Transformative Marketing ― A Roadmap for Driving Results in the Digital World

Digital is more than just technology, it’s total business transformation. With the growing influence of marketing technology as a driver of change, this book provides a roadmap to business transformation through digital marketing. Digital is not a choice; it is a strategic imperative.

The currency of this new book is integration:

• The integration of values and digital mindset with strategy and tactics -- This book will help executives and managers understand the direct impact of organizational values and digital mindset on digital marketing strategy and tactics, and why they must learn to seamlessly integrate values and mindset for competitive advantage in the digital age.
• The integration of mindset with culture, structure, and innovation -- Digital Transformation begins with the adoption of a digital mindset and the infusion of this mindset throughout the company culture. The transformed culture of continuous innovation will require changes in organizational design and structure.
• The integration of digital mindset with the customer experience -- To provide optimal customer experiences, organizations must learn how to view all initiatives through the lens of the always-on digital consumer. Adopting a digital mindset will help managers and executives lead the transition to customer-centric business models.
• The integration of customer experience into the marketing function, which is the essence of integrated digital marketing (IDM) -- It’s not enough to respond to your customer’s needs; you must listen to their feedback and actions and respond in a timely manner. IDM offers an overarching strategic framework for businesses enhance the customer experience at every stage of the buyer journey.
• The integration of broad data into business decision making and evaluation and the IDM process -- Broad data is meaningless unless it is made actionable through proper application. It is critically important to integrate customer data with digital marketing initiatives and offer strategies for refining data to improve its operational relevance and optimize marketing initiatives.

The culmination of a successful IDM strategy leads the organization down the path to digitally driven business transformation. Digital disruption is hastening the integration of IT and marketing at all levels. Digital is a catalyst for organization-wide business transformation including culture, communications, and business processes. IDM provides the strategic framework for implementing a customer-centric approach throughout the organization.

Ira Kaufman has 40 years of management experience and spans three worlds: business, nonprofit and education. Earning his PhD in Marketing and MA in Sociology under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Kotler at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Ira worked with Dr. Kotler to advance early initiatives in social marketing.

Since then, his work has focused on crafting branding, and Integrated Digital Transformation and Marketing plans for SMEs and nonprofits. Visiting 40+ countries, Ira developed a cultural sensitivity integrating values and sustainability into workshops on purposeful leadership, marketing strategy and digital transformation in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

He taught digital marketing at the senior executive programs at Kellogg and Virginia Tech. Currently, at Lynchburg College School of Business and Economics he is designing innovative courses on leadership, digital marketing and social entrepreneurship while directing their new Institute for Transformative Leadership. As a digital strategist, he guides companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals with their innovation, social branding, integrated digital marketing and transformation strategies.

He has a deep commitment to working with Legacy International’s Emerging Leaders Network to develop their skill sets as transformative agents for a sustainable future.

He has co-authored Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values.

Chris Horton is a digital strategist for Minneapolis-based integrated digital marketing agency, Synecore. An avid tech enthusiast, Chris has written hundreds of blogs and numerous ebooks on various topics related to digital marketing, including SEO, inbound, content, social, mobile, apps, digital branding and PR, Internet trends, and digital integration & transformation. His work has been widely syndicated in leading marketing and technology and business management blog directories, including Social Media Today, Business2Community, Yahoo! Small Business, and The European Financial Review. In 2013, Chris’ work on SoLoMo was featured in Forbes. He has also contributed as speaker and instructor at the Online Marketing Institute (OMI). In October of 2014, Chris co-authored Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values, published by Routledge. Adopted in over 50 colleges and universities worldwide, he and co-author Ira Kaufman are currently working on a 2nd edition, set for release in the spring of 2018.

Chris’ digital marketing tips can be found on Synecore’s Marketing Technology for Growth blog.