Weeknotes #9
This week I attended the Measure Summit, helped with cookie consent, discussed the marketing funnel and how to build online communities. Also, big data news and CHRISTMAS IS COMING! 😱
British Data Protection
You may have read about the data reform bill earlier this year. At the Conservative party conference, Michelle Donelan (Culture Secretary), announced the government “will be replacing GDPR with our own business and consumer-friendly, British data protection system”.
This idea is “No longer will our businesses be shackled by lots of unnecessary red tape,”. However, this new bill will not replace the EU directive if you have web visitors from the EU (like most of us do), you will still need to comply to BOTH acts.
This excellent article from Heather Burns explains what the bill is actually saying and the (quite ridiculous) technology and processes that would be needed to implement them. Who knows what the final version will look like.
Measure Summit
I was able to catch some of the Measure Summit sessions this week.
“Once again, the world’s smartest data-driven marketers and analytics experts join forces to share with you what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s working RIGHT NOW when it comes to measuring your marketing.”
It was great to see some of the big cheeses in analytics sharing their thoughts on Google Analytics 4, reporting and data visualisations.
Lea Pica had some great tips on storytelling with data (and included a Lord of the Rings reference), Charles Farina explained some of the issues/features of Google Analytics 4 and Ben Collins went through Google Sheets and BigQuery.
I’m hoping to catch Simo Ahava’s session this evening. Simo’s resources on Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics have helped me enormously over the years.
Conversations this week
On Monday I guided Dan Lamont (Company Manager) at Blast Theory through the set up and configuration of Civic Cookie Control. We used Google Tag Manager’s Consent Mode to manage the loading of scripts. We’re also adding custom CSS in the site header to change the styling on the free Community plan.
I had a great chat with Rob Macpherson on Tuesday. Rob runs Impakt and works with organisations to develop their brand, marketing and communications. He got in touch after seeing the marketing funnel slides from my recent webinar. Our discussion centered around how organisations need to focus on all stages of the marketing funnel and become ‘Growth Brands’, not just focusing on bottom of funnel activities. We’ll hopefully be doing some collaborative content and a webinar on the topic soon.
Rob’s brand building impact tracker
On Wednesday I spoke to Tony Witton at Kent County Council. Tony is looking to create an online platform to build and maintain network of 30-40 cultural leaders where they can connect and share knowledge. Additionally, he would like to raise the profile of Kent culture online and showcase the offer and impact from these organisations.
I followed this up with some examples of existing networks doing similar things, such as Cumbria Arts and Culture Network (CACN) who have a weekly drop-in Zoom session and a newsletter with upcoming events, training and job opportunities.
© Imitating the Dog, part of CACN
On Thursday I got together with the Tech Advisors involved in the Bloomberg Digital Accelerator programme. We’re waiting to hear back whether funding was successful or not for the organisations we’re supporting, it’s looking pretty good so far.
In the afternoon Nicola and I spoke to Jacky Wendon (Data and Analytics Manager) at Better Connect. Jacky is looking to automate and speed up the reporting for internal and external users, so we looked at at the current CRM could do (Civi can export to Data Studio) and what other alternatives are available.
Finally, on Friday I caught up with Tom Nolan (Head of Global Ecosystem) at Spektrix. They are releasing a Google Analytics 4 integration (hurrah!) in the coming weeks and asked if I’d be part of a webinar alongside One Further and Capacity Interactive in January. I’ll be talking though whats needed to implement the new tracking and sharing a step-by-step guide to setting things up with Google Tag Manager.
Speaking of One Further, the team are launching the results of the Cultural Content Report at 4pm on Thursday 20 October. You can register for the Zoom event here.
Getting ready for Christmas
Yes, it’s not that far away! Our ecommerce Tech Champion, Katherine Brown, has written an excellent series of articles about preparing and planning your festive campaigns:
Why it pays to get ready for the festive season
Did you know that the festive season can be a great opportunity for creative and cultural organisations and artists to generate online revenue? During December consumer spending leaps as many people celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and other festivals with gift-giving and plenty of socialising. Read on to discover what you can do to get ready.
How to set a winning festive eCommerce strategy
The festive period is a great time to drive online sales. In this article Kath explores how creative and cultural organisations can develop a winning eCommerce strategy for the the upcoming festivities.
Your Christmas eCommerce conversion checklist
Kath has put together a handy checklist of actions especially for creative and cultural individuals and organisations to improve eCommerce conversion during the festive period.
How to run successful festive promotions for your online shop
The build-up to Christmas is a busy online shopping period. In this article, creative and cultural individuals and organisations can learn about different types of promotions, key timings in the festive period and the ingredients of a successful online promotion.
Where’s my order? 5 customer service quick wins for the festive period
This article focuses on how creative and cultural individuals and organisations can keep customer service running smoothly during the festive period. The run-up to Christmas is a busy time for shopping online and in this article Kath highlights 5 best practice tips to pro-actively manage communications with your customers and minimise workload for your customer service team.
That’s it for the week. I’m taking some time off in lieu to tile my loo.