Digitally Focused

Personalization is a catch all phrase in the digital world. In reality, personalization can be executed in many ways. For example, a desktop display ad targeted to thousands based on a generic search term, all the way to an individualized dynamic product offer email. Yes both of these are personalized, just at a different levels. Personalization can be defined by the size of the audience, the specificity of the content that is being presented, the channel being used and even the timing of the message. The mix of these determines the "personalization" level. The findings are that the more personalized, i.e. catered to an individual level the better performing the KPIs. Though a great personalization mix at a group or segment level can provide higher performing ROIs too. The challenge to marketers is to optimize the personalization level and the cost to do this, and depending on the industry, the product or CTA, performance will vary. The direct to consumer retail ...

In the simplest terms, mobile experience is controlled by how well our eyes and fingers perform with the display we are using. In the future, this will also include how well our voice projects and how well our ears hear. The fact is that our fingers get longer, fatter and slower, and eyes get weaker over time. Our fingers are what they are, unless we diet and make them thinner. Our eyes can be corrected mechanically and physically. An interesting but obvious point is that these physical changes impact everyone from toddler to aged. In a 2010 study, a total of 160 children's fingers were examined. The average length of each finger increased by 37% from 3 to 10 years of age, and diameter increased by 20%. [2010 Elsevier GmbH.] Thomas M. Greiner, a researcher for the U.S. Army did a study in 1991 finding that an average thumb length of 2.74 inches for men and 2.49 for women. Shorter in length than the average mobile display diagonal today. Based on data from d...

The practical application of data storage, data transmission and computer processing to transform business processes started in the mid-80's. These capabilities have advanced over the last 30 years to the point that the power and cost of digital technology has pushed the movement of digital transformation forward. I define digital transformation as "comprehensively changing business processes and or experience journeys by integrating digital technologies, processes changes and people skills, with the intent to create competitive advantages and accelerate profitable growth." Digital Transformation today can mostly fall into the following three key buckets: Product Innovation - enabling existing products, integrating 3rd party product features, and creating new products. Customer Experience - this includes capabilities that touch any part of the product purchase life cycle ACTR, which includes awareness, consideration, transaction and retention/service phases. Ope...

Why trust is so important now. The digital age has brought a lot of good, but it has also brought cyber crimes, the dark web, identity theft, privacy invasion, reputation damage and other growing harmful activities. What this means to marketers is that trust should be embraced as a key brand tenet, and guarded and nurtured as a brand equity component. Before the digital age, trust was a focus of the product promise. Did I receive what I purchased? Did it perform the way I expected? This has been a focus of the Better Business Bureau (BBB), who says they are "instilling consumer confidence and advancing a trustworthy marketplace for all." But now trust expectations have expanded and customers are asking: You will honor my privacy? You won't take my digital footprint/click-stream data and use negatively? You will protect my personal data including contact, health and government? You will protect my financial data from cyber criminals? Thes...

Multi-channel marketing is a tactical approach which has evolved from offline channels like direct mail and telemarketing to include a vast number of online channels including owned, paid and earned tactics. Marketers have been tying together branding across channels for a long time by integrating brand elements, messaging and call-to-actions. The prevalence and adoption of mobile, and the "technology always" millennial generation are game changers to branding. Multi-channel marketing efforts have moved from picking a segment, a message and channel(s), to continuous marketing pushed across omni-channel platforms. See my article How to Match Digital Experience Tactics to User Scenarios . Brand equity provides the foundation for economic transactions….. “who are you doing busy with?” Vision, goals, strategies and tactics for attracting and retaining customers are tied to the brand equity framework.   Traditionally, the ability to attract new customers is largel...

I have seen business eyes glaze over when the details of development like waterfall and agile are discussed. But with digital transformation, now is the time for businesses to be wide-eyed and conversant in DevOps, an outgrowth of agile. The simple truth is that businesses need DevOps if they want to be at the mature level in their digital transformation. Digital transformation is centered around applying technologies, enhanced processes and new people skills so businesses can accelerate revenue growth and bring in more profitable revenue. This means being agile not only on the technology side but on the customer side too. Specifically what I mean is that user experiences are in fact agile. Today, marketing groups its users into segments which are slivers of time. Not very agile. What they should be doing is developing experiences similar to creating scenes of a movie. Check out my article "How to Match Digital Experience Tactics to User Scenarios." Waterfall and A...

Experience is not a one size fits all solution. Though today most conversations are around a generic bucket of experience tactics being delivered to a universe of prospects, customers, partners and employees. The reality though is that this universe is made up of many different sets of experience expectations. If we want more satisfied customers, increased loyalty, a lower cost to serve, more engaged employees and ultimately an increase in net promoter score, then we need to think differently. What is needed are different iterations of experience based on user scenarios. I use the term scenario instead of segment because experiences are dynamic, ever changing like scenes of life. Segments are static slivers in time. Here are some vastly different user scenarios. A 38 year old "technology social" woman who likes to shop high-end brands is traveling alone to work by train, using her tablet to discuss the latest style of dress shoes with her community. A 23 year o...

The high-level goal of the digital architecture is to provide an exceptional experience. This in turn supports conversions, satisfaction, loyalty, repeat purchases and referrals. The winning business is the one who has the most exceptional experience at the right place, the right time with the most relevant message. Defining and developing a digital architecture creates a lot of questions because most businesses have a different view of what it means to be digital. There is the enterprise definition, the line of business definition, the functional definition and the technology definition. Seems complex but if you ask enough of the right questions from all the stakeholders you can define a digital architecture vision that supports multiple digital strategies and operating models. So who does this? It takes a technically savvy Digital Officer or a business savvy Digital Architect. In my previous article Digital Delivery: Closing the Business-IT Gap , I talked about understandi...