Planning Digital Activity –Don’t lose sight of the basics!

Evolving digital developments in web 2.0, user-generated content, Twitter and mobile applications are at the forefront of industry and academic debate and practice. Authors like Don Tapscott in his book Wikinomics and Andrew McAfee, from MIT Sloan School of Management, in his new book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization’s Toughest Challenges, explore ways in which organisation can apply web 2.0 platforms for sharing knowledge, new ideas both inside and outside the organisation to shape the way we work.

Whilst the boundaries and possibilities of web 2.0 are pushed everyday, these new frontiers can be distracting and marketers must not lose sight about the basics of the marketing planning and direct marketing that inextricably links digital campaign success to targeting the right customer at the right time! A key consideration from the outset is to set your digital marketing strategy in the context of your broader marketing strategy and organisational goals. As digital marketing has moved from a peripheral, or add-on marketing activity to the centre of most organisations customer focus, the vision for their online presence, developing its community, its acquisition and retention strategies, the online brand experiences and positioning, must be developed with clarity. The vision should be for the immediate but also 18-24 months down the line, and in the context of an integrated marketing strategy that takes a holistic approach and is informed by customer insights.

The marketer’s kit bag of SWOT, PESTEL etc should be applied to the task of regular market analysis and whilst the web with its transparency aids this scanning process, the rate of change, increased competition and technological disruption necessitates innovative and flexible planning and implementation. Established direct marketing techniques such as database marketing, testing, targeting, timing, tracking and measurability are more relevant than ever in the digital domain. For example, the Cartoon Network launched a digital campaign earlier this year to six to ten year olds for their Incredikids brand leading up to school holidays.

What is clear is that more and more customers expect a two-way interaction or dialogue with organisations that can benefit both parties. For example, direct banking specialist, First Direct (FD) has unveiled a new website that aggregates ‘live’ comments, even uncensored negative ones, about FD by online customers in an attempt to be more transparent and understand. Innovations like this can be a risk but both customer and organisational expectations online have changed considerably and like Web 2.0, such advances must be incorporated both in terms of marketing philosophy and function in the digital world.