Shrouded in neologisms and shorthand, digital services can feel abstract, inaccessible and intimidating.
Yet, existing within digital’s many trisyllabic acronyms (Think: SEO, SEM, CPC) is the space to deliver memorable experiences and messages. The digital realm is one of immersion, engagement and entertainment. But above all, it’s one of impact.
Digital has emerged as our primary environment. Today, the digital marketing and advertising industry is worth $460 billion – with an expected growth of 9% per annum for the next four years. These statistics are unsurprising when we know digital’s track record (digital ads can increase brand awareness by 80% while SEO leads have a nearly 15% close rate and the average ROI for email marketing is $46 for every $1).
For these reasons, digital offerings are an indispensable tool in our kit. We use digital to build awareness, influence behaviour and motivate action. To move people – and change the world for good.
How can your organisation do the same? Start with:
1. Digital touchpoints
Seven seconds. That’s how long it takes to form a first impression of someone. But online, humans are even more decisive.
Research found that people judge websites in milliseconds – 50 milliseconds exactly. The same goes for social. That’s less than a click for people to decide whether they are impressed by your brand.
That’s why a consistent and considered online presence is crucial. It’s an opportunity to capture attention and tell your story to leave a lasting impression.
An online presence captures every touchpoint a client has with your business online – across Google, socials and your website. Like catching up with a friend, engaging with your brand’s online presence should be enjoyable, effortless and reflective of a true identity.
To assess your brand’s presence across touchpoints, ask yourself these questions:
- Is our brand identity and narrative consistent and active across web, socials and email?
- Are we easy to find? (E.g. SEO and ranking) And do we speak to our clients’ needs through our digital identity?
- Are we engaging with our clients regularly and meaningfully? (E.g. email marketing, online chatbots/surveys)
Looking for an example of all the above? See our work with Oho.
We collaborated with Oho, a technology business that allows organisations to monitor the accreditations of workers and volunteers to keep their employees, customers and communities safe. To bolster Oho’s impact, we:
- Built a seamless brand identity that aligned Oho’s digital experience with its strategic direction
- Ensured Oho’s digital presence was responsive to its clients’ needs through conducting company and perception research, as well as a market review
- Engaged clients through a one-year content cycle across web and socials
2. User experience
A defining asset of digital? The opportunity to deliver experiences – immersive, intuitive and awe-inspiring experiences. All through the evidence-led world of User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI).
Effective UX and UI is what keeps someone glued to a website page. It’s fundamental to any positive online experience. Yet when it’s done well, you won’t even notice it.
From smart navigation and organisation of information to responsive communication and surfacing relevant choices, UX encompasses many factors. But above all, it aims to anticipate and fulfil the user’s needs to keep them engaged with, and loyal, to your brand.
UX is brought to life through UI. UI refers to the space where humans and machines interact (think animations, colour applications and interactive design). To experience UX and UI in action, explore our work for Abbotsford Convent, where we worked with Bone Digital to reimagine the Convent’s website.
We recreated the experience of exploring the grounds by capturing physical elements of the Convent in its new website – hues from the Convent surrounds that shift from day to night, a vibrant ‘story tracer’ that follows the user around the homepage, and images housed in frames derived from the Convent buildings. In doing so, the website speaks to the users’ wants and needs.
3. Digital storytelling
Humans are storytellers. It’s the thread that ties cultures together – within community, across continents and over millennia. While storytelling is still relevant today, the medium has changed. Instead of carving stories into stone, we’re sharing them online.
Digital storytelling is just that. Using digital tools (videos, animations, images and audio) to tell a story.
Digital storytelling is key to humanising your brand and building a personal connection with your audience while also amplifying reach and engagement. It’s also a clever approach to content, as one piece can be repurposed across various channels – and targeted to distinct audiences.
Ellis Jones capitalised on digital storytelling for Jewish Care, to differentiate them in the market and also tell a story about the Jewish Care ethos – centring connection, celebration, and home.
4. Responsive marketing
Marketing automations can help increase your team’s efficiency while also allowing you to scale your marketing efforts.
It encompasses automated emails, social media automation, landing pages, lead magnets, gated content and more. When executed well, marketing automations let you identify your audience, design meaningful content and build rapport with your clients. It also helps you launch, test and measure your marketing and operations activities – and then pivot if needed.
Need a starting point? You can establish a lead generation form that collects email addresses from your website and then sends automated, personalised emails to these addresses. It’s easy to get started – you can set this up using free tools such as Typeform (for collecting information), Zapier (for email integration), and Mailchimp (for organising templates and structured funnel emails).
5. Performance and impact measurement
The ability to measure the impact of digital offerings is its greatest strength. From tracking traffic to leads to conversions, everything is visible and reportable online – so long as you have the right systems in place.
The data you want to mine and analyse will depend on your project goals. To establish comprehensive digital marketing reporting, we suggest linking your data from all platforms using visualisations tools.
While there are various options, we recommend Google Data Studio, which lets you collate data from all Google Suite channels (Ads, Console, Analytics). Integration platforms like Supermetrics also allow you to import data from other sources, including Facebook, Instagram and Mailchimp.
By dedicating time to enhance your organisation’s digital marketing and presence, you will feel and see the impact. Just like we have for our very own marketing. We use reporting to track which marketing and communications activities are making the greatest impact. Then, each quarter, our marketing team meets to discuss this, reflect on our progress, and use these insights to evolve our approach.
