Digital thinking
Your core objective is the creation of extraordinary customer experiences. Digital marketing is the means to deliver these experiences.
The problem is that the landscape of digital marketing is evolving so fast, you don’t know the best way to utilise the tactics at your disposal. That’s why, it’s important to understand the psychology of being an effective digital marketer. In essence, this means being a digital thinker.
The Five Elements of Digital Thinking
Digital Thinking, therefore, is the most effective way to understand how to market your business without ever having to know precisely what’s going to happen next. It has five core elements:
1. Speed
Technologies are evolving fast so you need to accept that you cannot know everything before you act. You must act on the basis of the principle of sufficiency (i.e. when you have sufficient information to make a marketing decision then make it!). On the basis of the feedback you get, refine your actions – but do so quickly! If you wait before you have ALL the information you think you need, you will become a victim of ‘Analysis Paralysis’.
2. Simplicity
Our brain (and those of your advisors and consultants) can only process a limited amount of information. Therefore, you need to keep your objectives clear and concise, your reporting and analytics to the minimum necessary and your research only to what is essential.
3. Experimentation
Digital Thinking means prioritising experimentation above planning. While plans can act as a guide to the direction you should be taking, they are usually obsolete before they are completed. Plans can never be more more than provisional suggestions and as long as you can navigate the biases trying to convince you they are more than that, you will be free to receive the information you need to change your course of action – quickly!
4. Collaboration
You can never have a marketing team big enough to cover every aspect of the digital landscape, which means you must outsource to external agencies and consultants to guide and support you. Successful collaborations are those based on the principles of Digital Thinking, especially the willingness to experiment freely about the best tactical means to achieve extraordinary customer experiences.
5. Adaptability
In a fast-paced digital environment, you have to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. One (or most likely more than one) of the daily developments in digital technology will impact on your business. Find out about it before your competitors do and act on the information you discover – even if it means taking an unexpected tactical direction.
"Since we started with Cognition we have been given the right direction and support, from simple day-to-day tasks to planning objectives and goals."
FirstCare
Cognition were engaged to restructure Wall Street English's global marketing strategy and roll this out using HubSpot, their chosen CRM, marketing and sales platform to multiple territories. All territories required HubSpot onboarding and set up. Also, bespoke training on the HubSpot CRM, Marketing Hub and Sales Hub.
Following a series of in depth discovery sessions with the senior team at Shojin – Cognition revised the messaging and branding for Shojin’s business. Using its team’s extensive background in psychology, Cognition simplified Shojin’s overall proposition and redesigned the website – paring elements of overcomplicated pages back and applying consistent branding throughout.
Before working with Cognition, Lifelink Global had spent 3-4 years looking for a marketing partner that could fully understand its requirements as a non-profit. They were desperately in need of an agency that could not only help them communicate with certainty, clarity and passion, but also help them locate the people who would be most receptive to their message – a message that is not always popular in this day and age.
As Galebreaker continues to expand its operations across the world, it needs a revised proposition and messaging that both reflects its varied offerings yet is simple enough to understand for a wide range of audiences. As well as reaching new audiences using digital marketing, it also wants to be able to track customer journeys through its sales funnel.