Monday 16 November 2009
Recent work undertaken
This section aims to provide you with a detailed overview of some of the work I have recently carried out. If you require further information on how Totally Outsourced can help your company, please do not hesitate to contact me for an informal chat at: stepheny.mayers@totallyoutsourced.co.uk
Turn2us
Background:
Part of the Eizabeth Finn Care Trust, Turn2Us is a national charity that exists to help individuals and families through times of financial hardship.
Demand for the services have grown during this recent economic downturn, extending the charities reach to service individuals who have been made redundant, as well as anyone seeking help identifying their correct benefit entitlement.
More on Turn2Us
The brief:
In order to support this growth in demand, Turn2Us realised the benefits and necessity of social media and consulted with us at Totally Outsourced to develop and implement the groundwork for a sustainable social media strategy.
Think
Being faced with quite an open brief, work immediately began auditing what had already been done within the organisation, and under the parent company Elizabeth Finn Care, by way of social media. This ground level audit revealed that a Google grant had already been applied for (although not yet received) and also 'not for profit' status on You tube had been given, which enables NfP organisations free access to certain levels of premium services and page customisation.
Plan
Faced with the realisation of uncertain levels of ongoing support and limited budget, a pragmatic approach had to be taken – one that balanced a longer-term strategic view with delivering immediate impact. As such, a balance was struck and following an evaluation of the primary target audience and ongoing commitment to PR activity, it was advised that the two primary tactical activities should focus on leveraging the PR with an aggressive SEO campaign, encompassing both PPC and organic – one supporting and harnessing the other and also a targeted facebook campaign that would identify target users and supply them with relevant content.
Evaluate
By using Google analytics to measure activities, within 4 weeks a clear impact was evident. On the back of online PR and linking, visits were up by over 90%. Facebook seeding had driven traffic to the site - up significantly, with around 50% of page fans having visited the site. Finally, the implementation of the Google grant (Google’s Adwords programme for NfP organisations) had a huge impact on ‘level one’ key words, appearing in first position amongst the sponsored links. This too had a positive impact on organic search, with Turn2us appearing on the first page for many related service searches.
As part of this evaluation and forward planning, we also conducted an evaluation into content optimisation and provide some advice on best practice in optimising content for organic listings. This comprised of improving content and page structure, correct and consistent population of page meta data and perhaps most importantly, a structured reciprocal linking programme with high profiled third parties.
One of the key principles however in applying this effort was the need for consistency. This would impede the peaks and trough effect and enable the brand to establish a meaningful presence – and not just across the digital space.
Looking ahead
For many organisations, social media is still exploratory. Not many organisations are able to invest focussed time to testing and learning what works in this space or even embarking under a ‘controlled’ programme of social marketing. Turn2us recognised this capacity issue and decided to outsource this much needed requirement; by engaging with a marketing professional with expertise in this area, they were able to keep their eye focussed on day to day delivery and in parallel learn more about what social media activities they should continue to invest in and which ones to let go, or visit at a later date.
In addition to the tactical activities that were implemented for Turn2us, a simple and digestible strategy roadmap was also delivered that could be used to help the organisation manage and leverage this grass roots activity and implement further activities over time. This consisted of further tactical initiatives to be implemented including unleashing the potential of Linked In to reach intermediaries, other organisations and professionals within the charity, grants, benefits and welfare support sphere. It was felt that this would provide numerable benefits to the organisations channel strategy from leveraging support, advising of the work of the charity, sharing ideas and best practice and promoting the organisations services.
Secondly, the organisation was advised to get engaged in ‘conversations’ via twitter as well as beginning their own Turn2us blog to help shape the discussion and stay abreast of what is being said in relevant areas.
Part of the Eizabeth Finn Care Trust, Turn2Us is a national charity that exists to help individuals and families through times of financial hardship.
Demand for the services have grown during this recent economic downturn, extending the charities reach to service individuals who have been made redundant, as well as anyone seeking help identifying their correct benefit entitlement.
More on Turn2Us
The brief:
In order to support this growth in demand, Turn2Us realised the benefits and necessity of social media and consulted with us at Totally Outsourced to develop and implement the groundwork for a sustainable social media strategy.
Think
Being faced with quite an open brief, work immediately began auditing what had already been done within the organisation, and under the parent company Elizabeth Finn Care, by way of social media. This ground level audit revealed that a Google grant had already been applied for (although not yet received) and also 'not for profit' status on You tube had been given, which enables NfP organisations free access to certain levels of premium services and page customisation.
Plan
Faced with the realisation of uncertain levels of ongoing support and limited budget, a pragmatic approach had to be taken – one that balanced a longer-term strategic view with delivering immediate impact. As such, a balance was struck and following an evaluation of the primary target audience and ongoing commitment to PR activity, it was advised that the two primary tactical activities should focus on leveraging the PR with an aggressive SEO campaign, encompassing both PPC and organic – one supporting and harnessing the other and also a targeted facebook campaign that would identify target users and supply them with relevant content.
Evaluate
By using Google analytics to measure activities, within 4 weeks a clear impact was evident. On the back of online PR and linking, visits were up by over 90%. Facebook seeding had driven traffic to the site - up significantly, with around 50% of page fans having visited the site. Finally, the implementation of the Google grant (Google’s Adwords programme for NfP organisations) had a huge impact on ‘level one’ key words, appearing in first position amongst the sponsored links. This too had a positive impact on organic search, with Turn2us appearing on the first page for many related service searches.
As part of this evaluation and forward planning, we also conducted an evaluation into content optimisation and provide some advice on best practice in optimising content for organic listings. This comprised of improving content and page structure, correct and consistent population of page meta data and perhaps most importantly, a structured reciprocal linking programme with high profiled third parties.
One of the key principles however in applying this effort was the need for consistency. This would impede the peaks and trough effect and enable the brand to establish a meaningful presence – and not just across the digital space.
Looking ahead
For many organisations, social media is still exploratory. Not many organisations are able to invest focussed time to testing and learning what works in this space or even embarking under a ‘controlled’ programme of social marketing. Turn2us recognised this capacity issue and decided to outsource this much needed requirement; by engaging with a marketing professional with expertise in this area, they were able to keep their eye focussed on day to day delivery and in parallel learn more about what social media activities they should continue to invest in and which ones to let go, or visit at a later date.
In addition to the tactical activities that were implemented for Turn2us, a simple and digestible strategy roadmap was also delivered that could be used to help the organisation manage and leverage this grass roots activity and implement further activities over time. This consisted of further tactical initiatives to be implemented including unleashing the potential of Linked In to reach intermediaries, other organisations and professionals within the charity, grants, benefits and welfare support sphere. It was felt that this would provide numerable benefits to the organisations channel strategy from leveraging support, advising of the work of the charity, sharing ideas and best practice and promoting the organisations services.
Secondly, the organisation was advised to get engaged in ‘conversations’ via twitter as well as beginning their own Turn2us blog to help shape the discussion and stay abreast of what is being said in relevant areas.
Monday 8 June 2009
Lloyds TSB
With the recent buy-out of the HBOS Group, the Lloyds TSB Group is now estimated to account for 1 in 3 current account holders across the UK. This puts the bank in an unprecedented position to not only maintain its current market share, but to satisfy the diverse needs of such a broad range of customers, whilst staying true to the parent brand ethos of 'For the journey.'
The Brief: Working as part of a 200+ strong project team, I worked with Lloyds TSB to manage the development of an innovative piece of brand development work. The brief was to explore the future of online banking and the type of experience and interactions customers could potentially have with the bank (primarily online) over the next 5 years.
The Process: Working with lead digital LBi, a systematic process was undertaken that consisted of the following:
The Outcome: The final result of this exercise which spanned approximately 9 months was the delivery of a fully informed Online Customer Experience Strategy and delivery road map. in support of this strategy were two other vital pieces of work; The first was a visual representation of how the brand may be presented to users in 5 years time. Harnessing the brand proposition 'For the journey', this was taken to another level through a series of 4 user journey concepts which demonstrated how 'For the journey' could truly be realised in the hearts and minds of Lloyds TSB customers. Finally, there was the business case for implementing this piece of work. What return could the business expect in tangible terms? and what capabilities would be required to not only deliver but also maintain such an offering? This was the final evaluation of this piece of work.
The role of Totally Outsourced during this process was to provide strategic project manager / consultant services to act on behalf of the client (Lloyds TSB), who would work with the lead agency to manage all their deliverables, whilst adhering to project governance as stipulated by the client. It was crucial that this was a project manager with a strategic background who would be able to get to grips with the brief quickly, challenge outputs through their application of industry knowledge as well as ensure that the work stream ran smoothly.
Get in touch: Want to know more about how we can also help your business meet that critical milestone or take your brand and channel offering to the next level?
Contact me at: stepheny.mayers@totallyoutsourced.co.uk
The Brief: Working as part of a 200+ strong project team, I worked with Lloyds TSB to manage the development of an innovative piece of brand development work. The brief was to explore the future of online banking and the type of experience and interactions customers could potentially have with the bank (primarily online) over the next 5 years.
The Process: Working with lead digital LBi, a systematic process was undertaken that consisted of the following:
- An analysis of new and emerging technology trends. In undertaking this, we aimed to answer questions such as what technology would be prevalent in 5 years time? and how will services be delivered through the use of technology? Technologies such as RFID which is already making huge in-roads into the life's of many through every day household items such as the Oyster card used on the London Underground and credit cards through successful trials carried out by Visa and Barclay's in countries such as Australia and parts of East Asia were evaluated in terms of plans for implementation, time-line predictions and forecast uptake.
- Brand exploration. Taking the proposition 'For the journey' and investigating this in line with its practical application. This looked at where the journey actually started for consumers of financial products and how this manifested in their final selection of products and services.
- Persona development. For anyone familiar and adept in using personas will appreciate their benefit in developing customer experience strategies. From analysing qualitative feedback from specially designed exercises, outcomes from customer workshops, focus groups and data relating to the Groups key segments - those which were most active online and the average number of product holdings they held, we were able to identify up to 5 or 6 distinct attitudes to financial management which formed the underlying basis for the final solution.
The Outcome: The final result of this exercise which spanned approximately 9 months was the delivery of a fully informed Online Customer Experience Strategy and delivery road map. in support of this strategy were two other vital pieces of work; The first was a visual representation of how the brand may be presented to users in 5 years time. Harnessing the brand proposition 'For the journey', this was taken to another level through a series of 4 user journey concepts which demonstrated how 'For the journey' could truly be realised in the hearts and minds of Lloyds TSB customers. Finally, there was the business case for implementing this piece of work. What return could the business expect in tangible terms? and what capabilities would be required to not only deliver but also maintain such an offering? This was the final evaluation of this piece of work.
The role of Totally Outsourced during this process was to provide strategic project manager / consultant services to act on behalf of the client (Lloyds TSB), who would work with the lead agency to manage all their deliverables, whilst adhering to project governance as stipulated by the client. It was crucial that this was a project manager with a strategic background who would be able to get to grips with the brief quickly, challenge outputs through their application of industry knowledge as well as ensure that the work stream ran smoothly.
Get in touch: Want to know more about how we can also help your business meet that critical milestone or take your brand and channel offering to the next level?
Contact me at: stepheny.mayers@totallyoutsourced.co.uk
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