The CVM Quiz: Lost Cause? Implementer? Or Strategist? : : CVMonologues : : The Channel V Media blog

As you might expect, we have a lot of conversations about online marketing and encounter a lot of people who have some strong opinions. In light of that, it should come as no surprise that we’ve started to see some patterns emerge…

When it comes to any individual’s or company’s feelings about websites, social media, digital content, and the like, we’ve come to realize that people tend to fall into three very clear categories: The Lost Cause, The Implementer, or The Strategist.

What are the telltale markers of each type? Where do you fit in? And just what does it all mean to success?

The quiz…

1) Your company launches a new product or service. You:

a. Write a press release.

b. Call your web guy and tell him to add it to your products/services list and post that press release on the site.

c. Sit down with your team and/or marketing agency a few months before the launch and map out an integrated plan for web design and copy based on desired audience behaviors, along with a complementary plan for social media and PR.

2) The CEO just called you into his office to tell you that he wants you to create a video. That will “go viral.” You:

a. Look at him blankly. Viral? Video? What does he think you are? A Millennial?

b. Pull out the company video from two years ago and have the intern put it up on YouTube.

c. Manage your CEO’s expectations (really, what are the odds of a video on changes to the tax code targeting CPAs going viral??), then get down to figuring out what kind of content will have the most value for your target audience, what kind of action you want that audience to take as a result of the video, and how you can best position it to drive the behaviors you want.

3) You just read that mobile apps are “the future of marketing.” You:

a. Sigh, shake your head, and say, “Well, the future isn’t the present, is it? Maybe next year.”

b. Call your agency and tell them you want a mobile app. Now. “Just make it look like the website or something.” You don’t really care what it does or how useful it is or if it is relevant to your brand, it’s just important for people to see that you’re up on the latest technology.

c. Ask yourself if mobile really has value to your audience, and if you can create something unique that they’ll actually use while also serving the interests of your company or brand. Sure, it would be great to have something now, but it’s going to be even better to take the time to do it right.

4) When visitors get to your website, they:

a. Visitors? Oh, you mean the people who stumble on our website because they accidentally found us through an unrelated search? They never stay more than a few seconds anyway, so what does it even matter what our site looks like?

b. Sometimes wander through the accumulated pages and random bits you’ve added on since you first launched your site five years ago. A few dedicated visitors have learned a whole lot about your company, but most people don’t stick around. After all, they’re not exactly sure what you do or what it has to do with them.

c. Get sucked in. It appears your carefully-crafted little plan worked! Exactly the way you intended. Your site speaks to visitors’ needs and gives them different ways to engage. You think of your website as helping your company build valuable relationships, not just a placeholder or space filler. It also “makes you money while you sleep”—a cliché, maybe, but not an offensive one considering what it has meant for your business.

5) Social media. Yeah, you’ve heard of that. You:

a. Are 100% certain that it is a passing fad. You know you’re going to be vindicated when Facebook, Twitter, and all those other trends are relegated to the dustbin of history in the very near future. No way you’re allocating resources to that boondoggle. In fact, you’re tempted to fax out a press release right now in order to declare your stance on the topic, so you can enjoy a good ol’ fashioned “I told you so” moment, when it all implodes.

b. Set up a Facebook page. But you’re not really sure why other than that you read that it was a good idea.

c. Have identified your target audiences, what networks they’re using, what they’re talking about, and how they’re engaging with one another. You’ve sent benchmarks that take into consideration both quality (of your updates and audience) and quantity (of your fans and followers). As a result, you’re on track to build your Twitter followers by 50% in the next month alone, and really excited to discover that your blog traffic is up and that you have seen a marked uptick in sales/relevant leads. This whole integrated strategy thing is really paying off.

a
So how’d you do? Honestly. There’s no judgment here. Well, maybe a little…

If you want the short answer key, here’s how it breaks down:

If you answered A to most questions, you’re a Lost Cause.

If you answered B to most questions, you’re an Implementer.

If you answered C to most questions, you’re a Strategist.

So what does that mean when it comes to online marketing?

The Lost Cause

In short, you find that technology = bad/scary. My hunch is that this category isn’t too well represented among quiz takers. If you’re reading this blog post, it stands to reason that you’ve embraced technology to some extent. You get that the Internet is here to stay, and you’re pretty sure that if you could tap into it the right way, you could use it to your advantage.

So…moving right along….

The Implementer

My second hunch—and my real motivation for writing this blog post—is that more than a few business owners and marketers fall into this category. We see it all the time with businesses of all sizes and in people of all levels of expertise and seniority.

The Implementer is the person who knows from being out in the world, from reading about trends and best practices, that digital media and marketing are not only necessary; they’re the ways of the future. That a website has value. That there are lots of new technologies out there. That people are developing new habits of interaction and engagement. As an Implementer, you know you need to be making some changes and introducing some new practices, but every time you do, it’s a reaction, an afterthought, an add on—and you assume that you can either handle it yourself or hire someone cheap who can execute it under your close instruction and by your design. In other words, it’s about calling someone—your web guy, the intern, a videographer—and telling them you want something—a call to action, a piece of content, a video. You know what you want to happen, but be honest with yourself: you don’t know how to go from A (content) to C (results) because you don’t have B (strategy) in place. But maybe that’s okay, because you also don’t have a real sense of how you’re going to measure its success (or failure) anyway. Creating the deliverable itself is seen as a win in this scenario.

Or is it? Not really. As an Implementer, you’re also known for your “If I build it, they will come” mentality. But surprise, surprise, you’ve built it but nobody’s coming: The website doesn’t get the traffic you’d hoped for and isn’t converting visitors the way you expected. No one reads your new blog post. You only have a handful of people following you on Twitter (and you had to follow them first), and your video still hasn’t gone viral, despite its fancy background and carefully-dubbed soundtrack.

In the end, you’re pretty sure that the web/social media/content/etc. is a bust. But… deep in your heart of hearts, you also sense that you aren’t quite doing it right, that with a little—or a lot of—help and a little planning—your efforts could be far more successful.

Which bring us to…

The Strategist

If you took the quiz and answered mostly “C”s, good for you—you’ve got your online marketing act together!

The Strategist gets that online marketing—in the form of the company website, social media outreach, content production, mobile, and everything in between—isn’t just a dip-your-toe-in-the-water or throw-stuff-at-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks kind of thing. It’s about mapping out target audiences and desired behaviors, setting reasonable and relevant short-term and long-term goals, and establishing benchmarks for success before you start building a thing.

As a Strategist, you understand that the company website is one of your most valuable pieces of real estate ,and that even if customers and prospects don’t spend a ton of time on the site, it should act as a centralized hub for information, content , resources, and all PR and social media outreach. Your website is the centerpiece of their brand, and while you want it to convey the values and mission of your brand, you also realize that it should be inviting and engaging for visitors.

As a Strategist, you also keep technology in perspective. There’s no reason to fear it, but there’s also no reason to embrace it just because. Is Facebook really a fit for targeted B2B outreach? Nope. But LinkedIn might work. Could a mobile app be right for us? Yes, but only if it’s really offering customers value.

It’s no wonder, then, that you, you strategizing smarty, are delighted (without exception in our experience) with the results from online marketing: The website is a huge success—our bounce rate is way down and time on the site is way up! Social media is driving exponential growth of our database! We’ve seen our sales increase 200% since we posted that educational video!

2011…

Online marketing is here to stay. A digital strategy and plan need to be an integral part of your overall sales and marketing strategy. You can’t just wing it, Implementers, and you definitely can’t ignore it, Lost Causes. You know this…sort of like you know you should eat healthily and go to the gym…