Digital Strategy

Digital Strategy Bootcamp

by Kelly Kubrick on February 20, 2020

On March 10th,2020, join myself and IABC Ottawa (the International Association of Business Communicators Ottawa chapter) members at the University of Ottawa for their digital strategy bootcamp.

Learn how to take control of your digital platforms and develop targeted, accessible campaigns that help you achieve your organization’s goals. Kelly will explain:

Why you need a mix of paid, owned, and earned media,
How to integrate digital advertising into your media mix and determine your cost to click/conversion rate, and
Ways to measure success.

At the end of the bootcamp you’ll be given a case study to put your knowledge to practice and walk away with a one-pager highlighting the key takeaways.

Event details:

When: Wednesday, March 10th, 2020 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm
Where: Unversity of Ottawa, Social Sciences Building, 120 University Private, 15th Floor, Room FSS-4004, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5
Cost: $30.00-$45.00 and includes an assortment of appetizers

This event is brought to you by IABC Ottawa: “The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) provides a professional network of over 15,500 business communications and marketing professionals in over 80 countries. Members of IABC Ottawa can tap into a wealth of resources and opportunities that will help increase your value as a communicator. IABC Ottawa brings communications, marketing and creative professionals together to grow in their career and succeed in their jobs.”

See you there!

Webinar: Which Type of Google Ad is Right for Your Tourism Business?

by Kelly Kubrick on October 23, 2019

Upcoming Webinar: November 7th, 2019 at 2PM EST

Please join me, Kelly Kubrick, online at eLearningU.com for a one-hour webinar:

Webinar title: Which Type of Google Ad is Right for Your Tourism Business?

Search vs Shopping vs Display & Video/YouTube?

In this session Kelly Kubrick will talk about the different types of Google Ads and help you determine which ones are right for your tourism business. She will give tips, techniques, tactics that will improve your performance in each. During this session, Kelly will ensure attendees

Understand the differences between the various types of Google Ads;
Compare the characteristics of each to determine how best your business can leverage them;
Learn how to plan budgets, typical costs, typical returns and expected results to determine which Google Ad is right for your business; and
Ensure you know how best to succeed at this challenging, but proven advertising network.

If you are interested in learning more about Google advertising, contact Online Authority today.

RCMP Foundation Horse Auction sample Facebook Ads

Webinar: Spur Tourism Event Registrations using Facebook Advertising

by Kelly Kubrick on September 17, 2019

Upcoming Webinar: October 3rd, 2019 at 2PM EST

Please join me, Kelly Kubrick, online at eLearningU.com for a one-hour webinar:

Webinar title: Spur Tourism Event Registrations using Facebook Advertising

In this fast paced session Kelly Kubrick will show you, with real life examples, how to enhance the experience of attendees at live events by pairing it with a digital equivalent. Your advertising campaign objectives should include securing attendees to either or both events. In this real life case study, learn:

The inventory and necessary interplay of digital marketing assets – web, Facebook & email – you’ll need prior to your Facebook advertising campaign launch;
3 critical audience segment you should organize your Facebook media spend by;
Key advance actions needed to coordinate the IRL (‘in-real-life’) and digital teams; and
How to put content to work to anticipate campaign impact prior to, during and post launch.

Learn more about this amazing event here:

Ottawa Citizen: “Musical Ride-bred horses slated for largest-ever RCMP Foundation auction“
Horse Canada: “RCMP Foundation to auction off up to 40 Hanoverians“
Horse Journals: “RCMP Foundation Auctions 36 Horses from the Musical Ride Breeding Program“
CBC News: “See inside the RCMP Foundation’s horse auction“

If you are interested in learning more about Facebook advertising, contact Online Authority today.

Creative for organic Facebook posts for the RCMP Horse Auction 2018

Spur Event Registrations using Facebook advertising

by Kelly Kubrick on November 16, 2018

Campaign Objectives

The RCMP Foundation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police‘s charitable arm, sought registrants for its first-ever online horse auction. Those same registrants were also welcome to participate in a sister event, an in-person horse auction: “See inside the RCMP Foundation’s horse auction” from CBC News.

The Plan

In advance of the campaign launch, the RCMP Foundation developed English and French landing pages announcing details for each auctions, and encouraging visitors to register to bid on any of the 30+ magnificent Hanovarian horses available for sale.

Where digital fit

In addition to securing traditional media coverage including PR and advertising in horse industry magazines, see examples below:

Ottawa Citizen: “Musical Ride-bred horses slated for largest-ever RCMP Foundation auction“
Horse Canada: “RCMP Foundation to auction off up to 40 Hanoverians“
Horse Journals: “RCMP Foundation Auctions 36 Horses from the Musical Ride Breeding Program“

and publishing organic social media content and distributing email newsletters, the RCMP Foundation approved a paid media advertising buy on Facebook.

While researching potential audiences to target on Facebook, Online Authority oversaw the technical implementation needed for a Facebook advertising campaign as undertaken by the RCMP Foundation’s agency:

Configuring the client’s Facebook Business Manager Account and ad account; and
Ensuring installation of the RCMP Foundation’s Facebook Pixel in its content management system.

Following that, in the client’s Facebook Ad account, Online Authority created targeted Website Custom Audiences (WCA) based on past buyer lists and website visitors. Online Authority also developed necessary naming conventions for Google Analytics UTM tracking codes to track the impact of email efforts vs the Facebook ad buy.

In its research, Online Authority identified 65 possible target audiences within Facebook for review and approval by the client. Those were narrowed to 23 optimal choices for launch. Online Authority created each as unique Facebook Ad Sets in order to monitor the performance of each audience against one another.

As the landing page continue to evolve, Online Authority finalized the paid media creative, including copy treatment, and the campaign was activated. Below are three sample placements of the creative that ran, and some of the response generated:

Campaign Results

All 23 ad sets launched simultaneously and performance of each was monitored on a daily basis. Within one week, the ad sets were narrowed to the top performers.

By the number of auction registrants, the approach proved so successful that the campaign was paused at the two-week of a planned six-week campaign. The best news for this fundraising effort? Further, all horses were sold with revenue targets exceeded.

If you are interested in learning more about Facebook advertising, contact Online Authority today.

Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity episode Mr Marketology podcast

Six Dimensions of Digital maturity podcast episode with Mr Marketology

by Kelly Kubrick on October 11, 2016

What are the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity?

Recently, I had the pleasure of chattting with Jeff Beale, aka Mr. Marketology as part of his Marketing Strategy Sessions podcast and YouTube channel. Jeff and I discussed the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity, the business planning model we first proposed at Digital Strategy Conference.

Watch our conversation on YouTube (20 minutes, 47 seconds) by clicking the video embedded below:

In this episode, Jeff and I discuss how the digital maturity model came about and how organizations can use it to their advantage. In particular, we talked about:

Findings uncovered about resource imbalance in our ongoing dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey
A description of the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity dimensions, including: Human Resources, Technology Resources, Data Strategy, Content Strategy,
Channel Strategy, Social Business Strategy
The challenge of overcoming legacy silos in an organization when it comes to implementing your digital strategy
Evolving job titles in the digital space
The challenge of attribution in an increasingly omnichannel world – should digital get credit for sale or leads vs other channels, or does it even matter anymore, as we all shift towards customer lifetime value models.

My thanks to Jeff Beale for his interest in sharing the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity the larger Mr Marketology community! Learn more at the Mr Marketology website, on Facebook, @mrmarketology on Twitter or Google Plus.

Diversifying the Canadian Economy through Digital Policy

Can we diversify Canada’s economy through digital policy?

by Kelly Kubrick on April 4, 2016

On Tuesday April 19, 2016, Canada’s Digital Policy Forum (CPDF) will host stakeholders and policy makers to discuss improving Canada’s performance in the development of its digital economy. The Forum proposes that “inevitably, any sound strategy for economic diversification must be a digital strategy.”

At Digital Strategy Conference, we defined digital strategy as “the process of identifying, articulating and executing on digital opportunities that will increase your organization’s competitive advantage.” If you expand ‘your organization’ to incorporate Canada, we can extrapolate that organizational-level thinking to economy-level thinking.

If digital enterprises empower and drive growth, the CPDF Diversifying Canada’s Economy Through Strong Digital Policy Forum asks what kinds of policies and institutions are needed to encourage and scale that growth. How can we best enable digital innovations? The day is set up to:

Establish the current cyber-security threats and attack environment (behold the recent hospital system held hostage);
Discuss the potential for user-generated data to impact us socially, politically, and economically;
Ask if data from our devices be brought out of the private domain and used to serve the public good, without compromising privacy or safety?
Learn from Sweden’s model for exploiting the opportunities of digitalisation
Debate if government and the private sector are capable of collaboration and cooperation at speed, or if our competitive skills will merely erode further?

As co-author of the dStrategy Digital Maturity model, I’m looking forward to hearing from industry such as Google and Intuit – and from academics and policy makers such as the Information & Communications Technology Council (who recently released Digital Talent: Road to 2020 and Beyond), the Social Media Lab, a multi- and interdisciplinary research laboratory at Ryerson University and at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University and Sweden’s Digitalisation Commission.

If digital readiness interests you, consider participating in the dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey. Intended to help organizations understand the dimensions needed for digital readiness, as with the Forum, understanding how we can build digital capacity at an organizational level can also serve to help us identify capabilities and gaps in advancing our national competitiveness.

Digital Strategy Conference: Our Journey Comes to a Close

by Kelly Kubrick on August 31, 2015

Thank you for participating in Digital Strategy Conference

Although Digital Strategy Conferences are no longer being produced, we invite you to continue learning how to increase your organizations’ level of digital maturity using the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model.

In 2013, the journey began with a model and framework for understanding the six key dimensions of digital maturity.

The goal of Digital Strategy Conference was to provide inspiring examples of digital strategy; while the goal of our Mapping Digital Maturity workshop was to provide a process for establishing your organizations’ level of digital maturity by giving you benchmarks from industry.

We met those goals and so did you.

Since then, hundreds of organizations and over 1,000 attendees from across sector and industry have helped their organizations increase competitive advantage and/or succeed in delivering on its mission.

Who Attended:

Senior directors and managers from across the organization responsible for planning, managing or integrating digital initiatives, along with their digital team.

Successful digital initiatives are due to the effort of high functioning teams, therefore, we encourage a team approach to your conference education.

Today’s opportunities for business improvement using digital processes and technologies extend across the organization. In addition to sales, marketing and communications, Digital Strategy Conference informs and educates those responsible for internal communications, social business and workforce management.

What you learned:

Digital strategy definition and models
How to assess digital maturity
Data strategy fundamentals
Performance measurement and digital analytics essentials
Content Strategy – content, technology and experience
Paid, Owned and Earned Media – the pillars of digital marketing
Case studies and applied learning from peers and colleagues

Thank you all

Today, our journey comes to a close. We thank to the entire #dstrategy community for its contribution, enthusiasm and support since we first proposed Digital Strategy Conference.

We wish you all the best and much success on your future initiatives.

Andrea Hadley and Kelly Kubrick, Co-founders, Digital Strategy Conference and Workshops

Planning your ‘less talk, more action’ digital transformation

by Kelly Kubrick on May 13, 2015

First published on the Digital Strategy Conference blog, authored by Barret Murdock.

In 2014, Canada Science and Technology Museums made the news when a large outbreak of mould had been discovered in their Ottawa location. Brian Dawson, their Chief Digital Officer, explained how while it may have not been the best way to get on TV, it was this challenge that highlighted the need to to stay up-to-date in a culture that is in constant flux and that requires organizations to continuously battle the threat of digital irrelevancy.

“Digital Irrelevancy is Canada’s Biggest Threat”

Culture has become globalized – anywhere in the world one can receive information instantaneously from common sources such as Google and Wikipedia. This can present a problem because region-specific information and history can be overlooked by these global websites. Brian Dawson suggests that this is particularly true with Canadian history – if Canadians are not active digitally and on the web, then who will tell our stories?

Canadian Science and Technology Museums want to tell the story of science and technology in Canada and they have begun to offer a variety of digital opportunities to open up this public dialogue.

Examples of this are:

The creation of educational video games like Ace Academy, where the player goes to flight school and experiences a series of first world war missions
Digitization of their collection and giving the public open access to the data.

This free reign on information definitely carries a risk, but Dawson indicates that maintaining their collections relevancy in a digital landscape required a structure where enthusiasts can easily use the collections data in their personal projects. This collaboration with the public also includes crowdsourcing – asking the public to share their individual stories through text and videos, as well as encouraging social media contribution through hashtags.

Driving these initiatives, Canada Science and Technology Museums have formed Innovation Teams comprised of a wide range of experts specializing in areas relevant to a given project. Teams work in four week cycles, during which they assess and integrate both user and stakeholder feedback. This process ensures that their projects are up-to-date and that the museums remain relevant in this digital age.

The Canada Science and Technology Museums took some negative media attention and used it as an opportunity to self-evaluate and initiate positive, digital development throughout the entire organization.

Welcome to Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2015!

by Kelly Kubrick on April 3, 2015

First published on the Digital Strategy Conference blog on April 2, 2015.

Ready for round 5?

Wow – five? It’s our fifth Digital Strategy Conference already. So glad you could join us! Get ready to learn from over 40 top marketers and digital experts from across North America in Vancouver’s UBC Robson Square, here to share their organizations’ experiences in tackling the ever-evolving challenges of digital. From May 11-14, we’ll explore topics including digital fluency, the intersection of social and community, content strategy versus content marketing, and digital’s potential for filling the sales or lead generation pipeline.

No hype. Real world case studies

Be prepared to take lots of notes as we hear real-world case studies on specific ways that organizations are taking advantage of data to improve business results. Not hype. Real-world.

Our agenda aligns with the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity, the foundation of the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model, a framework and business planning tool designed to help you assess your organization’s current level of digital maturity.

New this year: Mapping Digital Maturity Workshop

Interested in learning how to assess your organization’s digital processes and their state (ranging from ad hoc to optimized)? For the first time in Vancouver, we’ll be offering our “Mapping Your Digital Maturity” workshop. Join us for a very practical, hands on workshop to dive into the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model on May 11, 2015 – the day before Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2015 kicks off.

We continue to believe that digital impacts horizontally across function, and that its lessons can be leveraged across sector and industry. Please take advantage of the experience and insights shared by the conference speakers. This is your chance to hear lessons learned, recommended approaches and landmines to avoid.

Shared perspectives increase insight

Share those insights when you get back to the office – the more perspective our collective community can bring to digital, the better.

You’re among friends, so ask questions, lots of questions. Tweet your thoughts, introduce yourself and network like no one is watching. I look forward to meeting you!

Kelly Kubrick
Co-Founder and Chair, Digital Strategy Conference

What are the foundations of a company’s digital strategy?

by Kelly Kubrick on January 31, 2015

First published in Marketing Today, the Canadian Home Builder’s Association (CHBA) member e-newsletter, January 2015.

Building the Foundations of Your Company’s Digital Strategy

The digital realm can identify both opportunities (new revenue streams, distribution channels, and operational efficiencies) and threats (shifting customer behaviors, higher service expectations, decreased asset utilization). So much so that, actually determining your company’s digital strategy can feel overwhelming. Don’t let it.

Instead, think of it this way: “Digital strategy is the process of identifying, articulating and executing on digital opportunities that will increase your organization’s competitive advantage.”

Digital strategy leads to competitive advantage

Think of digital as your company’s chance to create value that no other business is capable of. To succeed at digital, there are six process areas – the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity – your company will need to address as you tackle digital:

Your human resources: Who are the people who will help plan and execute your digital initiatives?
Your technology resources: Which technologies will your business need to use to implement your digital initiatives?
Your data strategy: Data is an output of digital and the differentiator from its offline equivalent, allowing you to drive continuous improvement in your processes. What is your plan for leveraging its available insights?
Your content strategy: Digital demands that companies produce content efficiently and accurately across multiple platforms and channels. Are you ready?
Your channel strategy: Which channels – for marketing, transactions, distribution – can you realistically support, in a sustained, profitable way?
Your social business strategy: Prospects and customers assume your ability to interact and collaborate – are you prepared for the transparency that will result?

Next, assess your company’s capabilities in each dimension. What are your strengths? Where are the gaps? What steps can you take this quarter? Where should your capabilities be this time next year? What will be your competitive (digital) advantage?

To help you get traction, we developed a self-assessment tool; a way to score your company’s digital efforts. The lower your score, the more opportunity there is to improve. The higher your score, the more you have optimized a given digital process. Interested in learning more? Take our dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey to add your insights.

The result? You have a more concrete idea about where to prioritize digital efforts and investment. Once you have your scores, you can “map” your results to visualize a digital maturity road map. Stop feeling overwhelmed and begin building your company’s digital foundations today.