Remarketerz

Whether you own an up and coming disruptor brand or you an established legacy brand, trying to build a digital ecosystem for your brand, is a crucial component of driving digital success.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see brands make in digital is “going one foot in”. As consumers, we do not consume content in one place. Think about it. Consumers are digesting content from so many different channels, yet, so many BIG brands go without having an active presence on Instagram, or Twitter, or YouTube.

It is not about have an Instagram handle and posting on it 5x a year. It is about understanding your consumer base, your industry, what your brand stands for and how a certain channel can be used to tie all of that together, that enables brand to have digital success and drive brand growth.

Here are the 4 steps to build a digital ecosystem for your brand :

1. Develop your Digital Vision
2. Outline Your Customer Experience & Rallying-cry
3. 4 Phases of a Customer-Centric Digital Ecosystem
4. Identify The Roles Of Your Key Channels

I have worked with a number of brands on developing and implementing what we are going to cover in the below post, and it continues to be a pillar to driving growth and success the digital environment.

By the end of this post you will have a comprehensive blueprint around how to think about and build your brand digitally.

Develop Your Digital Vision

Let’s start by defining what we mean by Digital Vision. A brands Digital Vision is made up of a couple key parts:

• Definining your objective
  • What is it that your brand stands for? And how will a connected digital ecosystem help that?
• Focusing on the Consumer
  • How do you produce content and messaging that reflects where a consumer is in the purchase journey vs. being channel or media plan focused?
  • Using data to inform everything from content creation and audience segmentation
  • This is also one of the 4 key steps, and we will dive more into this later on
• From-To Analysis
  • A simple, yet overlooked step. Write down what your brand currently represents in one column vs. what you want it to represent in another in an ideal state (fully connected digital ecosystem). The two columns should be different at almost every level

With a well thought out Digital Vision, you create the structural foundation that allows you to build a digital ecosystem for your brand.

Outline Your Customer Experience Principles & Rallying-Cry

Too few brands put the customer at the center of their thoughts when developing a digital first approach, and it shows through disconnected messaging and a core misunderstanding as to where consumers are in their brand journey.

In this section, we want you to really dig deep and think about the consumer.

Establish your consumer rallying cry: What do you want your consumers think/feel and why? Make it 1 statement that ties back to your digital vision objective

Once we establish the rallying-cry, we can go ahead and list out our customer experience principles

Customer experience principles: 3-5 verbs that giving meaning to your rallying cry

4 Phases Of A Customer-Centric Digital Ecosystem

This third step is less of a to-do for you and more-so to understand how the average consumer will navigate and use the media channels in which your brand will be present in.

There are generally 4 phases to this consumer journey:

1. Discovery
   • The Discovery phase represents the beginning of the consumer journey into your brand
   • Content in this phase will celebrate that Rallying-Cry that we identified above
2. Consideration
   • The Consideration phase represents a deeper engagement with the topics and products in your brands space
   • Your Brands role here is to be a facilitator, bringing ideas and voices together so that consumers begin to see themselves as a champion of your brand ideals
3. Decision
   • The Decision phase represents knowledge and motivation coming together
   • Individuals here need to feel empowered to take action
   • Your brands role here is to be a concierge, providing the right information at the right time to make their purchase seamless
4. Advocacy
   • Advocacy is the final phase, but not the end of the journey for your brand in the consumers mind
   • Your brands role here is to be an icon bringing its knowledge, resources, & innovation together to advocate for growth of the community, motivating consumers in the community to be advocates for your brand.

Identify The Roles Of Your Key Channels

YOU ARE ALMOST THERE!! STICK WITH US BECAUSE THIS FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!!

The final piece to your digital ecosystem outlining the role for each of your media channels.

Each channel has a significant role in telling a consistent brand story. Knowing the primary and supporting functions of the channels throughout the customer life cycle is what creates effective brand storytelling.

In the following sections we will outline the media channel, the key phase the channel supports, and its impact on the consumer.

Let’s start with the below.

Social

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Discovery, Consideration, Advocacy
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: Lead the conversation on social
  • User Experience: Nurture 1:1 relationships & lead new audiences to learn more
  • Brand Experience: demonstrate how your brand different from your competitors

Website

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Discovery, Consideration, Advocacy
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: A platform to inspire, support, and connect your community
  • User Experience: Guide and educate consumers with personalized information that can lead to a seamless path to purchase
  • Brand Experience: An immersive storefront that features the latest brand stories and empowering you community

eTailers

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Consideration, Decision
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: Have the collected wisdom of consumers
  • User Experience: Provide a consistent brand experience
  • Brand Experience: A consistent experience that standouts among competition

SEO

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Discovery, Consideration, Decision
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: Be present at every cultural trend and movement
  • User Experience: Drive organic search traffic to relevant channels
  • Brand Experience: In every search you are representing your brand ideals

CRM

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Advocacy
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: Lead your category and advocate for what your brand stands for
  • User Experience: Facilitate, nurture, and grow relationships with your customers
  • Brand Experience: Provide value to the brand future and roadmap

3rd Party Publishers & Apps

• Key Phase the Channel Supports
  • Discover, Consideration, Advocacy
• Impact on Consumer
  • Cultural Experience: Lead your brand movement and educate consumers
  • User Experience: Validate the research that potential customers are doing on your brand
  • Brand Experience: Elevate your brands role in your category and lead new audiences to learn about your brand

REMARKETERZ WRAP-UP

THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS!

A comprehensive guide on how to build a digital ecosystem for your brand. It all starts with a plan. Put in the effort to lay the foundation correctly and you will see greater success at every stage within your brands digital ecosystem.

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