#digital best practice

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Walk Digital Best Practice - #This is for everyone

Digital Transformation - you can't hide anymore

The buzzword all business leaders are starting to rally around trying to apply to their own organisation is Digital Transformation.  Using digital technology, techniques and strategies as enablers to optimise every aspect of the traditional business model to survive in a digital world.  

And now it's official - no one is immune it.  Digital Transformation knows no boundaries, doesn't discriminate by company size or by product and service. It welcomes any business, anywhere doing any thing into the fold.

We've all heard the famous quotes about fear and the need to drive through that fear to see the results at the other end.  Well, Digital Transformation is a bit like that.

You really can no longer hide and say:

I know digital, but what we do doesn't really need digital to succeed.

We are already doing digital, we've got a website and it's making money!

Digital is a fad, just another way for vendors to sell their wares

Or even,

We are digitally mature, what we do is already digital.

These are all statements we have come across talking to customers. Which points to a key step you must complete before embarking on any transformational journey:  Indeed, the fundamental job for any CEO, or C-suite digital champion is to level out the playing field at the top, then across the whole business.  And what I mean by that is ensuring everyone's digital definition and understanding is the same and is shared.

Without this basic, fundamental step Digital Transformation will have a long hard journey and one which could lead to confusion rather than success - which alongside survival of course, is the single motivator to make this change.  So before you even consider external consultants and significant investment into digitalising your business world go and talk to your colleagues, your employees, your stakeholders and get to know what they think Digital Transformation means, then spread the word of what it truly means for your business and gain a common ground.

Taking this first step will also open your eyes to the biggest output Digital Transformation creates - A social business.  As you travel on the journey of Digital Transformation silos will disappear, the notion of customer centricity will become pervasive throughout the organisation and a new sense of honesty and transparency will strengthen engagement levels internally and externally which in turn will convert into greater sales.

When Digital Transformation is broken down into component parts it becomes digestible and achievable.  The scariest part is knowing where you are today. Once you have a shared view especially amongst the leadership team the obvious next step is to know where exactly you are in terms of digital.  A Digital Organisational Audit gives you an in depth Situation Analysis of your business and all it's digital touch points.  It will show you strengths and weaknesses, gaps and opportunities.  It will often also give you quick wins to kick off the journey and motivate everyone early on in the piece.

The results of an Organisational Audit will give you the necessary information and guidance to create a strategy and plan.  See Diagram below.   

The message is clear.  The digital world requires organisations everywhere to redefine how they approach business on a day-to-day basis. 

Everything is moving to a greater level of transparency and shared ownership. Just look at how the ownership of the customer has change: Ownership of the customer used to be the fight between sales and marketing. Digital Business Model requires every area of the business to be customer centric; Finance, HR, Technology. 

Take the first step, ask the question amongst your peers, your trusted colleagues start the journey, you'll survive, you'll even probably win against your competitors if you start today!

Mel Ross

Walk Digital

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Your Digital Audience - Is much closer than you think

When considering your audience in the world of digital you need to think about four distinct segments to ensure you are delivering a holistic and seamless story across all digital touch points on the way to a conversion or sale.

Achieving best practice in this area is your goal.  To create one seamless story across device but also across audience segment.  The way to do this is to really understand the audience segment personae.  Don't stop at basic demographic.  Knowing gender age and basic consumption habits are not enough to really create welcome communication.  Take time to get to know them, their likes, their daily habits, their changing consumption preferences, their brand loyalty; as much as you can.  Doing this will ensure that when your story touches them it will be relevant to them as well as relevant to the device or platform they connect to you on.

So, what are those four segments?

Customer - an obvious one yes but the actual person responsible for conversation.  

Employee - each and every employee within your organisation is an influencer connection to your customers.  Don't forget them.  Ensure they experience your story in a relevant way within their own digital world.

Stakeholder - whether a board member, a shareholder, a partner or a distributor, stakeholders are often forgotten in the customer lifecycle.  However, much like the employee they too are potentially strong influencer connections to customers - so create your story in a way that's relevant to them too.

Supply Chain - So you have contacts which are service providers?  That doesn't mean that they are any less influentially connected to your potential customers.  But they demand a story of their own.

As you create the story for your campaign and map how it journeys across device and platform be mindful of these audiences.  The aim is welcome communication to motivate action by all.

The Walk Digital Team

Walk Digital

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Digital Strategy is Business Strategy

How do you become more digital in your thinking, your strategy and your planning? 

Sounds easy huh?

Marketing, Technology, Sales, Corporate…it really is irrelevant which area of the business you lead or have responsibility for, even HR and Finance are not immune to the need to just ‘be’ more digital.  When looking at marketing alone we can see the tsunami of concern rising around a lack of proficiency, understanding and true success being achieved through leading with digital.  

Clearly dealing with digital is one of the biggest challenges facing business leaders all over the world. Two out of three marketers believe their companies are not proficient in digital marketing and most marketers admit they have had no formal digital training.  This Digital Marketing Proficiency CMO.com has some sobering stats.  We have to get to grips with digital.

We’ve talked a lot about Digital Leadership Best Practice and its importance to the whole success of any digital strategy and transformation. It’s very much about mindset. Like all things in life KIS is always the way to go.  Keeping it simple is what you need to do, and keeping it simple is the best practice methodology for being able to adopt a Digital Leadership approach.

Once you have embraced Digital Leadership in all it’s different guises you are best placed to attack strategy and planning with a digital mindset, commitment and understanding. 

So what does a Best Practice Digital Strategy look like?  In a digital world, in a business that strives to be social internally and externally these are some of the key elements:

Your strategy is iterative.  By it’s very definition your strategy must be agile and open to change.  Gone are the days when a strategy is a static ‘how to’ method that doesn’t change over time or at best until it’s deemed to have been implemented.  In a world that changes, you can’t rely on what was the best way to do things 12 months ago to maximise your results today. 

Every action should be audience led.  It is your results that should be business led.  Again, traditional models and leadership tactics often put too much focus on the business targets to drive decisions.  We must make decisions that are audience led to lead to business results.  How many times have you seen a sales message for a product that’s felt inappropriate in it’s tone or where it’s placed?  That’s probably because the marketers have been told they need to campaign the product because the business needs to sell the product.  What the marketer needs to do is create a story the audience wants to hear, see, read or even experience.  A story that talks about them, their needs, their wants.  Creating people connections and welcome communication is how you make sales in a digital world.

Ditch the silo.  Who cares which department you work in.  Who cares what words are in your title.  With a Digital Leaders mindset you seek support to create the most seamless customer experience from everywhere.  Constantly seeking integrated ways of working across business units or lines of business are vital to succeed in a changing world.  You can’t be agile and adapt as quickly as you need on your own, so go and build relationships where you never did before.

These are just three of the important pieces that together make for success across strategy, structure and planning. 

To find out more check out our website at Walk Digital.com.

  Mel Ross

Walk Digital

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Sources:  CMO.com Walkdigital.com 

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Walk Digital Best Practice Matrix: Part 2

“You didn’t come here to make the choice. You’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why you made it.”

Welcome to part 2 of the Walk Digital Best Practice Matrix. We covered the first five areas in our part 1 blog post. Catch it here if you missed it!

Here are the final four best practice areas to digital marketing success:

06: Technology

Best practice is reviewing your technology solutions and ensuring they are integrated, understood and used effectively. Legacy tools may no longer be the drivers to stifle change or agility. Technology includes all of your internal systems and platforms as well as any technology platform or device that is used to connect with your audiences. There should be no silo between technology and the rest of the business, it is understood by all and used to best effect.  Whilst this is historically a key area of challenge for businesses the digital world is already making it easier with APIs, open source, BYOD.  Agility is for everyone.

07: Data, Analysis, Insight

‘There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Data is often unconnected, it cannot be interpreted and there is a serious lack of knowledge and skill in separating meaningful data from meaningless data. Best practice is everyone sharing data; it’s accessing data easily and being able to react in real-time and right time. It’s seeing data in context and leveraging appropriately to derive insight and thus generate welcome communication that motivates action.  Best Practice is creating simple data not wavering over the definition of big data.

08: Content

Content is about storytelling and delivering a story seamlessly across channel, platform and device. Best practice content is welcomed and delivered at the right time and the creation of content is driven by data and audience insight, not by ego and budget. Everyone has a part to play in the creative process; ideas are not just the responsibility of the ‘creative team’.  This is for everyone.

09: Future Gazing

As data intensity increases and the pace of digital continues to move faster and faster, there is an increasing need to look into the future and ensure knowledge includes trends and data includes predictions and how this will impact your business. Best practice future gazing using data in real-time and trends over time, it is not retrospective and certainly not a static entity – it’s moving and changing all the time, you must always find time for future gazing. It is an investment that needs to be made by the business on a senior level and accessible by all.

Until next time...

Stacey Perry & Mel Ross

walkdigital.com

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Playing the Generation Game

Understanding the digital native and implications for marketers

We recently undertook some kids market research. We asked a group of children what would they like their computer, tablet, mobile phone to do in the future that it couldn’t currently do. The answers we received were enlightening; one wanted his iPad to give him Star Wars lego whenever he wanted, another wanted to be able to scan someone else’s mobile phone number. We had foldable screens, digital piggy banks and even a ‘design your own future’ app. Two things stood out, firstly, the power of imagination – no wonder there are so many young tech entrepreneurs! And secondly, our kids really are tech savvy.

Thinking about the latter, this really is quite a challenge for parents. How does a parent handle a digital native? Technology has moved on so fast that I suspect even parents born in the millennial generation will be struggling to keep up.

Lets take a look at a few stats:

12-15 year old girls send more than 30 texts per day

37% of 3-4 year olds are going online using a desktop PC, laptop or netbook

One in ten 3-4 year olds use a tablet at home

43% of 5-15 year olds with access to Internet at home have a social networking profile, rising to 80% of 12-15s

93% of 12-15 year olds say they are confident they know how to stay safe online

79% of parents of 5-15 year olds who go online at home say they have measures in place with Internet usage in terms of checking what their child is doing or setting time limits. What is scary is that 10% of parents do not have parental controls installed on their computers, either because they do not know how to do this or are not aware it is possible. This rises to 25% for mobile game consoles and 35% for mobile phones.

The smartphone is without a doubt the device of choice for the younger generation and yet it is the one device where the parent has the least control and/or knowledge. And communication services are fuelling this device. It isn’t just about Facebook anymore, yes, the teens are there but they are increasingly adding more and more platforms to their daily lives, some of which parents may never even of heard of, let alone use. They are active on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Whatsapp, Snapchat, ask.fm, Kik, Voxer and Pheed to name but a few…and there are more and more being added to the mix all of the time.

Now, I am neither a parent nor a parenting expert but I am a marketing expert and if there are implications and an educational requirement for parents on this, then there most definitely is for marketers and brands who are trying to reach the digital native. It’s a minefield out there, trying to understand and engage with Generation Z who have been born digital and do not distinguish digital media from non-digital media – they are just doing their thing, whatever is trending at the time and to top it all off, just because they are there today, does not mean they will be there tomorrow.

Some brands are venturing into the fray. Vodafone, Laura Ashley and Save the Children all ran marketing campaigns on ask.fm which they had to promptly pull in response to the tragic stories of suicide and cyberbullying that were allegedly fuelled by user content on the site. Photo sharing site Snapchat has also been adopted recently by a few brands, Taco Bell are using it to launch new products, Co-op has used it to offer a £30 discount off laptops as part of a back to school promotion, Lynx have used it to leak exclusive content about a secret launch party.

Whatsapp is another service that is being adopted by marketers. The popular messaging app boasts 300 million monthly active users globally who are sending 11 billion messages and receiving 20 billion messages per day. An Israeli chocolate brand called Klik ran a Simon Says style competition, assigning tasks for users to complete. More than 2,000 teens have added the brand on Whatsapp and the campaign generated almost 1 million earnt media impressions on Facebook.

Experimentation is key to success for brands that have a digital first, always-on, 24/7 strategy. So whilst it is encouraging to see brands stepping into this space, more needs to be done to educate marketers about this audience on a regular and on-going basis. I’d also suggest more needs to be done to educate parents as well so that they can ask their children the right questions and truly have a full picture of where their children are online and what they are doing.

This generation is going to force brands to be more digital in their strategy. It is inevitable. Brands and businesses need to engage with their customers, wherever they are and digital is where they are now and is most certainly where they are heading. The key is understanding what platforms or services have longevity, what isn’t just a fad and more importantly how to leverage so that the communication is inclusive rather than obtrusive.

Kids are growing up fast. If you’re a marketer, you’d better put your running shoes on!

Stacey Perry

walkdigital.com

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Sources: Ofcom, socialmediatoday.com, marketingdive.com

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Walk Digital Best Practice Matrix: Part 1

“You didn’t come here to make the choice. You’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why you made it.”

  The Matrix consists of the 9 areas across your business that lead to business success when digital best practice is applied to them.  We're focusing on the first 5 today.  Marketing, media and communications are now pervasive across the business and not relegated to a cost centre mentality.  Rather, in a digital world they are the root to value creation, success and business growth.

Business and brands everywhere regardless of size, industry or geographical location have to address how they become truly digital in their thinking, strategy, structure, implementation and ideation*.

Walk Digital’s unique Digital Best Practice Matrix has identified the 9 key areas which, when best practice is applied, achieve digital maturity within an organisation. These 9 key areas will transform an organisation to a digitally led organisation.  This is a global imperative, to achieve on-going business success in a digital world – and digital best practice is the way to achieve it.

‘Digital’ is no longer an add on, a silo. It is a word that will cease to exist in the future because every business will have digital at its heart, creating people connections, connecting people with brands and products and to an ever-increasing digital generation.

So, what are these 9 areas?  What do they mean and how can they culminate in what essentially is the blueprint to transform your organisation to a digitally led organisation achieving and reaping all the benefits afforded to a digital mature business today. 

Here’s a brief overview of what Walk Digital best practice looks like across each pillar:

01: Strategy & Planning

The overarching strategy is non-linear. Rather it is iterative, agile and open to change in an instant. In a real-time world there is no room for a static digital strategy, a digital first organisation approaches strategy with a risk positive attitude, collaborates internally and externally and is audience led to drive results that are business led.

02: Audience

The audience is known as an individual, not in broad segments. Your digital customer needs to be understood in 3D, best practice is knowing your audience moment by moment in real-time.  In this digital world your consumer is anyone who consumes your brand.  Your customer, your employees, your partners, your stakeholders, now you must communicate with each of them individually.

03: Measure & Report

This is one of the most important areas and quite often not given the importance within the business it deserves. Best practice is having a robust measurement strategy in place, it means being transparent in the information and how results are distributed across teams and departments. It is omni-channel, both quantitative and qualitative and is actionable in real-time.  Fundamentally it is the understanding of what needs to be measured against what needs to be reported.  Sounds simple, but this is where many teams and companies fall short.  In a digital world performance communication is what delivers results.

04: People & Process

Notwithstanding these 9 key areas are all underpinned by sound digital leadership.  As part of this there is a need to establish a digital mindset.  This is the first most important step to moving to a digital first way of working and achieving business success.  To get there you have to first evaluate where you are - not just you, but your people, your teams, and your organisation as a whole. Digital is not housed in the marketing department it needs to pervade the very heart and soul of your business.  Once you know where you are, what your opportunities are, where the weaknesses and strengths are across the whole business, you are on the road to success.

05: Team, Skill, Structure

Investing in effective people development and process efficiencies is key to success in a digital world. Best practice is connecting with your people, internally and externally and structuring skills and expertise to create a digitally led mentality that almost becomes part of the culture of the organisation.  In a digital world there are only learners.  The need to invest and commit to ongoing learning and development, knowledge and understanding are key to digital maturity.  Every with a touchpoint into the company needs to have a clear understanding of the vision, as led by digital leaders. When this is clear and everyone has a digital remit - ‘digital’ as a term disappears.

Watch out for part 2!

Stacey Perry & Mel Ross

walkdigital.com

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Up there for thinking, down there for dancing

Digital Best Practice:  Digital Success requires top down leadership and bottom up innovation.

Businesses all over the world, large and small take note.  Digital best practice is something we all need to get our heads around to be able to navigate the digital world that’s changing, evolving as I even write this article.

Most of the big consulting firms like The Boston Consulting Group and Gap Gemini and research organisations like Forrester and Gartner alike are touting the need for digital maturity, but How?  Where?  When?

There are so many factors to digital success when it comes to your marketing, media and communications.  But none as important perhaps as the knowledge, buy in and commitment of the leaders within your business and the honest, open intent to search for inspiration from everywhere and data only where relevant.

The ultimate goal is to create people connections and welcome communication.  How you do this is by implementing best practice across all your digital efforts.  Whilst there are fundamental building blocks, which make up an effective digital strategy, it is digital leadership and the pursuit of honest sources of data and inspiration, which support the other areas of best practice.

Think of sailing:  Any boat or crew would unlikely reach it’s destination without a clearly committed and knowledgeable skipper.  Equally, no skipper relies on one data access point to create his or her best route and strategy for the journey.  They use everything at their disposal to get as close to understanding weather patterns and sea conditions as possible, mostly through technology but always with an element of intuition and experience and listening to those around them.  The result is a mapped journey with the capabilities of the crew and boat factored into the strategy to navigate the most effective journey.

With digital it’s the same.  Without a committed digital leader there will be no clearly defined direction.  Without the input of data from several honest sources, the ability to create the most welcome of communications becomes less likely and the performance of your campaign will suffer as a result.

You’ll notice I mention honest sources when talking about data and inspiration.  What I mean there is a real pursuit and focus on getting as close to your customer as possible – ideally directly.  This equips you, much like the Skipper, with the best information to navigate the What and How of your marketing communication.

A digital leader is one that:

Has the right mindset to cope with a digital world

Is committed to dealing with risk, fast failure, change and ultimately big rewards

Has the knowledge and understanding of the ever-changing digital world to be able to skipper.

Honest sources of data and inspiration are:

Tapping into the talent everywhere in your business to generate inspiration in this digital world (especially the Millennial generation)

Encouraging feedback and open dialogue with customers to understand their ever-changing needs

Having a simple focus on the data required to meet the business need.

Get these two things right, think about them, commit to them, act upon them and you will navigate your way to digital success that’s performance based and even transformational for your business.

Mel Ross

walkdigital.com

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