Brand Trust in Digital or Social Media Marketing

How can trust in brands be developed and maintained in an age of digital marketing, speed, mistrust and social media?

This article first appeared in The Australian on 15th February 2019, then via KPMG NewsRoom.

Brand Trust in Digital Times (Image copyright Pexels)

'Brand power in the age of declining trust

Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer report in 2017 carried a headline “Trust is in crisis around the world”. A KPMG report last year found that “trust has declined in almost every major economy and many developing ones”. In a CNN interview recently, Salesforce’s founder and CEO Marc Benioff argued that “companies that are struggling today are struggling because of a crisis with trust”.

There seems no end to the brands, organisations and leaders that have lost the public’s trust. There has been a royal commission into our banks, multiple questions over Facebook’s use of personal data, cheating cricketers, fake news, church leaders charged, and political parties bickering among themselves.

It is hard to believe that some brands and organisations have turned a blind eye to building trust with customers over the past decade. Trust is the basis of all relationships, gained slowly like drops of rain but lost in buckets. It is fundamental to business, symbolised in a handshake and eye-to-eye contact.

……These brands meet the “trust” checklist in the KPMG report – standing for something more than profit; demonstrably acting in the customers’ best interest; doing what you say you will; keeping customers informed; and being competent and likeable.

There is no doubt that brand trust is more complex in a digital world, where social media and data personalisation have enabled brands to act as if they are talking to you in person. Combine that with the exponential growth of individuals’ data that can be captured; digital marketplaces; smartphones; voice technology such as Google Home and Alexa; and the algorithms and deep learning of artificial intelligence, and there are far more opportunities to get brand trust wrong. This is especially so when trust is measured at lightning speed and some decisions around brands are being made by machines acting like humans.

Data became the hottest brand trust issue last year. The biggest data breach involved the Marriott International hotel chain and had an impact on up to 383 million people on the Starwood booking database. This included more than five million unencrypted passport numbers. Facebook had multiple issues, the most discussed being Cambridge Analytica’s access to Facebook users’ data. This data was used to persuade voters to change their opinions in the last US presidential election.

Consumers started to question the trust they had in these brands: one US survey showed 71 percent of people were worried about how brands collected and used their personal data. …… Marketers also had their doubts after YouTube posted ads that appeared alongside offensive videos, leading to a number of companies and their media agencies withdrawing advertising from YouTube for a period.
In the past five years, some of Australia’s biggest companies have rushed to establish or buy into data businesses that can offer insights into the purchasing behaviour of their customers and also use that information to improve their marketing communications……

Some companies have commercialised this data by selling it to outside organisations that match it with their customer profiles, adding to the knowledge they have on their customers. Some have questioned the ethics of this, even if it is anonymous; others ask who actually owns the data – the individual or the companies?

Trust around data relies on the fundamentals: common sense says that being a friendly and helpful neighbour is better for a long-term relationship than being annoying or remote. The personal customer data a business holds needs to be treated in the same way. In a business environment where consumers have more choice than ever, as well as more transparency and lower barriers to switching brands, boards, CEOs and marketers cannot ignore the need to invest in brand trust.

For more blogs and articles about digital marketing, social media marketing and consumer behaviour click through.

EU GDPR Compliance Issues in U.S., Australia and Globally

In the US and Australia there seems to be much ignorance and complacency on the potential impact of the EU GDPR General Data Protection Regulation on private data, data collectors e.g. government agencies, and commercial entities, accessing and using data for commercial reasons; underpinned by lack of citizens' rights?

Issues for US and Australia on EU GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (Image copyright Pexels)

'Data privacy rules in the EU may leave the US behind

January 24, 2019 8.03am AEDT

France made headlines on Jan. 21 for fining Google US$57 million – the first fine to be issued for violations of the European Union’s newly implemented General Data Protection Regulations. GDPR, as it’s called, is meant to ensure consumers’ personal information is appropriately used and protected by companies. It also creates procedures to sanction companies who misuse information.

According to French data privacy agency the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL), which levied the fine, Google didn’t clearly and concisely provide users with the information they needed to understand how it was collecting their personal data or what it was doing with it. Additionally, CNIL said Google did not obtain user consent to show them personalized advertisements. For its part, Google may appeal.

In other parts of the EU, similar investigations are currently underway against Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

This case demonstrates the increasingly prominent role that the EU intends to play in policing the use of personal information by major companies and organizations online. The U.S. lags behind Europe on this front. As a researcher who studies computer hacking and data breaches, I’d argue the U.S. may have ceded regulatory powers to the EU – despite being the headquarters for most major internet service providers. Why has the U.S. not taken a similarly strong approach to privacy management and regulation?

Do individual Americans even care?

There’s no single answer to why the U.S. hasn’t taken similar measures to protect and regulate consumers’ data.

Americans use online services in the same way as our European counterparts, and at generally similar rates. And U.S. consumers’ privacy has been harmed by the ever-growing number of data breaches affecting financial institutions, retailers and government targets. The federal government’s own Office of Personnel Management lost millions of records, including Social Security numbers, names, addresses and other sensitive details, in hacks. My research demonstrates that hackers and data thieves make massive profits through the sale and misuse of personally identifiable information….

Companies don’t want these regulations

Social media sites’ and internet service providers’ resistance to external regulation is also a likely reason why the U.S. has not acted.

Facebook’s practices over the last few years are a perfect example of why and how legal regulation is vital, but heavily resisted by corporations…..

….Should the U.S. continue on its current path, it faces a substantial risk not only to personal information safety, but to the legitimacy of governmental agencies tasked with investigating wrongdoing.'

For more related blogs and articles on digital literacy, digital marketing, digital or e-consumer behaviour, EU GDPR and social media marketing, click through

Kotler - Traditional vs. Digital Marketing

Digital vs. Traditional Marketing - Kotler

Digital marketing facilitates WOM word of mouth and horizontal communication within any target market with the customers being central in strategy and outcomes, complemented by more detailed ROI, and requiring more analysis of digital or e-consumer behaviour.  The digital marketing strategy should be viewed as the system or software development lifecycle is, along the customer journey, based upon user or customer input making the system live, dynamic and relevant.

Philip Kotler - Traditional to Digital Marketing (Image copyright Marketing Insider Group)

Following is a summary of Philip Kotler’s Marketing 4.0 from The Marketing Journal (Kotler, Kartajaya & Setiawan 2018)

'Marketing 4.0 is the sequel to our widely-recognized concept of Marketing 3.0, which calls for brands to touch the human spirit.

Digital technology is increasingly moving at the heart of most modern businesses today. As OECD states, digital economy is fast percolating a wide range of industries, from bank­ing, energy and transportation to media and health. No wonder thus how often we hear of the word ‘dis­ruption’ in the context of business.

Moving towards marketing 4.0 requires balancing our use of machines and devices with human contact to strengthen customer engagement.

From Traditional to Digital Marketing

As we move from traditional to digital, market­ing has undergone fundamental transformation in the way its various elements are incorporated. Let’s take a look at the four most critical shifts:

From ‘Segmentation and Targeting’ to ‘Customer Community Confirmation’

For brands to be able to penetrate these com­ munities and get their messages across effectively, they need to fit in naturally – acting as friends, showing care and genuine concern to address cus­tomers’ needs and wants. In essence, the process of segmentation, targeting and positioning is made more transparent.

From ‘Brand Positioning and Differentiation’ to ‘Brand Characters and Codes’

In this age of digital marketing, a brand needs to be dynamic and versatile in what messages it delivers and how. But what should remain consis­tent is the brand’s character and codes, regardless of the content of the messages that it delivers. The brand’s character – its raison d’être- is what defines its personality, it is what makes the brand stand true to its core, even if the outer imagery is flexible – think Google (with its ever-changing Doodles) or MTV – how they remain flexible with their varying designs, yet solid as brands.

From ‘Selling the 4P’s’to ‘Commercializing the 4C’s’

In view of greater connectivity in the digital economy, armed with increased customer partic­ipation, we reckon the emergence of a new set of marketing mix, the 4C’s – co-creation, currency, communal activation, and conversation.

Traditional customer service revolves around treating customers as kings, but in the collabora­tive customer care approach, they are viewed as equals. While customer service would focus solely on addressing their concerns while still attempting to stick to strict guidelines and standard operating procedures, collaborative care would put genuine effort into listening and responding to the cus­tomer, consistently following through, on terms agreed upon by both company and customer. In the connected world, this collaborative process is more relevant to customer care wherein customers are invited to participate in the process by using self-service facilities.

Integrating Traditional and Digital Marketing

Industry observers have been debating for a while whether traditional marketing is dead, in view of the rising influence of, and marketing spend in, digital marketing. What we believe however is that digital is not supposed to replace traditional marketing. Both are meant to co-exist and have their own roles to play across the customer journey.

Traditional marketing is still quite effective in building awareness and interest in brands, but digital marketing plays a more prominent role as customers go on to build closer relationships with brands. The goal of digital should be to drive action and advocacy, and in view of greater accountability, the focus should be on driving results, as opposed to traditional marketing where the focus should be on initiating customer interaction. In essence, Marketing 4.0 aims to help marketers identify and prepare for the shifting roles of traditional and dig­ital marketing in building customer engagement and advocacy.’

What does this all mean?

• Digital marketing should not be viewed simply as a technical channel for budget allocation, while it includes community, word of mouth or horizontal communication with social media channels.
• Underlying brand character remains the same but with constant customer participation and collaboration as per the 4C’s customer generated content, authenticity, horizontal communication via word of mouth, and reinforcement of the message.
• Digital should complement traditional marketing’s building awareness and interest with customer interaction, also analysis of customer engagement, decision and action to inform ROI well.
• Marketing strategy (development) should be viewed as a dynamic system, not unlike the systems or software development lifecycle (SDLC) for the duration of the customer journey.
• Any system must to be based upon the needs of all stakeholders including customers, personnel, and users by continuous feedback for analysis (of outcomes) to inform improvements (including ROI).

For more blog articles about digital marketing and consumer behaviour click through to blog Education, Training and Society.

 

References & Bibliography:

Kotler, P, Kartajaya, H & Setiawan, I 2016, Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, Wiley, New Jersey.

Kotler, P, Kartajaya, H & Setiawan, I 2018, ‘Marketing 4.0: When Online Meets Offline, Style Meets Substance, and Machine-to-Machine Meets Human-to-Human’, The Marketing Journal, viewed 6 August 2018, <http://www.marketingjournal.org/marketing-4-0-when-online-meets-offline-style-meets-substance-and-machine-to-machine-meets-human-to-human-philip-kotler-hermawan-kartajaya-iwan-setiawan/>

Digital Marketing Trends

Technology, data and design are key to successful organisations, supported by the right culture, what are the latest trends?

Curiously, while speaking of customer experience CX and their ‘journey’, there is little focus upon customer driven strategies or CGM customer generated media content that is informed, logical, authentic and economic?

Trends in Customer Journey for Digital Marketing (Image copyright Pexels)

'From Prateek Vatash of Econsultancy via AMI Australian Marketing Institute - Digital Intelligence Briefing – Executive Summary

Econsultancy’s 2018 Digital Trends report, published in association with Adobe, is based on a global survey of 12,795 marketing, creative and technology professionals in the digital industry across EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific.

Now in its eighth year, the research looks at the most significant trends that will impact companies in the short to medium term. As part of this year’s study, we have also identified a number of top-performing companies in order to identify how they are focusing their activities and investments differently compared to their peers.

High-performing companies are those organisations that exceeded their top 2017 business goal by a significant margin, and who have also significantly outperformed their competitors.  Key insights from the research include:

Companies continue to focus on the customer experience (CX), as well as the content required to facilitate this. Organisations committed to CX are shown to outperform their peers.

- Asked about the single most exciting opportunity for the year ahead, optimising customer experience (19%) again comes out on top, ahead of data-driven marketing that
focuses on the individual (16%) and creating compelling content for digital experiences (14%).
- Organisations with a ‘cross-team approach with the customer at the heart of all initiatives’ are nearly twice as likely to have exceeded their top 2017 business goal by a significant margin (20% vs. 11%).
- Just under two-thirds (62%) of companies agree they have ‘a cohesive plan, long-term view and executive support for the future of [their] customer’.
- The top strategic priority for organisations in 2018 is content and experience management. Almost half (45%) of companies surveyed rank this as one of their three most important priority areas for the year ahead, with a fifth (20%) stating that this is their primary focus.

We are entering a ‘design and creativity renaissance’, with top-performing companies recognising the importance of these capabilities to complement data and technology excellence.

- The survey has found that just under three-quarters (73%) of respondents say their companies are investing in design to differentiate their brands.
- Organisations describing themselves as ‘design-driven’ are 69% more likely than their peers to have exceeded their 2017 business goals by a significant margin (22% vs. 13%). - - Similarly, organisations where creativity is highly valued are 46% more likely to have exceeded their 2017 business goals by a significant margin (19% vs. 13%).
- Organisations that ‘have well-designed user journeys that facilitate clear communication and a seamless transaction’ are 57% more likely to have significantly surpassed their 2017 business goals (22% vs. 14%).

Investment in technology and related skills is paying dividends, with integrated platforms fast-becoming a prerequisite for success.

- A lack of integrated marketing technology reduces the chances of providing a seamless customer experience and can also be frustrating for marketers and other employees who want to go about their jobs without unnecessary restrictions in their ability to acquire, retain and delight customers.
- In terms of their tech setup, 43% of organisations report a fragmented approach with inconsistent integration between technologies. Top-performing companies are almost three times as likely as their mainstream peers to have invested in a highly-integrated, cloud-based technology stack (25% vs. 9%).
- Digital skills are vital for a range of marketing tools and platforms. Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents agree that their companies are ‘combining digital marketing skills with technology’. Companies doing this are nearly twice as likely to have surpassed their 2017 business goals by a significant margin (20% vs. 11%), according to our analysis.

AI set to play a growing role in helping marketers to deliver more compelling real-time experiences.

- When asked about the themes and technologies they are most excited about over a three-year time frame, ‘delivering personalised experiences in real time’ is by far the most popular choice across all regions, with more than a third (36%) of company respondents, and 40% of their
agency counterparts, selecting this option.
- Top-performing companies are more than twice as likely as their peers to be using AI for marketing (28% vs. 12%). Only 15% of companies are already using AI, but a further 31% are planning to do so in the next 12 months. Looking only at respondents with annual revenues of more than £150m, the proportion of organisations using AI increases to 24%.
- Analysis of data is a key AI focus for businesses, with companies keen to create insight out of the vast quantities of often unstructured data being generated by customers’ activity. On-site personalisation is the second most-commonly cited use case for AI.'

For more article about digital marketing and consumer behaviour click through

EU GDPR Digital Marketing Compliance

What impact will the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have upon advertising, media, marketing and social media channels in both the EU and outside?

How important is involvement of IT/web teams, customers, legal, financial, communications and marketing?

European Commission GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (image copyright European Commission)

The European Commission GDPR

According to the European Commission:

Fundamental rights

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights stipulates that EU citizens have the right to protection of their personal data.

Legislation

The new data protection package adopted in May 2016 aims at making Europe fit for the digital age. More than 90% of Europeans say they want the same data protection rights across the EU and regardless of where their data is processed. (European Commission, 2018)

Scope of the GDPR

From the technology consultancy Trunomi (2018):

‘The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy. The key articles of the GDPR, as well as information on its business impact, can be found throughout this site.

An overview of the main changes under GDPR and how they differ from the previous directive

• IncreasedTerritorial Scope (extra-territorial applicability)
• Penalties
• Consent
• Data Subject Rights
• Breach Notification
• Right to Access
• Right to be Forgotten
• Data Portability
• Privacy by Design
• Data Protection Officers’

Australian context for the GDPR

From the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC 2018):

Key messages

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) contains new data protection requirements that will apply from 25 May 2018.

Australian businesses of any size may need to comply if they have an establishment in the EU, if they offer goods and services in the EU, or if they monitor the behaviour of individuals in the EU.
The GDPR and the Australian Privacy Act 1988 share many common requirements, including to:

• implement a privacy by design approach to compliance
• be able to demonstrate compliance with privacy principles and obligations
• adopt transparent information handling practices.

There are also some notable differences, including certain rights of individuals (such as the ‘right to be forgotten’) which do not have an equivalent right under the Privacy Act.
Australian businesses should determine whether they need to comply with the GDPR and if so, take steps now to ensure their personal data handling practices comply with the GDPR before commencement.

Issues of non-compliance

However, Hern in The Guardian (2018) when observing large personal data using companies states:
Privacy policies from companies including Facebook, Google and Amazon don’t fully meet the requirements of GDPR, according to the pan-European consumer group BEUC.

An analysis of policies from 14 of the largest internet companies shows they use unclear language, claim “potentially problematic” rights, and provide insufficient information for users to judge what they are agreeing to.

“A little over a month after the GDPR became applicable, many privacy policies may not meet the standard of the law,” said Monique Goyens, BEUC’s director general. “This is very concerning. It is key that enforcement authorities take a close look at this.”

Impact on Email marketing

Email marketing software company MailChimp (2017):

The scope of the GDPR is very broad. The GDPR will affect (1) all organizations established in the EU, and (2) all organizations involved in processing personal data of EU citizens. The latter is the GDPR’s introduction of the principle of “extraterritoriality”; meaning, the GDPR will apply to any organization processing personal data of EU citizens—regardless of where it is established, and regardless of where its processing activities take place. This means the GDPR could apply to any organization anywhere in the world, and all organizations should perform an analysis to determine whether or not they are processing the personal data of EU citizens. The GDPR also applies across all industries and sectors…… relevant to MailChimp…

…..Expansion of scope; definitions of personal and sensitive data; individual rights: EU citizens will have several important new rights under the GDPR, including the right to be forgotten, the right to object, the right to rectification, the right of access, and the right of portability and stricter processing requirements

However, the most significant issue are the stricter consent requirements:

Stricter consent requirements

Consent is one of the fundamental aspects of the GDPR, and organizations must ensure that consent is obtained in accordance with the GDPR’s strict new requirements. You will need to obtain consent from your subscribers and contacts for every usage of their personal data, unless you can rely on a separate legal basis, such as those found in number 5 below. The surest route to compliance is to obtain explicit consent. Keep in mind that:

1 Consent must be specific to distinct purposes.
2 Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity does not constitute consent; data subjects must
explicitly opt-in to the storage, use and management of their personal data.
3 Separate consent must be obtained for different processing activities, which means
you must be clear about how the data will be used when you obtain consent. (MailChimp 2017).

Consent would appear to be both central to compliance and rights of privacy yet problematic for much existing practice in ‘marketing’.

Best Practice Marketing

Meanwhile in Australia Hanson (2018) argues in ‘Mumbrella’ that it’s best practice for both business and customers:

For Australian businesses that want to better serve their customers, the GDPR signals the end of activities that marketers should have abandoned long ago. This means that it’s no longer good enough to buy a mailing list, nor is it appropriate to send cold-call emails or, heaven forbid, actually send spam.

Under the new rules, customers have to explicitly opt-in to getting your communications. In the old days, it was fine to pre-tick boxes on a web form allowing you to send a customer marketing emails. Now you can’t do that. Instead, customers have to give consent to you communicating with them, and that consent needs to be clear, in plain English, as well as informed, specific, unambiguous and revocable.

How to implement GDPR?

What does this mean for marketing in a digital environment or system? According to the Digital Marketing Institute (2018):

Step 1. Get your privacy policy page up to scratch

Step 2. Audit your current databases for opt-in consent

Step 3. Re-opt-in campaigns for current databases

Step 4. Create a process for opt-in consent

Step 5. Get the sales team on board

Step 6. Review third-parties who have access to your databases

Step 7. Have a streamlined process for information requests

Step 8. Prepare for a security breach.

In the short term the direct impact is neither selling nor buying of client email lists, but clear or voluntary consent or opting-in, through organic collection of prospective and existing clients’ details, how?

Using digital marketing techniques for organic inbound SEO search engine optimisation traffic as not just strategy but a living system to attract prospective clients over time. This will ensure compliance and allow prospective clients to opt-in voluntarily for newsletters, follow up etc. with the peace of mind their data will be private and not be shared.

However, organic inbound SEO requires cooperation and input across departments to share inter disciplinary expertise whether strategic management, IT, legal, finance, logistics, marketing, communications and importantly, customers or clients.

Reference List:

Digital Marketing Institute, 2018, ‘Trends & Insights: The Definitive GDPR Checklist for Marketers’, 5 April, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-au/blog/05-04-2018-the-definitive-gdpr-checklist-for-marketers >

European Commission, 2018, ‘Data protection in the EU’, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-eu_en >

Hanson, G 2018, GDPR is a great thing for Aussie marketers, Blog, 13 June, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://mumbrella.com.au/gdpr-is-a-great-thing-for-aussie-marketers-522988 >

Hern, A 2018, ‘Privacy policies of tech giants 'still not GDPR-compliant’’, The Guardian, 5 July, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/05/privacy-policies-facebook-amazon-google-not-gdpr-compliant >

MailChimp, 2017, Getting ready for the GDPR, MailChimp Blog, 9 Oct 2017, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://blog.mailchimp.com/getting-ready-for-the-gdpr/ >

OAIC Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 2018, 'Privacy business resource 21: Australian businesses and the EU General Data Protection Regulation' <  https://www.oaic.gov.au/agencies-and-organisations/business-resources/privacy-business-resource-21-australian-businesses-and-the-eu-general-data-protection-regulation > 7 July 2018.

Trunomi, 2018, ‘EU GDPR key changes’, viewed 7 July 2018, < https://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html >

Andragogy for Adult Learning Design in Education and Training

Adult Learning in Context for English Teaching and Digital or e-Marketing for Small Business

How to teach English as a Foreign Language in the UK, teacher trainers designed a good quality program with right mix of theoretical input, teaching, learning and assessment activities, discussion, observations of practice, lesson plan design and observed practice lessons with immediate feedback.

The issues were then going onto work in the English teaching sector in Turkey for over a year, but missed the essential post course development from qualified native speaking DELTA director of studies e.g. expert  and/or peer observations.

Andragogy for Adult Education and Training

1. Adult Learning Theory:

Andragogy includes need for knowledge, motivation, willingness, experience, self-direction and task based learning.  Transformational Learning is exemplified by identification of an issue, personally relevant and application of critical thinking or reflection. Experiential learning, via Kolb, revolves round concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation (Gutierrez, 2016 & Pappas, 2013).

CELTA trainee teachers are motivated, must be self-managing after training when they may not have expert support.  Teaching adults, one can use their input to guide lessons for local needs and ‘personalise’.  Kolb’s experiential learning theory is most relevant in English language learners taking on new language structures or functions in the classroom through presentation, practice and production or fluency, then applying outside the class room.

2. Principles of Andragogy:

In the (Australian) international education sector marketing, need for ‘Introduction to Digital or e-Marketing'; few if any related personnel are motivated to learn.  Many international education marketing managers dismiss digital marketing as ‘technical’ for web team, in favour of ‘approved’ travel to international student events.

The solution is to find a senior institution leader who can support the same CPD in digital marketing with marketing managers i.e. motivated marketing managers being involved in planning and evaluation, informed by experience, relevant and problem centred, which can then be applied in the field (Ibid.).

Reference List:

Gutierrez, K. (2016) Adult Learning Theories Every Instructional Designer Must Know. Available at: https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/adult-learning-theories-instructional-design (Accessed on: 20 November 2017).

Pappas, C. (2013) Instructional Design: The Adult Learning Theory - Andragogy of Malcolm Knowles. Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles (Accessed on: 20 November 2017).

Instructional Design - Digital or e-Marketing Introduction for Small Business

Topic:  Introduction to Digital or e-Marketing

for Small Business

Goal:

Small business owners and/or managers understand the concepts, resources and actions for a digital or e-marketing strategy.

Subject Matter Expert and/or Target Market:

Have the SME covered personally, however I would potentially approach a local business chamber of commerce looking to support local businesses in their marketing and sales.  It could also target a specific sector, like has already been done below, i.e. travel and tourism, or international education sector.

 Instructional Design - Digital or e-Marketing Strategy for Small Business

(Image copyright Pexels)

Rationale:

Worked in education and training small business related to study abroad in Australia developing a digital marketing strategy covering Central Europe, Turkey, UK and Australia; conventional marketing was too expensive, not transparent and ineffective.

Self-taught using available online resources, became familiar with many techniques and actions, with formalisation of learning through recent MBA course subject ‘e-Marketing’.

In my professional experience, in addition to state university and vocation school marketing managers, many small private colleges precluded any effective digital marketing strategy in favour of expensive conventional advertising and promotion via travel to one off events for international student recruitment; not financially viable in new markets nor medium term market development.

Generally Australia has low very digital literacy amongst managers and owners, including small business, due to legacy industries preferring existing processes, sub-optimal education curricula, demand for immediate simple solutions and lack of innovation.

However, the travel and tourism industry, with state agency support, have had access for over 10 years to an e-Marketing kit, designed for small travel operators to leverage their marketing and sales digitally, both locally in Australia and internationally with global network; it’s been quite successful as world’s best practice.

The advantage is that small businesses with good digital strategy can increase their target market, analyse well, work with their and gain insight into their own customer base and have more significant profile than physically larger organisations.

Content Delivery &/or Presentation:

Can be introduced, presented, learnt and assessed via basic understandable steps, requiring participants to bridge differences between conventional marketing or sales, with digital.

 The design would include:

1. What is marketing? How do your customers find you? What do they say about you?
2. Website appearance, design and management and content management systems (CMS)
3. Social Media how does it work? Which blog and social media?
4. SEO/SEM How to reach new audiences and markets?
5. How to evaluate any strategy or system?

Teaching and learning resources would include examples of good (and bad) practice via following or analysing a business from its website (social media, blogs, customer feedback etc.), feedback from participants relating to their own business examples.

This should be leading to them being able to assess needs, develop strategy, implement and evaluate, continually.

Outcomes are assessed by learner input, producing a strategy or approach, resources and media e.g. how to create a Facebook page, open a Twitter account, find useful resources etc.; using own PC, laptop, tablet or mobile.

After this overview, e.g. even presenting to actual target audience, could lead to being commissioned for more of the same, and higher-level training courses.

For more related articles and blogs click through Digital Marketing and Instructional Design for e-Marketing.

International Education Marketing - Conventional versus Digital

Traditional International Education Marketing 

There have been criticisms for some decades regarding the effectiveness of universities’ and related education institutions’ international marketing and their ability to identity what the market needs and communicating effectively (Nicholls et al., 1995).  

Anecdotal complaints from within larger institutions, whether faculty or administration, is that even with high enrolment numbers, there is little understanding of ‘how’ students came to be enrolled, let alone those prospective students who did not, with indirect or invalid KPIs (key performance indicators). 

International Students - Digital Marketing Strategy

International Students - Digital Marketing Strategy

(Image copyright Pexels)

This is compounded further in large entities by organisational structures on large campuses, leading to potentially sub-optimal co-ordination between international marketing, admissions, web marketing team, suppliers or agents and students; resulting in silos impacting analysis of communication and information sharing.

Conventional Marketing or Sales

Marketing strategy emerging in the 1980s relied upon travel to physical recruitment events, distribution of brochures or ‘marketing materials’ by hand, appointment of agents; mostly short-term sales and ROI model or basic ‘4Ps’.  This latter financial and physical ROI method of evaluation e.g. numbers of brochures distributed, and students recruited, may not be highlighting the important factors or process leading to enrolments, or missing many factors altogether e.g. WOM?

The assumed positive outcomes from such strategies may be correlated with other factors such as ongoing WOM with peers, suitable course availability or online visibility.  Previous research had already highlighted critical factors of significance including need for innovation, quality staff and image, service culture, good use of information technology (IT), healthy financials, technical excellence and broad range of courses (Mazzarol, 1998). There is focus upon internal human and technical resource factors required as inputs for good marketing and communication, but not behaviour of those seeking relevant information. 

Meanwhile, over ten years ago formal research recognised and confirmed in decision making of a student sample, it’s course first, over reputation and destination, along with creating awareness through search engine optimised (SEO) visible websites to be found directly and easily (Gomes & Murphy, 2003). 

This latter study is one of the few formal research articles related to international student purchasing behaviour available in the public domain, yet emphasising the importance of SEO and digital over ten years ago.  However, Australia’s pre-eminent and university owned student marketing and recruitment vehicle IDP, like most and according to formal job description, does not view analysis of enrolled students or other prospective students as important or essential (IDP, 2016)?

There has been little if any related or formal research on how students find information except some industry groups, mostly in Europe about ‘how’ prospective students behave and interact.

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