To Upgrade or Ignore?

Treat your marketing technology like an investment in your company’s growth. Erase  preconceived notions about how much a new website should cost if you haven’t done a major upgrade for the last 7 to 10 years. Owning homes and cars require ongoing maintenance for the life of ownership–inevitably there comes a time when you have to invest a large sum of money into your marketing technology maintenance. Do you enjoy updating the electric panel in your home? You might not enjoy updating your tech stack either–there’s no beautiful deliverable you get to admire in the end but your marketing strategy becomes more powerful. Eventually, these types of upgrades are inevitable but with a clear idea of the time and investment these projects might take you can at least consider them in your company’s overall timelines, budgets and goals. As digital marketers–we all love painting the walls, but this is a necessary evil we all must grow through to incorporate technology our jobs more. 

If you are ready to add content marketing, a new website platforms/migration, a digital strategy or marketing automation to your marketing plan start with becoming mindful about where and how to begin building your technology dreams before ruining your existing online relationships. The best digital marketing campaigns are built on solid technology stacks, full of boring, technology projects scoped out for completion years in advance. Hundreds of companies large and small are currently in the process of rebuilding their technology stack, front-end website infrastructure adding marketing automation and CRMs for content teams to join today’s cutting-edge, online marketing trends. There’s plenty of information about how to execute variations of content marketing or marketing automation; however, more CEOs and marketing directors may benefit from understanding the cost, talent, platform differences in technology platforms or planning IT budgets to execute marketing trends that scale and align with the company’s long-term goals.

While not terribly exciting, investing in your marketing technology stack reflects on your bottom line. Large brands invest thousands of marketing and IT dollars into their infrastructure, website, CRM, analytics tools and also employ teams of skilled developers and content producers to BUILD and MAINTAIN the end product. Many clever campaigns are executed to go-live quickly because progressive CEOs made risky and expensive decisions with online budget investments at the forefront of the emerging trend while also factoring in a cost of maintenance for the remaining life of the technology.

Every company enters this digital dilemma at some point–unexpected digital costs frustrate everyone. This situation might feel intimidating and it is easy to let your last upgrade run on autopilot avoiding what isn’t going away. Eventually, the stagnation leads to the death of an old platform, website or unattended social presence that reflects poorly on the reputation of the company. Ignore the oil change light in your vehicle only to ignite a larger cost later when the engine fails. Ignore your marketing technology or website upgrades and you’ll eventually have to face the fire. There’s a sweet spot for identifying if your existing technology can be saved or if buying an entirely new set of platforms is the most affordable decision–that sweet spot is exactly where theCuriosity+Lab helps you find focus. 

Discovery and Assessment

The most important step to assess your current digital marketing goals appropriately is to gather business requirements, conduct user + audience research and formalize an RFP (or set of business requirements) to share with vendors who will begin working on your new digital transformation. theCuriosity+Lab offers marketing technology assessment packages that lessen the hours CEOs and marketing directors spend on gathering business requirements. We provide visual roadmaps you can share and discuss with your vendors so everyone is on the same page. If you are considering upgrading your website and online presence, contact us for an assessment of your current situation and let us partner with you on your next digital frontier. 

>> View a case study on the discovery process.

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Stay Curious

Our inspirations are organically+human. The digital experiences we create are inspired by you. 

Curiosity lives in each DISCOVERY SESSION and we’re always looking for a muse. Questions and genuine conversations about you, your business, your company culture and what drives YOUR CUSTOMERS are the core of what excites our curiosity. We approach every project with your end user in mind and consider genuine human-centered experiences that spark specific emotions then wrap those around your campaign goals with KPIs. We are artists by trade and apply an approach that considers colors, visuals, videos and interactions that inspire your audiences’ journey while increasing engagement or the start of new relationships with your brand.

theCuriosity+Lab does not begin any project without a DISCOVERY SESSION so we can fully assess where you see your company or program in 1 to 5 years. The work we do together might be very technical in nature, but our dialogue will always be very human. You will understand all details of your project estimate and receive rationale for the approach recommended to solve your problems. After the discovery session(s) theCuriosity+Lab delivers a comprehensive scope of work (SOW) and proposed creative concepts or strategy with projected costs or services required.

The real work won’t begin until we find the FOCUS together.

Create + Refine

Iterations that listen are the preferred direction theCuriosity+Lab takes when it comes to rounds of edits and user feedback.

We want to learn and research what your customers’ behaviors tell us – more importantly we want to collect that information organically with old-fashioned, investigative, journalistic approaches then combine it with robust analytics and search marketing  insights. The more work we do upfront together the fewer revisions happen long-term because we’ve quickened our understanding of your needs and documented all your preferences. Working together will just feel right for both sides + if it doesn’t, both parties should part ways.

We will provide a few documents upfront before creating any billable deliverable or strategy – this might include a Scope of Work (SOW), a 3-month campaign document, a content playbook or a creative brief. This will be provided only after we have collected enough information about your business to guide your marketing program in the right direction to be in alignment with your business or sales goals. These documents will clearly outline pricing estimates, hours and your deliverables. Once we begin our work together we will also let you know if you are crossing the mid-range of the estimate or might exceed the estimate based on additional work or issues found. We will never increase hours or exceed those estimates without prior warning or communication about what is needed and why. Your TRUST, marketing program, budget, security and technology stack are of utmost importance to us.