Perceptint Musings

Last time I explained the thinking behind the digital marketing advocate, and the situations that led me to create the role. This time I want to start exploring the actual deliverables that I work on for clients and what they are, how they are produced and what their value is. Over the next few posts, I’ll map out quick sketches of several of the core services and what I believe they offer my clients.

Vision Reports 
The Vision Report is a quarterly state of the union for the client. Report data comes from the client as well as any third party vendors that can contribute to the Reports value.

It begins by reiterating all current marketing goals and any new or in process hot items that are still in play. Given that goals within large organizations can change quarter to quarter and year to year, it is intended to be a current and historical snapshot for the organization of all digital marketing activities.

Next is a section on current channels that are in use supporting the various goals. This is a matrix of goals, activities and basic campaign reports - a marketing map of activity, helping the marketers better understand overlap and potential integration value from multiple campaigns supporting a single goal.

The Vision Report then focuses on current political challenges or opportunities that are being tracked. Current tactics in play as well as anticipated goals/timelines for these relationships is documented to help ensure people issues aren’t impeding marketing goals.

Moving into a section on competitive updates and tracking gives my clients a view of things happening in their market that they may or may not be aware of yet. The goal of creating this section is to ensure that clients have as much visibility as possible into their top competition’s site features, content, campaigns and channels they are using. Any metrics that are being tracked for competitive measure are also included in quarterly reports.

The report closes with coverage of emerging trends or channels that present opportunities in the client space. It also serves as a spot for updating trends that have been captured in past Vision Reports. The goal is to keep a historical record of all channels in play or under consideration in the overall marketing map.

Formatting
The Vision Report will be delivered as a PowerPoint deck in the clients templates, in MS Word format for easy printing, in HTML for use on a corporate intranet or email newsletter, and in client specific Wiki Markup so that it can go right into the organizations Wiki. Any other formats that the client believes will help in disseminating and spreading the Vision Report will be used.

Goal of the Vision Report
Give the client the best and most recent information on their market, their progress on core goals, and trends that could influence future decision making. Ensure that the client provides a consistent and strong voice within the organization. Establish corporate mindshare over digital marketing topics, emerging channels and current digital markeing activities.

Next time I’ll cover Executive Coaching and Training. This is an area that is often ignored within most marketing agencies because they feel like their client can do all of the fighting/explaining on their behalf. In the digital marketing world, the complexities of the business language along with the solutions means that most executives could use coaching intended to help them better articulate to their various audiences what they need to be successful.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

A few days ago, I touched on an idea for a new role in the economy - a digital marketing advocate. I called it an Internet marketing specialist in the last post. I vacillate back and forth on the phrasing, but I believe as of today I’m settled into only using digital marketing advocate.

Because in this new role, I might recommend marketing channels or partners outside of the Internet depending on my clients goals and capabilities. The portfolio of options and agencies I discuss with my clients will always be fully engaged as I am their advocate.

After working twelve years in various agencies I realized I was only as good as the capabilities emblazoned on my trade show attire. The agencies reputation and some misinformed clients mistaken belief that we could do everything for a client because we were an agency led to a moment of enlightenment.

I was tired of being in a position that if we were asked about services or features we knew we couldn’t deliver, someone was tasked with bluffing our clients into believing we could deliver it. Screenshots, promises of future road-mapping, fueled by a foundation of MS Excel and MS Word based reports with the most rudimentary analysis because the people tasked with building it all were AM’s, PM’s, engineers, production roles and and anything else not an analyst.

Building and managing web sites, ad systems, software, marketing programs, and content for clients, but having to do it through the single production unit of the agency you’re in, began to tie this marketing advocate and my ideas down like rock rope shorts in a tarry river.

Many agencies have the instinct to do everything they can, even if they’re not good at it. Growing the account, expanding services into a client, constantly pushing to figure out how do we grow business from the marketers who already pay us well for what we do? Like a lap dog that found its perfect master, it waits and begs for table scraps because that is all it knows.

The advocates instinct is to carefully plot a perfect path, researching every millimeter from send off to welcome delivery. The goal is to help guide the great corporate Titanic’s gently past the iceberg, helping avoid the need for lifeboats and gut wrenching decisions because you knew well about the dangers ahead. And your client was right there with you, navigating with the best of them.

In today’s more nimble environment, I was increasingly under fire, having my good reputation staked on junior staff delivering services outside of my groups domain. Their mistakes and inexperience damaging a strategic client relationship I had built for years.

I also realized that no one agency can solve every need for a client today. They don’t need to and they shouldn’t. Digital marketing agencies need areas of expertise that they build thought leadership in, and niche value to maintain customer loyalty.

They could not and should not attempt to market across all digital channels, but increasingly they try. At some point, the sheer size and points of communication that must be maintained for a single client to run smoothly begin to overwhelm the agency model.

Why put good customers and relationships in jeopardy when all it could take was a little honesty and hubris? We don’t do everything you need us to, but the thing you do need from us, we do better than anybody. I’d buy that.

What I and most corporate marketers don’t want to buy is a company that is really good in X, buys companies that do Y and Z, and suddenly we’re supposed to translate that belief in service of X over into Y&Z. This wobbling, stacking blocks of value doesn’t deliver what a client really needs. The only person to benefit from these corporate mash-ups is a misinformed shareholder.

Unless your agency has built every single platform and channel management tool for every service they are selling you, I can almost guarantee that behind the scenes, you are getting the most Frankenstein, stitched together by the seat of your pants digital marketing mirage you’d never believe you saw unless you lived it. And I lived it, so trust me when I say I’ve seen it all.

Agencies that try to grow business by expanding their services deeper into their clients ultimately lose focus on their area of excellence or the ones they are dragging their clients into. Why do you think most clients of agencies receive reports in Word and Excel from many of their digital agencies, and not through an online reporting function?

Most agencies are struggling to consume and process the amount of data they are taking in and tasked with reporting back to clients. As they add new channels, they are adding thousands of data points per client into their systems. Growing their business means ultimately moving expertise into the data management business. And if they are expanding their service offering, it means keeping expertise and leadership across all of those channels., plus managing all that data.

In my estimation, the workforce is about five to ten years away from having enough people with the right experience in each channel to make that a possibility for the largest, global agencies. And that gap is where I smelled opportunity for a new class of strategist - the independent digital marketing advocate.

Someone with a depth of experience delivering digital marketing services, the ability to write like an analyst, the candor and honesty of a good friend, and a communicator who could tie it all together to help clients make better informed decisions, and manage the growing list of needed digital marketing relationships. The advocate can’t build and deliver it all, but they can plan, architect, map, and help steer corporations in ways that someone within an agency doesn’t have the freedom to do.

The advocate can investigate and test new channels on their clients behalf. They can serve as a springboard for new ideas and procedures. They sit in a neutral, analyst stance - giving researched and vetted opinions about various topics, as needed by clients and their own gut reactions to new technologies and trends. They can also help digital marketing agencies and their clients find more value in their relationship.

I chose also to limit myself to a single client per vertical industry. This really leaves plenty of room in my mind for many more digital marketing advocates to begin finding and delivering value until the rest of the workforce catches up.

At this point, valuable time says I should pause and tell you something. This post has turned into a five day epic editing session, so I know I have a lot more to say about this. Rather than keep editing and rewriting, I’ll lay today’s rant to rest.

I ended up just describing the digital marketing advocate this time. Next time, I’ll get into specific deliverables and the types of value I expect this role to create for large organizations. I’m very interested in any and all feedback and ideas that might pop up upon reading this.

May advocacy for a topic fall upon you like a wet, heavy winter rain. Reminding you of its strength with an icy grasp on your imagination. Until next time.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

I realized over the summer that the online marketing world was shifting faster than ever into overdrive and the breadth of knowledge within most buyers of online marketing services was still limited. Around that same time, I began to hear a refrain from customers of the agency I was working for. “We want strategy, and our agency - including you, isn’t giving us what we expect.”

Being inside one and knowing that other agencies were in the same boat, you realize how strategy at that level is confined to the scope of the agencies capabilities. If you’re talking about services you can’t deliver, you’re essentially recommending another agency for the job.

I knew that marketers were beginning to seek out advice from trusted sources that could help guide their thinking as well as the third parties that were helping with online marketing today. They were attending more trade shows, putting themselves out there more as buyers, so as to begin attracting people who could help them.

Over the course of a weekend, I began to spell out a new role that I believed would answer the questions I was hearing asked time and again. Below is the bullet list and brief descriptions from that initial brainstorm. The more I got on paper, the more excited and electrified I became.

Internet Marketing Specialist/Client Advocate

Services

1. Internet marketing plans, strategy and strategy review
2. Deep competitive intelligence – reviews of their online marketing activities, strategies, vendors, etc.
3. Technology reviews/executive briefings with sources on new marketing channels, social, local, etc.
4. How new technology’s should/could be incorporated into the overall online marketing plan both short and long-term
5. Strategic Agency Reviews
6. Executive Coaching/Training
7. State of the Market – yearly reports including review of their activities
8. Quarterly Briefings on new topics - one would be self-chosen, the other would be chosen by the client
9. Presentations/Public Speaking
10. Marketing Conference Reviews/On-site attendance with client team
11. Long-term planning/resource needs/agency RFP’s
12. Current program reviews/feedback
13. Recommended Reading List
14. Test site for 3rd party/agency technologies
15. Work with Analysts within organizations to determine campaign success, metrics, reporting, etc.  

Value to Client

1. Leading and timely Internet marketing strategy and information in easy to digest form from an industry veteran.
2. Tailored to their individual business/vertical.
3. Executive briefings/presentations included
4. Independent of agencies/3rd parties
5. Agencies have their best interests and capabilities at heart, I only know your business and your customers needs and can help drive agencies towards your goals
6. Custom Reports/Briefings to keep executives up to date on what they need to know
7. Honest feedback on agencies/strategies/performance of vendors
8. One client per vertical/competitive market

Needs from Client

1. Routine updates on business priorities/initiatives
2. Bi-weekly round-tables
3. Regulatory and Legal Briefings
4. Travel and Expenses as needed

I knew then that I’d have to quit my job to explore this opportunity fully. I checked into the legal aspects of my non-compete to gain legal counsel and better understand my rights. That cleared my conscience and gave me comfort knowing I wasn’t violating any contract to pursue my new idea.

I couldn’t live inside the agency and advocate changing the agency model at the same time. In another instance of good timing, my wife and I had also decided we needed to move as soon as we could for us and our daughters to be closer to family.

After I quit my job, I sent this same list to a former client who’d asked me to get in touch if I ever went anywhere else. The response back was, “When can you start?” A few weeks later and we were off and running.

My goal in publishing these business notes is to begin fostering and building a new niche for Internet marketing strategists who share a common language and are in the  pursuit of common goals for their clients. These are just my initial take on the present market and I look forward to personally refining them over the coming months. I also look forward to any other online marketers feedback on these concepts and more as I explore them over the coming days.

In the next day or so, I’m going to try and lay out a better picture of all of these bullets in action and better articulate them. I’ll give an inside view of what I believe a marketing advocate looks like and does for their clients.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

The first time you step into the dewy mornings entrepreneurial air, something electric is unleashed in your mind. Like a perfect mix of calming storm that settles your mind and spirit, a certain part of your inner psyche is finally unwound before you. Besides my wife and two daughters, nothing else has captured a part of my soul that I didn’t know was there before like jumping into the unknown of a start-up business.

The first time, I was 23 and didn’t know better. And I’m glad I didn’t. I made $700 a month working full time in the Internet marketing game, unseating local ad agencies for one-tenth of the cost they were charging to design websites. It was a visceral hands on rush through from freshman to diploma in about the time I would have spent in post graduate, lectern filled halls working for an MBA.

When our four person agency decided to throw in the towel, we had crossed $500,000 in yearly revenue and were paying ourselves in the low to mid 30’s. It felt good to walk away without driving the car into a cliff and say we had run a successful business and decided to close it to pursue other interests.

A few years later, I had spent time in bigger agencies, honing and growing my skills for larger clients. I knew it was time to strike out again and trust my gut.

My second start-up had gone through both the dot.com boom and bust. They had been in business for two years and had grown from 3 to 10 to 3 during that time. I joined the company as employee #4, in an overhead position, to help rewrite their business plan, secure additional cash flow, and see if we could find a second life for it in “the big game” - the Valley or beyond. It was a start-up because we were free to create any Frankenstein the market needed.

About a year and a half earlier and on the side while living in Seattle, I had begun writing their email newsletter/article about online marketing and the growth in search, email, viral, and other new channels. My seventh or eighth article was about the viral marketing campaign for the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Steven Spielberg. We had been getting positive feedback on the articles before this one, but something about it clicked with people.

Timing and word of mouth spread it quickly around the web. Then I’m sitting at my day job and I get a call from the side gig. CNN called and wants to talk to me about the the AI marketing campaign. And I’ve been positioned as the VP of Marketing for side gig, how soon can I be in San Francisco for an on camera interview with James Hattori?

The day job had been going through a painful hemorrhage/merger and acquisition dance for almost 6 months, but the latest round of potential buyers looked very interesting and skilled. I went to my boss and told him the newsletter I’d been writing had been picked up by CNN. And I wasn’t writing it for our company, and I needed to be in San Francisco two days later, and I had been positioned as the VP of Marketing for this company.

Because the dance was going so bad for the whole company, he grinned bright, put his thumb up and said, “I’ll see you on Thursday. Have a great time and tell me more when you’re back.” Seeing that strategic inflection moment in time, and jumping on it before it is moves away, you should never doubt that timing can be on your side.

The thing I remember most about that interview was sweating and James Hattori laughing with us that after our interview, he was headed to talk to some “bloggers” - web loggers who diary about themselves. Oh 2001 self, look and laugh at you now.

I did join the side gig a few months later. By the beginning of 2002, the stars aligned for me to make the jump. I would join Marketleap with a 3 month contract. I would make less than I was making at my day job, the books showed they had exactly three months of operating capital, and we’d see how it went. Two years later, we were acquired by one of the largest email marketing agencies in the world and little slivers of us were available for sale on NASDAQ. A year after that, another NASDAQ fish. We had completed the jump from ten people to six thousand.

I’ve been lucky enough to walk away from good jobs into better opportunities. This time, I had to get back a part of myself that giving up the slivers on Wall Street had taken away. The freedom to make a nimble, gut based decision as a shareholder/owner of one. The freedom to serve a client better than I could from inside the beast. Because I see an opportunity in front of me that I trust I should follow. 

A deep inhale of the fresh air, that kinetic energy you feel when you believe in something enough to dive to the ground for it, that’s what being an entrepreneur feels like. Perceptint is my first time stepping out completely on my own with no one else to catch me. It’s a mix of the excitement and fear that I’ve never felt.

Over the coming days, I’m going to be spelling out the Perceptint offering that I’ve outlined and pitched to my preliminary clients. Feedback as always is welcome. My goals is to create a transparent, open business model for myself and any other marketers or entrepreneurs that might benefit from it. Because if you think you can do as good as or better than me from seeing how I think, how I organize, what I share with clients, then I feel like I am helping to push the market ahead and contributing to a bigger good that I want to help nurture amongst the business people of the 21st century.

We often think of evolution as a gradual, thousands of years event. I believe as individuals we are capable of more and can make it happen for ourselves faster than that. Honestly, I just don’t have time to hope and wait that long. I’ll turn thirty-six this summer and I’m working in the eighth stage of my career. I’ve set goals for myself that I never knew if I’d reach them, but setting them gave me a direction and a pace that has kept me steady. Noticing the off-beat trails and paths that lead me here, I know that there are many more like me. Inspired by the storms of life to run for and make our own cover.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

Since there wasn’t any feedback on ideas for future posts, I’m going to plow ahead into the fertile stream of consciousness that is my brain. I wanted to talk today about creating value for your clients as an internet marketing consultant.

One of the things that working in retail customer service taught me was that the customer is always right. It sounds like such a cliche, but the truth in the statement is so right on. Especially when you apply the idea to finding success in consulting for clients. A programs success is almost always defined by its perceived value.

One of the mistakes that happens time and again when agencies and companies try to execute a new program is the lack of flexibility around the value and success of a marketing program. Here’s what I mean by that.

Salesperson X has gone out and sold program Y that they believed the client needed more than anything. From what the salesperson has said, the client has expressed this time and again by doing flips and headstands from every sales pitch through contract signing. And it got signed faster than any other contract this quarter, so they must really want it!

Then project kickoff occurs. The new team, production, steps in to replace sales. The razzle dazzle Mercedes is replaced by a well-oiled, hitched wagon. And now you and the client are off to the “across the field fast as you can” races. During your sprint to finish up this pre-defined project, both of you learn that the service they’ve been sold is redundant with another program they already have, isn’t going to impact the business in any way like they thought, or is in process of being done by another vendor in another group within the client organization.

What do you do? For the untrained agencies, project managers and account managers, clients slip through their fingers because they maintain their focus on the statement of work (SOW) because that’s what they’ve been told to do. Finish project Y by May 31st because that’s what the contract says. Deliver the project, even in flames to the client doorstep, because that’s what they paid for.

The way out of this flashing prairie fire of discontent? Educate and train your clients to expect changes mid-stream. Be flexible and open enough in projects to redefine value and success as a project is in motion. If you know a week or a month in that the SOW’s project is going to fail, what can you do to rethink the project, it’s metrics, it’s success - so that your clients investment is not in vain.

Good consultants have the flexibility and eye for opportunity that it takes to continually deliver and find new value for their clients. Project failures lead to corporate exorcism, so you have to keep your eye on finding the value in every project you touch.

Value for a client is also dramatically enhanced when sales and production are working together to scope and deliver client work. Production can help shape the sales offering and ensure that the right resources are in line to deliver the projected work. They can also sniff out early those embarrassing “um…what do you mean you already have another search agency…but I thought we were your search agency…” kind of moments.

This type of crossover planning doesn’t happen as often as you might expect, even in the largest of agencies. But when it does, the client and agency are much happier and better served. Relationships and true partnerships can emerge because of the mutual understanding by all project participants of the goals, needs, etc.

Keeping your value and your clients value high should be at the front and center of every decision you make as a consultant. Keep your customer happy, let them know they are right - with your good counsel and feedback, and stay focused on their world. They know the things they need to demonstrate their own value within the organization, so ask them and help serve it up on a bountiful platter they could never harvest on their own.

May value and wisdom slip from your tongue as raindrops from a storm cloud. Until next time.

© 2008 Keith Boswell