Innovation has always been one of Econsultancy’s core brand values and we celebrate this every year with our Innovation Awards, shining a light on those companies and individuals who’ve helped to advance the digital marketing landscape over the past twelve months. But what do we mean when we talk about innovation? It’s a deceptively simple […]
IT departments can create a lot of value when they take responsibility for Integration Technology, bringing together the activities of people across the organisation and beyond its increasingly porous boundaries.
But if they sit behind their firewalls chanting verses from the ITIL, then they deserve to die.
On Tuesday more than 500 B2B and B2C marketers attended FUNNEL, our first event to consider where marketing meets sales – and leads become revenue.
With a definite sense of new confidence in the air, the packed speaker programme looked at key challenges and opportunities facing ‘considered purchase’ marketers today – how to best attract, engage, nurture and convert leads.
I’ve collated some of the key takeaways and soundbites below…
Last Wednesday more than 1,500 marketers descended on Old Billingsgate in London for JUMP, our annual multichannel-focused event.
By the end of the day the consensus was that we’d done a good job. In a nut that means two things:
I thought I’d share some of the key takeaways from JUMP.
Online technologies move at a frightening pace, and
it is a big problem for businesses that operate online and that want to keep up
with the latest new trend or technique.
Most of us will have experience of meeting people who are apathetic or downright resistant to digital. This is just a fact of life, but it can be problematic when that person is your boss.
In some companies I believe that generational change will be required before they’ll properly adapt to a multichannel world that includes lots of digital, mobile and social networking activity. Worryingly, I think some of the biggest, most established companies have serious issues in this area.
It needs to be explained that ‘digital’ does not mean ‘tech’. The internet is largely driven by people and the content they produce. That said, the detail is very important when it comes to optimising the customer experience. Digital is a key part of the overall experience and it requires investment and time. Unless the boss and all other stakeholders buy into the idea of doing it properly – and until they truly believe in it – you’re always going to be up against it.
Earlier today I gave some thought to the things you can do to persuade a boss with a Luddite mindset to embrace digital, rather than to fear it. I also asked the question to our Twitter followers: “What can you do to make the boss more digitally savvy?”
Below are a bunch of ideas that will help you to make the boss see the light. For it is very bright and shiny, and will not dim anytime soon.
[PS – I’m going to use the word ‘him’ rather than ‘him or her’ for ‘boss’ on general editorial principles, and not because I’m sexist]
My favourite definition of governance comes from the Institute on Governance: governance is “the process whereby societies or organisations make important decisions, determine whom they involve and how they render account”.
Organisations that don’t address governance end up spending a lot of time on it. They discuss it over and over again for each decision as they argue about due process and decision rights and accountabilities. They end up with little energy for the decision itself. So they make bad decisions.
Yesterday I attended Econsultancy’s Digital Cream event, which we host annually, and which brings together around 300 client-side e-commerce brains together for a day of intense knowledge sharing.
The event format is based on roundtables, which are a core part of our staple diet. We’ve been running roundtables since I joined Econsultancy back in 2003, and they inform much of the best practice insight that underpins our research. They are incredibly helpful.
Digital Cream is essentially roundtables on steroids… there are more than 20 of them, in one day. I have a few takeaways from the event that I’d like to share. By all means add yours in the comments section underneath this post, or let us know if you blog about the event, as Simon Lilly and Nick Allen have done. Our thanks to all who participated.
Before we begin I should probably mention a couple of similar events, which are are free to attend for client-side folks. Firstly, there is Peer Summit 2011, which takes place in New York in early June. Secondly, there is Digital Cream Dubai, which is our first big event in the Middle East and takes place on 12 April. Do sign up if you’re local.
Ah, December. For many media folks it is a month of fat lunches and the parties. It used to be like that for me too, until we launched our Innovation Awards a couple of years ago.
Since then December has turned into a month of hardcore reading. Our in-house judging panel (me, CEO Ashley Friedlein and Research Director Linus Gregoriadis) spent the majority of the month poring over the 350+ entries, checking out sites and apps, and generally trying to make sense of things.
Last year was a great year for innovation, based on what we read. There are some amazing things going on in our industry.
Following are my personal views on what will be interesting and important in the world of digital marketing and e-commerce for 2011.
I haven’t given extensive justification for any of these. It’s just what I feel to be likely from my many conversations with industry influencers.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts, or feel free to post a link to your own predictions.
Taglines may seem like a just a few words next to a logo, but they can really help define and differentiate your core brand message in seconds. A slogan can be the difference between grabbing a visitor’s attention or losing them to your competitor.
You’ve got yourself a good domain, built a really neat site, designed a cool logo, completed your SEO checklist, and if you’re lucky got a good copywriter to crank out some some engaging content for you.
There’s just one more thing you might want to think about. A tagline.
In a post I wrote called the A-Z of social media for brands I decided that P stands for Policy. I’m not one for too many rules and regulations, but it is a good idea to define some clear guidelines to help staff (especially novices) to do the right thing.
So let’s take a look at some real world social media policies and guidelines as used by companies. Zappos does a great job of summing it up in seven words, but the detail is also important and there are some fine suggestions here…