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Online Discovery #101 for SMBs

Online Discovery for SMBs #101

For a freshly established business, you’re not expected to set up a proper marketing budget but at least start putting some investment into it. Business is basically about generating revenue by selling or renting a product or service. When you’re providing a product, you might need a starting investment, but when you’re providing a service, you might just need to work on your skills or market your business organically.

Whether you’re targeting organic marketing or a mix of organic and paid campaigns, we’ve got some incredible strategies for both scenarios. Later we’ll discuss how a hybrid strategy can yield the most efficient results. Let’s first get started with skills—

SEO

Looking at stats, anyone can easily tell that almost 70% of traffic comes from organic search results and ad campaigns. Constituting such a huge share of the market, search engines filter out the best content from the overflowing pile of excessive extra content. To pull out these gems, search engines need a hierarchical filter to carefully brew out the most useful and relevant results to keep the user’s interest intact. 

Contrary to the common belief, organic search results and ads are closely related and can be used perpetually. It helps you build more efficient and effective ad campaigns when you know what the users are looking for and what they find the most useful. Setting up fruitful SEO infrastructure is not that difficult, start with keyword research.

Keywords are the highlights of your topic and these can be simply explained as the words that have the highest possibility to be searched for. once these simple keywords are identified, head onto tools like ahrefs, Google ads, semrush, and many more to evaluate the popularity of those keywords and their usefulness. read more about keywords and SEO in a more detailed segment here.

Consistency is the key

Once you have your key points and a basic theme for your blogs, start posting consistently, and release quality content weekly that adds value to your user’s time and fulfills the user intent.

Another important aspect is backlinking which is very essential as it can drive traffic from trusted sources to your site, which is generally high-yield traffic as it has been filtered.

Content marketing 101

prioritizing quality content will start to show results progressively and will reflect in your stats, leveraging these results to their fullest potential is your primary task. Analyze what type of content suits best for your page, for many, it’s just blogs and videos.

Studies show that over 86% of growth-driving content is blogging and is widely preferred across businesses, while surveys conducted over the internet, time and again, indicate the fact that videos are indeed affecting the marketing curve for many retailers. 

Learn at every step, starting your own blog will help you get a better hold of SEO strategies and user intent from a broader perspective. Adding value to your potential customer’s life with every type of content that you put out is an opportunity to build consumer trust and loyalty.

Connect

Connecting with your audience is the most important step after establishing links. Once you have an active group of users or leads, you must stay in the loop with them. There are several ways to do this, one of which is to make them subscribe to your email newsletter and feed them with relevant informative emails weekly. 

Another easy way to stay connected to your people is by setting up your social media handles and posting relevant stuff regularly to keep your people updated. Social media presence might seem like a crucial step, but staying connected is definitely one of the most fruitful things a digital marketer can do. Another additional tip would be providing an occasional special offer to your followers to win their trust more.

Even just sharing your blog links on your social page makes a whole lot of difference, after all, it’s much easier to directly feed people what they want rather than just letting them find it on their own. People who already follow you are following for a purpose and if you’re ready to feed them with adequate information then they are more than happy to read and connect!

Start with ads

Now that you know what your audience wants and you also have at least some active users, it’s time to move on to paid ads, PPC stands for pay-per-click ads, and start setting up ads with your latest learnings about SEO. The first step before actually publishing these ads is to first run some test runs and see how efficiently they perform. Once done with the testing phase, move on to setting up different ad groups and seeing what’s working the best and then investing further money in similar sections and similar ways of producing ads. 

Facebook ads

Facebook ads can be helpful for small businesses looking to increase their visibility and reach a wider audience. By creating targeted ads and promoting them to a carefully defined audience, small businesses can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to their website or physical location.

Additionally, Facebook offers a range of advertising options and formats, which can be customized to fit the needs of a small business. For example, small businesses can use sponsored posts to promote their products or services or create video ads to showcase their brand more engagingly.

Overall, using Facebook ads can be an effective way for small businesses to increase their visibility and reach potential customers. By carefully defining their goals and target audience, small businesses can create ads that are more likely to be successful and drive results

Google ads

One of the key benefits of using Google ads for small businesses is that they can be highly targeted. Small businesses can use keywords, location targeting, and other tools to ensure that their ads are only shown to people who are interested in their products or services. This helps to maximize the impact of their advertising budget and ensures that their ads are seen by the right people.

Additionally, Google offers a range of ad formats, including text ads, display ads, and video ads, which can be customized to fit the needs of a small business. This allows small businesses to create ads that are effective and engaging, and that help to drive traffic to their website or physical location. As opposed to Facebook ads, Google ads are broadly known as search ads that are served when a user searches for a related specific service. Facebook ads are a type of interruptive ads, meaning that they will interrupt the user’s feed to display a tentatively useful or relevant ad to them.

Feedback

Ask for reviews and referrals: Word-of-mouth can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. Encourage your satisfied customers to leave reviews on your website, social media pages, and other online platforms, and ask for referrals from people who are happy with your products or services.

Conclusion

The major takeaway here is that your presence, not just physical but online is necessary for the proper functioning of your business. Having a professional, well-designed website is essential for small businesses looking to increase their online presence. Your website should include information about your products or services, your contact information, and any other relevant information that potential customers might be looking for. 

To make it easier for potential customers to find your website, it’s important to optimize your website for search engines like Google. This involves using keywords and other techniques to improve your website’s visibility in search results. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be powerful tools for small businesses looking to increase their online presence. 

By regularly posting engaging content and interacting with your followers, you can build a loyal audience and drive more traffic to your website. Online advertising platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads can be effective ways for small businesses to increase their visibility and reach a wider audience. By creating targeted ads and promoting them to a carefully defined audience, you can drive more traffic to your website and ultimately boost your sales.

Thanks for reading so far, we hope that you made the most out of it. Feel free to drop your questions, queries, and valuable feedback in the comments down below. Find us on our social media handles below to stay updated, see you at the next one!

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Content Marketing Digital Media eCommerce Marketing

How To Kickstart Your Digital Marketing Career

Digital Marketing Career

Everyone thinks about the next steps in their profession at various points. You might be thinking about moving up within your present company. Maybe you’re looking at opportunities with other businesses. Or you might even be thinking about making a total change and starting your own business or pursuing a completely different career path.

Ten essential themes from their wealth of knowledge have been condensed by us in order to assist you to plan your professional path and sharpen your marketing abilities.

  • Enhance your soft talents
  • Analyze your SWOT.
  • Share a narrative.
  • Have no qualms about accepting feedback.
  • Be aware of your ideals and attitudes.
  • Determine your goal.
  • Recognize your potential to contribute
  • Combat impostor syndrome
  • Never presume that you are overqualified.
  • Never accept rejection.

1. Work on soft skills

It goes without saying that you must show that you possess the skills and abilities necessary to perform the job when applying for any position. However, so-called “soft talents” are gaining significance in hiring. These soft skills, including communication, time management, teamwork, emotional intelligence, public speaking, and strategic thinking, can be applied to every position.

Whatever position you have, you should make an effort to develop these talents, even outside of the office. Perhaps you wish to improve your teamwork abilities or work with a group as a volunteer to achieve a common objective.

2. Perform a SWOT evaluation

A firm may clearly understand its position in the market by doing a SWOT analysis. You can also perform a SWOT analysis of yourself personally, though. In particular, as you get ready for your next job move, this can help you discover your talents.

If you have trouble identifying your abilities, get input from coworkers or reliable friends. After selecting respectable individuals, compile information about yourself.

Advice: Focus on enhancing your strengths once you’ve discovered them. Obtain examples of these strengths in use so you can bring them to your upcoming interview.

3. Share a narrative

You must sell yourself during an interview, and one of the best ways to do this is by sharing a memorable experience. You should be able to create a breadcrumb trail of your strengths in use from your SWOT analysis. By giving specific examples of how your abilities impacted the business, you may give your story more substance.

Have a set of referees on hand who can “back up” your claims. Don’t just rely on recommendations from LinkedIn. Who will be your persuasive spokesperson? Furthermore, do not wait for the recruiter to request references. During the interview, offer them!

4. Do not be reluctant to accept criticism.

Finding out about your abilities and how much people like you might feel really good. Be prepared to hear some unfavourable comments when asking for input, though. Sometimes we need to be reminded of our own weaknesses because we are oblivious to them.

Actually, one of the most crucial soft skills to master is being open to criticism. It’s crucial to be able to demonstrate to a potential employer that you take constructive criticism to heart and work hard to better yourself.

5. Recognize your principles and attitudes

Many firms recruit people based on their values in addition to their abilities, competencies, and soft skills. Because of the shift toward values-based hiring, it’s critical that you are aware of your own views and values. This can entail setting off on a voyage of self-discovery to learn what is truly essential to you.

Companies seek employees who “fit in” with their corporate culture and have the right attitude to succeed at work. You must demonstrate the attitudes and principles that the recruiter will identify with during the interview. Show them your excitement for the role and your passion for the industry.

6. Understand your goal.

You frequently inquire, “What does this business expect from me?” when applying for a new position. What I desire from this work, though, should also be a question you consider. The significance of understanding your purpose is emphasized by life coaches and wellness specialists. Once you are aware of what drives you, you may work to make decisions in life that are consistent with that goal.

Living a purposeful life is crucial during the hiring process. When looking for a career, what factors are crucial to you? Do you desire the option of working from home? Is pay the deciding factor? Or is it more crucial to be respected and given the freedom to handle your own work? Some people have a more general goal, like getting a profession that allows them to find a healthy work-life balance. 

7. Recognize how you can add value.

Companies don’t only employ people to play a role. They are seeking individuals who can benefit the company. They are seeking individuals that will blend into their culture and share their ideals.

You can determine whether there is common ground between your values and those of the organization by investigating it and doing a self-analysis. Think about how you may benefit a company and assist it in standing out from the competition.

8. Get through the “Imposter Syndrome”

Unexpectedly many people believe that they can’t perform their jobs effectively. This inferiority complex, also known as impostor syndrome, results from the conviction that someone is “winging it” at work and will eventually be exposed as a dishonest con artist. They might think they got the position by accident and that they will eventually be “found out.” They feel inferior when they judge themselves against their coworkers.

This might become a significant barrier throughout the hiring process since you could secretly doubt your ability to perform the job for which you are applying, and this uncertainty might show in the interview. Keep in mind that if the company didn’t think you could do it, they wouldn’t have asked to interview you.

9. Don’t think you have too much experience.

When you make adjustments later in your career, you likely have years of experience and skill under your belt. You could wish to change your professional path but you think that you are currently too qualified for the positions you are interested in. This might be a concern during the employment process since employers could be hesitant to choose candidates who seem overqualified.

Once more, it’s beneficial to be open and honest with the recruiter about your worries. Despite the fact that you could seem overqualified for the position, assure them that you are still interested in it. Describe why you believe accepting the position is the best option for you at this point in your career. And put their minds at ease regarding any doubts they may have about your willingness to report to people with less experience than you. 

10. Rejection is not acceptable

In life and in work, dealing with rejection is difficult. But what’s this? You might not have to accept it, though!

Once you’ve given yourself some time to recover from your initial disappointment, your next move should be to figure out why you were turned down. Your capacity to take criticism will come in handy at this point. Demonstrate your resolve by listening to the reasons why you were rejected. The next time you apply for a job, keep this information in mind.

Conclusion

Keep the door open as well. Inform the company that you are still interested in the position or others that are similar. Request a second chance if the post becomes available. Be passionate about the position.

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Content Marketing Data Analytics eCommerce Marketing

The Guide to Become a Data-Driven Marketer

Guide to becoming Data-driven Marketer

Today is the data age. Companies should actively develop their data-driven digital strategy frameworks to meet growing consumer expectations. This framework is data-driven and will give you insights into how to serve customers better online. It will also help you create more reliable strategies that can deliver long-lasting results. This is known as data-driven marketing.

What is Data-driven digital marketing?

Data-driven digital marketing refers to the method where companies use customer data to predict future needs and wants. Methods such as predictive analysis can help you anticipate or predict changes in their interactions with your pages and/or website. You will then be able to stay one step ahead.

Companies and marketers have endorsed the systematic approach. Forbes reports that 66% of marketers believe this strategy has increased their customer acquisition rates. Like all marketing strategies, data-driven approaches still face many trials and errors. It takes time to harness the power of data to bill effective frameworks to create campaigns that work. 

How to be a more Data-Driven marketer?

1. Identify your ideal markets and audiences for your product using data. 

Target the audiences and the markets that are the ideal fit for your company. If you invest all the money into marketing and advertising it won’t amount to anything if it is not reaching the right prospect. Using lending data you may find the type of audience that has used this type of equipment before or you may even find an entire industry that you had never even considered before. If you know exactly who you are marketing to, this allows you to adjust for seasonality, anticipate buying patterns, and segment messaging.

Utilizing data and shaping your marketing around it can give your company an advantage in this very crowded field. Companies should not settle for reading data from customers’ interactions with ads and engagements on the site. This can lead to a fragmented view of your customer and could cause you to miss key pieces of insight development. This is in line with the key digital trends in 2021 which relate to non-linear customer experiences.

They don’t just interact with brands through one or two channels. Their journeys often take them through many twists and turn before reaching their conversion goal. Marketers should not only look at first-party data sources but also consider third-party sources to gain a “holistic understanding” of their audiences. This will allow you to gauge who your audience is, what they want, and the messages that resonate with them. This data will allow you to ensure that your business and marketing strategies are accurate and achieve the best results. 

2. Target direct competitors

The old days of brand awareness are gone. People know about your brand and they know about your competitors. Always gather information about your competitors. It is important to realize that your company does not have the right to dominate the digital market. Digital executions can be influenced by your direct competitors as they are likely to target the same customers as you.

It is beneficial if you could find out which parts of those competitors can be adapted into your strategies or executions. Competitors’ data is not for you to copy but rather for you to have an improved understanding of what could be successful and how you can improve that strategy to suit your advantage. 

3. Try to know your customers personally.

You can use Google Analytics to get first-hand information about your customers’ likes and dislikes. This information can be used to help you create smooth, personalized campaigns that get attention, and traction and take action from your customers. Customers expect more than personal engagement. They also expect that engagement comes at the right moment on the right device and with the right message.

4. Find out the issues to achieve the trend. 

Trends are what users tend to follow. However, for marketers, this could be the key to a better digital strategy. Remember that marketing campaigns are only one way to get people to buy what you are selling. It is crucial to identify the root causes of the problem and then figure out how to fix them. Studying the actions of every customer on the website is a very good method. Try to figure out where visitors lost interest, and what other patterns they are following, and use the data to improve campaigns and achieve better results. 

5. High digital maturity is key.

Modern business approaches require digital maturity. Studies have found that organizations with high levels of digital maturity performed better than organizations with medium digital maturity. These organizations were also found to be more effect efficient, as well as more likely to win grant increases and are more optimistic about the future.

It is essential to start with the basics of digital maturity. You can start to search for digital tools your company might require. And then you will need to learn and master these tools. If your company is short on time, it can always turn to a data-driven agency to help.

6. Be channel-specific 

You reach the channels your customers are using. This information is easy to gather because of modern technology. You can target your audience using information about consumer device preferences. A majority of people are now on their smartphones. Mobile-friendly strategies can be developed to help you reach your customers. It is also a good idea to optimize your websites for mobile viewing.

Targeting your preferred channels will not only improve your targeting accuracy but also simplifies the buying journey for your customers. This will be a win-win situation for both the company and the customer.

7. Have someone else read it. 

Data scientists can help you if you need data to drive your business forward, but you have very little or no knowledge about how to turn data into insights. Get help from experts to save yourself and your team. This is one of the key steps in creating a data-driven environment, so that analytics language can match and complement the whole business. Although it may seem daunting to become a data-driven business, with the right tools, the team and the right people you can make it happen.

Conclusion 

Your customers’ data cannot tell you everything about your customers. However, it can only tell so much about your customers. This is why campaigns don’t resonate with people as strongly as they do with other marketing. Experts are required to look at data to gain data insights. So try to make your connections mutually beneficial. With that, we will see you in the next one, catch us on our social media handles below.

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Agency Life Content Marketing eCommerce Marketing Industry Insiders

Digital Marketing Agency #101

Digital Marketing agency 101

Digital marketing agencies are companies employed by other businesses to manage their digital marketing activities:

from designing social media strategy to informing and executing the SEO optimization of web pages and content.

Depending on the size and scope of the needs of the client, the digital marketing agency–typically a team of digital marketing experts–will work on both short-term campaigns and long-term maintenance of a business’s digital marketing output to achieve specific and measurable company goals such as boosting traffic, sales, or engagement.

What is a Digital Marketing Agency?

A digital marketing agency performs the functions of a digital marketing team or supports an existing in-house digital marketing team on behalf of a company or client. These capabilities will vary depending on the specific needs of the business you are responsible for, but typically you will use omnichannel, multichannel, or single-channel marketing across websites, blogs, social media, and platforms, to reach your customers and prospects through email and more digital marketing channels.

A digital marketing agency may be employed to execute a strategy already created by a business, or they might be brought on to help advise on strategy, or plan it from scratch. The goal of these innovative strategies is to market products and services online to enhance interaction and ultimately increase sales and revenue. A digital marketing agency might manage social media accounts, optimize website pages, create and publish content for blogs or other publications, or implement an SEO strategy to ensure a brand appears high on search engine result pages for relevant search terms.

A digital marketing agency will typically employ experts from specific areas of digital marketing in order to offer various specializations and expertise. Those areas might include:

  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Email marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Content and copywriting
  • Social media marketing
  • Search engine marketing (SEM)
  • Data analysis
  • Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
  • Mobile Marketing
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Brand management
  • Video creation
  • Digital PR
  • Marketing automation
  • Graphic design
  • Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
  • Community management

3. Why Use a Digital Marketing Agency

Choosing to hire a digital marketing agency over building an in-house team (or doing everything yourself) has many benefits.

Staying on top of these changing trends and predicting future trends are tasks that a digital marketing agency`s team of experts will be routinely performing for all their clients. For smaller companies, startups, or sole traders, a digital marketing agency can provide either an extension to a small in-house marketing team, or provide a complete marketing package, supporting a company with its collective knowledge of all areas of digital marketing, such as SEO, SEM, PPC ads, and social media marketing. 

When a company outsources its marketing needs to a digital agency, a company with limited marketing resources can rest assured that its marketing demands are in expert hands. You benefit from the best digital marketing tools However, while these tools offer great value to marketing teams and professionals, there are two potential problems for businesses.

And new digital marketing tools are popping up all the time. Agencies should always have budgets for access to the latest and most impactful digital marketing tools and train their teams of marketers on how to use them for maximum benefit to their brands and businesses. Customers pay a flat agency fee, so no additional investment in digital tools is required. Hiring a digital marketing agency can give you a new perspective on your ideas from people learning about your business for the first time.

When you work for an agency, you are not limited to the marketing knowledge of one or two individuals, but rather the combined experience of many professionals. Since the clientele that agencies typically work with is broad, from large corporations to start-ups to freelancers, their team will likely have experience working for companies like yours and will be able to provide helpful guidance and advice specific to your problem.

4. What services do digital marketing agencies offer?

We have already outlined some of the main services that digital marketing agencies can offer their clients. Now let’s take a closer look at the specific actions digital marketing agencies can take to increase traffic, engagement, sales, and revenue from their clients.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of improving a website’s content to make it easier for users to find it on search engines such as Google and Bing. The more relevant a search engine algorithm deems a website to be in relation to a certain theme or word, the higher up that page gets ranked on a search engine’s results pages (also known as SERPs). When this happens, users searching that search term (or ‘keyword’) see that website first, and are therefore more likely to visit it.

Within a digital marketing agency, marketing specialists will use the following tactics to improve a client’s SEO, and therefore boost website traffic with interested users:

  • Keyword research
  • On-page optimization
  • Information Architecture
  • Answering common industry search queries with high-quality, relevant content
  • Link building
  • Competitor research and analysis
  • Page navigation
  • Focus on the user experience

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

PPC is a form of search engine marketing (SEM) which brings users to a company website through paid search advertising campaigns, with the long-term goal of making the website as visible and easy to find as possible. PPC works by charging the person who has placed an advertisement (in this case, a digital marketing agency or the client) every time a user clicks on one of their ads.

PPC advertising can be a cost-effective digital marketing technique as the advertiser is only charged when a user actually lands on their website but is not charged for simply running the ad. PPC is also targeted, allowing advertisers to choose demographics such as location, language and device type.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is the process of planning, creating and publishing eye-catching, engaging, high quality and relevant content on a company’s social media platforms. These social media channels typically include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but also sites such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, and TikTok, depending on where your company’s audience spends most of their time.

The purpose of posting content on social media is to grow your audience, followers, or community. Build brand awareness and authority, convert and retain customers, and increase business revenue. In reality, it is an opportunity to promote products and services, educate users about what a company does and means on a daily basis, and interact directly with its target audience.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation is what happens when tools and services are used which can automate different marketing activities to streamline activities and goals, enhance efficiency and productivity, and enable the tracking and analysis of large amounts of data. A digital marketing agency can set up marketing automation tools on behalf of a company or client for a range of activities related to:

  • Social media planning, scheduling, and posting
  • Analytics and ROI tracking
  • Conversation monitoring
  • Campaign segmentation
  • Content curation and management
  • Email marketing (email outreach, customer journey emails, and newsletters)
  • Lead generation, analysis, and management
  • Testing
  • Website visitor tracking

Email marketing

Email marketing is the creation of sequences of emails to promote a product, offer, or service to a company’s client base or users. Creating sequences which align with the customer journey–from the “Welcome” email sequence through to “Sales” emails–the goal of email marketing is to address the user’s needs, solve their problems, and answer their questions at every stage of the journey in order to convert a lead or nurture a sale.

Conclusion

By leveraging various digital channels, such as social media, search engine optimization, and email marketing, a digital marketing agency can help businesses connect with potential customers and build brand awareness. Additionally, working with a digital marketing agency allows businesses to focus on their core competencies while leaving the complexities of digital marketing to the experts. 

With the ever-increasing importance of digital marketing in today’s business landscape, partnering with a digital marketing agency can be a crucial step toward achieving long-term success. With that, we’ll see you in the next one, follow us on our social media handles below.

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Content Marketing Digital Technology eCommerce Marketing Industry Insiders

How to Lead Your Digital Transformation with Marketing 2023

Digital Transformation in Marketing

Every marketer wants to create a better customer experience. The prospect or consumer experience is key to not only conversion and increased revenue, but also customer loyalty and advocacy, so this is what makes or breaks your business.

The Marketing Evolution: The Leadership, Transformation, Skills, Challenges & the Future study found that 71% of senior marketers and 61% of mid-tier marketers are responsible for their organization’s digital transformation.

Yet, according to The 2021 State of Digital Transformation, only 23% of CMOs are supporting digital transformation, with more IT taking the lead.

However, that is not the case as the leader and her team are perfectly positioned to play an active role in the transformation. This blog validates the skills and knowledge that will level up your marketing to accelerate and execute some of the best digital transformation strategies.

Why is a marketing manager best suited to lead?

The role of the marketing team is to inform, influence and transform. This requires unique skills and broad insight into how companies and clients work. When it comes to creating a digital transformation strategy, marketing leaders can step back and look at the big picture. Create a vision of where your company is and needs to be.

This applies to the company as a whole and its functions, not just marketing. Because digital transformation must focus on the entire customer lifecycle, not just part of it.

Know Your Customers Your job is to keep up to date with new trends and developments. This includes not only technology but also customer needs and behaviours. This is important for any business when planning scenarios and looking to the future.

The importance of customer experience cannot be ignored either. Customers are becoming more sophisticated and demand a consistent and seamless omnichannel approach across all touchpoints across the organization.

So when your customers click on your social media post to learn more about your new product, make sure the next touchpoint is related to that product (such as a custom landing page) and mentions your brand. Otherwise, you will quickly lose your customer’s attention.

Understanding Data

Marketing leaders rely on data. This can help you make better decisions, whether it’s paid advertising performance or conversion rates.

There may be vast amounts of data, but it’s the ability to uncover critical insights for your business. You need data that drives performance, leads, and sales. Your marketing team can help your business get there.

Developing a strategy for digital transformation requires not only understanding business data, but also the entire ecosystem. Do you know what your competitors are doing? What is your industry overview and what are the key developments over the next 12 months?

Market research and forecasting are part of the CMO’s job. It’s about assessing the external environment and understanding how companies fit into it. This allows you to improve where it matters and focus on areas that may be underdeveloped or under-resourced within your organization.

Soft Skills

Technical knowledge and skills are essential in today’s work environment, especially in marketing. But it’s not the whole picture.

Equally important are soft skills, also called power skills. This includes behaviour, personality traits, and work habits. It also helps form diverse and agile teams. This is essential to any digital transformation process.

According to ‘The Future of Work:

2022 Global Report’, the top skills employers are looking for are soft skills such as reliability, flexibility, problem-solving and teamwork/collaboration. Other Soft His skills include creativity, innovation, curiosity and persuasiveness.

What Every Marketer Should Have:

1. Agile Strategy

Agility is essential to digital transformation. It helps companies respond to internal and external changes. This rapid pivoting capability helps maintain or improve customer engagement and fosters employee harmony by creating productive and engaged employees.

This is why a marketing leader and his team should adopt agile strategies. But what does that mean?

Enterprise agility is not just about delivering products and software, it’s about how a business is structured, operated and behaved. It’s about establishing deep connections, new directions, and operational flexibility.

2. Enterprise Agility

This should not only focus on being customer-centric, it should also focus on internal talent. Optimizing skills and knowledge through simple upskilling with continuous learning and integrated agile thinking.

Ultimately, it is a holistic and integrated view of the entire business environment, where everyone is working towards a common goal and ready to adapt as needed.

How do you make a difference?

Leading and embracing change can be difficult. But in today’s fast-paced environment, you have no choice. The pandemic shows how quickly the external environment can change without warning, and how we respond can make or break our success.

There are five easy steps: 

1. Listen

This focuses on listening to customers and employees. Take an interest in customer feedback, such as reviews and phone calls, and involve customers in surveys and focus groups. Create a feedback environment for your employees and hold regular meetings to gain insights.

2. Evaluate

Focus on business objectives and relate to KPIs. Then use the data you want to see where you can make the biggest changes. Empower marketers with the information they need to make informed decisions, rather than waiting for more data.

3. Implement 

Educate your team and prepare for change. Each team member should know what, when, and what is expected of them to achieve it. This includes providing training where necessary and being able to discuss the ‘why’ for further development.

4. Execute

This is how you execute your decisions and follow up with your team. This phase asks for you to communicate the firm’s expectations and identify early adopters.

5. Iterate 

Commit to the changes you are making and bring the team along. If you made any changes, go back and repeat these steps for subsequent changes. Change is hard but ultimately worth it.

Conclusion

And with that, we come to the end of this brief journey, hoping that by now you have a rough sketch of the strategies and plans to ride this wave of digital transformation that’s committed to last at least this decade. See you in the next one, catch us on our social media handles below.

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Industry Insiders

Digital Transformation in Healthcare

The 21st century has seen a proliferation of digital technologies in healthcare, allowing for more efficient and accessible medical care. In this article, we will take a comprehensive look at the current state of digital transformation in healthcare, and examine the key trends, technologies, and strategies that are driving this change.

The Digital Healthcare Revolution

The 21st century has witnessed a significant shift in healthcare towards digitization. The use of electronic medical records (EMRs), cloud-based systems, and telemedicine has enabled healthcare providers to offer more efficient and convenient services to patients. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of digital technology in healthcare, as it has become necessary to provide healthcare remotely to patients and healthcare providers. 

From virtual consultations to online prescription renewals, the digitalization of healthcare has made it easier for patients to access medical care and for healthcare providers to manage patient information.

The Importance of Digital Transformation

The adoption of digital technology in healthcare brings a multitude of benefits. Firstly, it improves patient outcomes by providing healthcare professionals with real-time access to patient information, enabling them to make more informed decisions. Secondly, it streamlines operations by automating manual processes, reducing errors, and increasing efficiency. 

Additionally, digital solutions such as telemedicine and e-commerce are providing patients with greater access to healthcare services in rural or underserved areas. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital healthcare solutions have become a lifeline for many people, enabling them to continue to access medical care while minimizing the risk of transmission.

The Rise of Digital Health

The rise of digital health can be attributed to several factors. One major factor is the increasing demand for healthcare services due to an aging population and a growing global population. Another factor is the rapid advancements in technology, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things, which have made it possible to collect, store, and analyze large amounts of data. 

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital solutions in healthcare, as it has become necessary to provide healthcare remotely to patients and healthcare providers.

The Future of Digital Health: Key Trends

Digital transformation in healthcare is being driven by several key trends, and these trends are likely to continue shaping the industry in the future.

Telemedicine

One of the most notable trends is the increasing use of telemedicine, which enables patients to consult with healthcare professionals remotely. This trend is particularly beneficial for patients in underserved or rural areas who may not have access to healthcare services nearby. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine as it has become necessary to provide healthcare remotely to patients.

Wearables and IoT

Another trend is the use of wearables and other digital devices to collect patient data and enable remote monitoring. From fitness trackers to smartwatches, wearables can track a wide range of health metrics, including heart rate, sleep patterns, and activity levels, and provide real-time insights into patients’ health. Additionally, IoT devices are being used in hospitals and clinics to streamline operations and improve patient care.

Artificial Intelligence

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are being used to analyze patient data and identify patterns, which can help healthcare professionals to make more informed decisions. From predicting patient outcomes to identifying at-risk individuals, AI is enabling healthcare providers to improve patient care and lower costs.

E-commerce Marketing in Healthcare

E-commerce marketing is playing a significant role in driving digital transformation in healthcare. By leveraging e-commerce platforms, healthcare providers can expand their reach and serve more patients. Online appointment booking, telemedicine, and home delivery of prescription drugs are some of the ways that e-commerce marketing is being used in the healthcare industry. 

Additionally, through digital marketing strategies such as SEO, PPC, and social media marketing, healthcare providers can effectively target and connect with potential patients. These strategies allow healthcare providers to build trust and create a sense of connection with patients, even when interactions are taking place remotely.

With the rise of telemedicine, e-commerce marketing in healthcare has also become increasingly important. Patients can now easily book virtual consultations, purchase prescription drugs online and have them delivered to their homes, and even order medical equipment online. This not only provides patients with more convenient access to medical care but also helps healthcare providers to reach more patients and boost their revenue.

Challenges and Opportunities

While digital transformation in healthcare is bringing many benefits, some challenges must be addressed. One major challenge is data security, as the increased use of digital technology raises the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. 

Additionally, the rapid pace of change in the industry can make it difficult for healthcare providers to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. Despite these challenges, there are also many opportunities for healthcare providers to improve patient care, increase revenue, and streamline operations. 

One such opportunity is the use of data analytics, which can help healthcare providers to identify patterns and trends in patient data, and make more informed decisions. Additionally, the use of digital technology can also help healthcare providers to reach and serve more patients, particularly in rural or underserved areas.

Conclusion

In conclusion, digital transformation in healthcare is rapidly changing the way the medical industry operates. The adoption of digital technology in healthcare is improving patient outcomes, streamlining operations, and providing patients with greater access to healthcare services. 

E-commerce marketing is playing a significant role in driving this change by enabling healthcare providers to reach and serve more patients through online channels. As technology continues to advance, we can expect to see even more innovations in the healthcare industry, and it will be important for healthcare providers to stay updated on the latest trends and technologies to improve patient care and increase revenue.

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Categories
Digital Technology

The Publishing Industry Landscape in the Digital Age

The Publishing Industry Landscape in The digital Age

Needless to say, books are the backbone of human history and knowledge. In fact, the first-ever text written dates back to 3500 BC! And here we are in the world of eBooks and documents, or are we?

Recent studies show that eBook sales have flattened and printed book sales have only boosted with the rise of the digital era. With physical books outselling eBooks, there’s been a 2.1% rise in the printed book industry valuation over a year from 2017 to 2018. 

What does this trend tell us? Are the advancements in the tech world still lacking, or is it a mysterious driving force pushing our generation into this publishing renaissance? Analysts believe that among many other factors, this trend is being driven by the absolute pleasure a reader gets by having a new book in their collection.

With the advancements in the publishing sector and budding artists, readers are attracted to these beautiful-looking books that are just much more than written texts or stories. They’re buying an off-screen, immersive experience.

“The book lover loves to have a record of what they’ve read, and it’s about signaling to the rest of the world. It’s about decorating your home, it’s about collecting, I guess, because people are completists aren’t they, they want to have that to indicate about themselves” says Meryl Halls, managing director of UK’s Bookseller’s association.

Let’s dive deeper into this interesting world of digital publishing. We’ll be breaking this down into five simple parts:

  1. Digitizing Publications
  2. Diversifying Marketing 
  3. Busting the rivalry myth
  4. Role of Amazon
  5. Author’s blueprint to Marketing 

Digitizing Publications

While the eBooks market doesn’t seem to cannibalize printed books, digital publishing seems to take different turns over the years. Chris Lavergne, the CEO of youth culture magazine, documented that even when he had more eBook units sold, the printed copies generated over 7 times more revenue. 

This simply tells that the market for printed books is diverse and generates more revenue. When writers like J.K. Rowling say that they still love to write by hand, it’s quite obvious that readers still love reading from matt papers with a distinctive scent.

Nowadays with the availability of features like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), budding authors can publish their own books independently. But with the rise of this eBook revolution, rises bigger problems.

With the sheer amount of books constantly being published, the readers will have a blitz of content at their disposal, and eventually, the value of eBooks will decline. A testimonial to this is the 4.5% decline in eBook sales in the first quarter of 2019.

Diversifying Marketing

While 2012 marked the start of a constant decline in the sales of the Amazon Kindle tablet, there’s a new format of books that the population seems to enjoy, and the sales for which only seem to skyrocket.

With the upcoming audiobook platforms like audible, people are having the liberty to multitask while they relish their prose of choice. This draws a new scape of possibilities to the upcoming era of digital publishing.

Diversifying your marketing strategies and using a mix of all the present-day technology can help you reach your target audience. The period we are living in, has seen an upsurge in e-marketing tactics and makes it way easier to advertise, market, and distribute your content.

The most evident & successful example of hybrid marketing is the journey of Penguin Random House. Penguin has been the household name to readers for generations starting all the way back in the 1930s. The brand has shown constant growth with time.

With the emergence of the audiobook culture, penguin launched their own podcast and earned a listening time of 13 million minutes. Swiftly ranking in the top 30s charts of UK podcasts. Similar strategies of hybrid marketing have been implemented by independent sellers by teaming up with distributors and vendors.

Busting the Rivalry myth

After considering the distinction between the digital age of publications and the traditional market for printed books, is it really worth considering this as a rivalry? According to many experts, digital books just serve as an extension of the publishing industry.

If the example of Penguin Random House isn’t enough to convince you that all the channels are serving the same audience, then this statement by the CEO of McGraw-Hill might surprise you. He stated, “maintaining both print infrastructure and digital infrastructure means lower margins, or say a larger readership.”

Digital publishing has its own cons too, it makes it easier for people to get pirated and even free copies of books, but the worst part is they get circulated and affects the sales of eBooks massively. If this issue is somehow taken into account and solved, we could see a new scape of users.

Role of Amazon

Amazon first started as an online book store and later turned into an e-Commerce giant. Something that hasn’t changed over the decades is the love-hate relationship between publishers and Amazon.

It’s a wonderful place to establish your own online store and start selling, but with a big audience comes bigger competition, the sheer amount of sellers present on the platform makes it exceptionally difficult to compete with the bigger sellers that might overshadow your small store.

Author’s blueprint to Marketing 

For individual authors to grow and build an audience for themselves, they need to be prudent marketers. An alternative to this could be having a former audience on social media platforms. Humble the poet and Ravinder Singh are great examples of this.

Utilizing the audience an author has on social media is a great way to headstart your career as an author but it should be known that the process can be tedious if you aren’t familiar with the needs and likings of your target audience.

Almost every city has its homegrown publishing house, it is getting easier to automate and personalize the experience an author is willing to publish and distribute. Hybrid marketing opens up new pathways for reaching your desired audience.

With a unique approach and talent, you can always have hopes of putting out your words into this widespread passion of reading and collecting books. As evident as it is, Books will never go out of trend- they are a culture to relish and preserve. And if you are willing, you are welcome.

If you liked this article and looking forward to reading more valuable pieces like this, consider subscribing to our newsletter.

Categories
SEO

Creating A Customer Journey Map for your brand

Creating a Customer Journey Map for your Brand

It goes without saying that a unified customer journey is critical to success. These marketers understand how a customer or user journey map can streamline processes and provide customers with a unified brand experience. Ideally, a customer journey map turns the online customer journey into a visually accessible method that digital marketers can use to their advantage. 

To streamline your customer experience and be constantly available to consumers throughout their online experience, read on to learn how you can create the best customer journey map for your brand. 

 What is a customer journey map? 

 A customer journey map is “a visual representation of each of your customer experiences.” Throughout their experience with your brand, a customer will likely interact with or remember your brand on multiple platforms and in different ways. A customer journey map helps your brand provide a seamless narrative of the customer experience through the online sales funnel. 

 Although it may seem that the journey from first contact to sale is quite simple, it is anything but. The customer is bombarded with countless daily advertisements, newsletters, and competitive content. This complicates their journey with your brand, and a comprehensive customer journey map is your solution to making the experience easier. 

Customers can interact with your brand in many ways in today’s digital environment. Some examples are: 

  • Reading a  blog post related to your brand 
  • Accessing your website through a search engine platform 
  • Following your brand on various social media channels 
  • Creating a clear visualization of all the possible ways a customer can interact and connect with your brand. A journey map helps you keep customers engaged while increasing conversions and revenue. 

 Why create a customer journey map? 

 With so much travel happening digitally, it’s critical that digital marketers understand exactly where customers interact with your brand while providing regularly accessible, high-quality content. With an effective customer journey map, digital marketers can better understand how their customers interact with their business and gain useful information about which channels are most effective in converting leads and prospects into loyal customers. 

 Gone are the days when products with special features were traditionally marketed. Modern buyers are interested in the brand as a whole, how it interacts with them personally, and most importantly, how the offer can solve the problems they face. A simplified customer journey map helps explain how digital marketers can most effectively provide this information to potential customers and keep them engaged and committed to making a purchase. 

 Get started with a customer journey map 

 Now that you understand what a customer journey map is and how it can take your digital marketing efforts to the next level, let’s move on to online journey mapping. Your customer journey is complex, so a map’s job is to make it as focused and straightforward as possible. 

 Step 1: Use Your Sales Funnel to Define the Buying Process 

 Ideally, your brand already has an online sales funnel that shows how leads move through your content and marketing strategies to ultimately complete a purchase. This data gives you guidance on how many potential touch points a customer has with your brand and content, and how each interaction impacts the next. 

 Step 2: Think Like a Customer 

 Despite the massive growth of customer data, it is difficult to truly think like a customer. Each prospect is a unique individual with different needs, feelings, personalities, responsibilities, etc. So how can you, as a digital marketer, understand how your customers choose to reach the bottom of your sales funnel and buy your product or service? 

While you can’t completely predict a prospect’s next steps, you can target them at different stages of your sales funnel as you go through the process yourself. Follow these steps as you cycle through different combinations of touchpoints and options. If you find a part of your buying journey that doesn’t seem like a natural next step, take note and optimize that step to make the customer journey more logical and understandable. 

 If you really want to optimize your customer journey, review your support call and email transcripts so you can track errors and resolve issues in the purchase process  before moving on to the next step. 

 Step 3: Develop  customer interaction touchpoints 

 Simply put, a touch point is any digital place where a customer can learn about your brand or interact with your website. Each touch point in turn is critical to communication and conversion from a business prospect. 

Many of these touch points were traced in the second stage of this process. But now it’s time to design these touch points logically. For example, having a customer “like” a social media post counts as one touchpoint while clicking a link on that social media post is another. Group these touchpoints into logical areas such as “social media touchpoints” and “website touchpoints”. 

 Step 4: Implement Your Customer Journey Map and Do Your Research 

First, create a visually appealing customer journey map that is accessible to all necessary team members. A graphic designer helps bring together findings and touch points in a visual sequence that is understandable, logical, and beautiful. 

Now that you’ve identified all the potential touchpoints, grouped them into logical sets of regions, and created an easy-to-use customer journey map, it’s time to put your new discoveries to work and see how they perform digitally.

Platforms like Google Analytics are a big help if you want to see where buyers regularly go in the customer journey. If you notice patterns, such as a lack of clicks on newsletters or customers abandoning right before purchasing, analyze those touch points and make the necessary improvements. 

Target customers want their journey to be as easy as possible, so including too many touch points in the purchase process may not keep them engaged throughout the journey. When looking at your customer journey map, make sure the journey is simple enough to keep them in the perfect logical steps, while still providing the personalized and educational content they need to keep them engaged. 

Step 5: Optimize Your Customer Journey Map Regularly  

 Like most aspects of your digital marketing strategy, your online customer journey often changes as technology evolves and new digital platforms are integrated into the buying cycle. By regularly monitoring how your customers are progressing through your buying cycle, you can identify gaps and develop processes to streamline the customer experience. 

 According to Aberdeen Group’s 2016 report,  Customer Journey Mapping: Lead the Way to Advocacy, organizations experienced a 16.8 percent increase in sales cycle size when a user journey map was successfully developed, implemented, and maintained. While creating a customer journey map can be a timely endeavor for a digital marketer, it offers unparalleled value to your brand and your customers. 

Conclusion 

 Providing your potential customers with a smooth and enjoyable online experience will help them increase sales. By understanding your customers’ needs and preferences, you can increase your productivity by focusing your digital marketing development on the touchpoints that need the most help. Empower yourself to create consistent customer experiences that connect your digital marketing strategy with the quality digital content your customers expect from your best-in-class organization.

Categories
Digital Technology

Growth Hacking #101

Growth Hacking #101

“Growth is important, and most great companies take it seriously” quotes Adam Nash, the CEO and co-founder of Daffy. Growth hacking means figuring out one specific goal and then tackling it with all cylinders firing.Scaling growth hacking is like scaling any business. Growth hackers are really good at doing technical things, being creative, and exploring new things. 

3 things to know before starting hacking your way into growth:

  1. Who are your customers?

It is necessary to figure out what channels your customers are using.

Five different strategies

  • Integrations

If you leverage their user base, you can grow yours. 

How to optimize integrations?

  • Integrations have to make your product better
  • Measure your conversions and revenue 
  • Discover valuable integrations
  • Ask users about integrations
  • Make your partner pages awesome.
  • Work Emails

Everyone has to have an email account. If you can figure out how to tap it, you can definitely get a huge customer base quickly. When people put in an email, you want to try to entice them. With emails, you got to optimize onboarding. It is not that difficult to get people to put in their emails. Good onboarding is important. You have to optimize the onboarding and continually tweak and test it. Without doing that, you will get a big drop-off from emails. It’s all about onboarding. 

  • Embeds

When you are doing the embeds, you have to give people a reason why they should embed. You can’t get people to embed your product or service if there is not a good reason why people should embed it. 

How to optimize embeds?

  • Make it as much easy as possible to embed.
  • Track how well your embeds convert
  • Test relevant call to actions
  • Optimize for search but don’t obsess.
  • Powered by

This option can play a major role in influencing the customer to sign up for your domain and be a part of your customer community. Hence optimising this gesture is of great importance. So test and ready your copy top call action to occupy and make your website fully functional with this feature. Also, make sure to optimize and provide a smooth experience while directing to different pages. It would also be very helpful for you to analyse and study the trends of the users and consumers in your website and these landing pages, their clicks, conversions and LTV. 

  • Free Tools

When you are doing free tools you need to map it out to the customer decision making. You want to educate your prospects a lot of the best free stuff out there like ebooks and information, how to use products, how to get more value out of a service, whatever it may be anything that benefits your user, built a lot of goodwill and it causes them to spend more money with you, tell other companies, friends, about your product and service. Finally, you also want to measure and optimise for revenue. 

  • Think about what you can repurpose
  • Educate your prospects
  • Test your ideas minimally
  • Measure and optimize revenue
  1. Find what’s best for your product

Things to know while starting a business

  • Knowing what you are getting into
  • Keeping a winning mindset
  • Knowing how much is coming in
  • Organizing growth
  • Diversifying

Focus is the most important thing. Keep working on what works.

  1. Some major tactics you need to be aware of:

Growth hacking strategies

  • Shift to high ticket sales

In your industry, you need to figure out who is buying a high ticket and what you can create and package together that gives a high-value high return offer for your clients. If you even just shifted from being low to a mid-price point and went to high-end sales, you would have more loyal customers, you would like your customers better, and it would be so much easier to increase your sales in the short time frame.

  • Revamp your sales scripts

Scripting gets stale, it gets old and if you watch your sales scripting you will see that it works really well for a while and then all of a sudden it becomes a little bit less effective. If you never had sales scripting in the first place you absolutely need to get it, and if you have had great sales scripting, that has worked really well in the past but is not converting as well right now, it just needs an update. 

  • Build a sales system

Your sales system should be telling you who needs to be called and who is ready to progress to the next lead stage. It should be telling you what is your tracking for the month and what the deals are that are in the pipeline so that you know that sales are coming. 

  • Build a sales team

At times the sales owner would not be able to manage everything. So if you want to dramatically increase sales, get an appointment setter to call and schedule qualified conversations for you. 

  • Call every single lead that comes through your business. 

If you want to dramatically increase your sales, call every single lead that comes through your door. Outreach is very important. Never wait for the sales to reach you. Make sure that you go out and get them. 

  • Converting Ad Creatives by Artificial Intelligence: When you’re scaling up using Facebook ads, testing various audiences with different creatives becomes key. Certain challenges come along with it. So make sure you create high-converting creatives for yourself.
  •  Your Competitor is Your BEST FRIEND: There’s no denying the fact that you learn a lot more from your competitors than anybody else. You might not like them but the best business lessons can be learnt from them. 
  • Find the best Color Combination:The biggest reason why some landing pages don’t convert is the colour combination. Colors have their language which is true in the case of landing pages.
  • Grow with Technology: It’s pretty well-known that if you want to win high-paying clients, your research work on them before pitching, needs to be super strong and what’s better than pinpointing their weak points. To identify the weak points or suggest better ways to get more leads or sales, you can understand the technology they are using on their websites.

Growth hacking as we have discussed here will come in real handy if you wish to boost your brand and its reach. To scale growth hacking as a skill using multimedia resources would be a very choice. Making a shirt video explaining how to go about certain activities pertaining to your brand or tutorials or other interesting content is a very simple way to scale growth hacking as a skill. Set your system up in a way that is occupied for scaling and add elements into your product that will give it a certain zest and feel that will surely make it viral in an instant. With more desired features added, your product will surely shine in the market. Iterate about the things you want to the customers but in a new and fresh way each time. The goal is to keep the customer happy and satisfied. Also, try to get VIP customers onboard manually giving them that special attention making the VIP service more relevant and worth having. With such a mindset you should be able to reach the aim and goals that you aspire to achieve in no time through growth hacking.

Categories
Social Media

Brands doing CSR Successfully

Brands Doing CSR Successfully

CSR refers to the awareness of a brand about social and environmental issues to build a brand identity that connects with the masses. A random user could be impressed by the vision of the brand and can be a potential customer.

At the same time, this brand value can be a point of conversion for a potential lead to a customer. This brand image or brand value is not something that you can implement with payable methods, marketers can’t buy it overnight – it must be earned. The consumer base that consists of environmental activists and socially aware people is constantly willing to be a part of any social reform that leads to the betterment of our surroundings.

 These users are greatly moved by such campaigns and once you as a brand, earn their trust and loyalty, they’ll always set their best foot forward to not just be a consistent customers with you, but also as a promoter of your brand. Now let’s see in what ways can CSR be implemented.

Ethical Approach

An ethical approach to CSR demands equal treatment for employees and customers of all races, gender, age, or ethnicity. A synchronous treatment of people from various backgrounds is the gist of corporate social responsibility.

A fair opportunity for job openings at a marketing firm to aspirants regardless of their personal differences and similar open-mindedness in opting vendors for distribution or sales of the product can be shown to enhance the positivity of the brand message.

Environmental Approach

Moving forward, thinking of the ecological sustainability of your firm is a clear indicator of the brand’s wisdom. Ecology refers to the study of all the biological creatures and the environment they live in as a whole, termed ecosystem.

A company should always take into consideration and plan the management of the carbon footprint they leave, the resources they exploit, and the wastes they produce. This has proved beneficial for brands multiple times and has emerged as one of the key approaches to successful CSR implementation.

Philanthropic Approach

The philanthropic approach of an organization mainly refers to the good deeds they get involved in. Apart from making profits and creating employment, an organization can play a key role in making the society we live in, a better place. These could be donations, fundraiser events, or even free or discounted services to the needful.

Brands should understand that while people connect with the ecological and ethical influence the brand has, they also keep their eyes on the occasional acts of kindness towards humanity. Not just with the customers, an organization is also expected to show the same kindness to their employees at times.

Financial Approach 

While all the other approaches are centered on getting the attention of the user or employee, the financial approach lets the organization focus on planning the sustainability of funds involved in implementing CSR effectively.

Costs involved in the research and development of strategies that directly affect the sales and productivity of the organization while constantly targeting the crosshair of CSR.

Takeaways 

While we are on it, let’s take a quick look at the takeaways or benefits of complying with a planned CSR strategy:

  1. Engaging Employees

As we just saw, the benefits of CSR to an employee are far greater than a financial bonus that wraps up with the month-end. It creates a long-term impression in the employee’s minds and lives on with them as the legacy of the organization.

  1. Lower Risks

Unawareness of employee rights or user sentiments may give rise to disagreements and have a higher chance to convert into lawsuits. These acts further lead to the decline of the brand’s reputation in the market.

  1. Brand Identity

Apart from reinstalling the positive brand message into the existing customer base, CSR naturally increases the reach of the organization and highlights the kind and more human side of it.

  1. Investor’s trust

Companies that have an edge in environmental and social issues are observed to have a higher valuation by investors. Moreover, participation in CSRs shows the growth and awareness of the organization.

10 Brands heading the right way:

Now that you know the types and benefits of CSR, let’s see which brands have been using it for years and have earned the current reputation in the market:

  1. Google

The first name that comes up when thinking of effective CSR practices is none other than Google. The company has an ever-growing list of loyal customers, not just because of their user-friendliness but also from the incredible communication they’ve established through their CEO. Google has also pledged to dedicate over a billion dollars for renewable energy projects and is already working on many as their data centers reportedly consume roughly half the power as compared to all data centers across the globe.

  1. Tesla

With the incredible CEO and unstoppable engineers, this brand is overflowing with talent while not failing to build a brand reputation bigger than any other motor company of the century. With the sole purpose to make all-electric cars and reduce the overall carbon footprint of their brand, they’re not just selling cars, they’re selling the exact same satisfaction to every happy customer. Undoubtedly Elon Musk will be counted among the most successful entrepreneur of the century.

  1. Johnson & Johnson

The brand that normalized baby care products and brought the most affordable versions of the same into the market, has successfully built a castle of trust in the market for the last three decades. Their aim to provide safe drinking water to poor communities across the world as well as the initiative to reduce their carbon footprint has resulted in never-ending trust and loyalty among businesses and customers too while also enriching the existing consumer base of the brand.

  1. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola stands out as a brand that never was expected to announce something as reforming as reducing its carbon footprint by 25% in the coming eight years. They have the surprising aim to recycle every Coca-Cola bottle on earth and thus make their packaging 100% recyclable. They’ve also promised to return all the water back to the environment that is used in making their world-famous drinks.

  1. Netflix

The world-famous OTT platform Netflix provides a lesser-known scheme to their employees. They aid the upcoming child of their employees by offering them a 52-week paid leave. Usually, big organizations offer a regular 18-week parental leave but Netflix took a step forward to keep its employees happy and loyal. Netflix has also never thought twice to spread awareness about social issues through its content.

  1. Toms

Toms footwear had pledged to donate a pair of footwear for every single unit sold. And they sure stood for the claim donating more than 100 million pairs of footwear to date and spreading double the smiles. They went further to donate eyeglasses for the visually impaired and provide safe drinking water to the masses. Later the company discontinued the mentioned kind of practices due to NGO backlashes. They now continue to donate a third of their total profits to social campaigns.

  1. Disney

No one saw this giant stepping forward to step back from its carbon footprint. They are putting an equal foot forward towards improving the lives of their employees and customers. Even during the pandemic, Disney donated over $27 million towards food donations and PPE distribution. They’ve also committed to reducing their water wastage by a significant number.

  1. LEGO

Lego heading towards sustainability has pledged to donate over $400 million following a period of the next 3 years. Their goal is currently their biggest challenge, which is to remove the single-use plastic from their products completely and make their packaging sustainable too. This is a huge and admirable step from a brand based completely on single-use plastic, it seems that it will be worth the wait to see the brand emerge as an even greater legacy in the coming years.

  1. GE

General motors with their EV production line, made a comeback in the market they largely dominated for decades. SUV lovers are not new to the name of Hummer and the fan base that beast had. With GE launching Hummer EV, the dream of owning a military-grade road dominator became the reality for many fans. Along with the lighter carbon footprint of electric vehicles, GE also conducted a campaign rewarding $500,000 to people who innovated ideas capable of saving our environment.

  1. Starbucks 

Last but not the least, call it your favorite café or the coolest remote workplace – Starbucks along with their excellent warmth and services, decided to pay respect to veterans who served the nation by providing them and their spouses with over 25,000 job openings. And in no time, they were already there, now employing over 5,000 veterans every year. This in itself is one peak respect to the devotion of soldiers and makes the bond between Starbucks, Armed Forces, and the civilians even stronger.

These were some of the many known examples of brands adopting CSR effectively and with the aid of humanity and the ecosystem. Brands of all sizes and sectors have a lot to learn from these pioneers of success and kindness.

We surely missed some other examples, feel free to add them in the comments down below. If you liked the article, consider subscribing to our newsletter for future notifications. Find us on social media and we can have your queries solved there.

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