Got a Glitch in Your eCommerce Process? It’s Time to Reinvent Retail

Customer Experience, Retail, The Social Way

You know the story … you just want to buy a product online – but the process is infuriating. You are asked to register before the purchase. The search doesn’t work or the half-hidden check boxes add you in for cross-sell or up-sell opportunities without your knowledge. At every click the website seems to prompt you to close the browser and go somewhere else. In short – the customer experience stinks.

And while many of us understand this frustration as consumers, rarely do we apply this knowledge to the online stores that we build, rollout or activate on behalf of our businesses/brands.

Now regular readers will know, I have long running dissatisfaction with the customer experience offered by most retailers. Big department stores are the worst of culprits – with skeleton staffing, low staff morale/motivation and little attention to customer needs and loyalty – but poor retail customer experience is endemic. And for my money, this is what is largely driving customer online. It’s not that consumers don’t have the money to spend – it’s that they don’t want to spend it with the companies on offer. So, yes, it’s a brand issue.

But coming back to the eCommerce experience. What would happen if an online shopping experience was played out in the real world? Check out this re-enactment from the Google Analytics team. Great stuff. And you know the same happens in-store. It’s time we reinvented retail, don’t you think?

Be the CMO of Your Own Team

FutureVisions, Innovation, Personal Branding, Strategy, The Social Way

I’ll get this out of the way up front – I have never been a CMO. But I have always had an interest in making sure that Marketing has a seat at the strategy table – and that really means one of two things – you need to drive revenue or your need to manage costs.

In all my professional roles – certainly covering the last 15-20 years, I have been interested in understanding the business decision making process. I dug through the jargon and pushed to determine the real situation. I even threw out the old metrics by which we measured success – choosing instead the same measurements that applied to those I supported (usually sales). It didn’t matter whether I was working agency or client side – it’s always the same goal. Grow business by delighting customers. Drive innovation and manage costs. Do your best work and encourage the same in your team.

Now, the reason I mention all this, is that it is never too late (or too early) to apply the same principles to your own role. No matter whether you are an intern or early in your career – or whether you do, in fact, hold the role of CMO. Your challenge and opportunity is to step up. Become the CMO of your own team. It might be a team of one, but it will be noticed. Systematise your work and your outputs and allow creativity to flourish where it can. Have an agenda, have a plan and measure your own success. And learn. And ask questions. And talk to your customers.

Google Visualizes Your Brand

Facts & Figures, Infographics, Strategy

One of the benefits – and strategic advantages that Google is able to tap into each and every day – is the huge volume of data that is generated by our collective use of the free website measurement tools known as Google Analytics. Not only do these tools provide rich data and analytics capabilities to organisations and individuals the world over, that information is also aggregated by Google.

So while we are able to learn more about how people find, use, convert and engage on our websites, so too is Google able to tap this data store to reveal trends, understand behaviours and make sense of our globally connected work and life styles.

Add the abundance of information that comes from our daily use of the Google search engine, and this data store is awe inspiring.

Over the last few years, Google has made a range of tools available to tap into this data. Google Trends provides fantastic insight to search data – but the new Brand Impressions tool from Google thinkinsights team takes it a step further. You simply enter a brand name and wait while information is drawn from Google+, YouTube, Google Images and Google News, Google Maps and of course, Google Search. And in a few moments you have a nice, interactive infographic built specifically for your brand (or your clients’).

Here’s what was revealed when I queried global software brand SAP. Fascinating. And I am sure this is only the beginning. Over time, this tool is bound to improve – making it a great addition to your strategic insight toolbox. After all, data is great, visualisation can be breathtaking, but true insight is divine. Time to put your thinking caps on!

SAP-GoogleBrandImpressions

Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week

5 Must-Read Posts

How do you tell your business stories? It all starts with words. Or it should. My view is that a great brief, a brilliant project or idea needs to be articulated in words. We need to hear that description, passion and connection from the person at ground zero of ideation. And if you can’t be there in person, then you need to write. This week’s five must-read posts are about this challenge.

  1. With limited capacity to draw, I have always relied on language to tell stories, communicate and engage audiences. So no surprise then to see a post called How to Write appearing in this week’s list. Great stuff from David Ogilvy courtesy of Stan Johnson.
  2. What do Ogilivy’s words mean in practice? Copywriter, Robert Pirosh, explains eloquently – I like words.
  3. And once you have the words, the story and the soul of an idea, how do you apply creativity to strategy to bring it to life? Some great tips from Nien Liu.
  4. For someone who doesn’t have time to blog, Paul McEnany sure delivers quality content – great context setting up a series of videos. Listen to the voices and at the way people describe themselves in the great working class vs middle class debate.
  5. And speaking of that debate – what happens in the grand showdown between hipster and bogan? Find out in the rise of the cashed up bogan.

Topic Talks Unleash the Storytellers

Conferences, Storytelling

We’ve had TEDtalks and we’ve had Ignite – we’ve had Vibewire’s fastBREAK and we’ve had TEDx. All these events have a number of elements in common – they require the speakers to deliver short, focused talks. They promote presence – being in the room, and they honour in-person storytelling.

But while these event formats have been successful, for the most part, this format of short, sharp, in-person events have remained on the periphery of our culture. TED attracts an elite business focused crowd and Ignite appeals to the startup and innovation communities. fastBREAK is about creating an intergenerational conversation on important topics of our times – and TEDx seeks to make the TED brand experience more accessible while maintaining an air of exclusivity.

And that’s what is so interesting about the new Topic Talks series (April and May 2012). “For the passionately curious” this series of talks kicks off with Ray Martin, Thomas Keneally, Gretel Killeen, Patrick Lindsay and Sebastian Robertson. And they are physically accessible – with dates set for the Cremorne Orpheum theatre, Parramatta Riverside and Randwick Ritz.

It’s a great opportunity to hear accomplished storytellers – but I am equally interested to understand where the series may go in the future. It would be great to hear from under-represented voices.

The Business of Being Social

Conferences, Social Media, The Social Way

This presentation was part of the City of Sydney library workshop program at the Customs House Library. I spoke on the topic of Social Media for Enterprise 2.0 to a packed room of people hungry for knowledge (or maybe it was just lunchtime hunger I was sensing).

I shared some of the results of my recent Outlook for Australian Social Business 2012 report, explained some of the frameworks that I have created (like this one on social business maturity and how to build trust in social networks) and hopefully showed how we can address some of the challenges faced by businesses wanting/needing to engage with customers, partners and other stakeholders via social media.

In response to questions, I was luckily able to point to the Getting Started with Online Marketing infographic. Again, it is a great checklist for new and experienced practitioners alike. Hope you like the presentation!

Business of Being Social

View more presentations from Gavin Heaton

Getting Started with Online Marketing

Digital 101, Infographics

Over the last couple of years I have developed checklists galore, but some of the most useful have been the most simple. One in particular I use when setting up a new blog or website. It steps me through the process of establishing a digital footprint – the spaces in which your online conversations and interactions will take place.

And while these checklists are great, usable and effective, they are nowhere near as pretty as the unbounce Noob Guide to Online Marketing.

I will be printing this out and ticking off the spokes in the wheel. And then, when the footprint is done, it's down to some quality time with Darren Rowse's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. From there it is almost like clockwork!

Via Andy Moore.

noob-guide-to-marketing-infographic-1800

Vera For BBH – How to Get a Job in Advertising

AgencyWorld, Authenticity, Social Media, Storytelling

For the most part, CVs are dreary to write and worse to read. They are uninspiring, linear and don’t lend themselves to the kind of storytelling and experience that capture our passions, skills or abilities. So when I hear of an interesting approach or idea to snaring a job, I love to lend support.

In late 2010, Katherine Liew from Adelaide won an internship with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore – out innovating thousands of others to become the “world’s coolest intern”.

And when Simon Kemp shared a link to the Vera for BBH campaign, I had to learn more.

Vera4BBH2 Now we all know how hard it can be to land a gig in any agency – but BBH is one that is known for quality work. It attracts the best and brightest. So Vera set her plan in motion – a Facebook page, Twitter account, a slew of content, some seeding and some outreach. Her plan, obviously, was to start a revolution – a pink sheep revolution. As she says on her Facebook page:

Dear BBH,
I have seriously considered jumping through various hoops like a circus animal to get your attention – like the rest of the black sheep wannabes.
For three days, I have tried to think of ideas that will impress you and I have lost much sleep trying to fit in with all your black sheep. Somehow, that didn’t sit right with me. I was looking to fit in and be awesome? It sounded like secondary school all over again.
I’m sorry but I can’t do it. I’ve been the sheep in BRIGHT PINK WOOL for as long as I can remember and I’m slightly worried that my kind are unrepresented in this world.
I guess my question then is, Why aren’t pink sheep being considered for this internship?

And three days into the campaign, Vera has a page launched, some quirky, on-message content and attracted the attention of the local social media crowd in Singapore. 

Vera4BBH

I love that Vera defines herself as different from the oh-so-run-of-the-mill black sheep (after all if one works in advertising one must wear black … note to self: check wardrobe). But the big question – is this enough to get the job?

Here’s hoping so … pledging your first pay cheque to a charity is not a bad way to start a professional career. Passion and purpose. Play to win. Love it.

Take a #fastBREAK and Play This Friday

Conferences, Vibewire

I can still remember the sketchy, randomness of the very first #fastBREAK event that we held back in 2009. Rather than spending a Friday morning drinking coffee and chatting with friends before work, we went out on a limb. I asked Scott Drummond, Jye Smith, Isadore Biffin, Elias Bizannes and Matt Moore to give us five minutes of insight and passion. And together they inspired a movement.

Three years later, Vibewire’s #fastBREAK series is a cornerstone of Australia’s innovation scene – drawing young, established, mid-career and seasoned speakers into an intergenerational conversation with a curious and inquisitive audience.

Co-produced by the Powerhouse Museum, #fastBREAK is a brilliant opportunity to step out from behind your device, computer or even your TV and soak up inspiration and imagination from people who are pushing against the envelope of social innovation and creative industrial practice. It’s an hour of ideas, passion and personal storytelling from 7:45am on the last Friday of every month. It is designed to get you out of bed, fed, caffeinated and inspired and then off to work.

But don’t take my word for it – book in and see for yourself.It’s the best $10 you’ll spend this week.