Digital Sense The Common Sense Approach to Effectively Blending Social Business Strategy, Marketing Technology, and Customer Experience

Digital Sense provides a complete playbook for organizations seeking a more engaged customer experience strategy. By reorganizing sales and marketing to compete in today's digital-first, omni-channel environment, you gain newfound talent and knowledge from the resources already at hand. This book provides two pragmatic frameworks for implementing and customizing a new marketing operating system at any size organization, with step-by-step roadmaps for optimizing your customer experience to gain a competitive advantage. The Experience Marketing Framework and the Social Business Strategy Framework break down proven methods for exceeding the expectations customers form throughout the entirety of the buying journey. Customizable for any industry, sector, or scale, these frameworks can help your organization leap to the front of the line.

The evolution of marketing and sales demands a revolution in business strategy, but realizing the irrelevance of traditional methods doesn't necessarily mean knowing what comes next. This book shows you how to compete in today's market, with real-world frameworks for implementation.

• Optimize competitive advantage and customer experience
• Map strategy back to business objectives
• Engage customers with a pragmatic, proven marketing system
• Reorganize sales and marketing to fill talent and knowledge gaps

Today's customer is savvy, with more options than ever before. It's critical to meet them where they are, and engagement is the cornerstone of any cohesive, effective strategy. The technological revolution has opened many doors for marketing and sales, but the key is knowing what lies behind each one—what works for your competitor may not be right for you. Digital Sense cuts through the crosstalk and confusion to give you a solid strategy for success.

TRAVIS WRIGHT is a successful marketing technology consultant, keynote speaker, tech journalist, growth hacker, entrepreneur, data & analytics geek, podcast host, and mediocre stand-up comic. He is the former global digital and social media strategist at Symantec for the Norton brand, and is the cofounder and Chief Marketing Technology Officer at CCP.Digital, a Kansas City & San Francisco-based digital ad & content agency.

CHRIS J. SNOOK is managing partner at Launch Haus. A digital agency and tech startup veteran, he is also the brand humanizer-at-large at Ethology. He mentors entrepreneurs with Founders Institute globally and ASU Project Humanities. He is the coauthor of three other books including the international bestseller Wealth Matters Makeover Edition (in its 3rd edition).

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword xvii

Preface A Tale of Two “Tweeties” xxi

The “Save Our Chiefs” Movement xxix

Optus in Australia xxxiv

The Genesis of this Book xxxvii

Section I OVERVIEW 1

1 The Game at Speed 3

Why Your Organization Needs a Digital Sense DNA Layer 3

The Game Has Forever Been Changed 4

Bits of Knowledge 8

Who Is This Book For? 9

2 Influencers, Zombies, and Everything Between 11

The Rise of Digital Transformation 11

Attention and Trust 14

Influencers, Amplifiers, Motivatables, and Zombies 16

Section II BUILDING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC ORGANIZATION 23

3 Introducing the Experience Marketing Framework 25

The Framework to Ask Powerful Questions 26

The Experience Marketing Framework 28

Customer Experience Is the Battleground in a Digital World 30

Takeaways from Introducing the EMF 31

4 The Insights Layer 33

The Customer Is the Main Thing 34

Customers, Competitors, and Forces 37

The Customer 38

The Importance of Persona and Customer Journey Mapping 40

Audience Development Exercise 41

Look Honestly at Your Competitive Landscape 43

The Customer Is the Asset 47

“Use the Force, Luke!” 50

The 6 Ds (Phases) as Classified by Peter Diamandis 51

5 Mind over Organizational Matter 61

Mind and Brain Mechanics 101 62

Substance Is All Around Us. We Just Need the Thought. 64

The Stick-Person Explained 67

Understanding the Mind Using the Stick-Person Graphic 69

The Six Intellectual Faculties 74

What to Do When the Zombies Attack 80

Break through Your Comfort Zone 80

Nothing Stays the Same! 81

6 The Vision Layer 91

The Vision Layer + Social Business 93

The Vision Layer Exercises 93

Customer Journeys 98

The Journey Map Touch Point Exercise 100

Scope 102

Takeaways from the Vision Layer 105

7 The Success Layer 107

What Is a Social Business? 110

Begin with the End in Mind 112

Loops, Love, and ROI 115

Optimizing the Operational Loop 120

Audit 1: ROT Content Audit 120

Audit 2: Brand Guidelines Audit 125

Audit 3: Heuristic Audit 125

Good Governance Guidelines 126

Takeaways from the Success Layer 128

Section III SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGIES AND TACTICS 129

8 Social Business Strategy for Marketing 131

Appropriate Campaign Goals 135

Content Marketing and Paid Media Amplification 139

Case Study: Fort Collins Startup Week Goes Global on $2,500 144

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 145

Key Determinants Impacting Your Organic Search Ranking 146

Enterprise Paid Search 148

Predictive Advertising Management 149

GEO Targeting and IP-Based Advertising 150

9 Social Business Strategy for Sales 153

What Is Social Selling? 154

Why Is Social Selling Important? 154

Goals for Social Selling 154

Who Should Own Social Selling? 155

The Social Selling System 156

Social Selling Implementation 156

Social Selling Challenges 158

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) 158

Case Study: #Closing $Millions for Pennies on the Dollar 160

10 Social Business Strategy for Influencers and Employee Advocates 163

Influencer Marketing Tech Is Fragmented 164

Key Trend 1: Decline of Advertising Due to the Massive Increase in Ad Blockers Globally 164

Key Trend 2: Rise of Influencer Programs Is Leading to Greater Need for Efficiencies and Proving ROI 164

Key Trend 3: CMOs Are Driving the Budget Increase in Marketing Technology Spend 165

Key Trend 4: Four Critical Factors Are Fueling the Chaos in Influencer Marketing 165

The Five Categories of Influencer Marketing Tech 165

Influencer Marketing Platform “5 Capabilities” Model 166

The Influencer Marketing Manifesto 167

Community: Size and Type of Audience 167

Content: Format and Type 167

Channel: Social Networks and Sites 168

Credibility: Topical Relevancy 168

Chemistry: Brand-Influencer Fit 169

Controversy: Lack of Resonance and Transparency 169

Employee Advocacy 169

Employees Are the Most Credible Voices in Your Organization 170

Employee Advocacy Drives Sales 170

Who Is Doing Employee Advocacy Right? 171

11 Social Business Strategy for HR 173

Social Recruiting 173

Use Social Media to Evaluate Cultural Fit 175

The New Face of Social Recruitment 176

Play Sherlock 177

Case Study: #Hirecarlos: How to Get Your Dream Gig with Social Media 178

Case Study: Finding $500,000 Worth of Talent for $250 in Ads 182

Themes for Your Advertising 183

12 Social Business Strategy for Customer Service 187

We All Want the Same Simple Pleasures 188

Social Media Triage 191

Audit Your CX Center of Excellence 193

Where to Begin? 194

Section IV DATA AND AUTOMATION 197

13 Designing Your Ultimate Marketing Stack 199

How to Build a Solid MarTech Stack 200

Bottoms Up 200

CRM 201

Marketing Automation 201

Tag Management 201

Analytics and Tracking: You Need to Track Your Performance, Ads, Technology, and Everything Else 202

Invest in Keeping Your Stack Open 202

Monitoring the MarTech Stack 207

MarTech That Drives Business Growth 211

Agile Is Your Savior 212

Marketing Technology Frameworks and the EMF 212

Always-On Assessment, Evaluation, and Adoption 213

No Single Platform Winner aka “Marketing Operating System” 213

Build, Buy, Or Rent? 214

Mobile Marketing Technology Stacks 214

Drive Internal Buy-In and Stakeholder Influence by Measured ROI 215

Section V FUTURE-PROOFING 217

14 Building A Personal Brand, BRO 219

Business Relationship Optimization 219

Ass Kiss It Forward 221

ProSumerTribuDucers 223

15 Avoiding Obsolescence and the Road Ahead 227

Dead Ideas 227

Experts Evolve into Sensemakers! 229

Lifelong Learning as a Habit 229

5G, IoT, AI, VR, and Drones, Oh My! 230

The Fourth Industrial Revolution 231

Virtual Reality Mini-VRcations 232

Virtual Reality Masterminds and Uploadable Consciousness 233

5G Allows Minimal Latency 234

The Dark Side of Drones 235

5G Possibilities 236

Notes 239

About the Authors 249

Index 251

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