Category: Uncategorized

- 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

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

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?

- by Chris Sykes

The social science behind social media marketing

Before you consider social media as part of your marketing mix, you have to understand the underlying behaviours of your potential target audience – both in respect of how they consume and use social media but also explore what we know about ‘humans’ in order that we can use that knowledge to achieve a higher return on investment.

In essence, we need to get business professionals or dare I say it, ‘consumers’ to use their email less, and to switch to using social channels – from which they get a more rewarding and relevant experience – tangible benefits even!

As well as making sure your social media real estate and resources are in place to provide dynamic content, dialogue, support and measurement, so there are no black holes or barriers to adoption, we also need, though, to explore the psychological and behavioural barriers that potentially still exist, in order that social media communication campaigns are focussed on the right messaging, target groups and communication challenges.

For example, one of the key barriers is many people’s view of Facebook, Twitter et al. For many business professionals, they represent a symbol of youth and naivety. We are, as a species however, always prepared to dramatically alter our behaviours where we see a benefit to us. In order to persuade people away from off-line communications, we need to re-associate them with less desirable outcomes, and associate other forms of interaction (social media interaction) with more positive outcomes.

What can you do that could be ‘status’-enhancing for the individuals on social networks. The theory behind this is ‘competitive altruism’ i.e. how we use our conspicuous displays of pro-social media behaviours to improve our reputations. We are increasingly sensitive to our social professional reputations. You can see this every day with frequent status updates and changes to your connections’ professional credentials ‘experience’, ‘skills’, ‘endorsements’ and ‘recommendations’.

So, we know that just giving people ‘content’ won’t cut it. It is what type of information and what type of influence we try to create, knowing the behavioural barriers that will make the difference, especially given that we are also battling against life events such as unemployment, job changes, promotion, children, relationship breakdowns etc.

The question is then what do we know about social media and the behaviours around its usage and influence that would help make a campaign successful?

We do know that people have become increasingly detached from over-arching institutions which at one time used to provide the context for communicating messages. The internet and social media is a multi-directional flow of information that allows us to share opinions and has, to some extent, replaced this institutional-speak.

Trust is often built on effective knowledge transfer and so we can create this feeling of inter-connectedness to one another within these virtual social communities. It is like we are creating our own ‘inner circles’.

This is particularly important when you want to use social media to communicate with customers. In this way, it can be used as an accelerant for messaging, to make what might be weaker ties between people seem stronger, and to provide a way to distribute leadership thinking in a way which would not physically be as possible.

We can use social media to support and provide a virtual ‘venue’ for marketing activity without anyone having to set foot outside their door.

In short, social media is now one of the main ways to engage with customers and, against our backdrop of understanding of human behaviour we would be well placed to create an effective behaviour change campaign.

- by Chris Sykes

Are Marketing Agencies the BPO partners of the future?

Today’s mega businesses will soon be shadows of their former selves. Don’t get me wrong, the successful mega business will still deliver revenue and profit growth, will likely be moving into more diverse markets and operating within emerging economies. Physically however, they will be smaller, leaner and agile. Shrinking headcount and reducing office real estate are key corporate priorities. We can see this trend particularly in the IT and Telecoms sector, financial services and professional services. You could say that the large organisations of the past are becoming ‘virtual’.

Flexible working will become the norm, driven by mobility and the Cloud. Business professionals’ lives are becoming intertwined with their private and social lives. And in our new social world, is anything private anymore? All this is helping to shape the mega business of the future and those that are slow to change particularly in vulnerable sectors will simply disappear. We’ve already said ‘goodbye’ to many mega brands now relegated to the past – Sony Ericsson, Saab, Kodak, Woolworths and Lehman Brothers etc. Although we’re busy saying ‘goodbye’ there will be far more ‘hellos’.

So what does this mean for us working in the marketing industry? For a start, Sir Martin Sorrell regularly lambasts ill-informed journalists who announce him as ‘CEO of the world’s largest advertising agency WPP’. His stark retort is ‘WPP is a marketing services company’. You see, he knows that advertising as we know it is dying. He also knows that there are now great opportunities for agencies that structure themselves to provide a broader set of marketing and sales support resources.

As the corporates get smaller, so will the marketing departments. Ask any marketer working for a large entity, I would bet most would say they were ‘resource light’. Most would also agree that the expectation and pressures on the marketing organisation are greater than ever before. Delivering more with less is never easy at the best of times and if you have to periodically cull heads or are prevented from hiring, what can you do? The answer is out source.

We’re seeing a growing trend whereby programmes and campaign management is being outsourced. The role of the account executive and account manager is shifting to managing and running more than just the front-line campaign. The large CRM and marketing automation applications used by the corporates dictate processes and the management of those processes becomes a core responsibility of the agency.

We’re seeing this particularly in channel marketing. The channel is where the future growth of a company lies for the very reasons outlined in the first paragraph of this blog – expanding the channel, training the channel, retaining the channel, communicating to the channel and measuring the channel are all responsibilities we now undertake. For the client, it means they can focus on the more strategic elements of the role. They’re not restricted or slowed down by managing large teams and agencies because they are working to a defined set of KPIs. This facilitates a more diligent approach and therefore delivers higher performance and value back to the marketing department.

Large businesses becoming virtual will only mean a heavier reliance on world-class marketing services companies to support, deliver and manage marketing and sales processes. In our industry this can only spell good news.