Digital Marketing Maturity Model

Description

The purpose of a Digital Maturity Model is to visualize the how your organization will adopt increasingly sophisticated digital marketing tools and tactics. The Model helps you to illustrate your current state of digital maturity relative to your desired future state. Phases are used to group new digital tools and tactics together coherently, in a sequence that your organization can realistically execute. By planning digital maturity sequentially, you can identify the specific elements that need to be in place to help enable the release of future tools and tactics. Ultimately, the phasing of the Model should align with the overall goals, strategy, and relevant milestones of your business.

Questions

The Digital Marketing Maturity Model helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Where are we today in terms of our digital marketing maturity?

• How do we want our digital marketing to mature in the future?

• What changes to our digital marketing activities will be implemented next?

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Steps

1. Align your team on the goals, strategy, and relevant milestones for your organization. While these will not be included explicitly in your Model, your recommendations need to align to the bigger picture.

2. Align your team on the scope of what your Model will include and will not include. You can make this explicit by labeling different sections of each phase, represented by the horizontal ‘swim lanes’.

3. Capture your ‘current state’ of digital maturity as the first phase. Add details in the column by describing your current capabilities relating to the aspects of digital marketing you are capturing in your Model.

4. Capture the new tactics, features, or marketing use cases you plan to release in each phase of the top row. Organize phases based on the relative time, resources, and complexity associated the items.

5. For each item added to a future phase, analyze what is required to enable it. Capture these requirements in the bottom row. This will likely lead you to re-phase the different items above based on timing.

Considerations

• Consider completing the model with a cross-functional team to validate priorities and feasibility

• It can be helpful to add names or themes to each of the phases for internal communication purposes

• Ensure everyone understands the Model is a high-level business-view of digital maturity, not a delivery plan

References

Peterson, Person, Nash. “Connect: How to Use Data and Experience Marketing to Create Lifetime Customers”, Wiley, 2014

5 Whys Technique

Description

The purpose of the 5 Whys technique is to identify the root cause of a problem. This technique was originally developed at the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1950s as a way to improve manufacturing processes. It has since been adopted in different forms and in different fields as a way to iteratively interrogate a problem. In marketing, 5 Whys is often used as a way to identify consumer insights. Often, marketers rely on facts and observations rather than insights into what fundamentally motivates consumer behaviour. The 5 Whys forces marketers to dig deeper by challenging early assumptions and conclusions.

Questions

The 5 Whys technique helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What is motivating a consumer to behave this way?

• What is our target consumer fundamentally seeking?

Steps

1. For marketers using 5 Whys to understand consumer motivation, begin by identifying the specific consumer choice or behaviour you are interrogating. What exactly do you want deeper insight into?

2. Review this consumer choice or behaviour and ask yourself “why is this happening?” Identify the different causes for this action. Select the primary cause based on your best facts and knowledge.

3. Consider this cause, and again ask yourself “why is this happening?” and write down the primary cause. Repeat this step 3 more times, or at the point where you are no longer able to identify useful causes.

4. Review the final cause that you have identified to see if it is a useful consumer insight. Does this capture a consumer’s motivation in a way that will help your marketing? If not, repeat the previous step.

5. Finally, stress test your work by reviewing your 5 Whys reverse. For each cause, ask yourself “does this happen when this happens?” This will help ensure that symptoms and causes are separate and aligned.

Considerations

• If you identify different causes worth exploring, capture as branches connected to your originating statement

• The number 5 is purely anecdotal, ask ‘why’ as many times as you need to arrive at a useful insight

• A useful insight is relevant to your brand, differentiated from your competitors, and actionable for your marketing

References

The 5 Whys was created by Taiichi Ohno, Former Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation

Brand Benefit Ladder

Description

The purpose of the Brand Benefits Ladder is to translate product or service features into relevant psychological benefits for consumer. The Brand Benefits Ladder is based on the theory that brands that connect with consumers on a more emotional level build stronger equity and loyalty. Completing this framework forces marketers to view their functional attributes and benefits through the eyes of their target consumer. The ladder also ensures that there is alignment and credibility between the functional and emotional benefits of the product or service. Once completed, a Brand Benefit Ladder can be used as a tool to create more distinctive and emotionally resonant marketing communications.

Questions

The Brand Benefits Ladder helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What product attributes do we offer that benefit our target customers?

• Why should target consumers care about our product or service?

• How should our target consumers ultimately feel about what we offer?

Steps

1. Identify your target consumer. Use research to understand the relevant needs, values, attitudes, and behaviours that define them. Make sure you can easily empathize with this consumer as a person.

2. List the functional attributes of your product or service. Consider all of the specifications, features, and dimensions of your offering. Focus on those that provide your brand with a competitive advantage.

3. Move up the ladder, and identify the tangible benefits that your product attributes deliver. Review each item listed and ask yourself “what functional benefit or advantage does this attribute provide?”

4. Move up the ladder and take the perspective of your consumer. Review the Product Benefits and ask yourself “what value do I get from that?” Narrow your list to the most compelling Consumer Benefits.

5. Move to the top rung of the ladder and review your Consumer Benefits from a more emotional perspective. Go deep, and ask yourself “how does this brand make me feel?” Narrow to what your brand can own.

Considerations

• Moving up the ladder, focus on those items that are valuable to consumers and distinctive to your brand.

• Ensure your target consumer profile is rooted in relevant and current market research to avoid bias.

• Revisit your ladder when your target consumer, competitors, or product offering change significantly.

References

The Brand Benefits Ladder was first introduced by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller

Robertson, Graham. “Beloved Brands: The playbook for how to build a brand your consumers will love”, 2018.

Advertising Planning Framework

Description

The purpose of the Advertising Planning Framework is to consider and capture important strategic elements of a modern advertising campaign on a single page.   This is a useful exercise, as advertising campaigns have become more integrated, digital, and data-driven.  Often, the creative strategy (what you want to communicate) and the media strategy (how you are going to activate the communication) are considered separately which can cause misalignment.  Using an Advertising Planning Framework allows marketers to explore opportunities relating to targeting, segmentation, and the use of data earlier in planning process.  The Framework can also be used as workshop tool with a group, to capture ideas for different potential advertising campaigns.

Questions

The Advertising Planning Framework helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Who is our advertising campaign targeting and how will we engage them?

• What is the objective of our advertising campaign and how will we measure success?

• What touchpoints and targeting techniques are in scope for this advertising campaign?

Steps

1. Determine the scope of the advertising campaign that you are focusing on.  Are you trying to generate ideas for multiple campaigns, or is there a specific campaign you are planning?  Be clear and precise.

2. Complete the top row, from left to right.  These are the primary elements of your communication strategy, often part of a creative brief.  Make sure your business goals, target segments, and proposition align.

3. Complete the bottom row, from left to right.  These are the primary elements of your activation strategy.  Consider how data and advertising targeting techniques can be used to reach audiences with precision.

4. Review what you have captured in your framework.  Does everything align?  If not, you may need to revisit different elements in the framework or create separate frameworks for different campaigns.

5. Once completed, validate the plan.  Speak with marketing leads to refine the communication strategy and media leads for the activation strategy.  Ensure the expected campaign cost do not exceed expected value.

Considerations

• Use the framework early in the planning process to align teams on general direction.

• The framework is best used as a way to capture high-level opportunities, not detailed requirements.

• Before you start, decide if you are using the framework to generate ideas or to capture a single recommendation.

Get-Who-To-By Line

Description

The purpose of a Get-Who-To-By line is to capture your marketing strategy in a concise way for a creative brief. Often, creative briefs are not brief at all. Many contain so much information that the creative teams receiving the briefs are unclear and overwhelmed. The Get-Who-To-By line synthesizes and distills the most important elements of the creative brief into a single line. It includes your target audience, the problem they are facing, the response you desire, and your main proposition or message. When written well, the Get-Who-To-By line is effective tool to communicate your marketing strategy in clear and conversational way for your team.

Questions

The Get-To-Who-By line helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What is the strategy behind this marketing program?

• What is this marketing program trying to accomplish?

• Who are targeting and what do we want them to do?

Steps

1. Describe the audience that you are targeting. This may be an existing audience persona or customer segment for your brand. Capture as specifically as possible to narrow the focus of your team.

2. Describe the relevant target audience problem. This sets up the situational context and the opportunity for your brand to ultimately address. Ensure this is a truth from the audience, not a desire from the brand.

3. Describe your desired audience response. The response may be how you want to change audience perception or stimulate behaviour. This represents what you want your initiative to ultimately achieve.

4. Describe your proposition. For marketing campaigns, this is the single message that you want to communicate. This ultimately addresses the audience problem (‘Who’) and creates change (‘To).

5. Once all sections are completed, review your Get-Who-To-By line to ensure that it is aligned and coherent. Include it prominently within your creative brief document and in your briefing meeting.

Considerations

• When writing a creative brief, write your Get-To-Who-By line last as a way to crystalize your strategy.

• Where relevant (and not overwhelming), include additional information to provide context to your line.

• Remember to use your Get-To-Who-By line as a lens to evaluate creative ideas.

References

The Get-Who-To-By Line is credited to BBDO.

Audience Personas

Description

The purpose of an Audience Persona is to communicate details about a specific segment of your target audience that are useful when designing a solution for them.  An Audience Persona is a fictional representation of a segment that has similar needs, behaviours, and goals in relation to your offering.  Personas should be created based on how they will be used, and only include details that are relevant to this scope.  Personas differ from customer segments used in marketing departments in that they focus on common needs rather than common demographic traits.  Marketers should use audience research to inform personas to avoid bias, and develop personas as a group to gain alignment. 

Questions

The Audience Persona helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Who are we designing our product or service for?

• What qualities of our offering are most important to our target audience?

• How does our offering fit in the life of our target audience?

Steps

1. Determine the scope of your focus.  This may be the business line, marketing program, product, or service that you are designing.  Consider how broad or narrow your personas need to be in order to help.

2. Conduct audience research, focusing on those attributes and questions that are most critical to your scope and where relevant findings are not available.  Persona accuracy increases with research depth.

3. Create audience segments based on your research.  Review and organize all of your findings.  Look for similarities and patterns across your data, and create audience segments based on meaningful attributes.

4. Document details for each audience persona. These details need to define each group and be helpful for the teams using the persona.  Avoid extraneous details that are not relevant, and may distract focus.

5. Humanize your audience persona.  Create a document for each persona that includes the salient details, along with a realistic personal description and a narrative that makes the persona relatable and unique.

Considerations

• Creating too many personas will distract your focus.  Use a maximum of 7.

• Avoid creating personas based on assumptions.  Find ways to research even when resource-constrained.

• Ensure you update personas over time as your offering changes and new data is available.

References

Cooper, Alan. “The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity”, Sams Publishing, 2004.

Goodwin, Kim. “Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services”, Wiley, 2009.

KPI Tree

Description

The purpose of the KPI Tree Template is to identify the specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you will use to evaluate your performance in relation to a strategic goal. KPI Trees are developed by marketing teams to ensure that there is alignment between strategic goals (what you ultimately want to achieve) and tactical metrics (what you will measure if you achieve it). To complete a KPI Tree, you need to complete your marketing strategy first. A completed KPI Tree ultimately visually explains your strategic approach and provides the basis for creating a detailed measurement plan – on a single page.

Questions

The KPI Tree Template helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What is the overall strategic goal for our marketing initiative?

• How does this tactic ladder up to our overall strategic goal?

• What will we measure to understand if we are successful?

Steps

1. Identify the single strategic objective that you need to accomplish. This is the ‘why’ that underlies your marketing initiative. If you have more than one objective, you need more than one KPI tree.

2. Determine a set of strategic levers that you will use to achieve your objective. This is the ‘what’ you will do as part of your marketing strategy. Ensure that these are mutually exclusive from each other.

3. Identify the individual tactics that you will execute to support your strategy. This is the ‘how’ you will execute your marketing initiative. Capture and describe all tactics with the same level of detail.

4. Identify the KPIs that demonstrate how well each tactic supports a strategic lever, and ultimately your strategic objective. Capture only those KPIs you will use to make decisions and manage your initiative.

5. Determine if there are any significant relationships among your KPIs. For example, a single KPI may be used to measure multiple tactics or different KPIs may be in conflict with each other. Record these relationships.

Considerations

• Ensure that your KPIs are simple, relevant, actionable, measurable, and timely.

• Consider assigning weights to KPIs to reflect the relative contribution of the tactic(s) they measure.

• Update your KPI Tree when your marketing strategy or your measurement capabilities change.

References

Parmenter, D. “Key Performance Indicators. Developing, Implementing, and Using KPIs”, Wiley, 2019.

Customer Journey Map

Description

The purpose of a Customer Journey Map is to visualize the process that a person goes through to accomplish a goal.  For marketers, Customer Journey Maps are typically used to understand what a customer is doing, thinking, and feeling as they progress towards a transaction or start using a product or service from the brand.  This framework helps marketers adopt a more customer-centric point of view, and identify moments to provide value.  These moments are typically associated with frustrations experienced by customers at specific points in their journey where their needs are not effectively met.  Marketers can use a completed customer journey to explore new opportunities to address these pain points, and design a better and more connected experience for customers.

Questions

The Customer Journey Map helps to answer marketing questions like:

• How does our product or service fit into the life of a customer?

• What needs does a customer have at different stages of their journey?

• What moments along a customer’s journey can we add the most value?

Steps

1. Identify a single customer persona and scenario to examine.  Your personas should be based on customer research, and your scenario should include multiple steps and a clear customer goal.

2. Identify the high-level phases that a customer progresses through towards their goal.  Capture these phases from the customer’s perspective.  New phases start when a customer has a new need or focus.

3. Capture what the customer is doing (actions), thinking (questions), and feeling (emotions) at different phases of their journey.  Populate the framework with data from customer research to avoid bias.

4. Review the Customer Journey Map and identify moments where a customer may be experiencing a heightened level of frustration or having difficulty progressing towards their goal.

5. Review the Customer Journey Map, ideally as a team, and identify opportunities where your brand may address these moments and provide a better and more connected experience for your customer.

Considerations

• Customer personas are required to start a Customer Journey Map, one persona for each Map.

• Customer Journey Maps can also be used to explore future state experiences for customers.

• Customer Journey Maps can be used to analyze if your marketing channels are well integrated. 

References

Customer Journey Mapping is credited to Chip Bell and Ron Zemke

Kalbach, J. Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams. O’Reilly, 2016

Trend Exploration Framework

Description

The purpose of the Trend Exploration Framework is to synthesize trends that relate to your initiative, and analyze the resulting implications and opportunities for your brand. This type of framework is often used by marketers to explore how changes in the marketplace might impact future strategic plans. The Trend Exploration Framework is typically completed as a group in a workshop format, where participants are required to come prepared with research on current and relevant trends. Completing the framework as a team can be an effective way to create a shared understanding of the impact of key trends, and to collaboratively explore emerging opportunities for an existing brand.

Questions

The Trend Exploration Framework helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What trends are impacting our brand most significantly?

• How can we use marketplace trends to our advantage?

• How do we need to change to be more relevant in the future?

Steps

1. Identify aspects of your initiative that you suspect need to change the most. For marketers, this might be your product benefits, your service model, or your marketing communications. Capture up to 5 aspects.

2. For each aspect, research the latest trends. Capture these trends in a way that clearly describes the trend and the underlying cause. The connection between the trend and the initiative should be apparent.

3. Start filling in the framework by describing the current state for each aspect in the From column. Once completed, this should provide you with a snapshot of your existing context that needs to change.

4. Based on the trend research, explore how the current state might be reframed in a new way. For example, an emerging consumer trend might lead to a potential new produce line. Capture in the To column.

5. Review the completed framework, ideally with your marketing team, to identify and prioritize new opportunities together. Identify any additional research required to take these opportunities further.

Considerations

• Analyze how different trends may be related and have similar causes, to identify new patterns

• Revisit and update your framework over time to reflect the latest trends in your marketplace

• The framework is most useful as an input to ‘big picture’ marketing planning

References

Kumar, V. 101 Design Methods – A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. Wiley, 2013.

Micro Conversion Framework

Description

The purpose of the Micro Conversion Framework is to help identify and measure the granular customer behaviours that contribute to a larger business objective. Micro Conversions refer to actions that customers take that benefit a brand and lead to a larger goal – the Macro Conversion. These actions may be Process Milestones which are actions that a customer takes to progress towards the Macro Conversion, such as adding a product to a cart before completing an online transaction. Micro Conversions may also be Secondary Actions which are actions customers take that are proxies for marketing success, such as sharing brand content in social media. Micro Conversions are frequently used by marketers for website and app Conversion Rate Optimization efforts.

Questions

The Micro Conversion Framework helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Where are customers or prospects dropping off in our marketing funnel?

• What actions or tasks do we want more of our website and app users to complete?

• How are we going to measure the impact of changes to our website or app?

Steps

1. Identify the relevant Macro Conversion for your brand. This is the larger business objective that you want more of your prospects and customers to ultimately achieve. Only select one Macro Conversion.

2. Identify the phases a customer progresses through towards your Macro Conversion, framed from their perspective. New phases start when a customer completes an action that leads to a new need or focus area.

3. Identify all of the Process Milestones that correspond with each phase. These are actions that a customer must take to progress towards the Macro Conversion. These actions must be measurable.

4. Identify all of Secondary Actions relating to your Macro Conversion. These actions do not necessarily correspond with separate phases but do contribute positively to the Macro Conversion.

5. Based on the completed Micro Conversion Framework, build Conversion funnels that measure the volume of customers that progress towards your Macro Conversion at each stage of their journey.

Considerations

• Ensure that all Micro Conversions can be measured in a way that is accurate, timely, and precise.

• Prioritize Process Milestones over Secondary Actions as they have a stronger direct impact on Macro Conversions

• Prioritize Micro Conversions that you are able to more directly impact through your marketing

References

Kaushik, A. Web Analytics 2.0 – The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity: Sybex, 2009.

S.M.A.R.T. Goal Template

Description

The purpose of the S.M.A.R.T. Goal Template is to determine a clear and measurable goal for your marketing initiative.  S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for the qualities of an effective goal: Specific (target a specific area for improvement), Measurable (quantify an indicator of progress), Achievable (ensure it is possible to accomplish), Relevant (align with a larger business objective), and Time-bound (state when result will be achieved). Determining an effective goal is critical for marketers to create and approve marketing briefs, develop and provide feedback on marketing plans, and measure the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.  Using S.M.A.R.T. goals consistently can help marketers keep their focus on marketing outcomes over marketing outputs. 

Questions

The S.M.A.R.T. Goal Template helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What does this marketing initiative ultimately need to accomplish?

• What larger business objective does this marketing initiative support?

• What do we need to measure to evaluate the performance of this initiative?

 Steps

1. Determine the scope of your marketing initiative.  The scope needs to be tight enough that it aligns with a single business objective and single marketing goal.  Large, complex initiatives require S.M.A.R.T. goal sets. 

2. Identify the larger business objective that your marketing initiative supports.  This objective is what impacts your bottom line (e.g. increase market share) and necessitates marketing investment.   

3. Identify the marketing goal that supports your larger business objective.  This goal can be accomplished by marketing (e.g. acquire new customers) and becomes the focal point for your marketing plan.

4. Determine the metrics that you can use to measure your progress toward your marketing goal.  These metrics need to be as accurate, timely, and precise as possible to report on your performance.

5. Identify the date that you need to accomplish your marketing goal to support your larger business objective.  This date can be used to establish interim performance targets throughout an initiative. 

 Considerations

• Request that business stakeholders identify their own S.M.A.R.T. goals to ensure alignment with marketing.

• Use S.M.A.R.T. goals to calculate your anticipated return, which can be used to determine your budget.

• Include S.M.A.R.T. goals within your marketing briefs and within your performance reviews where possible.

 References

S.M.A.R.T. goal is credited to George T. Doran.

Doran, G.T. “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives”, Management Review, 70 (11): 35-36, 1981.

Empathy Map

Description

The purpose of an Empathy Map is to help teams develop empathy for and a shared understanding of people relative to a goal.  For marketers, Empathy Maps are used as a way to organize qualitative research and knowledge about a particular target customer or persona.  Empathy Maps are typically created collaboratively as a team to synthesize various observations and generate a shared understanding of the people the brand is trying to target and serve.  To eliminate bias or assumptions, Empathy Maps should be created using actual customer research such as customer interviews and surveys.  Once completed, Empathy Maps can be used by marketers for various purposes including designing new customer experiences and generating new product ideas. 

Questions

The Empathy Map helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What would our target customer think about this?

• What is our customer doing to accomplish this?

• What is our customer thinking or feeling about this?

Steps

1. Gather all available research and data related to the target customer.  If you are developing the Empathy Map during a workshop, ensure that all participants come prepared.

2. Define the specific target customer or persona that the Empathy Map is based on.  Provide enough detail so you and other workshop participants understand who you are empathizing with.

3. Describe the goal of the target customer or persona to provide context for the Empathy Map.  Write a single line describing what the customer is trying to accomplish in their own words.

4. Capture all of your observations about the person and their goal in the corresponding quadrants.  Write down the observations in the first-person voice of the person whenever possible.

5. Review the observations to see what is common and group together, then look for observations that may be contradictory and try to resolve.  Identify and discuss any new or unexpected insights.

Considerations

• Empathy Map can be considered living documents and be updated with new research over time.

• When reviewing a completed Empathy Map, look for gaps or questions that require additional research.

• Empathy Maps are intended to complement, not replace customer personas and target audience profiles.

References

The Empathy Map was developed by Scott Mathews of XPLANE.

Gray, D., Brown, S. & Macanufo, J. Gamestorming – A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers and changemakers. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.  2013.

Customer Value Ladder

Description

The purpose of a Customer Value Ladder is to segment customers according to the value that they represent to your brand.  This type of framework can be used to segment your current customers according to different actions and attributes that determine value.  A version of this framework can also be used to segment prospective customers according to different qualifying attributes and their level of demonstrated interest in your brand (commonly referred to as Marketing Qualified Leads or Sales Qualified Leads).  The Customer Value Ladder is particularly useful for brands that have a long-term, service-based relationship with their customers such as financial institutions and telcos.  Updating the framework over time allows you to better understand how your marketing is impacting value as customers move up and down the ladder.

Questions

The Customer Value Ladder helps to answer marketing questions like:

• How can we segment our prospects and customers based on value?

• What percentage of our customer base is considered high value?

• Are we increasing the average value of our customers over time? 

Steps

1. Define the group that you will be measuring and segmenting.  This may be current customers, prospective customers, or business accounts.  Groups need to be identifiable and measurable.

2. Identify the identifiable attributes that impact the value of a customer to your brand.  These are factors that relate to your ability to grow (e.g. disposable income) or retain (e.g. life stage) your customer over time.

3. Identify the measurable actions demonstrated by your customers that impact value to your brand.  These may be transactional (e.g. annual spend) and non-transactional (e.g. level of engagement).

4. Identify the attitudinal measures that impact the value of a customer to your brand.   These are factors that relate to current levels of satisfaction (e.g. customer feedback) or loyalty (e.g. NPS scores).

5. Assign a value for each attribute, action, and attitude included in your framework based on its relative impact on value.  Score all of your customers and analyze the distribution of the results.  Create your segments based on groups that are big and different enough that you will treat them differently.

Considerations

• All attributes, actions, or attitudes need to be measurable and connected to individual customers.

• Start with a simple framework to ensure that the benefits outweigh the costs of managing the data.

• Separate or different versions can be used to analyze attributes, actions, or attitudes separately.

References

Gordon, Ian H. Managing the New Customer Relationship. Wiley, 2013

Social Content Sweetspot

Description

The purpose of the Social Content Sweetspot framework is to identify the core topics that a brand will engage in via social media. Often, marketing teams struggle to establish editorial guardrails and chase any topic that appears to be trending. The result is that the brand does not have a clear or coherent identity in social media, which confuses and ultimately turns off audiences. The Social Content Sweetspot framework helps marketing teams identify those topics that align with the interests of the community and the positioning of the brand. Completing the framework also forces marketers to identify those topics that competitors are focused on and should be avoided in order to stand out effectively.

Questions

The Social Content Sweetspot helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Should we post about this topic or news item that is trending in social media?

• What value do we provide to our community and why should they follow us?

• Is this a topic appropriate for social media or should we use another channel?

Steps

1. Consider your brand, and identify the conversations that you want to have with your customers. These are topics that put your brand in a positive light and can lead to sales (e.g. product advantages). List in Motivation quadrant.

2. Identify the conversations that your brand can credibly lead. These are topics relating to your experience or area of expertise (e.g. commitment to a cause). List in Authority quadrant.

3. Consider your target community, and identify their common passion points in social media. These are topics that consistently drive outsized levels of engagement (e.g. how-to content). List in Attraction quadrant.

4. Identify the types of conversations that your target community avoids posting about in social media. These topics may be too personal or risky to engage in (e.g. health conditions). List in Disclosure quadrant.

5. Once completed, explore the connections between the quadrants and identify potential topics that align the brand and the community. Prioritize those that competitors are not focusing on. List in Content Sweetspot.

SWOT Analysis

Description

The purpose of a SWOT Analysis is to evaluate a brand’s current position relative to achieving a specific objective. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. For marketers, a SWOT can be a useful tool as part of a strategic planning process. It requires identifying internal Strengths and Weaknesses that either help or harm your ability to achieve a stated objective. It also involves identifying external Opportunities and Threats that either provide an advantage or place a barrier to achieving the objective. A two-by-two matrix is used to build the SWOT Analysis. Once completed, you can better understand your competitive position and identify potential actions to take to exploit opportunities or mitigate threats.

Questions

The SWOT Analysis helps to answer marketing questions like:

• What internal assets do we have or do we need to compete?

• How are we positioned to take advantage of future opportunities?

• What risks are on the horizon that we need to address now?

Steps

1. Identify the objective that will frame your SWOT Analysis. All factors listed in the SWOT need to have a material impact on your ability to achieve this objective (e.g. grow market share by 20%).

2. Considering this objective, identify the most important internal factors that increase your brand’s ability to achieve it. For example, brand equity or intellectual property. Write these in the Strength quadrant.

3. List the most important internal factors that reduce your brand’s ability to achieve the same objective. For example, reputation issues or gaps in expertise. Write these in the Weaknesses quadrant.

4. List the most important external factors that are favourable to you and that you may exploit to your advantage. For example, new markets or consumer trends. Write these in the Opportunities quadrant.

5. List the most important external factors that present challenges to your brand and that you may need to mitigate to achieve your objective. For example, new competitors or declining economy. Write these in the Threats quadrant.

Considerations

• Once completed, look for connections between internal and external factors to find strategic priorities

• Complete as a team to align on an objective and build a common understanding of competitive position

• Update your SWOT Analysis when your objective, brand, or marketplace changes significantly

References

The SWOT Analysis is credited to Albert S. Humphrey

Social Channel Footprint

Description

The purpose of the Social Channel Footprint framework is to establish the goals, roles, and relationships among different social channels managed by a brand.  Often, marketing teams do not have a clear or strategic view of all of their social media platforms.  Many have built out a large number of platforms over the years and devote a great deal of energy and resources towards keeping them up and running.  Challenges arise as new platforms are adopted, existing platforms evolve, and audiences move.  Further, the goals, budgets, and internal resources for social media can change over time.  This framework helps align teams to ensure the same content is not posted everywhere. 

Questions

The Social Channel Footprint framework helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Where should we post this message or piece of content?

• What is the purpose of this particular social platform?

• What social platforms are the highest priority for our brand?

Steps

1. Identify all of the official social media accounts that your brand manages, including the associated handle or URL.  You may also include social media platforms that you are considering launching.

2. List all of the objectives that social media may contribute to for your brand, for examples sales or service.  Evaluate the contribution of each platform for each objective using a 0-to-5 point scale.

3. Identify the social media related tactics and activities that support your objectives, and indicate which platform will be used for each.  Include relationships between platforms in the ‘Used With’ column.

4. Identify the relative priority, posting frequency, and media investment for each of the social media platforms.  Ballpark ranges are fine, as this is not to be used as a content calendar or media plan.

5. Analyze the results of the completed framework.  Are the roles of each platform clear and distinctive?  Does the level of investment match the priority of each platform?  Do you have the right platform mix?

Considerations

• Always complete the framework from left-to-right to ensure that you are leading with marketing objectives

• Revisit the framework over time as platforms and internal priorities change over time, it is a living document

• This framework can be reformatted to include more detail, consider this version  a summary view

Gamification Framework

Description

The purpose of a Gamification Framework is to determine how principles and elements of game design can be applied to products and marketing programs. Gamification principles uses people’s natural desires and interests in gameplay to make tasks more engaging. Game design elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards can be seen today in many loyalty programs, social platforms, and mobile apps. The challenge for marketers is to determine if and how these principles and elements might apply to a product or program in a way that creates value. The Gamification Framework can be used to help ensure these elements are not treated as a distracting gimmick, but rather in a way that supports a larger value proposition.

Questions

The Gamification Framework helps to answer marketing questions like:

• How might we further motivate customers to act?

• How might we make interactions more engaging?

• How might we reward our most engaged customers?

Steps

1. Describe this shared purpose from the brand, product, or program. Write it in a way that is meaningful and desirable to the customer, authentically ‘from the brand’, and is viewed as credible.

2. Identify the tasks that can contribute to this achievement. Ensure that tasks are connected to the achievement, are easily understood by customers, and can be attained with the help of the brand.

3. Identify the actions that a customer should stop, start, or continue to help achieve a contributing goal. Ensure that actions are clearly connected to achieving a goal, and can be recognized and quantified by the brand.

4. Identify the ways customers can be encouraged to act, considering intrinsic, extrinsic, tangible, and intangible motivators. Ensure that motivators are connected to contributing behaviours, desirable for customers, and can be supported from the brand.

5. Considering the available interfaces between the brand and the customer, identify the ways that progress may be communicated. Ensure that indicators are connected to motivators and are consistently accessible by customers

Considerations

• Complete the framework from the top to the bottom to ensure gamification supports larger proposition

• Test concepts with customers to understand if gamification elements are clear, usable, and motivating

• Measure impact on customer behaviour to ensure gamification is leading to desired business outcomes

References

Zichermann, Gabe. Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. O’Reilly, 2011.

Brand Positioning Matrix

Description

The purpose of a Brand Positioning Matrix is to measure and visualize differences among competing brands across relevant dimensions. These frameworks are often used in brand strategy work and can be presented in different formats. The format used most often is a matrix that illustrates competitive differences against two axes. Often, axes are chosen to ‘lead the witness’ by dramatizing a particular whitespace for positioning a brand. To avoid this pitfall (or temptation), make sure that the comparative dimensions for your axes are: (1) Broad: must be able to apply across all brands, (2) Salient: must matter to how customers distinguish brands, (3) Contrasting: must be perceived as polar opposites, (4) Measurable: must be able to place on a single axis, (5) Objective: must not be inherently good or bad.

Questions

The Brand Positioning Matrix helps to answer marketing questions like:

• How are brands positioned in the market today?

• What brands have a similar positioning to our brand?

• Where is whitespace for brands in the market today?

Steps

1. Define the market that you are analyzing. This may be done traditionally, by organizing the matrix around existing competitors (e.g. basketball apparel). It may done more abstractly, by framing the matrix based on peripheral or non-traditional competitors (e.g. youth brands).

2. Based on how you have defined the market, identify the brands that meet your criteria and are relevant to how you will use the completed matrix. Only include brands that are relevant to your customers.

3. Identify the most meaningful comparative dimensions to include as axes. Consider all dimensions that are meaningful to how your customers differentiate and choose brands.

4. Measure each brand based on its relative position against each dimension. This should be informed by current customer research (not hunches) to be current and to avoid bias.

5. Map each brand to its corresponding position on the matrix format you are using.

Considerations

• Use formats like spider graphs to analyze and plot brands using more than two dimensions

• Use the same matrix over time to measure changes in brand perception and competitor actions

• Use different sized ‘bubbles’ or brand names to visualize additional data layers (e.g. market share) per brand

References

Reis, Al. Trout, Jack. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Cross-Channel Blueprint

Description

The purpose of the Cross-Channel Blueprint is to identify the level of importance and the specific roles that different channels play for customers at each phase of their journey. Often, marketing teams are unclear or have conflicting opinions about how to manage different customer-facing channels. This lack of alignment can cause endless internal debate and can lead to disconnected customer experiences, particularly for organizations that provide e-commerce and online self-services. This framework helps align marketing teams on how to make individual channels more relevant for customers, and how to make channels work better together.

Questions

The Cross-Channel Blueprint helps to answer marketing questions like:

• Does this content or feature belong on this channel?

• Is this channel meeting the needs of our customer?

• Where are our gaps in how we are serving customers?

Steps

1. Determine the scope of your Blueprint. How will you define your journey, and how broad or narrow should you go? This will depend on the nature of your business and how you plan to use the Blueprint.

2. Based on your scope, identify the different phases that comprise the customer journey. Phases start and end when key actions or decisions are made by customers and their needs and behaviours change accordingly.

3. Identify the customers that you are examining. If you serve very different customer segments, they may use channels very differently. If customer segmentation or personas do not exist, research is required.

4. Based on the framework, identify the level of importance of each channel for each customer type. Make sure that this is from the perspective of the customer, and not the business or channel owner.

5. Based on the framework, determine the main use cases for each channel. These represent the most important and frequently completed tasks customers are trying to accomplish for each channel.

Considerations

• Use customer research (not internal opinions) to ensure the Blueprint is completed without bias.

• Use engagement data from different channels (e.g. website analytics) to help understand use cases.

• Consider including external channels that a customer uses to provide greater context, if helpful.

References

Kalbach, James.  Mapping Experiences.  O’Reilly Media, 2016.

Tate, Tyler.  Cross-Channel Blueprints: A tool for modern IA.