Month: June 2015

Why You Need to FOCUS – Forget Ideas, Start with Problems

Compliant Ideas, Digital Disruption, Innovation

In the rush to innovate, we jump to solutions, look for silver bullets. We cool hunt. Crowd source. Idea storm.

But there is a problem with ideas. Sure they are fantastic for a fledgling startup, but they are dangerous, time consuming and unproductive for most corporates. Unfortunately, one of the first responses to a “call” for more innovation is to ask for “big ideas”.

A better approach is to forget ideas and put out a call for “problems worth solving”. It’s the approach that I have been following for years and it has distinct advantages:

  • Focus on business value – there is an immediate connection between any subsequent ideas and the business value that needs to be created
  • Ownership – you can pinpoint a “business owner” who has a vested interest in the problem being solved
  • Crowd solving – it’s easier to direct structured and unstructured teams to solve the challenge
  • Understanding and articulation – working with the problem owner means that there is a clear understanding and articulation of the challenge. It means everyone is “on the same page”
  • Systems win – in the corporate world, systems win. Taking a systematic approach to solving problems rather than pursuing ideas means that business value can be retained, capacity can be sustained and velocity can be built into (or on the edge of your business).

Once you have your problem sets, you’ll find it’s much easier to get started on that next innovation.

Selling on the Web – Landing Pages that Work

Digital 101, Web/Tech

While brand websites attract the lion’s share of marketing budgets, the great, largely hidden, power of selling on the web is driven by landing pages.

How do landing pages work?

I prefer to create landing pages with a single job in mind – to help the web visitor take the next step in the buyer’s journey. That may mean:

  • I want to change our relationship so that I know who you are – a name, email address or Twitter handle will do
  • I want to help you choose my product or service – provide some useful content such as a comparison guide
  • I want you to order – you’re ready to buy and my landing page will make that easy.

This means that my landing pages will do away with unnecessary distraction. There will be:

  • Only a single call to action
  • No menus or links that will take you away
  • Laser sharp focus on delivering you value.

There are plenty of great online tools that help you quickly create landing pages, but my favourite is Instapage. And while it is a little clunky, it integrates seamlessly into WordPress (there’s a plugin), allows for A/B testing, includes analytics (plus Google Analytics) and starts at an affordable $30 / month. Oh, and you can work with existing templates to create a launch your landing page in as little as 3 minutes.

Ok, you may want to spend a bit longer on your masterpiece, but you can do it with a drag’n’drop interface – and you don’t need technical skill.

Still need more tips? Check out the infographic from Copyblogger that provides 26 tips to help improve your landing pages.

The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work [Infographic]

Like this infographic? Get landing page advice that works from Copyblogger.

Consumer Behaviour Has Changed. Your Content Marketing Needs to Change Too

Content Marketing, Digital Strategy

It wasn’t really until Joe Pulizzi came along and started talking seriously and meaningfully about content marketing that anyone realised that’s what we were doing. As marketers we had been creating collateral, whitepapers, insights, case studies, quizzes, articles and presentations forever. And I mean forever. But we had been producing all this content from a particular point of view – from the inside. After all, up until social media really hit its straps, we were living in a largely broadcast – one-way communications world.

And as we had our heads down, chugging away on our daily tasks, weekly WIPs and month-end reports, something strange happened. Unexpected. Unprecedented.

The audience shifted.

It wasn’t that we weren’t paying attention. It’s that we didn’t have a response. All of sudden, people were reading reviews on the web. They were taking notice of blogs – and complaining about bad customer service. In public. The closed-loop channels that we had developed no longer held any sway. Our customers – whether they loved or hated us at the time – were taking their opinions, feedback and recommendations out of our hands (and channels) and talking directly to each other. Without us.

Fast forward a decade or so and many brands have caught up. To be honest, there has been huge acceleration over the last year or two – and content marketing leaders are rapidly outstripping and outcompeting the rest of their industries. Take a look at the work that Commonwealth Bank is doing. Or ANZ with their BlueNotes initiative. Then look at other industries.

Those that are leading the way have put in place a strategic approach to content and it is paying dividends.

As a member of the ADMA Content Marketing Expert Community, I workshopped key (and continuing issues) with content marketing with leading Australian marketers. We examined the challenges and the processes, skills gaps and opportunities. We looked into ROI and analytics, native advertising and changes in audience behaviour. The resulting whitepaper provides marketers with a solid framework for becoming more customer centric.

This seismic shift in the ability to communicate with audiences from the organisation to consumers demands a radical rethink in marketing strategy. It is no longer the case that businesses can produce marketing materials to support their product cycles. For messages to achieve cut through, organisations need to have a social licence to discuss the topic, putting permission to engage squarely in the hands of the audience. Credibility and media both need to be earned.

You can download the full paper on the ADMA website.

Qantas Hackathon: Feels Like Innovation

Digital Disruption, Digital Strategy, Disruptive Technology, Innovation

After a busy first day of briefings and coding, the stage was set for the last, desperate rush to the midday deadline. Pitches were scheduled and rehearsed, last minute bug fixes were released and some even found time for a relaxing morning tea. But what, really could be created in a mere 24 hours. Would it be useful? Interesting? Would there be true innovation found amongst the lines of code and discarded lolly wrappers? Only time would tell. And time was the one thing that really was in short supply.

Here’s how Day 2 of the Qantas Hackathon played out.