Driving Digital Within Your Company in 2019 – Part II
Top 10 Things You Can Do
Taking off from what I shared in the part one, now let us address each show-stopper to become the digital marketing maverick that you are waiting to be.
#1 Invest in digital talent. Hire an experienced and qualified digital marketing native, someone who has been an integral part of the digital business eco-system, Ecommerce or Online Publishers, or has worked with industries that have been early adopters of digital such as the Travel, BFSI segment.
#2 Start sharing business briefs with your digital agency and ask for their strategic recommendations on digital marketing to meet your business objectives, as opposed to asking for a Search, or Social media or a Website pitch.
#3 Have common de-briefing meets with your mainline and digital agency to discuss large briefs, challenges etc. Have common brainstorming planning sessions. Ask both agencies to come back with their recommendations for the larger piece. We’ve been through many of these sessions where we are invited, and more often than not, score higher in the response on ideas and recommendations made in these sessions, and yet, the mainline agency is then briefed to come back with the big strategy recommendation.
#4 Invest in digital technology training. We ourselves do Digital-Next sessions with key clients which have really helped our clients open up to technology-led ideas they would have otherwise never considered. For instance, the chatbot done for Bajaj Nomarks. Bajaj has been an early mover in investing in this space that only a rare fast-moving-consumer-good brand would consider.
#5 Invest in digital marketing seminars where top-brass in your company are invited as speakers or panelists, or are part of a round-table etc. Or, organize a round-table within your company inviting teams from other companies that have done well in leveraging the digital opportunity. Peer to peer sharing can be an eye-opener to higher-ups. Tata Steel has done wonders with its e-commerce start up Aashiyana, and has been invited to and has had their sharing session with Ultratech Cement for instance.
#6. No one likes to be told to do something, the response usually starts with why they should not. So share success stories, quotes and evangelism from unexpected corners. Rajesh Jejurikar, (@rajesh664). President, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.for instance will tell you just how `smart-phone’ savvy rural India is becoming, if you track him at events or just follow him on social media, and then re-share his stories within your system.
#7. Be transparent with sharing performance and ROI from traditional media with your digital partner. Giving them a benchmark will help to achieve and surpass consistently, enabling digital evangelism within your organization.
#8 Build an appetite for experiment and failing. The rewards of eventual success will make it worth it – enough and more examples around you that stand proof. You cannot do digital marketing if you are risk averse. Because with the rapidly evolving technology piece, plus rapidly proliferating digital media, and increasing count of adopters each day, there is going to be a constant newness in digital media, unlike traditional benchmarks set by TV or Print wherein evolution of any kind dwarfs in comparison.
#9 Integrate digital into your overall media and map your conversion spikes. What do we mean by that? For example, time your experiments with mobile ad push, at exactly the time that your TV ad is showing. Location-targeting, so inside your grocery story, as she does her monthly shopping let the lady of the house get your offer pushed to her. See the immediate ROI with these experiments so the pilots can demonstrate results.
#10 Do before and after of digital SOV tracking. How? Track volume of consumer generated content if you are already using ORM tools, or check impact on volume of organic searches when you do an exclusive digital led campaign. Or run online research or polls, that can help you track or demonstrate cost-efficiencies coupled with key audience targeting that digital offers. Spend as much as you would on traditional media on a digital exclusive campaign – see the impact on sales.
Digital with rapidly evolving terrains, tools, analytics being introduced everyday needs to be imbibed as a culture, and indeed, the volume of things to learn and unlearn may seem formidable to take on. The benefits for business however are as much bigger and is a must to survive in an increasingly digitized economy. Lets get started.
