Stage 1: Get Ready

The purpose of the Get Ready is to level the playing field – to ensure that stakeholders have the knowledge, opportunity and commitment to contribute to the programme of work that lies ahead.

• iSchool Seminar:
  A high-level briefing covering the current best-practice approach to digital strategy, an introduction to digital marketing, and an assessment of the client’s situation. This includes industry best practice, market indicators, competitive analysis, and expected performance. We encourage attendance from across the business and at all levels, particularly CEO, CFO and MD.
• Workshop(s):
  One or more working sessions designed to surface insight on organisational objectives, priorities, successes and pain-points. This includes gaining consensus on KPI’s and answering a question few organizations are able to articulate – what do you actually hope to achieve with your use of digital media?
• Audit:
  Based on the insights gained in the workshop(s), we then undertake an audit of all digital touch points to gauge how effectively these are being used and identify opportunities for improvement. The findings are then presented to the client along with an initial set of recommendations to address in the Get Set stage, and a high-level programme plan for the subsequent Get Ahead (Business as Usual) stage.

Stage 2: Get Set

The purpose of the Get Set stage is to establish a workable starting point from which we can commence a program of continuous improvement. More often than not this involves addressing the oft-overlooked bare essentials of best-practice digital marketing, such as implementing a useful measurement tool, understanding what the numbers mean, and ensuring a website is able to be indexed by search engines.

• Measurement:
  Implement a useful measurement tool that will support continued analysis of user behaviour. The better the measurement tool, the greater the insights we can uncover. This will often confront the stakeholders with a healthy dose of reality and quick wins.
• Platform Development:
  Ensure that the capacity exists to publish relevant content within the client’s website, and that content is accessible to users and search engines alike.
• Content Creation:
  Establish a core set of content pages that exist within or in parallel to the client’s website, containing content – including text, images and other relevant media properties – optimised for a core set of keywords (e.g. brands and trademarks). Keywords are a corporate asset, and if you don’t control them your competitors will.
• Behavioural Analytics:
  Understanding online user behaviour so that we may discourage undesirable actions such as exiting the site via the homepage, and encourage positive (profitable) actions that lead towards conversions. This includes usability research and design, motivational triggers, click path analysis and conversion path optimization, and modelling individual user behaviour across multiple visits - a common but rarely leveraged pattern in substantial transactions.
• Acquisition & Conversion Strategy:
  Starting with the client’s KPI’s and working backwards, we establish an initial set of conversion indicators (actions that directly impact a KPI), including offline indicators – where applicable - such as visits to a store (‘Click to Brick’) and calls to the contact centre (‘Click to Call’). By assigning a measurable value to each conversion indicator we are then able to devise conversion strategies to increase the likelihood that a person exposed to the client’s message (e.g. a website visitor) will go on to ‘convert’ as we want them to, and acquisition strategies to increase the number of people exposed.

Step 3: Get Ahead

The Get Ahead stage (otherwise referred to as Business As Usual) involves a programme of continuous improvement informed by rigorous measurement and analysis. As opportunities for improvement are identified they are quantified (in terms of ROI) and added to a revolving workbook backlog where they are addressed in order of priority in sequential development cycles.

This ‘agile’ approach entails shorter timeframes to realisation (ROI) and lower project risk, with the added benefit that our (the entire team, including the client) ability to innovate increases with the learning gained in each cycle.

• Measurement & Analysis:
  Observation of user behaviour (where they come from and what they do) to identify popular and underperforming paths, pages and page elements.
• Compliance Testing:
  Given that the client’s site and search engine algorithms change over time, we need to continually monitor these to ensure content alterations, functional enhancements and technology upgrades do not inhibit performance. This pertains to best-practice SEO as well as usability.
• Campaign Management:
  Managing traffic generation initiatives on behalf of clients. This involves taking a strategic approach to planning the right online marketing tools from the vast array of options available. These include paid search, search engine optimisation, display advertising (banners), and rich media including online video advertising, content integration and website partnership/sponsorships. This not only entails ensuring we reach traffic targets over time, but also that we are gaining the right kind of traffic (qualified visitors) and converting them into customers. Our in-house ad-serving, click-tracking and analytics packages aid us in achieving this.
• Multivariate testing, A|B testing:
  A website doesn’t have to be a ‘one size fits all’ proposition. Multivariate and A|B testing allows us to tailor messages and calls to action based on what we know about the user, what we want them to do, and what we know is likely to influence that individual. This includes looking at how the user arrived (e.g. from a search engine, using a given keyword), and similarities between the user’s actions and those of previous users acting in a similar way (lookalike analysis).
• Social Media Monitoring & Engagement / Online Reputation Management:
  In this age of mass participation (a.k.a. ‘Web 2.0’), people will discuss your brands online. Do you know what they are saying? Would you like to be able to influence these conversations? Monitoring online chatter is a powerful (timely and honest) source of consumer insight.
• Customer Retention Strategy:
  We know that retaining customers is more economical than acquiring them, but few organizations have an effective online customer retention strategy. Leverage customer data to devise appropriate (timely and relevant) messages in order to increase the number and value of customer transactions over time. This includes email marketing, mobile (e.g. SMS) alerts, and customizing site content to suit the needs and preferences of individual users.
• Reporting Dashboard:
  We provide all stakeholders with access to an online reporting dashboard showing current and historical KPI performance and other essential indicators – including keyword performance and competitor activity. This allows us to provide actionable insight that will allow us to identify and realise opportunities (and head off potential issues) at the earliest moment.