How To Deliver a Digital Marketing Project on Brief, Time & budget?

By now, if you followed my blog posts I think we have reached a complete understanding of Digital Marketing and its effectiveness. I talked about different kinds of Digital Marketing and the ways in which we can make digital Marketing campaigns successful by targeting the right audience, considering the competitors, analyzing companies’ situation and simply just making the right decisions.

This week I'm going to talk about starting a digital marketing project, how to deliver it on Brief, Time and Budget…

Let's assume that the project we want to work on is creating a website for a London local designer. We have 6 months to create the website and put it into action. As the designer is local and fairly new to the market we need to be careful with the budget. We need to create a smart digital marketing campaign on a limited budget, and we need to deliver it on time, which is 6 months from now.

Client Information:

Designer: Alex Wood.

Clothing Line: Glamorous Bikinis, Bathing suits and Beach wear.

Description: creating a fabulous swim wear for women, because summer is all about looking hot and tanned, and a swimwear can either bring it out or hide your summer beauty.

Goal:

- Create a website for the brand.

Lets bring our efforts together and make this 'Website' project successful.

First, we need to consider the project phases, 'The 4 D's':

1. Discovery:

Meetings, Research, Gather requirements, Technical specs and Project planning.

2. Design:

Create Wireframes, Revisions and Interactive designs.

3. Develop:

Programming and Testing.

4. Deploy:

Project launch, Style guide, Possible additions and Finally Tracking success.

Second, we should also consider the 'Project Success Factors':

1. Agreement on goals.

2. A good plan.

3. Progress measurement.

4. Constant communications.

5. Management support.

6. Controlled scope.

Moreover, There are two common project methods:

Agile: Based on short, task oriented periods of time. project end is harder to define.

Waterfall: Based on a fixed length of time. Clear project end. Traditional Project plan.

For Alex's Website project we will follow the Waterfall method, As we have set goals, we have a clear vision of the project outcomes. Its not neccesarly a traditional project plan, as the web world is getting larger and websites are inceasing by the day, so we have to be very strategic and think of other contributors to the website's success,

Such as: Affiliate marketing, social media and SEO.

How?

Affliate Marketing: By advertising on other fashion and department stores websites. Also, as Alex is new in the market we can get some of the fashion blogs to write about him and link the article to his website, if bloggers are purely fashion lovers and would like to support a new fashion talent they would do it for free or maybe for just a little percentage. Maybe they can get exclusive news about Alex’s brand which will motivate them to write about it.

Social Media: its always good to get involved and social with the people, we can link Alex’s FaceBook and Twitter pages to the main website so his fans and customers can join them, and then they can send their friends requests to join his pages as well. So its like creating a network of people and providing them with the lastest designs, news and updates. Lately, Twitter has become an excellent marketing tool as celebrities use it and brands like Alex’s can use those celebrities to make them advertise for the brand and tag and link their status updates to Alex’s page.

SEO: As we all know by now, and as I mentioned in my blog post: ‘Top 10 Considerations for an Effective Online Marketing Strategy’ - Being highly ranked on search engines is something vital and companies should pay a lot of consideration into it as it increases the website's traffic and generates more customers and visitors. Remember to focus your website's content on keywords that you provide and are related to your brand.

Now we know the plan and objectives, Lets start budgeting!

According to SoloSignal, For an interactive website with custom design and quality coding, I would expect to pay somewhere in the range of $2,000 to $15,000. If you are paying less, you are probably getting an off-the-shelf CMS with a generic design template. For more complex sites or online applications, expect to pay $20,000+.

You may think that this is too much, Or where does this money go?

SoloSignal provides the answer to this Question in the following article 'How much should Web site Design, Development and Hosting cost?'

Behind every website is a programmer and a designer. The knowledge that these individuals possess and the time they put into every project is often overlooked and not considered when pricing a project. Sarah Lewis of Blogging Expertise explains this value nicely in A Frank Discussion About Pricing:

· Details. Professional designers and firms pay particular attention to the details that will make or break your site.

· Time. Most people who end up using a professional designer or firm understand that their time is worth something, and that spending your time on your core business is one of the best places you can invest your time. Working with web professionals allows you to tap into our experience and knowledge and save hundreds of hours.

· Experience. A professional designer or design firm isn’t just selling you hours on a project; we’re selling you years of experience in the sometimes-overwhelming world of the Internet.

· Knowledge. When you hire a professional designer or firm, you are also getting access to a wealth of information that we’ve gathered and are happy to share.

I like the way this article is written, as it puts together everything you need to know about website pricing. SoloSignal is a blog that has a lot of information about different areas of website development. It’s very useful!! For further information, pay a visit and check out their articles. Click Here.

We should always keep in mind that it’s very hard to stay within the budget. According GartnerReport, only 30% of IT projects, once started, never come to a fruitful conclusion. It also found that on average, 51% of projects exceeded budget by 189%, while delivering only 74% of the original functionality.

So in order to avoid that, speak to a few suppliers to establish a solid budget, and ALWAYS specify and mention your budget in your project proposal or brief.

Time is very precious and valuable, Thus it is important that it is divided according to the importance of every step and phase of creating a project. Its important to have Project Management, as it adds value to the project and the organizations themselves, because it creates an arranged and precise process of planning a project, moving to working on it and then eventually applying it. ManagementHelp defines Project management as a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a successful project.

"Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining and confirming the project goals and objectives, identifying tasks and how goals will be achieved, quantifying the resources needed, and determining budgets and timelines for completion. It also includes managing the implementation of the project plan, along with operating regular 'controls' to ensure that there is accurate and objective information on 'performance' relative to the plan, and the mechanisms to implement recovery actions where necessary." - ManagementHelp.

REMEMBER, always spend time and effort on making a good project plan, because if you have a set and solid plan it reduces that amount of work you have to put into implementing it. Also, the projects most probably will turn out more effective and successful.

There are many ways of achieving projects on time and budget, but it always depends on planning as it is the most important element in the process of constructing a project.

ShawSystems has a very clear and brief article called: '7 Steps to Delivering Projects On-Time and On-Budget', I think you should take a look it as its very useful and gets straight to the point.

Also, Here’s a slideshow about ‘How to Complete a Project On Time and Under Budget’, It’s a really good and informative slideshow, it talks about lots of “Project Planning Aspects” including Project Management, Project phases & methods and more.

Hope this information is useful & will get “Alex” to start a great and successful website for his swimwear brand on TIME & BUDGET!

Innas A.

My Favorite Digital Marketing Creative!

Okay this week I decided to look at different creative uses of digital media in web world! I wanted to see how agencies, businesses, brands and others implement the Digital Marketing techniques that I’ve been talking about in my previous blog posts.

Well, because the online market is massive, its hard to locate the best and most creative ones, so the best way to find them was through Web Creative Awards, Like: NMA, BIMA and Webby.

It was really hard to choose A FAVORITE creative, as they are all very professional, creative, original and successful! I looked at many of them, and I finally settled on Channel4/ 4Food, they won the NMA effectiveness award of the Media category in 2010. 4Food is the best media website, and winning the award is an indication of their success and a result of the hard work they put into it.

I personally absolutely loved the website because I thought it had a vast amount of content for everyone! It’s literally for everyone; it’s fun, interactive, user friendly, informative, diverse and MORE!

4Food uses a combination of Digital Marketing channels and techniques which makes it effective and appealing to a variety of audiences – starting from younger generations to older ones and families.

Now, I’m going to take you on a journey of my 4Food fascination. The first thing that caught my eyes was the game box, well it’s not really a game but it’s like a “food slot machine” which I think was really cool. You basically press on the ‘Inspire Me’ button and it generates food, for example: Chicken and Bacon and then you press ‘Find Recipe’ and it finds you a recipe with both ingredients which is cool because it makes people try different foods and recipes that they haven’t thought of. This little game/ slot machine is sponsored by Hellmann’s they provide GDA (Guideline Daily Amount) information. I thought it was a really smart and fun way of helping people finding new innovative recipes!

Here 4Food used the In-Game advertising as they are advertising for Hellmann’s and at the same time they have a cool kind of “Recipe Generating Game”. This technique is definitely useful as it’s a new way of attracting customers.

Also, 4Food uses Affiliate Marketing, by allowing other companies/brands to advertise on their website, like: Google Chrome, Barclays, Nissan, Blackberry, Yoox and MANY MANY more. When you press on any advert it leads you the company’s website. This is good for both 4Food and the companies that advertise on it. It brings Website traffic for both and it generates profits too. In addition, having such big companies advertising on 4Food is just a proof of their credibility, success and popularity.

Now I know that there are many other channels or Food websites that are really good and well done! But are they as creative as 4Food?

Well, I’m going to compare

it with BBC-Food, which has the exact, same “food theme”. They dedicated a whole section to their food programs and to provide people with recipes and suggestions for using specific ingredients, but for me it seemed a little boring! With all respect for BBC as its one of the best and best TV channels and its actually one of my favorite, but still it looks like its targeted towards only older audiences and its not as interactive, fun, cool and “fresh” like 4Food.

What makes 4Food special is that the recipe generating section of their website is more creative and fun as its like a game, on the other hand BBC has a more specified criteria and an organized way of searching which I think is ordinary. Also, 4Food is more modern in terms of using new social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, while BBC is still on blogs which are good but not as accessible and outreaching to people as Twitter and Facebook. Another technique that 4Food uses is attracting customers and visitors to their website through having celebrity chefs like, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey who generate traffic – they’re like a Magnet. Having celebrity chefs on their website increases their SEO ranking; people internationally search for those chefs and 4Food comes up which makes it popular everywhere, Not only in the UK, while BBC has national chefs who most of them are only known in the UK.

BBC:

4Food:

Another example of a media channel website it the ITV website’s Lifestyle/Food section. First of all this section is not totally dedicated for their Food programs and chefs. The section is about different lifestyle shows like Fashion – this obviously doesn’t target the “food audience”. Another thing I didn’t like about their food section was that I found some outdated content like Christmas recipes (which appeared on a main “food section” page), and it seems to me that they don’t update and generate new recipes and content which they should in order to attract customers.

Obviously every website has it pros and cons, and one of the ITV food section pros which I liked was that they had a ‘Shop’ section where website visitors can buy things that could help them in their cooking processes, for example pots and pans! Also, they have a BMI calculator on their page which is cool because it helps promoting good health and help people maintain and reach their ideal weights and not eat excessively. I think 4Food should adapt this into their website.

In my opinion, channel 4/ 4Food really deserved winning a creative media channel prize for being one of the best websites to represent a TV channel, it transformed all the Food information, programs, competitions and more into a lovely website which serves a lot of people digitally. Also, the availability of content online on the main website other than for example Youtube or Facebook is a very good way of allowing people to watch the shows they missed and watch a recipe they loved again. In addition it allows them to explore more about food it’s like an interactive, playful and online food book.

Woorank have some statistics about Channel 4 which show that the most popular page after the home page of their website is the 4Food section. Check out the report, its Fascinating.

According to the Guardian, in a 2007 article ‘Chefs to lead Channel 4 food campaign’: “The celebrity chefs, who are three of the channel's most recognizable faces, will attempt to change the nation's eating habits in a similar way to Oliver's crusade to improve school meals on his award-winning series Jamie's School Dinners” – John Plunkett. This was one of the early campaigns which boosted the popularity and social responsibility image of 4Food.

As for the new/2011 plans of 4Food and as it became a brand in the online Food world; Codorníu which is a Spanish sparkling wine producer will be sponsoring the new 4Food series ‘The secret supper club’. According to TheDrinksBusiness: Codorníu will be building associations with supper clubs throughout 2011, “helping to build awareness and encourage consumers to participate in the informal dining experience, through sponsoring London-based Supper Clubs and sampling wines at supper club events.”

I think 4Food’s digital marketing tools were implemented very effectively. It’s amazing how they used digital marketing to enhance and create an online brand which originally existed on another digital form (TV). Not only does 4Food online has food recipes, videos and TV show timetable, they also promote for healthy eating habits and Helping people get better lifestyles - Food is a way of living. Furthermore, as we are living in a digital era it is very useful to have an online channel because we are all converting to watching programs online rather than on the TV so 4Food’s digital approach comes as successful, creative and unique.

I personally love their website and I used some of their recipes which were delicious! Having the recipes online and having video tools allowed me to repeat, pause and go back to it any time I wanted! I also like the fact that I can follow them on Twitter and see their status updates and get reminders and sneak peeks to shows and programs.

4Food deserved the NMA creative award and I congratulate them for that!

So everyone, what did you think about 4Food? Do you think they are creative and deserved the award?

& Also tell me what’s your favorite creative, and why? :)

Innas A.

How To Select The Most Appropriate Channels To Reach Digital Natives?

Digital Marketing is a broad field which tries to target and attract different kinds of customers, and as we all know customers' knowledge and experience in the "Digital World" Varies. There are Digital Immigrants who can be easily attracted by simple and basic Digital Marketing, and on the other side there are the Digital Natives who their experience on the digital and online world could exceed the knowledge of the marketers. Hence, those Digital Natives are a hard Target for most marketers as they have to be creative and innovative in their Online Campaigns in order to Reach the digital natives. (Digital Natives = DN).

But here are some questions:

Who are the DN, and How Do we get an accurate understanding of them?

& After understanding them, How & What are the most appropriate digital marketing channels to reach them?

I did my research to answer these questions and I found some really interesting information. Here you go …

First, Who are DN?

They are the Digital Generation, who used technology since a very young age and grew up using it - they evolve with the digitalization, the older they are the more they are attached to the online and digital world.

Second, How do we get an accurate understanding of DN?

It is very important to reach an optimum understanding of the DN in order to be able to reach and get through to them… Watch this video: Understanding The Digital Generation

Furthermore, BVA (The French Polling Institute) Published a survey bout this generation (18- 24 years olds), "born with a mouse and a keyboard, and now permanently tied to their smartphone". This study is titled GENE-TIC which stands for Generation and Technology of Information and Communication, and it took place between 2009 and 2010. Various techniques were used in this study to understand this generation and how they function in the digital life of their own.

Here are some of the Results they reached:

- The constant gamer.

- Corporate Defiance.

- The Group they trust.

- How do they get the news?

- Workplace.

- The group.

- The information.

Those results are of the kinds of practices DN perform online, For further and in depth explanation of the results, Click here.

So in order to reach an understanding of DN, markets should undergo Surveys and studies or use existing ones in order to understand DN's wants, needs and their lifestyles. Techniques like: Spywares, video recordings, online questionnaires, feedbacks and more can be useful in such studies.

Now, Once you know who are DN and understand them. The next step is to target them through Digital Marketing…

Third step of the process is the selection of the appropriate Digital Marketing channels. Obviously this is the hardest part where the efforts of all the marketing team should be put together to draw the new Digital Marketing Campaign which would appeal to the DN.

I found an interesting article on MarketingProfs: '9 Ways To Reach Digital Natives' , By Ann Handley. I think its useful as it gives tips about how to reach DN specifically, Which are the following:

(I copied the main points as this article is only available for members)

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. 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, said Ben Grossman. 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.)

- I hope you find those tips useful -

In addition to all that marketers have to pay attention and not forget some basic and important Marketing Concepts. The selection of appropriate channels have to be smart and strategic. Also, marketers have to study the marketing mix and take it into consideration to have a more valid and successful selection process. The P's of internet Marketing Mix are: Product, Promotion, Price, Place, People, Process, Physical Evidence. Moreover, Positioning is just as important in a Digital Marketing campaign, because it helps the company to target and focus on specific audiences and Position their product they way they want in the customers' minds - In this case the target audience are DN.

Back to 'What are the most appropriate digital marketing channels to reach them', After knowing how to reach and select the Digital Marketing channels to reach the DN, here are the channel options marketers have, this diagram is very beneficial and useful for companies to consider the options and see if they're going to work for their specific campaign.

The options or Digital Marketing channels are the following:

1. Search Engine Optimization, which I talked about in this blog post: 'Digital Marketing .. Tips'

2. Affiliate Marketing

3. Direct Marketing

4. Social Media Marketing (Check this SlideShow about: Using Social Media Tools To Reach Digital Natives)

5. Onsite Marketing, i.e Content Management which consists of Blogs, RSS Marketing, and personalized Recommendation.

6. Viral Marketing

7. In-Game Advertising

8. Mobile Marketing

9. Behavioral Targeting - Marketing

10. Guerilla Marketing

11. Partner Management, examples of it are on the diagram.

12. Contextual Advertising/Marketing

For more help in the selection process, Datran Media does an annual Marketing and Media survey about the marketing channels and which ones perform best, and how their performance changes with time.

"Each year, Datran Media conducts its annual survey to capture insights from marketers around the globe. This year, Datran Media asked marketers to address their toughest challenges in this increasingly difficult economy. The results of the survey reveal significant optimism towards 2010 marketing and advertising spending, after a decline in 2009".

Check out the survey and get some facts and statistics: '4^th Annual Marketing & Media Survey'

I hope the information I gathered is beneficial and will help you in the process of selecting the Digital Marketing Channels to Target the Digital Natives. GOOD LUCK!

Innas A.