The digital channel’s development is more often than not seen as either a marketing responsibility or an IT responsibility rather than a piece of infrastructure that requires support from across the business.  However, more often than not the development of the organisation’s digital assets (website, email, mobile etc.) are generally funded solely by marketing.  Marketing budgets however are set to generate the comms activity itself, content as an example, rather than all the required supporting hardware, software, systems back end etc. The result is often digital activity that is either lacking ‘quality content’ or ‘smarts’ because most of the dollars are spent on developing both the digital framework as well as the actual content.

What I don’t understand is why these required business assets in the digital channel are treated any different than the company sales rep’s car, retail outlet, office space. or telephone system in the physical world.  These are all pieces of business infrastructure that serve as marketing vehicles for the organisation.  However, only the company digital assets are funded primarily by marketing and not the ‘business infrastructure’ budget that can be amortized and written off over a three-year business cycle and upgraded as ‘technology’ moves forward (as it will).

So much like the company car that gets upgraded from petrol to natural gas as technology moves forward, so should the digital assets that support marketing activity.  This upgradeable framework can then be filled and maintained with brand and marketing activity.  The sales rep and their message are delivered by car to potential customers.   Email as an example should be considered the same way.  The content that fills the email is funded by marketing, however the email channel capabilities/functionality as required by the business and it’s customers should be funded by the organization, not just marketing, to deliver a compelling digital solution for customers that drives bottom line results.

With limited marketing dollars the outcome is often average rather than a world-class consumer experience. The bad news for most businesses is you are increasingly competing in a global marketplace with organisations that treat the digital channel as an extension of the entire business, not just a tactical marketing opportunity. They will gain market share by providing superior digital experiences for their customers as part of the overall brand experience.

So how do you overcome this problem?  Marketers need to step out of the day to day and develop a long term digital strategy that considers and involves the stakeholders from across the business to ensure their buy in and support for a channel that is often misunderstood by executives. I was fortunate enough to work with Australia’s largest bank in leading and developing this kind of approach.  Since the strategic approach we developed was implemented this financial institution has moved to number one in the online retail channel and become a case study for Global Best Practice in online banking by Forester Research.  The approach we took was long term (a digital asset Roadmap), consumer and business centric driven objectives (win/win for all involved), and investment from across the business to deliver the digital experience required by the brand and demanded by its customers.

So for organizations that understand that investment in the digital channel is now a must I suggest finding a marketing partner that not only ‘gets’ digital but more importantly can move you away from thinking that drives their own short term agendas around execution to one that considers your broader long term business needs.  Here’s a tip for the next big step, we will stop searching and the things we need will start to find us. So where is your digital roadmap for the future and your ensured success?

The Republican Party and Michael Steele launched a new website touted as “a forward-looking, open platform for the party of new ideas.” The site has a lot of blogs and social networking tools but is short on content. The site also has a lot of bugs and as of 1:45 PM PDT today, the site crashed.

Hey, it could be worse, your brand could be  Sweden and it’s economy when every website and email across the country stops working. oops. So brand promise vs brand truth as seen with Ducati in my previous post, digital is just the medium. Stay tuned here GOP.com vs Obama’s efforts at barackobama.com. Who gets your vote? Next time corporate twitter twatter.

A great sell for the Brand. No one got hurt.  An example where the marketing is built into the product, just give people the tools to spread the love, thanks You Tube (Google viral lesson 101). I’m lovin it! and what I am sure of is this. More than a few people will want to experience that first hand and will be visiting showroom floors around the world. Brand experience promised and delivered if you ever get the chance to ride one and as imparted by this advocate.  Ducati 1098 mmmm…..if you cant afford one there’s always this MotoGP 08!

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

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