To Gate or Not. A Content Marketer's Dilemma.

Content consumption has evolved and content is naturally expected to be available freely across industries. Also, enabling user’s web visit objectives  by giving him information as quickly as possible is hygiene.

Competitiveness has changed the role of Thought Leadership to drive brand awareness for all major players in the B2B industry. 

However for certain reasons like Lead gen objective is when content assets require a gate to access. 

Commoditization of content, absence of original thoughts & ideas, content deluge, etc are challenges faced where exclusive and proprietary content is lacking. 

Lead Gen is also a need for some but it will have to be smarter than having a gate on an asset.

What to do?  

Strengthening the audience intelligence piece coupled with optimizing the Content Marketing using marketing technology will be needed. Especially to avoid deluge and importantly to stay relevant and top of mind.

Gating is a very selective process which values user's expectation of fair exchange of data.  

• Selective gating by identifying right assets; use an approach like 

- Yes for Gating: Quality asset - Level of original thought in the asset; Exclusivity & Depth of your expertize on the topic- content peices which user's value and which benefits them professionally & personally

 - No for Gating: Non-exclusive information i.e. secondary research based assets. No original thought means not exclusive information. 

Post the selection of an ideal gated asset, below must-haves need to be in place:

• Persona: Research & identify the right personas you want gating to be exposed to
• Design: Go for Conversion Centered Design
• Content: Micro content pieces - Ensure interesting pre-content & related content with every gated asset; Smarter content pieces - quick bites and one leading to another. Optimization is another consideration to keep in mind
• Form: Use of Progressive Profiling forms which are quick for the user; if content is really benefitting the user, he/she will come again, use his/her next visit for some more details. Social Logins are preferred
• Time Bound: Gating for a very limited time period i.e. 3-6 months maximum
• Introduction of nurturing programs keeping context and user's preference in mind. No carpet bombing
• Test & Iterate - everything, Design, Content, Form. 

There are multiple such approaches when you consider gating as essential. However, Lead Gen is eventually a by-product of compelling content. 

Every Marketer is a Digital Marketer

I think the role of the Chief Digital Officer is going to be dead soon. The reason I feel this is that Digital was a role which had to be brought up as a channel independently. But today, with the advent of Social and Devices, there is power in the hands of people. These are customers, both Internal and External.

For Organisations looking to venture strongly into Digital, need to first internalize the nuances of Digital Marketing with its employees and mainly with key stakeholders. Nuances today are on two fronts : Are we Conversational ? Are we giving the best Consumer experience ?

Conversations arrive from Content and Content arrives from people internally. For B2B marketers it could be ‘trends’ on a particular industry which drive conversations with their buyers. For B2C marketers it could be ‘imperatives’ which are also known to align with ‘cost of delay’ or ‘immediate gratification’ that drive conversations.

Consumer experience aligns with everything we do – whether online or offline. For example, stock availability at a retail store is Consumer experience.

And Digital aligns with these both factors instantly. Like if the stock is not available, there are reactions which now are on the digital medium, social media.

When brands successfully provide immediate gratification, there are reactions on the digital medium.

Now lets flip the story and lets say Brands only look at external activity without appropriate internalization. Taking the stock availability example, brands will need to huddle in for each such reaction and look at how to respond and so on. This is not scalable.

So if Brands looking to embrace Digital need to know the importance of internalization which will finally impact its brand promise and this is a scalable model.

This is the very fact I have learnt with the organisations I have worked with. And I would say it’s a difficult path as there is a lot of change management required. But when there is top management buy in coupled with champions within units, the ripples start to become waves.

Hence, when internal customers become more and more digitally aligned, the role of digital officer will be dead. All Marketers will have to be digital and Digital marketers will have to shun their complex metrically aligned hats and wear pure marketing hats aligned to Customer experiences and Conversations ! 

How new age technologies are driving the change over to Conversational Content

How new age technologies are driving the change over to Conversational Content [Image] #Social #SEO #digital #CX pic.twitter.com/U1Wx1pkmgP

— Jigesh Shah (@Interactivefy) October 30, 2013

Create an Analytics culture

Create an Analytics culture

The first and foremost requirement of any marketing campaign will always be "Effectiveness".  Measuring effectiveness lies in the process of Data accuracy coupled with the willingness to track. Brands in this ever-evolving world of Digital marketing, should identify the roles a Digital medium should play inorder to get near to effective effectiveness !

Currently, there are only a few Brands which use quantitative analytical techniques to create decision making campaigns. Generally marketing budgets are spent on the weight of the medium rather than the effectiveness of the medium.

Also, most marketers are used to subjective conclusions and thereby see a particular digital medium in light of qualitative aspects with only a few quantitative ones.

This has resulted in improper derivation of ROI of the Digital medium itself. Agencies, on the other hand, play a role of 'media seller' largely causing more problems for the brand to judge the effectiveness.

One more reality is that Online & Offline campaigns go hand-in-hand. Its time marketers realise that Offline campaigns contribute significantly to Online and vice-versa.

So, the challenge is to overcome the barrier to quantify campaigns by establishing an Analytics culture. Unless this is addressed, Digital Marketers will not be able to fully judge the true potential of the Online medium.  The results will also bridge the gap between Offline and Online campaigns.

Once a campaign goes live, results from both the worlds will help judge the true effectiveness.

Once, the culture is established, brands will be more confident in using newer digital avenues like Social Media, Apps, Widgets, Wikis and the likes.

Overall investments on Digital/Online campaigns will eventually grow higher than Offline considering the time spent on this medium.

It then boils down to how effective was the campaign, a question which can be answered by Analytics. 

 A good example of usage of Web Analytics

a. DELL

Facebook Wall - Fad ? Innovative ? Clutter ?

Facebook Wall - Fad ? Innovative ? Clutter ? 

Well, it definitely cannot be denied that Facebook has grown in terms of popularity. There are friends, and friends of friends making their way to network with each other. All the more try and find a common ground too !

While the wall is cool, causes are great and FB Page  FBML was awesome ; now has come the iFrame based apps for FB Pages . Why iFrame based apps and not FB hosted ? Ofcourse Facebook has started feeling the pressure on its hardware and the costs  attached to maintenance.

What does it all mean in terms of user experience ?

It means that a consumer visiting a Page , now has the same experience of left-hand-navigation. Yes, back-to-basics !  There still is one catch here. iFrames will only display stuff within a specific width. 520px. So, now the pitch is just 520px wide.

What can a brand achieve or deliver within the 520px -

Here are some good examples :

1. Kelloggs
2. Dominos
3. Vitamin Water
4. Pringle's
5. Ford

 All goodie good stuff for the user.

What from the Brand's perspective ?

If, I am a brand manager, looking for Social Engagement through FB, I still will look at opportunities beyond the FB Page.

Why ?

Because, if having an independent Brand website was just a hygiene factor in days of FB & other SNs, having a FB Brand Fan Page is equally if not more important from branding and engagement perspective.

Now, lets stich all of the above together.

Friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends and so on will keep on getting on this band wagon and reach out for more common grounds.

Brands will now have a 520px page hosted on their servers as part of their website which will reflect on their FB fan Page ! Good, isn’t it ? Now you don't have to worry about FBML !

And now, just as consumers, Brands will also bring in the commonsense to be on FB soon enough..as its now easy to get the brand image rightfully customised within their own eco-systems.

But what about the question of bringing people to these Fan Pages ? It all starts again ! Yes,Brands need to put in more marketing dollars to get people to Brand Fan Pages. At the same time, maintian the visitors to their own sites too !

Whats the challenge ?

Brands need to be more tactful to be on the User's wall !

Brands need to be more tactful to be unique in the communication !

Brands need to be more tactful to break out of clutter !

The clicks to the updates will then come ! According to my personal observations, if a user has 100 friends, if all 100 update once every  day, there are atleast 100 updates for me to look at !

Now, on top of that , how do I need to go to my Favorite pages ? What if I miss the Fan page update on my wall ?

So, the question still remains unanswered...is this a Fad or is this clutter ?

Digital in Health and Wellness industry- An Opportunity

Growing importance of Health in India :

As per a recent study conducted by the Tata Strategic Management Group ( TSMG ) , the size of the Health & Wellness market is estimated to be around Rs.10,500 crs ( 2010 ). This is estimated to grow to a whopping Rs.55,000 crs in the next 5 years ie by 2015.

This growth, i believe is supported by  multiple factors. Lets take FMCG for example :

Sample FMCG Contribution 2010

 At the same time, the Ad agencies have also started gearing up to activate the Pharma industry. Its estimated that the Pharma Advertising industry is worth Rs.350 Billion ( 2010 ) and is promised a growth rate of 10%-14% annually.
A recent CNBC TV18 Storyboard report :

Ofcourse, its not easy to support the pharma clients with pure consumer/FMCG knowledge. It requires specialised know-how and 'collateralized-creativity' as there has to be a supported claim to every activity done Online.

There is a growing curiosity on what the US FDA will decide on the Social Media guidelines. I think the Ogilvy blog on What to expect in 2011 written by Rohit Bhargava is a good summary to know what to expect

OgilvyPR on - FDA on Social Media- What to expect in 2011

But its a double-edged sword. In Aug 2010 , the Food & Drug Administration told Novartis in an August 2010 letter that its "Facebook widget for the leukemia drug Tasigna violated FDA advertising rules in part because the widget lacked information about potential health dangers". Read more

On the other side, Consumers are increasing their focus towards information Online. The ideal Target audience for any health related organisation is between 18-35 and this age group has the highest growth today !

Patients continue to flock online resources for their second opinion on health conditions. Chronic illnesses increases the likelihood of internet and social media usage . Patients spend 20% of their time online and in social networks. This has grown 66% from 2009 to 2010.

Also, the Internet, also exceeds the offline resources for physicians for gathering information on health or general drug prescription.

Overall, its a uphill task for all involved. As said, Care is the best medicine - whether in Health or in Digital for Health !

A view point here 

3G & Digital Marketing scenario

India is poised to grow Digitally with the advent of 3G around the corner. We have recently seen launches of umteen no. of smartphones from manufacturers unheard of like Huawei !
Even the imported but branded chinese handset manufacturers have entered the competition. So things are heating up.

But, the question is what is the Indian consumer going to do with 3G & a smartphone. A recent study showed that Social Networking is a high sticky area as well as Email and Search are still dominant. Apart from these 3 there are no such big invaders in the list. Nor does the situation seem to improve in the very near future.

Then, is it that Apps shall replace websites ? Apps available for iPhone, Android, Symbian are now a mass-market product like FMCG marketed to users in sachets ! There are Apps for everything one can think of on Earth, Mars and even Jupiter.


It is going to be a discovery of Indian 3G in the year 2011.

Digital and Healthcare industry

In continuation from here

The Indian Healthcare Industry : 
According to a report by Frost & Sullivan , the Indian Healthcare Industry has grown @ 20% CAGR in the past few years. The major contributors to this growth have been Pharma Generic & OTC drugs alongwith growing demand for Devices.
Overall, the government policy has been favourable to a good extend for areas like Research and Contract Manufacturing in India.
It is surely one industry which is well poised for growth in the years to come with the growing awareness of the Indian masses towards Healthcare.

The Indian Internet scene :
The Internet has well penetrated the Urban areas with Rural areas soon to achieve a respectable rate with Broadband Wireless access round the corner.