Is Email Marketing Still Effective?

I don't know about you, but I receive too many emails. I have begun taking advantage of the "unsubscribe" option to try to reduce the amount of clutter in my inbox. Does that mean that email as a marketing device has lost its usefulness?

Years ago, when I was just starting my consulting business, I used email to stay in touch with my clients and/or potential clients. I developed a list of email addresses from everyone who attended my seminars or who I met in the course of doing business. Every month (note - month, not day or even week) I would issue a short two or three paragraph tip about marketing, followed by my "signature". I received many compliments about my monthly communiques, and ultimately new business - either from the recipients or from their referrals to others. It was an effective way to establish myself and raise my profile.

I did this email marketing for about two or three years until too many others began to do the same thing. At the point where I felt my messages were getting drowned in a sea of other emails, I stopped. Why? If email is free and the opportunity to be in front of my prospects is very important, why would I abandon it?

First, email is not free. Every month I had to spend time - valuable time - crafting a new message. Email marketing is only as effective as the value of the message. If you don't have the time (or the skill) to send a useful message, don't bother. After a while, your recipients will decide your messages are not worth reading. Even if they do not "opt out", they may remove you from their approved senders list and your messages will go directly to spam. When/if that happens, your ability to communicate on more urgent matters is severely restrained.

Second, once email marketing became THE choice of marketers and small businesses everywhere, the inbox became too crowded. SPAM was born and even legitimate communications could be considered SPAM.

Third, email marketers have become so aggressive that, I think, they ultimately hurt more than help themselves. And that makes it difficult for those of us who tried to use this medium responsibly. I know I have even stopped contributing to causes in which I believe because daily emails asking for more money just became too annoying. If you do not know your recipients, you can not effectively communicate via email and thus are simply wasting your time.

So, here is what I recommend to anyone who wants to try, or continue to use, email marketing.
1. Keep your postings short, entertaining, and helpful.
2. Confine your frequency to no more than once every two weeks. Frequently enough to retain TOMA, yet not so frequent as to become a pest.
3. Encourage responses to engage your audience. Submit a poll, ask a pertinent question, request input on an issue.

Email marketing might be effective again, but only if you use it strategically.

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Why Reputable SEO Firms Don't Promise Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings

by randfish 

Tonight, I received an email with a familiar question, asking why the top companies providing SEO consulting and development services rarely ever provide guarantees (and virtually never use it as a marketing tactic). Since the subject has been popping up of late, and since we're just emerging from the summer lull, I thought it was as worthy a time as any to address persistent concerns. Here are five solid reasons that compel SEOmoz as well as the many companies we work with/recommend to stay far away from any "guarantee" of search engine rankings.

Reason #1: SEO & Guarantees Have an Abominable History

From 1996 through to today, SEO scams have used "guaranteed rankings and traffic" as a slimy catchphrase to lure in gullible buyers with too-good-to-be-true promises. That association has stained the entire industry and repulsed even businesses that might consider using the "guarantee" label. Just look at some of the questionable messaging used by so-called SEO companies that employ this moniker:

(source) Our search engine optimization software comes with the latest link popularity and web site optimization tools for helping you achieve guaranteed ranking. Here is what the Internet's best search engine optimization software has to offer:

• Link Popularity & Link Exchange Tools
• Website Submission Software

Automated software for link exchanges and website submissions? If you've done ten minutes of due diligence into how SEO is practiced, you're well aware that these claims venture deep into the sort of tactics that haven't been effective in the last half-decade.

(source) $399 annual - Guaranteed fast listing on DMOZ, Netscape, Google, MSN, AltaVista, LYCOS, FAST, ASK/Temoa and 100+ other engines and portals! Trace your traffic and guarantee a higher position!

Not only is the listing and traffic guaranteed, it's guaranteed fast. I'm reminded of Homer Simpson's infamous utterance after a crayon is re-inserted into his brain: "Extended warranty? How can I lose?"

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• We guarantee to keep you on 1st-page results each month, or you don't pay for that month.
• We guarantee to optimize your website for up to 100 different keyword phrases.
• We guarantee to provide monthly reports that document all of your 1st-page positions.

Many of the SEO companies that do still guarantee rankings have taken the clever tack of guaranteeing a certain number of keywords that they themselves choose. In this fashion, they can select primarily non-competitive terms and have a fairly high rate of success. Whether those keyword rankings provide any serious traffic is another matter altogether.

The point doesn't need belaboring. Just as time shares have their "free" weekend getaways and used cars have high pressure salespeople, SEO has its own insidious, stereotyped marketing claims that legitimate providers avoid like the plague.

Reason #2: The Search Engines Expressly Warn Against It

I don't often reference Google's guidelines on search marketing, but since the page ranks so well for a variety of queries related to SEO and guarantees, it's virtually unavoidable if a client is performing research about your offerings. This line in particular stands alone:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Even though the context is meant to put it in a slightly different context ("Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or..."), the messaging comes through very clearly. If your potential clients have read on Google's website that guarantees are bogus, they're likely to carry that bias with them as they peruse what the market has to offer.

Reason #3: Rankings are Inherently Unstable

If I perform a search for "SEO Company" here in Seattle, then drive 3 hours south to Portland (or 3 hours north to Vancouver) and execute the same query, I'm likely to end up with a very different ordering of results; the same goes for if I were to log into my Google account and get personalized results or hit a different datacenter during the course of my querying. Many searchers have even had the odd experience of hitting refresh on a query and finding the results change or re-order.

Given the incongruous nature of ranking fluctuations and the fact that ranking in a particular position on a given machine at a single point in time says very little about the future or even the present, it's no wonder that savvy SEO firms stay away from the guarantee.

Reason #4: Rankings are a Poor Metric for Overall Performance

Rankings do not equal traffic. A great SEO campaign should be measured by the increase in search engine traffic and (if the contract also includes site optimization for conversions) the rate at which that traffic performs the desired actions on your site. Achieving rankings is (almost) always a means to an end and not the end itself (the one exception being reputation management campaigns).

If your patrons are seeking rankings for posterity or to boost their egos, they might not be the best choice of clients. Those clients who have a solid business model and great content or services to back it up want the kinds of qualified, interested visitors that come from search engines because they've expressed a desire that the website can fulfill. Yes - position #1 will generally get you more traffic than any other real estate in the search results, but plenty of campaigns we've seen and even some we've worked on have been sabotaged by an obsession with pure rankings.

The metric should always be traffic - increasing search traffic means the SEO is doing their job. Making the rankings of a few top phrases the priority above and beyond the overall search traffic means that goals are out of whack. Don't forget that 70% of search volume is in the tail of the demand curve - and there's usually a lot more low hanging fruit to be found therein.

Reason #5: Making Guarantees About Something You Cannot Control Carries Inherent Ethical Problems

Politicians constantly fall into the trap of making promises they cannot possibly deliver on. Luckily, since they've let people down since the dawn of government, we've set the bar relatively low. This isn't true, however, in the business world. If FedEx promises to deliver a package by tomorrow, that's a guarantee they can make because they control the means of delivery. On the flipside, if a camera-maker promises that all your pictures will come out beautiful, that's irresponsible - what if you decide to point your lens at Gary Busey?

This same principle applies to SEO.

What search engine optimization companies can & should guarantee is that they'll provide the best advice possible to help your site earn more traffic. They may even guarantee, after reviewing your site, that they can grow your search traffic by at least 10, 20, 30% or more (we've done this in the past, at least verbally, when we've seen sites that had incredible potential and extremely poor SEO practices). But, SEOs cannot control the search results the way FedEx can control shipping packages or Coca Cola can guarantee the taste of their beverage. The search engines alone are responsible for and privy to the rankings' methodologies.

In my personal opinion, there are times when I would be willing to gamble a large amount of money on the fact that we could achieve a certain ranking for a given keyword. However, that's not the same as a guarantee. A guarantee is a promise - a basic contract that necessarily creates an assumption of certainty by the deliverer to the recipient. Anytime you cheat on that logic and make a promise outside your sphere of direct control, you're walking on shaky ethical and business ground.

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Thanks to the list above, I shy away from even using the word "guarantee" in relation to our consulting business. In reality, we do guarantee that our clients will be happy with our results (and so far, at least, we've made good on that promise), we do guarantee that if they implement our recommendations, search traffic will rise (but that's often a big "if"), and we do guarantee that our work won't put them at risk of penalties from the search engines. I think that these types of promises are perfectly acceptable to make - just stay away from guaranteed "search engine rankings." It's just asking for trouble.

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11 mistakes to avoid on your digital marketing resume (part 2)

By Bethany Simpson

Mistake No. 7: Over-focus on LinkedIn

Mistake No. 8: Be too full of yourself

When you make it to the interview, there's a question few people answer well. Here's one marketer's humble advice.

Mistake No. 9: Lie

Mistake No. 10: Ignore storytelling and ROI

Mistake No. 11: Don't be passionate

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The 1 Thing a Business Leader Must Do to Succeed

By Dave Kerpen CEO, Likeable Local, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Keynote Speaker

Sadly, 25% of businesses fail within their first year and an astonishing 70% of businesses fail within ten years. So, if you're thinking about starting a business or you've recently made the leap, how can you optimize your chances of success? What is the single most important factor in determining your success? I asked this question of 10 successful business leaders from the Young Entrepreneur Council, and their answers are below, followed by mine:

1. Build A Strong Leadership Team

We used to invest in technology. Then it was marketing. Then we woke up and realized it was all about the people. Bringing in the best, seasoned, Director/VP-level talent over the past 18 months has really helped the owners bring the company's goals back in focus. Do your systems, workflow and technology always need to be evolving? You bet. But at a certain point in company's growth, you will NEED an experienced leader helping you architect those things if you want to go to the next level. - Andrew Loos, Attack

2. Have A Great Mindset

Your mindset drives so much in business: the risks you take, opportunities you pursue, challenges to tackle, confidence level and vision. The great thing is that even if you have doubts and fears now, your mindset can change and grow with you as an entrepreneur. The things that once terrified me are now easy to manage and I understand much better why entrepreneurship is an excellent avenue for personal growth and development! - Kelly Azevedo, She's Got Systems

3. Execute

Hands down, continuing to execute to accomplish your goals is the single most important factor in making your business a success. Without continual execution, businesses sink. However, executing on the right goals will not only keep you from sinking, it will help you excel. - Stacey Ferreira, MySocialCloud

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4. Have a Passion for Change

At Star Toilet Paper, we have a deep-seated yearning to change the world and that is what we are doing and will continue to do. Each and every week, we have a weekly email that we sign off with, "Let's change the world and disrupt the status quo." Having an internal team slogan like that really helps bring out the best in us and continues to fuel our passion. - Bryan Silverman, Star Toilet Paper

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5. Create Value

Purchase decisions almost always come down to value --- customers must realize a benefit from working with your business. That can mean a multitude of things, such as cost savings, convenience, reliability, increased quality, etc. Effectively providing value is integral to the long-term success of your company; not only does it assist in retaining your current customers, but also provides the highest-quality referrals you can ask for when attempting to gain new business. - Charles Bogoian,Kenai Sports, LLC 

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6. Work With Clients Who Share Your Beliefs

Being ourselves and working with companies who share our beliefs is everything. We believe design makes a difference and we look to work with companies who agree. We also work with companies who know the people inside the building are what counts. Working with companies with soul has been the key to our success. - Chuck Longanecker, digital-telepathy

7. Focus

It's so tempting early on to chase after every interesting idea and business opportunity. Learning to say "no" or at least "not yet" is paramount to every entrepreneur's success. Focus on what's most important. Your customers and investors will thank you for it eventually. - Ryan Buckley, Scripted, Inc.

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8. Serve Your Customers

By providing your product or service in a fast, convenient, and friendly way, you'll establish your business as one built for the long term. Any unsatisfied customers should be compensated to ensure they'll still consider you for future business. Happy customers are everything. - Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

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9. Remain Unsatisfied

I am famous internally for saying "we're almost there" when referring to the business. The truth is that "there" is a constantly moving goal post. As a team, we have a positive but relentless and never-satisfied attitude, which in turn results in our company always pushing for better and never being complacent. - Lauren Friese, TalentEgg

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10. Hire the Right People

I was telling my team just last week that regardless of how much we market or sell, if we don't create good products (in our case, websites), then we can't progress. It's people who create those sites, so hiring the best developers (or widget makers, or whoever makes your business succeed) is vital to keeping the engine of your business running. - Hassan Bawab, Magic Logix

These are the single most important things a leader must do to succeed in business according to ten successful young entrepreneurs. But wait - there are 10 different factors listed above! So which, in fact, is most important?

My answer to this question:

Focus is the single most important factor in determining your success as a business leader.

Focus means understanding what your priorities are in any given hour, day, month, quarter or year. Focus means knowing what's most important - product, service, hiring, fundraising, sales or innovation, and then concentrating on that one thing. Focus means knowing what's not as important in any given time period. Without focus, it's easy to wander - it's easy to become reactive instead of proactive - it's easy to fail. With focus and determination, you and your team will understand what's most important, and help you execute - to success. So that unlike that 70%, you can beat the odds and maintain a successful business over time.

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Now it's your turn. How important do you think focus is for leaders in determining business success? How important do you think the other factors listed above are? What do YOU think is the single most important factor in determining whether a business succeeds or fails? Let me know in the Comments section below, please share this post with your network, and here's to your success!

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11 mistakes to avoid on your digital marketing resume (part 1)

By Bethany Simpson

Mistake No. 1: Listing skills you don't excel in

Mistake No. 2: Forgetting relevant experience

Mistake No. 3: Mass-send your resume

Mistake No. 4: Ignoring the business's goals and strategies

Mistake No. 5: Not bringing your A-game

Mistake No. 6: Overuse the term "digital"

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Why a B2B Marketer Should Think Like a B2C Marketer

  B2B marketers must educate extremely smart potential buyers, ensure that influencers are knowledgeable about their products, and ultimately convince people they should bet their jobs on choosing their products over those of competitors. Moreover, even while sticking to a limited marketing budget, B2B marketers must provide a hungry sales team with enough qualified leads to keep their pipelines full and their families fed.

How do they do it? The best B2B marketers are successful because they start with building a brand. In other words, the best B2B marketers think like business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers.

Think Like a B2C Marketer

The first step toward thinking like a B2C marketer is to create great brand recall. Let's say you're thirsty and you walk into a store that carries Coke and DMG-Cola. You immediately reach for the Coke because you know exactly how it will taste; it is the safe choice. However, if earlier that day you'd seen a banner ad that said "DMG-Cola—Tastes Like Coke, but 100% Organic!" you may well have tried the DMG-Cola. The DMG marketer who bought that banner ad had a simple goal—not to drive someone to make an immediate purchase but, rather, to create brand recall that would influence purchase decisions in the future.

Of course, applying this method to B2B marketing is more challenging, but it can work. First, to illustrate how much more complex the B2B marketer's challenge is, let's use the same example—but in a B2B context.

Your boss asked you to buy soda for a company party, so you go to the store and spot Coke and DMG-Cola on the shelf. Even if you had seen the banner ad marketing DMG-Cola, you'd still choose the Coke. Why? Simply because Coke is the less risky decision, and many purchase decisions in a business environment are made with the goal of minimizing risk. Nobody ever ruined a party by buying Coke, but if you showed up with DMG-Cola and your coworkers didn't like it, you'd take the blame for making a poor decision that had a negative impact on the company party.

So, what would the DMG marketer have to do to convince you, as the business buyer, to choose DMG-Cola instead of Coke?

• First, she would have to build awareness of the DMG-Cola brand as in the above example.
• Then, she would have to provide examples and testimonials of others who had thrown successful company parties with DMG-Cola. She might create whitepapers and host webinars highlighting the advantages of DMG-Cola vs. Coke and other competitors.
• She would also have to influence executives at your company and your trusted peers outside the company, so they would recommend DMG-Cola around the water cooler.
• Finally, she would have to ensure this information stayed top of mind, so you wouldn't fall back on the "safer path" of reaching for Coke next time you were tasked with planning a company party.

Smart B2B Marketing = B2C With a Twist

Of course, the previous example is simplistic, but that is essentially how B2B products are marketed and purchased every day.

The best B2B marketers think like B2C marketers—but with a twist. They understand building a memorable brand perception is critical, but they also understand...

• Exactly who the buyer is and who or what influences the buyer
• The key elements of a purchase decision and how to create messaging that addresses those elements
• The content, best-practices, and case studies necessary to remove the risk of the decision
• How to distribute messages and content to targeted decision makers, influencers, and peers with enough frequency to move the needle

And they do all that while staying within budget.

What tips can B2B marketers follow to start thinking more like their B2C colleagues? Here are five strategies B2B marketers can implement right away.

1. Create great brand recall

The first step in any B2B marketing campaign is to create brand messages and campaigns that will "stick with" potential buyers long after they see the ads or marketing messages. Get creative and try new messages and slogans to make your brand stand out from the crowd and target them specifically to your audiences. Finally, always be branding! Creating brand recall isn't a single campaign—it's an always-on tactic.

2. Know your audience

Thinking like a B2C marketer doesn't mean treating your audience like general consumers. Your audience is made up of business professionals looking to make the most economical, risk-averse, and high-value purchases for their companies. Always keep their needs and risks in mind when considering marketing strategies.

3. Use visuals to sell your product

People remember images long after they remember words. Make sure your campaigns are splashy, memorable, and interactive. Try using interactive banners, social ads, or videos to tell your brand story.

4. Maintain creative consistency

Trying new creative ideas is fine, but make sure they're consistent across all your marketing campaigns, including paid ads, social media, sales sheets, webinars, whitepapers, and your website. Synch your messaging across all media activities as you move buyers down the marketing funnel.

5. Be human

Your audience may be businesspeople, but that doesn't mean they are automatons who don't enjoy a good laugh or a personal touch. Make sure all your marketing materials speak to the human side of the business world. In a world where most B2B campaigns are boring, a more human touch will make your campaigns stand out.

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So, next time you meet with your B2B marketer, give him a hug and say "I get it now!" B2B marketers have a rich, complex, and high-pressure job to do in a very dynamic and noisy world. Those who do it well are rewarded with outsized growth and shareholder value gains.

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How to become a digital marketing professional?

BY Cláudio Torres

Every month people send me various emails asking me how to become a Digital Marketing Consultant or professional. Thus, I decided to write this post showing the steps to become a Digital Marketing Consultant or professional for those who are interested.

It is an undeniable fact that demand for digital marketing professionals have been increasing much more faster than the offer, and that many times the formal courses didn’t have the time to provide it. Added to that, other marketing, communication and publicity sectors, have been lowering their demand, making the professionals of these sectors to have an interest in migrate to the Digital Marketing.

Basic formation of a Digital Marketing professional

The professional that intends to work with Digital Marketing must have a superior formation (Marketing, Publicity, Communication, Engineering, or Administration). It is possible to become a professional without that formation, but the result can be temerarious. In the past, webdesigners and programmers got into the marketing without any specific formation. The fact is that Digital Marketing is Marketing, a science that comes from Administration, that comes from Engineering. Thus having an academic base in Marketing and Administration is fundamental to the best performance of the activities

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From this basic formation the professional can develops. There’s no specific curriculum yet of the Digital Marketing professional, and the formal MBA and Post-graduation courses still doesn’t have a curricular schedule created by experience of the manager of each course. This way in many cases, even with a good Post or MBA the professional still finds it difficult to execute his tasks.

In the formation of a Digital Marketing professional you should worry in developing the following competencies:

• Basic formation in Marketing.
• Basic knowledge in Planning Methodology and Time Management.
• Basic Knowledge in Negotiation and Presentation techniques.
• Digital Marketing formation.
• Digital Marketing Strategic Planning formation.
• Basic technical formation based in each one of the Seven Digital Marketing Strategies.
• Having a work methodology as Digital Marketing Manager or Consultant.
• Developing a contact web in Digital Marketing.
• Constant updating through books, articles and blogs.

Where to work with Digital Marketing

To better enjoy your interest in the digital marketing career, you should consider that that are three main positions that you could assume in this market: Digital Marketing Analyst, Digital Marketing Manager and Digital Marketing Consultant.
The Digital Marketing Analyst will work in a company or publicity agency doing digital marketing planning, creating digital marketing campaigns, and implementing these actions, and normally working with a bunch of outsourced (SEO companies, Social Media, Bloggers, Agencies, etc…). This is the most operational position, ideal for young people who wants to learn and obtain experience in this market, and a good path for those who seek a career transition.

The Digital Marketing Manager will work as a company Manager, being the main responsible for the digital marketing planning, the marks control, and the reports to the commercial or marketing Direction. Just like every manager position the ideal is that you already have experience in the market. Independently of your competence as a digital marketing professional, you’ll have to develop competencies in process and people management to perform well your activity.

The Digital Marketing Consultant is the professional that is external to the company or publicity agency, and can work in an independent way or related to consultancy, and that will help the company to develop the digital marketing planning, or the agency to create a digital marketing campaign. He’ll also be able to give digital marketing courses and lectures. This position have much more independence than the previous ones, but the professional must have the spirit of an entrepreneur, because beyond executing his activities, he’ll have to sell his services. This professional, besides acquiring knowledge on digital marketing, will have to create a constant update process, because he’s the company’s counselor, and have a work methodology, that goes beyond planning methodology and digital marketing actions.

Looking for a job in Digital Marketing

Once formed in Digital Marketing you’ll have a second challenge that is getting inside the market. According to the thinking line I developed until here, you first have to decide if you want to seek a position as a Digital Marketing Analyst or Manager or if you want to develop a career as a Digital Marketing Consultant.

One alternative does not exclude the other, but you’ll have to choose in which one of them you’ll begin so you can look for a job as a Digital Marketing professional.

Independently of your choice, your new position as a Digital Marketing professional will depend on a few basic steps. Create your curriculum at LinkedIn, including your specific Digital Marketing formation, an a profile on Facebook. Don’t wait anyone to take you seriously in the Digital Marketing market if you don’t have a solid presence in the Web. The ideal is that you create a Professional Blog (and connected to a Twitter), where you can publish articles connected to your Digital Marketing knowledge. That helps a lot in your exposition, and it is fundamental if your choice is to be a Digital Marketing Consultant.

Once created this base, do your own planning with The Seven Digital Marketing Strategies. Expose yourself. Participate in Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and the daily Buzz on Twitter.

If you want a job as a Digital Marketing Analyst or Manager, start making contacts and friendships, via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with professionals from agencies and companies that already work in these positions. That will take you quickly to become known. Make it clear that you’re looking for an opportunity, and show your potential with the previous steps.

If you want to be a Digital Marketing Consultant, the first thing you need are clients. In this case, creating a planning with The Seven Digital Marketing Strategies and exposing yourself with your Blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, is fundamental. Besides, getting in touch with agencies or consultancy, can be a good strategy.

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The Four Types of Digital Marketer

Your company’s customer-centricity profile reveals the capabilities you need to succeed in digital media, as well as whether you are a leader, scholar, pioneer, or novice in this critical marketing field.

If you are the chief marketing officer (CMO) of a consumer-oriented business — for example, a food manufacturer or a retail bank with a credit card offering — your long-established efforts to reach customers may have come into question over the past few years.
Digital media have changed the advertising and marketing ecosystem; social networks, broadband infrastructure, and new forms of online and offline data collection have transformed the relationships among companies and their customers. But only a few CMOs have fully caught up with these trends. Most companies do not yet have the kinds of capabilities in digital marketing that they need in order to fully engage with customers today.
The term customer centricity is coming into broad use as a way to describe the new marketing orientation made possible by digital media (including, but not limited to, social networks). Under this new orientation, the primary unit of market engagement is no longer the product, the launch, the trade promotion, or the advertising campaign, but the end-to-end consumer experience. Consumers are engaged with the company and each other before, during, and after their purchase.
This requires a high level of integration, the ability to bring together multiple sources of content, data sources, capabilities, and product lines, and to continually refine segmentation approaches, platforms, and online content. This integration needs to cut across the consumer experience, creating a seamless digital marketing link between sales in physical stores and sales through e-commerce.
Nike Inc., for example, has invested heavily in both the media it creates and the media it shares with its consumers. On Nike.com, consumers can find a continually evolving set of software and services generated by the apparel and footwear manufacturer (including training programs for use with interactive game machines such as Microsoft’s Kinect), as well as the new “FuelBand,” worn on the wrist to track and analyze daily movements. Consumers can also access a growing body of links to Facebook pages and Instagram pictures put up by others in the Nike community. Everything on the website is designed in harmony, so that the brand reinforces the idea that the company has the back of the amateur athletes who make up its core audience, and they in turn are regularly drawn back to the experience of not just wearing the products, but using them together.
In the process of developing its digital media strategy, Nike has dramatically lowered its spend on paid media. And by focusing its spending on its own media and socially shared media, the company has broadened and deepened the impact of its brand.
How far along this road is your company — and what capabilities does it need to compete successfully? Answering that question is the purpose of a self-guided, Web-based survey called the Digital Customer Centricity Profiler, recently launched by Booz & Company. The profiler focuses on relationships with consumers and potential consumers, and on companies’ facility (or lack of facility) in engaging them online along their full path to purchase. The profiler takes only about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. It asks about your company’s current practices in social media, data analytics, and e-commerce, and helps you gauge the potential of other practices, of which you may not have been aware. Then, on the basis of your answers and those of your peers (the answers themselves remain private), it classifies your company into one of four categories:

• Leaders are a small but growing group of companies, including Nike, Burberry, 3M, Apple, L.L. Bean, and Coca-Cola, that have mastered the two main capabilities involved in maintaining an online presence: insights and analysis on the one hand, and platforms and activation on the other.

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