Domino’s was in a lawsuit about their lack of accessibility on their mobile app and website. I heard some people say, “Well, this is the fall of the internet because now they will force us to have accessible websites.” You could argue because we had to add wheelchair ramps at stores, it was the fall of architecture. Not really! The Guggenheim has fire extinguishers and emergency exits and it’s still a beautiful building.
Victor Ramirez is the founder and managing director at An Abstract Agency, a digital marketing firm creating websites powered by WordPress. He is also a lead software engineer for Dow Jones, where he standardizes the way WordPress and its Gutenberg Editor are used.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Ramirez shares his thoughts on influencers, accessibility, and specialists versus generalists.
It’s all personal (1:27)
There’s a lot of excitement around personalization automation, but people either go too far and automate everything before having a business model to support it or they personalized too quickly before knowing if they should personalize.
Personalization, if done right, has the potential to boost a company’s sales. When Coca-Cola introduced the “Share a Coke” campaign targeting millennials, they printed 250 different first names on bottles of Coke. The response was phenomenal. As a result, Coca-Cola saw its first U.S. sales increase in four years. They have expanded the personalized bottles with sports team logos, and design and print personalized Coke bottles with your own wording.
The shorter, the better (3:00)
Two years ago, Facebook video was the hottest thing going then LinkedIn video was hot. Now [long form] video is not as hot right now. It’s all about short snappy TikTok videos.
Despite privacy issues that raised eyebrows at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (along with the possible ban of the app), TikTok downloads and engagement had been on the rise, especially among Gen Z audiences. According to a Harvard Business Review article, part of TikTok’s success globally can be attributed to the business model established by its Chinese founder.
From the beginning, the company developed two versions of the app—one for the Chinese market (where censorship is a key consideration) and one for the rest of the world. This could be a new model for other digital content companies with the goal of establishing a footprint in China.
The Future of Generalists (4:20)
Everyone used to hire for specialization and now even economists are arguing that people need to study liberal arts and different things so they can dynamically change. We are going away from specialization to generalization, but we need to make sure those people who are generalists know how to pivot.
In the marketing world, employees with specialized skill sets like UX designers, data scientists, social media managers, etc. have been in high demand. However, generalists can also play an important role in marketing teams. The Kantar Consulting group suggests successful senior marketing generalists need to evolve from a project management role to more of a “visionary intrapreneur…a mini-CEO.”
Saving private data (7:56)
Facebook shouldn’t be your home, it should be one of your channels. Otherwise, you are one regulation or change of business away from losing that channel (and your customer data).
Ramirez acknowledged it can be a difficult conversation to have with companies that spend significant amounts of money building their Facebook presence and engaging that audience. Yet many savvy business owners and marketing groups are realizing the risk in letting Facebook (or any social media platform) own customer data and interactions.
When marketing teams establish 1:1 customer relationships using their own databases, it opens up new opportunities for personalization, a better understanding of your customer journey, and customer metrics that can ultimately guide the allocation of your marketing dollars.
For more information on An Abstract Agency, check out their website.