digital EMEA for Publicitas, the world’s leading
international media and advertising services companies, Dominic drove
and led the complete global change of Publicitas to a dynamic and
responsive digital media consultancy, creating innovative digital
solutions, constantly developing and innovating the Publicitas digital
roadmap to stay ahead of the evolving digital landscape.
Dominic Yacoubian
Contact:
Dominic.Yacoubian@ToriGlobal.com

13. About the author
13
It takes courage to embrace change and transform
your business.
We know. We’ve been there.
That’s why we set up TORI Global.
To be a credible alternative to the ‘big four’ within
Financial Services – by putting real industry
experience at the heart of consultancy. So you get
the best independent advice, global expertise and
smart technology for the success you deserve.
TORI Global was formed in 2002 by C-Level
executives and is dedicated to the proposition that
delivering successful outcomes for our customers
relies on building successful partnerships and
successful partnerships are founded upon the values
of Trust, Openness, Respect and Integrity.
TORI has no external investors and we believe this
brings increased integrity and personal commitment
to our client engagements.
experience. the difference.