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Six digital rules to live by

Marketing strategy: You'd think that by now we'd all got to grips with how to deliver content digitally. But on occasion, the urgency to get content out the door outpaces getting it right. Back to basics.

Digital communications has been around for a while so everyone thinks they know what they’re doing. And often, they are right.

But there are occasions, and I’m sure it isn’t you, where organisations communicate their digital messages without really thinking about how the user will receive them.

Or, indeed, if they will receive them. Sometimes, people forget some of the basics about how users consume the stuff you post. So here are the basics. You know all this. The trouble is that you’ve got a lot on your plate, and some of it can slip.

Digital diagnostic clinics help sort that out. Just saying.

In the meantime:

Remember we’re mobile:

You know this from your own habits if not from numbers. The growth of the mobile web, and the data networks to support it, means that information can be received everywhere, and at any time.

So people will imbibe your messages while they are sitting on the toilet just as much as when they are sitting at their desk. This isn’t to place a mental picture in your head, but to remind you that this vastly increases the scale of your audience, and also their workday. They can receive messages early in the day, after the office has shut, or (even) in office hours.

The concept of a day at the office is much more malleable in these days of WFH and mobile connection. That doesn’t mean you need to be intrusive, but you can be less strict about posting times.

But more important even than message flow, is being aware of how your content presents on the mobile web. Check your website and communications on your phone. Check it on a variety of phones. See how it looks. Is it good enough?

And, whatever you do, stop publishing PDFs.

And we’re all social

The rise of social networks is one of the most significant developments in communication ever. For good and bad.

Much of your audience will be on one social platform or another, from LinkedIn to TikTok.

So you need to be there and your messages need to be there - shared by you and shareable by your audience. So make sure it renders well on social. If you’re generally just posting links, make sure the main picture pulls through, make sure there are share buttons on your web pages. Keep an eye on the comments and engagement. Just get the basics of social right.

But social is becoming private

The social media challenge has changed though. The social media platforms we might instinctively think of - Facebook, Twitter and so on - are public platforms. The exchange of thoughts and engagement and debate is largely public. The last few years, however, has seen the rise of private social media. Encrypted apps like Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Telegram, and that’s harder.

But marketing can engage with WhatsApp groups. You can post to people via Messenger… how you integrate your messages into those spaces is a challenge, but it’s not impossible.

Some of these spaces are performative (like TikTok again), which can be easier, while some are centred around private exchange, like Signal, which tends to one-to-one conversations or the sharing of documents. Learning when to use which and how to do so with dignity is one of digital’s more interesting challenges.

But you need to be discoverable

It’s hardly a trend, and it’s the obverse of the previous point, but people find information through two ways: recommendation (often through social media) or through search. Making your information discoverable is a combination of making it shareable and findable by search. The challenge here is one of search engine optimisation. And we’re good at it.

No further questions, m’lud.

The content challenge of connectivity

4G…. 5G.... VR…. AR…. There’s lots of talk in marketing circles about the opportunities for video, virtual reality, augmented reality and all other wonders of the modern age in delivering your messages. For many, that’s ambitious, but it raises the bar for quality content.

When mobile phones and their bandwidth are no longer a barrier, then it means you need better photography, that you need to up your game if you do video. You’re in competition for attention with all sorts of different media (professional and otherwise) and content is no longer something you do as an afterthought, it needs planning. Properly.

And make it addressable

Mass communication is great - but targeted information is better. You need to offer the right products and services to the right people. Either through targeted communications (a thorough customer relationship management system helps), through targeted social media (where paid-for campaigns can help), or by ensuring that (for want of a better word) influencers deliver your messages to the right audience.

The days of wasting half your advertising budget on the wrong audience, but not knowing which half, are gone.

And engage

People expect digital media to be two-way these days. Which is a challenge for organisations. If consumers comment or try to engage, how do you respond: just saying thanks to a small number of people being nice is one thing. What if there are hundreds? What if they aren’t nice?

An engagement policy is key - to make digital conversations work to your benefit and to minimise the chances of reputational challenge.

See? They’re not hard are they? These are just basic principles for digital content and marketing to make sure you’re as effective as you can be. But sometimes you might need an outside eye to make sure all these are embedded in your content strategy. We can, of course, do that for you. We needn’t hang around, we can just set you on the right path and go. Get in touch for a chat.