23 Musings

Just in case you haven't covered all the bases here's an excellent reference for all you online marketers! It's in the form of a mind map as well, so really useful!

So maybe Gpay is going to be too late for Google to take advantage of mobile payments (as I blogged about yesterday)...

Today, the biggest mobile phone operators in the UK have all switched on a new mobile payments system called PayForIt. It's been designed for those who want to buy products or services up to the value of £10 using their mobile phone and bill. PayForIt will appear as an option on participating sites and services, at first just on mobile sites but soon it will be a standard payment option for goods on the wider internet.

It's a good first move in getting us all towards a digital wallet type scenario, it could become a standard very quickly, is safe and trusted and much more preferred to the old way of paying by premium rate SMS.

It's not quite the same as Google's patent but has the potential to get adopted very rapidly.

Here's some really useful tips from IPA Digital and ISBA:

1. Briefing all agencies together and strategy agreed upfront
   A common mistake in digital campaigns is running off and not involving the offline agencies from the start. Any good digital agency should want to meet with your offline, so if they don't mention it be aware. Integration with the offline customer experience is key to getting the most value out of your campaign.
   
   
2. Discuss budgets accurately and allow for contingencies
   Get your budget as accurate as you can, set a scope for the project and don't allow that to slip (too much) leave a contingency pot as well just in case. All this saves for the headaches associated with bad budgeting and having to go cap in hand to your board asking for more money.
   
   
3. A single point of approval works best
   Especially where agencies are involved! Don't confuse them, keep communications straight forward and don't get too many people involved, it will only make things more difficult.
   
   
4. Timings and planning: plan early
   Get your plans on paper as soon as you can, they don't have to be set in stone, they can flex but it will give you a good grounding to have your project based on.
   
   
5. Design & development: stretch yourselves
   Let your agency push you. Take risks that they advise (they will usually have evidence to back up why you should), digital marketing is not something to be scared of. Use it to it's full potential, don't rein it in!
   
   
6. Measure only what matters
   Decide what is to be measured early in the planning stages. Set some key KPI and track them. Decide what is really important to you and use them as your key measurements.
   
   
7. Trafficking and campaign launch: plan for QA testing
   Leave room in the plan for QA. All advertising collateral should go through a rigorous quality assurance phase to ensure compatibility, accessibility and accuracy.
   
   
8. Produce back-up inventory
   If a campaign slips it's a real pain to suddenly have to quickly produce some assets to fill the advertising slot you have booked. Have some standard format brand heavy assets you can fall back on just in case!
   
   
9. Optimisation, reporting and updates: monitor your campaign in the wild
   Once it's live don't think thats the end of it! You can change, optimise, amend and make sure it's performing to it's peak potential!
   
   
10. Learn from analysis of results: test and refine
    Use your analysis to improve next time, everyone should still be able to learn something new from every campaign you run, even the most seasoned creative or account director.
    

All excellent points, and ones that should be adhered to in any digital projects life cycle! Read the full report here.

I've decided that every time I come across a great piece of viral marketing I will post it up here. Viral is one area of digital marketing that I find fascinating. The effect a good viral can have is quite staggering, from massive acquisition of potential customer details to generation of huge brand buzz, and big brand who hasn't yet at least investigated viral is missing out!

Here's a great example from Carlsberg. It plays off the Coke & Mentos video virals really well and while not about acquisition, it will get many eyeballs and generate huge brand awareness for them. It's also pretty damn clever!