The days of only having a corporate website is gone

Posted on by
1

If one looks at concepts like IP adoption as a uniform communications transport, growth in broadband, wireless technology, ubiquitous computing, smart mobility devices, geo-location, cloud computing, etc., it shows us that people are able to and will interact with data wherever they are and when ever they are – this is already happening.

This means that the days of only having a corporate website is gone.

  • We now have to be able to give people what they are looking for,
  • The instant they are looking for it,
  • On whatever platform they want to engage with it,
  • In the format that best suits that platform,
  • And in the context of the time and place of that engagement from that person’s perspective.

This also means that you need a multi-platform strategy because people will move from one to the other based on time, place and context.

On top of that, the experience on any of those platforms should be the same – and it should also be the same experience when they physically interact with the brand; i.e. every touch point with the brand should be the same experience.

The link between mobile platforms and social engagement is also growing continuously closer – increasingly, the one will go with the other.

An example will be where one would do place profiling.

This means layering of temporal data (like weather and traffic), census data, demographics and psychographics, CRM, and aggregate mobile usage data, etc. on to a specific place or space. This will enable “rich picturing” of a place or space which is dynamic, and which can be used for the delivery of relevant information in the context of space and time.

Near field communication and geo-fencing are good example of this.

This also means that the link between the real world and digital data is getting ever closer with technologies like augmented reality, radio frequency identification (RFID), near field communications (NFC), etc.

The interplay between search and social is increasing dramatically with concepts such as universal search and real time search, which is further complicated by technologies such as augmented realty, which taps into those rich data pools to overlay information onto the real world experience.

Integrated brand strategy therefore becomes critical for share of voice optimisation.

Social media is a commitment

Posted on by
1

Social media is not a campaign, it is a commitment; and it is a commitment that is resource intensive because it is not mass media, it is social media, which means that there is an ongoing conversation.

When an organisation starts on this journey there is a major impact on that organisation, both in terms of the underlying technology that supports these new interactions and on the underlying business processes.

By engaging in social media, you are making a promise, a value statement – “here we are, we want to hear what you say and we want to engage with you in a deep meaningful relationship”.

Beware the organisation that do not honour that promise.

When that shift happens in the organisation we are moving from the old paradigm of classic CRM into Social CRM, changing business processes, changing business models and changing organisational culture.

This also means that you need to translate social media to an internal audience.

Business Goals for Web Development

Posted on by
Reply

A website is a marketing tool, be it for branding, lead generation or direct sales. This means it needs to be built so that it can market the business, the brand, the product or the service. For a website to be successful, the needs and goals of the organization needs to be clearly understood and translated in the companies’ website, micro-sites and even individual pages.

The first question therefore is; what does the site need to achieve with regard to the overall strategy of the business?

This should also be asked for specific sections and even for the more important pages (mostly referred to as the “goal pages/landing pages”) in the site.

Web Development

Posted on by
Reply

Web development mainly occur in two broad “phases”;

firstly in terms of the initial build of a website,

and secondly in terms of ongoing development to improve established websites and web pages.
When related to eMarketing, web development most often involves Landing Page Optimisation (LPO). This involves actively measuring and analysing results of online marketing campaigns and adjusting or optimising pages or websites to better campaign results.

As part of ongoing eMarketing initiatives, web development forms the “structure” on which good eMarketing is done and enables one to manage, measure and continuously improve the online initiatives and results.

Web development therefore impacts all or most eMarketing initiatives and is a continuous improvement process throughout any campaigns lifetime and serves as a benchmark and/or best practice “tool” for future initiatives or campaigns.

Branding and conversions

Posted on by
Reply

Conversions are also influenced by the brand itself. The brand strength in the market and the relation between the brand promise and the delivery on that promise is an additional factor that has to be taken into account. Conversion optimisation therefore does not only rely on the quality of the product or conversion tactics (on-page or off-page).

The brand can be a shortcut to the conversion point; i.e. if the brand is strong and the perception exists that the band promise is being kept it is easier to achieve the point of conversion.

Strengthen conversion by bringing the moment of the action closer to the brand.