The Marketing Funnel vs. “McKinsey Loop” and the role of data.

Back in 2009 McKinsey made the argument in its Quarterly journal article 

"The Consumer Decision Journey"  that the traditional “marketing funnel” had become obsolete in lieu of a “marketing loop” model.

The metaphor of a “funnel” is one where consumers start with a number of

potential brands in mind (the wide end of the funnel). Marketing programs are then directed at them as they methodically reduce that number of considered

brands as they move through the funnel. At the end they emerge with one brand they choose to purchase.

The "McKinsey Loop": An Evolution of Consumer Behavior

Being McKinsey they went out and analyzed the purchase decision process of 20,000 consumers across five industries and three continents to come up with a different model. Their research showed that the proliferation of media and products combined with the shift from one-way communication - from marketers to consumers – towards a two-way conversation sparked the need to think about new ways to look at marketing.

But I am at a loss in terms of aligning current marketing data analytics with this loop model.  I’ve talked to lots of smart marketers recently who still think generating brand awareness / consideration is important, and measure it religiously. Forbes called 2014 "The Year Digital Marketing Analytics" and the Harvard Business Review declared data scientist "The sexiest job of the century."

Marketing programs using “attraction” or an “in-bound” approach like content marketing to increase consumer engagement are growing in effectiveness and efficiency. Savvy marketers use data-based attribution to figure cost-per-inquiry, cost-per-lead and cost-per-acquisition and use this learning to optimize their marketing mix spend and ROI. So measuring the moving prospects along the "funnel" still seems to have business merit.

User ratings, social media sentiment and content sharing now also come into play – maybe as part of the new “loyalty loop” - but have more positive business building impact by increasing the number of “brand advocates” who fuel modern day word-of-mouth like support via technology based venues.

The move towards ever more engaging content is changing the modern day marketing mix as well. The VB News blog recently discuss the evolution of content marketing – from simple text and visually enhanced streamed content towards customized marketing apps.

Interactive White-Paper Marketing App Example.

According to author Scott Brinker “The fourth wave will be a proliferation of responsive web “marketing apps” — wizards, configurators, calculators, assessment tools, interactive white papers, participatory e books, games, quizzes, guided tours, contests, diagnostics, workbooks, utilities, and a wide range of entertaining and educational experiences.”

The beauty of these apps will be better user engagement and the marketing data exhaust they will surely produce. These tech-driven offerings will deliver a more tangible value exchange between the marketer and consumer, with the ability for marketers to test – learn – apply based on measurable behaviors. They will tip the art vs. science discussion about marketing towards science, for sure.

Content Marketing: Content is King and Data is Queen.

Kessler is co-founder of Velocity - a UK-based B2B marketing agency.

We had a really interesting conversation last night at the Weber Shandwick Data Salon # 4 discussing the evolving role of data in content marketing at their offices in midtown Manhattan.

It was fun to start the event with an open-ended question: “What is content marketing?”

Responses ranged from SEO / SEM to story telling, from “clandestine sales”  to “paid not earned media.” In the end – there was no clear consensus, so I offered the Content MarketingInstitute definition:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

In the face of vastly diminishing returns from traditional marketing / advertising investments, content marketing is being seen as a viable and necessary element in the modern marketing mix.

The observation was made that tech-savvy consumers are great at avoiding traditional advertising, so the marketing paradigm has shifted from “promotion” to “attraction” or inviting a conversation with customers / prospects using content marketing.

But how does a marketer know if they are producing relevant and engaging content, or remarkable content * – content that is worth noticing and remarking upon – sharing on social media / commenting / bookmarking?

*  [As defined by pundit Seth Goden in his classic book “PurpleCow”]

This boils down to how content marketing is approached: Is it the art of great content story telling or the science of using data to track which content best engages and converts prospects against predetermined business objectives?

Content and Data (left to right).

It’s likely to be both – so the notion that “Content is King and Data is Queen” was put forth and sparked a lively conversation. Data can certainly track user engagement and helps optimize subject matter, writing style and delivery venue based on how it is received. But astute audience members pointed out that does not necessarily foster innovative and highly creative content that will in fact get noticed, read, shared and ultimately impact consumer behavior.

One salon participant – who identified herself as a creative in the design field – pointed out that lots more people read her blog content if it is unique, innovative and creative… this was a blinding glimpse of the obvious.

So what's the big deal with content marketing?

I pointed out that it appears that many Fortune 500 companies don’t understand nor appreciate the full potential value of content marketing based on learning from a qualitative research project I am currently conducting on behalf of a leading global business publisher. This conclusion is drawn on the apparent lack of interest on the part of senior CMO level executives, and ad-hoc budgeting and project management approach most firms appear to be taking for content marketing programs, with often-tepid data analytic performance measurement.

The discussion went on the focus on the need to treat content marketing as on-going customer relationship management program, or in essence a friendly and useful dialogue that improves the perceived value of the company sponsoring the content, versus a one-off / ad-campaign like effort.

And like any smart marketing effort, the content marketing should be tied to clearly defined business goals against a well-defined target audience, with a desired end-outcome or “conversion.” This could be as simple as capturing contact information in exchange for information to actually selling a product or service as a result of content marketing driven engagement.

Well defined analytic framework.

The data measurements come in the form of web analytic data - ranging from overall and unique site visits to “bounce rates” and identification of web traffic sources. Some firms measure improvement in brand awareness / familiarity and “favor-ability” of their offerings. Savvy marketers work to attribute inquiries, leads and actual sales to their content marketing efforts.

So it looks like content marketing will continue to be a combination of art and science for the foreseeable future, a blend of remarkable content creation and smart data-driven analytic analysis on the back-end.

Weber Shandwick Data Salon # 4: May 29, 2014

I'm excited to announce that I am speaking on Thursday 5/29/14 from 6:00-7:30 PM at The Weber Shadwick Data Salon # 4 on Content Marketing. Each month Weber Shadwick along with NY Data Consultancy Blue Water Labs invites a data / digital marketing profession to come in and lead a discussion that sparks a lively conversation on variety of topics.

This month we'll be discussing content marketing - now widely viewed as a more efficient and effective way to engage and acquire prospects / customers than traditional marketing methods. Yet there appears to be some confusion about exactly what it is, and how it can best be managed in business.

We'll be discussing the evolving balance between the art and science of content marketin and the increasingly important role that data plays in the effective creation and optimization of content marketing programs.

My goal is to get the audience thinking about better ways to engage their audiences using content marketing programs, with measurable results, that will drive positive business outcomes.

To RSVP for this event please register here.

3D Printing + Crowd-sourcing = Potential for Explosive Growth.

Some of the most exciting tech start-ups use the “mash-up” approach to building a business model. The “mash-up” terms comes from web developers and refers to a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a new service displayed in a single web page.

The term has grown to encompass businesses that combine two proven business models to create a new business that represents a “blue ocean” strategic opportunity – doing business in an “unoccupied space.”

3D Hubs provides 3D printing access to consumers and businesses via a global community of 3D printers. The owners of these 3D printers set their own prices, and list resolution capabilities and available printing materials.  It closes the gap between design and access to 3D printing production. And they have a clear and well defined business process for both 3D printer owners and end-users that makes it all easy.

Bram de Zwart

3D Hubs is based in Amsterdam and was started in 2013 by Bram de Zwart and Brian Garret - who previously worked for industry giant 3D systems.  Their simple mash-up business model combines elements of place-based applications like Foursquare and AirBnB – the Global lodging network. It delivers fast, affordable 3D printing locally.

But is 3D printing a really big idea? Global consulting powerhouse McKinsey & Company seems to think so. In their 2013 “Disruptive Technologies” report they cite that the 3D printing sector could produce an economic impact of $ 230 - $ 550 billion by 2025. This suggests that 3D printing is no passing fad.

Local 3D Hubs Printing Hubs in Metro NYC Area.

   The 3D printing technique so far has been used so far mainly for rapid prototyping, but McKinsey says the industry may be reaching a tipping point where widespread adaptation could occur. Improvements in materials and falling prices, plus wider spread use across a wide variety of consumer and commercial applications are fueling growth.

"How to Hub" for 3D printer owners with 3D Hubs: Simple

As 3D Hubs works towards universal 3D printing access, their offer of affordability and creative empowerment that are the underlying benenfits of the business model. They are helping level the playing field in a broad range of business sectors – from specialized industrial production like aerospace to the explosive heath care industry including customized hearing aids and artificial joints. 

3D Hubs has an eye on growing its presence in the metro NYC market. Zwart commented recently at a  Hardwired NYC event "New York is probably the most active city in terms of 3D printing, with many firm having their headquarters here. Our local community here consists of over 300 people, including 75 3D printer owners - where customers can get their designs made.

Even Amazon is getting in the act with its 3DLT online marketplace for 3D printed products – from smart phone cases to jewelry. But 3D Hubs has Amazon beat – because it fosters a community of like-minded people to get the chance to meet and do business with each other in person. These introductions and collaboration opportunities may be the best mash-up of all.

A front-row seat to value creation in NYC tech sector.

Some of the best shows in NYC are available for free at the simple click of a smart phone or laptop button and come in the form of "Meet-Ups." At many of these events including “Hard Wired” and the grand daddy of all Meet Ups “NY Tech Meet-up” where you can see the story of true value creation from a wide variety of budding entrepreneurs.

By value creation I am thinking about creating something from nothing. Lots of these business people mastered the art of “pivoting” – that is changing and evolving their product or service offering and business model until they find something that works. Seems lots of angel investors, venture capital firms and larger well-established companies are taking note, and putting down millions of dollars in the process.

These events embrace an open-source approach to sharing experiences and intellectual capital in full measure.

Bre Pettis of MakerBot.

An excellent case in point is MakerBot Industries and one of its founders Bre Pettis - a natural pitchman - who was a featured speaker at the April Hardwired event. MakerBot is a five-year-old Brooklyn, NY based company that makes open-source 3D printers.

The early MakerBot makes 3D printer kits required assembly. These products were designed to be built by anyone with basic technical skills, and are described as about as complicated as assembling IKEA furniture, with only minor soldering required. Their printers print with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyactic acid (PLA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).

3D printing in of itself is revolutionizing many businesses, “…allowing prototypes to be built in hours not months, compressing the innovation cycle and accelerating the ability to get stuff done fast…” according to Pettis while speaking at Hardwired.

Pettis said their market for 3D printers is split between entrepreneurs and big corporations, and sited a range of uses from people making doll house furniture, to movie set designers, to aerospace giant Lockheed - all exploring frontiers using 3D printing.

One of the best take-away thoughts from Pettis was his never-ending quest for innovative thinking. He mentioned “…I was riding the wave of 3D printing at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas while cruising the back-alleys of the show looking for cool new ideas…” This guy clearly has no intentions of resting on his laurels.

He loves the idea appealing to misfit kids who want make things, empowering their creativity with MakerBot technology. “These freak-show kids are our future” Pettis declared.

MakerBot Cupcake.

MakerBot started its 3D product concept offerings with “Cupcake CNC” – source files needed to build the device were shared on Thingiverse MakerBot's online community- allowing anyone to build one from scratch.

This online community is still thriving - where users can post 3D printable files, document designs and collaborate on open source hardware. The site is a collaborative repository for design files used in 3D printing, laser cutting and other DIY manufacturing processes.

Because of the open source nature of the product, many suggestions for improvements came from users. Printing upgrades and replacement parts became popular projects for learning to operate the units.

Introduced in September 2010 at Maker Faire NYC the Thing-O-Matic was MakerBot's second kit. The Thing-O-Matic shipped with many of the common upgrades that had been built for Cupcake.

The company was founded in April of 2009 with $ 150K in seed money from three angel investors and then had a capital infusion of $ 10 million in August of 2011 from Foundry Group, a venture capital firm.

On June 19, 2013, Stratasys Inc. announced that it had acquired MakerBot in a stock deal worth $403 million, based on the current share value of Stratasys. The deal provided that MakerBot would operate as a distinct brand and subsidiary of Stratasys, serving the consumer and desktop market segments. Now that's real value creation.

Replicator: 3D Printing heaven-on-earth for $ 2899.

In January 2012 MakerBot introduced the Replicator. It offered more than double the "build envelope" of the Thing-o-Matic (225 mm × 145 mm × 150 mm). The company has gone on to introduce four new generations of the Replicator 3D printer series, including its most recent model that features WiFi enabled software connected with MakerBot mobile apps along with its original desktop apps. This model provides an even larger build volume and fast print time to accelerate rapid prototyping and model making.

They’ve even introduced a Replicator Mini Compact 3D printer for $ 1375 USD making the technology available at the same price point as a decent laptop computer. That should get aspiring inventors and entrepreneurs excited.

Seems that even with success MakerBot is continuing to pivot on its business model, while fully embracing its open-architecture view on both 3D hardware / software, and their intellectual capital - having fun and growing like a weed in the process.

You can visit their retail location at 289 Mulberry St near  Houston in NYC – where they sell equipment and supplies, demonstrate 3D printing, offer classes and provide a real-time and up-close view of the future of value creation starting at 12:00 Noon every day.

Happening in NYC: Open-Architecture for Intellectual Capital.

The beauty of a level playing field.

“Open Architecture” is known in tech circles as a computer / software architecture that is designed to make adding, upgrading and swapping out components easy. The terms became popular back in the 1980s mainly used to describe systems based on UNIX - versus more entrenched mainframes and minicomputers that were popular back then.

Unlike older “legacy systems” this new generation of UNIX systems featured standardized programming interfaces and

Historic IBM view on computer operating systems.

peripheral interconnects, and third party development of hardware and software flourished as a result. This was the genesis of the technology boom to a large degree. Large firms like IBM resisted this trend for decades – insisting customers “be careful about getting locked into open systems.” They later changed their stance on the issue.

The same “closed” approach to overall business practices has been around NYC for decades. If you wanted knowledge or expertise in most business disciplines from marketing or financial services to law or technology one needed to be prepared to pay handsomely for it.

But there is a trend underway in NYC sparked to a large degree by the “Silicon Alley” tech sector – and that is an “open” approach to sharing experience and intellectual capital for free, exemplified by the growing popularity of “Meet-Up” groups such as Matt Turck's amazing "Hardwired NYC" and the ‘’NY Tech Meet-up” where all sorts of people share what they’ve learned in business and engage in lively discussions with the audience. Free food and drinks are usually thrown in for good measure.

Global PR giant WeberShadwick has boldly broken the “closed model” mold of charging for sharing intellectual capital with its new “Data Salon” monthly event series. It started the salons earlier this year in conjunction with NYC based Data Consultancy Blue Water Labs. Each month they invite leaders from various areas of digital marketing and data to speak, start conversations and share ideas in an open forum.

Visual representation of the traffic impact of a new Google Algorithm update.

This week’s event featured Glenn Gabe – President of G-Squared Interactive LLC based in Princeton, NJ. Glenn’s business is focused on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search, Social Advertising, and Web Analytics – now a multi-million dollar business arena.

The presentation focused on the pitched battle going on in “organic search” every day – pitting Google against SEO agencies and marketers who are trying to “game the system” and outsmart Google’s algorithms to boost organic search results.

Glenn Gabe of G-Squared.

Glenn gave a fascinating overview of Google’s algorithm updates such as Panda and Penguin, their “manual actions” and review process for firms acting as “black hats” using web-spam to artificially boost search generated web traffic and the resulting e commerce. Many of his insights are shared weekly on his blog The Interactive Marketing Driver - a great read.

His message got the audience thinking about website content quality, webspam, unnatural links, and webmaster guidelines now before any risky tactics might be employed that can get a firm in trouble. Getting in hot water with Google can kill off a website’s organic search web traffic in no time flat. He provided some scary examples of this happening to unsuspecting web marketers when Google “lowered the boom” on them for unsavory SEO practices.

He shared his experiences of talking to hundreds of firms that have been blind-sided by Google’s algorithm updates or manual actions simply because they never thought about the repercussion of their tactics, didn’t understand Google’s stance on webspam or the various algorithm updates it was creating.

Glenn strongly recommended sticking to the basics of having a sound brand value proposition and consistently creating / placing high quality content as the best way to foster healthy organic search traffic vs. trying to “game the system” in any way.

While lots of what he talked about was frankly over my head from a tech / SEO standpoint – the evening was amazingly enlightening. This event was a good example of an established communications company taking a page from the new tech-driven “open” business approach to sharing intellectual capital - and running with it quite successfully.

Maybe Twitter is not so dumb after all.

I am finally starting to think that Twitter is not so dumb after all. But it took some really smart people I admire to convince me, like the Pew Research Center and their Internet &
 American Life project.

Their efforts look at the evolution of the internet and how Americans are using it, and how it impacts their lives - but more on that shortly.

At first I thought Twitter was a purely narcissistic pursuit - an egotistic preoccupation with one's self, personal preferences, aspirations, needs and how users might impact the way they were perceived by others. Consider a recent tweet by Lindsay Lohan letting her 8 million best friends on Twitter know she'd be on the David Letterman show tonight.

Jen Selter in action.

Another even more egregious narcissistic user example is Jen Selter - whose claim to fame is popularizing #belfies - butt "selfies" of all things. (There are some scary shots on this # stream!) Vanity Fair reports in its April 2014 "Rear Admirable" article that Selter made a name for herself on Instagram, with nearly 3 million followers based on only 401 posts.

Looks like popular content seems to translate well between social media networks, as a result her famous derrière extraordinaire has generated 453K followers on her Twitter page. Not so sure she's playing as well on Linked In - at least I could not find a high profile listing for her there.

But let's consider what is great about Twitter these days. Every day millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. I like the fact that it forces users to make complicated ideas simple with its 140 character limit. It makes for a great "content sign post" to share with others.

Twitter has become an integral part of many people's "personal digital storefront" or "online brand." The only cost is the time it takes to set up your account and learn how Twitter works. Hubspot (the inbound marketing wizards) even offer a free guide "How to get 1000 followers on Twitter" . It's like following a simple cookbook recipe and it works! Imagine my delight when I discovered my 500th Twitter follower was Ellen DeGeneres - who must have liked the animal friendly posts I put up on Twitter.

Businesses are using Twitter as a marketing and customer service platform like 
Bank of America (@BofA_help). Some firms have shown great skill in making their marketing efforts viral like Dell, who claims to have monetized their Twitter presence  a few years back the tune of $ 6.5 million. It also makes for a great marketing intelligence platform by simply using the Twitter search function to see what people are saying about your firm or the competition.

Pew Research Twitter Data Generated Network Maps.

The real beauty of Twitter may be in using the big data it generates. According to Pew Research Twitter conversation have six different structures ranging from "Polarized Crowds" that focus on political issues to "Community Clusters" that gather to comment on global news stories. Pew does a great job of explaining what these clusters are, and why they matter.

Pew has gone on to do some amazing mapping using this data. According to Marc A. Smith - the Director of The Social Media Research Foundation and main author of the new report on Twitter maps - "These network maps provide new insights into the role social media plays in our society."

Marc A. Smith

"Our work is in the spirit of the observational researchers like 17th century botanists describing the variety of flowers on newly discovered island or astronomers whose new telescopes that allowed them to see different categories of galaxies. We are looking at things that have existed for a while, but with new tools that allow us to describe them in fresh ways."

The structure of these Twitter conversations may say something meaningful about how engaged users discuss topics, find each other and share information. While Twitter users are only 1 in 5 people on the internet and a scant 14% of the adult US population - they are an interesting "leading indicator" group to watch.

And Twitter seems to be in "permanent beta" - always changing, always improving. They've just announced a significant format upgrade that is now being rolled out to make the platform work even better. Some say they're moving to be more like Facebook, but they seem to have their own upward trajectory. 


So maybe Twitter isn't so dumb after all, especially when it can provide free and readily accessable data-based insights into the way people think and behave - a marketer's dream come true.