Digital Marketing Planning: 2020 Edition

By Emiliano Giovannoni

Digital Marketing Planning, second edition. A practical guide for business managers: Plan, resource, forecast and measure your digital marketing to improve ROI and stay in control. With detailed diagrams and real-life examples.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emiliano Giovannoni
• Release date: Jan 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9798602549171

Emiliano Giovannoni

Emiliano Giovannoni is a seasoned digital marketing manager and consultant based in Brisbane, Australia. With vast international experience and a notable track record gained running digital marketing functions in competitive markets including the United Kingdom, Europe and Singapore, he has led digital marketing strategy for organisations ranging from publicly listed multinationals to VC-funded start-ups to drive revenue growth, deepen market-share, and foster client engagement in highly competitive market sectors including consumer finance, web and SaaS services and e-commerce retail. Emiliano is an Australian Marketing Institute Associate Fellow & Certified Practicing Marketer (AFAMI CPM)

Book preview

A goal without a plan is just a wish

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Introduction

Constant learning and firefighting

The first edition of Digital Marketing Planning (2018) was more than just an experiment; it was the collection of almost twenty years of lived online marketing experience, lessons, truths, ideas and concepts validated by trial and error (lots of errors).

I thank everyone who read the 2018 edition, and I appreciate the kind and generous feedback from readers. Your thoughts and questions were all considered for this revised and expanded 2020 edition, which I hope you enjoy.

It may sound like a cliché, but digital marketing more than any other business field is all about experimenting and learning. Changes in technology, consumer attitudes, regulations and macro-economic trends all have profound implications for digital marketing practices and capability.

For example, the area of 'conversion attribution' has evolved dramatically in the last few years to the point where a study conducted by Google shows that 81% of senior marketers identify attribution as their biggest challenge, and they struggle to see where to start. It is incredible to think conversion attribution was barely on the radar of most marketers only a few years ago.

I still have a copy of Basic Marketing by William D. Perreault, E. Jerome McCarthy and Pascale G. Quester. The book went to print in 1997 and had no section on conversion attribution, let alone any form of analytics, which today would be unthinkable.

The pace and rate of disruption is where I think planning plays a vital role in helping managers identify impact areas and prioritise execution, and to separate opportunity from distraction.

Planning is a misunderstood subject, often unloved. We all claim to value planning, but it's hard to find the time and the discipline to build even a simple plan, let alone follow one. We live in an era of instant results and overnight sensations where methodical planning is the anathema of the Hollywood entrepreneur persona.

Sometimes marketers look at planning as a tedious, uncreative process, but the contrary is true. The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers the following definitions for the act of planning:

to arrange the parts of (something)

to devise or project the realisation or achievement of (something)

to intend

In other words, any plan requires design, and there is nothing more creative than building a comprehensive plan. Planning is creating, and it requires lateral thinking, an analytical mindset and an ingenious outlook on problem-solving.

In digital marketing there is also the challenge of crystallising what, exactly, is required in the planning and execution stage. Resources, objectives, creative message, projections, competitive analysis.

I have been asked if my next edition could include a section on how to build performing paid search campaigns, which tells me there is sometimes a misunderstanding as to the specifics of planning. An effective plan is a prerequisite to building successful campaigns, but the moment you start building the campaign you are no longer in the planning stage you are in the execution stage.

But what is the value of planning anyway? Is planning merely a mechanical or algorithmic process designed to control execution and to predict a future outcome? If so, then we are in good hands as marketers. The advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data processing proceed at such a pace that we should very soon be able to craft infallible plans with the stroke of a few keys. You can already find software or consulting companies offering ready-to-execute marketing and business plans, enhanced and augmented by AI and big data.

And if in the future, software was able to develop an effective marketing plan from scratch, would it even matter whether or not a person within the business understood the plan? Or even better, believed in it? Or would it be enough to simply execute it?

Although researchers such as Dr. Henning Beck from the University of Tübingen in Germany claim things may not be so simple, at least not just yet. Dr. Beck states the issue lies in the fact that computers (AI) work differently than the human mind. He claims that AI performs correlation, statistics and mathematics while the human brain uses other tricks to organise and process information.

The brain does not calculate statistics or probability like a computer does. So if we had to decide whether to propose to marry our partner, our brain would not perform a correlational analysis of all personality types to identify the probability of achieving happiness through the marriage. Instead, the brain thinks in concepts and categories which are not statistical and mathematical in nature, and this is something that is very difficult to map through AI.

In other words, the brain is not a biological computer that organises information, calculates output and forecasts trends. Instead, it can imagine and extrapolate scenarios (predictions) irrespective of any historical or existing data, and above all, it can extract the meaning - and therefore the purpose - of things and not just rules and procedures.

Interestingly Dr. Beck claims intelligence per se is not conducive to innovation because the definition of intelligence is that you can follow a set of rules as fast as possible without mistakes. But intelligence does not mean that you can break the rules or create a new set of rules, which is the essence of innovation.

When you think about it, no IQ test has a question or task that asks you to invent a new IQ test. It's always about finding the pattern as fast as possible without making any mistakes.

So while no human can beat a computer at the game of chess anymore, humans can invent a new game of chess and, more importantly, understand why it's enjoyable to play chess with friends or why it's gratifying to teach a child how to play chess.

The whole artificial vs. organic intelligence is a fascinating field of debate, and I am certainly not qualified to enter the argument. However, I find this discussion highlights a significant point: Marketing is about customers, who (for now!) are human. So if digital marketing planning aims to engage customers, it is much more than just the application of a set of mathematical rules or hard-coded processes. It's also about the ability to innovate and discern the meaning of a marketing message.

This means digital marketing planning absolutely needs the qualities we have as humans, our imagination, creativity and empathy, and our ability to break the rules, create new rules and understand the meaning of certain communications. We cannot borrow these qualities from our electronic friends

No matter what processes, systems, techniques and methodologies we may learn to help us with our digital marketing planning, it is essential to remember our creative input is the most crucial ingredient, as this is what brings the systems together and puts them into the real world.

Somebody once said that there are only seven musical notes, but from the combination of these, the human brain can make endless different types of music and melodies. Like these musical notes, the techniques and methods in any tactical marketing guide, including this one, are merely tools that you, as an individual, are poised to bring to life in your unique way.

Digital marketing?

Does it still make any sense to talk in terms of online and offline marketing? Digital marketing has become more and more intertwined with the traditional economy and offline marketing practices —to the point where making a clear distinction between online and offline is now harder than ever.

The use of the Internet and other digital technologies in marketing has become so prevalent that thinking in terms of offline and online marketing is probably not going to be useful for much longer. If proof of this is needed, a survey conducted by Salesforce reveals that businesses are now spending more than 75% of their marketing budgets on digital marketing, demonstrating that the mainstream and digital marketing fields are converging.

However, industry sectors develop a shared professional jargon and definitions, and within the marketing profession, the term ‘digital marketing’ has now become synonymous with all tactical marketing activities that are entirely or predominately executed through the use of digital channels and techniques. I find WebFinance, Inc.’s definition of digital marketing to be exhaustive:

The promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. For example, advertising mediums that might be used as part of the digital marketing strategy of a business could include promotional efforts made via the Internet, social media, mobile phones, and electronic billboards, as well as via digital and television and radio channels.

Yes, technology and practices change, but some terms, once adopted, remain in use even after their literal meaning becomes redundant. The word ‘bookkeeping’ came into use in the fifteenth century, when accounts were kept in actual books, and this term remains in use today, when maintaining the financial records of a business is almost entirely digital.

It’s interesting to note how the term ‘digital marketing’ is currently en vogue. This term was preceded by ‘online marketing’, which in turn was preceded by ‘web marketing’ or ‘internet marketing’. These are all synonyms and can be used interchangeably, but if you used the term ‘internet marketing’ today, you would appear passé. This illustrates the inherent need and professional bias in the marketing profession to continually present concepts and ideas as new, even if they are not entirely innovative.

To provide as much clarity as possible, Table 0.1 below lists the primary marketing channels and shows where I differentiate between digital (online) marketing and traditional (offline) marketing channels. The list is not meant to be exhaustive or to include all possible marketing channels, but it should provide a fair idea of available options.

Note that some of the transition channels, such as TV, could have been considered offline marketing until very recently. However, technological development means that these types of channels are becoming integrated into the online media world (convergence). In fact, these channels are gradually being absorbed into digital marketing.

Therefore, in this book digital marketing plans refer mainly to all marketing activities that make use of web-based channels and are consumed or experienced by customers through digital technologies such as social platforms, enterprise portals, content systems, commerce platforms, user experience technologies, mobile technologies, search and collaboration.

Table 0.1 Online and offline marketing channels

The fundamental tenets of a typical digital marketing planning project are summarised as follows:

•  The planned activities and campaigns exclusively use digital technologies such as ad networks, social media platforms, CMS platforms, Big Data technologies, AI technologies and so on.

•  The plan is executed mainly through an Agile methodology or in iterations to achieve a faster time to market.

•  The primary success metrics are user engagement, performance, responsiveness and user conversion.

•  The campaigns mainly cater to Internet users though they may still provide omnichannel capabilities.

When you look at these key points it's easy to see how digital marketing is the evolution, or maybe expansion, of direct (response) marketing.

I find that as digital marketers, we often get confused and associate innovation with technology, as though the two are synonymous and that innovation can only be achieved through technology or that technology is a form of innovation.

But talented marketers can achieve amazing results with no digital support. For example, using guerrilla marketing armed with just an idea and no internet connection, Image 0.1 shows an exceptional Colgate marketing technique where ice cream bars featuring logo-bearing toothbrush-shaped wooden sticks remind people of the importance of brushing, presumably the importance of brushing with Colgate.

Image 0.1 Colgate ice cream bar stick

I could spend hours looking at examples of clever offline and guerrilla marketing campaigns. I find that as online marketers, we are sometimes overwhelmed and obsessed with the technology at our disposal, and we forget that what is at the heart of any marketing campaign is the power of a creative idea.

I love Corona’s London advertising campaign, ‘the Waive of Waste’, which produced a sobering installation billboard to mark World Oceans day in 2018 (Image 0.2 below). Corona claims to take the issue of marine plastic pollution seriously, and this interactive installation from plastic waste aimed to raise awareness. The campaign also featured an engagement or co-creation element where people could participate in the artwork by dropping off their plastic waste at the site of the billboard.

The campaign generated considerable coverage, including broadcasts on Sky News and ITV News, print coverage in the Daily Mail, Daily Star and Evening Standard, and online coverage on Telegraph Online, Mail Online, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Creative Review and CampaignOnline. This campaign had a reach of approximately 1.6 billion consumers!

Image 0.2 Waive of Waste

When observing some of the amazingly creative non-digital advertising campaigns like Corona's Waive of Waster and Colgate's Toothbrush, I can't help but think how this is a reminder of how many more possibilities we have when creating in the real world as opposed to the digital world.

Still firefighting

Based on data published by eMarketer, global digital ad spending increased by 333% in the last ten years (2010 to 2019 inclusive). That is a compound annual growth rate of 16.50% per year (Figure 0.1 below). Yet during the same period, the average global GDP growth has only been approximately 3% (World Bank), so it is reasonable to say that not too many businesses would have experienced a growth of 333% over the last ten years.

As an online marketing professional taking a macro perspective, I cannot help but ask myself, Has this really been working?. Put it this way: If you stopped all digital marketing activity today, what would be the impact on your business? If you stopped posting on social media or running email campaigns, what would be the revenue impact?

Figure 0.1 Digital ad spending growth (source eMarketer)

Data published by Adobe CMO.com shows that the failure rate for all marketing campaigns is approximately 90 percent. In my experience I have found a major reason for the failure of digital marketing campaigns is a lack of planning.

Digital marketing campaigns fail for many reasons. My experience has revealed five major categories that many digital marketing campaigns fall into. I call them yesman, copycat, duct tape, pretend and box-ticking campaigns.

Yesman campaigns are the digital campaigns that marketers run simply because of internal peer pressure, for example, campaigns that have always run or a campaign that is a director's pet project.

Copycat campaigns are run because your competitors, or companies you admire, run them. They are a sort of external peer pressure. You feel that if your competitors are active in paid search channels, you may be singled out if you are not present in that space too. You therefore run the campaigns when in fact you have no reliable information about whether they are working for your competitors or that they will work for you.

Duct tape campaigns are firefighting campaigns. If you had a bad sales month, then you may wheel out the only campaign(s) that your company is able to execute rapidly. Instead of fixing the roof you hire someone to empty the bucket under the leak. 

Pretend campaigns are those you run just because you have no budget, resources or support from your company to do anything else. The quintessential pretend campaign is posting content on social media, although some blogging and email marketing can fall into this category too.

Box-ticking campaigns are possibly my favourite type of failed campaign example. These are digital marketing campaigns you deploy because it is expected that any digital marketing manager worth her salt would run these. A classic example is customer surveys or email newsletters.

My sarcasm aside, the jury is out as to whether the significant increase in online marketing investment over the last ten or fifteen years has produced a corresponding return of revenue. A few key points are undeniable. There has been a lot of experimentation with new techniques, platforms and media, and this has inevitably brought with it a significant level of investment into digital marketing budgets. While I am convinced the vast majority of professionals in the digital advertising space operate with integrity and the best intentions, it's also undeniable that there's been a lot of guesswork and trial and error in the discipline. Digital marketers have come under a lot of pressure to deliver results while appearing to be keeping up with new trends.

When British comedian Karl Pilkington, in an episode of his TV series An Idiot Abroad, was asked which superpower he would pick if he had the choice. Pilkington’s response was he wished he could be a superhero whose sole superpower is calling others out on their bullshit. He called this superhero Bullshit Man. I thought at the time that Bullshit Man would have been a very busy superhero dealing with the digital marketing world of the last twenty years.

The result of the steep level of investment into digital marketing and the breakneck speed of change and innovation has created an inclination, or perhaps Bullshit Man would call it a compulsion, among online marketing professionals to have to keep up with every ‘new thing’. I have seen that such a dynamic environment results in the tendency of many business managers to approach digital marketing reactively rather than proactively.

I believe this is because of two coping mechanisms business managers have developed to survive in a digital marketing world. One is a defensive stance (We have looked at this, but it doesn’t work for us.), and the other is a ‘shiny object syndrome’ (all tools are dropped to try the latest trend and adopt the latest buzzword, whether it fits in with the existing digital marketing plan and its goals or not). It seems surprisingly easy to see great managers who carefully plan all areas of their operations yet approach digital marketing in firefighting mode.

There are many reasons for this, including the multidisciplinary nature of digital marketing, the breakneck speed at which things have evolved, and the disruption of digital technology on long-established business models. I am yet to speak with a business manager in any sector or country who would not claim digital marketing has changed the way their industry works, whether they are in financial services, fashion, tourism, education or beyond. Whatever the reasons behind the reactive approach to digital marketing, the consequences include uncertain results, missed opportunities and untold frustration.

Positive working relations

When writing the 2018 edition of Digital Marketing Planning, I envisaged the guide to be most useful for business managers as an easy guide to manage and monitor their digital marketing channels. But much of the feedback and interest