Whether it’s mobile marketing, conversion rate optimization (CRO) or how to get the biggest bang for buck from paid search activities, a wealth of ideas exist if we know where to look.

These 9 digital marketing blogs continuously up-the-game by sharing proven techniques to jump-start website performance.

Content Marketing Institute

The Content Marketing Institute publishes new content daily. Its authors have a razor-sharp eye toward what works in content marketing. What I like most about the blog is that each post has plenty of examples (most with images from campaigns or sites that are actively marketing) and focused suggestions for what can make a website great.
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/blog/

Moz

Moz was founded back in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig and has become synonymous with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Though Fishkin left Moz in 2018, the Moz blog continues to be a valuable resource for marketers. Most recently I’ve been interested in the blog’s exploration of how SEO and CRO can play nice together.
https://moz.com/blog

Convince and Convert

The thing I love most about this blog, is that it explores digital marketing as related to building great narratives – word of mouth marketing, building social proof and, amongst other things, how to know if you’re chatting to a human or robot. The blog is not afraid of tending toward the explorative and is the better for it.
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/blog/

Occam’s Razor

Avinash Kaushik is the author of the blog, Occams Razor. Closely connected with digital analytics and marketing, this site has some deep dives into many of the subjects that marketers either care deeply about or are confused by. One of my personal favorites is Kaishnik’s article on digital marketing attribution models, which includes a detailed look at the benefits and downsides of each model.
https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

Sumo

Sumo, as a company, is all about eCommerce growth. So it’s little surprise that their blog contains highly specific articles about how to increase conversion of online shopping carts. I quite enjoyed their write up of where to use power words in creative assets to improve conversions.  This blog is great for marketers running online shopping assets.
https://sumo.com/stories

Copyblogger

Brian Clark started copyblogger in 2006 and it quickly become an essential resource for digital copywriters. The advice on Copyblogger helps marketers make their content more visible on search engines, create successful openings for blog posts, as well as overcome obstacles that stand in the way of their creativity.
https://www.copyblogger.com/

Contently

Contently’s blog is aptly called ‘The Content Strategist’. While the blog focuses on what it takes to build great content, it also explores strategy, transformation and ROI as highly related themes. It’s a great resource to tap into and I particularly enjoyed the insights shared by long-time Editor In Chief, Joe Lazauska, about how Contently grew its audience from 14,000 to 400,000 readers.
https://contently.com/strategist/

Econsultancy

Econsultancy has developed a strong reputation for creating and sharing well researched data about how digital marketing is changing the landscape. In one of my first internet marketing roles I remember discovering Econsultancy. Then, the data made my job as a digital marketer that little bit simpler. Today the blog still focuses on very relevant and current issues, though I do find some of the deeper analytical content sits behind the paywall for paying subscribers. Nevertheless it is still an excellent read.
https://econsultancy.com/blog/

Seth Godin

Godin’s blog is about online marketing, and then again it isn’t. He is a master of the thought-provoking, short post, on all subjects from using social media better, through to what makes us happy. I go to Seth’s blog for the random, the profound and the immensely useful and so far have not been disappointed. It is a great place to visit for fresh thinking.
https://seths.blog/

Your Go-To Digital Marketing Blogs?

Do you have other digital marketing blogs that you refer to as a digital marketer?  If so, I’d love to hear…please consider sharing a comment below.

The post 9 Digital Marketing Blogs For Every Marketer’s Toolkit appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

I’ve worked in teams of five- to launch new digital products; as well as teams of hundreds- to create user experiences with advanced software and platforms. Regardless of the scale of work, many of the concepts of digital strategy described in this article, still applied.

My advice in this article is based on three things: 1) what I learnt during a post-graduate degree in strategy and innovation, 2) what myself and teams applied- based on challenges and opportunities across industries, 3) what worked best from foundations 1 and 2.

Here is how I would distill these learnings:

1. Gather Inputs for your Digital Strategy

Information is everywhere, so gather it. No matter how big or small, however shallow or deep, find information and capture it somewhere. Ideally on a wall, so it can be quickly visualised, as you will then be able to see =just how much information is available. At this stage, don’t be concerned about what the information is telling you…. this stage is just about identifying the ‘data points’.

2. Understand The Current Company Context

When we’re creating a digital strategy, there’s little point developing it within a vacuum. Understanding the target company we’re creating it for is essential.

I’ve seen many excellent digital strategies stall because they were focused on the wrong stage for the company. For example, a company may need get the basics right before moving onto innovation. I’ve also seen strategies with very sound plans fail because they were not innovative enough to challenge and outpace the competition.

Thus it is important to understanding the company’s context. Just like a coach is able to boost performance by pitching their coaching at the level of shape their athlete is in.

3. Map Macro & Micro Trends

Micro trends are those that have a duration of 3 to 5 years, whereas macro trends are longer lasting.

These trends are like water currents flowing through industries. We all know when we’re swimming in currents, it’s far easier to go with them, than against them.

Google succeeded because it spotted issues with its advertising algorithm early on; it responded to a micro-trend in the form of better understanding of internet advertising, within a macro-trend of the rise of the internet and search engines.

Any digital strategy needs to be informed by both the micro and macro trends, that will pull and push an industry, creating prevailing conditions for years ahead.

Within the area of trends, when it comes to digital strategy in particular, I also recommend attention to these three forces:

1. Identify existing customer needs, shifting needs and emerging behaviours
2. Understand emerging and prevalent technologies that will shape the industry’s future over the next five years
3. Analyse the competition, not just for direct competitors but also new entrants that could foreseeably compete in your company’s market

Digital technology is moving so quickly with such disruptive power, such that the above three forces have special importance relative to other trends.

As examples, MySpace came unstuck because it missed the shifting customer behaviours toward private social networks. Facebook acted well to purchase Whats App when it realised instant messaging was emerging as a new technological trend. Uber and Lyft have been embattled as they seek to understand one another’s every move in a competition that is vying for the global marketplace.

4. Deeply Interpret & Analyse The Data

Having built up your data points and understood the prevailing trends, now is the time to interpret and analyse this data. This requires deep thought.

During this stage, ask questions like:

• Questions About the ‘Now’
  • What does this data tell us?
  • What are the opportunities and challenges that are present today?
  • What are the deeper truths of this information?
  • Where are our major revenue / profit centres for digital?  How are these revenue sources changing?
• Questions About What ‘Could Be’
  • Where will action create further growth / revenue / profit?
  • Is there anything we can do to magnify returns?
  • Are there any areas where we are particularly weak / compromised / threatened? Without action, do these areas pose further risk?
  • Most importantly, ask lots of ‘If This, Then That’ questions. For example:
    – If trend A, B and C happened at once, more quickly than we thought, what might we do?
    – If Competitor B entered this market faster than we anticipated, what would we do?
    – If we leveraged this major technology trend, seriously investing in it and it succeeded, what might that mean for our business?

What we’re really doing at this step is building out our assumption base about the future. What we don’t often realise is that we can develop this assumption base through either real experiences or hypothesized scenarios.

This is why surgeons do mock surgeries to advance their skills and why pilots spend many hours in simulators in addition to actual flying time. Study after study tells us, that the process of scenario-based thinking and imagining alternate circumstances, can actually improve the way we’ll respond in real-life situations.

You’ll be surprised how useful this becomes, not just for the act of writing the strategy, but building out what pilots call ‘situational awareness’ for all future possibilities.

5. Clarify Your Major Themes For The Next 2 to 3 Years

With all this information, now is the time to clarify your major strategic themes for the next 18 months to 3 years. Anything longer is too far out. While longer timeframes will be useful for context, most digital plans have a shelf-life of 6 to 18 months in terms of practical planning.

Ideally, you would have five major themes for your strategic priorities, and at most seven.

When Steve Jobs was re-appointed interim CEO of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was simplify its strategy. Over the course of the next period, he would reduce the company’s products from 350 to ten core products, announce a direct-to-consumer sales model and also invest in Apple’s re-invigorated computing offering, the iMac. These clear priorities allowed Apple to do something few other Silicon Valley companies have been able to do – disrupt itself – and set the pathway for iPod, iPhone and iPad. An incredible amount of focus, through well articulated priorities, spearheaded this strategy.

Simple examples of digital strategies and priorities might be:

• Double online conversion within 12 months
• Increase self-service by 3x
• Grow registrations by 20%
• Create a pipeline of work based on 100% customer-validated ideas
• Consolidate all digital assets into one major platform
• Create a tiered pricing model for our subscription service

Whatever your priorities, take time to consider which are the most important and articulate them clearly.

6. Define Your Objectives, Priorities and Actions

From your strategies, you can now plan your actions and tactics. These will be the ideas that will bring your major themes and priorities to fruition.

When defining actions it’s important to know:

• what the action will provide to the company and its customers
• how the action will fulfil the strategy
• what uplift (conversion, signups, revenue, etc) the action will realise
• what the action will cost (a rough cost at this stage is okay)
• when (ideally) the tactic will be released to market
• In what sequence will the tactics best be fulfilled (some tactics may be better placed than others, to set the foundation for future tactics)

Once you have this, you can sequence these priorities into a roadmap.

‘Levelling’ of tactics will be important. The digital strategy would ideally clarify major themes and potential priorities, but also needs to leave space for teams to autonomously decide how they will fulfil these tactics.  If the level of the tactic is too low, it may encroach on the planning domains of small teams.  So the priority needs to be high enough to inform the work of teams, and not so low that it duplicates it.

If there’s one thing that frustrates digital people, it’s being told the solution, rather than the objective or problem to be solved. Digital teams are so often incredibly creative, hardworking and highly specialised; by sharing the digital strategy with these teams and asking for their help to bring it to a reality, it’s incredible what can be accomplished.

7. Review The Strategy Regularly

Remember, the strategy is a living and breathing tool. It requires attention if it is to grow.

While many companies return to their strategy every year, I’ve found the best success is to make it part of regular meetings, so teams are reflecting on it at least every month (but ideally even more often than that). The digital strategy can also complement any planning methods already part of your organisation, such as Objectives & Key Results, which may be part of a quarterly planning framework.

By applying these steps you will think like a strategist. I hope these seven activities are of help- and I wish you the very best with your digital strategy.

The post 7 Steps To Build A Digital Strategy appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

But we don’t have to be frustrated by this question. I’m just happy when people ask.

That’s because there’s a bigger risk when we think that CX and UX are the same thing.

They are related, but they’re also very different.  And both are highly relevant to helping companies compete in the experience economy.

Unfortunately ‘digital’ as a specialisation has not been kind when it comes to buzz words. When we talk about things that sound the same – like User Interface and User Interaction and User Experience – it’s easy to see why our specialisation is confusing to many people. Likewise, it’s no wonder customer experience and user experience are often intertwined.

In this post I share my perspective on how CX and UX fit together. These principles are not set in stone….rather they’re intended as a guide to help clarify these concepts and avoid confusion.

How to Define Customer Experience and User Experience

Customer Experience is an umbrella concept encompassing all channels and all products and how people feel and place value on experiences (broad or narrow) with a brand.  It involves a broad concept of experience, where CX “encompasses the sum of all interactions between an organisation and a customer over the entire relationship”.¹

User Experience refers to a “person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service”.² The term became more widely used in the 90s but has origins that stem from the machine-age.

While User Experience can relate to physical products, it is most commonly aligned with computers and, even more recently, the development of interfaces that have emerged via websites, smartphones and mobile apps. As a result, User Experience is (in the majority) focused on digital experiences and is concerned with the question ‘how can the end user achieve their goals’.  It’s worth taking a look at Peter Morville’s seven perspectives of user experience that can help explore and validate product design.

The practice of User Experience supports a brand to design digital journeys that solve the “right problem for the end consumer in an efficient and enjoyable manner.”³

Okay, But What Are The Practical Distinctions?

If we stick with the definitions only, we risk missing the distinctions between CX and UX. So here I’ve considered CX and UX across a variety of dimensions.

Now these are generalisations, so please don’t be upset with me if these are not 100% accurate. Generalisations are useful, but they do not always capture the full reality. I recommend a soft focus when we consider these to help us spot the larger differences between CX and UX:

A Working Example….

While CX and UX can be pursued as seperate activities, better value is achieved when they’re used together.

Let’s consider an example.

Several years ago I worked with a team to design a new mobile app. We used CX to conduct high level data gathering about what might be important to people when using this future service, which interactions these customers performed frequently, how a new service could help them with these behaviours, whether they would use the new service when at home, the office or on the go. (For interest, Designing CX has some excellent resources for CX journey mapping.)

We also explored with customers whether they would place value in a mobile app and what features they would expect to see within an app. We used this information to develop some broad concepts of what the mobile app might do, and then explored through focus groups how these concepts could fit into peoples’ lives. I would consider all of this work to be Customer Experience.

When we shortlisted features for the app, we developed paper wireframes for the app’s main screens as well as some typical tasks we might expect users to do (like ‘register for an account’). We used these paper wireframes to run one-on-one user research sessions with customers, the input from which we used to refine our designs. From paper wireframes, we created an interactive prototype. Again we tested this with users, using the prototype to ask users to try a series of tasks.  We asked users to score how ‘usable’ they found the prototype. We also used these results and insights to refine the prototype further. Eventually we did a final round of testing before launch of the app. I would consider all of these activities User Experience.

Both CX and UX worked together in this project. Without CX we would not have known whether a mobile app would be useful to customers and how it would naturally fit into and complement their lives. Without User Experience, we may have built an app that was not fit-for-purpose and didn’t help customers to perform tasks as simply as possible.

This example shows how both CX and UX are discreet activities but add value to one another when used in combination.

I found Digitalgov‘s article on the differences between CX and UX particularly useful. However, I would adapt their model to show CX and UX overlapping (as is shown under the ‘Bingo!’ heading).  While both can operate together, both also have their own specific disciplines and practices, and thus can operate separately.  I suggest showing UX as a smaller discipline, to reflect it’s narrower focus when compared to CX.

Exceptions That Challenge CX and UX Conventions

These guidelines are not fixed in stone. While the insights above are useful, it’s important to point out some exceptions and emerging issues.

Recently I’ve been thinking about three examples that provoke new thinking.

#1 ChatBots:
According to Business Insider, the global chatbot market is expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025.⁴ ChatBot’s go well beyond simple screen design, relying on content and conversation to respond to customers. While ChatBots occur within a digital experience, the ways in which ChatBots engage with users departs from many of the conventions of user experience.

#2 Voice (eg. Google Home)
The emergence of voice-enabled computing and artificial intelligence, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, also challenge the concept of user experience. Customers understand these services because they are an extension of services we have come to know that are primarily digital. For example, ordering an Amazon product on Alexa is an extension of ordering an Amazon product on their eCommerce website. However, over time these services will create completely new interactions and services. These products blend digital and physical interactions and require a larger concept of experience. While the specific task we seek these products to perform on our behalf might be considered User Experience, the study of how we use voice-enabled devices in the home and how these change our perception of convenience, are really questions for Customer Experience.

#3 Digital, Data and Push services
Services that blend digital experiences, with rich data and proactive notifications, will also stretch our perceptions of UX and CX. User experience is often concerned with solving a customer pain point or increasing customer delight. Yet, many of these new services focus on small increases of convenience. For example, when Google Now prompts you to try a different restaurant from the one you’ve eaten at last week, this may uncover a problem the user didn’t know they had (eg. the need for more variety / something novel). Whereas people used to either ask friends for recommendations of restaurants or turn toward review aggregation sites to discover new restaurants, this interaction pattern blends these two worlds with Google’s understanding of the user’s previous behaviour (eg. in this interaction, Google is the trusted friend and review source). Though the interaction may be digital, the ways in which it challenges existing behaviour redefines the concept of ‘looking for a restaurant’ which challenges broader concepts of customer experience.

These three examples aren’t cause to throw out the models above, but they do point out some of the emerging trends to consider.

That’s a wrap! I would love to hear how you view CX and UX. You can share your thoughts using the comments area below :).

References:

1. Understanding Customer Experience, HBR.  https://hbr.org/2007/02/understanding-customer-experience
2. User Experience vs Customer Experience: What’s the Dif, Digital Gov. https://www.digitalgov.gov/2014/07/07/user-experience-ux-vs-customer-experience-cx-whats-the-dif/
3. User Experience, Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
4. The latest market research, trends & landscape in the growing AI chatbot industry, Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/chatbot-market-stats-trends-size-ecosystem-research-2017-10/

The post The Difference between User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX) appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

First, Netflix removed the five star rating that is displayed across its content. Like others, I assumed that this star rating system reflected the ratings for shows and movies by real users. But as described by Netflix, the star rating system was actually a rating of how various content would be a potential match to your personal preferences. So whilst you might see five stars for House of Cards, your neighbour might only see three stars. In place of this rating system, Netflix introduced a ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’ way for users to cast their vote on content.[2]

The second change is to also replace the stars with ‘match’ (or match rate). Match displays a percentage figure next to each show or movie, almost like a ‘compatibility rating’ to suggest how well this content may be a fit for your preferences.

Now, we have known for many years that Netflix content has been somewhat personalised. Netflix has whole teams whose job is to tag and analyse content, to enable content to be aligned to the very specific niche preferences of its users. To a large degree, the ‘behind-the-scenes’ personalisation of Netflix content has been an ingredient of its success. However, while the recent changes are consistent with Netflix’s strategy toward greater personalisation, there is also a departure from what it has done before – which is to make this personalisation so visible to the viewer.  It is this important shift in viewers’ perception (which is created by the visibility of this measure) that could well be the success or failure of this feature.

‘Match’ is neither a friend nor a review crowd sourced from other people as with Rotten Tomatoes. And I assume it’s not meant to be. It does require a further action on the viewer, which is to imply a question that requires answering, ‘do you agree with this match rate for you’? Much like the ‘swipe left’ or ‘swipe right’ on Tinder and similar dating apps.

Netflix and many others have incredible sway in the way trends are adopted by millions and the way these trends affect mainstream behaviour. In just a few short years Netflix has completely changed the way content is not just consumed, but also made. To accept all this ‘goodness’ and digital disruption, as viewers we have to be prepared for some change we don’t like. Such is the bind of technological advancement that characterises society today.

It’s quite possible that in months ahead we’ll readily accept ‘match’ as though it has always been there.  As users we are becoming far more accustomed to accomodating new features put into the software we use every day.  The concept of ‘feature shock’ is far less of a factor than it was five years ago.

And yet I can’t help but think of the days growing up when I’d listen to Bill Collins’ midday movie prelude, before sitting down to enjoy an all-time classic like Roustabout. Those days are some time ago, but for now as a viewer if I had my choice, I would be switching off ‘match’….just for now. How about you?

Notes:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/

2. Of interest, Netflix still makes previous user ratings available to individual’s through their Account page – http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/7/15212718/netflix-rating-system-disapproval

The post Netflix’s Small Changes Make Big Ripples appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Over the last year I’ve been reflecting and studying what makes a Digital organisation great. This has been a process of re-considering past experiences, interviewing current digital leaders in their fields, and reading books that exemplify digital practice.

Through this process there are 7 processes that stand out of the world’s best Digital companies.

Whether it be “pure-play” digital operators or established organisations that are doing more than ever with digital, these competencies separate some organisations from the pack.

These processes complement how to think like a strategist.

#1. Focus on The Customer

Building a capacity to focus on the customer is fundamental to doing digital well. This goes beyond talking about customers. It involves developing a deep understanding of customer wants and preferences by involving them in listening processes (whether this is using focus groups, interviews or observational research).

The best digital organisations connect the design and development of digital products directly with customer insights. How does this work on a day-to-day level? We would know we’ve reached this point when any developer building software can pick up the phone or write an email to a customer and seek immediate feedback on their work.

This connection is so important because it links the act of product development directly with the audience the product is intended for, and it does this in a meaningful way. This has become one of the principles for how Digital companies create extraordinary products.

#2. Service Design

Service Design has been around for some time. In the last few years we’ve seen this discipline develop new energy. I personally believe service design (including Human Centered Design) will be one of the largest growth trends for organisations in the next five years.

To do service design well involves developing specific competencies in this area. It involves taking an entire view of customer journeys throughout the cycle of product purchase and use (both online and offline), putting ourselves in the shoes of people we’re trying to reach, and developing deeper insights about the needs serviced by the products we create.

Service design also involves building multi-disciplined teams that have the remit to explore and innovate on what is present today.

#3. Digital is Everyone’s Role and a Specialisation

As more and more customer interactions migrate online, digital is becoming central to organisational strategy. Whilst previously digital used to be the role of a single team, now all areas of an organisation need to think about ideas. This is a much needed shift in organisational behaviour. In the past we have seen the same trends emerge in other areas – marketing, operations, fulfillment – all have surfaced as disciplines in their own right. Today Digital is also making this journey.

It’s important to distinguish between how ideas are conceived and how work gets done. While all areas of businesses can conceive and contribute ideas for digital, doing digital work does require an aspect of specialisation.

Mature digital organisations leverage many areas of expertise such as release planning, user experience, visual design, coding, development, and so on. While these specialisations can be established in pockets across an organisation, they can be accelerated by centralisation.

As a result, the hallmark of a mature (or maturing) digital practice is evidence of these competencies being centralised.

The concept of centralisation does not necessarily mean people sitting in the same place or reporting to the same person. Modern work-practices (eg. remote working, collaboration tools, etc) lend to far more fluid interpretations of centralisation. An example of this is a Guild within Agile frameworks. Guilds bring people together that share common interests so they may share knowledge, tools and practices. In so doing Guilds centralise knowledge across potentially geographically dispersed teams.

#4. “Agilification”

Agile has become a buzz word in many organisations. But beyond the hype there are several principles embodied in Agile that make a real difference to how teams work.

These principles are: i) breaking down work into discreet chunks of activity, ii) structuring work based on dedicated capacity, iii) making work (and progress) visual.

The characteristics of Agile are important because they respond to three very ‘human’ questions about how attention and feedback is structured:

– what do we need to work on?
– how can we ensure we are focused on the work at hand?
– how can we receive feedback on our progress (particularly with complex projects)?

When organisations help their people know how to respond to these questions, teams are generally more focused and fulfilled.

#5. Focus on “Ways of Working”

Every digital team adopts tools and frameworks to get their work done. This is one of the keys to building an effective team.

Sometimes these are new training programs to educate new staff about which methods they’ll need as part of their day-to-day activities.

There is an important difference though between learning a method from a text book and learning how that method is used within a specific company.

‘Ways of working’ go beyond the method, looking also at the cultural nuances of the tools and frameworks used in an organisation.

For example, ‘backlog’ is a tool. But whether backlog is captured in software or handwritten onto cards and stuck on the wall, has as much to do about an organisation’s way of working as the theory of managing a backlog.

In the best digital companies, theory and practices are enriched and kept alive through meaningful ways of working.

#6. Blend Process & Creativity

Getting digital done right involves left brain and right brain activities.

Structuring releases for new mobile apps can be relatively complex, requiring detailed process and planning skills. But developing new interface designs for a mobile app requires creativity.

Almost all aspects of digital work require a blend of ‘creativity’ and ‘process’. When organisations try to structure digital teams with too much process, design can become hamstrung and bland. But when there is no process, creativity can become whimsical and design lacks alignment and focus.

For this reason, the best digital organisations blend process and creativity; from the environments they create for their people, to the way work is approached.

#7. People as a Strategic Capability

In the last decade, digital has grown rapidly as more companies shift operations and selling processes online. This has been further accelerated by a groundswell of adjacent trends, including the shift toward mobile handsets (compared with desktop internet use), a surge in mobile apps and changes in human behaviour.

Fortunately, with all this demand for digital, we’ve seen new career types emerge. Social media managers, paid search specialists, digital product owners… many of these roles did not exist some time ago. Right now there are more opportunities than ever for people entering the workforce to consider a career in Digital.

The downside for organisations is that the growth in talent does not always outstrip demand. So in some industries and geographies, it’s increasingly difficult for organisations to attract and retain strong digital people.

The best digital organisations recognise that ‘people’ are a strategic capability. As such, in these organisations people strategies look beyond recruitment alone, to also consider how people are engaged and grown.

This involves activities at all levels of the organisation – from connecting teams to the company’s mission or vision statement, so they can understand how their work has meaning, through to giving them unique opportunities to grow their skills in the business.

The post How 7 Strategies Lift the Top Digital Companies appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

The answer I give is…’maybe’.

It’s certain that ‘mobile’ is one of the fundamental trends changing the internet. So ensuring a business can capture this opportunity is essential for any strategy.

Building an app is one of the options to do this. Another option is to create a ‘mobile responsive’ website. Sometimes, businesses can pursue both strategies with good results.

The presentation below extends the thinking of the blog post 5 Proven Formulas of The World’s Best Mobile Apps.

[slideshare id=61543411&doc=alessiobresciani-5provenformulasoftheworldsbestmobileapps-apr2016-160501053707&w=715&h=550]

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested to read How To Build Mobile App Features That Keep People Coming Back or Why Mobile Apps Win Our Hearts Every Time.

The post 5 Proven Formulas of The World’s Best Mobile Apps – Slide Share appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Before trying Quora I knew about it, but I’d never really used it. So why did I decide to give it a try?

My blog was up and running and that was great. I had also tried Linked In’s publishing feature, but I found after an initial burst of readership, the things I published on Linked In didn’t get continual traffic.

Here are some of the qualities of Quora that put in on my A-List for bloggers:

#1. It Feels Good To Engage With the Quora Community

Quora is built around a community. It’s a community that likes to ask questions, as well as a community that likes to write. The platform, its incentives and its feedback mechanisms are based on rewarding people (not in a financial way, but in an intrinsic way) for their ability to create responses to questions that are important to others. Because Quora is a content platform built on a community it feels meaningful. This is a subtle but important difference for authors. Authors on Quora aren’t posting purely to get likes and shares. They’re posting to get these things, plus direct feedback from their audience which is delivered through upvotes and comments. The content that is most useful to others gets rewarded by a quick rise to the top.

#2. A Great Way to Figure Out What Content Works

Writing is often a trial and error experience. When we publish posts on a blog we can receive feedback through readers’ comments. If you have a tremendously popular blog (like Michael Hyatt’s for example), you may receive comments thick and fast. But this doesn’t always occur. That’s where Quora comes in. As a platform it’s a great way for writers to test content ideas and get continuous feedback on them, because the audience for the platform is continually reading and exploring. Using this feedback writers can then evaluate which of their posts resonates most with audiences.

#3. Start Writing By A Question That Inspires You

Thousands of questions are asked on Quora every day. Writers can respond with a short paragraph or a long-form article. Unlike blogging, where it’s often encouraged to write a minimum of 300 words, this limitation doesn’t exist on Quora. Whether writers have five minutes or fifty, there’s always time to create a response. This gives writers more freedom to write responses to whatever question inspires them. Some of the articles on this blog started as Quora responses, such as 5 Ways to Learn and Remember Anything.

#4. Responses Are Continually Read

I’ve published on other platforms before, and have found that once an entry is published, it has an initial burst of traffic, then the traffic quickly trails away. My experience with Quora is very different. If you respond to a topic that is has many followers, your writing will continue to receive readers over long periods of time. You may get a big spike at the start, you may not, but you will have an ongoing readership if it’s quality content. This simply isn’t true of all platforms.

#5. You Can Republish Content

As a Quora writer, your content is your own. You can even select if the content you publish on Quora can be republished or not on other sites. Whatever you chose, if you publish something on Quora and then in six months wish to publish it on your blog, you are free to do so.

#6. Some Responses May Be Republished on Major Platforms

Quora has a content publishing team. This team is responsible for seeking out good content that is published on the platform, and considering this for editorial on some of Quora’s partner sites, which include Inc.com and Huffington Post. If the publishing team like specific content, they may contact the author to seek their permission for republishing.  Whether the author chooses to republish or not, it is always nice feedback to receive.

I hope you found this post useful in thinking about whether you might give Quora a try.

The post 6 Reasons Why Every Blogger Should Consider Quora appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

I tried Asana. Then I switched. I tried to match any application I could to David Allen’s Getting Things Done method. For a while, the other options were good. Then recently when Asana upgraded it’s interface, I decided to give it another try.

I love the new Asana.

The interface is clean and useful, without being distracting. The iPhone app gives me what I need when I’m in the moment, and the Desktop platform adds even more utility, with the expanded real estate of a large screen monitor.

Here are 9 features of Asana that make it a stand-out product in my view:

1. The Asana Interface Makes You Feel Like You Want to Get Stuff Done

The look and feel of Asana is beautiful. It provides functionality, without overwhelm. And many of Asana’s tools (open task detail, select projects, edit task detail) are just a click away. Many of the panels within Asana can be expanded or collapsed (there’s also a full screen view for tasks) which means you can focus on the things that make most sense to you.

2. Focus on Projects or Tasks…You Choose

The Projects panel on the left of the screen seems simple, but together with ‘My Tasks’, it really boosts the capability of this platform. I use the ‘My Tasks’ view to see everything I need to get done for the next 7 days. This keeps me focused on the things that matter during the week. But I also like to see the overall context for projects. So by going into individual projects, I can see all the milestones that need to be achieved to deliver that project. When a project milestone is due (and assigned to me), the task automatically drops into My Tasks, so I never miss a thing. Switching views between 7 Day Focus and Project views are incredibly valuable.

3. The Notes Panel is Incredibly Useful, Especially with Rich Text

The notes panel is where I keep all my notes on tasks. If I’m working on a task that spans multiple days, I add updates to the task status in the notes section. I also wrote this blog and others in the notes section of Asana. With a few keyboard shortcuts, Rich Text can be used easily, which helps to bring some of the functionality of a word processor (eg. bold items, add bullet points, etc).

4. Make Tasks Private or Collaborative

Any task in Asana can be made Private or Collaborative. By setting up Private Projects, users can store tasks they do not wish to be seen by others within Asana. But, if you want to collaborate with other members of your team, you can setup and assign tasks to team members that are not private. While at first this seems bizarre (because you are blending private and collaborative tasks in one platform) it makes sense after some practice, because any productivity tool should help the user accomplish all things, not just some things.

5. The Collaboration Features Help Teams Organise

Asana has some excellent collaboration features to help teams work together. Team members can assign tasks to each other, have text conversations, share files and update task notes. This takes work away from email (which everyone struggles to cope with these days) and into a central place where people can share, discuss and progress tasks. Asana is free for teams to 15 people, which makes it incredibly useful for small teams. This is especially relevant for non-profits, which often work with very distributed committees.

6. Switch Between Life’s Contexts

One of the features of Asana is to setup and manage different workspaces. So you can have a workspace for your Personal projects, another one for the Community Organisation you’re involved with, and another for your place of Work. Whatever life’s contexts, you can setup a work space for it. According to Asana “a Workspace is a collection of people that collaborate on projects and tasks”. As a Workspace Member, you can administer the workspace, including inviting or removing Workspace Guests.

7. Sections Give Amazing Flexibility

It would be easy to underrate the power of Sections in Asana. As a user you can create a section by adding a column to the end of any task title. Sections can be moved up or down in any task list. Here are some of the things you can use headings for:

• to categorise tasks lists (eg. grouping tasks that relate to each other, like ‘things to buy when shopping’)
• to categorise priority (eg. breaking task lists into high, medium and low)
• to setup processes and sequences (eg. when organising a picnic, setting up Sections for things to do before the picnic, at the picnic, after the picnic)
• to categorise activities (eg. fundraising, website, administration, etc)

Get the idea? Sections make Asana infinitely flexible not just for task management, but all types of organisation.

8. Leverage Repeatable Processes, Not Just Tasks

One of the features of Asana is to ‘archive’ and ‘copy’ projects. So if you run a particular process this year (say ‘Setup and run an Annual General Meeting) and that process will be just as relevant next year, you can easily copy and re-use the process. This saves tremendous amounts of time for processes that are repeatable. It means we no longer have to ‘rethink’ activities, but instead can search for similar activities we’ve run in the past, and benefit from that prior thought. Very neat!

9. Search, Search, Search

Finding notes or tasks quickly and easily is a dream with Asana. The search bar is exactly where it should be. Front and center in the top panel of the screen, the faint grey lines hinting at you, just in case you need it. You don’t even notice the search bar unless you’re looking for it, and as soon as you are, it’s there! Presto! Fantastic design. When you’re managing hundreds of tasks due soon or a year into the future, search helps you deal with the complexity of your bold plans. And it does this extremely well.

Photo Credit: Jeff Sheldon unsplash.com/photos/9SyOKYrq-rE

The post Why Asana is the Ultimate Productivity Platform appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

So I went overseas for 15 months. I remember backpacking through Turkey with a student archaeologist, walking through Alhambra in Spain before it became the set for Game of Thrones, the smell of Italian coffee in a small hostel in Rome. It was an incredible life experience.

When I returned I realised I had to work. So in my early twenties I started a job. I worked for the money.

A few years later I started thinking beyond a job. I wanted a career. I picked up some more study. I decided to specialise in digital. I did things to get ahead.

As social media boomed I started a blog. I participated on Twitter. I did all the right things on Linked In. Everything ran like clock work. I posted regularly. I shared regularly.

I scoured news feeds until late into the evening. I read ‘how to’ tips on Copyblogger. I learnt all I could about successful digital content.

Then several years ago I realised I’d settled into a routine. Lots of time writing. Lots of time scheduling posts.

When I thought about it, I realised the routine I had settled into could have easily been boring.  But it wasn’t. I always found something interesting in writing.

Yet there were people I knew who hadn’t found it inspiring it all.  Many of them had started a blog or ran an online business where digital content was important.  And after a year or two they told me writing content had become a real drag.

This is every blogger’s digital content dilemma. When we write online content for the sake of sharing or winning traffic, and not to express ourselves….we can easily find ourselves in a bind.

Suddenly in this scenario the content is driving us and we’re not driving the content.

It’s an easy trap to fall into.

My younger self loved to explore the world. He would wake up and decide where he wanted to catch the train to that day. So I try to do the same with my content.

I ask questions about what I write. Is this different or unique in some way? Will this content appeal to my audience? Do I want to write about this? Does writing this help me express myself?

The first two questions are relevant to the audience.  The second two are relevant to the content creator.

When we write like this our writing gives us energy, instead of taking it away.

It’s not always easy to answer these questions. But when we can answer ‘yes’ to all four, we know we’re on the right side of the content dilemma. Our content strategy will have the best chance of success because there’s something in it for the audience as well for ourselves.

When we write like this our writing gives us energy, instead of taking it away.  Energy is a strange thing to talk about when it comes to writing good digital content. Yet it’s fundamental for success.

The vast majority of blogs take years before they start to see real results from organic traffic.  A well executed content strategy full of great content ideas is more like running a marathon than a sprint. This is why its so important to be inspired by what we write.

The post Do You Face Every Blogger’s Digital Content Dilemma? appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

With Darth Vader George Lucas explored the possibility ‘what if the greatest Sith Lord was a man’?

In this post we ask the question ‘what would your content tell you if it was Darth Vader’?  Not just any content, but your website content, or your blog content, or your YouTube content.

Random, hey?  Here goes….

#1. “I find your lack of faith disturbing”

For those people who do not yet believe that content drives the web, Darth Vader would say this. In 1996 Bill Gates said “content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting”.  A true visionary, Gates had faith in content way back then.  So for us there really is no excuse not to.

#2. “You underestimate my power”

Even if we believe in content, oftentimes we will dramatically underestimate its potential. Who would have thought that the top 10 most viewed videos on You Tube generated 11,517,422,907 views by this year. Or that a niche blog titled ThingsOrganizedNeatly (which shows photos of, you guessed it, things organized neatly) would receive over 350,000 tumblr followers (a brilliant site, by the way). Content truly has exponential power.

#3. “Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them”

Content has incredible persuasive and influencing power. When people are sitting on the fence, great content can woo them into action. There are loads of examples of this, from Shopify’s post on tweaking calls to action through to Copyblogger’s examples of small website changes.

#4. “Luke… help me take this mask off”

When Darth Vader’s dreams of overlord glory vanish and he is at his most vulnerable, he takes the mask off.  Then he is at his most sincere. Then he builds a connection with his son. Great content is honest, raw, and transparent. When content is written like this it’s emotional and connects with people. This is a reminder that great content written with integrity and honesty builds a connection with your audience.  Sometimes we need to remember to take the mask off.

#5. “Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy”

Of course, if our content was Darth Vader and we followed the wisdoms above, I am sure with great content we could indeed rule the world…if not the galaxy.

Do you have any other favorite quotes that I’ve missed which content would say?  Please consider sharing them by leaving a comment below.

The post 5 Things Your Content Would Tell You If It Was Darth Vader appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.