Denial / Anger / Bargaining / Depression / Acceptance
As I sit with CEOs and CMOs of some of the region’s largest brands these days, I find myself having a similar conversation with all of them. The talk is about digital marketing and communications. They want a quick, declarative answer to the question of how do web sites, email, social media and apps improve their bottom line.
Looking back, my part of this conversation began in the late 1990’s. One of those dialogues with a client led to the creation of www.KELOLAND.com which has been the region’s most visited site since its inception. The difference between then and now is the level of emotion attached to these discussions, which has led me to believe this ever-changing landscape and all the forces swirling around it have put brand leaders into a grieving process. Lawrence & Schiller’s mission is to help them through it as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Let’s go through the steps to see where you are.
Denial
I used to hear, “This internet thing is just a fad.” Today’s version is the waving around of B.J. Henderson’s book, “Social Media is Bull****”. A quick look at the usage statistics of social media, smart phones, tablets and the like points out that there is simply no point in denial. If your brand’s digital and social media efforts are BS it just means you haven’t found your sweet spot, which is linking your efforts to actionable, measurable brand initiatives. I believe most brand leaders in the denial stage are simply crying out for help.
Anger
Now they’re mad! And when they’re mad their brand has the, “absolute worst web site and digital marketing platform on the planet. Bar none.” Rarely is that completely true. A contributor to their anger is that, especially in a large brand, every stakeholder in the organization has a stake in the digital marketing strategy. And making them all happy seems impossible, which leads to…
Bargaining
In this point of the grieving process brand leaders are susceptible to the mirage of a quick fix. They forget that digital marketing communications is just like every other marketing medium. It can only be effective when you understand your audience and give them the tools and information they need to take the action your brand desires. So along comes the sexy “digital shop” that isn’t in sync with the brand strategy. Valuable time to market is wasted while relationships are built and an additional company is taught the brand.
Depression
At this point in the conversation I hear, “I can’t find the answer that meets the needs of my entire organization. Every dollar we spend in digital is wasted. The digital specialty shop experiment set us back two years.” In your darkest digital marketing day the solace I can give is that you are about to see the light.
Acceptance
Acceptance is sometimes confused with the notion of feeling everything is OK. Instead it should be viewed as the foundation for that. In acceptance we have our most meaningful conversations about how digital marketing and communications need to be attached to the core initiatives of your brand. You discover that an effective digital plan correctly identifies which digital efforts are in sync with how your target uses digital. Finally, you place the people you most trust to market your entire brand in charge of your digital efforts and you empower them to get it done. The “aha” moments and results-based efforts that follow are my favorite times in this business.
Agile
I’ve added a sixth step. You will really like this one. There is a significant transformation happening in the digital development and programming process. Nobody likes the way it used to be done. You would approve wireframes and wait for months while programmers burned code in a dark room. Then when you finally saw your site and wanted to tweak a few things you were told that would require a lot of time and money to put the programmers back in the dark room. In agile development we will identify and prioritize your key initiatives and quickly move those to market. The decisions we make along the way will guide future development. Instead of running a marathon we’ll go through a series of sprints. Just like in the Olympics, the sprinters get all the glory.
We can help
Where are you in the digital marketing grieving process? We’d love to help you reach happiness and success as quickly as possible.
