Effective digital marketing requires brands and companies to create their digital presence spider. These are the digital products through which the company will create a relationship with its customers and which will also be the platform on which the brand will be built.
The following are the steps for setting up these digital products:
The idea – you should start with a requirements document (what you wish the product / application to do), including defining the development phases of the idea – must have / nice to have.
Market research and a competition comparison table – include reviews of similar products, performance data / where do they operate / success / possible causes of success or failure of similar products in the world.
Go-No-Go phase – based on what you already know – argue the advisability of continuing the move.
Main trigger to use – ask yourself, what will make people want to use your product. This part can include one or more of the following features:
- Basic need
- Stress-free life
- Savings – Money / Time
- Fun
- Community
- Social connections
- Enrichment / information
- Personal empowerment
Product Specification – Which features will be included in the app / site? What content will the project focus on? How will these features be available to the user? In what order of use? What will be the usage flow?
Development – Choose 2-3 development providers – a tender between development factors based on professionalization parameters, experience, portfolio, service, schedules, price.
Package / UI / UX
Beta – marketing test – test the product with a focus group and effective measurement tools.
Soft launch – for a defined audience and a reasonable marketing budget.
Post-performance review – technical performance evaluation, usage performance, user feedback
Market penetration Plan -Implementing a full GTM – Go To Market plan including analytics and measuring.
Beyond these necessary stages, there are four anchors necessary for the design of a digital product. These anchors should be implemented at the outset planning and characterization stage. Without them, it will be difficult to achieve market-business success.
Product planning: Social Intelligence & Big data
A digital product that does not know its users cannot succeed. A digital product that does not collect information about its customers cannot maintain efficient product-market planning. At the product planning stage, ask yourself how you can build user and customer profiles.
To that end, spread “information collection buttons” throughout the product usage flow – from its registration stage and gather information from dialog boxes or customer benefits. All this information should be set up in your cloud so that you can use it for your planning purpose, product planning, marketing and business offers to your customers based on what you have learned about them.
Focus: Usage frequency
Have an idea for a new product / application / site? At the planning stage you should already ask yourself: what do you predict will be the average usage frequency of your application or product. Usage frequency is a central factor, a key indicator of success or failure. If the frequency of use is less than twice a week in most categories, you should question the feasibility of your venture.
Built-in targeting: Micro clusters
Launching a product that “speaks to everyone” is not a good Idea in the digital field.
You should implement Microclusters thinking – The digital age marks the end of the mass marketing approach. Any new product has to be developed and designed with clear characteristics of micro-segmentation. This is a process in which the entrepreneur knows his precise audience – its anxieties, needs, expectations, what motivates it, what irritates it, what characterizes its social environment, what are its social and economic abilities, etc.
Micro segment is more accurate, more efficient and truer when it comes to digital marketing. For example, the micro-segment of first pregnancy women share the same needs, the same worries, the same fears, expectations and desires. Once you are able to recognize all of that, it is easier to communicate with them, connect with them, and develop a long-term relationship with them. All these factors should be part of the product planning stage.
Clear Business models
Planning to set out with a new digital initiative, you should already know what your business model is at the product design stage. Choosing a business model, in other words, what you are going to make a living from, is a decision that needs to be made at the initial stage, because it bears implications on the product content, and its design.
There are five main business models:
Advertising – in this model, the product / application is free and the project takes place through the connection to advertising sources – usually programmatic advertising
Freemium – this model allows free use of basic features, and add-ons of content or applications for a fee.
Subscription– a large number of publishers and content players in the world are moving or are considering switching to this model which opens all the content to a user for a monthly subscription fee.
License- product or technology provided to companies / customers in return for a fee / a license fee based on the number of users/ multiple uses per license unit.
Transactions – in this model, the company receives part of the sales revenue. For example, an online shopping mall that sells third party fashion products will receive a percentage of every sale they make.
While planning your online store/ digital product think about Differentiation
You should draw a competition table based on comparing your product to the competing ones already on the market. It is advisable to specify your product as much as possible, in order to understand whether it is better or poorer than the others. That will help you decide your company’s USP – unique selling proposition, or in other words on a clear picture of your product advantage, which in turn could define your marketing and communication strategy. Your product could differentiate in the features layer and / or packaging layer, and / or in the way you are going to the market.
The digital consumer – who is he and how is he changing the traditional marketing world ?
Generation Z and the millennials were born into digital and its features, affect the way we do marketing. This generation holds close to 40% of the workforce and in its interaction with brands and media it demands influence and involvement, it displays poor loyalty (workplace / brand) and expects an immediate response to its needs – “I want it and I want it now”. Sometimes they call this young generation
Generation C – as in Connected.
They are simultaneous consumers of multiple media / platforms, which means we’re in a continuous struggle for their attention. This generation is sometimes called Generation D – as in Dislike.
With poor loyalty and high expectation for significant value from a brand / advertiser / marketer, these digital natives ask for total control over information consumption, transparency, personalization and impact on content and processes. The digital consumer moves from passivity to collaboration, which is also expressed in sharing content and experiences – he can be a loud critic and thus bury a product or service yet similarly can also be a wonderful and authentic promoter of the company’s products and brand. The digital user has zero tolerance for an average usage experience, thus brands should be committed not only to content but also to user experience.
The young consumer is not loyal to any one buying venue – he shops everywhere. With the power moving to the consumer, local stores no longer need to compete only with local competitors. The young consumer has more alternatives and less free time. He knows how much he is willing to spend and how to get it.
Digital consumers move between platforms and are hard to locate – so where are they? Sites, social networks, mobile, smart TV and wearable computers. Our message needs to be relevant, personal and decomposed, “chewed”, clear and easy and be out there on all these platforms.
The digital consumer thinks visually – leaning towards image thinking and dialog, which requires the assimilation of a new / digital aesthetics. Among others, a combination of “quiet” technology – one that is not at the center of the interaction with the consumer, yet provides value and simplifies usage for the benefit of the consumer. No wonder that Instagram is the fastest growing network among brands – 77% of the top 100 brands have marketplaces on Instagram.