The Incite Marketing Summit West 2015 Post-Conference eBook

The Official eBook ofThe Incite Summit: West

May 18-19, San Francisco

by Kevin Popović Founder, Ideahaus®

Conference OrganizerMark KersteenIncite Group

The Evolution of Marketing and the Customer Journey

A View from the top:

incite-group.com

http://www.incite-group.com

On May 18th and 19th, 2015 speakers FrOM MorE Than ThirTy of ThE largEsT brands in ThE world gathered In san FrancIscO tO speak candIdly abOut theIr MarketIng.

thIs bOOk Is the offiCial CuraTEdCollECTionOF InsIghts they shared that day

This is what they said...

4incite-group.com #incitesummit

The Incite Summit: WestMay 18-19, San Francisco

Contents

5 introduction

6 surmount your Most urgent Challenges as a Marketer: how To drive Authenticity, Relevance, and Transparency

9 authentic digital Engagement: Automation Is No Substitute for Strategy

12 be More Precise: Target and Tailor Your Messages with Data-Driven Insight

15 Connect Through your Content: Don’t Push Messages, Build Relationships

18 storytelling for success: Give Employees and Customers a Voice for a Fresh Approach to Marketing

21 best Practices for social Media brand Protection: Maximize ROI and Protect Your Name on Social

24 brandocracy: Build a Strong Brand – Now That Your Customers Have the Power to Define It

27 The Marketer as bridge-builder: Deliver a Premium Customer Experience by Collaborating Across Departments

30 Make data your Crystal ball: Predictive Modeling to Better Understand the Customer

33 Conclusion: Above and Beyond the Summit




introduction to the summit: A View from the Top

When I was invited to write this book, I was interested in the level of

information that would be provided by the speakers who would shape the

program. Upon investigation, I quickly learned that the contributors were

senior-level and accomplished, but most importantly, I saw that they were all

very active in the development and delivery of the work on behalf of their

organizations.

These speakers were not sitting in the ivory tower – they were leading their

troops into battle – and they were winning.

Each of the stories I heard throughout the conference was interesting – I love

good stories – and they were all real. No widgets, no fake companies, no

mythical cities. Each story had real people doing real things, and I learned

something from each one.

As an introduction to this summit, I think this is important for the context of

the information provided. This is straight from the people who are living the

trends we have heard about, and I believe their stories can help prepare us for

many of the challenges coming up on our horizon.

I encourage you to read each of these stories in this summary to gain a view

from the top of this summit that was previously unavailable. In a forthcoming

work, I’ll share the complete story with more information, more learning, and

a greater understanding of how we can each prepare for what comes next.

Kevin Popović Founder of Ideahaus®

author, speaker, teacher

@KevinPopovic




surmount your Most urgent Challenges as a Marketer: How To Drive Authenticity, Relevance, and Transparency

WhaTever yOur BuSIneSS, the top priority today has to be to improve the customer experience. Customers’ expectations are changing as they gain access to more information, and they’re getting used to having a louder voice in your marketplace. If you can’t give them a reason to stay, then they will find a business that can. So, what does this mean for the future of your marketing? It means you better understand your customer’s journey, from prospect to advocate. From “I want to learn more” to “Will you be mine?” Think about what your company can do to help your customer become a customer. “It starts with trust,” says AIG Chief Customer Experience Officer Donna Peeples. “Think about the journey you went on with the companies you have a relationship with today. Think about your brand, your brand promise, and what it will take to deliver on these promises you’ve made.” “It starts with recognizing those trigger points in the customer journey – we develop great content for the people who are kicking tires and checking us out, and we want them to understand what they’re getting into before they make a big decision,” says Arra Yerganian, Chief Marketing Officer for One Medical. Braintree Chief Marketing Officer Greg Fisher suggests focusing your brand’s voice and strategy around your target – don’t try to do too much, and don’t try to join too many conversations.

“Put your target at the center of everything you’re doing,” Fisher said. “There are so many messages going out, and it’s easy to get distracted and reactionary. Your target doesn’t know who you are because you stand for everything, but in the end, nothing they’re looking for. Stand for one big thing, and stay there.” It is this comparison which is the basis of marketing: differentiation. “You’re not getting compared to who you think you’re getting compared to – you’re getting compared to the people in the customer’s last experience,” Peeples warns. And this isn’t just for retail purchases – this applies to services, too. “It’s a balance between being top of mind with your customer,” Yerganian added, “and the one hour they take to make a decision on their options, and then who they will choose.”

Donna Peeples Chief Customer Experience Officer (Former)aIG

it starts with trust...




Fisher then elaborated on this with an example: “With the way healthcare works, we’re often asked to pick our doctors by picking a name on a list,” he said. “Why can’t we know as much as we can learn from dating sites, like Match.com? Show us a picture, tell us about who they are, where they went to school, but tell us what’s important to them – and how they’re going to make a difference – then we have a basis for making a selection and building a relationship with them.” Of course, sometimes the lines are blurred between sales and marketing, but every business has a common goal of bringing in new customers. An authentic experience works best. Marketing provides insights. “You gotta love people who get to eat what they kill,” Peeples joked. “Sales and Marketing are the power couple: They represent the front end of the relationship, but the back office people must be included. They continue the customer journey, they are stakeholders, too, and are important in delivering the customer.” Fisher emphasized this relationship, pointing out the importance of knowing your audience and understanding how to tailor your content to best meet their wants and needs. According to research from MarketingSherpa, 82 percent of prospects say content targeted to their industry is more valuable, so taking the time to create engaging, relevant content is key. “Can you spend enough time with that target to understand what makes them tick, and where they truly are?” he asked. “That type of engagement gets to them; this company gets me, and [they] are not pushing something down my throat. These people get me.” “These people” Fisher references are just that: people. They’re B2B and B2C – and they’re human. Over time, you must ensure your marketing stays relevant to your customers to keep them engaged, and this is becoming more difficult. “To make content that speaks to each customer is expected, and it’s getting expensive,” Fisher said. “What is the cost of acquisition, what is the long-term value? We’re still trying to figure this out. We all know how to make great content, something that will make people engage, but how do you balance budget versus efficacy?” One way to achieve this is to put the customers in charge of the relationship.

arra yerganian Chief Marketing OfficerOne Medical

we turned upside down our pyramid – our customers are on top




“We turned upside down our pyramid – our customers are on top,” Yerganian explained. “Customers are creating most of our content. When they speak, our customers realize we are truly real.” Weighing the needs of the customer with the business realities is critical, but we’re still trying to figure out the best way to pull off this balancing act. Recognize, one size fits one. We live in a time when the medium is as important as the message. Yerganian suggests we begin by asking: “How do you become part of the moment?” “Your target appreciates it when you become part of the social consciousness,” he said. “Don’t miss the conversation.”

The brands that succeed at this are the brands we remember. “Marketing is creating atmosphere, a stage,” Fisher adds. “Don’t get hung up on perfection – it’s about being in the moment. You need to be top of mind and omni-present, having touch points along the way.” This all starts with the leadership team buying in, something that Peeples says can be achieved through open conversation and discussion. “The challenge is the status quo – it’s good the way it is, the way we do things,” she said. “Getting leadership to agreement is critical. This requires honest communications, and everyone working hard toward alignment through the organization.” “Managing the perception is important. It can’t look like we’re just blowing money,” Fisher added. “Get finance involved because they (usually) know more than what we do. They can help identify how we can measure, and why and where the ROI comes from. If you do it right, they can become part of the plan. Over time, they can better understand the plan.” Measure the right things, and measure dollars with sense.

Greg Fisher Chief Marketing OfficerBraintree

don’t get hung up on perfection – it’s about being in the moment




authentic digital Engagement: Automation Is No Substitute for Strategy aDvanCeS In DIGITal TeChnOlOGy, auction-based media, analytics, and big data have leveled the playing field for challenger brands and the marketing middle class. But marketing automation will only get you so far. Companies need an airtight plan to best leverage marketing automation to create points of genuine engagement and to meet real customer needs. If David wants to compete with Goliath in today’s marketplace, small business needs to be tactical with resources, and must send out a message that’s just as loud as – and even more relevant than – its competitor’s. CEO of Motivity Marketing and author of Taking Down Goliath, Kevin Ryan, and CMO Chris Moloney shared their thoughts of how David can execute this plan and defeat Goliath in today’s digital customer experience. They both believe it all comes together under an umbrella called “marketing automation.” How you look at the customer journey – from prospecting to purchase to support – and the complete life stage of a customer are at the roots of automation and customer relationship management. Those who take full advantage of the newest technologies with a holistic approach to marketing channels will gain a distinct advantage.

“Marketing automation is enabling technology that allows us to remove people so we can communicate with people better,” said Ryan. “The money business saves in automation can be reinvested in serving customers better, through support and services.” If you ask Goliath, marketing automation means leveraging technology, process, and innovation tools to deliver marketing messages. The technology behind automation is advancing so fast that most industries are unable to imagine their application. However, industry leaders are able to identify what works for their customer journey. Some of the most common and proven applications currently include: • Trigger-basedautomation(basedonwhattheydid)• Profile-basedautomation(basedonwhotheyare)• Prediction-basedautomation(basedonwhattheymaydo)• Content-basedautomation(basedonwhattheylike)• Location-basedautomation(basedonwheretheyare) Most companies select segments of their lists that represent their best or most frequent customers. They want it to feel authentic, but automation is, after all, a process that is mechanical by definition.

Kevin ryan Author of‘Taking Down Goliath’

the money business saves in automation can be reinvested in serving customers better




“Challenger brands have a chance to level the playing field – just look for areas to do what you do better,” Moloney explained. But be careful. Many companies have tools in place to identify marketing automation robots, so plenty can go wrong. “Overly-engineered marketing will fail,” Moloney added. In your quest to stand out, there are plenty of pitfalls you’ll need to avoid. When relying on automation and riding the hot trend of the day, you might encounter: • Personalizationerrors,changingafirstnametoFNAME• Messagemismatchormisplacement• ROIormeasurementerrors• “Overcomplexityness”–justmakingitsomuchharderthanitneedstobe• Justlookingstupid Digiorno Pizza recently suffered some major blowback in attempting to hop aboard the trending hashtag “#WhyIStayed.” The hashtag was designed to provide grounds for those in abusive domestic relationships to open up and share their stories, and the pizza company flippantly joined the conversation. Technology is cheap, but intelligence is not, and Digiorno’s slip-up provided a perfect example of when social media marketing goes wrong. Moloney suggests that success comes when we build technology around people.

“Map the customer journey, not the technology,” he said. “We need to know if we’re talking to a customer, and does it make sense? We need to know: ‘Where is the customer today, and where do they need to go?’” Here are some points to take into consideration to help you answer Moloney’s questions: • Considerthelifestageofacustomerandthestepsontheir journey,notthequotaofnumbersand

the stages of a sales funnel. • Considerretargetingandmarketingtogiveyourcustomerswhattheywant,whentheywantit. • Consider that the risks are increasingwhenwe add social and digital – some people are working

against you, and that doesn’t control itself.

There are risks, but more automation is to come. Ryan adds, “It’s just combining technology with a scalable asset to provide a customer experience.”

Chris X. MoloneyChief Marketing Officer (Former)Wells Fargo advisors

overly-engineered marketing will fail.




To succeed:

Layoutanairtightplantobestleverageyourmarketingautomation. Create points of genuine engagement by tuning your digital experience to meet real customer needs. Make efficient uses of resources to send out a message that’s just as loud as – and even more relevant than – your competitor’s. Take full advantage of the newest technologies with a holistic approach to your marketing channels, and gain a distinct advantage over your competition.




be More Precise: Target and Tailor Your Messages with Data-Driven Insight reCeIvInG – and correctly analyzing – the right data can make all the difference for your marketing efforts. Most marketers know the sort of data they’re after. You want demographics, psychographics, location, and various other data sets to help understand and evaluate your audience. This helps you tailor your messages, hitting all the points you want for the right people at the right time. But what if your data is unreliable? What if your messaging misses the mark? You run the risk of running with bad data, wasting precious time and resources to send messages that resonate poorly, or that don’t resonate at all. To help ensure your efforts are on point, experts recommend segmenting your data – tailoring different messages for different people to ensure a spread of well-received communication. “The impact of data on people is most felt locally,” said Weather Analytics Vice President Paul Walsh. “Different data generates different reactions based on how it affects them. We want to serve up a message that transcends advertising, so it’s no longer an ad, it’s helpful advice (or information).”

This idea – transcending advertising to deliver helpful information – is the key. You don’t want to feel phony, and you don’t want to feel like you’re trying too hard to get your buyer’s attention. The right message – the perfect message – brings attention to a product without explicitly selling anything. Patrick Henshaw, co-founder and chief operating officer of Strap, an integration and analytics platform for wearables, expanded on this thought, drawing an example by using the popular American home improvement store, Home Depot. “What if you’re Home Depot? If you know it’s going to rain, you can speak to them [your audience] about how this will affect their garden,” Henshaw said. “We know it’s going to be nice, we know the customer is active (FitBit) so we can suggest you work in your garden.” By using weather data and data received from an audience’s wearables, Henshaw suggests, marketers (Home Depot in this case) can send a blast to their audience, saying, “Hey, it’s going to be a nice day to garden!” If they need soil, mulch, gardening tools, etc., where do you think they’ll go first? This builds rapport with the customer, and it elevates the company’s marketing strategy above what is usually seen or expected from such industries. The difference is in the data, and data is available everywhere.

Paul WalshVice-President, Weather AnalyticsThe Weather Company

we want to serve up a message that transcends advertising, so it’s no longer an ad, it’s helpful advice




Henshaw continued, stating a fundamental bit of information about himself that could be easily accessed by marketers if they looked to tap into his daily activity log courtesy of his own wearable. “If you could incorporate my activity data, [you] would know I don’t drive,” Henshaw said. “I use Uber or ride a bike – I don’t drive.” A seemingly small bit of information, this nugget could prove valuable for marketers. While the benefits for Uber, Lyft, or similar ride servicesis obvious, this information is also valuable for public transportation services or businesses buying/selling cars or parts. If they know Henshaw does not have a car, why would they market to him? They run the risk of feeding him irrelevant information, pushing him away should he ever decide to purchase a car in the future. Your messaging matters, and the data you use to deliver it can impact your company now and into the future. Once you find the right data and you have the perfectly tailored message, though, it’s important to remember: the money is in moderation. Underexpose an ad to a potential consumer, and you run the risk of them never seeing it. They can’t act on something they have no knowledge about, so your efforts are wasted. Overexpose that same ad, and they’ll certainly see it, but they’ll grow annoyed by its presence. Think of the ubiquitous ads in your life, the ones you see dozens of times every time you flip on the radio or

television. Do you want to buy those products or support those businesses? Probably not. It’s a point recognized by leaders today, and it’s invaluable to keep in mind as you move forward. “Marketers need to learn there is a tipping point – how many times can you expose an ad to someone before they just get tired of it?” asks Nest’s Head of Google Analytics, JesseNichols. The balance lies in smart implementation of the right data to the right people. There is a lot of work involved – Henshaw,

Jesse nicholsAnalytics Industry Solutions & PartnershipsGoogle

how many times can you expose an ad to someone before they just get tired of it?




Nichols, Walsh, and company readily admit that – but the payoff is a well-tailored message that will gain your audience’s trust and compel them to choose you now and into the future. This effort, they contend, can have a massive payoff for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in particular. While the big dogs in town are using their own data sets, SMBs can tap into a local, more passionate and intimate user base. An SMB can know things about their customer that a large corporation will never see, giving them an advantage when it comes time to deliver their messaging. “It’s even more important for SMB’s to target – you don’t have the budget, [so] you have to out hustle,” Nichols said. “You have to use your local knowledge to win out on the competition. This is where you win in investing heavily in sharp segmentation.” “For small businesses – those who understand their customers – it’s easier to move the levers,” Walsh continued. As we continue to explore the digital age, it’s important to remember that the more things change, they more they stay the same. Just as an advertising agency wouldn’t place a Rolls Royce billboard in a poverty-stricken section ofAmerica in the 1930s, you don’t want to send messages about manicures to your 18-34 male audience today. And you surely don’t want to tell Henshaw about the new muffler that just came into the shop this morning. Know your audience. Treat them with respect, and deliver the type of information to them that you, yourself, would find relevant and helpful. As you grow – together – you’ll unlock more pertinent data sets for even better opportunities to tailor the perfect messages for them. The difference is in the data, but your success depends on your delivery.

Jesse nicholsAnalytics Industry Solutions & PartnershipsGoogle

you have to use your local knowledge to win out on the competition




Connect Through your Content: Don’t Push Messages, Build Relationships The IMPOrTanCe OF unDerSTanDInG your audience cannot be overstated. This is where everything begins – with a relationship, a connection between you and your customers. Establishing that relationship can be easy. Keeping them on the line can be more difficult. That’s where your job transcends from “salesman” to “partner.” Forget – for just a second – about securing the sale. Instead, become someone your customer can trust and deliver reliable, authentic messaging to them. Communicate your messages in a way that says, “I hear what you’re looking for, and I’m working to make that happen.” Then make it happen. Everything else, with a little time and love, will fall into place. “Understand not only personas, but where someone has an affinity for [a] product,” says IBM Program Director of Strategy and Solutions Michelle Killebrew. “Perfecting those content mines for those audience roles is a process.” To perfect this process, you’ll need data (as discussed in the previous chapter), but you’ll also need a keen awareness to properly react to the information you receive. Having the data is great. Acting on it in a timely, effective manner is better. When you begin to dig deeper into the data, you’ll find emerging trends for your customers. From “no way” to “maybe” to “I’m interested,” each customer journey is unique, and you must understand the dynamics that go into each line of thinking. Your messaging will depend upon what stage of their journey they’re currently occupying, and you’ll need to be cognizant of where your customers stands today – and where they’ll be tomorrow. Root them in something of value, and nurture the seedling as it develops into a full-grown relationship. When you do that, you will strengthen the level of trust they feel toward you and your business, and they will be more likely to share the type of information that can help you continue to tailor messaging for them into the future. “As customers become more familiar and assume deeper level content – when they are ready to get into feature / function info – you can understand they are now ready to share user info, lead generation, demos, etc.” Killebrew said. “Understand the buyer stage (customer journey) to better interact. People are so empowered, you have to give them a value proposition and nurture them.”

Michelle KillebrewProgram Director, Strategy and Solutions, Social BusinessIBM

understand the buyer stage to better interact




In this quest to strike the perfect balance with your audience, you will likely find the best content to take on a life of its own. It will become a living, breathing extension of your organization and its branding, representing everything you currently do and everything you’re looking to do as you move forward. This content engages your audience, and it also makes them feel a part of the family. They’re welcome to participate, and, in some cases, they can literally affect what types of products or services you deliver. “When we think of content, we think of thought leadership,” saidFirebrandGroupFounderandCEOJeremyGoldman.

“Laysdeveloped‘makeyourownflavor’andturneditintoacompetition–dynamiccontentthatengagespeoplebuttakesona lifeof itsown. InsteadofLayssaying, ‘Gocheckthisout,’wenowhaveJeremysaying, ‘You should go check this out.’” That’s an important distinction. “Go check this out” and “You should go check this out” read the same at first glance. Both messages tell you to go explore something – a product, an ad, a website – whatever “this” may be. But the former instruction is an order. The latter is a suggestion. Recognize the difference, and think about what that means for your business. Which one is healthier? Which one feels more friendly? Put another way, think about your day-to-day interactions with friends and family members. As a marketer, you are trying to develop intimate relationships with your audience, after all, so it’s sometimes not a bad idea to think how you’d treat those already close to you. If you see a great movie and you want to share it with your close friends, do you say, “Go watch that movie now!” or do you say, “You guys should watch that movie. It was fantastic.” The latter is friendlier. You’re more likely to respond positively to the latter example, as it made you feel part of the bigger picture. Secondly, notice the person delivering the order in Goldman’s example. The former request, the harsher demand, comes fromLays – the companydelivering themessaging.The latter commandcomes fromJeremy,afriendoracquaintanceinthiscase. Bydevelopingunique, shareablecontent that iseasy toengagewith,Laysopened thedoor to let itsaudience do the marketing for them. They could run high-dollar ad campaigns (and they certainly may have), but a vast majority of the exposure they received for the “Make your own flavor” experiment came from humans talking to humans – old-school communication. This is only possible only if Lays’ audience first trusts them, and second feels their content is worthsharing. It all circles back to our first point: Your marketing success is tied to the relationships you’ve built with your audience.




If they don’t trust you or believe in your work, how can you get them to spread the word? How can you get them to tell their friends about the innovative project you just launched? Water your seed. Provide it sunlight. Watch it develop into a mature relationship, then harvest the crop it produces for you.

In marketing, understanding your audience – and connecting with them on a personal level – is key. Unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts by focusing on these relationships first, then deliver your content. If you’ve done the research, if you’ve put in the time, and if you’ve developed a coherent plan, the rest will fall into place.

focus on relationships first, then deliver your content




storytelling for success: Give Employees and Customers a Voice for a Fresh Approach to Marketing DOn’T PITCh a PrODuCT. Tell a story. This line of thinking pervades today’s content marketing strategies, and for good reason. It works. In the previous chapters, we discussed building relationships as a means for prolonged success. These ideas are fundamental to achieving your goals. With that foundation in place, let’s now shift our focus to what type of content you’re going to deliver. Knowing when and where to send your marketing messages is part of the battle – now you have to send content that resonates with your audience and that can stand on its own when it (hopefully) gets tossed around the Internet, reaching people who may or may not be familiar with your brand. Your target audience – those who you built your relationships with over the years – will understand and appreciate what you’re going for in most cases. But when they share your content with a friend and that friend tosses it to a co-worker and so on, will anything get lost in translation?

By telling stories and introducing the human element to your content, you can ensure your messaging is on target – regardless of the reader’s experience with you and your business. We’re all humans, and we can all relate to other people to varying degrees, making this a viable launching point for your content production. “People like to read about people,” said Dell Chief Blogger LauraThomas. “Even when we’re talking about a new product, we push to find the human element – the people who created it, or [the people who] brought it to market, or a customer. It’s much more interesting to talk about what people are doing with our technology than to talk about our technology.” Step one, according to Thomas, comes back to our first point: Tell a story. Yes, you are ultimately selling a product or service, but a snapshot of that product in action – in the hands of a real, authentic user – will resonate in ways that a cliché product description simply cannot. Would you want to read about the newest MacBook Pro’s 4 gigabytes of RAM, or would you want to see a studio engineer multitasking as he stitched together an upcoming album with laser-focused efficiency, using that RAM to impact lives (including his own)? The trick to making this human element come together without seeming too self-serving is authenticity. Embellish the story too much, and your customers will see right through the hyperbole. You’ll come off as fake,

laura ThomasChief BloggerDell

even when we’re talking about a new product, we push to find the human element

laura




and your braggadocio will take center stage. That’s not a good look. Conversely, if you tell a flat story, you’ll do little to get a customer interested. There has to be some pop – some zing – to the story you’re telling, otherwise it’ll get lost in the clutter, never to be remembered by your audience. The best way to strike this perfect balance, according to SonyPlayStationVicePresidentofPlatformsMarketingJohnKoller, is to give your audience the keys to the Porsche – but install a governor first so they don’t rack up any speeding tickets on their joy ride.

“You should let your fans hack your brand,” Koller said. “Give them the tools, let them to do what they want, and try and control – to some degree – so that message is in line with ours. You can’t control it too much or it’s not authentic. It allows them to show off but comes from us. With the tools available today, fans can make great content – not like 10 years ago. Once you’ve leveled out and found your balance, the question then becomes: “Where do I send these messages?” If you don’t share them through the right channels, your research, hard work, and execution goes out the window. Nobody sees your content, and it’s a total bust. Share them through too many channels, and you spread yourself thin, watering down your appeal and potentially annoying your audience with duplicate messages over various platforms. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, ask yourself: “Is my audience there?” and “Can we properly engage them if they are?” As Thomas puts it, we need to “fish where the fish are,” and we need to be ready to set the hook when we perceive a bite. Once you’ve narrowed down where to send your messages, use your data, use your past experiences, and use your expertise to deliver that story. But again, be sure not to deliver a heavy-handed message. We’re not fishing with dynamite. Your customers are delicate, and they deserve your respect and full attention to detail. “When a post reads like ‘It’s all about us,’ [they’re performing poorly],” Thomas said. “With great John Koller

Vice President of Platforms MarketingSony PlayStation

you should let your fans hack your brand... it allows them to show off, but comes from us




content, the reader has to see themselves in the story – ’It could be me’ – even if we are talking about us.” So once you’ve found the right spot and the right tackle, you can fish to your heart’s content, right? Not so fast. Remember, your audience is a dynamic, shifting range of people, each with different motivations and aspirations. You can’t possibly please all of them all the time, but you can come close, and you must achieve that through moderation. They’ll love receiving relevant, targeted, honest content from you, but even then, they don’t want to drown in a flood of it. “The big thing is oversaturation,” Thomas said. “Content marketing is about creating content, so there’s going to a glut – more than they can consume – so it’s about time to look for the big themes. There’s a lot I can pull from and build, instead of starting from scratch. Security, the cloud, the Internet of things – repurpose and repackage existing content.” When something works, it just works, and it’s not a bad idea to ride the hot topics and themes, according to Thomas. Knowing what’s striking the right chord with your audience is impossible without first building that relationship. How can you give your customer what they want if you don’t know who they are? Keep that human element in mind, then deliver your story. You’re not selling them on a product or service – you’re selling them on yourself as a partner worth doing business with. There’s a distinction, and your ability to tread the line and establish yourself as an effective communicator will determine your ultimate success.

remember, your audience is a dynamic, shifting range of people




best Practices for social Media brand Protection: Maximize ROI and Protect Your Name on Social PreCIOuS FeW aBSOluTeS exist in the world of marketing, but as we advance into the digital age, one such certainty has become clear: You have to use social media, and you have to use it right. You’reprobablyfamiliarwithFacebook,Twitter,LinkedIn,Google+,etc.onsomelevel.Maybeyouknowhow to log in and chat with family and friends. Maybe you know how to share content. Maybe you know how to customize a post to target a specific audience. Regardless of your comfort level with social, it’s important to realize you can learn it more completely and you can leverage your social efforts to support your business goals. Social doesn’t have to be a nuisance – it can be a tool to aid in your success. But this uncharted digital landscape is fraught with risk. When exploring the unknown, you must tread lightly, and social media presents a minefield of potential disaster for any marketer. Fake accounts, spam, hacks, and compliance regulations can cause irreparable damage to a brand, undermining your investment in social and threatening your company’s credibility in the process. One wrong message, and years of hard work can vanish in a flash. When you’re managing an entire staff and granting each member access to your social profiles, you amplify the likelihood of these off-target messages seeping through the cracks, putting your company at an increased risk.

“We have these great employees that want to defend the brand – there’s an army of them – but the training is important,” said BankoftheWestHeadofSocialMediaJoelNathanson.“Theyhave to understand the implications of what they are doing.” To help employees understand these implications, as Nathanson notes, social media training is a must. It sounds unnecessary and laborious – you expect me to go through training just to post on Facebook?! – but before you dive into the deep end, you need to know you can drown. Understanding the risk will help you choose caution when you make the leap. “We had a lot of people get pages and profiles in place to communicate, but when you start to scale you have to apply policies and methodologies that include best practices, use cases and others to apply to social in order to rationalize them,” said Hewlett-Packard Worldwide Digital Capabilities

Joel nathansonHead of Social MediaBank of the West

employees have to understand the implications of what they are doing




Program Manager Pete Metrulas. “The reality is that social includes risk – access control, content management, workflow – the basics of building a system. You don’t have to become an IT organization, but you can apply process to do better in this space.” Once your company understands the risks involved and owns a basic framework of rules to work within, the focus shifts to compliance, and this is an area that permeates your marketing efforts across the board. It’s not unique to social, but it’s still massively important. At one point not so long ago, it was against Facebook’s terms of service to run a contest on your business’ page. You had to use an external application to manage the contest – separate from your timeline (where your audience was already comfortable interacting with you).

If you weren’t aware of the potential violation and decided to run a contest on your timeline anyway – the post with the most likes receives a free one-month subscription! – you risked suspension from the powers that be at Facebook headquarters. For a business looking to leverage social into something bigger – lead generation, sales, etc. – a ban could be devastating. Acting in compliance is essential to ensure your social profiles stay up and running, and by maintaining an active presence on social, you open the door to new opportunities to build relationships and engage your customers. Shutting that door could abandon customers – old and new – looking to learn more about you and your products and services.

As you venture into this unknown land to tackle the realm of social media, you’ll need help. Cyber security will protect your assets and keep your platforms afloat, and your employees – now trained in the art of social – need to commit to executing your company’s plan. There are plenty of moving parts, and it’s important to take baby steps to make sure the engine doesn’t stall before the social machine is fully rolling. “It’s tough to break into the social media space – you need to bring on partners: security, cyber security, network control,” Metrulas said. “You need to invest. You have to build trust with social media – start with one or two channels – and show success.” From there, branch out and consider extending your relationships across multiple platforms. As long as you have the bandwidth to tend to each property and as long as your audience is waiting for you on each property, having multiple points of contact on social is a viable strategy. The trade-off to doing this, however, is that you open yourself up to more potential pitfalls. When this expansion occurs, your best practices and your company policy on social becomes even more important. Remember: The rewards in social are many, but the risks are just as numerous, if not more so. Understanding this fact – and bulletproofing your brand to stand up to the numerous forms of cyber attacks and hijackings

Pete Metrulas Worldwide Digital Capabilities Program Managerhewlett-Packard

you have to build trust with social media




that could occur – is paramount for your success in this analog frontier. So log into Facebook or Twitter and let your audience know what’s new with your company. Show them all the great work you’re doing – and tease the even better work you plan to unveil in the future. Prepare yourself for conversations with them, but remember: Your brand is your brand no matter where you take it. Don’t lose sight of your company’s mission, and represent yourself on social just as you would in a face-to-face business meeting. You’re behind a keyboard, but you’re still you, so make smart, informed decisions that reflect positively upon yourself and your organization. Failure to do so can result in disaster – and the Internet just loves to toss around a nice, heaping pile of disaster from user to user, helping you go viral in a way you never intended.

represent yourself on social just as you would in a face-to-face business meeting




brandocracy: Build a Strong Brand – Now That Your Customers Have the Power to Define It By nOW, you should have a firm grasp on the idea that your customers have a profound impact on your brand. In today’s marketing landscape, customers don’t just keep the lights on – they decide when to flip the switch on and off. With online reviews, tweets, Facebook timeline posts, personal recommendations, etc., customers can literally define your brand. There’s little you can do to stop them from spreading your name like wildfire, but you can help influence whether the name-dropping is positive or negative. By properly tailoring your messages, monitoring your content, building genuine relationships, and always maintaining a professional voice and tone, you should be well on your way to ensuring success with your target audience.

Now that your audience is compelled to talk about you, make sure that talk reflects upon your brand how you’d like it to. Whether your CEO or an unpaid intern engages a customer, you want the client to leave the conversation feeling the same – refreshed, pleased, and ready to lay down an appealing recommendation. “Your experience with our restaurant is confined to two or three restaurants – we’re 1,600 restaurants in 10 countries,” said IHOP Head of Marketing, Media, and Menu Kirk Thompson. “The size isn’t critical, but your relationship with us is. When you remember back, you probably remember making pancakes – learning the recipe, the magic of putting it on the grill, watching the bubbles come up. “This is one of the pieces of DNA – this bonding – inside everyone. It was a ritual with your grandparents, it was 2:00 in the morning – it’s a lot of things. Young or old, everyone taps into these stories. They are the fabric of our social media and messaging.” By making each member of your audience feel special, by inviting them to join your exclusive club, you build brand trust, and once this confidence is in place, you can let your audience work for you in fun, innovative ways. Thompson expands on this, detailing a recent effort across IHOP’s social media platforms that was simultaneously engaging for customers and helpful for the company.

“After the holidays, we promoted pancakes and it became a contest: How many pancakes can you eat? So we said, ‘Bring it on!’ You’ll see stacks and stacks of pancakes with conversations about how many they could eat,” Thompson said. “There’s an obvious PR value and brand value, but it gave our restaurant teams a way to engage with guests. What are your favorite pancakes (exploring menu items), what was

Kirk Thompson Head of Marketing, Media, and MenuIhOP

stories are the fabric of our social media and messaging




your favorite syrup (options) – the restaurant teams have a lot of fun with this.” In building this authentic presence on social and abroad, your brand becomes a trusted, reliable source of information, entertainment, service, and inspiration all at once. You can transcend simply providing a product to your customers and become an integral part of their network, just as you invited them to become part of yours. It’s a two-way street of communication, and you must be prepared to give just as willingly as you take.

With this mentality, you can enrich your customers’ lives, a worthwhile endeavor that will force you to consistently innovate and shape your marketing efforts for maximum effect. “We got a message on our Facebook page from a young athlete with Cerebral Palsy about how much he admired our brand,” said Gatorade Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley. “We sent him a towel, and he would share how this was a lucky object for him. He talked about how training helped him deal with the challenges in his life.

“A young member on our team thought this was a great story, and we started to share this online. The story earned a lot of exposure, a pro team had reached out to him – unknown to us. We had empowered our young team members to look for these huge opportunities, and we make new connections that we could not have made without them. It’s a way for Gatorade to help celebrate sport, and it makes us think about how we can market the brand a little bit differently.” Once your customers are hooked, fully supporting your brand and its efforts, you have to keep the pipeline loaded. You must feed them with equal-or-better quality content than that which got them there in the first place, and you have to give them a reason to stay. They like your brand now – why will they like it tomorrow? In six months, what are you doing to keep them from jumping ship? “It has to always go back to your consumer,” Flatley said. “Everything that’s changing is important, but not more important than who is your customer and how do you connect with them.” “It comes down to ‘What are you sharing with your guests?’” Thompson continued. “What are they going to connect with? If you start with that, what would your customer want to share about what is so important?”

Morgan Flatley Chief Marketing OfficerGatorade

it has to always go back to your consumer

you must be prepared to give just as willingly as you take




These questions, as presented by Flatley and Thompson, don’t have direct answers. Each company is different, and results may will vary. The sentiment, though, rings true in nearly any application. Your customers – the people who, in today’s world, can shape your brand – are something beyond important. They’re essential. They are, in a sense, you, and you must strive to be them. In understanding each other, you’ll form a stronger relationship, one which you can fuel with expertly tailored content and messaging that hits home and reminds them why they’re by your side to begin with. Today, users don’t just support a brand – they define it. How will your audience define yours?




The Marketer as bridge-builder: Deliver a Premium Customer Experience by Collaborating Across Departments OrGanIzaTIOnS aCrOSS The BOarD are seeing the need for increased collaboration across departments. In a recent study from Forrester, 86% of CMO’s surveyed said they were seeing much more consultation from their peers on business issues, and 76% saw their role increase in decision making. “The data,” says Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Laura Ramos, “showsmore andmoreCMO’s are brought in to contribute towards the direction on the company.” Today, CMO’s are much more integrated into a business – big or small. At the CMO level, at a true leadership level, it puts pressure on CMO’s to think strategically and opportunistically – to hold and retain a customer – and ultimately look so thoughtfully and analytically in order to answer, “what does it take to drive success?” This is what brings the imperatives into the organization. It’s not a competition; it’s a collaborative process. Driving the growth of the business happens with your peers.

If it’s “a consumer thing,” it starts with marketing. Ultimately, this should influence the rest of the chain. When operations talks to marketing, planning and business analytics comes in – it’s really a four-way conversation. If you address the issues all at once, it knocks down those walls and starts to build a bridge. IHOP’s Head of Marketing, Media and Menu Kirk Thompson agrees. “There was a time when CMO’s were the advertising department, or trade shows, or PR, and marketing would lead those functional conversations,” he said.”In my experience, this has evolved over the last seven to 10 years. CMO’s now come in with bigger business chops and opinions because the organization realized that, at the end of the day, what matters is what people buy, think of, experience, like, dislike or recommend. “Everything is marketing because everything is about the customer and connecting with the customer. Those functional silos have increasingly vanished, and now it’s all about how we drive business growth together – one more purchase, one more experience, one more recommendation.” Thompson includes outside agencies as a critical part of their team. “Our agencies are our best sources for information and why we partner,” he added. “They are best at developing content, delivering content – they are our eyes and ears in the marketplace – what’s new, where are the opportunities. They are critical voices for social, customer and product intelligence. They’ll be honest with us because they don’t live in our building.”

Kirk Thompson Head of Marketing, Media, and MenuIhOP

cmo’s now come in with bigger business chops and opinions




He also looks for agency mindsets in people. “When you succeed in agencies, you learn to listen, to synthesize things that are not connected yet,” he continued. “When I look for bridge building, I look for negatives – what don’t they understand. In there will be some really salient points that impact programs: what media, what message, what products do we choose. It’s much better to come in and ask questions, ask what keeps them up at night – I guarantee you it will link to other things in your department.” Understanding the customer means doing the segmentation and persona work – sophisticated or simple – which colors and shapes the rest of it: features, benefits, and packages. This applies not only for who’s buying now, but also for future buyers. When a business defines enough of the unique factors of why a segment buys – generational, cultural, age, income, or geographic – it can quickly identify there are different people and different habits for each. This makes everyone think differently, and this drives everything else. So who picks the segments? The CEO and the C-suite, otherwise, as Thompson notes, “it just becomes a research project.” Until the leadership of an organization agrees on the customer segment, nothing that marketing will do has the validity moving forward required to allocate resources, execute operations, or provide reporting on the success of the effort. “The truth is, you only need to identify three or four segments, otherwise you can amass too many of them,” said Forrester VicePresident,PrincipalAnalystLauraRamos.“This[control]helps us get over that wall of data which is important as a skill set; to see random themes, to connect random dots – what you see over here impacts over there. You’re looking for common threads, common themes, common information - but what do they do differently? I’m in LA – America isnotlikelifeinLA.Segmentationandpersonasgroundthoserealities in all parts of America. We’re trying to believe data is so big and so important - getting the organization to not overreact has been the biggest skill learning. Realize that the data will change daily, so identify what’s noise and chatter, and what’s really a bigger issue? We’re all customers – remember what it’s like to be a customer.” Ramos adds from her experience that, “What marketing is good at is communication. Everyone is talking about ‘the customer journey.’ Understanding the day in the life of a customer is an instrumental tool.”

laura ramos Vice President, Principal AnalystForrester

identify what’s noise and chatter... and what’s really a bigger issue




When marketing works with operations and works productively, it’s more successful. That bad circle that marketing used to work in – i.e., “it’s their fault” – had so many revisions that most lost time, money, momentum and passion: This approach builds bridges. To build a structurally sound bridge, pause and trace the customer journey together: where it starts, where it goes, where it ends. A business needs this information before it starts making decisions. Each department’s functional items will throw out another data point – something that he or she knows better than anyone else at the table – that doesn’t come up in the day-to-day because they’re working on their own own areas. Ultimately, the consumer owns the brand, but organizationally, marketing is their loudest voice. Marketing represents the consumer, but it’s not the only owner of the brand.




Make data your Crystal ball: Predictive Modeling to Better Understand the Customer FrOM FaIryTaleS TO SCIenCe FICTIOn, the crystal ball has appeared as a mystical device to see the unseen, and to seemingly predict the future. Soothsayers used the need for information and a desire to believe as the leverage to guide those looking for direction, even if their predictions weren’t based on any real information themselves. As human intelligence expanded, so did the basis for prophecy and prognostication. The study of the stars (science) and the documentation of natural events (record keeping) provided insights, now based on knowledge and information, to generate tools for better decision making, like the Farmers Almanac. For some, this was perceived to be magic, for others it was common sense. All the while, it was simply predictive modeling. Customer information you may already be collecting can be used to find useful insight through predictive modeling. Also referred to as predictive analysis, predictive modeling leverages data and statistics to predict outcomes. The traditional analysis is that you look at the past – what happened. With predictive analysis,

we look to what will happen in the future. We simply use (input) data to make (output) decisions. When applied properly, predictive modeling can identify marketing opportunities previously unseen and impact a business far outside the department. It can also serve as a bridge, between departments, that impacts the success of the total organization. Now, this doesn’t mean all data: it means relevant data. “LinkedInisyourprofessionalidentity,soimaginethedatawehave,”explainsMichaelLi,SeniorDirector,BusinessAnalytics.“We know where you work, where you are, your school, your skills you have and the skills people think you have. We have quantitative information. We also know your net-worth and whom you are connected with. When you look at a person you only see their profile, but on our backend we see more. This information is our starting point in defining a problem, then we can build a predictive model.” LiveNationSeniorVice-President,DigitalSales,JeremyLevineshares, “We have both quantitative and behavioral data. For example, most people have bought a ticket from Ticketmaster, so when we look at the totality of data, we search for what other data we can look at to sell more tickets based on past

when applied properly, predictive modeling can identify marketing opportunities previously unseen




purchasing tickets. What else can we look at to solidify those models and work that out? One of the real values is that you can see when someone is shelling out $300 for a ticket, there’s a real connection there, a passion. When we get third-party data, we can really see what these people look like in real life. At the end of the day, it’s a combination of a lot of different data sets, then measuring those predictions to come up with a living, breathing model.” For businesses using digital advertising, predictive modeling helps to serve the right content to the right person. There’s no reason to serve up an ad – to waste budget for an impression – which they are not interested in. First, collecting data allows us to measure. Second, data science predicts what we will do. Jeffrey Thompson, General Manager and Senior Vice-President, Business for RNN TV explains, “One thing I learned at Disney is that, ‘there’s always riches in the niches.’ We would pilot 40 shows for every two that makes the air – think about the waste that comes with that approach; it’s a very inefficient model. The fragmentation of media is a huge challenge for those who grew up in a TV and film business. Now, content is on every device, on every screen. 70% of TV shows are cancelled each year. These decisions to go to market are made by professionals in the space – they know what they’re doing. Today, we can make predictions in the marketplace for content that has not yet been released. Using predictive modeling, we recently predicted 94% of what the Nielsen ratings would be. Even if we move the needle a few percent on an $80 million dollar project, that’s a lot of money.” In the past, most of marketing has had the responsibility to drive revenue. Today, marketing monitors the lifecycle of customers. What has driven this is not the mass marketing we grew up with, it’s the sniper focus of data and intelligence.

The rise of programmatic advertising is significant. These tools now help you take away the 15% you can’t measure and add to the 85% you can measure. With more data, you can improve your spend. “I’m not a marketer – I work with marketing. We measure how we’re creating value for a member. If you’re looking fora job,arewe findingyoua job?”Lisaid.“Ifyou’regrowingyournetwork,arewegrowingyour network? It becomes a lot more about putting the member first, which is the core of our business.”

Michael li Senior Director, Business Analytics

we measure how we’re creating value for a member.




Thompson warns, “You don’t want your teams to get in too deep – stay in marketing, just learn what these tools can do for you. You have to have the right blend: smart marketers that blend that third-party data.” More of marketing is becoming more data-driven, and if you don’t know data, you can’t do good marketing. The people who understand both sides are invaluable. The lesson to be learned is that you

can’t look at everything equally: look at what KPI (key performance indicators) you’re focusing on, and work backwards from there. Data is used differently for each department – they each have different initiatives – and one size does not fit all. Another challenge is correlation versus causation. You can have one person that moves from one zip code to another. That doesn’t mean he will now make more money, but they may make more money eventually. Levine concludes, “You have to get to the truth – thedata doesn’t lie. If you can take the data to a place where they say, ‘That makes sense,’ then you are establishing a narrative that they can get to quickly, and that’s is good as it can get. Marketing would rather go to the C-Suite with a data story than just another great idea.” Data analytics is still young, and we’re still learning how to apply them properly and purposefully. You have to learn how to use these new tools, and then the tools can help you reduce the risk.

Jeremy levine Senior Vice-President, Digital Saleslive nation

marketing would rather go to the c-suite with a data story than just another great idea




Conclusion: Above and Beyond the Summitevery year, I’m astounded by the sheer amount of great perspectives, stories, and new ideas that are the byproduct of bringing so many brilliant people together at our summits. There’s enough said in two days to discuss over the course of the next year.

However, our space moves quickly. That’s one thing that will always unite

marketers, creators, and innovators, regardless of their industry – the

exhilarating, but punishing, pace of change.

But you haven’t just picked up a bunch of perishable, one-off insights Far

from it. You’ve gotten the chance to not just learn what’s most relevant to

you right now, but see the patterns of change that will shape the future.

We’re always listening, so here are the three biggest trends we’ve picked

up from the discussions among your peers:

• Customers Expect (Even) More: We know that a proliferation of

choices and information has forced every company to do more to

partner with and woo their customers. However, customers themselves

are changing. The behaviors and needs of a digital-first, millennial

generation have trickled upwards and downwards to shape the

demands of your entire customer base. Every day, more of them

expect your marketing to be mobile-friendly, your journey to be

seamless and catered to their needs, and your brand to be open,

honest, and real.

• Marketers – You Define the Future: As the primacy of the customer

rises, so does your role within your organization. You are the ones

best-suited to understand your customers’ needs, liaise with the other

departments that face them, and lead communication on all fronts. As




understanding the customer becomes more important to the C-Suite,

so will you – as long as you’re able to understand them better than

everyone else.

• Experience is Everything: Your customer doesn’t want a pitch, an

offer, a deal. They don’t just want a tailored message, pretty good

content, service with a smile. They want a seamless, satisfying

experience. To deliver that, you’re going to have to make sure your

organization is firing on all cylinders; you’re going to have to be firing

on cylinders you never had before. This will require you to integrate

customer data, online and offline touchpoints, content, care, social,

mobile, and everything else. It won’t be an easy task. Yet, those who

are up to it are going to lead and define marketing – at least, until

tomorrow.

We wish you luck, and remember: you’re not alone. You’re a part of Incite

Group’s network of marketing, social media, and data practitioners.

We meet year-round, and we’re always looking for new ways to better

serve you. When you need real, cutting-edge insight, we hope you’ll

continue to come to us.

until next time: hang onto your seats.

Mark Kersteen editor and content director

Incite Group@mkersteen


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