<![CDATA[Digital Picks by Tim Parkman - Digital Picks by Tim Parkman]]>Tue, 19 Jan 2016 18:05:53 +1300Weebly<![CDATA[digital principles (to see you through the bravado and bull).]]>Tue, 12 Jan 2016 07:17:50 GMThttp://www.spinach.co.nz/digital-picks-by-tim-parkman/digital-principles-to-see-you-through-the-bravado-and-bull
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Our world is changing fast, super fast. Google’s new D.Wave quantum computer is 100 million times faster than your home PC. 100 million times faster! Exciting but also daunting. Change is happening so quickly, and there's so much demanding our time and attention. How can you possibly know what's important to your business, and what's not? It's tempting to simply ignore everything or chase the latest trend but don't. Technology is finally hitting a stage where it adds significant value to customers (think one click purchase) and your back office, making things simpler and cheaper.
Here are my guiding principles to help you see your way through the clutter and confusion, the shiny and new, the bravado and the bull to unfold the growth potential of your business:
  1. Start where you are - sounds obvious but you'll be surprised how many businesses have got no idea where they currently sit. Take stock. Benchmark how you're performing. If you improve 1% each day (& there's much more than that to be had) in 70 days you'll be twice as good as you were.
  2. It's not about the [insert any tech here eg CRM, social media, viral video, content, website]. It's the sum of all the parts, how they integrate and how you get them working together - people, process and tech. It's an ecosystem integrated into your business. You may have a best in class CRM system but if it's not integrated properly into your organisation (how many companies are on their 3rd CRM?) and no one is using it, what's the point?
  3. Set specific (business) goals and a timeframe. Like the back of ‘fag packet’ calculations salesmen make, you need business goals to work back from. Then you can break down the steps with smaller goals, and roll those back up to your main business goal. Without these you’ll never be truly integrating technology into your business. It will remain an add on.
  4. It always has been, and always will be about the customer. That hasn't changed. Still think customer first. Don't get caught focusing on internal systems and processes, they follow. Think about your customers. Who are they? Think about their journey and where you add value. Build your world around them. What questions or concerns do they have? What are they searching for? How can you help make their life easier?
  5. 80% of the tech you need is free (or pay as you grow). Chances are you don't need to leap in with a big +$100k investment in tech. Especially as you're going to be building an ecosystem with a number of components, integration with existing processes and your team. Don't try and sprint straight off. Crawl, walk, run, then sprint. $10k maybe more than enough to kickoff. Then scale over time once you know what you need, it delivers ROI and the team know how to use it.
  6. Roadmap your way forward. Plans change, they always do but you need a plan leading back to your business goals. With so many demands on your time and resources it’s more important than ever to know what to do (& why), what not to do (& why) and where there's some opportunity for some magic. You'll evolve the plan as you go but you and your team will always know what you’re doing and why.
  7. Test and measure everything - growth isn't hit or miss, it's a science. We've got the data. Test your assumptions, messaging, frequency, timing and channels. There's still a huge need for creativity but test it early and let customers pick the winner. Every business should understand the levers they've got available to drive growth. By breaking everything down into bite size pieces in your roadmap, you will be able to see precisely what levers are working and to what degree. You can remove waste, double down on what's working and rework your roadmap based on your learnings.
  8. Go quickly but don't rush. Technology today allows almost everything to be live tested - messaging, content, frequency, channels, journeys. Testing is now part of the process. So you A/B test an email 10% receive A, 10% receive B and then 80% receive the best performing version A or B. There’s minimal delay but the testing stage can double or triple your performance levels.
  9. It's never going to be finished. Tactics like Marketing Automation and Programmatic Advertising sound attractive. There's an implicit promise of ‘set and forget’ performance but they're far from it. There’s considerable time spent setting up these tools, they require constant tweaking, they link to other parts of your ecosystem and they require ‘feeding’ eg content. Crawl, walk, run, sprint but you'll need to keep moving forward.
  10. JFDI
]]><![CDATA["How am I going to get my work done if I'm spending all of my time in meetings?"]]>Mon, 30 Nov 2015 23:44:27 GMThttp://www.spinach.co.nz/digital-picks-by-tim-parkman/how-am-i-going-to-get-my-work-done-if-im-spending-all-of-my-time-in-meetingsWe’re stuck, going around and around… we need to meet up to connect, breakdown silos and ensure everyone’s on the same page but when you spend all your time in meetings how does all your work get done. It’s a never ending vicious (definitely not virtuous) cycle that many busy folk find themselves in.

Most people, myself included, don’t even challenge the problem itself, they tackle the symptoms. Either working late to get the work done and accommodate the meetings, or skipping the meetings in favour of working. In the first scenario everyone’s connected but you’re working all the hours God sends, and in the second scenario you get the work done and get your evenings back but everyone else feels disconnected and siloed.
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There is a better way. A way to tackle the problem itself - meetings. Patrick Lencionic developed this useful framework in his book Avoid “Dead by Meeting”. Click here to read more.
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]]><![CDATA[The search for digital nirvana]]>Thu, 19 Nov 2015 00:27:35 GMThttp://www.spinach.co.nz/digital-picks-by-tim-parkman/the-search-for-digital-nirvanaPicture
​We’re searching for Digital Nirvana* but we’re only just start starting to see signs that’s real and achievable for all organisations. Not just the poster-children like AirBnB, Alibaba, Facebook and Uber (Click here to see my previous blog post on this).

What’s changed? IoT, data and know-how. We’ve had access to the global marketplace for years. What’s been missing is the connectivity between technologies, the data insights across technologies and the know-how to make use of the market, tech and data.

* Digital Nirvana where complexity and costs come down whilst customer experience and revenues increase
+ IoT - Internet of Things click here to find out more on Wikipedia
]]><![CDATA[Are You Carrying a Knife to a Gunfight?]]>Thu, 05 Nov 2015 02:41:45 GMThttp://www.spinach.co.nz/digital-picks-by-tim-parkman/are-you-carrying-a-knife-to-a-gunfight
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According to the 2015 Market Measures Report, 80% of USA companies typically use digital marketing tools and channels. Only 35% of Kiwi companies utilise the same more scalable, cost-effective digital marketing tools and channels.

To arm yourself you’re going to need to:
  1. Choose your weapon – research and select the digital assets and channels that attract your prospective customers
  2. Take aim – map your prospective customers’ decision making process and carefully target the content/assets required along the way.
  3. Fire – go! Make the process efficient, focused, measure and refine.
  4. Check you’ve hit the target – plan, integrate, test and optimise for success.

​Check out the full report, stats and recommendations here: 2015 Market Measures Report.
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