Our framework for marketing success

You may remember our strategic RACE framework which we created to provide a means to contextualise digital marketing tactics. We've developed this with a new visual to show a planning and management process to use on marketing projects. Our new Growth Wheel infographic developed in collaboration with First 10 Digital, aims to provide a visual way to think about your marketing planning focused on creating commercial growth by integrating digital channels. 

About the Marketing Growth Wheel

Our Growth Wheel uses a standard SOSTAC® approach to planning, but applied to using digital technologies and channels to create growth for a company. It's based on our experience in planning and implementation for many projects we've been involved with over the…

5 ideas to start your brand revolution in 2012

We're still in the midst of 2012 predictions, they're everywhere at the moment, mostly describing what's already out there. I'm not a futurologist, and if I am honest, I prefer to plan for the less predictable since that's what usually happens. One trend I do observe, is how much marketing is changing (again, and faster). This is leaving a chasm of opportunity for the right organisations to step up. It has serious implications though... are you and your brand the revolutionary, or destined to be the cast-off of someone else's revolution? We've built our Marketing Manifesto of some of the changes that we think will help you falling into the chasm, but here I expand on some of these ideas.

So what's wrong with marketing?

It's one word: management, or lack of it. I believe that digital marketing…

5 reasons why you don't and 10 reasons why you could

Surely it's obvious, with today's digital marketing platforms like search and social networks, desktop and mobile web applications that you need a digital marketing strategy? I don't think so, the obvious isn't always obvious, or practical to make happen, or even considered necessary. So, a couple of weeks ago we asked readers of SmartInsights.com whether their company, or if they work for an agency or are a consultant, their typical clients have one. These are the shocking? results... Thank you if you voted or shared this post, we had around 110 responses, so a fair number, although we have no sample frame of who since it's just an informal poll. As I suspected, there has been little change since we asked the exact same question back in 2010 as the chart below shows. This suggests that…

12 digital marketing fundamentals to get right in 2012

At the turn of the year, it’s always worth reflecting on the opportunities and challenges ahead to help shape priorities for marketing. In a recent talk for AdTech London, I identified 12 marketing trends, available in the Slideshare embed at the end of the post. In this post I’ll highlight some of the main opportunities and I've added links to our posts and guides to help you think through your strategy. We've kept this post available on the blog for historical reference, for the most up-to-date marketing trends see our 2015 Digital Marketing trends predictions.

Most important marketing trend for 2012 : creating a cross-channel engagement strategy

We can be sure that there will be will be lots of announcements of exciting innovations and marketing trends in all of the search and social networks within in 2012. We look forward to covering them within our alerts, but they can…

Infographics to give you ideas for managing the new marketing

Infographics seem to be a popular way to learn and share statistics and marketing approaches. We've been selective in sharing 1 or 2 infographics a month during 2011, focusing on those with a clear learning about the impact of a new marketing technique or how to approach it.

1. The content marketing grid from Eloqua

An excellent way of thinking through how and prioritising content marketing for B2B or B2C markets.

2. A whole world of word-of-mouth

This really shows the power of WOM and that favourite social media buzzword of 2011, "amplification".

3. Building a successful brand in the social space - 9 tips from Weber Shandwick

It's the 9 drivers of "world class sociability" that attracted us to this one.

4. Measuring social media ROI - ensure…

8 questions to review your acquisition strategy in 2012

This is a new deck with some new examples for a keynote presentation at the Fusion Marketing Experience in Belgium on 2nd December 2011 programmed by the excellent J-P De Clerck. I talk about how to find new customers, especially at a time when there's pressure on budgets. As always, my ideas are informed by the latest data and show practical examples of implementing the ideas. It's structured around these questions to ask about acquisition: Q1. Does your brand have personality + OVP? Q2. Mix = are you investing your time/money wisely? Q3. Is our publishing process effective? Q4. How do we make online campaigns moreengaging? Q5. Is your business “social by design? Q6. Are your practicing “deep SEO”? Q7. Are we siloed or multichannel? Q8. Are you “competing on analytics?” Attracting quality traffic…

Adapting PR Smith's SOSTAC® to review what's working, what's not and create a plan of improvement

I was recently asked if I use any frameworks or processes when auditing a web site (or any digital marketing activity). To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought until now. On the whole, I just got on with it, so I couldn’t give an answer straight away. Nonetheless, after considering it for a while, I realized that I was subconsciously utilizing a process that I had become familiar with over the past couple of years: PR Smith's SOSTAC® model. Now, I’m going to presume that you know all about SOSTAC® (if you don’t, then simply check out this superb post that explains the SOSTAC® planning model) and will concentrate on how I adapt it for use as web auditing process. I should point out that I have used SOSTAC® as a process for many tasks as I…

Are you a Creator, Critic, Collector, Joiner or Spectator?

If you've not seen Forrester Technographics tool before you are missing a treat. Showcased in the book Groundswell, Technographics is Forrester Research's methodology for surveying customers. Its similar to segmenting by demographics or psychographics but segments based on degree of engagement with social media - so it's a behavioural segmentation for social media and related technology. Many reading will know this, but I thought it was worth flagging-up for those who don't, it's new to many in my classes. The tool can be really useful for setting realistic expectations of what social media can deliver amongst your non-marketing colleagues also  since it shows how degree of engagement with social media and blogs varies. Forrester divide people's online behaviour into six categories. You can see these below.

Its important for organisations to know…

The magic of creative briefs

Back in the days when I was a young, ambitious advertising executive, I once spent a whole week learning how to write a creative brief. Yes really – a complete full-on Monday-Friday in a hotel, up at 7, bed in the small hours and non-stop presentations, lectures and exercises in between.

Why did they think it worth it?

It must have cost the ad agency I worked for a fortune, but they knew it was worth it. A good creative brief produces thoroughbred creative work. A poor one leads to work that looks like an old donkey. It gets cobbled together and then gets chopped and changed as everyone’s thinking develops on the hoof. (There’s nothing like some finished design work to make people realise, “What we really want to say is…..”)

Why it’s still worth it

Last week, I was reminded again of just how powerful a well-written creative…

We love this quality infographic - well worth 5 minutes to read through it - it's great to see the inbound model becoming more popular with marketers too. A few highlights of the infographic: People are opting out of our lists - email and phone 86% of people skip TV ads Inbound marketing costs less than interruptive outbound

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