I seem to have done a lot of talking in the last few years. Talking, writing books, talking about the writing and then talking some more. I’ve talked about Waterloo Bridge and pastries a fair amount in that time, but mainly I’ve been advocating the new social imperative for B2B brands in a rapidly changing digital economy. I’m not the first of course and hopefully won’t be the last. Only recently the very delightful Jo Porritt at Crowd Media drew my attention to The Cluetrain Manifesto which said pretty much everything I believe in – 12 years ago.

Yet while the written word holds meaning, the spoken word appears to hold value. It’s a reflection of our increasing video consumption in the digital age that I’m being asked to wave my arms, shout and stamp my feet in front of a live audience. My ‘performance’ is recorded and distributed to a wider audience internally and/or externally. Some people, including my clients, recoil from video, “Ooooh, no, I’d never do that. I’d be terrified… you never know who might see it… does my bum look big in this…?” etc.

I see it as an opportunity. I can reach many instead of the few. I can communicate the passion and personality of the brand and maybe, just maybe, if the message is ‘real’ it won’t feel like I’m banging my head against a brick B2B wall quite so much. Oh, and I get paid, which is nice. I admit that wearing makeup is still a bit of a challenge…

The free shit is nice too. Because of my growing ‘social influence’, I’m apparently the right kind of guy to talk about stuff. I deliberately avoided the word ‘promote’ there, because I don’t get paid for it. If someone sends me crap, I put it in the trash and tell the world it’s crap. If it’s something relevant to me or my audience and it’s good – I want to tell the world. Some digital ‘gurus’ are constructing a whole career around that very model. In my mind however, it’s just human nature. We talk about stuff – good and bad – and people listen, or don’t.

Someone sent me an email the other day. It might have been relevant, I don’t know because I trashed it. I simply don’t read cold emails anymore. By contrast, someone at Trend Micro visited me to deliver, explain and install a product called SafeSync that he wanted my opinion on. I’m glad he did, because it’s bloody brilliant. SafeSync copies all your computer files to the cloud, automatically distributes them to all your mobile devices, secures them as back-up and keeps them all in Sync. It’s ridiculously easy to use, quicker than Dropbox and cheap as chips. Yes, there’s still iCloud, but maybe Apple shouldn’t rule the world completely. SafeSync is a very good product. There is an SMB offering that suits me just fine so I’ll be rolling it out across the business. The ‘free trial’ model is as old as the hills, but the guy at Trend specifically selected me as an ‘influencer’. He wanted me to write about the product, not simply buy it. Double whammy then – I’m writing about it and buying it.

And that is how business will proliferate in the social economy. People connected to networks and networks connected to other networks. The people make the decisions and their communities hold influence. Businesses can serve up their offerings, but they are no longer the sole authority. Business brands would do well to remember their audience – how to connect to it and how it operates in a connected world. Oh, and carry an eyeliner. Always carry your eyeliner.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

I called the presentation, ‘Turdy Brown Trousers’. It was perhaps a little unconventional. But then again, the whole point was to demonstrate that conservative and traditional communications in B2B are failing, while the opportunities for digital and social development are huge. Doing nothing will surely be the death of many business brands. Hopefully, I gave the audience several reasons to consider the state of their trousers.

This audience has been warned before that it needs to change policies and practices. It’s the speed of change (or lack of it) that is the current cause for concern. I wanted to demonstrate that the social opportunity was… ‘real’. Other presentations on the day focussed on what has happened in the past. Or they asked the audience to participate in the present. My interest was the future potential for the audience. It was a high risk strategy – not something that B2B is exactly famous for, but hey, someone’s got to do it…

So I announced on stage that although I had a captive audience, my real interest was the extended B2B audience outside of the room – i.e. The rest of the B2B world. For my business message to carry any real weight I had to reach more interested people – and I was going to do it, live, as I gave my presentation. I unsheathed my iPhone and told the crowd I was going to take its picture and tweet it.

At the end of my 15 or 20 minute presentation, we’d have a look at how many people I’d been able to virtually draw into the room and we’d track progress thereafter. They shuffled nervously in their seats. Nevertheless, on the count of three I made them all wave their arms in the air and duly tweeted the photo.

15 minutes later, when I’d quite finished reigning brimstone down upon the audience, I asked the Editor of B2B Marketing to reveal how many people had viewed the photo. “Um… it’s 25,” he said. I was a little disappointed – I was hoping for 100. Then, a voice from the back of the auditorium shouted, “Hit the refresh button!” Joel duly refreshed his screen and said, “Oh yes, sorry, it’s 289.”

In 15 minutes, one photo put more engaged people in the room than the entire marketing activity to promote the conference. By the end of the day, the number of views had reached over 600. Less than a week later the views were over 1,000. The figures are still climbing if you’d like to check.

The market has changed. Your B2B social audience is real, engaged, fast, responsive and growing. I needn’t have worried about the risk of tweeting that photo. What was there to lose? Nothing – I believe in the crowd. By contrast, the brands that continue to ‘wait and see’ risk losing everything.

Below, you’ll find the slide deck and accompanying live audio recording from my presentation. Enjoy.

Turdy Brown Trousers | Scot Mckee | B2B Marketing Conference by Birddogb2b

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

We were comparing notes on the B2B brand and digital developments in our respective geographic markets and there was a comforting degree of similarity in attitudes and beliefs considering they’re, well, you know, American for a start.

There has undoubtedly been a huge level of interest in digital development within the B2B space in the last couple of years on both sides of the Atlantic, but we seemed to experience the interest in different ways.

In Chicago and across the US according to my friend, the B2B market has been slow to change and reluctant to adopt new channels or platforms of communication. Nevertheless, the market was steadily growing, coming to terms with a digital future and becoming more focussed on digital strategies. He wondered whether his positioning of offering Integrated Branding services carried sufficient digital emphasis.

I explained how the B2B market in the UK was a little different in its intransigence. There had been a veritable frenzy of early interest before reverting to type and doing very little to adopt digital and social marketing practices. ‘Mmmm… interesting…’, is about as close to the digital revolution as the majority of the B2B market is prepared to venture in the short-term. Having said that, the outcome over here has broadly been the same as in the US – a steady growth but limited adoption of innovative digital strategies. I made the point that ‘Integrated Branding’ is actually a very strong position in a market sector that is notoriously slow to change. The ability to develop and interpret brand strategy and apply it across traditional and digital channels is certainly closer to the expectation and comfort zone of the market than, say for example, ‘Willy-Trembling Digital Revolutionary’.

There is still an abundance of indecision and inertia as B2B marketers weigh the risks of following their experience in traditional communications against the potential rewards of following their audience into digital and social spaces. The market will change. It’s inevitable, because the audience has already shifted. But by the time B2B is fully committed, the brand building opportunity may be lost. Have you noticed how, already, we’re no longer calling digital developments ‘new media’?

New technology holds no competitive advantage if it’s no longer ‘new’ by the time you get around to incorporating it into your marketing plan. It’s just ‘technology’. Everyone has technology. The opportunity to be ‘first’ or ‘better’ or ‘innovative’ or ‘different’ is lost every time you say, “Let’s wait and see. Maybe next time…” The result of a conservative digital adoption policy is undoubtedly low risk. It’s safer not to experiment than to hang your ass too far out of the window, but it’s also a tragic waste of opportunity. The science of the practical triumphs over the art of the possible. Again. You may not have noticed the gap widening between the traditional and social B2B brands yet. But you will. Mind the gap.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

Naturally, I gave the Philippines the bum’s rush and asked him to explain why I might be a risk to his global multi-billion dollar enterprise. Lil’ ol’ me? Surely not. He said that in a recent meeting my name had been mentioned and, to his surprise (and secret delight I’m sure), everyone at the table had not only heard of me, but had a very firm opinion as to my suitability for the role of brand guardian to their business. “You’re a bit like Marmite,” he said. “Some thought you were a loose cannon, some thought you were full of shit and some thought you were a heaven-sent genius.”

I was of course flattered to be the subject of such polarity of opinion, but I would be lying to suggest that the perceived ‘risk’ associated to my engagement didn’t leave with a little bit of sick in my mouth. Had I gone too far? Were my opinions too extreme? Was my pathological need to drive creative change in B2B marketing limiting business opportunities? In short, was I just too risky to engage?

We discussed the matter of risk for a while. My friend pointed out that ‘vanilla’ is the nation’s favourite flavour of ice-cream and that ‘beige’ is the most popular colour. His role was to assess and reduce risk – his business decisions were made based on ‘least impact’ and I would do well to remember that.

“And that…,” I told him, “…is why we can never work together.” He looked a little upset – as if I should bow to the commercial imperative of corporate engagement and offer assurances of conformity.

“Low-risk, low-impact brands are everywhere. They’re the majority.” I said. “There are Marketing Directors who wrap their brands in a beige blanket and tuck them up safely every night. There are agencies that prosper on their perennial ability to deliver ‘meh’. Most of their brands will survive and even grow simply by being… benign. But where’s the satisfaction in that? Where’s the benefit? How does that make a difference?”

On my deathbed, and on principal, I’d like to think that my time had been spent searching for maximum impact (even if it’s not always achieved, or achievable). The prospect of a life spent in B2B marketing being ‘average’ is too depressing to contemplate. Every business brand should start with truly radical aspirations. You can always soften the position later, but if you start from a position of safety, when will you ever take the risk needed to make a real difference? So ‘Marmite’ is fine with me. As long as there is just one B2B brand seeking change, we’re in business.

And on that note, the heaven-sent genius wiped the milk-froth moustache from his top lip and left. Principles upheld. And still full of shit.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

We’ve heard a lot about social media in B2B and indeed dipped a toe into the social waters. But finding actual stories about ‘here’s what we did and here’s what happened,’ are somewhat thinner on the ground. All talk and no action. So I used a story of a project that I had just finished to help the delegates understand the audience engagement opportunity that social media is creating – in this case a blogging platform. It wasn’t the technology that was the subject of the story, it was the outcome.

I gambolled about the stage demonstrating how, with the right content, tone and audience, a community of thousands could be engaged almost instantly. In this particular case, 20k unique hits were recorded on the blog site in 10 days, attracting over 800 visitor comments, also in just 10 days. I was still suffering from sleep deprivation having become ‘a blogger’ for the 10 days, which, let me tell you, is very different from writing the occasional blog, but that’s another story.

There were some good messages in my presentation too (if I may be so bold). Don’t underestimate the speed at which messages spread through the network – thousands of hits in the first 24 hours are achievable (even if surprising). Don’t try to predict the response – but be prepared to respond. Don’t assume you know what the customer wants – adjust the channels and content in real time. All good stuff.

At the end of my presentation, after the cheering and rapturous applause had died down, I was introduced to one of the delegates waiting to speak to me.

“Hello, I’m Scot McKee.”
“Yes, I know – you’re the guy who does the ‘Waterloo Bridge Report’ on Twitter.”
“Oh, eh, yes I am. You’ve seen that?”
“It’s genius! I follow it every week. Brilliant!”
“Right. Good. Umm, thanks very much…”
We chatted for a while, but I had to rush off to my next pressing engagement at the bar.

The Waterloo Bridge Report (#WBR) is a piece of trivia I have been tweeting for a few months. Once a week, on a Friday morning, I post a single tweet (140 characters or less) relating to whatever I see on Waterloo Bridge as I walk to work. Sometimes I attach a photograph. After the first few weeks, people started asking when the next one would be posted so I kept going but thought little more about it. Until the comment at the B2B Marketing Forum.

As I propped up the bar and shared my iPhone charger with an orderly line of power-starved delegates, I checked the analytics for my Waterloo Bridge Reports. It turns out that every time I post a #WBR, hundreds of people check out the comment and photograph. Not a few, not a handful – hundreds. My social media audience was engaged and I didn’t even realise it. Not only that, but, whatever I think, the audience has decided to latch on to the most random piece of bollocks I happen to have conceived. There’s a lesson there for us all.

I am the Managing Director of a top B2B brand and digital agency. I am THE AUTHOR of a #1 bestselling B2B book. I am a legend in my own lunchtime. Trust me, I tweet a load of random bollocks, but the #WBR is the one my audience likes.

They like it enough to attend conferences and remind me. They tell me at meetings. And they tell me again when they issue the Purchase Order. To some, Social Media is, and will remain, random bollocks. But to the more forward thinking brands, audience engagement equates to revenue. Personally, I’m of the considered opinion that random bollocks can also equate to revenue. Consider this my ‘view from the bridge’.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
twitter: @ScotMcKee

You know who they are. They know who they are. You may even be one of them. I certainly know who they are. They are the people who simply aren’t moving at the speed of digital yet. They’re the people who stand up at conferences (still) and proclaim that it’s now OK to use Twitter for B2B communications. We know that. We knew that a few years ago. Digital has passed these people by. When the God of Digital was handing out megablessings and terabytes, these people were sleeping on their etchings. So, in their minds, ‘digital’ means ‘website’.

That’s a bit of a problem. It means that they will never actually reach the end of any digital proposal. They only ever get as far as the word ‘online’ and then instinctively say, “Oh, it’s just another website then. We don’t want another website. We’ve already got one.”

Well, actually, no you haven’t. What you have is a lumbering repository of turd that no one wants to visit. You have the online equivalent of the Glastonbury Festival Portable Toilets. A thing so full of crap that only as the very last resort will people reach for your URL to polish their posterior. You can call it a website, but it’s just a big, steaming sewer of turd. And more importantly, I wasn’t even talking about a website. I was talking about delivering something sweet smelling and wonderful, but you’re NOT listening.

There is a self-evident truth that digital communications delivery will manifest itself on a screen. It might be your computer monitor or your laptop. Increasingly, it’s your mobile device. Alternatively, it may be a TV screen or even a standalone projection. Yes, it requires a screen. That’s how we read, view and listen to content. That doesn’t make it ‘just a website’. If you’re really clever, building a website doesn’t even result in a website any more. Digital does not equal website.

Now that that’s clear, maybe we can actually discuss what’s in the proposal? Digital delivery encompasses peer group influence, audience engagement, brand advocacy, sentiment analysis, predictive modelling, augmented reality… weird shit. We can actually deliver weird shit that was unheard of less than a year ago – conceive it, build it, deliver it. Phone apps, games, interactive e-commerce, blogging platforms, hashtag campaigning, social engagement, video based corporate awareness, hell, I’ve even seen a WordPress blog take 20,000 unique hits in 10 days and turn into a political pressure group with letters being written to MPs and everything. You could argue it was ‘just a website’, but you’d lose. It was a customer uprising that was channelled through the internet – because digital can do that.

Digital campaigns can be launched within hours. Not days, or weeks, or months. I recently shook hands at the end of a prospective client meeting and had the project live and broadcasting to the world four hours later. That was ‘just a website’ too. But it was fast. It was really fast. It left the client’s competitors in the dust – wondering what to do, how to respond. Competitive advantage is a rare commodity in a business world – it’s hard to find a good reason to pick one brand instead of another. Digital helps to provide several good reasons.

Digital delivery provides a welcome opportunity to improve the customer experience and serve up all kinds of brand differentiation across all kinds of channels, all at once. The integration between your brand strategy, its digital delivery, and your customer experience is no longer just talk, or just an idea, or just a website. If you are to engage with customers where and when they want to hear from you, it’s mandatory. Your website doesn’t do that. Your website never will. Your customers are looking for a compelling brand experience online and there’s more you can offer them than ‘just another website’. It’s time to read to the end of the proposal and start thinking beyond it.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
twitter: @ScotMcKee

Some progress has undoubtedly been made in the last six months or so within the B2B digital marketing space. The frenzy for dataficating everything and monitorization of funnels and tubes and pipelines and all things relating to grids and templates has mercifully eased off a bit. The dawning realisation that demand gen tools are exactly that, tools (like all the other tools that went before…), not a total panacea for digital marketing, is a blessed relief.

There’s more interest being expressed in brand strategy again, “How do we say this differently? What can we do to stand out from our competitors?” And there’s a growing recognition that between the brand strategy and the demand gen tools, there’s still a gap in the middle that needs to be filled. “Here’s our brand, check. Here’s our machine for processing stuff that will tell us what to do next, check. Umm… how do we join the two together?”

In the ‘olden days’, the gap would have been filled by design work. A graphic designer would have been expected to colour-in the gap, maybe with a Getty image or two. Tah-dah! A beautifully coloured picture with your message at the top and your badge at the bottom. Brilliant. Let’s go to the pub.

In the newfangled digital and social world however, colouring-in doesn’t fill the gap. The graphic design requirement for engaging in (for example) social monitoring, conversation and response is, let me think, oh I know – zero. There is still a need for design, but the real requirement (the gap) is for creativity. Not just Getty images creativity, but digital creativity – creative thinking based on digital understanding. The difference of course is that the very last person on earth that you should ask for digital creativity is the same person you ask for graphic design. That’s a tough one for clients and agencies to come to terms with. B2B clients barely recognised good traditional creativity when it bit them on the ass, so the transition to digital is like taking them on a trip to Mordor. Graphic designers craft breathtakingly beautiful work, which is next to useless in the context of most digital platforms.

The gap then, between B2B brand development and digital marketing delivery is creativity. Actually, creativity has always been the missing link in B2B marketing, but the opportunity is to provide creative solutions with and for digital challenges. So if the traditional Creative Director’s role has changed, where’s this elusive new digital creativity going to come from? The Planners, the Strategists, the Community Managers, the Info Architects, the UX testing…? ‘Yes’ – probably all of the above. But not many of the clients or the agencies are prepared to truly take the risk and make the change. If B2B is famous for anything, it’s for not changing. But the talking’s just about over now I think. We’ve talked a lot about B2B Social Media and B2B Digital Marketing. We’ve been sitting on our thumbs watching and referring to endless B2C examples. Now we have to deliver it in B2B, or not.

The focus for digital delivery in B2B needs to shift fundamentally, and it has done – certainly in my mind, and my business. But does that mean ‘ready for liftoff’ or ‘bullet in the head’? I don’t actually know. I guess that’s the next stage.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
twitter: @ScotMcKee

So, now that that’s clear, what have we got left? Well on the basis that the prospective client has equally staunch views on ‘sampling the merchandise’ and requires more than a lifetime of credentials, case studies, awards and testimonials because, you know, what if overnight you suddenly start delivering shit…? Well, that’s where the agency can proposalate – write a proposal, show an ankle, but whatever happens, keep the drawers firmly in place.

And so I have proposalated for the last few months – with mixed results. On the plus side, almost every client proposal has been approved and progressed towards something wonderful. On the down side, almost every prospect proposal has met with anxiety, procrastination and a nervous twitch.

I’ve learnt a few things in the last few months. The first, and probably the most important, is that in a difficult economic climate and in a rapidly evolving digital space, the trust of an existing client is far more valuable than the potential riches of an uncertain prospect. There are brands that are willing to embrace digital change and those that would prefer to produce the same old, same old in the vain hope that it might work this time (even if it didn’t work last time). No matter how compelling the proposal, nothing changes the basic fear of the unknown.

The digital space for B2B brands is currently one of chance – the chance to change, to do things differently, to evolve. The vast majority of the work that I am currently proposing simply hasn’t been done before. There are no case studies, there are no measures or benchmarks. That’s quite a hard sell for the traditional B2B prospect. Actually, it’s pretty difficult for an existing client, but the at least client has trust. The measures are therefore not what has been achieved for other clients, but ‘how much do you trust me?’ We’ve never done it, you’ve never done it, no one’s ever done it… but it’s cool isn’t it? Trust me. Spend some money on it and let’s see what happens… Like I said, a hard sell.

So I’ve learnt that I’m wasting my time speculating on prospect proposals. Digital brand strategy and delivery is too risky for the majority. Those closest to accepting and embracing change are already our clients so it makes sense to focus on them. They will become the case studies that the other laggards eventually follow.

It makes no sense to continue to educate the market in the art of the possible when the market makes little tangible investment in that process of evolution. They’re interested in it alright – it’s the interest that simulates the proposal in the first place. They’re even excited by the potential – “incredible… that’s amazing… can we really do that…?” Well, actually, no, you can’t, because you’re not prepared to pay for it and I’m getting tired of telling you while you jack-off in the corner.

That leaves a few, a happy few, a band of brothers. Whichever way I look at it, it’s still a hard sell. And so I’m going to stop proposalating. I have better things to do. For a start, I have some needles in a haystack to find. They’re out there, but I’m no longer going to try to write a proposal to find and convince them. Once they’ve narrowed their options, they’ll find me. We should all draw a line in the sand. Not in the Mohave Desert though.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666

Follow Scot on Twitter

31/01/2011
Additional/Related information: Fast Company – The Future of Advertising

I’ve nodded patiently and sympathetically. I’ve been empathetic and encouraging. I’ve tried teaching and being supportive. I’ve even resorted to shoutery (which didn’t take too long if I’m honest…) but all seemingly in vain. Fortunately for all of you, I have discovered the answer – ‘The Space Time Continuum’.

The barrier to trial and adoption isn’t interest in the digital opportunity – there is no doubt brands are interested in social communications, community engagement, crowdsourcing, mobile interaction, cool shit generally – but when it comes to the sign-off crunch, there isn’t a budget to develop the digital activity from concept to reality. And so the opportunity is lost (if it ever truly existed in the first place). I begin the process again and talk to someone else about cool shit that they’re never going to implement. You can see how that might get annoying after a while I’m sure.

In trying to resolve the problem and remove the obstacle then, I have discovered that the B2B client almost always has a ‘space’ budget. A brand will happily spend inordinate and inappropriate amounts of cash on media space – traditional space in papers and magazines, and even digital space in banners and skyscrapers. Even when there is no direct evidence that the traditional advertising works, or worse, when banner clickthroughs definitively prove that the banner campaign essentially isn’t working, the business spends more money on space in the hope that it will come good in the end. Well, it won’t. Those days are gone. Not entirely and not even necessarily forever, but they’re gone inasmuch as the market has moved and the relative importance of the ‘space budget’ is considerably lessened. It’s taking the market a while to accept that. Denial is a particularly warm and cuddly blanket for the B2B market. Ineffectiveness and underperformance, however, can’t last forever – not even within B2B. At some (near) future point, the space race will become untenable and clients will seek an answer to the problem. You lucky, lucky, people – I have found the answer for you already.

The answer is not ‘space’ – it’s ‘time’. Traditional client budgets and the relative importance of activity needs to be shifted from ‘space’ to ‘time’ – the Space Time Continuum.

For 2011 then, I would encourage B2B budget holders to attach value to the ‘time’ part of the equation. Conceiving, developing and delivering the digital solutions to the challenges of brand engagement takes time. It’s an evolving landscape, so the solutions are often bespoke, untested and even unique. Allocating the time and the budget to explore the possibilities is increasingly important if brands wish to remain relevant to an ever more selective audience. The audience will decide where and when to engage with the brand. They will decide who to listen to and whose advice to take before making purchasing decisions. Adding more pages to your website is not the answer. Sending more emails is not the answer. Take some time to find an answer that is applicable to your audience in the context of their digital world.

The first step is to recognise that you’ll be investing in thinking time and not design time or space time. It’s a big shift, but there is value in the ability to conceive of a channel(s) and/or a tool(s) that will pull the customer towards the brand – and there may be little (if any) requirement for design or media. This may all be a bit uncomfortable for clients and agencies – but the customers have already made up their minds. Hello? McFly?

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666

Follow Scot on Twitter

‘User journey’ didn’t make sense to me, for example, when everyone was jacking off to the sound of their own voices proclaiming themselves to be the latest ‘guru’ of the ‘social landscape’. User journey meant very little to me when I watched Twitter users with nothing to say attract thousands of followers. And user journey meant absolutely nothing as I sifted case studies and articles of meaningless bollocks in the vain hope of enlightenment. And while I persevered with this alien new language, ‘user journey’ meant the sum total of naff-all until I heard from a user who had, perhaps unsurprisingly, taken a journey…

Initially, I simply received a website enquiry form. So far, so good. A prospective client outlined his need for a new brand strategy and supporting website. A Request for Proposal document was about to be signed-off and the prospect was enquiring whether I would like to submit a response to the RFP.

I said, “no”. I didn’t say, “no, stick your RFP up your ass”, which is my usual response to large corporates expecting small agencies to have the speculative resources of large corporates. In fact I offered an uncharacteristically polite ‘no’ because the company simply didn’t have the budget available to engage our services. So I declined the RFP, explained the typical entry-level budgets required and thanked the enquirer for considering us. That, ordinarily, would be that. And then I received this email:

“Hi Scot,
Many thanks for the reply. I was unsure of exactly where the budget may fit with you and was slightly worried that it may be light. I appreciate you clarifying the guide costs. Hopefully in the future we will be able to work together on creative campaigns.
For your own info I thought you may like to understand my Birddog journey;
1.       Introduced to your brand by a colleague.
2.       Regular visits to your website.
3.       Discovering your blog.
4.       Following you on Twitter.
5.       Twitter led directly to more consumption and laughing with your blog.
6.       Twitter then directly led to me buying your book. You said something like, “if you want more buy the book,” and, like a sheep, I did.
7.       Now I have changed jobs and have a bit of a budget you received a direct enquiry.”

Well. Hold me down and feed me whipped pudding till I scream. This is a ‘user journey’ across traditional, digital AND social media that clearly took several years. I was suitably impressed and I said so. Actually, what I said was, “Holy shit, that’s amazing!”, and was then delighted to find that the journey wasn’t over yet…

“Hi Scot,
I should tell you that my girlfriend has also read your AMAZING book and loves it. She mentioned it to her boss and in particular the comment about, ‘I want to lick an iPhone’ or words to that effect. You have another reader based on that one comment alone. It’s  doing the rounds now.”

User journeys aren’t about a single website visit. And they’re not about understanding a new digital language. They’re about the years of travel up to the point of contact, they’re about the experience the visitor will have in the years that follow and they’re about how the experience will be communicated to a wider audience on and off line. In other words, user journeys are about… brands. The journey continues.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Twitter