What kind of jobs and roles are there in Digital Marketing in 2018

4m to read / 

The number of job titles and descriptions at agencies that deliver digital marketing solutions is an ever increasing list. What are the roles involved and where do they fit in in the digital product cycle? Ever day in this connected age of marketing, we see new points of engagement come to the foreground, and naturally new positions are created, or current roles are customized to address the new areas of focus. 

Here's a starting-point list of the most common job titles and roles at advertising, media, social media and specialized digital services agencies, and at brands these days. While the highly specialized roles usually are at agencies, a lot of brands are bringing some of the key roles in-house.

Brand

Channel Neutral Planners, Brand Managers, Strategic Planners (non digital specific)

Integration Director/Manager, Integrated Content Manager/Coordinator, Brand Planners

Digital Strategy

Digital Strategists – define the role of the brand in digital specific channels

Audience and Insight: Insight: Insight specialist, data analysts, Analytics Managers, Data Visualizer,

Content Strategy Managers/Directors, Engagement Strategy Managers, Campaign & Eco-system Planners, Social Voice Strategy Managers, Behavior Analysts, Trends Analyst,

Performance Marketing Director/Manager/Specialist, Usability Engineer/Strategist

CRO Specialist (Conversion Rate Optimization), CRO Director, CRO Analyst, CRO Data Specialist

Data Planner, Affiliate Marketing Manager/Specialist, 

Digital Creative

Creative Technologist

Digital Creative Director, Digital Art Director, Digital Production Artist, Graphic Designer,
Digital Identity Development Art Director, 

Video Director, Videographer, Video Editor, Video Producer

Digital Content Director, Content Creation Manager, Copywriter, Content Editor,
AR and VR Creative, AR and VR Producers
Mobile Experience Specialist
AI (Artificial Intelligence) Specialist

SEO-relevant writer, SEO specialist

UI/UX Designers, UI/UX analyst

Digital Programmatic Creative Specialist/Manager/Director

Pre flight manager, Traffic Manager, 

Project Manager

Social Media

Social Media Director, Social Media Manager, Social Media Account Handler/Associate

Social Media Strategists (Director/Manager), Social Media Planners, Social Calendar Developer,

Community Manager

Social Media Data Analyst, Social Media Monitoring Manager/Director, 

Social Media Distribution Manager, Social Content Publisher

Social Specific Content Manager, Social Content Art Director, 

Paid Social Manager, Paid Social Planner

Customer Experience

Web & Mobile Experience Architect, Website Designer, Website Developer, Mobile Apps Strategist, Mobile App Designer, Customer Engagement Analyst, UI/UX specialist,  CMS specialist, 

Programmers, Specialist Programmers, Mobile Code specialists, Applications Designers, Loyalty Specialist Designers, CRM designers, Website Pre-flight Analyst, QA and QC Manager, 

Experience Strategy Director, Digital Activation Manager/Director, 

e-Commerce Director, e-Commerce Strategy Director, e-Commerce Designer, e-Commerce Creative Director/Art Director, e-Commerce Content Analyst, e-Commerce Code specialist, e-Commerce Product Analyst, e-Commerce Content Coordinator

eMail Marketing Specialist/Manager/ Creative Director, eMail Marketing Analyst

Innovation

Innovation Leads, Digital Product & Service Development Manager/Director, Innovation Lab Director, Innovation strategy Director, IOT Specialist, IOT interface designer, Wearables Strategist, Wearables interface designer

Media

Digital Media Director, Digital Media Strategy Director/Manager, Digital Media Engagement Director, Digital Media Data Analyst, 

Digital Media Associates, Media Planners, 

Digital Media Buying Manager/Director, Digital Media Buyer, 

Digital Media Dashboard Manager, Programmatic Director/Manager, Digital Media Content Analyst, Digital Media Pre Flight Manager/Associate, Digital Media Distribution Manager, 

Media Creative Director, Media Art Director, Media Engagement Manager/Director

Media Content Manager, Media Content Writer

RTB Director/Manager, RTB Specialist (Real Time Bidding)

Paid Social Planner, Paid Social Buyer

Search

SEO Analyst, SEO Specialist, SEO Consultant, SEO writer, SEO Coordinator, SEO tag specialist, SEO specialized Web Designer/Developer

SEM planner, SEM strategy director, SEM Buying specialist/Manager/Director, PPC Director, PPC Analyst, Keywords Analyst, Trends Analyst,  Growth Specialist, SEO Editor, Bidding Director, 

Demand Generation specialist, 

Account Management/ Client Interface / Agency Management

CEO – Digital, Digital Managing Director, Digital Group Director, Digital Account Manager, 

Client Services Director/Manager/Associate, Digital Services General Manager

Social Media Director/Manager/Associate, CRM Manager, Experience Director, 

I haven't even mentioned niche job titles like "Snapchat Content Strategist" or "Digital Culture Analyst" – those jobs are either super niche and fall into the "invented here" bracket, or are just ways of luring brands through the front door.

If you're a brand looking for an agency and have really specific needs, you need to figure out if they are equipped to handle what you want, or are they just going to get someone within their staff to just try and "talk the walk". The roles above cover a wide spectrum – some are highly specialized roles needing unique skill sets – the others simply evolve from current roles and job descriptions. Either way, that's how agencies and brands today are defining and rising to the needs of digital marketing. And just knowing about these roles is basic knowledge – its Digital Marketing Strategies 101. 

Please add your comment if I have missed a role or job title that you feel should be included in this list.

Here are some current openings across the region at the group of agencies where I work. A lot of these job openings are for digital roles.

Read this: How to get a job in Digital at an Agency

Here are some posts that address digital marketing needs and how they are best addressed by key people in the roles above:

Insights & Data/Analytics

• Intent is the new black in digital marketing. In-the-moment marketing is what's hot.

• Customer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing

• What do women want from brands online today

• Data made simple: What is first, second and third party data?

Customer Experience & Social

• 5 Simple Ways to get your Mobile Marketing Done Right

• The importance of listening in social media, and how to get it right

• 4 ways to build a cool Snapchat audience for brands

• 3 ways to improve your brand's online advertising

• Improve your social media engagement. Move from Selling to building Relationships

• 11 simple ways for brands to build better following on social media

and one transformative development that's redefining roles at agencies:

• Why media agencies are now doing creative: Programmatic and Data Driven Creative is a powerful combination

Read more

What's Trending in Digital Marketing in May 2017

2m to read / 

Here are some useful links to posts and articles which will help you stay on trend in the world of Digital Marketing for May 20017. Just click on the links below...

News and Trends

Digital media gets a chance to clean up their acts 

The Rise of Online Video on the TV Screen  

Facebook Is Working on Technology That Lets You Type and Control VR Devices With Your Mind 

Why beauty brands are betting on augmented reality 

UAE tops advertising spending in Gulf region

Which channels do marketers really use?

What do Facebook’s new VR and AR platforms mean for marketers? 

Google launches Optimize : Free A/B testing tool for all 

Reports, How To's & White Papers

5 Things Brands Need to Know About Marketing to Moms [Infographic] 

4 Tips to Keep Your Brand Coherent Across Platforms 

How to effectively bring science to marketing 

The five key steps towards understanding the customer journey  

Want to do content marketing in FMCG? Here’s four things you need to know 

Five keys to managing your online reputation in Google search 

Should marketers be able to prove the ROI of influencers? 

Can pharma companies effectively use influencer marketing? 

4 Key Teachable Moments for Marketers Who Create Mobile Content 

Social Media and Content

Marketers Talk Too Much, or Always Circle Before You Social 

Social commerce: Why basic bots and buy buttons are not enough 

4 Tools for Garnering More Social Media Engagement 

How to Create Effective Social Media Reports [Infographic] 

Is a second Facebook News Feed in the works? What you need to know 

Here Are the Changes Facebook Introduced for Video Metrics in Page Insights 

What do Facebook’s new VR and AR platforms mean for marketers? 

Search, SEO, PPC, Programmatic

3 predictions about the future of SEO (

With Brand Safety in Focus, Digital Advertisers Are Quickly Shifting Toward Direct Programmatic 

AdWords Expanded Text Ads could get even longer with second description line test

SEM Mistakes to Avoid 

Google’s location tracking is better now than ever before 

Mobile Marketing

Five essential mobile moments and how brands can take part in them 

10 mobile marketing trends to watch in 2017 

How Do People Use Virtual Assistants on Their Smartphones? 

Marketers Still Struggling With App-User Retention 

If Anyone Is Going to Buy Directly from a Chatbot, It’s Millennials 

Web Design & Development

Website design briefs: Be very careful what you ask for

What web designers can learn from web developers 

9 Best Responsive Web Design Frameworks 

Infographics

Exploring the effectiveness of native ads

What makes a good headline 

The Great Divide in Content Marketing 

5 Factors of Ad Viewability 

SEM Mistakes to Avoid 

Please share this with your friends and colleagues, and feel free to comment below...

Now read these related posts from this blog:

• Top Technology Trends in Marketing for 2017

• How Data will really drive Marketing in 2017

• How VR and 360 degree video is changing advertising and content marketing

• Here's how to Power up your Facebook engagement with Video

• 7 ways your brand can increase Facebook organic reach

• How to use Facebook Live video like a pro. The essentials of getting it right.

Read more

Be ready for Search shifting to Mobile – specially smartphones

3m to read / 

We know that Search is shifting to mobile – particularly to smartphones. Google tells us in a new research on cross-device habits that a growing number of consumers browse the web and search on multiple platforms through the day. What the research also tells us that a fair number of those consumers actually just go mobile – by passing the desktop experience altogether. Is your brand ready for this trend?

Before you consider mobile in your brand strategy, or focus on it even more, if you are already there, it's important to know your audience, your target, your customers. Customer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing.

Mobile-first world today

It's really a mobile-first world today. People expect answers quickly, in the immediate. Consumers today turn to the nearest device to make a decision, learn something new, or get something accomplished, Google tells us. Google calls this micro-moments. "Connecting the dots across these micro-moments is necessary for marketers to tell a single story across devices, channels, and formats".

Search needs to yield results there and then

People are impatient. And, they are empowered with the immediate – thanks to their smartphones. They want to know, they want to find results right away, And they are turning to mobile. Google reminds us that "nearly 40% of people search only on a smartphone in an average day as they look to meet immediate needs. As a result of this shift, more Google searches are happening on smartphones than computers".

Transform your digital marketing by Being 'Right There, Right Then'

Marketing Land tells us that users are increasingly spending more time on smartphones than on desktop.

"Users spend 170 minutes on their smartphones daily vs. 120 minutes on PCs and roughly 75 minutes on tablets (for those who own tablets). The four most common physical locations that smartphones are used, in order, are:

1. Home
2. Work
3. Stores
4. Restaurants and Bars

More striking, however, is the finding that 27 percent of people are smartphone-only users (on any given day). Google also reports that of those people who conduct searches on an average day, 39 percent search only on a smartphone and 32 percent search only on a desktop".

As a marketer or digital marketing strategist for your brand, you need to be ready. Following are some useful tips from Search Engine Watch on how to effectively focus on mobile search as part of your strategy...

• The AdWords interface will show you what portion of your clicks and conversions come from mobile vs. desktop, and if 10 percent or more of a campaign come from mobile devices, consider targeting separately.
• Google allows for targeting by specific devices, operating systems, and carrier (with further tablet targeting options expected later this year), which is important because the end user mobile search experience is different on a mobile phone than it is on an iPad/tablet.
• Mobile searching lends itself to shorter query lengths and hyper-local results. Google’s mobile keyword selection tool offers great assistance for getting started when choosing your ad keywords.
• The searcher’s attention span is limited, so make mobile specific ad copy short and sweet. Include clickable phone numbers and/or geo-targeted maps to enhance your CTRs and conversions.
• Landing pages from mobile search clicks should reflect your conversion goals. If you want them to call you, download something, watch a video, and/or view a map, optimize these pages accordingly.
• When launching new campaigns, it’s best to start with an aggressive bidding strategy, which will allow you to establish a strong quality score off the bat. Securing position in the top two paid results is imperative with the limited viewing area on mobile devices.

Focusing your digital marketing strategy on mobile is no longer a nice-to-have. You really need to amp up your mobile marketing efforts – particularly with search engine marketing if you want to win over your target audiences.  That's Digital Marketing Strategies 101.

Now read these related posts on Mobile and Search:

• 4 Pillars of Mobile Marketing you need to focus on to succeed

• 5 Simple Ways to get your Mobile Marketing Done Right

• 6 Ways to Be There in Today's Search Driven World

• 5 Ways to Develop a Consumer Focused Mobile Marketing Strategy

Read more

5 ways to get fans to create social media content for brands

3m to read / 

Include your fans in your social media marketing by letting them create content for your brands. Social media content today is a lot about story telling, and today those stories need to be authentic and ones that add value to the consumer.

According to a study done by Nielsen, “92% of consumers trust online content from friends & family above all other forms of brand messaging. And they trust strangers second most — far more than they trust content from brands. Social media content generated by your fans – your community – is a great way to add that spark of authenticity and creativity and enables marketers to tell brand related stories without having to work hard at creating them.

1. Curate content under a clever and catchy #hashtag

Let your brand be the platform that your fans use to get recognized and be creative. Focus the spotlight on your fans and you'll get a whole load of user generated content. Use a clever and catchy hashtag to curate all the content – which will give you instant access to what your fans and followers are uploading.

Check out this amazing #wanderlust campaign by National Geographic. It asked users to simply tag their photos of beautiful places and people with a @wanderlust hashtag – creating a much loved opportunity for fans to highlight their photography skills under a famous brand banner – National Geographic. The brand had access to a huge collection of content that they could use in their social media.

2. Ask them to be creative with your products

Be the brand that brings out the creative side of your fans and followers. Encourage them to think outside the proverbial box and come up with interesting ways to showcase your products and how they use them. All of the social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat offer your fans great opportunities to show their creative sides with photos, videos, tweets or simple posts.

The key is to get your fans to get involved with your products and your brand and give them the freedom to be creative. Unboxings are a great way to encourage fans to create user generated content around your product.

3. Ask them for their opinion

Fans like to have a voice – specially when it comes to brands and products on social media. Ask your fans and your community for their opinion. Let them tell you about their preferences, ways they use your products, cool features (that may be even you didn't know about), hacks, unboxings, new product ideas, flavors, colors etc. Run polls across your various platforms. People look to social media for recommendations, reviews and feedback from “real” people – make these authentic conversations work for your brand.

4. Run contests with low barriers

A lot of brands try to get user generated content by running contests and some are hugely successful. But they key to running contests is a prize they'll value, and more importantly, removing or lowering barriers to entering. Make it easy. Keep it simple. Allow text only submissions. Don't insist on high quality videos in HD.

Open up the contest across multiple platforms whenever possible. You can use a catchy #hashtag to bring all the entries together (see Point #1). Contests should motivate and encourage your fans and followers and inspire them to be creative and innovative. Without too much effort. For example, one research finding shows that "contests which allowed for text-only submissions (in addition to photos and video) saw a 900% lift in submission volume."

Here's an interesting post from Hootsuite on some of the best UGC contests.

5. Offer multiple ways to upload content

Offer multiple ways to upload content across multiple platforms. Don't just insist on submissions that are limited to smartphone uploads (like Snapchat). Open up across various platforms and ask for content. But remember, in today's mobile driven world, you absolutely must engage and make your submissions possible using mobile. User generated content (UGC) comes in various forms, formats, and sizes. Be open to harnessing a 140 character tweet or a long form blog post, a 10 second 'snap' or a 3 minute YouTube unboxing. Remember they're all products of brand love.

UGC or User Generated Content can help your social media in unprecedented ways. Remember to make it easy for your fans to engage with your brand and product and it will flow in.

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategy. That's 101. Please share this post with your friends and colleagues today... And do comment if you feel you want to add to this.

Now read these social media content related posts:

• 7 Useful Social Media Post Ideas for winning Content Marketing

• 8 Must Have Steps to Unleash the Power of Content Marketing for your Brand

Read more

4 Pillars of Mobile Marketing you need to focus on to succeed

2m to read / 

There are four essential pillars in any mobile marketing strategy. These are absolutely essential to keep in mind when building your mobile marketing campaigns and strategy. Every successful mobile effort by your brand, needs to accomplish some tasks. Some of these are focused on your audience – the consumer, other tasks may be business related.

Through mobile, brands have the ability to be present at the exact moment a consumer is seeking a solution.

Transform your digital marketing by 'Being 'Right There, Right Then'

Today, your audience is rarely without their mobile device. Consumers check their mobile device 150 to 200 times per day. Mobile provides brands with opportunities at every touchpoint on the path to purchase. Here four essential pillars for the foundation of your mobile strategy:

1. Convenience in the instant

Convenience is such a critically important pillar, that there's now a whole new genre in digital marketing called Convenience Marketing! Today consumers want simplicity and convenience, and mobile devices give them what they might want with fewer obstacles to disrupt their journeys.

Mobile facilitates a quick and easy step from desire to action or acquisition. It instantly resolves problem and provides solution. Your brand must be there ready to at that micro-moment (as Google calls it). By being accessible, keeping things simple and direct, and providing immediate solutions, your brand will able to meet the consumer across those "I want to..." moments.

Use the Power of Here and Now: Convenience Marketing with Wearables (and Mobile)

2. Relevance

Sure, you can be there whenever your audience is looking, but with what? Does your solution have true relevance? Does your mobile content genuinely provide a solution and relate to the need of the consumer? Mobile content needs to respond to consumer needs at the precise moment of desire – and instantly and effectively. So, if the mobile content you offer isn't relevant at first glance, game over right there. Build content that is relevant to your target audience's needs. Find out first what those needs are in order to do that.

So, Customer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing.

3. Location

Mobile's uniqueness is location. Mobile offers unique possibilities to serve location relevant content and solutions to your audience. Marketers very often fail to focus on location. You should not create mobile content without a focus on this pillar. Your mobile strategy should focus on creating modular content that is tailored to meet your audience across multiple locations. This is what content in context really means. Do not forget the importance of location as context.

4. Permission (vs. Intrusion)

Many mobile strategies are developed that ignore this important pillar. You can be relevant, you can be there in the instant, get right-place right-time done right, but you should not be intrusive. Most consumers hate being intruded on, when their journey is interrupted without their permission. As well, you need to make consumers feel secure that you respect their privacy and safety. The bonus of focusing on permission is that at some point you'll know through dialog and interaction, what they are expecting.

These pillars are the foundations that you build your mobile strategy on. Read more on mobile strategy – links provided below.

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategy. That's 101. Please share this post with your friends and colleagues today... And do comment if you feel you want to add to this.

Important reading:  • Shifting the brand mindset to Mobile First

Now read these related posts on mobile:

• 10 Critical Elements you must get right for Mobile Marketing Success

• Mobile Marketing: Native App or Responsive Website? Which one's right?

• How to create a winning mobile App for your Brand

Read more

Beat today's multi-screen, multi-device challenges with great content

5m to read / 

How can you understand and take advantage of today's multi screen multi device media habits? The tv watching experience is getting richer, better because of online? Rather than killing off tv in the living room, digital channels are adding to it, and broadening the perspective.

Consumers today are increasingly using multiple screens and devices while consuming media. With the boom in high speed access and the popularity of both tablet and mobile, people today aren't just watching tv. It's a combination of lean back (tv) and lean forward (tablet, mobile, laptop) in the living rooms of our region.

Multi screen marketing is a challenge

Earlier on, the ad industry jumped at the idea of an increase in consumer engagement across multiple screens. Experience, participation, multi-platform engagement became buzzwords. What we blinked on was the fact that the proliferation of screens today fuels fragmentation – it causes consumer ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. And we were caught dozing.

Yes, it’s much easier to engage and hold attention in a conversation than in a monologue, but with some unforeseen pattern shifts, multi-screen engagement becomes a challenge. Consumer time and attention is getting lower as we move from traditional to digital (think banner blindness, low click through rates). Now as ‘digital’ is increasingly via mobile, small screens offer even smaller real estate for those of us planning to build engagement on.

What is multi screen marketing

Multi screen marketing isn't new. But it's developing into a huge, synergistic platform where not only the message across what you watch on tv syncs with what's on your website, it does so at the same time, and with planned, timed and well-executed intent. We've always put an URL at the end of the tv spot, but now we're beginning to put in a Facebook address, and more often a Twitter hashtag. The twitter hashtag is to encourage immediate participation in sharing, in dialog, in comment fishing and more. In the UK, almost 70% of brands reviewed in a survey encouraged multi-device participation.

Twitter themselves stated, "simply adding hashtags on air - or in ads - helps organise and steer the conversation."

The Twitter report goes on to say, "in advertising, we're seeing that deeper integration of Twitter not only drives discovery and engagement but also drives increases in brand recall scores and other marketing goals." Twitter's increasing popularity and acceptance as a "code-sharing" medium with TV is linked to the open field nature of the microblog. It's so in the now and the instant.

I watch a tv program, or a spot, and instantly am able to share my viewpoint using a hashtag (#) – and it's there for anyone to see. It's a bit more open than the Facebook walled garden where only my 'friends' can see what or react to my opinion. Red Bull in the UK did this very successfully with their #GivesYouWings campaign.

Our interactions are mostly screen based today

Ninety per cent of all media interactions are screen-based, and we spend around 4.5 hours of our leisure time in front of one screen or another. And we do this across multiple screens on multiple devices. Either sequentially, moving from one device to another at different times to complete tasks, or simultaneously – for complementary usage in a related activity or multi-tasking across unrelated activities.

As consumers move seamlessly between devices, what really drives device choice is context: amount of time we have or need, what we want to really accomplish, where we are at that time, and our attitude or state of mind. Whatever the case, TV is no longer a singular focus activity. We tend to use another device nearly 80 per cent of the time we watch TV.

TV and social

What's even more interesting is that in a multi-device, multi-screen scenario in the living room, consumers tend not to get up and walk out during a commercial break. They stay engaged and busy, and connected. This works particularly well in "native" or "content marketing" campaigns that tend to want to engage the viewer in every possible way.

Just adding a #Brandname at the end of your spot is not the way to go. The #whatever should be about the campaign, about the call to action, and about what you want the target audience to do. Using a slogan like Red Bull did in #GivesYouWings is the way to go. And multi-device or multi-screen marketing is not just for brands and products. 

Brands need to be creative to grab and hold attention

Brands need to get both their creative and media plans in order again. Because while single-tasking may be a consideration, it is against the norm. What is single-tasking? Well, it’s all there in the name. Single-tasking means doing one activity at a time with as few distractions and interruptions as possible.

Today's attention-divided consumer responds to a well-told, well-synced brand story that feels the same, regardless of where it is being consumed. They're interested and motivated to engage further when they see seamless continuity. Inconsistency of content style, inconsistency of message is what turns consumers off. Brands that succeed with multiscreen single campaign objective—increase awareness, hold attention, engage across platforms and screens, and deliver the same story across multiple touch points and screens.

Start with analytics: Know your audience

Start with analytics – first know about your consumer, about the audience you want to engage. The best way to start a well planned multiscreen marketing strategy is to have a grasp on what your consumer is all about. Customer or audience insight is key . Effective audience targeting can be achieved by using analytics that converts data from and about usage on any device to help brands increase their understanding of their audience and anticipate their next steps. And resolve what their audeinces are looking for at each stage, across each screen.

Be screen-neutral in your thinking at first. Don't assume that tv is your starting point. Old school "multiscreen strategy" builds from TV as its base and presumes different objectives for each screen after that. Today, multiscreen can start anywhere – and it very often starts with Search. First of all, you just have to be there for your audience in Search . How you do that across screens is secondary.

Remember that today's consumer jumps from screen to screen (sometimes at the same time) to achieve their goals. TV as we know it, is quickly evolving and becoming a larger experience. With multiscreen video, sharing, tweeting, in-the-instance interacting tv is becoming infinitely richer, increasingly interactive and delivering deeper levels of engagement.

Great content is the solution

So, in today's world of ADD (Attention-Disruption-Disorder) combined with multi tasking a brand's message needs to effectively cut through the clutter, be relevant, add value, and be in context. Each and every time. And if it is content driven – which again is the new way – that content needs to be both entertaining and relevant. Content that is working these days is infotainment content – providing information on and around a brand's products and services in an entertaining, useful way.

Related reading:

• Content Marketing Strategy: What kind of content should you create?
• 6 ways to get Content Marketing done right

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategy. That's 101. Please share this post with your friends and colleagues today... And do comment if you feel you want to add to this.

Read more

Shifting the brand mindset to Mobile First

2m to read / 

In many markets, about a third of people use only their mobile to make purchase decisions. This really calls for brands to shift their mindsets to mobile first as a brand marketing strategy.

Customer Intent is key

Understanding customer intent is critical to delivering on the customer need. Intent is the new black in digital marketing (see post link below). Google has defined four key moments when we are online. When a need arises, consumers quickly turn to Search on, say a Google and a YouTube to find a resolution to that need. These needs arise when a consumer wants to know something, wants to go somewhere (on a holiday, to a restaurant, to a business location), wants to do something and wants to buy something. Simply put, these are the four basic need states that digital marketing needs to answer.

A new world order: Mobile First

The brand marketer's mindset needs to wake up to this new mobile first world. A surprising amount of people go through the whole decision making and purchase process entirely on mobile. It's a huge shift in consumer behavior, not merely a device trend. With the huge increase in mobile consumption, we're now discovering the power of consumer intent as it happens, moment by moment.

With processing power, storage, and bandwidth increasing exponentially, smart phones are increasingly becoming the device of choice for interacting with brands, gathering information, sharing, and purchasing products.

Mobile First isn't about just design. It's an overall strategy

Today, your website being mobile friendly is not enough. The shift from mobile ready to mobile first is what matters. And I am not talking mobile first as a design philosophy. Mobile first is key to your digital marketing strategy.

Today brands are able to interact with customers any time, any where and and engage in a meaningful dialog with them. Rather than throw a bunch of advertising messages out and hope your customers not only see them but also act on them, you now have the opportunity, via mobile, to engage your customers directly with the precise information they need at the moment they need it to make a buying decision. That alone is a big reason to develop a comprehensive mobile first strategy as soon as you can.

Understanding the context and providing content

It is a part of the context of the user. So, what device am I on? Where am I? What time is it? What situation am I in? All of these signals provide an opportunity to deliver personalized experiences, and as marketers, our job is to try to address these moments with the right content.

e-Consultnacy tells us that research by xAd has highlighted how crucial mobile is in the path to purchase. In a survey of 1,500 consumers, 39% cited a smartphone as the most important tool used to research a product. What’s more, 29% admitted that it was the only tool they used to make a purchasing decision.

With 56% of consumers buying immediately or within the hour after researching, the ‘always on’ nature of mobile means that marketers need to place more focus on engaging consumers in the right time and place.

Remember, mobile first is key to your digital marketing strategy. Please read the posts below for more insights on mobile as part of your marketing strategy. Getting the basics right is key. That's part of your Digital Marketing Strategies 101.


Now read this:

Intent is the new black in digital marketing. In-the-moment marketing is what's hot.

Lean Forward : Mobile and App Marketing Strategy Essentials

10 Critical Elements you must get right for Mobile Marketing Success

Transform your digital marketing by Being 'Right There, Right Then'

Read more

How to get a break at 'digital' jobs at agencies and brands

6m to read / 

There are an increasing amount of job openings for 'digital' positions at agencies and brands these days. How do you get a break at these 'digital' jobs? How do you get hired for these "digital" jobs? How do you move up the ladder?

What do you want to do, really?

What do you want to do in 'digital' at an agency? The first step is to have an idea of what you want to do in the 'digital' world at an agency? There are plenty of jobs across the whole digital spectrum and they may be in advertising, media, social media or PR. They may be in the creative area, in strategy, in media planning and buying for the digital age, in content creation and distribution, or in digital design and development. There are specializations and jobs in social media, in influencer marketing, in usability, performance marketing, in data and research, in Search (SEO, particularly), online marketing, mobile marketing (both mobile advertising and.or apps etc).

New jobs and titles opening up

There are now job titles and job openings every day. Some are new and unique and are reflective of the ever changing world of digital marketing. We used to have creative directors who did a bit of digital. We used to have digital specialists like coders and app creators. Today we have 'creative technologists'! In social media, we had community managers and strategists. Today we look for 'social insight managers' and in media we hunt down data miners and information engineers.

What kind of agency do you want to work for?

What kind of an agency do you really want to work for? Today there are several kinds of agencies that offer digital services – and are looking for digital people. They may be 'pure-play' digital agencies (only do digital such as online and mobile design and development and production) or 'hybrids' (do both offline and online). Pure-play agencies are often drilled down depending on their specializations – web design, web development and coding, SEO/SEM, mobile, UX, and social media.

I must mention here that while mainstream or brand agencies are heavily into social media these days, and offer services across all of social, there are specialized social media agencies as well. Two big agency models are 'mainstream advertising agencies and media agencies (here's what a media agency does). And, today, the lines are blurring, and media agencies, because of their huge bank of data and insights are also doing creative. That, is a whole new window of opportunity.

Of course, you'll hear a lot about "going back to the old days model" – which is really about how some agencies are fully integrated or 360°– and offer across the spectrum. Take a look at some of the jobs listed by MCN (Middle East Communications Network) – one of the largest advertising, media, PR and specialized communications agencies groups in the Middle East. You'll get a drift of some of the jobs that are on offer in digital at their different agencies.

Start with research

Research the job you have in mind. Research everything you can about the agency where you're thinking of applying. What do they do? Who are their clients? What are their real specializations? What's required of the role? Where do they have offices? Are they a local agency or regional? Or part of a global network.

All of this insight will help you not only get a foot in, but once in, that will give you an idea of how much 'ladder' there is, and how to climb that. What's most important is to try and figure out about their 'digital' capabilities – and their digital clients. What kind of work do they do in digital?

Your research should give you enough information to create a great first impression at an interview. Or even before that, it gives you all the word power you need to make your application cover letter effective and as well 'customize' your resumé. What's the culture of the agency? What's the usual dress code? Which accounts did they win, or lose? You'll have to dig far deeper than just the company website to get proper insights – so work hard on social media.

Identify specializations

The key is identifying your specialization in digital. Some jobs in agencies require specialized skills. Some specialized agencies today offer unique services in UX, usability and CRO – and needs certified skills at top levels.

You'll need a broad base understanding of digital first, and then a deeper knowledge of the specialization you are interested in. You won't be coding programs or building full websites as a digital agency person, but you will need to work with developers and designers or other web specialists to communicate your marketing design needs.

A basic knowledge of how the web works, HTML, and one or two programming languages, such as PHP, JavaScript, CSS and Ruby, will help you understand the current boundaries and opportunities that will affect your marketing campaigns. And of course, today, the basics of social media and Search.

Link with your contacts

Linked-in is a great place to start. Not only do agencies have career pages on LinkedIn, but you'll get a whole lot of insight on the agency, the people there from LinkedIn. Check to see if your contact bases across social media are somehow connected to the agency you want to apply to, and leverage that. Call people you know who may be able to offer you a tip on the job, the agency, the people you may be interviewed by. And, it's not just LinkedIn, look across all other social platforms. Both Facebook and Twitter are amazing sources of information.

Get your CV and your portfolio perfect

When you want to move to an agency, your CV and portfolio needs to be top notch. In the old days, the creative folks would have a 'bag' (a large flat black case with their creative work filed in clear acetate covers).

These days, for digital, you'll need all your work on your laptop, or uploaded on to a website. In fact, the website is much better to show off your work, because the link always stays with the agency team, they can look at it, share it, and decide later. You don't necessarily need to have your own domain and owned website (that is a plus, though), because there are so many free online portfolio sharing options.

About your CV: customize it for each job, each agency. Make it look like you want that particular position at that particular agency. Keep your CV short, and to the point. But do be specific and ensure that it addresses what that digital position might require from both experience and expertise perspectives.

Spellcheck. Double spell check. Grammar check. Remember, if you're emailing, get your subject line to work for you. Brands and agencies know the importance of the email subject line. So should you.

Know your digital

Research your topic. Digital is constantly changing, evolving, and you need to be absolutely up to date with the latest trends, industry news, technology, consumer behavior and more. There's so much information available, that going in uninformed these days is stupid, really. If you are applying for a job in social media and you don't know anything about Snapchat. Stop. Learn. Stay tuned with digital focused portals like Mashable, Wired, digitaltrends, MediaPost, The Verge, etc.

Your interview, your cover letter, what you say across the table are all reflections of how much you really know about digital in general, and about the specialization you want to be in. It's key that you don't come across as shallow and that your information is out of date. Be on trend.

Be Digital

Ask questions, follow up, persist. Digitally. Ask questions that are relevant at the interview. Ask digital centric questions, that, somehow reflect both your interest in the field, in the niche you want to be in, in the agency and the position. Not about how much sick leave you'll get.

Follow up your interview with a thank-you email, again be specific, make it personal, and relevant to why you should be hired. If there's an interesting development in digital, mention it. If you haven't heard back, persist, but don't be annoying. Showing up at the agency reception is not a good idea – sending a quick email with a relevant bit of add-on value (digital info, perhaps) is better.

Play the part. Be 'digital' 24/7Not just at the interview, not just for your job hunt, you need to play the digital part 24/7. Be aware of what's going on. Attend conferences. Show up at tech fairs. Subscribe to digital newsletters and updates. You don't need to be a geek, but you need to have digital at the heart of everything you do.

Agencies today often search on LinkedIn and other social media for digital candidates. Be findable. Be visible. Be digitally eloquent across your social presence. Make sure you are passionate, without faking it. Speak the language.

I just want to say, from what I know because of where I work and what I do, that today, there are more digital job openings than proper qualified candidates. And don't forget that this whole post applies to digital jobs at brands these days as well.

MUST READ : List of Digital Roles at Agencies

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategy. That's 101.

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