Brief... ready, plan... set, now..... go!

Most of us think that transforming a clients objective into a creative idea is the hard part of creating a digital marketing campaign. While the thought of coming up with a unique idea that will capture the target market is definitely a daunting task the next step of actually implementing the idea on time, on budget and making sure it stays true to the original objective can be even more difficult.

5 tips to deliver a project successfully taken from Method are:

1. Be Honest
“It may seem difficult but be totally honest and upfront with your customer right from the start. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t have all of the resource, money and time needed to deliver it successfully from the outset. Set their expectations by telling them what you will deliver and by when… By having an “open book” policy, you’ll gain your customer’s trust. And if you involve them early enough, they will be more supportive to your cause.”

2. Hand it over
“Managers often fall into the trap of believing that they can do things more efficiently than staff… a smart project manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It gives them the time needed to monitor the project and support their team.”

3. Become a leader
“When you save time by delegating your tasks, you have free time for leading and motivating your team. Do this by regularly communicating the project vision to your team, rewarding them for progress and recognizing their achievements. Gain their respect by showing them you care.”

4. Expect the unexpected
“Always expect things to change and be ready for it when it occurs. People have ideas, your customer may want changes, and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s important, it’s how you react to the change that counts..”

5. Work smart, not hard
“Try not to start from scratch. Give yourself a head-start wherever possible by using tools like project management templates. These templates boost the quality of your deliverables, while saving you time and effort.” *I think the idea behind this last one is good but also that it is a plug for this organizations books/products.



Another way to ensure your project is delivered on time, on topic and on budget is as suggested by Ron Rosenhead author of 'Deliver That Project: A Step-by-Step Guide'.

1. Define your project
“If you have a brief take it away and spend some time ensuring you fully understand what is wanted. Discuss with your manager what is expected and turn these into realistic objectives.”

2. Clarify project roles and have a clear project management structure
“We have found that having clearly prescribed Project Management roles really helps in delivering what is required.”

3. Identify and reduce risks
“Many projects are derailed because something “unexpected” happens. Do a risk assessment exercise to identify the most likely events that could affect the project.”

4. Don’t forget the people
“Many people involved in projects get very heavily involved in project process. These processes are very important, but, you need to build in the people element as well. Don’t forget to identify and manage key stakeholders – people who have an interest or will be affected by the project.”

5. Build the Project Team
“Start by identifying the skills you need to ensure successful delivery of the project. Then, identify those people in the organisation who have the required skills.”

6. Develop a robust project plan
“Ensure your project plan is credible. Identify all of the activities you need to carry out putting cost and time estimates against them.”

7. Deliver what you say you will deliver
“Your project plan should point to what you will deliver, when you will deliver it and even who is responsible for delivering it…Develop a monitoring and control system early in the life of the project…Use simple highlight reports to show progress. Hold brief project meetings and challenge and support each other to ensure you are going to deliver when you should.”

8. Dealing with project changes
“Have a system in place for dealing with project changes. Ensure you are clear who can agree to any major changes e.g. in budget or objectives.”

9. Lessons learned
“Identify as you work your way through the project what you have gained, what others can learn from you.”

10. Stop “project dribble”- project closure
“The trouble is we never seem to finish projects here. They keep dribbling on and on …”


In the end I think the most important thing to keep in mind, to ensure that you deliver your project on topic, on time and on budget, is that things will always happen that you don’t expect so it is so important to be versatile and able to react and stay focused no matter what happens. Having a clear plan and knowing how to delegate is important too and as I am a Virgo I can’t help but also add that a good dose or organization always comes in handy.

My favorite Digital Campaign!

My favorite digital marketing campaign is the Dove evolution one that came out in 2006 and went viral at a unprecedented pace. The campaign was a video on YouTube and showed the transformation of a regular looking woman, who in my opinion wasn’t very attractive in the first place was made to look like a model. The video shows how make up, hair stylists, and photo shopping are used to make her and the subsequent photo model quality or ‘beautiful’. The idea behind the campaign is that the images that we see selling cosmetics on billboards, magazines and other forms of advertising are completely unrealistic. This in turn shows that women and girls are trying to live up to or emulating false ideas of beauty which in the end encourages women to have a unhealthy relationship towards their body. This can lead to low self esteem, eating disorders and other destructive practices like drug use and bad relationships.

The Dove debate is about the impact of unattainable images on self-esteem and they have information on their website that shows many studies about how women and girls view their bodies. The site also has quizzes, articles, tips and advice for women and girls on a variety of topics from skincare, haircare, to perspiration shaving and moisturizing. While the end objective for Dove is to increase profits as any other organization the fact that they are encouraging a healthier view of beauty that is less stereotyped than all of the other health and beauty products gives me hope that companies can make money and be social responsible at the same time. Here is another great video about the dove campaign for real beauty and the impact the campaign has had on young women.

Besides the fact that the message behind this campaign spoke to me I feel it was a great digital marketing campaign because it was short and to the point. It got the message across without the usual marketing hot sellers like sex, explosions, celebrities, humor or blood. It didn’t even need full narration or a spokesperson. This shows that in this day and age an image or a video is truly worth a thousand words.

How to reach digital natives.

Here's a very current video that starts to shed some light on what digital natives are and why they are a whole new breed of consumer...





"If you are consuming old media," she said, "you are consuming it on your couch. If you are consuming new media, you are consuming it on your horse."-Arianna Huffington

First one must consider what makes a digital native so unique, most importantly they are used to receiving information really fast, they like to muti-task, they prefer graphics over text, they function best when networked and thrive on instant gratifications and prefer games to ‘real’ work. Taken from “Engaging Digital Natives with web 2.O Jcd”

Therefore I think that the best way to engage digital natives is to make your product or service available to them anywhere any time. Also interaction is key people what to be able to comment on, compare, share, and speak directly to the business they are using. In the end it is all about engagement and participation.

American Express Open Forum suggests that, “As a business owner, you must give your customers the tools to interact with your product or service however they choose. It means producing content your customers actually like and want to read or engage with. It means more conversation, more education, and less one-way communication and less sitting behind your desk waiting to take an order.”



Here are 9 ways to reach digital natives that Openforum.com, Techsoup.org, Marketingprofs.com all agree on.

1. Offering or sponsoring online research tools. Digital natives research before they buy. They ask their friends, and they search exhaustively online.

Think: User-contributed product reviews, and the ability to share product reviews and comments on your product and services with friends.

2. Constantly refreshed content. Digital natives are impatient. They want content served fresh, all the time. Daily, at a minimum.

Think: Content that is engaging, not boring, and that informs, not sells. Think forums and blogs and other ways to spawn frequent information updates.

3. Creating content to share. What's yours is theirs.

Think: Finding ways to encourage digital natives to pass along your online newsletters, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, blog posts, or whatever you're producing.

4. Tossing out marketing-speak and your product-centric point of view—in all your communications and advertising.

Think: Talk with your customers, not at them.

5. Finding ways to include video and/or audio. Video, audio, and other kinds of media are fun to share and pass around, and embedded video and audio players are often easier to pass along than text, too.

Think: Producing some compelling media in digital or audio format.

6. Fostering brand loyalty. The loyalty of digital natives can be intense, and some may, entirely on their own accord, evangelize your brand or product.

Think: Facebook applications, reaching out to bloggers who are leaders in your industry or who write about things related to your product or services.

7. Monitoring the conversation, and participating in it. Read leading bloggers who write about your products, services or industry. Comment on their blogs, start a dialogue when the opportunity arise.

Think: Make it someone's job to monitor Twitter, read Amazon product listings, write industry-specific blogs you publish, or read and comment on blogs written by others.

8. Being transparent. What does that mean? It means fully embracing the "empowered consumer" and giving them the tools to harness their opinions—good and bad.

Think: Interacting with your customers openly in nothing but a forthright, honest manner.

9. Being prepared for the worst. The flip side of that loyalty is that digital natives have no patience for shenanigans. A ticked off customer has a larger platform, and negative feedback can send ripples excruciatingly far.

Think: Dealing with disgruntled customers as issues occur. (And not wishing they'd simply go away.)

Top considerations for an effective marketing strategy!

In this day and age the Internet is a vast ocean of information so it can hard to make your website standout and therefore get your product or service noticed by the public. ABC Business Consulting suggests that one of the most important online marketing strategy’s is ‘Narrow Your Niche’ in that “the more specific your marketing and web content, the more profitable you will be online.” They also suggest you, “Become an expert in a certain area, develop content on your website that is resource based and relevant to your expertise, and develop specific key words to drive traffic to your site.” I feel this is key to distinguish your website, blog, etc from the millions of others out there.



4 Online Marketing Strategies To Increase Your Bottom ...
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The top 10 effective online marketing strategies to get your business noticed that I have brought together with the help of about.com, freemarketingzone, and Dailymotions are:

1. Audience: Know your target audience research what they like and what they don’t like, create that unique selling point or niche that will attract your kind of audience.

2. Make a Plan: Have a promotion, design, and development plan. This can always be changed but without an initial plan your site will seem unorganized and unprofessional.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): get ranked in the top major search engines, build relevant links, and create natural search phrases to help people get to your site easier and faster.

4. Social Media: use sites like Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn to get less official more organic support from your consumers.


5. Branding: this can make your product standout, as it sheds a spotlight on your product. But this can only be effective you stick to strict rules to build up a strong reputation.

6. Online Public Relations: People still trust information from legitimate sources like newspapers so get listed in them and publish relevant articles.

7. Blogging: Blogs are considered a trusted method for online marketing as well as for influencing potential buyers because they are people’s direct opinions, which are the hardest to control. Blogs are also a great way to interact with your consumers.

8. Web Design: Good sites with an intuitive design, attractive use of images and videos, ‘call for action’ prompts, contests and/or give a ways, are good ways to attract positive traffic.

9. Email: Build an opt-in email list that is responsive and/or an email marketing plan.

10. Web data analysis: Track your results update, reply, and change your site accordingly.



Some interesting new trends that Entrepreneur focuses on for in 2011 are:

Location Based Marketing- Now days Google is including local results and maps with other searches.




Mobile Marketing- Now that everyone has smart phones creating an application, a mobile website or a text marketing scheme is a great way to connect with people anywhere and anytime not just when they are at home or work on their computer.

Social Shopping- New technologies are allowing for one click comparing, sharing and swiping of a credit card. Sites like Swipely, Paypal, Amazon, and Blippy do this.

Instant Messaging-Entrepreneur suggests this could be the year that customers will start receiving immediate answers to their questions as team of customer services representatives will be on hand to provide instant feedback.

Online Television-"Consumers will be able to customize their television feeds, browse the Web while watching shows, watch programs on-demand and even control their televisions with a mobile phone. Online television presents a huge opportunity for advertisers because the targeting options are so much better than traditional TV. However, you may have to wait to capitalize on this trend as the corporate television giants tend to be slow about making changes."


In the end I think JPD associates sum up the most important things to remember when creating an effective internet marketing strategy: “Attract: your target audience. Engage: your visitors when and where they arrive with relevant content. Retain: contact with your visitors by building personalized relationships with email and eMarketing programs. Transact: the responses you need to achieve your internet marketing objectives.”