Connect with your customer on a deeper level and develop a successful marketing strategy that will lead to revenue growth and profit.
Kevin Getch, Founder + Director of Digital Strategy at Webfor is going to show you how to develop a customer centric digital strategy using a simple framework. He'll also share a visual that has helped him get buy-in from 100's of key decision makers and explain how this all will help your company take advantage of the biggest fundamental shift in marketing.
The only constant in digital marketing is change and with the exhaustive list of channels, tactics, platforms, tools & techniques, trying to go into battle without a plan is a death wish. Yet, so many businesses are doing this every day. Are you leaving money on the table?
17. A Simple Framework
for Developing a
Customer Centric
Digital Marketing
Strategy
How to Get Buy In
The Biggest
Fundamental Shift In
Marketing
@KevinGetch #SIC16
18. Customer Centric
digital marketing strategy:
A strategic plan revolving around your
customer designed to achieve a major
business objective through marketing and
measurement initiatives.
@KevinGetch #SIC16
28. Persona:
A detailed portrayal of your ideal
customer, including demographics,
psychographics & story.
@KevinGetch #SIC16
29. Julia Snider Story: Dem & Psych
Age: 27
Occupation: Paralegal
Education: Lewis & Clark Law School
Platforms: Mobile, Desktop Second
Com Pref: Text & Email
Hobbies: Traveling, Yoga, Hiking
Brand Aff: Lush, Amazon, Southwest
Julia is nearing the end of her college program and is recently engaged. She plans on marrying her
partner of 6 years sometime in the Summer of 2017. She plans on having a child within the next
two years and is seeking an OBG/YN doctor whom can consult with her.
While she is excited about being a first time mother, she’s extremely concerned about impacts to
her health, her safety and the safety of an unborn child during a pregnancy.
She considers herself a very private person whom has a hard time trusting her personal health
with new people.
@KevinGetch #SIC16
41. Customer Journey:
@KevinGetch #SIC16
A representation of what a person or group
of people is feeling, thinking & doing as
they interact across multiple channels and
move through different stages of the
buying process.
56. Your Customer is at the Center of
Your Marketing Strategy
Endorsers - (Media, Influencers,
Customers, Peers, Vendors, etc.)
Community
@KevinGetch #SIC16
63. “The goal of all of these companies is to
become the best personal assistant you’ve
ever had and in large part to provide
personalized information and ads proactively
before a user even makes a request. This
represents a fundamental shift in the way we
think about mobile marketing.”
@KevinGetch #SIC16
66. "We want to
proactivelybring
you answers"
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8677147/google-now-on-tap-announced
~ Aparna Chennapragada
Director of Product at Google
@KevinGetch #SIC16
67. … a "major new iOS initiative" that
goes by the codename Proactive …
a personal assistant that's far
smarter than Siri's current
incarnation.
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/27/8671457/apple-proactive-google-now-ios-9
@KevinGetch #SIC16
71. SAVE $75 with Discount Code: SIC2016
@KevinGetch #SIC16
72. Kevin Getch
Founder + Director of Digital Strategy
kevin@webfor.com
webfor.com/strategy
Thanks!
@KevinGetch #SIC16
Notes de l'éditeur
So, let’s talk about the way most businesses currently do their marketing…
First, I think it’s important to know that as a Kid I could do one heck of an Incredible Hulk impression :)
Now, I know what you’re thinking… I haven’t always been this good looking.
Like I’m sure you did… I went through my phases…
In High school I went through a Goth phase… The key to being goth is not to smile… Which that didn’t work for me long…
Then I went through another phase…
I call this the cute, cuddly and kinda creepy phase…
I’m not sure which one was worse…
But, you’ll be happy to know… that I outgrew that too…
Met an amazing woman and have two smart and off the charts awesome kiddos…
They wanted to say Hi…
And here’s my work family…
I started my own business because I was going to work everyday (at my previous job) and it just ate away at me inside. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything good for our clients and I knew I could do better.
I started this business because I love the entrepreneurial spirit… I love entrepreneurs. I love it when people challenge themselves to grow, get out of their comfort zone, become better…. To chase their dreams
One of the key concepts my mother taught me was the Ripple Effect. That everything we do everyday has a ripple effect. Everyday we are already changing the world… whether we like it or not. The question is… are you making it better?
For every new team member we bring on I sit down with them and go over the responsibility that we take on when we bring on a client and how the actions we take can have a positive effect on their business, their clients, their employees, the families of their employees, the community, etc. and the ripple effect concept.
One of the ways I can have the biggest ripple effect is by helping great businesses. So… I’m sure you can understand why I get frustrated… when so many businesses get in their own way… I mean
Stilll...
A little social… a little SEO… And… YEAH….Run.
And then we come in to clean up the mess…
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a risk taker. I mean…
I’ve jumped out of a perfectly good plane…
Competed in a full contact fighting competitions… and WON!
I jumped off this cliff in Maui… And that wasn’t the hard part.. The hard part was jumping back up!!!
I mean… I even quit my 6 figure job to start my own business in the worst part of the economy ever… So, I’m not afraid of taking risks…
but if you’re going to take a risk there should be some planning right. I mean it’s not just you… it’s your family, your employees and their families livelihoods on the line.
Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.
This is what No Strategy Looks like….
Over and over I see businesses with No Strategy…
It hurts…. When you have No Strategy
I’m anchoring all of you… so that when you heart No Strategy…
You associate this pain with it
Yet… when I meet with businesses and ask if they have a customer centric marketing strategy… 99% of them look at me like…
So, what I’m saying is…
I’m going to share three things with you that will help you make a positive ripple effect in your organization.
A simple framework for developing a customer centric digital marketing strategy
A powerful visualization to help you get buy in from executives or your clients
We’re about to go through the largest fundamental shift in digital marketing.
What a customer centric digital marketing strategy is and why you need one
Provide a simple strategy framework to develop your customer centric strategy
Show you how a powerful visualization that has been extremely helpful to me in explaining and getting buy in from executives.
A worksheet download?
5WH is a simple framework. One that’s been being used for years. I’m just applying it to the development of customer centric digital marketing strategy.
Some may think it’s too simple…. But that is where the beauty lies in taking something complex and making it appear simple.
This helps get buy in, it helps with execution and all and all it helps you be more successful.
I’m assuming your business has an established Purpose, Vision, Values, etc. ….
5WH technique has been being utilized for years. I just applied it to the development of a customer centric digital strategy.
Caveats and disclaimers…
I have not laid out all of the questions you will need to ask. Each business is different and your business and goals may require different questions than another businesses.
Who is our ideal customer?
Who are we trying to target?
Customers? A specific segment of customers? Employees? Shareholders? etc.
Two critical tactics to putting yourself in your customer's shoes are… building personas and mapping your customer's journey.
Well maybe not that close
When creating your customer personas you should provide a detailed portrayal of your ideal customer, including demographics, psychographics & story. It can be true, partially true or based on information gathered from research.
Start by seeing what demographic and psychographic information you have on your customers.
This is an example of a persona.
So, how do you get the information to build your persona(s)?
Remember the acronym F.U.D.D. so that you can get to understand your customers Fears, Uncertainties, Desires & Decision Making.
Probably the most valuable thing you can do is customer interviews…
Prepare your questions carefully, but don’t be afraid to go off script too.
Utilize Facebooks Audience Insights tool to really narrow in once you know some base demographic psychographic information.
Better yet install the Facebook tracking pixel and create a custom audience titled “Website Visitors” - this will give you all kinds of great data and even if you’re not going to remarket to these people right away… it’s still great to put into place.
Of course there is tons of information in Google Analytics.
If you have Universal Analytics installed you can check the Affinity categories of your website visitors.
What other other products/services might they be shopping for near the same time as they are shopping for your product?
If you’re in B2B this is a great tool to give you a little insight into the personality of your customer.
It uses the DISC personality assessment along with information available about your customer to develop a profile… and it’s eerily accurate!
PollFish is another option - cheaper - but it doesn’t give you the ability to regine down to a local state like say Seattle. You can select country though so if that’s not important is is probably half as much.
Surveying your customers can be extremely helpful, but don’t let it replace actual individual customer interviews.
Now, if you haven’t been building your list (like you’re supposed to)… Or if you have no customer base you can also use a tool like survey monkey to for market/audience research. They have millions of people and you can choose people with specific demographic traits to ask your questions to.
Besides being able to access all of the most recent census information online which does provide a lot of valuable information… Nielsen has created what they call the Nielsen PRISM which is a system that categorizes U.S. consumers into 14 distinct groups and 66 demographically and behaviorally distinct types, or "segments," to help marketers better understand those consumers’ likes, dislikes, lifestyles and purchase behaviors.
You can write down this url if you want, but it is also available at the url I gave you at the beginning of the presentation. I’ll show it once again prior to the end as well.
Besides being able to browse these different profile types for inspiration you can also pop in a zip code and see the list of these profiles that are more prevalent in that zip code.
This is especially important for brick and mortar stores or anyone that draws their clients from the local area.
So, now you know thyself… and you also know thine peeps.
So, what is the next W in the 5 W’s……. What?
Another tool you can use whether you have a customer base or not is demographicspro.com
It provides Demographic & psychographic information like…
Through your data collection and your thought process you want to ask yourself, what is our potential customer feeling, thinking & doing in this moment. Are there barriers to them purchasing? Is the messaging clear? Do they understand the value? Are there technical issues in the way? Are we showing up in different channels? Does our site architecture support a good UX? Etc.
Rebekah Cancino shared this slide at MozCon… and….
An all too often missed… and the most important part of the marketing funnel… is once they become a customer…
The goal of every business should not be to just get more customers, but to get more brand champions. These are customers that bring you more customers.
In this study done by BrightLocal… they surveyed consumers who would use a business based on their star rating.
Having No Strategy… doesn’t only hurt… it’s expensive too! VERY EXPENSIVE!
Getfivestars.com
Simon Sinek said this… but I thought it sounded better coming from Samuel Jackson (AKA Nick Fury)
Today we're focusing on the "Who" portion of the strategy...
But, I'm not going to leave you hanging. You can download this Customer Centric Digital Strategy Worksheet that will walk you through the rest. I will also be releasing videos of each section in the future which I will share with you if you download this.
Transition:
One of the biggest challenges I hear from my in-house friends, other agencies and marketing managers is getting buy in.
I wanted to share with you a couple tactics that, over the years, have helped me get buy in from the C levels or Clients.
It’s important to understand that you both have the same goal (you want to grow the company's revenue), but you’re often speaking different languages.
I am going to show you 3 simple steps to get buy in:
Use Analogies…
Address the 3 I’s - Issue, Impact, Importance
Project the 4 C’s - Competent, Credible, Current & Caring
Use visuals
First, the whole time you’re talking to your client or boss… I want you to envision them like this…
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!
You have to talk in terms of revenue, CLTV, profit, Cost per Acquisition, Market Share, Leverage, etc. - You need to speak their language.
If we’re just heading out to grab some lunch with a small group of people we probably don’t need to do much planning. However, if we’re taking all 300 employees out to lunch we would need to do more planning right?
If we wanted to head into space and travel to this solar system (x light years away) the planning we do upfront… before we go will determine if we get off the ground and whether we end up at our destination or in a black hole.
You need to make sure they understand how not having a strategy is leaving money on the table… how a strategy will save money and help increase revenue.
Imagine your clients or C levels doing this..
Clearly define the issue (We have no Strategy, We have little presence in search, etc.), what impact that has on your organization (talking in terms of revenue, CLTV, CPA, etc.) and the importance (priority) of addressing it.
3 i’s
Issue = Currently our website and content has only minimal presence when people are searching for related phrases on search engines.
Impact = I’m estimating the buying decisions in our industry that are influenced by search engines to be conservatively $430 Million a year. If we were able to capture .05% of this revenue we’d be looking at over 2 Million in additional revenue per year.
Importance = Currently this is the largest untapped market with the highest return on investment for us to go after.
Just so you know, your managers don’t really love it when you come to them with issues. Even the ones who are forward thinking and see these as opportunities. What they prefer is that if you come to them with an issue you have a recommendation/solution to address it.
Solution = I’ve developed a preliminary plan to further explore capitalizing on this opportunity and would like to review that with you this week.
Credible
Competent
Current
Caring
That old saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words” has endured for a good reason… we are visual people and images and visuals can often paint a picture that mere words cannot.
I want to share a simple, but powerful visualization that has helped me to get buy in from CEO’s, CFO’s, VP’s, Directors of Marketing, etc.
I’ve been using this for over 7 years and this is the first time I’ve shared it with a big group (so be gentle).
I usually draw this out… starting by explaining that their customer should be at the center of their strategy…
Creating a marketing strategy is a complex and time consuming process.
I take this and look at how consumers interact… what their behavior is and what their intent is at that point… what is going to have the highest return on investment… and how are these going to work together to be more effective…
Overlap benefit of SEO & Social:
Both assist in the conversion funnel (Social is generally more often social proofing and plays a supporting role. Thought some businesses Social is their primary means of conversions.)
One of the top factors for SEO is the quality & quantity of links to your website/properties. Social can help play a big role with this via multiple methods:
Utilizing Social to find influencers in the industry
How are we going to capitalize on these benefits… and increase our revenue and CLTV while lowering our CPA if our teams are in silos… and they don’t have some alignment.
Our teams need to understand why what they are doing is important and why it is so critical to work together.
Transition:
Now, that I’ve shown you how to develop a customer centric marketing strategy and a few tactics to help you get buy in… I want to turn your vision to the future… to highlight why having a customer centric digital strategy right now.
Let’s talk a little about what the future of digital marketing holds.
You don’t need a crystal ball to see where we’re headed, you just need some common sense and a strong understanding of human behavior.
As you know our industry is constantly changing… that’s one of the reasons having a customer centric strategy is so important. Having a customer centric marketing strategy allows you to focus in the midst of the storm of change and not be distracted by shiny new toys or tactics..
I want to let you know that I believe we’re on the precipice of the biggest fundamental shift in digital marketing and how we’ve been interacting with digital media.
The personal computer was a big disruptive trend in the 1970’s and then in the late 1980’s the Web was ground breaking.
Then in the last 10 years it has been the age of mobile. Well now we are about to go through another major shift. The shift to AI.
I wrote an article back in 2015… talking about future trends of digital marketing and where I saw that going… and I shared the concept of the…
The personal computer was introduced in the early 1970’s
Then in 1989 the World Wide Web was created.
Then in the mid 90’s the smartphone was introduced and it really took off near the end of …. 2000’s
Now, we are at the start of the AI revolution…
This year specifically there have been major advancements in technology… Google’s Deepmind AI beat a legendary Go champion for the first time in history.
Shared the concept of the 3 P’s… these stand for Personalized, Predictive & Proactive.
We’ve seen personalization advance quite a bit and expect it to continue to grow…
Predictive is huge… predictive lead scoring, predicting consumer behavior, RankBrain is predicting search intent…
The biggest fundamental shift… is the “Proactive” part... Let me explain
Mashable was asking about the future trends in mobile and I shared some of my thoughts on Google, Apple, Facebook, etc…. And was lucky enough to get quoted…
Here’s what I said…
“The goal of all of these companies is to become the best personal assistant you’ve ever had and in large part to provide personalized information and ads proactively before a user even makes a request. This represents a fundamental shift in the way we think about mobile marketing.”
-------
And they were asking about the future of mobile… Now what I’m talking about applies to more than just mobile. Regardless I got on Mashable… SWEET.
If you want to know where the future is going look at some of the largest players and see where they are investing their time and money… what companies are they buying… who are they hiring, etc.
The combination of investments in NLP (Natural Language Processing), Machine Learning, Deep Learning & AI is making these companies poised to bring this guy to you..
Did anybody watch the #madebygoogle event where they demoed Google Home? Google Assistant is built right in.
Now of course… This is bigger than mobile in that it won’t be limited to just mobile… with the rise of the Internet of Things… Your personal assistant will be able to (if you give it permission) listen and assist you across devices from your smartwatch to your laptop, your TV your car and other enabled home devices.
The digital personal assistant is groundbreaking in it’s own right, but the fundamental shift I’m talking about is not just the personal assistant…
The shift I’m referring to is when this personal assistant goes from a “reactive” state to a “proactive” state.
This is what I imagine my personal assistant will look like… living inside all of my devices... constantly working.. Never sleeping (hence the coffee)
I call him Jarvis (for obvious reasons)....
What do I mean by going from a reactive to a proactive state?
Well, currently we have to swipe, click a button or make a voice command to set a reminder or …. In the not too distant future… here is a conversation I see myself having with Jarvis.
While having my morning coffee :)
Of course Apple created… a “major new iOS initiative” that goes by the codename PROACTIVE… a personal assistant that’s far smarter than Siri’s current incarnation.
In the digital industry it often feels like we’re in the that scene in Inception where the world is constantly changing around us… But, we’re used to it right :)
In digital marketing the only thing that is constant is change… and it’s sometimes hard to keep up.
There are a lot of shiny objects to distract you…
but if you create a customer centric digital marketing strategy and have your customer be your north star you will have a greater chance of succeeding in your endeavors.
I want to finish by encouraging you to be Proactive… not only proactive in developing and implementing a customer centric marketing strategy, but proactive in making our world a better place…
Remember you’re already changing the world everyday…but remember to ask yourself… are you changing it for the better?