Introduction

The Challenge: Planning for 2015 Q4 is one of the most hectic, anxiety-ridden times of the year for the marketing department. Not only are we dealing with wrapping up our initiatives from 2014, including getting rid of our ‘use it or lose it’ budgets, but we’re simultaneously trying to plan for an even better 2015. It’s hard to keep all of that information straight! Because we hear these concerns from clients and friends frequently, we’ve decided to pull together this whitepaper to examine the top 25 must-haves for your 2015 digital marketing strategy. No matter what you do next year, you’re going to want to consider each of the following components to create a holistic and complete digital strategy.

So, What Do You Do Now? Have questions on how to get started? Reach out to us here. If you want to see this list in a worksheet format, you can download the PDF version here for free!

Shared Business Goals #1 This seems simple, but maybe not so much. These aren’t marketing goals. These are business goals. They’re shared by everyone in the organization and should drive marketing decisions, as well.

   

Key Performance Indicator #2 KPI’s are documented data points that inform you whether or not your organization is on track to meeting its goals. KPI’s alone are not insights. They are data points.    

Marketing Automation #3 You’ll note we didn’t say email marketing. Marketing automation is the application of triggered communications (using software) based upon an audience segment’s content needs in their own unique customer journey.

Customer/Audience Personas #4 A persona is a representational profile of a person that fits a cluster of key people you are wanting to attract. For example, a persona named “Doug” might fit the profile of “those guys in accounting who always buy staples after a full moon and just prior to tax day, but always stop at Chipotle first.” There might be a lot of “Dougs”, so it’s just easier to call them all “Doug” than by their real names.    

Consumer Insights #5 An insight is not a metric on a dashboard. Your analytics package doesn’t spit out insights. It spits out pretty data, and you as a remarkable human get to apply your mad skills to finding the real human story inside the data. Consumer insights usually answer tough questions that begin with “why?”.

Content Strategy #6 A great content strategy begins with the consumer, not you. What does the consumer need to be informed, entertained or compelled to action? Who needs to create that content to be successful? Where does it live and how should it be produced, managed, optimized, shared, and stored?    

Brand Advocacy #7 What Ciceron obsesses about. How can large numbers of people push the business dials by advocating for the brands they love, appreciate, and support through great stories, their networks, sharing of insights, and their money?

Employee Advocacy #8 Like brand advocacy, but created by employees on behalf of the brands they work for. How can employees celebrate to their networks their employers products and service, culture, work environment, and mission?    

Responsive/Mobile Friendly Design

#9 This isn’t necessarily about apps. It’s about how your web site renders on a mobile site. A responsive site detects which type of device is calling the server and delivers an experience optimized for that device.

CC  by  Markus  Spiske    

Mobile Strategy #10

Your strategy recognizes the unique qualities and technologies inherent to a mobile user experience, and that drives the decisions you make. A mobile strategy isn’t just about targeting advertising to a mobile device. In fact, that sort of sucks.    

Agile/Start-up Mentality #11 You operate in an environment that recognizes how fast decisions need to be made in a digital market. Where users and their delights drive optimization, and small failures are part of everyday innovation.

Risk Tolerance #12 You’re not scared. You can’t always know everything before you make a decision. Sometimes those decisions will be amazing. Sometimes not. But everyone understands that being agile and responsive to change means that you’re going to have to take on the risk of being wrong.    

Paid Media & Remarketing Strategy

#13 You operate a sophisticated paid maid and remarketing program that is highly

targeted and customized, and designed to capture traffic at key points in the funnel/decision journey.

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Supporting Tools/ Technology

#14 Getting modern day work done requires great technology. It gives you the tools you need to get the job done. Technology enables you. It doesn’t get in the way.    

Staff/Resources #15

Simple, but not so simple. Do you have the staff, trained colleagues, budgets, and technology to hit your shared business goals?

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Integrated Campaigns #16 No silos. You execute programs and campaigns utilizing the appropriate mix of media for the right purposes based upon your audience’s needs, habits, and permissions.    

Organizational Social Strategy

#17 You have an organization that broadly participates in providing social interactions based upon the needs and desires of your audiences. Not everyone wants to hear from marketing all the time. Sometimes they need to hear from your leaders, internal experts, customer service people, and product teams. Strike that. Most of the time, that’s who they want to hear from.

CC  by  Didier  Baertschiger    

Search Marketing Strategy #18 Does your company have content that is indexing and serving those hand raisers? You need to have a strategy that goes beyond keywords and meta tags. Content, both brand and user generated, also plays a key role in your search plans.    

Adequate & Dedicated Budget

#19 Your budgets are set in stone because short-changing them or moving crap around all the time derails overall success and makes the whole system break. And that sucks, too. Having budgets yanked to make short term numbers look good makes everyone else look and act badly.

CC  by  Moyan  Brenn  flickr.com  

Senior Level Support #20 Your senior leadership recognizes that they lead a 21st century company, and “being digital” is pretty much the same as “being in business”.    

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Competitive Insights #21 You truly have a solid understanding of what your competitors are up to, not just in terms of top level web traffic patterns or social followings. You see the gaps between how you and they are competing for people’s attention and loyalty through your digital offerings.

Brand Identity/Voice #22 You know who you are and what you stand for. The communication style that emanates from your brand reflects that. You know better than to have an intern managing the Twitter account.    

Killer Creative #23 Your experience design grabs and holds people’s rapt attention. So much so that they share it with others positively. They advocate for you because you’ve made their lives better. Sometimes that’s in very small, delightful ways -- and at other times, in life-changing ways.

Empathetic User Experiences

#24 You design for humans who are short of time and tolerance. You understand that they are not obligated to do anything for you. You design for them because you want to help, entertain or serve them. In exchange, they will reward you.    

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Comprehensive Digital Strategy #25 Basically, you’re doing all of this stuff. It makes sense to you. You’re awesome as a result, and if it were up to us, you’d get a big raise.

#25 How Does Your Digital Strategy Measure Up?

Ciceron is a full service digital marketing, insights, and brand advocacy firm based in Minneapolis, MN. Since 1995, we’ve been helping clients use data and consumer insights to identify the right digital strategies and tactics to meet their business goals. Whether those goals are intended to build brand awareness, generate leads or ultimately, drive revenue and ROI, we’ll help you uncover the opportunities to meet the needs of your potential customers by celebrating and scaling the positive experiences of your current advocates.

Contact Us Today info@ciceron.com � 612.204.1919

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