- by Amanda Phillips

Is interactivity in e-learning key to successful channel partner relationships?

E-learning and marketing. Two fields which upon first glance may seem quite separate, or are they?

In truth, they share the same common principle: neither can be powerful without an understanding of human behaviour. Instead of B2B and B2C, we think of B2P – business to person. What drives and engages humans? We endeavour to understand the human, rational and emotional drivers to create communications, in their widest sense, which generate cut-through; and which ultimately feel more pertinent to the target audience.

In channel marketing we consider this in our ‘gain, train, empower and retain’ model for effective partner engagement. Gain the partner, give them the knowledge and tools they need to understand your business and empower them to activate their potential, ultimately driving revenue. By ensuring effective on-boarding processes are considered, it sets a precedent for the on-going relationship, whilst setting the vendor apart from other channel partners vying for employee attention.

This is where e-learning fits perfectly, applying the principles of B2P to understand how the human brain functions, thus creating bespoke e-learning solutions using instructional design to optimise the learning process.

Optimising learning materials for effective e-learning

Many companies create learning materials by falling back on templated approaches or even re-purposing PowerPoint, but for effective learning the content and structure needs to be more deeply considered, focusing in particular on the physical structure, psychological structure, conceptual difficulty and sequence.

You’ve heard the phrase ‘a picture is worth 1,000 words’, but did you know studies have found pictures help you learn more effectively than text? Or better still, they’re even more valuable when there’s a relevant link to text or audio, which improves learning performance. Research has shown that for effective learning, multimedia should work synchronously, and that multimedia focuses a delegate’s attention. These are just some of the principles we consider when creating a deeper learning experience through instructional design.

Is the user-interface imperative to effective e-learning solutions?

Learning is far more effective when it uses an interactive interface, and especially so when it’s cognitively engaging. Studies concur an interactive user interface has a significant positive effect on learning from multimedia.

Why is this? Well, for one thing, user interaction reduces the load on working memory and stops it becoming overwhelming. When we learn we need to mentally organise incoming material, and by simply including an option where users can work at their own pace, it allows the time to process the relevant information. This works two ways; if the cognitive load is too high (too many pictures, videos etc.) it can become detrimental, therefore, there needs to be a balance in multi-media to enable effective learning and not detraction.

How is better learning better for your whole business?

elearningblog

E-learning also has wider applications beyond being a compelling Partner Relationship Management (PRM) tool; it is being used by HR Directors for compliance training, customer service skills, technical training as well as inducting staff. It instils company values, helping to generate long-term value from employees.

And it can be used as a marketing and prospecting tool. Gamification is said to improve recall by 80% compared to listening (IBM, 2011), therefore, by creating experiences potential customers are more likely to be engaged with, the brand and its products can stand out in comparison with competitor offerings.

Best-in-breed e-learning and communications

At Volume, we have garnered a wealth of experience in marketing communications and technology innovation and, in particular, have applied our instructional design and e-learning capabilities to clients such as Dell, Zebra Technologies and Virgin Media.

To find out more about how e-learning can help your organisation, contact Aidan Murphy on aidan.murphy@volumeglobal.com, or call him on 07879 652446.

- by Chris Sykes

Volume Acquires Inovare Learning

VOLUME ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND E-LEARNING SPECIALIST INOVARE

Volume, one of the UK’s leading integrated communications and innovation agencies has bolstered its instructional design capabilities with the acquisition of the staff and assets of Inovare, a leader in interactive online media programmes and e-learning solutions.

Inovare creates bespoke interactive programmes that can be applied to end sales, end-users or partner training. In contrast to ‘off-the-shelf’ packages and catalogue services, all Inovare products are made-to-measure for each client and brief. This ensures any solution reflects business culture and values, features appropriate content, is relevant to the audience and can be consumed in both a time and device-convenient fashion.

The acquisition further strengthens Volume’s Total Channel Solution – helping global clients to ‘gain’, ‘train’, ‘empower’ and ‘retain’ channel partners in over 140 countries. The Inovare Team will remain in the company’s South Devon offices and will represent a specialist hub for the creation and development of anytime, anywhere e-learning content.

The news follows the expansion of Volume’s Technology Centre based in Colombo, Sri Lanka in March; Volume’s first regional hub outside of the UK.

Chris Sykes, CEO at Volume, comments:
The acquisition of Inovare is a major coup for Volume, further strengthening our capabilities in the e-learning field. We’re excited at the possibilities not just within e-learning, but exploring how these principles of instructional design could be applied in a broader marketing and customer engagement context too.

Phil Wood, Managing Director at Inovare, comments:
The discipline of instructional design coupled with engaging, interactive content is one that is quickly becoming the secret weapon for forward-thinking businesses. We’re delighted to join Volume, a company that shares and embodies both our core values, and our multi-disciplined, collaborative approach to business, to develop even more sophisticated and innovative methods of learning content development and delivery.

For all media enquiries regarding Volume please contact:

Eulogy!
Dan Bryant / Radhika Popat
Volume@eulogy.co.uk
0203 077 2000

About Volume

Volume is one of the UK’s leading integrated communications and innovation agencies, with a strong expertise in B2B marketing. The business delivers integrated campaigns, technology and innovation, content creation and delivery, and socially connected marketing.
www.volumeglobal.com

About Inovare

Inovare is a communications company that creates engaging, interactive online media programmes and e-learning solutions. Our work has been translated into every major language in the world and has consistently delivered outstanding results for our clients since 2000. We value long-lasting business relationships and are proud that we’re still working closely with so many of our original clients.

Further Reading
For more information on e-learning take a look at our latest blog post: “Is interactivity in e-learning key to successful channel partner relationships?”.

- by Paul Brazier

Demystifying the cloud

Cloud computing (or the cloud) are words we’re hearing lots about right now. They can, however, mean different things to different people. Therefore, we think it’s a good idea to clarify them for our clients. The widely accepted definition of cloud computing is this: the provision of computer resources (such as processing power, storage and software) as a service over the internet or local network.

You might also hear the cloud referred to in one of three different types of model – public, private or hybrid. Let’s look at what these terms mean:

Public cloud: Resources, applications or storage for anyone on the internet to register.
Private cloud: A proprietary data centre operating within a secure network, offering flexible and scalable resources that supply hosted services to employees or a company.
Hybrid cloud: A combination where some services are outsourced to public cloud providers while others are provided by the company’s existing infrastructure.

Within any of these cloud models are elements that can be provided as a service:

Platform as a Service (PaaS): Applications can be deployed without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Physical computers (or more often virtual machines and related resources) are supplied on demand from large pools installed in data centres
Software as a Service (SaaS): Application software is provided in the cloud and users access it from native or provided applications.

Cloud adoption: what does this mean for you?

Volume is your marketing technology partner and once we understand your project or application, our detailed knowledge of the cloud ensures you can rely on us to select the best solution for you.

We believe value is enhanced by cloud offerings, and we can deliver specialised capabilities outside our core activities in a cost-effective manner where ROI is a common goal, budgets are restricted or time-to-market is critical.

We constantly review our cloud strategy as part of our Continual Service Improvement charter and against our clients’ demands and business objectives. Below are a few examples of cloud implementations introduced to deliver service solutions that have exceeded customer expectations.

Volume’s Campaign Builder is a highly successful web application hosted from our hybrid cloud solution and is now available to over 50,000 client Channel Partner users across 140 countries. Those users have viewed and downloaded tens of thousands of assets, and usage continues to grow at a rapid rate. The hybrid cloud solution means that the distribution of content all over the world can scale seamlessly and cost-effectively.

Another success story is our MarketingStore web application, which launched in 2006 throughout EMEA. This has recently moved to our hybrid cloud to allow seamless growth within Asia-Pacific, where local-cloud points of presence are key to ensure high-performing content delivery.

Our email campaign solutions now execute in a cloud environment, providing much higher throughput and analytical control. Systems are controlled and monitored by field experts and best-practice processes are in use. This enables Volume to offer a higher open rate and higher click-through results, and to form recommendations to our customers from trends.

Summary

Volume is your expert cloud-computing-application partner. We have years of experience designing and implementing cloud solutions with a particular focus on security, performance and scalability. Data presented though cloud models is tiered, ensuring sensitive data stays within on-premises infrastructure. Performance and capacity is monitored, and supports an elasticity model that can fluctuate according to service demand.

- by Miles Beacroft

The era of natural computing: what this means for B2B content

The pace of recent technological advancement in computing has been incredible but I have noticed how few product announcements are now seen as a ‘step change’.

Computing has done a curious thing – its complexity has given way to intuitive usage.  Specially designed ‘input’ devices such as the ‘mouse’ are becoming semi-redundant as we increasingly use human gestures to power device interaction. IT has evolved and developed to become human friendly and I believe we are now in the era of ‘Natural Computing’.

Another example would be the phone ‘dial pad’ on today’s smartphones. When connected to headset technology you can now answer or ignore a call or select someone to dial using only your voice to command the device.

It’s not that many years ago I can recall listening to technologists promising to ‘untether’ the businessman from the modem cable; no more waiting for a dial-up connection in a business lounge or in the hallway at home. Devices would be wireless and data would flow freely into the device. Imagine.  I also recall the customer service complaint of a lady having difficulty using the ‘foot pedal’ of her new PC. Once established that the ‘pedal’ was actually the mouse and once placed on top of the desk, all was fine.

Today, all around us, we see people seamlessly interacting with devices – pointing, pinching, swiping, and talking – and the fact that we witness this clearly shows business is now truly mobile. Computing has caught up with itself to allow the human to use devices intuitively – watching young children navigate their way around tablet devices is perhaps a good indication of how far we have come.

This has massive implications for content particularly in the B2B world.

People now have easy access to information in any place at any time – Big Data is here. The challenge is to ensure Content Marketers embrace this and don’t make the same mistake as www.1 by trying to place all of their existing heavy content into a new environment and onto new devices.

‘Consumerisation of B2B marketing’ has mobilised the business audience and social platforms are increasingly being used. No longer are whitepapers with reams of heavy text suitable – we are fighting for time and mind space in a busy world and often on a device that co-delivers entertaining and engaging consumer messaging alongside work.

Content has to be built with this in mind and also with the understanding that attention spans are shortening. 140 characters, 6 sec videos are the social media extremes but ‘Attention Based Marketing’ where you create precise, bite-sized multi-channel content and deliver it in the right format and at the right time of day, is vital in B2B.

For real cut-through we need to ensure that a relevant and personalised message is delivered through our new world devices. Using social data we can understand business issues and we can target specific industries and so consider relevant messaging to the individual’s job role and pain point.

Understanding this technological change, and what this means for content marketing, will significantly impact the return on investment of marketing campaigns. In other words, content marketing needs to catch up with natural computing.

- by Rachel Adams

Reblog: Social media measurement: Is Google Analytics getting it wrong?

This is a comment in response to a blog: Social media measurement: Is Google Analytics getting it wrong?

Is social ‘value’ being overlooked?

In our experience this can be for two reasons: firstly, there may still be limited understanding of the extent and value of a brand’s social channels (it’s amazing how many social media accounts a brand has, if you have the right tool to assess this); secondly, companies may not be effectively using social data to make strategic social media decisions and organisations can feel overwhelmed by social media listening data without the right help to effectively cut through the information.

Therefore perhaps we should not look at clicks in isolation but blend them with a wider view of social media analytics such as growth and engagements to ascertain and benchmark ROI.

 

 

- by Daryl Swinden

Big Data or Big Brother?

Let’s be frank, we are in an age where everything is being recorded. Who knew Mr Orwell would be so right all those years ago?

For over a decade we’ve been used to seeing CCTV cameras watching us all over the country.  These have provided valuable information for both the public and private sector. The thing about these devices is that they are generally visible recorders and, as in the name, are closed circuit, which means not a broadcast platform for the media and therefore ring-fenced to some degree in who benefits from the information recorded.

In recent years, however, industry has developed a far more detailed and covert tracking capability – online.

The UK Government’s Future Identities report[1] highlights Generation Z will soon be coming of age and start infiltrating the workplace and it’s these guys that have been born into the digital era. They are skilled online and generally are far more open to embracing the internet with all its pro’s and con’s.   This in itself is likely to produce another sharp increase in data generated around business without fear.

The report backs up the notion that our cultures are changing due to technological advancements as we immerse ourselves into our digital environments. It is this immersion that is fuelling mass online interactions and providing insight that has never been available before.

We are likely to become more insular in real-life, yet more social in our digital lives.

With the advent of our mobile culture, lines are being blurred in terms of work/home life.  We are now working from home more, bringing both personal and work personas together.

Our traditional views and preconceptions as marketers of audiences are shifting and morphing into ways we’d never imagined.  And these should be seen as opportunities to improve on our insight and targeting.

Pro’s and con’s

The tracking and understanding from the digital footprints we leave is helping organisations recognise individuals – and profile them.  This in turn is shaping businesses with their strategy on how they communicate with individuals.

The positive for the marketing industry is that it helps take the guesswork out of business decisions.

As reputable and savvy companies, we are enhancing our communications, using these vast information sources, to ensure they are both relevant and timely – helping to reduce the amount of irrelevant marketing, so communications can be based on individuals, not as a generic group segment.

On the other hand, there are less scrupulous companies out there that could take advantage of personal data. Selling it off, and using it for scams, or creating cyber-crime through fake profiles.  And it’s these that may spoil the party concerning consumers’ trust  and the sharing of their data, reigniting the fear factor.

Victims or volunteers?

We pretty much all share information via social media in one form or another. We know these are public networks. The benefit to us is free social networking, but what is the cost?

These huge platforms aren’t funded out of the goodness of, say, Zuckerberg’s heart. They are businesses in their own right. Their success relies on income, and that income is generated from insight from the data held which also feeds their advertising revenues. So every time you ‘like’, share or engage with something these are generating insight for organisations.

The same applies to cookies. These allow tracking capabilities within websites. When we ‘accept’ cookies this is again leaving a digital trail.

So, as users, are we aware we are funding our own Big Brother?

With your company hat on you have to make sure you use this data effectively and provide benefits for your customers & prospects to gain trust through relevance and not abusing the privilege. This in turn will generate a far more efficient marketing engine.

With your personal hat on we all need to be careful who we share our data with, and where we share it.
Data (whether big or not) is the new digital currency. It’s here to stay. So we had better get used to it and, if we are so inclined, act to protect our personal information.

- by Chris Sykes

2013 a year for social detoxing?

If you’re reading this, Happy New Year to you. We hope 2013 will bring you good health, happiness and prosperity.

Most of us returning to work will admit to the traditional clichéd festive excesses – too much food, too much drink and too much time spent with certain irritating family members. How many of us though will admit to binging on social media this Christmas? Did you lock your smart phone away in a drawer or were you Tweeting and posting under the Christmas dinner table and throughout the Queen’s speech?

Social is becoming a bit of an obsession (for some it’s verging on an addiction) and if we are not careful, our on-going consumption of real-time content will inhibit and affect our lucidity and the way we process information. Like the old sayings go; ‘anything in moderation’ and ‘quality over quantity’.

As marketers we need to be aware that we don’t lose the true art of conversation and one-to-one communication. Nor do we want to risk social content overdose. Thanks to our smart phones and the telcos this will be increasingly difficult but new innovations such as content filters and blockers will come to market this year that will enable recipients to better control the content they see and consume. So delivering too much could see your real-time stream switched off.

Use social wisely but don’t ruin the opportunity it presents by overindulging or force-feeding your audience.

- by Chris Sykes

The office party, the company smart phone, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. A cocktail for fun or disaster?

The office Christmas party is an annual highlight for any company with a reasonable headcount. More usually means merrier and messier. We’ve all I’m sure, got hilarious and mouth-dropping tales to tell from parties gone by. Office parties, particularly those that don’t involve spouses and partners, produce a plethora of memorable incidents and moments, usually at somebody’s expense. And in my experience, no one is immune from embarrassment whether self-inflicted or not.

The best parties are the liveliest, where hair is let down, inhibitions are lost and the dance floor is crowded. In these scenarios, many make mischief, a few will over indulge and one or two may undergo a remarkable change in personality turning them into love machines, hell bent on pulling whoever they can. Then there are the ‘pick a fighters’, the chest pokers and the cry-babies. There will undoubtedly be some pukers and if you’re really ‘lucky’, the pass-outers.

Needless to say, you have the potential to capture some post-worthy content on your smart phone – The quiet guy who works in the IT department swinging his trousers ‘round his head to a 80s classic on the dance floor, the girl with the boob job in accounts flashing her augmented reality, or the classic pass out ‘n’ puke shot – another ruined Karen Millen dress.

Now I know I may be generalising and exaggerating but even the most innocuous event uploaded to Facebook or Twitter could land someone in a bit of bother. Many law firms’ Christmas message to business owners warn of the perils of partying with your smart phone.

Here’s one such statement verbatim – “Party-goers with company smart phones should be extra careful this Christmas season – using the phone to Facebook pictures could breach their employment contract. Posts to social networks via company smartphones can contravene the terms of job contracts and could lead, in extreme cases, to people being fired.”

Ooer! They continue:

“Sharing confidential company information knowingly or inadvertently could also kick-start disciplinary proceedings for the employee, potentially leading to dismissal depending on the gravity of any repercussions. While useful as an incentive, BYOD (bring your own device) and CYOD (choose your own device) schemes have blurred the lines between people’s professional and personal lives further and this has increased the risks for employers.”

We`ve been warned!

- by Chris Sykes

Is Marketing Automation taking the Marketing out of Marketing?

With a Marketing Automation application you can streamline your communications, enhance your CRM programme and generate more leads. It can also help you get to market quickly and will deliver a good degree of insight for future campaign planning – sound like a familiar pitch?

The fact is, any Marketing Automation application is only as good as the person or people using it. Before the Internet and email, the telephone was the preferred mass sales tool. It’s not the quality or the functionality of the telephone that dictates whether a call will be successful. It’s not the script that will close the sale – it’s the skill of the person at the other end of the line who can quickly direct the conversation towards a positive outcome.

So if you think about your Marketing Automation tool as a phone, the role it plays is significantly reduced and the dependencies that are formed from repetitive processes diminish. What I mean by that is the over-reliance and assumption that the application itself will result in a lead and that proactive marketing becomes lazy marketing.

Now I get a lot of emails – a lot! There is a growing proportion of spam and unsolicited emails from B2B and B2C entities peddling their wares. I can see they use a mix of marketing automation and email broadcast systems. Those that don’t automatically get trapped in my junk email folder are deleted, not because I’m against email marketing – I’m against bad email marketing. We’re busy people. We get lots of sales and marketing content thrown at us every day. We want communications and offers that are relevant, appealing and worthy of our attention.

How can you achieve this?

Well you can test multiple subject lines, use a variety of templates, cut your content by 50% (yes 50%), ensure your templates are well-designed and are compatible with all the mainstream email browsers and are optimised for mobile devices and tablets. Ensure the integrity of your data – I still receive emails addressed to ‘Active Image’- the name Volume traded under from 1992 to 1997 before I incorporated the company and changed the name. Don’t assume the data sitting in your system is up to date or relevant. Before ‘unsubscribing’, I used to get emails offering me discounts on agricultural machinery. I don’t own a lawn mower never mind a combine harvester.

But as a marketer myself, the biggest frustration is receiving emails that smack of sheer laziness and are devoid of thought and creativity. Emails on a Monday morning, emails on a Friday afternoon, business emails over the weekend will get immediately deleted. And with many of us receiving emails via our smart phones, they are more easily to delete there and then.

Email marketing is a numbers game and Marketing Automation tools help you manage the high volume’s you need to deliver leads back to the business. They are however, no substitute for brains -they can breed laziness and apathy, and in the long-term deliver poor ROI. Don’t fall into the trap.

- by Chris Sykes

Blog off!

Blogging has been around since the nineties; lauded as a vehicle for online self-expression.

 

Today blogging is a major publishing platform that comes in many forms – social, video, micro etc. Having recently come across some interesting stats on the state and scale of blogging in 2012, I’m compelled to question its future role and effectiveness. So to some of the stats: WordPress and Blogger account for approximately 78% of all blog posts. Apparently, there are 500,000 new posts a day on WordPress alone! It’s also estimated that there are 31 million bloggers in the US – sounds a lot but statistically, that’s less than 10% of the US population.  66% of all blogs are in English, so where does that sit with the global population? And finally on the stats front, 65% of businesses admit to the fact that they haven’t posted a blog in the past year. Outside of the most popular and established bloggers and the most popular sites like NBC, Techcrunch and Mashable – how big is your audience really? I can hazard a guess that it takes me more time to think about and write a blog than the total amount of time it’s read. Is this a realistic synopsis for the majority? I can also bear witness to many happy industry bloggers (self-appointed experts) who are relentless in their posting but rarely receive a comment – take the hint! Personally, I get much more feedback from a Linkedin status update but please don’t let Linkedin descend into a blogging platform, which it pretty much is. So next time you think about posting a blog think about reach. If you scaled Ben Nevis, stood proud on the summit and preached to the world you might find a bigger audience?