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aa000f6c2a8bb89b0ca5a89b6a7eaf3a	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/07/29/be-your-own-true-self-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/?sh=22e914d42484	Be Your Own True Self: Diversity, Equity And Inclusion In The Workplace	Be Your Own True Self: Diversity, Equity And Inclusion In The Workplace Div has led product marketing in startups and Fortune 500 technology companies and loves to share her PMM and leadership experiences. getty I pledge to not let materialistic things define me. I pledge to find inner beauty and not let my instinct create a label or classification. I pledge to seek to understand before being understood. I am not perfect, and I am still learning to unlearn and open my mind to the new world. It’s not a switch I can turn off or on; it’s a conscious choice to change, to speak up. As Madeleine Albright shared in a recent podcast interview, if you see something, don’t just say something. Do something. I promise to not only try. Taking from the famous quote, I will be the change I wish to see in the world. I am encouraged to see that we can make change happen. I watched the class of 2020’s virtual graduation ceremony with the Obamas, Sundar Pichai, Alicia Keys and others. It was the graduation of a lifetime. Barack Obama shared the message to “do what is right.” I believe in this message. We need to show empathy, generosity and respect to all humans, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity or disability. MORE FOR YOU5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Is Providing Key Crisis Communication LessonsTwo Issues CIOs Need To Watch Out For In 2021 Do what is right. When I started to apply for jobs, I noticed how every job application has questions on gender, race, veteran status and disability. Previously, I would just answer, but now I ask, “Why do I need to answer?” How is it relevant? We need to be mindful of the questions we ask candidates in a job application, and not only ask because we have always done so. Ask yourself why this is the way it is, and don’t be afraid to change things. There is good research on diversity and inclusion (D&I) by Quinetta M. Roberson that states, “Diversity focuses on organizational demography, whereas inclusion focuses on the removal of obstacles to the full participation and contribution of employees in organizations.” There are many companies investing in D&I at the workplace today — not just because of the benefits diversity and inclusion can bring to a workforce, but also because it’s the right thing to do. As stated by Built In, “Not only is inclusivity crucial for diversity efforts to succeed, but creating an inclusive culture will prove beneficial for employee engagement and productivity.” When I started to learn more about D&I, I learned there is a third friend: an “E,” which stands for equity. According to one report (download required), “For every 100 men promoted and hired to manager, only 72 women are promoted and hired.” Equity is also a value companies need to place focus on. The University of Michigan published a great explanation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I): “Diversity is where everyone is invited to the party; equity means that everyone gets to contribute to the playlist; inclusion means that everyone has the opportunity to dance” Respect boundaries. We have to let our differences unite us. We tend to judge each other so quickly and so fast. Everyone is struggling with something, and at work, we need to respect each other’s boundaries. I was lucky to experience a virtual event that focused on breaking down barriers. It opened my eyes to see that disability is a superpower. It’s not “disability.” It’s “differently abled.” As leaders, we need to be more compassionate and practice empathetic listening. We need to focus on not only solving a problem but asking what help is needed. Listen and allow your employees to vent or ask for advice or brainstorm together. Our perception is not reality. What we see or hear may not be the truth, so take the time to learn and understand. It’s amazing when different perspectives come together to build a product or solution that is inclusive, that genuinely cares about the user at their level. Stop comparing to others, and embrace being different. We are in a global workplace today, so how do we overcome challenges and stop comparing ourselves to others? How can we, as leaders, help our team members to be their own true selves? Personally, I’m fortunate to have a loving family, friends and co-workers to support me through my healing from stress and anxiety. I didn’t know much about my freedom of voice and had learned to suppress my own feelings and not hurt others’ feelings — but at the cost of my own emotional health. Each of us is differently abled, and this is our superpower. We need to embrace this diversity among us. By focusing on inclusivity, I believe we can all come together and help each other in times of need to become a truly global community where we support each other and embrace each other for who we are. Seek to understand before being understood. As leaders, we have a long way to go to seek to understand before being understood. I learned about unconscious bias last year, but this is much deeper. It’s ingrained in all of us to want to be understood. However, it also falls on all of us to take the next step — to challenge the status quo and seek to understand. Each of our team members has far more potential than what we can see as leaders. We can bring out the best in each other if we are truly ourselves and leave our biases at the door. Consider telling your team members, “You are better than enough, and I am grateful to have you in my life.” It’s amazing how much trust and credibility can open new possibilities. Start your pledge today, as a leader, to be the change you want to see. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
ef3608c29f5d40fe158a4bb9e499ac51	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/04/three-email-best-practices-for-high-performing-campaigns/?sh=123b16e97bea	Three Email Best Practices For High-Performing Campaigns	Three Email Best Practices For High-Performing Campaigns Tom Wozniak heads up Marketing and Communications for OPTIZMO Technologies. getty Creating effective and high-performing email marketing campaigns is a challenging endeavor for any marketer. While on the surface, an email seems to be a fairly straightforward marketing channel, there are many important foundational aspects that fall into areas such as legal compliance, technical development, database management, analysis and, of course, more traditional marketing aspects like the content, offer, call to action, etc. When you dig into the details, running a successful email marketing program can seem complicated. However, if you start with some basic best practices, you can get your email program off on the right foot. Here are three useful areas to focus on as you establish your email marketing strategy and deployment plans. Compliance And List Hygiene Before you even worry about what we might call the marketing aspects of your email campaign (subject lines, design, images, offers, etc.), you first need to establish a few foundations of your program. Two of the most important are compliance and maintaining a clean email list. Email compliance encompasses a variety of key aspects, but among the most straightforward and important are providing your recipients with a method to opt out of receiving future emails and a way to collect, process, store and then honor those requests going forward. Generally, this means you include an opt-out link in every marketing email you send, and that either your email platform or compliance and suppression list management platform is processing and ensuring those opt-outs are suppressed from future campaigns. MORE FOR YOU5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Is Providing Key Crisis Communication LessonsUniversity of Colorado Takes Action Against John Eastman Don’t take for granted that this is working exactly as it should and in the best way for your business. Make sure you evaluate every aspect of email compliance within your email program and engage with the best technologies and partners to ensure your compliance moving forward. (Full disclosure: My company, OPTIZMO, is an email suppression list management company.) Similarly, you should not view your email list as an asset that you can simply let sit idle and all will be well. Email addresses go stale as people change jobs or simply stop using old addresses. Some recipients continue to receive your email campaigns but flag them as spam or never open them. All of this activity can negatively impact your email campaigns if you aren’t on top of it. First and foremost, you want your emails to be delivered. One of the best ways to ensure this happens is to maintain a clean and up-to-date list. Regularly cleanse your list to remove all email addresses that are invalid or undeliverable. Then consider more advanced hygiene, such as removing high-frequency nonresponders. Having a clean email list will help your sender reputation with the various email platforms and, in general, make it more likely that your emails reach recipient inboxes. Effective Audience Targeting Email marketing provides marketers with the ability to develop extremely granular audience targeting strategies. Depending on the data you have available on the members of your email list, you can develop an audience segmentation that may reach all the way to one-to-one engagement. However, the key to using audience targeting to its greatest effect is to find the right balance between very broad or limited segmentation and extremely narrow segmentation. At a point, efforts to drive additional segmentation will likely bring diminishing returns, as the time and resources put into it are no longer offset by an improved response. So, what is the right level of audience segmentation? As with most broad marketing questions, the answer is that it depends. It varies by industry, company, product and email audience, among other factors. The only way to identify the right audience targeting strategy for your business is to test. If you haven’t used audience segmentation much (or at all) previously, then you should start with some basic segmentation. Think about the makeup of your email list and what you know about each member. Customer or prospect? Recent purchase info? Previous email engagement history? How does some of this data line up with your business model, products or services? Initially, look to make some basic audience segments, and begin looking at your email performance within each segment. This will help you set some baseline performance metrics for comparison purposes. Then, begin changing certain variables in your email campaigns to each segment. Subject lines, offers, send timing, call to action, etc. Evaluate these different elements and begin testing different options for each one across your audience target segments. Over time, you should start to identify tactics that drive better results for each audience segment. Just remember that even when you think you have dialed in the perfect audience targeting strategy, continue testing. Over time, even the best marketing strategies will see performance fatigue. Relevant And Engaging Content If your favorite part of email marketing is writing content, then we’ve finally reached the section that resonates with you. But, you can’t skip the first two best practices above and jump directly to this one. If your email never gets delivered, engaging content is meaningless. And if you don’t know who your audience is, you can’t really create compelling content that is relevant to recipients. Once you’re here, it’s time to put on your marketing and creative hat and start developing great email copy, subject lines, offers and other content that grabs your recipients’ attention and gets them to respond. As with any content development, it should be driven by your audience. What matters to them? How will your product or service solve a problem, fill a need or otherwise deliver value? If there is any single strategy in content development that is likely to deliver better performance, it is focusing on your audience, rather than yourself. Even once you have developed the most amazing content anyone could imagine, remember to test. Even the most compelling content will eventually deliver diminished results. Just as your audience evolves and their interests and needs change, your content needs to evolve with them. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
b1e8547eac58d334a0ff4a7df6050fe8	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/06/should-you-ignore-2020-in-your-2021-marketing-plan/	Should You Ignore 2020 In Your 2021 Marketing Plan?	Should You Ignore 2020 In Your 2021 Marketing Plan? Nanette Kirsch leads marketing for Keen Decision Systems, software to help marketers make data-driven decisions that build winning brands. getty My company’s business is to help marketers find answers to their most pressing questions about how to grow. So I speak firsthand when I tell you that the single biggest question on the minds of marketers right now is this one: “How do I think about 2020 when building my 2021 marketing plan?” To be sure, 2020 has been a year. And it’s barely half over. So many related questions are still unanswered: • Will the continued spread of Covid-19 lead to renewed shutdowns? • Will we see a second wave of the pandemic during this winter’s cold and flu season? • Will consumers maintain their new online shopping habits even if the pandemic wanes? While the virus doesn’t offer us much in the way of answers, it has taught us some valuable lessons about how to approach uncertainty, because the coronavirus single-handedly moved predictive modeling from the corridors of data science to America’s dinner table. From a distance, the bell-shaped curves animated on our TV screens told inconsistent stories about what we should expect from the virus. But over time, something more sturdy emerged — a framework for decision making that uses available data to support better decisions than we can make instinctively, leaning on a combination of past experience, gut instinct or the consensus of the best and brightest. Let’s turn back now to the world of marketing for a case in point. Christine Moorman, founder of The CMO Survey, recently conducted a special edition report (download required) to learn how marketing leaders had responded to Covid-19. The good news in the study was that “marketing sits at the center of corporate responses to these challenges as companies shift their go-to-market activities.” More than 62% of marketing leaders said the importance of marketing to their businesses had increased since the pandemic. Troubling, however, were findings related to how marketers approached their decisions during the crisis. For instance, 60.9% who said they improvised ranked their level of improvisation at a six or a seven (on a scale of one to seven). To guide their marketing decisions during the pandemic, they relied most heavily on “marketing team member knowledge and experiences” (82.6% ), “top management knowledge and experiences” (80.8%) and “conversations with the sales team” (70.1%). If this is the approach marketers intend to follow in their 2021 planning, then the cause of consternation is more than justified, as the level of uncertainty and risk of error remain high. At Keen Decision Systems, we’re helping our clients navigate plans for the future by tapping into predictive modeling. Such forward-looking models work best when they are used to frame a question and help the questioner conduct scenario planning around potential outcomes. The resulting data-driven plans de-risk decision making and increase confidence for businesses leaning on marketing to chart the path forward. Taking into account insights from predictive analytics, you can run various scenarios based on the severity and duration of the crisis. Then, by simulating marketing spend for each of those outlooks, you can determine what level of marketing investment would be profitable. One of the advantages of working with predictive modeling is that it does not require a high volume or quality of data to generate reliable insights. Speed and agility are the name of the game. Using a combination of industry norms and whatever datasets you have available, you’re able to predict outcomes with a reasonable level of confidence and begin to take action immediately. Technology promotes a test-and-iterate approach that encourages regular updates and continual adaptations to achieve your goal. As you consider your company’s outlook and how to maximize marketing’s impact in 2021, keep in mind this comment by economist Frank Knight: “There is a fundamental distinction between the reward for taking a known risk and that for assuming a risk whose value itself is not known. It is so fundamental, indeed, that … a known risk will not lead to any reward or special payment at all.” What are the risks you can take as a marketer? Maintaining a baseline presence in the market, while the value may be less certain than in the past, is still a good bet to deliver more value than not spending at all. Stopping spending altogether, even in the event of stockouts, will begin to erode brand equity and increase the cost of marketing when you resume. Ask yourself where else in your marketing mix you can make a similar distinction and judiciously prioritize areas of unknown value over areas of known risk. One other dimension to consider for 2021 is your creative. Our circumstances as a country and as individuals have changed rapidly in 2020. Folks are hurting from the effects of the pandemic, the economic fallout and social injustice. Brands need to demonstrate that they not only are aware, but they are also genuine in their expressions of empathy. As the 2021 planning season gets into full swing, uncertainty about the future abounds. Marketers must account for shifting consumer purchase behavior and changes in media consumption habits, as well as changing media costs. Throw in a contentious national election for good measure, and even the most seasoned marketing heads will spin. For me, it’s reassuring to know that the same predictive technologies that helped the nation come to grips with the nature of a pandemic can likewise help marketers navigate these uncertainties, mitigate risk and drive profitability for their businesses, regardless of what happens next. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5601bb590efae9a902349e894ab77cda	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/10/five-product-market-fit-lessons-from-fortune-500-companies/	Five Product-Market Fit Lessons From Fortune 500 Companies	Five Product-Market Fit Lessons From Fortune 500 Companies Alon Ghelber is CMO at Revuze; an AI StartUp analyzing customer reviews & delivering product insights to optimize decision-makin getty If you want to make your business succeed, address a market that really needs your product. This is what a product-market fit is about. Product-market fit means offering products that satisfy strong market demand. When product-market fit happens, your customers spread the word about your products, and the usage of your products grows fast. So, how can you make that happen? In this article, I will share five invaluable branding and marketing lessons I’ve learned from Fortune 500 companies to help your business thrive. 1. Understand the buying motives of your customers. Why do consumers buy what they buy? Why do your customers want what you offer? These are the key questions you need to ask yourself. Take athletic footwear for an example. As shown in my company’s “U.S. Footwear Market 2019 Recap and 2020 Projections” report, comfort is one of the most important features consumers want when it comes to athletic shoes. They want something comfortable and flexible to exercise in. Of course, most people also look for a stylish design, but this isn’t as important as the shoe’s comfort level. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Successful athletic footwear brands like Nike understand this and put a lot of effort into making their shoes comfortable — for example, placing air inside of shoes for cushioning. You must understand why your customers are looking for the type of product your brand offers, and then make sure that your product is able to stand out among its competitors. 2. Embrace e-commerce. If you’re still in the mindset that e-commerce is a trend and finding it difficult to adapt, I’m telling you it’s not just a trend — it’s necessary. When you move your shop online, you have more flexibility to reach out to your potential customers. You’ll no longer be restricted by geographical location or rental cost. Especially when anything unpredictable, such as Covid-19, happens, you’ll be able to continue to run your business as your customers can shop your products online. While Amazon and Netflix, two online native brands, have seen increases in purchases and usage throughout the pandemic, other traditionally brick-and-mortar companies have increased their sales volume due to shifting to e-commerce. For example, Costco’s online sales have increased in recent months, with the company offering click-and-collect and same-day grocery delivery in most of its U.S. locations. 3. Be open to remote opportunities. With so many project management tools available online, most people can work as long as they have access to a computer. In fact, remote work as a result of the pandemic has led to greater demand for various cloud services and workplace apps. Allowing your employees to work remotely saves costs and certain management effort that’s required when you have an office. You can even open up opportunities to hire talent all around the world when they can work remotely. Furthermore, embracing remote opportunities encourages a dynamic culture with employees working from all around the world, providing their unique perspectives on how to improve products to fit the worldwide market. 4. Take action fast regarding the changing of consumers’ behaviors. It’s not enough to just know that consumers’ behaviors are changing; you must react fast too. For example, General Electric’s slow reaction to changing market demands for renewable energy has proven damaging. On the other hand, some companies have taken action fast to accommodate customers’ changing behaviors amid the pandemic, and they have succeeded in maintaining their businesses. For instance, Walmart allows curbside pickup for online orders for shoppers who want their orders quickly but don’t want to go into the store. Target is also a big winner during the pandemic, as it has improved its grocery offerings and built new online prowess. 5. Digital marketing will continue to be important. Nowadays, half of the time people are on mobile is spent using social communication apps. If you want to reach out to your potential customers, social media platforms are still some of the best channels. Just look at the success of Facebook, which had $70.7 billion in net revenue in 2019, up from $27.6 billion in 2016 — you know that this is still an important marketing channel. Besides Facebook, your customers might be on YouTube and Instagram, too. If you can make good use of these digital marketing channels, you can easily stay updated on your target customers’ needs. You can get instant feedback from them when you post about a product. You can even test the popularity of a new product by sharing it on your social channels and evaluating your target customers’ reactions. This is why promoting your brand and products through digital marketing will continue to be important for business success. Bottom Line These lessons I’ve learned from the Fortune 500 have reminded me to always stay alert to customers’ ever-changing needs. If you want to stay on top of the industry, apply these lessons to your business to keep it thriving! Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
b45c2de316cb6b8f35ce0cf27ba0f463	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/24/four-emerging-trends-to-consider-for-your-next-virtual-event/?sh=208c4d3118ff	Four Emerging Trends To Consider For Your Next Virtual Event	Four Emerging Trends To Consider For Your Next Virtual Event Head of Marketing at All American Entertainment, the leading full-service speakers bureau that exclusively represents event organizers. getty Are you still debating the pivot to virtual events? If so, you’re definitely missing out. At this very moment, event planners and marketers are contemplating their plans for the next wave of scheduled live conferences and trade shows this fall and next spring. Do they pivot to virtual or hybrid events or postpone again? These are significant decisions that heavily influence their lead volume and awareness metrics. Well, the good news in the midst of these challenges is the fact that virtual events are seeing registration-to-attendee rates well over 50%, according to Bizzabo’s recent analysis. If you’re debating whether to pivot to virtual events or have already done so, you should be aware of what trends are emerging in the virtual event space. I’d like to share some of the best ideas for virtual events I’ve seen so far this year. Building Virtual Presentations As Animated Videos Not all virtual presentations are created equal. I was fortunate to attend MozCon for the first time, now that it has shifted to a virtual format. The sessions and engagement were top quality and filled with interesting and actionable recommendations for search marketers. One of the standout presentations, in my opinion, came from Michael King, one of the speakers featured on my company’s website, who broke the mold with virtual event presentations by converting his session into an animated video story. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss (Full disclosure: My company, All American Entertainment, exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on our website or in this article.) To be honest, the highly technical topic of this session was over the heads of this attendee and other search marketers, but he gets bonus points from me for originality. In a sea of talking heads and slide decks, it was a virtual event presentation that I’ll remember. If you want to build an animated story video for your presentation, the most important thing to know is that you still want to integrate the core points you would have covered in a more traditional presentation. Although video can be a more entertaining format, the content still needs to be relevant, timely and effectively communicated. When leveraging an animated video as a presentation, make sure you know your audience. The characters, story, design and message should be targeted and appealing to your audience. Hiring A Virtual Event Emcee Much like a live event would feature an event emcee, some of the largest virtual events and conferences are also leveraging an emcee, typically in a hybrid event format. Virtual event emcees are a great idea when you’re looking for live and recorded sessions, especially for full-day or multiday virtual trade shows. One conference that did this well in the past year was Leadercast. CEO Billy Boughey, another speaker featured on my company’s website and the Leadercast emcee for the past few years of live events, was the virtual event emcee. This allowed the conference to bring real-time experience to the audience. Keep in mind that hiring a virtual keynote speaker, emcee or celebrity can help drive awareness and increase registration. In a competitive virtual event world, that makes a big difference. Adding Virtual Sponsorship Opportunities I’ve found that many event organizers and planners are highly concerned about losing corporate sponsorship revenue because event sponsors are concerned about limiting their sponsorship exposure to their target markets. According to a May 2020 survey by Markletic Event Research, the average sponsorship package for a virtual event was $8,456. Compared to the cost of live event sponsorship for larger events and conferences, this is a bargain. Further, many of the same benefits exist with virtual event sponsorships. As a sponsor of a virtual event, you can: • Receive digital and verbal brand recognition for conference breaks, sessions or rooms. • Become a speaker at the event. • Create a virtual swag offer, like a discounted or trial membership or access to free digital books (a tactic I recently enjoyed myself). • Send swag to attendees (typically through the sponsor organization) and encourage them to share their swag using the conference’s social media hashtags. • Get extended promotional value because many virtual events are recorded and promoted for an extended time following the event. I think we’ll be seeing many more virtual event sponsorship opportunities in the future as companies look to recoup income to offset the cost of event technology and session speakers. Thinking Outside The (Lunch) Box I’m seeing a rising number of virtual conferences using dining vouchers for online food delivery services, such as GrubHub, to compete for audience registration. Sponsoring lunch for attendees has two benefits. First, you are creating an experience that simulates a live conference. Second, these food gift cards support local communities, so it’s no wonder these food incentives are on the rise. With many virtual events that could fill up attendees’ calendars, people may be more inclined to attend your event if you pay for their lunch, too. Brilliant. What Are You Waiting For? Whether you’re a fan of virtual events or not, I believe many event planners are realizing that virtual events are here to stay. Event industry experts have predicted that virtual events will become part of a hybrid event strategy for the long term, and I agree completely. Their low price point to produce and above-average event attendance rates are just part of the reason. I expect to see another surge of virtual events this fall, winter and even into the spring. If you aren’t considering hosting or sponsoring a virtual event as part of your marketing strategy, you can be sure that your competition is. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
e1451099975cee332046ac9a5359a767	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/24/how-to-effectively-use-search-intent-in-your-content-marketing/	How To Effectively Use Search Intent In Your Content Marketing	How To Effectively Use Search Intent In Your Content Marketing Ross Kernez is Director of Search Marketing at Hpone, Mentor at Starta Ventures, and Founder of SEOMeetup. getty Most online marketers are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) these days. SEO has been around for years, but it is getting more difficult to keep up with search engines’ updates. More smart people in the game means it’s harder to stand out, so businesses are pushing the envelope to reach more potential customers and to increase their conversions via content marketing and SEO. Search intent has become a focus for online marketers who want to get more visitors from search results and capture the right, not necessarily larger, audience that has a specific intent. It means providing your target audience the information they need when they look for it. Using search intent effectively will keep users on your site longer and will help to funnel down your users into sales or leads. The Basics Of Search Intent On the most basic level, search intent attempts to satisfy the motive of the users in response to search queries. You’re trying to provide the most relevant information to user searches based on what they are looking for. For example, when a user is looking to purchase a laptop, they are using words like “buy laptops” or “buy laptops online.” These types of queries are transactional because the intent of the query is to buy a product. More than ever, users want concise, relevant results that directly answer the queries they’re conducting in most popular search engines. For example, Google, which is one of the popular search engines in the United States, is constantly refining search results to make them most relevant for its users. That means you need to optimize your site’s landing pages and content pages to satisfy the intent of each specific search query performed by web users. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Understanding Your Users Based on my experience in search marketing, I find that harnessing the power of search intent can roughly be broken down into three main types of search query intents: 1. Informational: Users are looking for information. They want to know how something works or how to do something. 2. Transactional: Users want to take some actions. They get on search engines to book tickets, buy products, join a gym and a million other things that involve a commercial intent. 3. Navigational: Users are looking for a specific company or website. They get on search engines to find a company or domain name that they already know about. How You Can Use Search Intent In Content Marketing The key to effective content marketing is centered around quality content with proper use of keywords that have the right intent. The better optimized and the more targeted your traffic is, the easier it will be to convert that traffic into paying customers. You should keep in mind that you constantly need to optimize and update your web copy and site content to be up to date because users want to get the best and the most relevant results at all times. Crafting Your Call To Action So you’ve put in a ton of work looking at your users’ behavior, what they’re looking for online and how they engage with your site and your content. Your site’s copy has been optimized based on search intent to capture an audience with the right intent and can potentially convert into sales. Now it’s time to motivate users with a call to action. You should try to use a few different call to action templates to see what works best for your business. A lot of online businesses focus their efforts around building a lead magnet that will help with future sales opportunities. One thing to keep in mind with your call to action is to create a sense of urgency to convince your users to make a decision now. This can be done by offering access to your tools for a limited time or encouraging them to subscribe to your newsletter before the next one comes out in X days. Search Intent: Where The Right Time Meets The Right Customer For years, marketers have used demographics, incomes, gender, location and several other factors to target potential customers. However, as marketing strategies evolve, they’ve grown to target shoppers into smaller segments where customers are more likely to take action now. The potential of online marketing and search intent is so high because you’re drawing people to your site who are looking to take some specific actions. As a marketer, positioning your company to deliver the information they need will have a huge impact on your business’s success. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
c017b58bd1822784800e911bca617e77	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/25/six-unique-ways-to-increase-your-sms-and-email-opt-ins/	Six Unique Ways To Increase Your SMS And Email Opt-Ins	Six Unique Ways To Increase Your SMS And Email Opt-Ins Head of Marketing at Reach Interactive, Liam specializes in content marketing, SEO and podcasting. getty Collecting data is one of the most powerful things that you can do as a business. Any data that you acquire is yours to keep, and nobody can take it away from you. You no longer have to fight social media algorithms to get your latest offers seen. Instead, you can send direct, highly targeted messages to your existing customers and then sit back and watch the results. The challenge, of course, is persuading customers and prospects to give up their telephone number or email address. There are lots of productive ways that you can encourage customers to opt in to your email or SMS (text message) marketing lists. Competitions, website banners and social media posts have all been known to be highly successful options. Here are some of the more out-of-the-box techniques that I’ve found to help increase that number. 1. Podcasts Podcasting has become a hot trend over the last few years. There are now over one million shows in circulation, covering every category that you can imagine. With a combination of low entry barriers and the potential for a high return on investment, they offer great value to marketers. There are multiple ways that you can use podcasting to increase subscribers. The first option is podcast advertising, which is forecasted to generate $659 million in revenue in 2020. Promoting your business on shows that align with your industry can be highly effective. Whether you submit an audio ad or have the show host give you a shoutout, be sure to mention the value of subscribing to your email, SMS or push notification service. Secondly, try to book guest slots on established shows in your field. Finding shows takes a bit more work, but some hosts will let you mention the benefits of opting in during your introduction. Additionally, you can gain trust and authority because listeners will learn from you and your expertise in the field. 2. Branded Games One effective but underused strategy to grow your subscriber list is through branded games. Not only do these games generate high engagement, but they also allow you to collect customer data. A great tactic is to run a competition that includes a random prize draw for participants upon completion. Once your customers finish playing the game, ask them if they want to opt in to receive notifications in exchange for a competition entry. The best thing about branded games is that you can also cross-promote them offline and on your social channels. Try to connect your game to a big event, such as the Super Bowl, Independence Day or Thanksgiving, to give your campaign an extra boost. 3. Using Influencers The role of influencers is something that a lot of marketers are still trying to wrap their heads around. The fact is, they can be highly successful if done correctly. According to data from “The State of Influencer Marketing 2019” report, brands that understand influencer marketing see “up to $18 in earned media value for every dollar they spend on influencer marketing,” which emphasizes great value. If you’re considering an influencer marketing campaign in the future, be sure to ask the influencer you partner with to mention the benefits of opting in to your email or SMS list. You can even consider sending an exclusive sign-up discount to anyone who signs up via the influencer campaign. 4. Branded Merchandise Branded merchandise is a marketing tactic that has stood the test of time. Whether it’s clothing, stationery or something out of the blue, everyone loves a freebie. One way to take your branded merch strategy to the next level is by including a call to action. For example, if you are handing out free pens, then be sure to encourage people to sign up to your SMS list by texting your five-digit short code. 5. Webinars Hosting webinars can be rewarding for business-to-business (B2B) and software as a service (SaaS) brands. Especially today, as many marketers and buyers are turning to webinars to share information virtually, this is a great channel for bringing in more qualified leads. Admittedly, hosting webinars can take some thought and planning. Yet, they provide an effective way to capture data because attendees will anticipate that you’ll need their email to send the viewing links. Be sure to ask attendees for permission to send marketing material in the future! 6. Direct Mail We’ve all come to expect that a parcel delivery will include a delivery note and return information. However, you can also use parcels to promote your business rewards scheme, such as an SMS or email list. When your customers make a purchase, include information on how to opt in. You can do this by including a flyer or card or adding it to your delivery note. If you are promoting your SMS marketing list, then all you have to do is ask your customers to text a designated word to your assigned five-digit short code. After all, it’s easier to generate sales from existing customers than to spend money trying to attract new ones. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
07656b7b3b0e93e61bee71bc2ec8f68a	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/08/26/three-ways-to-boost-your-digital-marketing-now-and-post-pandemic/	Three Ways To Boost Your Digital Marketing, Now And Post-Pandemic	Three Ways To Boost Your Digital Marketing, Now And Post-Pandemic Global marketing leader at HGS, CX professional, product promoter, outsourcing innovation fan – with a focus on what's next. getty The current economic climate remains uncertain, and brands are still adjusting to new realities. It's scary stuff, to be sure. But it's also an opportunity to evolve by creating a digital experience that pairs a customer service mentality with the tools and technologies customers need at every step of their journey. As you plan your marketing strategies for this brave new world, three key digital tactics can help: 1. Use predictive analytics to adjust your sales forecast as the economy reopens. There is no doubt that almost every business will be affected in some way by the pandemic, but understanding your individual depth and breadth of impact is essential. Long-term data models are falling flat right now, and any models made before February or March 2020 almost assuredly did not account for the effects of a pandemic. Scrap the idea of the long-term outlook. Instead, look to predictive analytics, which can help organizations use real-time data to become more nimble in quickly changing markets, like the one we're in right now, as well as identify microtrends and react quickly to shift supply to meet changing demand. MORE FOR YOUMeet Canada’s Best Employers 20213 Ways To Identify A Toxic Coworker And Set Healthy BoundariesForget About San Francisco And Silicon Valley—Miami Is Planning On Becoming The Next Great Tech Hub (Full disclosure: The company I work for offers a predictive analytics platform.) Artificial intelligence (AI)-based crisis modeling and predictive analytics use real-time data modeling to create a more accurate picture of what to expect in a post-pandemic world. This is built on internal data points like Covid-19's impact on business metrics (including online web traffic, sales, volume, customer service metrics, etc.), sales by geography, online traffic and conversion rates, and customer satisfaction and experience, as well as publicly available data on Covid-19 (e.g., rate of infection and hospitalization by geography). By taking these data points and extrapolating them over the coming fiscal year or two, you can use AI and machine learning to gather information on: • Sales forecast projections based on levels of crisis scenarios in different geographies. • Customer churn and retention. • Marketing/advertising effectiveness. • Product sales trends. • Social media real-time insights. Then, leverage predictive analytics to adjust sales forecasts in some of the following ways: • Better predict consumer uptick and concerns based on social media indications of what individual regions are talking and worrying about. • Based on historical sales data correlated with past infection rate numbers, use scenario modeling to gain a clearer picture of what it might look like if a new wave arises. • Pay attention to customer loyalty and churn analytics to gain insight into who is most likely to purchase again. • Factor a potential increase in fraud into the forecast based on increasing infection numbers. • With customer attribution data, refine your predictions based on sales channels and inform the supply chain, ensuring revenue forecasts can be achieved. 2. With research and data science, reevaluate your marketing strategy to prepare to rebound. Everyone has been affected by the pandemic on some level. Make sure your strategy is still meeting your customers' needs, which likely have changed. Begin with a discovery or design-build process that brings together key C-suite stakeholders to understand the key issues and priorities affecting customers (both during "normal" times and during the crisis), and how they fit into a larger road map. Identify data points available with quick access, including visitor metrics (via tools like Google or Adobe Analytics), sales metrics (via your customer relationship management or financial systems) and cost metrics (e.g., operational and advertising costs). Use them to make data-driven decisions and nab any quick wins. Define your customer personas and customers' buying journeys, and figure out how they might be different now. Identify how solutions will meet your audience's needs at their various journey points while also driving them toward your business goals and objectives. Following the discovery process, determine how to implement or revamp the digital services that live at the intersection of customer needs and business goals as they have evolved following this crisis. For example, updating the website, building a mobile app, adding chatbots or automation for repeatable tasks, or moving to the cloud for better security. 3. Consider whether chatbots would benefit your business now or in the future. Basic chatbots can follow certain "if this, then that" rules that send predetermined responses based on what a customer asked, and automatically route to a human if the customer's question is not answered. More advanced bots can integrate into backend systems to perform tasks like tracking a customer's product order and providing real-time status updates, or even take an order themselves using natural language processing. As you look to implement a chatbot solution, particularly around Covid-19 support, be sure to remember that bots are artificial intelligence, but those dealing with them on the other end are not. Think from a human perspective. Start from customers' individual needs and concerns, and then think about how chatbot technology can be applied to solve them. Pair this understanding of your customers with deep user research to truly understand what your customers care about right now, what motivates them to take certain actions and what they need at every stage of their digital journey, including pertinent information related to crisis response or actions. Use this data to work backward, building out your bots from there. While many people think of chatbots as simply additional digital communications tools, they are much more than that. Their tone, language and even names are part of your branding, so make sure your chatbots, and how they "talk" to customers, are consistent with your other channels, touch points and messaging. Finally, remember that chatbots aren't right for every business, so don't just build chatbots for the sake of incorporating them. Customers dealing with businesses in some industries expect to call a human agent and get their issue or question handled via voice call. If your business falls in this category, your customers may not respond well to being directed toward an AI agent instead. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
558b92280ee13b766f3a953ad574a6ae	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/01/tips-for-starting-a-new-business-during-the-pandemic/?sh=75b0eca65cee	Tips For Starting A New Business During The Pandemic	Tips For Starting A New Business During The Pandemic Jessica is a digital expert & founder of Valux, LLC, a digital marketing company that helps businesses complete the digital transformation. getty "Last night, I had a difficult conversation with my husband. I broke down crying because starting a business, in the middle of a pandemic, with a toddler, is hard. ..." This is from a group post I saw on Facebook the other day. As a single mom of two toddlers and the founder of a digital marketing agency, not only can I totally relate to this post emotionally, it's also similar to what I've heard from clients: "Starting a business now is so hard." Yes, it is extremely hard to start a business during an economic crisis, but many still want to do it. Perhaps starting your own business could be a way out of unemployment. However, many of our startup clients don't know where to begin, and that makes it even more difficult. "I need to do social media marketing. Can you give me a quote?" "How much will it cost me to have my company shown on the first page of Google?" "What's the cost of email marketing?" These are the questions I'm often asked by clients during our initial meeting. Good questions, but I typically respond with more questions, like: "Do you have a website yet? Do you know what you want to sell and how you want to sell it? Who are your competitors? What's your target market?" Most of the time, the answers are "no" or "I don't know." MORE FOR YOUHow To Get Rich Using These Top 5 Wealth Building Secrets5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesFreewheeling Millennials And Gen-Zers Are Starting A New Side-Hustle Career: Aggressively Trading Stocks Online, Minting Money And Showing Up The Wall Street Pros Many startup owners think of marketing first because it drives sales, which is the ultimate goal of growing a business. But there are actually many steps that need to be taken first before you can market your business. For instance, if you are selling a product, you should plan out your sales channels first. Before bringing in traffic to the store, is your merchandising ready? Your payment funnels? Your inventory controls? Your fulfillment processes? Return, refund and cancellation processes and fraud control? How about customer services? Do you have your basic essentials for your online presence, such as a website and your local search engine optimization (SEO) setup? Can your potential client find you online? If you are providing a service, perhaps you should answer these questions first: What's the value my services provide? What kind of experience do I want my customers to have? How do I distribute the experience? What's my customer journey? How do I explain my services to clients? Do I offer membership? Subscriptions? A loyalty program? How do I drive leads? What does the post-service experience look like? What's the medium for me to communicate or provide services to my client? Starting a business is difficult, no matter when you start it. This pandemic offers some unique opportunities to learn from other companies about what types of business models can handle disruption and which ones are vulnerable. However, you still need a strong short-term and long-term business plan and a well-defined operation model. Make sure you carefully think through your business opportunity before you take the plunge. Before you pick up your phone to speak with a marketing agency or professional, do some research and know the market you are getting into. Have your business plan ready, including the financial plan, sales goals and operation model. Find out your competitive advantage and challenges. Identify top competitors and potential partners, and locate your target market. Most importantly, have clear goals, targets and priorities in mind with your budget. These are the basic questions an agency will ask before it can give you a quote with a strategic proposal. What else do you need to know to start a new business in times like these? Let's take a look. Consider Market Opportunities You never want to see another business fail, but the reality is that there are lessons you can learn from these failures. Think about what caused other businesses to struggle and how you can avoid the same issues. For instance, you might want to open a restaurant, but you've seen the weakness with the standard brick-and-mortar model right now. Maybe you consider opening a food truck instead — going where customers are and serving them takeout directly. There are many openings in the business world right now. At the same time, there are lessons you can learn from companies that recently failed. When you learn from these examples, you'll be able to better position yourself for success. Focus On Online Sales And Service The majority of consumers start product shopping online today, so if you don't have a digital marketing presence, you almost don't exist. The pandemic has shown us that having a high-quality remote shopping experience helps a business stay flexible and continue to serve customers in any environment. Keeping in mind that people are not as likely to want to leave home right now, a successful new business should focus on creating a strong digital presence with online shopping options. Offer High Levels Of Security Many people are conscious of safety and security due to the pandemic. It's essential to address these concerns, both in person and online. Your website should offer excellent cybersecurity, especially when it comes to protecting personal data and payment information. If you plan to open a physical store, make sure that your protocols are up to date based on the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and your local government. When you offer proper security and safety, consumers will feel more confident shopping with you even in a challenging market. Are you interested in starting a business but not sure where to start — or if this is even the right time? I hope after reading this article, it will give you some ideas on how to begin. There's never a perfect time to start a business. Now is just as good a time as any. I wish you the best of success! Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4cafa7f39bbcf218d8ed2e6af0553529	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/08/the-power-word-of-mouth-has-in-marketing-and-how-to-cultivate-it/	The Power Word-Of-Mouth Has In Marketing, And How To Cultivate It	The Power Word-Of-Mouth Has In Marketing, And How To Cultivate It Managing Director TERRITORY Influence, a leading full service influencer marketing agency activating 4 Mio creators for brands in Europe getty Do you want people to talk about your brand? Do you want buzz for your products on social media and visibility on e-commerce? Based on my experience, with a couple of marketing decisions, brands can turn consumers into brand lovers and boost both offline and online word-of-mouth (WOM), brand preference and sales. Why Is Word-Of-Mouth So Powerful? Consumers often reach out to other consumers before making a purchase decision, and I've found this to be especially true when the purchase is one of higher significance or higher value. With the omnipresence of smartphones, it has become as simple to research products online as it is to talk to friends offline. With that in mind, user-generated content should be a key area for marketers to focus on. According to a 2019 report by Edelman, 63% of consumers between 18 and 34 years old said that they "trust what influencers say about brands much more than what brands say about themselves in their advertising." And academic research has found that "seeded" marketing campaigns — those that leverage "seed agents or microinfluencers to discuss brands with friends and acquaintances" — can increase total sales by up to 18% throughout a campaign. How To Maximize Your Word-of-Mouth Potential? So what makes consumers talk about brands and products? According to Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, there are six basic principles behind creating content worthy of word-of-mouth and social influence, which he describes in detail in his book Contagious. These principles include: MORE FOR YOUHow To Get Rich Using These Top 5 Wealth Building Secrets5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesFreewheeling Millennials And Gen-Zers Are Starting A New Side-Hustle Career: Aggressively Trading Stocks Online, Minting Money And Showing Up The Wall Street Pros 1. Social Currency: People like to give WOM recommendations if the recommendations will increase their status among their peers, make them look knowledgeable or smart or wealthy. 2. Triggers: Recommendations are top of mind, or tip of the tongue. 3. Emotion: When we care about something, we are much more likely to talk about it. 4. Public: Since we look to others for information and advice, making your brand and products visible helps to boost WOM. 5. Practical Value: Human beings like to help others, so brands that offer practical value are likely to be more recommended. 6. Stories: We love good stories and memorize them much better; hence, they are more likely to be shared. To maximize the word-of-mouth potential of your brand or product, carefully evaluate how to insert these principles into your business strategy — your product design, packaging, advertising, innovation process, website, customer relationship management (CRM) program or anything else you do. And ensure that you are delivering a great brand experience since each one of us is inclined to share positive experiences with others. At TERRITORY Influence, we have successfully developed thousands of word-of-mouth marketing campaigns for leading brands by incorporating Jonah Berger's principles into everything we do — engaging with potential brand advocates; equipping them with products, knowledge and triggers; and enabling them to share recommendations online or offline. How Can You Initiate Word-Of-Mouth Marketing? Your brand has been around for a while and you can't change your products, so you need a little marketing help to get the word-of-mouth machine rolling. Here are a few marketing tactics you can use to initiate WOM online and offline: • Encourage your actual consumers to create user-generated content that shows their friends how your brand has helped solve a problem. • Create messages that facilitate online sharing. • Integrate influencer marketing into your media mix to engage with consumers on social media. • Ask customers to leave a product review on e-commerce sites or your website. • Involve them in product or advertising development — they may rave about their co-creation. • Run dedicated offline WOM campaigns with brand ambassadors. • Use your CRM system as a hub for collaboration, engagement and advocacy. Conclusion During this period of volatility, uncertainty and concern, personal recommendations and positive word-of-mouth are more important than ever for brands to strengthen trust with consumers. With many of us spending more time on social media, user-generated content and positive product reviews are critical success factors to regain sales in the current consumer environment. As Mark Zuckerberg has said, "A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising." Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
08b2cfea217f5b5e3af29de3b0ddb192	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/09/10-key-questions-to-streamline-external-communications/?sh=7c695ce64b9d	10 Key Questions To Streamline External Communications	10 Key Questions To Streamline External Communications Most professionals have a hard time determining the clarity of their own work. The adage of being too close to the forest to see the trees is true in this case. Yet for a communications professional, being unable to do this could result in disaster. External communications, specifically, are crucial to get right. The wrong word in a bad context could ruin the professional's reputation or even the company's image as a whole. Making sure external communications are efficient without being ambiguous is vital. Here, 10 contributors to Forbes Communications Council examine a few questions that could help communications professionals and their teams ensure their external communications are on point, every time. Members share some important questions you can ask to streamline external communications. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Does This Solve Customers' Needs? A best practice is to put on the customer's shoes (or, in this case, target reader,) and make sure that the communication is written to solve their needs. It's about them, not you or your company's agenda. If it passes this proofreading test, you're good to go. - Stacy Sherman, Customer Experience Expert 2. Will Your Grandma Understand? One question to ask is, "Will your grandma understand?" We often get carried away with acronyms, product feature-functions, and forget the world may not speak the same language. Test messaging and content with someone who is nontechnical or in a different industry, to see if they get what you are trying to say. Remember, reporters, even tech reporters, need to understand what’s unique about your product in simple terms. - Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss 3. Would I Read Past The First Sentence? Ask yourself, "Would I read past the first sentence if I were the intended audience? Did I capture the right tone of voice for this target?" Remembering that you are writing for an audience and not for yourself is one of the things that keeps you honest in your writing and keeps you from straying from that original target. - Liz Weir, LevLane Advertising Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 4. How Do We Achieve Clarity And Simplicity? We often ask, "How do we achieve both clarity and simplicity?" We assume that recipients won't have the context and may misconstrue the intended message. Because of this, we opt for brevity and take a "peer-review" approach to strategic messaging. We may also reach out to division heads for larger companies or to executive team members for smaller organizations to check how the copy may be received. - Gerard Escaler, Lyrium Venture Partners Limited 5. What Problem Does The Reader Face? We ask, "What problem does the reader face?" Once the problem is clear, then you can read the message and see if it addresses that problem. Usually, we find that the message doesn't match the problem, or that it addresses multiple problems and the message is muddy. If you're clear on what the reader needs, it's easier to clean up the copy. - Kate Barton, Clearview Advisory 6. Why Should I Care? I ask myself the same question that every news director I ever had when I worked in TV asked me when I pitched a story idea: "Why should I care?" If you can't answer that question immediately, then it's time to go back to the drawing board. - Sarah Segal, Segal Communications 7. Is The Message On Brand? One question you should always ask is, "Is the message or piece on brand?" It's very easy to get caught up in the moment and put something out because everyone else does or your competitor is doing it. But if it's not in line with your brand, then it's hollow and people will see right through it. - Tracy Sestili, Fountain 8. Does This Leave The Reader Ready To Act? Communicators should always ask, "Does this piece leave the reader ready to take action?" More often than not, we read thinking of ourselves. Our communication should challenge people to be thoughtful and take action. These actions range from simple to complex, but they give your communication purpose. If you write with passivity, you will have passive readers. People will come back to a dynamic writer. - Nick Runyon, PFL.com 9. Is This Compelling And Concise Enough? Attention spans are growing increasingly shorter. It's critical to craft compelling and concise messaging to stand out in a sea of content. I always go back and ask, "Have I explained this in the most compelling and concise way?" Usually, I find a few sentences I could trim or a punchier way to say something following that review. - Eileen Canady, BST Global 10. Would I Post This From My Own Channels? Ask yourself, "Would I post/tweet this from my own channels?" or "Would I retweet/repost this content to my own channels?" These questions allow me to think about content not just from the point of view of our clients and their audiences, but ensuring that it feels accessible and engaging enough to share and engage with via my personal channels. - Dixie Roberts, DKC/HangarFour
db9b8abd7ac615edf797daa79c2db46b	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/09/transforming-sustainability-into-a-competitive-advantage/?sh=38b84ddd282e	Transforming Sustainability Into A Competitive Advantage	Transforming Sustainability Into A Competitive Advantage International marketing professional and CMO at Lyrium Venture Partners Limited, with over 25 years in tech, innovation and sustainability. getty Many companies have some form of a sustainability program in place. However, many also lack deeper consideration as to how sustainability can enhance a company’s business model. What, then, does it take to transform sustainability into a competitive advantage? When I co-founded my company in Hong Kong in 2007, there was not yet much momentum around sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). I was fascinated by the concept of double-bottom-line accountability, where businesses could both meet a market need and simultaneously achieve social sector objectives. I built my business model and our corporate culture on these principles, which have been a driver of our success over the past 13 years. In 2010, The Wall Street Journal published “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility” (subscription required), which critiqued the idea that companies have a duty to address social ills. It argued that this idea was not just flawed, but that it also detracted from real solutions to these problems. I exchanged research with the article’s author, and while we agreed to disagree, I concluded that companies with a strong ethical culture can make high-stakes decisions where the underlying rationale is not limited to profitability. As Peter Drucker once noted, “Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don’t have enough of it, you’re out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you’re really missing something.” In our current environment, I believe the world at large has woken up to the fact that no single organization can achieve a significant impact on its own. Formal and informal partnerships continue to flourish, and co-collaboration across geographies and industry sectors is increasing, from government agencies to investors to nonprofit organizations to private-sector companies. This is the future. I’m finding that many businesses are shifting from a cursory view of sustainability to a more nuanced understanding of what they can achieve. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss The methodology an organization uses to develop a CSR program depends on where it is in its life cycle. Established businesses may identify Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that align with their core business models and the products and services they offer. For example, it would strengthen both branding and operational synergies for a law firm to focus on pro bono legal services or for a financial institution to focus on microfinance or financial education. My team at Lyrium reviewed one of our multinational clients’ charitable donation process and transformed it into a CSR program where the majority of its donations were reviewed against SDG goals that were aligned with its mission. For startup ventures and scale-ups, this presents much more of a greenfield opportunity, where they can build or adapt their business models around a cause. I find that this resonates more strongly with younger demographics, such as millennials and Generation Z, and it also provides a rallying point for employees and builds an additional purpose into their existing roles. There are multifarious ways organizations can use sustainability to build a competitive advantage. One example is Bluefield Technologies, a microsatellite technology company that is revolutionizing methane monitoring. Emissions data comprises a significant amount of critical, highly sought-after information, which Bluefield is able to capture from millions of emitters around the globe. Through its methane-tracking satellites, the company processes the data in real time and delivers change detection analytics to its private, public and governmental sectors clients. In our conversations, we were able to dive deep into a discussion on the causes behind climate change, the risks and challenges it presents, the financial cost to the global economy, and possible solutions within the context of Bluefield’s business model. Another organization, established upon the principles of sustainability and social impact, is the Climate Reality Project, founded by former U.S. vice president Al Gore. The idea behind this nonprofit is to drive climate action through capacity building. It trains volunteers across the globe who are then able to drive sustainability initiatives in their local communities. I recently completed a mentoring initiative under the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, where I worked with a talented group of climate volunteers from a diverse background (corporations, startups, financial institutions, students and nonprofits) to discuss action planning for the future. What both these entities have in common is a mission greater than themselves that contributes significantly to both their business models and their desired sustainability goals. Based on my experiences with both, I propose five tactics companies of any size can model to differentiate themselves from their competitors: 1. Review SDGs aligned with your business model. Invest the time to determine which SDGs make the most sense based on your strategy, markets, customers and revenue model. Look at white space opportunities to both strengthen your business and make a social or environmental impact. 2. Consider implementation. Decide how you will make this practical and actionable. All too often, sustainability is used merely as a marketing tool. How can you do more to be different? 3. Explore partnerships to achieve impact. Identify like-minded organizations or influencers with the same cause that you can partner with for greater impact. 4. Measure and monitor. If you can’t measure it, you won’t know whether you are making progress in the right areas. Look at SDG reporting or how you can quantify your sustainability initiatives along with your financial analysis. 5. Build communities for scalability. Look beyond a profit motive. Expand your impact by engaging employees to volunteer or building communities around key impact areas. By expanding your existing sustainability program into areas that are core to your business model, you can gain an edge over your competitors and industry peers in terms of market penetration, client and employee branding, and community development. In doing so, you will create key points of differentiation and enhance your competitive advantage. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
0cfb373ca749bee262271865e0f2ba49	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/25/strategies-for-marketers-in-times-of-uncertainty-and-downturn/	Strategies For Marketers In Times Of Uncertainty And Downturn	Strategies For Marketers In Times Of Uncertainty And Downturn Julia Stead is the CMO of Allocadia, a marketing performance management platform that helps maximize marketing's impact on businesses. getty The global pandemic has caused instability on almost every level. The good news is that marketers have the ability to maintain or even strengthen competitive advantages in times of crisis. And the importance of doing so can't be overstated, as the consequences of being reactive can be catastrophic to a company's marketing organization and the overall business. To stay ahead of the curve, I've found that three steps are paramount: strategic planning, executing effective messaging and scenario planning and continuing to invest in marketing. Focus On Strategic Planning For the first months of the pandemic, many marketers felt stuck and chose a "wait and see" approach to assess how disruptive it would be. However, the passing months have only brought greater consensus that there will be no smooth return — or return at all — to our old ways of life. We now recognize that success will come from pivoting quickly, balancing short- versus long-term strategies and taking a hyperagile approach to planning and budgeting. One example of this is the cancellation of in-person events due to Covid-19. This reality was devastating for many companies, as in-person events are huge sources of generating leads, revenue and sales. However, many forward-looking companies recognized that in-person events are costly and that the money saved with their cancellation could be reallocated. They also divested from product lines that didn't fit current buyer demands and pivoted to fund new product offerings and digital experiences that meet the current needs. MORE FOR YOU5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Is Providing Key Crisis Communication LessonsUniversity of Colorado Takes Action Against John Eastman The way I see it, marketers who still think of Covid-19 as a temporary crisis are doing themselves a grave disservice. This mindset limits creativity in developing innovative solutions and keeps one in a reactive, rather than proactive, position. Instead, marketing leaders must keep their teams focused and aligned on short-term strategic priorities to help drive urgent business outcomes, while also keeping an eye to the future to evaluate different recovery/growth strategies. Execute Effective Messaging And Scenario Planning Once organizations have a clear and forward-thinking strategic vision, the next critical step is planning how to message, test and execute this vision. Messaging is crucial in reflecting the strategic vision that has been established and communicating the relevance of your products to current buyer needs. It's an easy time to be perceived as insincere and opportunistic, so delivering real value through actions — not rhetoric — is integral to the credibility of your messaging. I believe this holds particularly true for the racial justice movement, as there was popular sentiment for companies that exhibited their values through actions such as giving back to businesses impacted by looting and donating to community cleanups. However, sentiment can vary greatly based on different demographics. Effective scenario planning and testing are critical to predicting how your messaging will land with diverse stakeholders. Another reality of today is that, even when the messaging is ready, more testing is needed to identify the best places to spend digital dollars based on ever-changing consumer demands. This may include evaluating different recovery/growth strategies and developing potential investment and return scenarios based on current trends and what they portend for the future. Continue To Prove The Value Of Marketing And Invest In It In general, marketing departments have seen significant budget reductions due to the pandemic, and have increasingly found themselves having to justify their necessity. Marketers can remind leaders of their worth by aligning with leadership's objectives and demonstrating how marketing advances them. It's also critically important to continually check in to make sure strategies stay aligned and the marketing team doesn't go back to what's normal or comfortable. The "protect your base" mentality of prioritizing customers to drive engagement and retention often provides the best short-term return on investment (ROI), especially in this environment. If this is where marketing dollars are shifting, then marketing targets should be focused in this area as well, instead of on traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) such as pipeline and new customer acquisition. Marketers should also never be afraid to ask questions to clarify goals. By elucidating goals, you can align with the CEO and other leaders on how much risk you are willing to take on. In doing so, it's also important to advocate for yourself and your team, as every marketer is being asked to do more with less, but there's a limit to how much is possible. You can't set realistic goals without evaluating budget restrictions and agreeing to ROI expectations. When one does initiate a conversation about goals, it is imperative to come to these conversations in a proactive manner and with a data-driven approach. Illustrating ways to measure ROI and providing data to prove marketing's impact on the business is necessary in order to have a transparent and realistic conversation about expectations. An important consideration for any current data-driven approach is to be flexible and agile in your decision-making. This is why I believe marketing teams should be operating in a three- to six-month operating cycle, rather than a year-long operating cycle. The former approach provides marketing leaders with time to think about different contingencies and when to reinvest in a market that has been closed off or minimized due to Covid-19 or a different reason. Marketers can present a safe plan and a high-risk/high-reward plan based on current trends. They should be able to quickly adjust these plans or their implementation as needed if, for example, there are changes in the market or a pickup in sales. Normalizing the idea of, "These are our plans today, and there is a good chance that in six months, they will look completely different," teaches adaptability, flexibility and agility to marketing team members. Ultimately, remaining agile with managing budgets and crafting messaging is at a premium these days. Marketers can become invaluable partners to enterprise leaders by being forward-thinking, using messaging to meet their customers' needs and aligning with organizational objectives. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
e6e740fae2d2104b44f7ed6338520b62	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/05/11-ways-to-develop-effective-facebook-messenger-marketing/	11 Ways To Develop Effective Facebook Messenger Marketing	11 Ways To Develop Effective Facebook Messenger Marketing Facebook Messenger has become the de-facto standard for most interpersonal non-business communications. Yet, with the company's newest iterations, Facebook seems to be making life easier for small businesses to use Messenger in their marketing. Getting to communicate directly with a page or a brand opens up a world of possibilities. Yet, without a proper strategy, this opportunity can easily be overlooked altogether. For a business to benefit from Facebook Messenger marketing, they need to understand how to apply it effectively. To this end, 11 contributors to Forbes Communications Council share their ideas on how businesses can develop effective Facebook Messenger marketing tactics, and what they need to keep in mind to ensure those techniques work. Members share tips for developing a solid Facebook Messenger marketing strategy. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Create A Two-Way Interaction It is important to understand that Messenger is not a standalone platform like SMS marketing where communication takes place from one side. Messenger is meant to be used to continue the conversation, so focusing your marketing effort solely on messaging is the biggest mistake you can make as a brand. Create a two-way interaction through messenger marketing. - Haseeb Tariq, Universal Music Group (ex Disney, Fox and Guess) 2. Make Opt-In Clear As much as Messenger has a higher open rate than other outreach, be careful to explicitly opt in your audience to the sequence. Scraping of lists of potential prospects might seem like a clever "hack," but it hurts your perception in the mind of your consumer. People are receptive to messages that are relevant — but only if they feel in control of how they receive them. - Patrick Ward, Rootstrap 3. Use AI Chatbot Platforms An easy and great way to control expectations via Facebook Messenger is by using AI chatbot platforms, such as ManyChat, to automate and personalize communication for customers during all times of the day. It also helps qualify leads before it's funneled over to live reps to efficiently move leads throughout the sales process, while maintaining customer expectations. - Thu-Lynn (TL) Nguyen, NRL Mortgage MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 4. Leverage Lookalike Audiences If you're not familiar with Lookalike Audiences for Facebook ad targeting, it's time to get acquainted. These can lower CPA (cost per action) by helping you target prospects with a potentially genuine interest. - Mark Nicholson, Match Financial 5. Inform About New Products, Promotions If you have previously used the Facebook Messenger ad campaign, then perhaps over time you will have a base of customers with whom you communicated via messenger. In this case, you can send this already warm audience new messages via Facebook Messenger. The best use of this campaign is to inform customers about new promotions, special offers, sweepstakes, and new products and services. - Ross Kernez, Hpone 6. Create ‘Chat Blasts’ Like email blasts, Facebook allows you to create something called "chat blasts." These boast extremely high open rates compared to emails, and you can leverage these blasts to alert your audience when you have a new blog or post. - Roshni Wijayasinha, Foxquilt 7. Keep The Human Aspect In Mind Facebook Messenger is a unique marketing tool because it's the start of a two-way conversation, not a one-way ad for prospective customers. Receiving a message from a brand should feel very similar to receiving a message from a trusted friend or colleague. When you approach crafting your Messenger copy and creative with this human aspect in mind, you'll see better results on your campaigns. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio 8. Understand Who Your Audience Is From the start, it's important to understand who your audience is. Your headline statement is typically the first point of contact between your business and the consumers. One common mistake is generic messages, which immediately create a disconnect with your target audience. Your message must offer valuable and interesting content most relevant to your consumers. - Mo Ghoneim, OUTFRONT Media Canada 9. Make It Part Of The Customer Life Cycle Messenger can be a part of the entire customer life cycle — from awareness to post-purchase. Use of audio clips can be a nice change from the clutter of businesses on Messenger. Discount codes can be sent according to season/holidays and can create engagement. Messenger can also be used to follow up, especially when online shopping carts are abandoned. - Preeti Adhikary 10. Consider Your Timing Remember that Facebook Messenger is reaching people when they are in relaxation and socialization mode. Most likely you're hitting them when they are on mobile and potentially not sitting upright. Keep this in mind as you build the strategy for content, tone and timing, to make sure you are a fun, welcomed message and don't ruin their good time. Special offers always sweeten the deal too! - Ellen Sluder 11. Facilitate Drip Campaigns Use Facebook Messenger chats to facilitate drip campaigns. Messages on Facebook Messenger have a significantly higher open rate than email, which makes it an excellent option for driving engagement over long-term campaigns. Drip campaigns on Messenger are much more likely to sustain engagement over time than regular email, which usually suffers from low click-through rates between 2 and 4%. - Amine Rahal, Regal Assets
de5ed5bae1ea4a14b52e7216cc27eb98	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/06/four-steps-to-take-to-regain-sales-this-holiday-season/	Four Steps To Take To Regain Sales This Holiday Season	Four Steps To Take To Regain Sales This Holiday Season Managing Director TERRITORY Influence, a leading full service influencer marketing agency activating 4 Mio creators for brands in Europe getty It’s likely the pandemic will dramatically impact shopping behavior this holiday season, with U.S. e-commerce a particular focal point due to its increase over the past few months. In fact, in the U.K., 91% of shoppers are “planning to avoid physical stores this Black Friday,” and 35% say they will be directing their focus to finding deals online. So, what do brands need to do heading into the holiday season — especially brands that are relying on holiday sales to rescue the year? 1. Boost your visibility on social media now. Due to social distancing, social media usage increased in 2020 as more people looked to connect virtually, seek information or entertainment online. Facebook alone has more than 2.6 billion active monthly users, followed by YouTube with more than 2 billion users. People no longer use social media only to connect with friends, but also to look for information about products and brands. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important for marketing teams to ensure their brand, product or service is visible while customers browse social media and explore the product category. Social media not only allows brands to present their products and increase awareness, but most of the platforms have also added shopping features during the last few years to increase conversion. MORE FOR YOUHow To Get Rich Using These Top 5 Wealth Building Secrets5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesFreewheeling Millennials And Gen-Zers Are Starting A New Side-Hustle Career: Aggressively Trading Stocks Online, Minting Money And Showing Up The Wall Street Pros 2. Coordinate promotional offers with retail partners. Forrester estimates that 63% of all e-commerce sales are driven through “marketplaces,” such as Amazon and Alibaba. It is critically important for brands to align their seasonal promotional plans not only with their traditional retail partners, such as Walmart or Carrefour, but also with their key online e-commerce partners. Shoppers have become experts in navigating digital spaces, especially during the pandemic, and are likely to allocate their budgets to the retail channels offering the highest convenience (e.g., free daily delivery) and cheapest price. 3. Drive traffic at key shopping dates. Last year, the holiday shopping season generated more than $138 billion in online sales, with Black Friday rivaling Cyber Monday for the biggest single shopping day of the year. This year, many brands and retailers are preparing for an even bigger shopping event due to the recent e-commerce growth prompted by the pandemic. Brands that want to benefit from the expected shopping spree need to grab the attention of holiday shoppers and channel them to their own or partners’ e-commerce sites. To stand out during the holiday season, marketing teams should be increasingly using social media to drive traffic to Amazon and other e-commerce sites. Macro influencers and social celebrities can also help to raise visibility for your offer online and drive traffic to e-commerce thanks to the influence they have on their followers. 4. Convert e-commerce visitors to shoppers. Social proof is an important cognitive bias that influences purchase decision-making. Hence, shoppers often look at online ratings and reviews to decide which brands and products to buy online. Good reviews can lead to more sales because they encourage consumers to trust your brand, while negative ones can lead to a serious sales decline. According to 2019 research, 71% of consumers think that ratings are important, and “47% regularly check ratings before making a purchase.” Since high volumes of reviews won’t appear overnight, it is critically important for brands to start planning their ratings and review strategy today. This may include automatically asking buyers to write a review or reaching out to your customer relationship management (CRM) database. At Territory Influence, we also run a dedicated ratings and reviews campaign by identifying brand lovers among our consumer panels and asking them for help. Summary And Conclusions With the pandemic still impacting consumers’ usual routines, it’s uncertain whether they will return to stores for the 2020 holiday shopping season. Brands and retailers should be preparing for another huge digital shopping season by building online visibility and engaging with potential shoppers on social media. And because customer endorsements have transformed from word of mouth to detailed online reviews, brands need to ensure that all their SKUs are adequately rated to drive e-commerce visibility and conversion. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
e3986bfb1fe2144eda69766baf4360ae	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/08/how-cpg-brands-are-using-dtc-to-stay-competitive/?sh=247df70d4fca	How CPG Brands Are Using DTC To Stay Competitive	How CPG Brands Are Using DTC To Stay Competitive Tom Treanor is the head of marketing at enterprise customer data (CDP) platform Treasure Data, where he leads the marketing strategy. Ordering food online while in home isolation during corona virus quarantine getty Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands have traditionally reached their customers through channels such as retail stores and e-commerce sites. However, this channel-based approach means that CPG companies can be negatively impacted by changes in the channel, such as those occurring with retail establishments during the pandemic. In addition, CPG companies forgo a direct relationship with the end customers, have no data on the customers themselves and lack the ability to market to them directly. To remain relevant and move forward with digital transformation in a changing landscape, CPG companies are now realizing that investing in direct-to-consumer (DTC) models — alongside their retail and e-commerce channels — helps them to build direct relationships with customers, cultivate trust, collect first-party data and personalize the customer experience across different brand channels. When they sell directly, CPG companies can offer loyalty programs, run direct promotions and expand the relationship into non-product areas such as special events or experiences. We now see multiple large CPG brands taking their first steps on the DTC journey, which will pave the road for others. Here’s a look at what some major companies are doing — and how to follow in their footsteps: • Nike is reducing its wholesale accounts with retail partners and focusing on a DTC strategy with its Nike Digital store. The company says the “marketplace of the future” is closely aligned with consumers’ wants and needs. By investing in data analytics, company leaders have been able to move beyond a focus on impressions and conversions and dig into active membership statistics and lifetime customer value. MORE FOR YOU4P’s Are Dead—Because They’re Academic, Not Practical And More Irrelevant Than EverFreewheeling Millennials And Gen-Zers Are Starting A New Side-Hustle Career: Aggressively Trading Stocks Online, Minting Money And Showing Up The Wall Street Pros5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With Disabilities • Ocean Spray launched its Lighthouse Innovation Incubator to create new products that will compete against DTC startups in the health and wellness industry. In August, the company debuted Tally-Ho, a line of water enhancers for dogs, that are now available online and in some stores in Boston. Through the incubator, they’ve been able to test consumer reactions to their new lines of herbal tonics, sparkling waters and edible gummy supplements. • Clorox launched Objective Wellness, a supplement company, as a digitally native, mobile-first brand to appeal to younger audiences. The company realized that data would be key for tailored messages to customers around a complex, personal industry like nutrition. They use an internal data system to create ongoing, two-way conversations with consumers and turn that feedback into the next iterations of products. • Unilever opened an online store for Ben & Jerry’s fans to order their favorite ice cream flavors for home delivery, including their latest Pint Slice innovations, branded T-shirts and other merchandise. By focusing on data, the company found that cereal flavors might be popular and created new favorites like Fruit Loot and Frozen Flakes, which their competitors have copied. • Colgate launched a new smart electric toothbrush with a DTC approach that focuses on social media and influencers. The marketing solely uses digital platforms to drive e-commerce sales and appeal to millennial consumers. The company is engaging with customers by testing uplifting, fun messaging about building good oral habits and staying healthy. • Nestle launched a DTC online shop called the KitKat Chocolatory, which allows customers to design their own premium chocolate bars by picking from four types of chocolate and 14 ingredients. Consumers can customize the packaging as well, boosting the luxury, personalized experience that has become popular in recent years. The company launched a similar idea in Japan two years ago, which was extremely popular for gift-giving and testing new unique flavors. • Beyond Meat, which has grown tremendously during the past year as a plant-based products company, created a DTC site with digital-only offers and mixed-product bundles that can be shipped to consumers’ homes in two days in recyclable boxes. The company uses the online platform as a “test kitchen” that gauges customer reactions to new meatless products. • AB InBev saw major growth in DTC business during the pandemic, especially in countries such as Brazil, China, Mexico and Argentina. The company now reports connections with 250 million consumers per year across a network of 1,300 stores, pop-ups and e-commerce projects. The different touchpoints allow company leaders to track vital metrics such as lifetime customer value and average customer orders. Your Next Steps These CPG brands are successfully following the DTC playbook for digital transformation, which incorporates “three ingredients” to reach consumers — an e-commerce platform, a logistics provider and a consumer data platform. The playbook was outlined in a previous Forbes post, but here’s a primer: 1. E-commerce platforms allow you to manage sales and fulfillment directly with customers. You own the relationship with them, and you can learn their preferences and buying habits. You can also use their customer data across your brand to personalize messaging and create a better customer experience. 2. Logistics providers fulfill and ship orders. You can oversee key factors such as timeliness and reliability, which is paramount in a time when customers want real-time updates and information about shipping delays. You can directly integrate your e-commerce platform with traditional shipping providers or new e-delivery services to ensure that packages arrive safely and on time. 3. Customer data platforms feature a centralized database that connects information from your different data sources, including ad campaigns, emails and social media. With all of your customer data in view, you can improve your marketing strategies and customer experience. These platforms also follow data protection regulations and help you tailor messaging. Best of all, you can be in direct contact with your end customers, create loyalty programs and send out promotions based on your schedule. Determine where you are in the journey and which of the three ingredients need a boost. Oftentimes, a customer data platform specialist can help you look at the pieces and figure out what you need to streamline or add for optimized efficiency and better sales. With a fully integrated experience, you can better understand your customers, and they will build better brand recognition and loyalty with your company, too. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
76eb29bd00925fa5975b4dc99b02d15d	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/12/from-cars-to-coffee-turning-change-into-opportunity-through-adaptive-sophistication/	From Cars To Coffee: Turning Change Into Opportunity Through Adaptive Sophistication	From Cars To Coffee: Turning Change Into Opportunity Through Adaptive Sophistication Director of Marketing at Chargebee, helping organizations grow through streamlined subscription billing and revenue operations. getty On March 17, 2020, Fortune published an article (subscription required) predicting why online classes wouldn’t really work. On March 23, six days later, and for the first time in its history, all classes for undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard transitioned to online delivery. In the six months since, Harvard has had to revamp its curriculum and reevaluate its centuries-long traditions to facilitate its first 100%-remote semester. “This is a moment in time that demands unprecedented innovation and inspiration,” Nonie Lesaux, HGSE academic dean, told the Harvard Gazette. It’s not just Harvard. The global pandemic has redefined the way we live, work and learn. Looking deeper into education, 2020 has been the tipping point for e-learning. While investors have bet on e-learning for years, companies within this segment have struggled with large-scale adoption — until now. Many online learning businesses have been forced to scale their entire operations in weeks to catch up with the market surge. For other businesses, the pandemic has created constraints that push them to rethink their strategies in order to survive and retain customers. This dynamic has driven a stark divide between those that are able to quickly adapt to change and those that are not. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss The key for businesses to not only survive but to thrive in this new world is their ability to champion organizational change, move forward with new strategies, experiment with new business models and ensure that digital transformation happens at warp speed. A new hurdle in successfully executing digital transformation for businesses has been the change in consumer behavior during the pandemic. Not only are people becoming increasingly comfortable with remote learning and working, but there has also been a massive shift in their buying behavior. As more people stayed home during the pandemic, they turned to online shopping to meet their daily needs, leading to a surge in e-commerce sales. According to IBM’s annual “U.S. Retail Index,” the pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce by about five years. And the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that e-commerce sales, which grew by 44% year over year during the second quarter of 2020, now make up 16.1% of total retail sales in the U.S., compared to 10.1% a year ago. Adaptability Is The Secret To Survival Traditional business logic has always been about trading in adaptability to achieve process sophistication. While this higher degree of sophistication has enabled businesses to service increasingly complex sales cycles and product catalogs, the “new normal” has shined a light on the holes that come along with strict business models that are weighed down by robust processes that take far too long to change. In the case of Covid-19, many businesses unable to step away from their processes were forced to close. At Chargebee, we’ve always been strong advocates of the growth and resilience that a subscription business model provides, and we believe that a global “SaaS-ification” of the traditional enterprise is underway. Our company offers subscription billing software, and we’re finding that many large businesses today are looking to adopt the revenue-model flexibility and best practices that much younger upstarts have perfected in the software as a service (SaaS) world. Businesses running on on-premise software have had to transition to the cloud overnight; consumer buying patterns have shifted from one-time retail to recurring subscriptions for everything — from groceries and coffee to online workouts and guitar lessons. Some of the more agile and innovative enterprises have been able to capitalize on these new dynamics. For instance, Panera introduced a subscription model before businesses closed due to the pandemic, and it initially gained a sizable number of subscribers. When the company reignited the program in June, making it free to sign up for a limited time, Panera was able to gain 700,000 subscribers in a three-week span. It’s been so successful that the company is working on expanding the subscription program across other offerings. The trend is going far beyond quick perishables and online classes, too. Today, luxury car manufacturers including Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are now offering monthly subscriptions to their fleets of vehicles. One of the main drivers for these subscription programs is to expand a company’s customer base and introduce the brand to a younger audience. For Porsche, 80% of its subscribers are new to the brand. For consumers, car subscriptions give them access to luxury cars and eliminate the hassle of ownership. So, from coffee to cars, subscriptions are changing the landscape of almost every business looking to succeed today. Beyond Survival: Adaptive Infrastructure Is The Key To Predictability And Growth Looking beyond Covid-19, businesses today are living in an environment of constant change — from the external disturbances due to market dynamics and competition to the internal turbulence brought on by tools, workflows and people who arise as a byproduct of hyper-scale. The key levers for a modern organization to turn this change into opportunity come from an organization’s ability to adjust its business model by launching new product or service lines, tweaking pricing packages and structures, entering new geographies and servicing new markets at the drop of a hat. By investing early in a subscription revenue infrastructure, a company can gain the flexibility to experiment, the sophistication to scale and the resilience that is needed in any market. This has proven true for two of our clients, realizing growth during a difficult year: Study.com capitalized on the overnight surge in demand for e-learning by launching into 18 new markets in under 90 days, while MakeSpace, an on-demand storage company, expanded into 20 new markets over the last year. Uncertainty and change are the new normal. But with innovative thinking and a business model that allows for adaptability, every change becomes an opportunity waiting to be unlocked. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
7bdc9b5f3496cef024d9e193c5181259	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/14/14-smart-ways-to-leverage-user-generated-content/?sh=376615813f26	14 Smart Ways To Leverage User-Generated Content	14 Smart Ways To Leverage User-Generated Content If you build an intellectual property that people identify with, one of the things you'll get a lot is user-generated content. Some of that content might be production-worthy, and by asking to use it, you can save a ton of money on production costs. Moreover, user-generated content is far more accepted and trusted by other consumers. These two elements make user-generated content an essential tool a business can leverage to enhance its marketing and outreach efforts. Sadly, most companies don’t fully tap into the potential of this cost-effective, successful way of engaging customers. If you want to jump on this trend, these 14 experts from Forbes Communications Council share the smartest ways to leverage user-generated content to your benefit. Members explain how to successfully leverage user-generated content in your marketing campaigns. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Get Reviews With Images And Videos People who check out reviews with customer photos (especially videos) are one of the highest-converting segments of visitors. Note: You'll probably need to incentivize customers to provide these types of reviews. A simple discount or gift card will work great. Just be sure your reviews are true, honest, legitimate and relatable. The more authentic, the better! - Matthew Stafford, Build Grow Scale 2. Include It In Your Speeches People often overlook user-generated content when writing speaking notes. When your organization's experts or CEO have an announcement or speaking engagement, start by quoting a user. Use their voice to tell their story of your organization's impact. - Laurie Wang, Legal Aid Alberta 3. Use It To Educate And Inspire User-generated content shouldn’t be used only for attracting new customers. It can also be used to educate and inspire both internal audiences and existing customers about how your solution works or how it impacts the customer experience. We incorporate it into the content that is served throughout the customer journey, including in videos, success stories, and much more. - Steve Cox, Cisco MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 4. Create FAQs, Case Studies User-generated content that flows in through your support channel forms great frequently asked questions (FAQs) and case study material you can use to build up your support content, community vibe, and services testimonials. Additionally, this content gives great insights into what your customers want to see changed and/or added to your offering. - Daniel Hussem, Troparé Inc. 5. Incorporate It In Product Marketing User-generated content can be really great for product marketing. Specifically, customers may use your products in different ways and finding and highlighting unique but interesting use cases can enlighten others to increase usage or even engage new users. - Roshni Wijayasinha, Foxquilt 6. Turn Negative Content Into A Positive Businesses are afraid to turn negative user-generated content into a positive – for instance, taking a complaint from a user mocking your product or the use of the product and turning it around. This is similar to politics when a candidate turns an opponent's perceived strength into weakness or vulnerability. Businesses can do the same with user-generated content. - Lawrence Platt, Cobalt Technical Solutions 7. Create Dedicated Pages For UGC Businesses can leverage free resources such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and create unique channels or pages for their users to easily post user-generated content such as videos, testimonials and images. Using a content marketing engine that can then automatically distribute these across multiple social media channels increasing the effectiveness of this content. - Joel Goobich, Vestorly Inc. 8. Build A Customer Loyalty Program Brands can leverage user-generated content to build a customer loyalty or appreciation program. Examples include giving away free swag to customers who have shared repeat buys of their favorite product or offering a discount for a future purchase to customers who have shared an honest review. This results in customers feeling like the brands they engage with really value them and their opinion. - Amber Micala Arnold, MWWPR 9. Create Social Media Feeds Amplifying content helps build trust and elevate your brand. I suggest starting with social media, where you can subtly promote user-generated content and sound less self-promotional by collaborating with your fans, customers, and ambassadors. Creating feeds of curated user-generated social content for your website or an event is a great way to showcase your brand. - Ben Chodor, Intrado Digital Media 10. Include It In Your PR Efforts Leverage user-generated content in your PR efforts when pitching the media. Even sharing unnamed customer quotes can help you pitch your story to a reporter in a way that is compelling. But be ready to back it up with customers that will speak with journalists about the value your organization delivered. - Mike Neumeier, Arketi Group 11. Use It In All Marketing Materials Once you obtain clear consent, user-generated content can be used on a variety of different platforms. The popular theory is to use it on social media (and of course, you should) but this highly effective content can also be used in blog posts, brand videos, printed marketing materials, and even on signage and advertisements. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio 12. Build A Branded Community Heavy users of your product or service can proxy as external ambassadors as they often become quite familiar with the key features or attendant issues. Finding a way to leverage their expertise and enthusiasm, with some careful curation, can help bolster your brand. By building a branded community, Discord forum or other channel, you can better engage customers with third-party, trusted content. - Gerard Escaler, Lyrium Venture Partners Limited 13. Identify Common Objections And Concerns Collect and analyze user feedback and sales feedback to identify common objections, resistance points, and progress triggers. For example, “I don’t know how to find a home contractor I can trust.” Keep a careful inventory of the common themes to develop a big-picture messaging plan to address them. Good content marketing translates these concerns into relatable content that dissolves objections. - Sean Smith, Virtù b2b 14. Break Down Barriers Between Seller And Buyer While the usual goal of user-generated content is to give companies greater insight into their customers, it can also be used the other way around. Leverage user-generated content to break down barriers between seller and buyer to give your customers an inside look into what makes your company unique. You'll build a relationship based on transparency that will evoke trust in your customer base. - Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf
b98cf9bd52e0504e90d308bb3d0f7c30	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/15/why-is-empathy-only-mentioned-in-a-crisis/?sh=3ce09788565e	Why Is Empathy Only Mentioned In A Crisis?	Why Is Empathy Only Mentioned In A Crisis? As SVP of Essentials and SMB Marketing at Salesforce, Marie empowers small and medium businesses with the resources they need to grow. getty Empathy is crucial to leading through a crisis. That much is true. And never has it been more clear than in 2020, the year brought to its knees not only by Covid-19, but also the West Coast's wildfires, an intense hurricane season, the fight for social justice and more. While empathy is absolutely needed to navigate times of crisis, why do we seem to forget it otherwise? In dire times, of course we want understanding from our leaders; we look for connections and we want to be heard and feel seen. But humans also crave those same things when we're not staring down disaster. A bad breakup, health concerns, home stress — these "everyday" things bring up real emotions that people often deal with silently on their own. As a leader, do you turn a blind eye and compartmentalize your working world, or do you create an atmosphere of empathy, where employees know they're safe and seen? The latter can pay real dividends. The intersection of work and life has always existed (at Salesforce we call it "work-life integration"), and our work-from-home economy has certainly magnified it. Creating an environment of empathy and kindness drives both employee happiness and employee engagement, and 82% of employees say it's better to give praise than a gift. This need is especially high at small businesses. Our company's research shows that meeting customer expectations and hiring and retaining employees are top concerns for small business leaders. Happier employees, better engagement and high retention? Sounds like a win to me. Trust and empathy are the foundation of strong relationships, which means it's wise to grow and cultivate them daily. Here are three ways small business leaders can act with empathy, even when the news cycles aren't churning with the latest catastrophe. MORE FOR YOU5 Ways Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” Could Help People With DisabilitiesWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Is Providing Key Crisis Communication LessonsTwo Issues CIOs Need To Watch Out For In 2021 1. Engage meaningfully. Even the most stoic of leaders are capable of sympathy, or feeling bad for someone. But empathy goes a step further — it's actually imagining yourself in someone else's position, or stepping into their shoes. It's the difference between "that's too bad" and "how would I feel in that same situation?" Empathy helps you form deeper connections through understanding. To get there, you have to engage meaningfully. That goes beyond wandering the office halls so colleagues can put a face with a name. You've got to set aside time to get to know people, and also let them know you. Pay attention to what they say, as well as what they don't say. I find that doing this not only helps me connect with my colleagues but also helps me check in on my own emotional health, too. 2. Go beyond the surface. Despite what Instagram says, nobody's life is perfect. During an event like a pandemic, you can be sure most people are affected in some way and need understanding. Yet most people also have something else affecting them at any given time, from breakups and canceled plans to health concerns, family stress and beyond. Do you know what's going on in the lives of your colleagues and employees? The truth is, you may never know what they're going through. And that's OK; these matters are often private. But do your best to pay attention, ask questions and notice behavior. And if you always default to empathy, your team will likely notice and appreciate the effort. 3. Build a culture of caring. Empathy can't exist in a vacuum. If a leader is the only one acting with empathy and kindness, that puts a lot of pressure on that person to serve as the team's emotional rock. It's better to encourage a culture of empathy; create a safe space where employees feel understood and know they matter. That kind of organizational unity is a powerful driver, but keep in mind that building a culture of caring happens over time. It takes attention, dedication and practice. If you're ready to commit, it's time to start listening, asking questions and seeking advice on how to foster a culture that values kindness and empathy. Put empathy and understanding into practice as a leader. Growing up, my beloved father often used the age-old expression, "If you tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said." The same logic can be used with empathy: If you always practice empathy, you never have to worry about seeming unkind. So yes, continue to lead with kindness as we grapple with the coronavirus and any other number of crises we've faced this year, but let empathy be one thing that sticks around long after the emergencies are contained. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
c298f9bb170527833801387b815a9342	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/21/the-power-of-belonging-team-workplace-and-community/	The Power Of Belonging: Team, Workplace And Community	The Power Of Belonging: Team, Workplace And Community Div has led product marketing in startups and Fortune 500 technology companies and loves to share her PMM and leadership experiences. getty I first felt my heart skip a beat when I learned about belonging, along with diversity and inclusion, from Pat Wadors. Her course changed my world. You might be constantly asking the question: "Do I fit in on this team and in this company?" Now, a better question to ask is: "Do I belong on this team and in this company?" To "belong" is a simple word, but it has grown to mean a lot more. In every team, workplace and community that you are a part of, ask the question "Do I belong?" versus "Do I fit in?" I look back to my childhood days when the first group of friends helped me to realize that I belong even though we were in an international Indian school with students from around the world. I never asked what belonging meant in a team or a workplace or a community. Each experience over the past few decades has helped me realize that the world is more united than distributed, with our diverse perspectives across ethnicities, genders, ages and disabilities, to name a few. Career Transition: Finding A New Home Where You Belong When you go through a career transition, this becomes paramount. It requires finding your purpose and a place where you can be your own true self. A friend of mine shared two questions with me that I keep on sticky notes in front of my workspace at home: MORE FOR YOUWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Is Providing Key Crisis Communication LessonsBiden Is Expected To Enact Emergency Executive Orders To Aid Struggling AmericansDon’t Be A Stefanik: Why Harvard Removed A GOP Congresswoman From Its Leadership • Is it making me happy now? • Will it make me happy in the future? This made me wonder, would these simple questions answer the power of belonging? As I interviewed for a new role, I was in search of companies and teams that lived by their values and whose values resonated with my core beliefs. It's one thing to talk about diversity and inclusion, but actions speak louder than words. If you are in a career transition and find a good role, look at the company's culture and values. Are the values authentic? Consider asking for examples from the hiring manager or human resources team of how they live their values. Here is a question that helped me assess mutual fit, synergy and a better understanding of the role and responsibilities ahead: "What is the No. 1 challenge/opportunity for this role on day one, or after 30 or 90 days?" If you get an honest answer, then you know what to expect. Yes, there will always be ambiguity. That's where the fun begins to challenge the norm. Bring your authentic self to help solve these challenges, and prepare yourself and the team for the future. Personally, this question helped me to assess if I would belong in the new environment, and the answer is important to help make the right choice with the context you have. Foster Belonging From Day One For new leaders of teams or communities, here are a few tips that have helped me to provide a sense of belonging to all members of my team and foster a safe environment where everyone's voice is heard. • You're not going to have all the answers. Believe in collective intelligence, shared wisdom and understanding. Sharing is caring. • Bring out the best in one another. Hold no judgments, and be willing to listen and share diverse perspectives. • There is no right or wrong answer, and no one individual is smarter than anyone else in the room. Our perspectives make us who we are, and we all have a place in the group with our similarities and differences. In today's times, many of us are talking the talk, but are we truly walking the walk? How can we, as leaders, do more to help our teams, workplaces and communities come together to be one? Diversity, Equity And Inclusion: Be The Change In my recent research, I came across some powerful initiatives aimed at working toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). For example, Diversity Plug gives access to diversity and equality data. Companies can join and publicly disclose their diversity data, while consumers and employees can ask companies to be transparent and make diversity data public. The I ACT ON pledge encourages the commitment of leaders today to act on supporting inclusion. And two organizations highlight companies that are inclusive: InHerSight publishes "The 50 Best Places to Work As Rated by the Women Who Work There" list, and the Disability Equality Index publishes the "DEI Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion" list. Knowledge Is Power Knowledge is how we are going to lead and empower the leaders of tomorrow to belong and be their own true selves. Today, many employees want to support and grow businesses that value what they value. It's no longer just about an amazing product or excellent customer service. We expect and demand more from ourselves, our teams and organizations around the world. We can all do more and be better than yesterday for a brighter tomorrow and for the next generation. Let's create an equitable workplace and actively listen to employees, teams and leaders. Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging don't start or stop on your team. Go beyond and expand them to your workplace, community, interest groups, neighborhood, etc., until we reach everywhere. When we really see each other, we can help each other to open up and connect — to belong. A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald sums up the idea of belonging for me: "That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
036db3de13aa44d0be80da6e9e7205e3	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/23/marketers-energy-marketplaces-can-drive-smart-home-appliance-shopping/?sh=7c15dbf662d8	Marketers: Energy Marketplaces Can Drive Smart Home Appliance Shopping	Marketers: Energy Marketplaces Can Drive Smart Home Appliance Shopping Gautam Aggarwal, CMO of Bidgely, evolving energy analytics for utilities with the power of data and artificial intelligence. getty Rising popularity in energy-efficient appliances and smart home products, such as smart thermostats and voice-activated light switches, has led utilities to ramp the development of online energy marketplaces in an effort to sell such products directly to consumers. Marketplaces promise valuable revenue sources for utilities, with the potential to increase global utility revenue from $118 million to $468 million in the next 10 years, according to research firm Guidehouse Insights. But traditional marketplaces so far have yet to deliver on that promise. Why? Traditional utility e-commerce sites struggle to compete against the brand recognition and loyalty of Amazon and the Home Depot and often fail to offer more than a limited catalog of products. In today's world of business-to-consumer (B2C) sales and engagement, relying on generic, one-size-fits-all marketing is insufficient. Amazon and other major brands have forever changed customer expectations by harnessing the power of customer browsing habits and purchasing behavior to tailor recommendations and greatly improve a customer's overall experience. Utility marketplaces now must evolve in sophistication to provide a smarter way of shopping, capable of competing against the big-box retailer shopping experience. While utilities have made strides in increasing customer satisfaction through personalization, more effective marketing is still needed to further drive engagement within their marketplace. How, then, can utilities become top of mind for smart home and energy-efficient appliance shopping? MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss My company, Bidgely, works with utilities to target customers with personalized marketing content similar to techniques used by Amazon. We help them capitalize on what utilities have that Amazon doesn't: a household's actual energy usage. By using data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) analytics to gain insights into energy behavior, utilities can gain a clear advantage over retailers when it comes to motivating customers. Targeted Marketing Through Personalization Through AI-powered segmentation, utilities can create individual energy profiles for each household based on a series of characteristics, including real-time energy consumption and appliance type, and unique features, like electric vehicle (EV) charging or pool pump usage, that allow for more accurate customer targeting. By using these granular, appliance-level insights, marketers can create tailored marketing communications for their customers. Generic notifications about a utility refrigerator rebate program, for instance, can offer little to no value for customers without context into the individual customer's current refrigerator efficiency. Arbitrary messages like this lack actionable guidance on why a customer should make the purchase and also have the potential to create distrust. Instead, utilities should look to hypertarget their interactions to first make customers aware of their actual household's energy usage by appliance, and then educate them to understand what affect upgrading or purchasing a new smart home appliance will have for them. The utility is now in a favorable position to not only send customers directly to their marketplace but also provide relevant purchasing recommendations. Many utilities are already collecting immense amounts of customer data through smart meters. They can either work with in-house teams to convert that data into actionable insights or, if they're strapped for resources, look to work with a third-party AI provider to lead these customer interactions, integrating these offerings into a utility's existing customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. A Smarter Way Of Shopping It is important to recognize the journey doesn't end once the customer reaches the marketplace. For utilities to achieve recurring and impactful revenue, marketplaces need to support the convenience customers have come to expect and motivate them to follow through with the purchase. Successful marketplace experiences that intelligently personalize the customer journey to explain the reason behind each product offering will ultimately drive higher cost-per-click to cost-per-acquisition conversions. Part of this journey includes giving consumers the freedom to purchase products from multiple partners within the marketplace, like the Home Depot and Amazon. Currently, customers who shop at the Home Depot may receive an appliance manufacturer's rebate but remain unaware of available utility rebates on the same product. Customers who shop the utility marketplace receive the utility rebate but may miss out on the manufacturer rebate. Be creating a "smart" utility marketplace, you can present both discounts together while allowing customers to comfortably choose between retailers based on their shopping preferences and best value. End-To-End Service Provider Marketplaces are a critical component for increasing a utility's annual revenue as well as reaching mandated decarbonization goals. By using advanced customer targeting, made possible by AI-driven personalization, you can effectively reduce the cost burden of traditional advertising to promote rebates and product promotions while simultaneously delivering customer offerings based on their unique appliance-level energy-savings potential. By providing a smarter way of shopping, utilities can be transformed from a static energy provider into a dynamic lifestyle provider. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
a41ea04531b27149bdc0151a117b12ae	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/10/27/growth-of-the-api-economy-requires-it-operational-flexibility/	Growth Of The API Economy Requires IT Operational Flexibility	Growth Of The API Economy Requires IT Operational Flexibility Zeev Draer is the Vice President at Niagara Networks, overseeing market strategy and corporate development. Today, the prevalence of API communications in companies and organizations has caused some experts to define these times as the new “API economy.” The growth of application programming interface (API) use has been on a strong trajectory, and it shows no signs of slowing. Automation of systems, machine-to-machine communications, software-driven or defined paradigms and horizontal movement toward cloud apps and cloud architectures from edge to users and endpoints all contribute toward increasing amounts of API traffic on company networks. Even the use and integration of new security and networking solutions increase the use of APIs. This growth presents challenges to both network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps) and even requires a rethinking of how the two groups work together and improve their present levels of efficiency and flexibility. Both NetOps and SecOps need full visibility to monitor and manage network performance and ensure security. While API calls or communication are generally rather lightweight in terms of the amount of information being sent and received, the criticality of API traffic is staggering. The average enterprise uses nearly 1,200 cloud apps, and many of these involve the use of APIs for management, reporting, analytics and integration with other systems. The use of API calls provides cybercriminals with new avenues for conducting attacks, particularly for command and control, exfiltration and even for lateral movement and reconnaissance. An unauthenticated API endpoint allowed access to Panera Bread’s customer information. A leaky API on T-Mobile’s website exposed customer data. According to TechBeacon, the massive Equifax data breach “was due to an exploit of a vulnerability in an open-source component, Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638. Struts is a mainstream web framework, widely used by Fortune 100 companies to create web applications and APIs.” MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss In addition, the latest vector of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have expanded to API calls. Akamai has measured API traffic being responsible for 83% of all hits. Whether legitimate or not, API calls add to a network’s traffic volume, but they also introduce new challenges for latency and contention as well as the need for assessment to determine whether the API usage is legitimate or potentially represents a security attack. Many of these calls require fast response times; otherwise, applications or systems using them will slow, potentially interfering with functionality or annoying users. Either way, NetOps teams must manage the operational state of this API traffic flow as part of their overall charge to maintain a productive network. At the same time, NetOps needs to ensure that API communication does not interfere with other important network traffic and that quality of service will be baselined and strictly enforced. The NetOps Imperative To properly manage API traffic on the network, NetOps teams need sufficient traffic visibility to monitor and understand what is happening, while also employing new quality of service efforts and being able to conduct troubleshooting. Since the use of API communication is dynamic, not just growing in volume but also in types of usage, it is important that NetOps teams have the flexibility to add or change tools in their ongoing monitoring and management of the network. Technology continually advances, both in terms of the things using the network and in terms of tools to deal with these new changes. NetOps teams need the ability to add or change tools efficiently, as “deploy and destroy” practices require, without complex physical infrastructure forklifts and based on real-time service demands. Typical constraints involved with changing or adding networking tools will make it difficult for teams to act proactively and keep pace with needs and challenges. The SecOps Imperative In the same way, SecOps teams also need new ways to monitor and analyze secure states and prevent or minimize new threats inside API communication. Already, API calls are a known vector for attackers. With the volume and complexity of API traffic, it is easy for an attacker to take advantage and to hide malicious activities. For instance, endpoints that handle object identifiers are often exposed by APIs, resulting in a major control issue at the surface-level access point. API can tend to offer extensive data exposure without robust enough authentication and other security measures. According to Gartner Inc.’s “How to Build an Effective API Security Strategy” report, by 2022, within enterprise web applications, API vulnerabilities will be the most common attack vector for data breaches. The same challenges to NetOps also apply to SecOps, and are perhaps even more urgent. The typical slow, labor-intensive processes to introduce new tools or to make changes to existing tools also impair the SecOps teams. As both NetOps and SecOps face similar challenges, both would benefit from adopting an efficient, streamlined approach to staying current with new needs and challenges and new technology solutions and practices to deal with them. Like other things facing companies today, API traffic is both a security and networking issue. These concerns present a greater need for more granular visibility and faster ways to respond to changes. Managing and monitoring API traffic can be a factor to pull NetOps and SecOps closer together in a new way of working. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
70c19a1fba951375843b09de33e23a70	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/02/five-industries-for-digital-opportunities-in-2020/	Five Industries For Digital Opportunities In 2020	Five Industries For Digital Opportunities In 2020 Fortune 100 VP \| Silicon Valley Executive \| Founder of BestBox.co \| Growth Advisor \| Author of The Digital Intrapreneur \| CoachTony.ca getty Most industries have experienced massive change due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies are shutting down not because their products or ideas were bad, but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The market couldn’t hold them up through this challenging year. Some industries, however, are ripe for digitally intrapreneurial people to make a difference. These are industries that have been forced to change dramatically, almost overnight, and therein lies an opportunity for the right people with the right toolkit of digital skills to make their mark. As an entrepreneur myself, I’ve been keeping an eye on the way industries are evolving, and believe these five areas have massive growth potential as we head toward the end of 2020. Technology Solution Providers Industries that never cared about digital technology before are now scrambling to catch up. If they want to survive, they’ve got to be online. Because of this, some of the companies that provide digital solutions have been thriving. There’s a demand for services, even on tertiary levels such as digital marketing. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Every system needs people to implement it and consultants to teach businesses how to use it. Can you translate your skills to help a business close its digital gap? Retail Retail was drastically changing before the pandemic, through digital transformation and a shift to e-commerce, but Covid-19 accelerated the inevitable. Many that were once fully brick-and-mortar companies have either closed, filed for bankruptcy or been forced to transition to digital to survive. Some of these companies are realizing that, in addition to a user-friendly e-commerce platform, they also need a strong social media presence and a digital team to effectively support all the different sales channels people are using. Online Education When the virus hit, parents and kids were given no choice but to stay home, regardless of childcare arrangements or job demands. People were pushed to homeschooling, and there were clear cracks in how schools’ in-person curriculum translated to parents teaching at home. As we navigate the fall semester, many schools have not defined a long-term plan. Because of this, companies that provide distance learning, online education and remote tutoring have increased in popularity. Based on what I’ve seen, there seems to be more willingness on the part of parents and children to adopt these new technologies. Restaurant Delivery Going out to eat was one of the first experiences we lost when the virus began to spread. It’s also likely to be one of the last to reopen fully. In areas with good weather, outdoor dining has been an option, but we’re moving into winter and many places will no longer find that feasible. In place of in-restaurant dining, food delivery services have surged since the start of the pandemic. As digital took center stage, this necessitated the introduction of controls like throttling mechanisms to manage the flow of online orders. From interface management to analytics to robotics to software solutions, there are now more opportunities for digital talent. Even individual restaurants can benefit from having a digital team member or two to focus on online orders, web listings, social media presence and review management. Grocery Delivery Having worked in e-commerce for a long time, I know there have been a lot of barriers to grocery stores transitioning to digital. Food is perishable; consumers want things instantly; there is limited space in refrigerated trucks. That’s not to mention that some people really like their apples to look a certain way, and if they don’t, they’ll want to return them, which leads to increased costs for the store and more food waste. These are just some of the reasons it seemed to me like digital grocery delivery just couldn’t work on a large scale. That is, until Covid-19 hit. Suddenly, stores started limiting occupancy, supply chains broke down and consumers turned to online ordering. Grocers have the opportunity to put efficient systems in place. To make this a reality, stores may need app developers, marketers, e-commerce managers, inventory managers, supply chain managers, click-to-chat customer service reps and more. For an industry that has traditionally been face to face, there is suddenly a ton of opportunity for digital. How To Make An Impact If you’re looking to make a transition into one of these industries, the key thing to remember is that you need to bring value to the table. To do that, you should be engaging consistently with people in the industry on relevant topics and looking to help people in some way. Whether this is through sharing free advice or tips or joining online meetup groups to share your perspective and learn more, you need to jump in with both feet. Depending on your industry and market, I’d also suggest picking one social media channel (or more) to invest your time into to build out your presence properly. Then begin sharing and engaging like crazy. LinkedIn is great if you are selling to businesses. Instagram and Facebook are best for consumer demand. If you don’t have immediate luck with the traditional job search angle, I’d suggest trying some of these things: 1. Work with a recruiter in the industry you’re looking to break into. 2. Directly ask friends and colleagues in your network if they know of any opportunities. Sometimes all you need to do is ask! 3. Give some time away for free to get a foot in the door. Offer free advice for startups, do a project for someone with influence or volunteer for a good cause to gain experience in that industry. If you’re looking for a job or you’re ready to take a big jump into something exciting, I’d encourage you to check out these five industries as places where significant change is happening. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
d3ac6801b5d2dec4f57b1e8c4ffe7c44	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/02/how-marketers-can-help-make-a-great-place-to-work/	How Marketers Can Help Make A Great Place To Work	How Marketers Can Help Make A Great Place To Work Deanna Salas joined PDI as VP of Marketing in 2018 and leads brand strategy and corporate communications. Luis Alvarez We tend to think of marketing as an external function to promote the brand and its products and services. But marketing can also play a critical role in employee engagement and creating a great workplace. It’s more than just submitting for an award; it’s about the culture you create. Whether it’s a sales kickoff to rally the teams, a shoutout on your intranet to recognize employees for outstanding work or an employee story about working from home and juggling life’s little distractions, a little sharing and enthusiasm can go a long way. Creating Memorable Moments I recall one moment like it was yesterday: It was while I was taking a photo of one of our employees. He was proudly modeling the royal blue shirt with crisp white lettering featuring our logo on the front and the icon we designed for our technology solution on the back. Moments before I took the photo, two of his colleagues helped him fix his collar, fussing over him as if he were the company spokesman posing for a magazine photo spread. In a way, he was. We were doing more than handing out T-shirts. We gave people something to be excited about, and we transformed the breakroom into a movie theater to celebrate an internal brand launch. That’s the day I realized marketing’s role in making a great workplace. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Marketing’s role is critical to how employees feel about their jobs and the company. Make Internal Meetings Meaningful Company meetings can help make a great work environment. They bring people together and keep employees informed on the strategy, which they get to hear about directly from their leaders. But let’s be honest. Internal meetings can be a time suck; employees may be overwhelmed by other meetings or on deadline for projects. Quite frankly, you could be faced with your executives standing in a half-empty room. That’s a nightmare for everyone. But if you have a well-thought-out plan that puts employee needs first, then your event will be a success. Why not host it during lunch and bring in food and drinks? It’s less likely employees will have another meeting, and it will encourage them to take a break — especially those who never leave their desks and eat their lunch inches from their computer. You know who you are. Use All The Channels Our monthly newsletter is called “Getting to Know PDI.” The name says it all. In the section called Around the Globe, we share employees’ photos of team-building events, office parties, anniversaries, recognitions and more. We’ve made several acquisitions during the years, and the newsletter plays a significant role in our integration strategy to help bring our teams closer together. An intranet is a vital tool at your disposal. It can also act as a “good news” channel. For example, every week, we share stories and announcements and give shoutouts recognizing our employees’ efforts. Pulling together content from multiple regional offices is no small task. As they say, it takes a village, which is why we gather input from local site leaders, our human resources partners and our leadership team. This is another way marketing can help bring a global and diverse workforce closer together. Help Inspire Others Creating a great workplace means always having your pulse on the company culture. It’s important to continuously look for new ways to ensure your employees love what they do and want to stay for a long time. For my team, this came in the form of a hackathon, complete with a new T-shirt design to showcase a passion for coding. The shirt says “Code on and Prosper,” with a design featuring our company logo surrounded by code and the Vulcan salute. Working with our technologists is where my passion lies. I love technology and feel inspired every time I talk with one of our software engineers, our head of innovation or our chief technology officer (CTO). Our CTO has helped transform our company and has brought the fun factor to our culture. We launched a “women in tech” page on our website featuring videos of her and other women in our company sharing their stories and passion for technology. The Power Of Your Brand People are your most important brand asset. Marketing’s role is so critical when it comes to cultivating brand advocates. Whenever you’re opening a new office or refreshing an old one, call in your marketing team for help. From invitations and swag to public relations and community relations, marketing can help orchestrate a great experience for everyone. When I visit our offices, I see brand pride all the time. Many of my colleagues regularly wear company swag. Others, myself included, have a wardrobe filled with blue apparel (our brand color). Even during these unusual times, when so many of us work remotely, the brand has brought us together. We created graphics of our offices for employees to use as their backgrounds during their virtual meetings. It’s incredible to see the impact marketing can have on building a culture where employees are excited about the workplace and company. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
54f6cbc35641bf74794dca479487256a	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/a-new-class-is-in-session-how-to-incorporate-ai-in-education/?sh=4af19f2f69bc	(A New) Class Is In Session: How To Incorporate AI In Education	(A New) Class Is In Session: How To Incorporate AI In Education Chief Marketing Officer at Interactions, a conversational AI company, where he oversees all aspects of communications, sales and marketing. getty Nearly two months in, the 2020-2021 school year looks unlike any we’ve seen before. Students are logging into Zoom, learning in remote pods or sitting 6 feet apart in thinned-out classrooms. Teachers are working around the clock to adapt lesson plans, mimic science labs and adjust curriculums for hybrid or remote environments. Everywhere we look, students, schools and teachers are reevaluating what constitutes a successful education experience. But amid the pandemic-related shakeups, there’s another pressing education reevaluation on my mind: the growing imperative to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into our curriculums. Typically, AI instruction is relegated to a college course, or even a graduate one. But to me, it’s not enough for a few specialized people to learn about AI in the latter years of college. AI is now pervasive in our everyday lives — in the voice assistants in our homes, the Netflix algorithm suggesting our next binge-watch and the robot taking inventory at our local grocery store. For many people, it’s alongside them when they work. In 2019, Gartner reportedly found that 37% of enterprises have deployed AI or have imminent plans to do so — up 270% from just four years before. These daily AI applications are multiplying each year, touching all corners of our lives while most people lack even an elementary understanding of how the technology works. There have been some efforts to introduce AI into schools, but these initiatives are just scratching the surface. It’s time for schools to reevaluate their approach to teaching kids about a technology that’s only becoming more commonplace. Here are three best practices for incorporating AI in education. MORE FOR YOUHow This Dutch Startup Plans To Disrupt The Supermarket LandscapeHow Kash Doll Is Cashing In On The Renaissance For Black Women RappersTrillion-Dollar Opportunity: How A New Internet Will Completely Reimagine Your Business Model Educate Educators Teachers can’t teach what they don’t yet know, and as we’ve already established, many people have never had any formal education on AI. The very first step to introducing AI into schools is arming teachers with the necessary resources and knowledge to feel comfortable talking about the subject. This may sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. The subject matter doesn’t need to be overly technical, especially in the lower grades; just a working knowledge of what the technology is and an understanding of its impact on our day-to-day lives is enough. There are ample online resources, including tools like Google’s Teachable Machine or TensorFlow Playground, that can give teachers greater comfort with the key concepts. Teachers can also gain familiarity by using AI in their profession — an emerging application of the technology that’s not necessarily widespread yet. I recently sat down with Paul Johansen, an executive at Edmentum, to talk about early applications of AI in education. Paul shared that not only can AI and automation manage routine tasks to free up teachers’ limited time, but it can also examine student data to help make more personalized educational recommendations for students, which is especially valuable when teachers can’t be in person to closely monitor progress. Nobody expects teachers to suddenly be AI experts, but familiarity with key concepts, applications and effects will prepare them to teach their students the basics. Start Early, Incorporate Often In a recent episode of my company’s podcast, we welcomed Dave Touretzky, a computer science professor and creator of an initiative to teach AI in grades K-12. At first glance, teaching AI to kindergarteners seems kind of crazy. But Dave pointed out that kids are actually already familiar with AI, especially applications like Alexa and Siri, before they ever step foot in a school building. Teaching kids about these applications only provides them with the tools to make sense of this seemingly magical technology. From there, many curriculums won’t have the space for a dedicated AI class, but there are still opportunities to weave learnings into other areas of the curriculum. Current events can explore the latest national news on hot topics like facial recognition, AI and jobs or the smart home; economics class can examine the impact of AI on business; history class can discuss the innovation cycle and how AI is similar or different from previous groundbreaking technology advancements. AI doesn’t have to dominate the curriculum to become a valuable element. There are ample opportunities to examine AI’s intersection with other subjects and provide students with a more holistic understanding. Encourage Students To Question Everything I’ve dedicated much of my career to working with AI, and I believe in its benefits for both business and society, but that doesn’t mean I think we should accept all AI applications without question. There are important ethical considerations that we need to collectively weigh — beginning in school. As teachers introduce concepts and cutting-edge technologies, it’s important to examine the benefits and pitfalls and the larger impact this technology is likely to have. Dave, for example, recommends asking questions like “Who may benefit from this technology?” or “Who may be harmed by this technology?” There are many complex and fascinating questions about AI to consider, including its place in the workplace, government and cities, and what, if any, restrictions we should impose on it. Imparting information about the technology without considering its implications only goes halfway. As in humanities, math or economics class, it’s also critical to teach kids to consider how this subject intersects with our real lives. To the average person, including educators and students, learning about AI may initially seem complex, daunting or even insurmountable. But AI is not a niche topic, and it’s time we stopped treating it like one in our schools. Students should not need a graduate-level education in order to understand the technology that surrounds us daily and the impact it has on our lives — from our jobs to our Amazon recommendations to the Google autofill suggesting the end of this sentence. As we collectively reevaluate what makes for a successful education this year and beyond, it’s time to factor AI into the equation and begin to arm students with the knowledge and critical thinking necessary to succeed in an AI-driven world. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
0c8b9ed4df04a1c8f96ab0b963fd2f94	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/ai-and-experience-based-decisions-where-marketers-can-genuinely-shine/	AI And Experience-Based Decisions: Where Marketers Can Genuinely Shine	AI And Experience-Based Decisions: Where Marketers Can Genuinely Shine Dipalli is the director of marketing at Incognito Software Systems Inc., with 17 years of experience bringing profitable products to market. getty As we sat for our board meeting, there was a hush around what new information I would tell the board members about marketing that they had not heard before. After all, it was all about the forecasts and our logic behind the forecasted numbers. As the only woman on the management team of the company I previously worked with, I started off with the growth we had seen and what we forecasted as marketing’s contribution to the upcoming year. As I uttered a highly aspirational conversion rate from the opportunity to close, a board member questioned, “based on what?” As someone who is heavily data-driven with a great affinity for storytelling, I moved on to show how prospects were behaving in real time, which predicted their next best action. I did not fully win the argument, but it was sufficient to warrant a waiting game for the performance on the forecasted numbers. The next term, the results delivered on the forecasted numbers, courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI) and marketing experience. As marketers, we have to constantly be on top of two things: consumer behavior and market and industry trends. Deep learning, a subset of AI, can make the job of predicting consumer behavior easier. According to Bernard Marr, a bestselling author and futurist, deep learning is a subset of AI that facilitates certain functions in machines that typically require human intelligence. One can see the influence of AI in most digital marketing strategies. For instance, Body Labs creates 3D body models so that companies can leverage the AI data to do sizing studies or for fashion designers to dress the models with their new clothing designs. In 2018, Amazon patented a “blended reality systems and methods” technology to help turn the digital experience into an immersive shopping experience. In the business-to-business (B2B) world, customer behavior analysis can play a huge role in predicting customer behaviors and shaping their experiences. There are platforms that allow advertisers to retarget prospects based on their browsing history, patterns and the articles they read, while dynamically changing the retargeted content. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss If deep learning algorithms get better with more experience, then what role do marketers play in the new scheme of things? Like any exponential technology, AI is not magic. It needs interpretation, understanding and context. Robust marketing strategies are a function of understanding human psychology, industry and market trends, social needs and wants, and individual experience. According to an article published by the MIT Technology Review, machines do not understand causation; they understand the association. A simplistic example mentioned in the article is that an AI system can tell that clouds make rain more likely to occur, but cannot say that clouds cause rain. In my opinion, there are still questions that great marketing practitioners and executives ask after using AI as an input mechanism. For example: • Why did a prospect not buy this enterprise software? • What policy changes affected the sales of X in Y country? • What if we introduce this scheme? • Is it better to position this article in this way because, according to X’s feedback, certain prospects may be affected negatively? • Is this data source to be trusted? What important information am I missing here? As marketers, we need to be aware of AI’s limitations and use it as an ally, not a substitute. We need to tell stories that can truly connect on a deep and meaningful level and in a way that resonates with our audience. AI can help you with what data to focus on, but developing insights based on unique experience is where you will truly shine. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
0d3e782183f38264690f414e9d91982d	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/can-a-companys-culture-be-the-main-driver-of-its-success/	Can A Company's Culture Be The Main Driver Of Its Success?	Can A Company's Culture Be The Main Driver Of Its Success? Roy Hutchinson, Chief Strategy and Communications Officer, Deem Finance LLC. getty Why do you come to work? What motivates you? From the beginning of creating a digital-first financial services provider in the United Arab Emirates, we knew that we did not want to be another bank. We had all worked in banks, so we knew there was a need for new ideas and solutions. We also knew that the challenge of taking on large incumbents is always daunting for a startup. Knowing what we did not want to be, we had to ask ourselves: What did we want to be? Specifically, what would give every employee each day that reason to come to work — that motivation? The answer? A purpose. Doing something that we know matters to people like us — our customers. The Value Of A Purpose Being a company driven by purpose brings with it substantial intangible value in terms of employee commitment and engagement. Unlike jobs in which people work to pay their bills, purpose-oriented work aligns your company’s objectives with the passion of each individual. You give your employees a reason to come to work while promoting commitment and going the extra mile. It creates team spirit and a sense of pride. Customers notice this, and it is value. It’s the secret weapon of a small new player. ‘Culture’ Is A Hazy Term Culture can be a make-or-break talent acquisition factor, a performance driver and a competitive advantage. There’s a lot riding on the culture of a company. Our company culture had to be well-structured, not vague, and the decisive test was whether we could translate our values unambiguously into process and policies (e.g., reward systems and hiring requirements). For example, sharing our values is a must-have for joining the firm, and practicing them must weigh materially in the incentive system. Defining Values And Culture To arrive at our values and culture, we co-designed them with our staff. Therefore, our community (staff) created the company purpose organically for our community (clients). It was of high meaning that the whole company participated in the co-creation. This meant accountability by all. When everyone has a say in shaping a company’s values, you can create a sense of ownership. From ownership comes the empowerment to remind each other when actions fall short of a company’s values. Matching Internal And External Values No brand survives if there is dissonance between internal values and brand values. Your values and behaviors have to be a mirror image of the brand attributes promised to your customers. As a management team, we defined our brand narrative and brand values, and throughout the process of working with our staff, we put these in the discussion. Staff at all levels engaged in workshops, offering suggestions, meeting with clients and other forms of testing our initial hypothesis. We ended up at 80%-90% of the brand values and, since “transparency” and “team cooperation” are among our core values, we fine-tuned the customer-visible brand values for alignment with what our teams had created. We jointly arrived at answers to the questions of what would make employees proud to work here and what would motivate them. A version so shortened as to appear vague is: “To empower our community to create their financial future and to prosper in the long run. To change financial services for the better.” To be clear, a company’s cultural values should be much more granular than this. We needed to instill this shared purpose through a set of clear behaviors that our team would understand and live by. We did this through plain English statements that were easily ratable on a five-point appraisal scale: four values with five attributes each, so 20 statements that provided clarity and granularity. Cultural Values Will Not Always Drive Success All companies have some form of brand values, but they might not all be relevant. I believe ours had a powerful vision and mission because it enabled empathy. Customers became people like us who came to a prosperous country to improve their financial situation and to build a better future than they could in their home country. Every one of us in the company fits that description, so we think of our customers as we would of ourselves. We understood that this set us apart from other financial providers. When values touch on a positive nerve, they drive success in both internal motivation and commercial achievements. The emphasis on helping consumers and colleagues, and always going the extra mile for them, can make a difference. We found success on the business side, and as far as employee sentiment goes, we reached enviable metrics by the end of the first quarter after these values were established: “I am proud to be a member of this company”: 99% “I feel transformation happened with this company”: 97% “I would recommend to a friend seeking employment”: 92% Culture will not always make a difference, but when it does, it is decisive. Too many company cultures sound more like platitudes or party lines than genuine change-drivers that motivate human beings. The key takeaways are that brand and culture values must be believable to consumers and fully bought into by staff. For this, they must satisfy unmet needs, be material within compensation, foster cooperation, provide purpose and be genuine. They must satisfy the human need to evolve and become better at what we do for a living. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
9a74cb6a42fac8b54a8b5da81b9fe607	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/make-your-brand-fight-during-a-recession/	Make Your Brand 'Fight' During A Recession	Make Your Brand 'Fight' During A Recession Director of Marketing at NRL Mortgage \| Financial Marketer \| Copywriter \| Mom to a Dog & 2 Humans getty In periods of business uncertainty — for instance, during the pandemic — one thing is certain: Both consumers and businesses struggle. Financial services especially suffer, as the pandemic continues to stunt the economy and unemployment reaches record highs. The term “survival of the fittest” could not be more true, as companies and brands are hard-pressed to create strategies to survive the storm. During recessions, we often see excessive price reductions in either price point, rates or fees, causing consumers to “over shop” for the best possible price. The altered expectation of downward prices threatens profitability in the eventual recovery period and can create resistance as the economy returns to “normal.” Even worse, customer buying behavior during an economic strain can cause premium companies to lose share to low-priced competitors. Many teams are facing the same classic challenge: Do we reduce prices head-on, knowing it will destroy profits in the short-term and long-term reduction market share? Or worse, hold the line, pray for a better market to return and, in return, lose clients who may never come back? Instead of moving your business down market during uncertain times, consider introducing a “fighter brand,” a strategy I’ve discussed for financial brands, which is the industry sector I work in. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss A fighter brand is typically introduced during economic strains as a version of the premium offering, at a discounted price and with minimal advertising. If introduced and managed correctly, a fighter brand can combat and ideally eliminate low-priced rivals. The brand also builds protection around a company’s premium-price offerings by maintaining the current price point. Once the economic uncertainty is over, a brand can either quietly withdraw the fighter brand or it can continue to offer it as a value-add. As for service-model companies, the fighter strategy still works as a “fighter service,” through discounted rates and services, introduced with little marketing, in order to cut competition. In the late 1990s, Intel launched its budget Celeron chip, an alternative to Pentium, in response to AMD’s low-priced chips. Intel’s budget alternative strategy with Celeron cleared the way to eventually cement Intel as a market leader. And while this next brand may not have developed its fighter brand in direct response to a recession, Apple’s SE model iPhones and watches provide a cost-effective alternative and eliminate low-priced rivals. While fighter brands are a tempting solution, be warned: They are hard to introduce and challenging to maintain. Take GM’s Saturn, as an example — a brand that was positioned as an instant winner. However, due to high startup and operating costs, in addition to being a time sponge for GM’s management team, it eventually led to GM becoming less competitive compared to Honda and Toyota. It is important to qualify the following concerns before launching your fighter brand: • Will the fighter brand lose money? • Is creating a new fighter brand truly necessary? • Could this cannibalize our current premium offering? • Could the fighter brand fail to cut competition? • Will the fighter brand consume too much management attention? • Will my users miss the mark with the fighter brand? Once these questions are considered and a fighter brand is determined to be the right option, marketers want to be keen to avoid the following: Cannibalization: Fighter brands are created to clearly win customers who have switched to a low-price rival. However, cannibalization is when there is an inability for the brand to win and it, instead, acquires customers from the company’s own premium offering. Failure To Bury The Competition: Understanding your brand’s bottom line and timing is crucial to launching the fighter brand. If done incorrectly, your competition may have the upper hand to undercut your fighter brand. Financial Losses: For the strategy to succeed, it has to make sense not only for the customer’s wallet but also for the company. Missing The Mark: The core of a fighter brand is the ability of the brand to undercut competitors and protect the premium-brand services. The latter is more important, as it forces consumer behavior to balance between saving money and being brand loyal. An example of missing the mark is United Airline’s release of Ted. The key to getting through a down economy is to remember that a recession affects the mind before the wallet. Creating marketing strategies that take into consideration a customer’s emotional reaction to the economic environment and then developing actual strategies to pull themselves through the hard time with valuable alternatives is the solution to sustainable success. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
8cbd3f8cfa58b9f8f8a639b5c762c539	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/neither-here-nor-there-establishing-balance-during-turbulent-times/	Neither Here Nor There: Establishing Balance During Turbulent Times	Neither Here Nor There: Establishing Balance During Turbulent Times Head of Content & Engagement at Enghouse Interactive. getty Is it just me, or are you also feeling a little bit deflated after the summer break? Early confidence and the positive spirit of how we, as a society, have dealt with the pandemic are slowly being replaced by worries and discontent. The prospect of using this crisis as an incentive to introduce new, meaningful and more sustainable changes to our lives filled me with pride and vigor. Now, I find myself falling back on old habits more and more often, lacking enthusiasm and focus in everyday work and family life. Why are some (or many) of us feeling that way? One plausible explanation for the somber mood is the ongoing transition from the old, familiar pre-coronavirus life to a new Covid-19 era. Although most people agree that we will not return to our old ways of living and working, the outlook over the next few months is still marked by uncertainty and worries — a picture of pastel shades compared to the bold strokes of the life we are all used to. Torn between the well-known old and a still-blurred future, we struggle to adapt to changes — some of which had arrived with such speed and ferocity that we were barely prepared for them. No wonder we feel exhausted or simply overwhelmed at times! The Work-From-Home Struggle One of the most impactful outcomes of recent months is the shift toward homeworking. After the initial hurdles of new technologies and adjusted business processes were overcome, I observed a general feeling of calm and positivity. People had settled into new routines and many genuinely valued their new home-office setup as an improvement to their work-life balance. No longer having to commute saves us time and travel costs. On top of losing the stress of being stuck in traffic or a packed train carriage, we have more time to spend with our families, exercising and indulging in hobbies such as gardening and cooking. Even not having to get up and make ourselves look presentable for office meetings every morning was seen as a relief for many. And now? I find that a lot of remote workers seem increasingly tense and worn out, reporting that they find it difficult to switch off and that they miss talking to their colleagues. Others have admitted to me that being based just a few feet from (or even in!) their bedroom is not as convenient as they had first expected. Further, some of the struggles faced by staff working from home include missing business travel and feeling less productive due to distractions. Has remote working lost its appeal already? MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Let’s pause, take a deep breath and think about how we can embrace the changes and advance this continuing transformation with confidence and success. Here are three key areas to pay attention to. 1. Time Management Catapulted out of our comforting routines, many of us find ourselves unsettled by old habits being shaken up. Allow yourself time and patience to establish a new pace of life with a new pattern. To counteract the risk of merging personal space and work, which we are often exposed to when working from home, try creating clear, timely and spatial borders. When you create your new work-from-home schedule, set and stick to distinct start and finish times and make sure you account for regular breaks. Don’t feel guilty for taking time out for yourself before picking up the kids from school or cooking dinner — perhaps switching off with a good book or going for a run. 2. Communication And Relationship Building The turmoil of the past few months has left some people overwhelmed and battling to cope. We need time and room to increase our emotional bandwidth and flexibility, arming ourselves for changes, uncertainties and even upsets. But at the same time, we must give new structures and innovations a chance to prevail. The lack of face-to-face interactions calls for different ways to communicate, such as video conferencing, email, messaging or simply chatting on the phone. This may seem obvious, but effective communication is essential in maintaining strong, lasting relationships at all levels of our private and working lives. Delivering messages in a clear, transparent fashion is just as important as listening, showing concern and making room for questions. However, if you don’t know the answer, don’t rush to a decision. Poorly thought through, it might jeopardize the successful establishment of a new process or practice, only for you to carry on relying on old structures. 3. Focus And Motivation As Aristotle has been credited with saying, “Where your talents and the world’s needs cross, there lies your vocation.” Focus on your skills and inclinations; question what you really want, what’s important to you and how you can best contribute to our changing society. Use this time to derive the next steps in your personal development, but be careful to set realistic goals that are achievable in the near future. Reaching individual milestones can fill you with confidence and self-esteem, as well as empower and motivate you to press on. As a manager, allow and encourage your team to play an active part in shaping new work structures. This can increase their emotional bond and commitment to the company they work for, resulting in greater job satisfaction, productivity and motivation. It is easy to underestimate how tough those last few months really have been — the strain they put on our daily lives, our relationships and our well-being. Let’s not be too hard on ourselves but appreciate how resilient, adaptable and resourceful we have proven to be. If we learn to deal with uncertainties and stress, with heart and mind, we will come out of these challenging times stronger and happier. Every change holds an opportunity to improve and develop, and it is up to us to make the most of it. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
8024ae6b2f500debb075a5c8e4e550a0	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/structure-equals-comfort-four-effective-leadership-strategies/	Structure Equals Comfort: Four Effective Leadership Strategies	Structure Equals Comfort: Four Effective Leadership Strategies Ken serves as EVP & Chief Revenue Officer at BigSpeak. He is a keynote speaker and lecturer at UC Santa Barbara in strategy and marketing. getty The “new normal” is such a cliche, and there’s nothing new about it — plus it’s not normal. Come on people, let’s focus on strategies to survive the future of Covid-19, Skynet, Planet of the Apes and whatever else is ahead. As business leaders, we’ve all had to face many of the same obstacles to protect workers and keep our businesses going in an uncertain environment. Fortunately, there are some common strategies you can try. Over the last eight months, my company has been tracking leadership and change-management strategies at the top Fortune 1000 companies (based on company requests for keynote speaker topics). We’ve compiled what strategies top companies are employing to survive and thrive. Here are four leadership and teamwork topics that companies want to know about to improve their businesses now and in the future. Improve structure (for a feeling of safety). Companies are focusing on improving structure. When leaders provide a safe and predictable structure for work, it enables employees to feel more certain, at ease and more productive. As a leader, consider making extra efforts to reduce uncertainty by enacting a good framework for your processes, providing consistent expectations and constantly communicating with your staff. Focusing on structure now is a good practice, regardless of the pandemic. For example, years ago we worked with a major school system that had gone from worst to first. How did they do it? The district focused on the importance of structure for its schools and students. By creating a consistent curriculum and lesson plans, the leaders were able to increase the students’ comfort, satisfaction and overall academic performance. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Build for the future (and manage for the present). There’s no better time than now to let go of your “legacy spaghetti” (that old spaghetti in the corner of the fridge, maybe with some cobwebs, yet we still don’t want to throw it out). Instead, focus on the future, retool your process and set new goals. One local company we heard from in our hometown of Santa Barbara has done just that. Before the pandemic, the leaders had never upgraded the out-dated systems or processes. In fact, its leaders insisted on printing everything on paper and getting physical signatures. Then Covid-19 forced its leadership to reconsider everything they thought they believed about their systems and processes. They started printing less and working with new online confirmation systems. The company is positioning itself to come out of the pandemic stronger than it went in. Keep it simple. When you’re building for the future, remember this basic rule: keep it simple. Or as one of my business mentors, Richard Berti, said: “K.I.S.S. — Keep it simple stupid.” In my more gracious years, I’ve rebranded the K.I.S.S. acronym to “keep it simple, smarty.” Simple is beauty, simple is elegance and simple is not easy. The process of simplifying is likely the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Once a process or system is simplified, however, it improves everyone and everything associated with it. Think of the market leaders that have invested years, delayed product launches and doubled down on simple: Apple focused on the touch interface to make phones easier to use, Amazon worked on one-click purchasing to make it easier to buy products and services and Netflix popularized making video watching automatic so people could indulge in binge-watching. What can you make easier in your business? The easier you make things, the more your clients and partners will like it. Create more partnerships (not more ‘vendorships’). It’s hard for businesses to win alone. Organizations with good partners are equipped to do better than those without. Partners have your back, while vendors often do only what they’re paid to do. Our company has survived because we continue to form partnerships to keep the keynote speaking industry alive. We (and others in our industry) are partnering with keynote speakers, event planners and client companies to figure out how to make virtual events a success. In the past eight months, almost 100% of keynote speaking events have gone virtual. If you’re wondering how to build your business during the pandemic, consider working on these four successful strategies. Focus on structure, build for the future, keep it simple and create more partnerships. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
8bea3d4c3379e778e45dbbd7c55f590a	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/tracking-what-matters-light-a-fire-under-marketing/	Tracking What Matters: Light A FIRE Under Marketing	Tracking What Matters: Light A FIRE Under Marketing Dealing with Digital Transformation every day as CMO of Micro Focus, one of the world’s top 10 enterprise software companies @GenefaMurphy. getty Most marketers have sat in meetings, presented with a dashboard full of green, indicating that they have delivered the desired number of marketing qualified leads (MQL). But at the same time, the business as a whole might not have performed as expected. In today’s environment, we have to ask what the right goals really are. Is the target volume of leads, velocity or value, or all three? Are leads even the right metric? Shouldn’t we instead be looking at customer-centric metrics? For example, are we engaging with the accounts that matter? If the account is unknown, what is the true intent of the prospect to engage? Which accounts are ready to have a conversation? How many engagements are expected to turn into immediate vs. longer-term revenue? As marketers, there is no shortage of data and knowledge available today. Taking a step back and applying some logic can ensure that the marketing metrics being tracked don’t just matter to marketing but also to the business. This is otherwise known as the “FIRE approach”: focus, intent, return on investment (ROI) and engagement. Focus Too often, marketing teams, especially those that are in well-established markets, forget to really spend time on the basics and reassessing their ideal customer profile (ICP). The ICP could be based on geography, industry, company size or product/solution characteristics. Properly defining the ICP will allow the business to focus more and increase the chances of getting to the customers/prospects who not only matter the most but for whom the products or solutions are likely to represent a better fit. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss However, defining the ICP is only the first stage; the next is pairing this with a target account list (TAL). The TAL can be as broad as defining the total addressable market (TAM) — the total available opportunity for a product, service or solution based on revenue or spend, or narrowed down based on ICP match or historical trend patterns. Once the TAL is identified, don’t keep it a secret; align it with the sales team, vet the data and share it with everyone to create a “hit list.” This will help alignment and will also encourage other teams to focus more on accounts and contacts vs. the “faceless lead.” Intent Measuring intent is one of the most powerful tools in the marketer’s arsenal. Intent data can vary: downloads of whitepapers, case studies, tech publications and page visits; the time spent on the page or the webinar/event attendance; third-party web traffic and keyword search analysis that has nothing to do with the website but everything to do with the buyer’s digital presence and their digital footprint of research. Collecting these “intent signals” and using them to identify early buyer interest outside of the initial sphere of influence helps the business get ahead of the game by targeting customers while they are still in the exploratory and research phases. Intent data can also help to refine where and who the teams turn their attention to so they can prioritize accounts and provide additional insights on upsell and cross-sell opportunities for sales. Return On Investment (ROI) According to Gartner’s annual (2020-2021) “CMO Spend Study,” “Despite their positive outlooks, almost half of CMOs (44%) are facing midyear budget cuts in 2020 as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Eleven percent expect their budgets to face significant cuts of more than 15%.” This should come as no surprise, and it is why measuring ROI is still fundamental in how chief marketing officers (CMOs) ensure their contribution to the business doesn’t go unnoticed. ROI done well can help not only optimize spend but also ensures that, even with limited budgets, the right behaviors are driven within the team. While many marketers have made decisions based on tacit knowledge, gut instinct and multiple disparate data sets, having concrete key performance indicators (KPIs) to track ROI simplifies planning, helps alignment with sales and ultimately helps track new leads or accounts and engagement all the way through the funnel. Yes, the role of marketing is to bring the creative spirit to the conversation, but tracking ROI doesn’t mean risks can’t be taken. Just like focusing efforts on TAL, tracking ROI allows the team to focus its dollars on what will yield the highest return. Engagement Customer engagement as a means to predict revenue and buying patterns is nothing new. In the context of brand intimacy, companies that focus on the emotional experience and drive meaningful engagements are typically able to outperform those that focus only on pure financial metrics in terms of revenue and profit. The same can be said for tracking marketing metrics. But, instead of tracking marketing qualified leads (MQLs) alone, marketers should be building and tracking engagement, loyalty and advocacy. This, in turn, will provide an all-around better indication of a prospect or customer’s intent and preference for a particular topic or solution, which builds the buyer’s overall awareness and ultimately helps change their perception of the brand. This impacts reputation, helping to create more demand. Tracking engagement in a more holistic way also helps deliver better personalization. It moves marketers from tracking the “faceless lead,” or the number on the dashboard, to measuring individual interactions with a person, an account or a contact. Bottom line: Tracking what matters isn’t about adding more acronyms and KPIs. It’s about taking a step back and seeing things through the lens of the customer. By using the wealth of knowledge, data and technology readily available, an adaptive and customer-led approach can be created to look at volume, velocity and value to the business and the customer. When marketing targets the right people at the right time, and personalizes it for the customer, a system of record is built that can help to create forward-thinking engagements. That’s how to light a FIRE under the marketing team. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
38c97cbaa46f06d68446f77dfdc24212	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/03/why-companies-need-to-treat-their-employees-like-valued-customers/	Why Companies Need To Treat Their Employees Like Valued Customers	Why Companies Need To Treat Their Employees Like Valued Customers Sarah Franklin is EVP & GM, Platform, Trailhead, & AppExchange at Salesforce. getty Organizations within every industry are adapting to a digital-first world, and many are working as distributed teams. It has never been more important to empower employees with technology that helps them to be happy and productive as part of the team. In the past, investments in employee experience were often on the back burner, considered a nice-to-have — not a strategic imperative. Now, how seriously leaders take employee experience — and how much they invest in the technology that enables it — is a critical factor in the survival of their business and the key to unlocking growth. Why Employee Experience Matters Employee experience, which describes how easy it is for workers to do their jobs well, has a direct impact on productivity. Nobody wants employees to waste time in outdated portals or operate with inaccurate information. It’s important to treat employees with the same focus and energy as customers: creating experiences that are engaging, integrated, automated and personalized. Whether it’s keeping employees safe, answering their questions, developing their skills or creating a sense of belonging, every experience for every employee should feel connected. When working remotely, robust tools that help employees get their work done have never been more critical. Workers can no longer walk over to their manager’s office or gather around a whiteboard; technology has to fill those gaps. This is especially important as we look to the future. Gartner’s recent “Future of Work Trends Post-Covid-19” report stated that 48% of employees will continue working from home “at least some of the time.” MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss According to recent research from Salesforce (the company I work for) and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, organizations that made employee experience a high priority pivoted more easily when the pandemic hit. A majority of the 547 respondents surveyed in April 2020 for the report, “Making Technology an Integral Part of Your Employee Experience Strategy,” stated that employee experience initiatives boosted employee engagement and productivity, and made their organizations more resilient and agile. I believe employee experience is now a priority for virtually every organization. Digital transformation slated to occur over years is taking place in months, with our survey showing that 62% of respondents are seeking increased productivity by improving employee experience. Business leaders’ other top goals for employee experience include retaining employees, improving collaboration, attracting top talent, accommodating remote work and managing risk. At the end of the day, employee experience drives customer experience, and by extension, growth. Investing in employee experience is vital not only for making it through today’s business challenges but also for achieving an ongoing competitive advantage. Roadblocks To Better Employee Experience Despite the importance of employee experience, much work remains to fully realize its benefits. Too often, IT leaders championing employee experience technology face a skeptical C-suite. Just under one-third of those surveyed for our report stated that employee experience is a high priority at their organizations. Less than 5% say that IT is in charge of managing employee experience efforts, while 40% say human resources is at the helm. This lack of involvement from IT is a holdover from the past when employee experience was seen as exclusively a matter of culture. Another obstacle is that companies have traditionally invested primarily in customer experience as the main determinant of revenue and growth. Case in point: Our company’s survey found that over one-third of workers say they do not have the right technology to work effectively remotely, which is fairly shocking to me given how many are no longer in the office. Yet especially now, employee experience can have a direct impact on quality customer experience, which, in turn, can drive revenue. The Path To Stellar Employee Experience To breakdown some of these roadblocks at Salesforce, we created employee experience solutions for our internal teams. Employees are now able to get their questions answered quickly through a concierge service — seeking information on everything from 401(k)s to gym benefits, with the ability to log tickets with IT or human resources. We also configured our talent development resources, internal collaboration tools and online learning resources so that employees no longer need to toggle between screens. These tools have received such a positive reception that we’re now making them available to customers. For companies committed to improving employee experience, the way I see it, the process starts with better technology. According to our survey’s findings, the top tools required for efficient work are those that enable communication, remote work, collaboration, project management, business processes, administrative tasks, training and business development. Your IT department needs to keep remote devices up and running, secure and compliant. Companies have to find creative ways to onboard new hires and address employees’ questions remotely. Another key consideration is streamlining how work gets done: If employees have best-in-breed apps but need 37 tabs open, that patchwork experience hinders productivity. Look for solutions that are intuitive, engaging, easy to use and integrated. Companies should adopt technology that helps employees learn the skills they need to adapt to a changing work environment and fits into everyday workflows. Beyond the technical, organizations need to cultivate a positive culture, even with workers far apart. That includes helping employees maintain physical and mental health, supporting those juggling jobs with caring for dependents, boosting teamwork and morale in distributed teams and communicating effectively about workplace policies to minimize stress. Employee Experience Is Worth The Investment With industries still reeling from the global pandemic and resulting in economic turbulence, every company is figuring out how to do more with less and thrive in a drastically different environment. The path to growth and profitability starts with your employees. Investing in the technology and corporate culture that will make your employees more satisfied, engaged and productive is worth it. Positive employee experience will set your company up to be resilient, not only in the near term but through whatever shifts lie ahead. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
0ac37c87d158f36d6f8ca9def0d4c29a	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/04/10-best-tips-for-using-microinfluencers-in-a-gen-z-marketing-campaign/	10 Best Tips For Using Microinfluencers In A Gen-Z Marketing Campaign	10 Best Tips For Using Microinfluencers In A Gen-Z Marketing Campaign Microinfluencers already have a niche market to interact with. Using them in a marketing campaign typically yields excellent results, but only if the microinfluencer appeals to the same audience as the brand. Generation Z engages with microinfluencers most effectively, but they are also among the most cynical generations to ever surface. They do not take kindly to inauthenticity, and this is one of the main reasons they respond better and tend to have more trust in microinfluencers than in influencers with a massive following. To help brands considering a microinfluencer marketing campaign to target their Gen-Z audience, 10 experts from Forbes Communications Council talk about the factors they consider to be the most effective in determining whether a microinfluencer is a good fit for their business. Members share their top tips for working with microinfluencers when trying to reach Gen Z. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Focus On Quality, Not On Quantity Influencer marketing is an artform — brands either utilize them very well or blow budget on influencers that don't resonate with their core audiences. When our company surveyed 5,000 global consumers last year, 55% of people said their purchasing decisions are not impacted by the number of followers an influencer has. Brands should focus on quality versus quantity of influencer reach to be successful. - Sylvie Tongco, Selligent 2. Ensure Message Consistency When partnering with many different smaller influencers at once, you need to make sure the message you are conveying is consistent across the board. This means making sure each and every microinfluencer understands the campaign and its purpose. Otherwise, you have a bunch of smaller influencers conveying different messages, which might lead to confusion within the audience. - Christian Anderson, Lost Boy Entertainment Company MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss 3. Make Sure They Use The Right Language The microinfluencers you choose to collaborate with should use language that mirrors the audience you are targeting. Gen-Z consumers will be able to sniff out ingenuine efforts from companies that are attempting to build rapport and a relationship. To achieve a successful campaign, companies need to align with microinfluencers who are looking to give and overdeliver to their audience. - Marisa Salcines Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 4. Get Out Of Their Way When working with microinfluencer campaigns targeting Gen-Z consumers, give the influencer "guardrails" as to your brand but then "get out of the way," so to speak, and let them design the creative around it. Gen Z typically dislikes branded content more than other generations. Collaboration is important, but let the influencer drive the campaign through their narrative in their organic way. - Kenneth Kinney, Ai Media Group, Inc. 5. Focus On Providing Snackable Content Gen-Z consumers want snackable content, and a microinfluencer targeting this demographic on a brand's behalf should know exactly what that means. The campaign should contain short-form, highly entertaining pieces of content that get right to the point in a way a Gen-Z audience will remember and want to share. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio 6. Find Influencers With Highest Trust Levels The most important thing to remember is that size matters. Research proves that Gen Z trusts influencers who have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers at most; the closer to 1,000 followers, the higher the level of trust. My advice is to put a premium on identifying influencers with the highest level of trust versus the largest number of followers. When targeting Gen Z, authenticity is a must. - Brittain Ladd, PULSE Integration 7. Foster An Authentic Connection You're developing a relationship, not a campaign. It is imperative to foster an authentic connection between your brand and the microinfluencers. Your work with the microinfluencer should not be a one-and-done social post, but a relationship that grows and develops over time. You can't fake a genuine relationship among a brand, its influencers and, ultimately, its consumers. - Temeka Easter Rice, Sallie Mae 8. Add Depth And Personality To The Campaign The beauty of microinfluencers is their level and type of engagement. These influencers have an intimate community where they're likely connected personally to many of their followers. When designing a campaign with them, don't be generic. Add depth, personality, and individualization, and offer some creative control to them to be certain that their voice is protected in the process and message. - Megan Rokosh, Havas 9. Avoid Product Placement Brands should always be sensitive to the difference between product placement and product integration. Product placement can seem forced and misaligned with the influencer's persona or audience. Product integration makes the brand a natural part of the influencer's story and lifestyle — delivering for both the brand and the consumer. - Dan Wallace-Brewster, Scalefast 10. Have A ‘Feel-Good’ Message Have a "feel good" message. Studies show that Gen Z is more receptive to environmentally and socially-conscious marketing. When choosing a microinfluencer, try seeking out those who address public issues with their online brand. These influencers are more likely to carry the respect of Gen-Z consumers, and having a socially-conscious marketing message will help build trust with your brand. - Amine Rahal, Regal Assets
3fc918cf5dabdbac0b83fda125b68214	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/04/two-big-ways-retailers-can-build-trust-through-communications-this-holiday-season/	Two Big Ways Retailers Can Build Trust Through Communications This Holiday Season	Two Big Ways Retailers Can Build Trust Through Communications This Holiday Season Sylvie Tongco is VP of Communications and Corporate Marketing at Selligent Marketing Cloud. getty The holiday shopping season has officially begun, signaled by the highly anticipated Amazon Prime Day on October 13. This year will be very different, most notably in that digital and online shopping will be the standard for most consumers. This creates opportunities for marketers and communications professionals to refine the way they engage with their audiences. Leading into the holidays, consumer behavior has already shifted dramatically. Our company found that 75% of global consumers have experienced some level of employment loss since the start of the pandemic, and the majority have had to shift their spending priorities to focus on the essentials, like food and safety items. There were reportedly sharp declines in specific industries, including footwear and apparel goods. This only adds to the pressure of marketers to make the holidays as profitable as possible. Given these unforeseen consumer strains, marketers and communications professionals have had to get creative to keep audiences and consumer targets engaged. Here are two ways brands can address the challenges as we head into the holiday season: Make it easy. Our company’s “Global Connected Consumer Index” report found that 36% of people are shopping online weekly, up from 28% before the pandemic. There are several factors that have shifted consumer purchases online, and consumer safety is a big one. Going into a store is simply not a risk a lot of people are willing to take, especially if they don’t know if the store has what they’re looking for. Online shopping has the advantage of convenience and the ability to provide information on both product availability and timing — a consumer can know when their package will hit their doorstep through merchant notifications, which have become a norm. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss For brands, providing flexibility and important information throughout the shopping experience can help draw in more customers, whether it is online or in the store. Real-time communications on orders, curbside and contactless pickup options, and perks like free shipping for online orders can motivate a consumer to choose one retailer over the other. And the way I see it, cashless payment options are here to stay. According to a recent survey by 451 Research, two in five consumers are shopping cashless often, and “one in three (29%) consumers said they increased their usage of contactless payments during the pandemic.” Expanding communications capabilities to keep consumers up to date is critical; our data shows that 76% of consumers would like real-time updates. This is especially important around the holidays, as timing is key. Be as real-time with information as possible, make the shopping experience easy, and use the right amount of interactions to keep customers informed. Being helpful in that way can ease your consumers’ minds and lead to building a trusting, two-way relationship. Focus on providing helpful offers. With so many people’s incomes impacted negatively by the pandemic, many have had to adjust their buying behaviors as well — and in some cases, stretch their dollars. They are likely more willing to do their research online to find the best products at the best prices. Brands that are offering ways to help consumers are seen as empathetic and helpful, which can build consumer trust and loyalty. The way I see it, loyalty these days is a lot less about name brands and a lot more about pricing, consumer perks and rewards, and having an overall flexible and seamless experience. People need things that are not only affordable but will also last. The ‘new’ normal is going to rely heavily on digital and great, effective content and messages. To succeed, we need to focus on the things that matter for consumers today, including quality, price and transparent and informative customer experiences. Focusing on these elements in your messaging may lead customers to stick around for years to come. As consumers adjust their behaviors and marketers follow their lead, it’s clear there are opportunities to boost holiday sales success by simply making life, and the shopping experience, a little bit easier for consumers. Review your marketing efforts to make sure you’re creating an opportunity to build greater consumer trust, increased loyalty and a fruitful 2020 holiday season. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
c86a49075c195b5459cc295a8a7cc601	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/05/12-ways-companies-can-leverage-self-service-while-maintaining-customer-interaction/	12 Ways Companies Can Leverage Self-Service While Maintaining Customer Interaction	12 Ways Companies Can Leverage Self-Service While Maintaining Customer Interaction Self-service has exploded onto the business scene, and customers have embraced it wholeheartedly, for the most part. Self-service kiosks and counters tend to be easier to operate and often result in faster transactions. The convenience and speed make it the obvious choice for many consumers. From a retailer's perspective, this creates a double-edged sword. Yes, checkout times are faster, but customer interaction is low. There are fewer chances to upsell customers and fewer ways to promote and advertise your services while they’re checking out. How does a business keep its self-service options while still engaging their customers? Twelve professionals from Forbes Communications Council offer their suggestions for dealing with this issue. Members offer advice to help businesses implement self-service features while still maintaining direct customer interactions. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Promote Brand Values That Resonate Brand values that resonate with consumers and buttress a superb self-service experience are critical. If the company unfailingly delivers on these values, messaging in other channels engages consumers. Distinctive visual cues are then central for the brand and its associations to stand out in quick scrolls. In essence, strong customer experience visually recalled in other platforms is key. - Roy Hutchinson, Deem Finance LLC 2. Anticipate User Progression One way to build loyalty in a self-service model is to anticipate user progression or questions and routinely provide timely educational content. This would not be limited to product information, but anything designed to help them perform their jobs better. The more you use analytics to improve the relevancy and timeliness of the content, the more customers will connect with the self-service product. - Michael DesRochers, PoliteMail 3. Future-Proof Your Value Proposition Review and future-proof your value proposition. Ensuring your value proposition is relevant to the business environment and consumer market is paramount to success. It must reflect and even exceed your customers’ changing needs and desires. Make sure your brand is poised to bring value to anticipated needs and demands, not just the ones your customers have today. - Nicole Braley, Wood Mackenzie MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 4. Ask If Your Customers Need Help Ask if your customers need help. Offering assistance on the ground without being asked is one of the best ways to get in your customer's good graces and establish the "human touch" that too many businesses currently lack. A polite, but not pushy, offer of assistance can go a long way toward building rapport, opening conversations, and establishing loyalty. - Amine Rahal, Regal Assets 5. Make It As Easy For Them As Possible Helping your customers get their problems solved with the least amount of effort is one of the best ways to increase retention. Many people now prefer self-service to speaking to a person for service or support, but they hate using frustrating IVR systems. That's driving business to adopt virtual agent solutions that understand human speech and learn to answer questions with increasing efficacy. - Richard Dumas, Inference Solutions 6. Offer Customer-Centric Support Customer-centric support post-transaction is the path to customer loyalty and referenceability. Using data to understand customers' habits, preferences and complaints can ensure ideal frequency of post-transaction engagement and support. That said, all data usage shall be compliant with data protection policies with customers' consent. - Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Spectrum Labs 7. Invest In Retention Invest in retention. Marketing needs to align with customer success teams to make sure that the client is fully benefiting and utilizing the product to address their needs. Self-service is rarely without a learning curve. When customers don't receive post-purchase follow-ups, they lose sight of why they are paying you and are less likely to renew and more inclined to seek a full-service option. - Dan Wallace-Brewster, Scalefast 8. Create Online Customer Communities Online customer communities are a great way to engage with your customers while empowering them to self-serve (as they increasingly want to). Giving customers a space for peer-to-peer troubleshooting and the ability to provide feedback and make suggestions about your products not only reduces annual customer service costs but also increases customer satisfaction as well as credibility of your brand. - Astrid Pocklington, Enghouse Interactive 9. Leverage Satisfaction Surveys And Focus Groups Self-service is a major win because it provides a frictionless customer experience, which should be top of mind for all marketers. Marketers can continue to engage with customers through voluntary CSAT surveys and focus groups offered at the end of the transaction. Keeping a pulse on customer sentiment is key so you can adjust practices or processes that may lead a miss in the customer’s eyes. - Daniel Incandela, Conga 10. Set Up An Email Nurture Stream Set up an email nurture stream to help with onboarding. After that, continue to nurture the relationship by providing helpful or informative content that turns customers into brand advocates. - Tracy Sestili, Fountain 11. Conduct Follow-Ups On User Experience Conducting follow-ups on the user's experience and specifically asking what could have been done better are excellent ways to make the customer feel like they are valued. This approach also allows the brand to harvest coveted information about how the company can improve their operations and refine their customer service experience. - Mason Burchette, Best Buy Metals 12. Add A Call To Action At The End Of Purchase When utilizing self-service options, incorporate a call to action at the end of the purchase process that encourages people to interact with your brand on social. Driving people to your social channels creates an opportunity for dialogue, often at their own time and pace, which lays groundwork for additional engagement opportunities. - Andrew Caravella, Sprout Social
94e6c4cc9f9725fc7c7ae67a03cd1962	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/05/strengthen-your-marketing-compliance-during-covid-19/	Strengthen Your Marketing Compliance During Covid-19	Strengthen Your Marketing Compliance During Covid-19 International marketing professional and CMO at Lyrium Venture Partners Limited, with over 25 years in tech, innovation and sustainability. getty The Covid-19 pandemic, and the ensuing government interventions to flatten the curve, has caused a flux of operational issues for many businesses globally. Those dependent on travel (such as the hospitality and leisure sector) and retail establishments with high fixed costs reliant on in-store sales are navigating a particularly challenging year. In the midst of this crisis, businesses need to ensure that their compliance programs adapt accordingly. This includes the sales and marketing functions, which, if overlooked, can lead to significant risks. While compliance risks span across functions, marketing may not be top of mind when assessing potential liability. Marketing compliance relates to internal controls that affect how a company secures new business, manages its branding and promotes itself to customers. Specific regulations are highly dependent on where the company is located, where the customers are based and what industry the company operates in. In brief, marketing compliance is particularly important in highly regulated industries and in companies where marketing teams may not be aware of what is at stake. As one high-profile example, several global investment banks hired the children of influential government officials for the express purpose of securing new business. As part of this, they created a separate channel to progress unqualified applicants through the hiring process and subsequently tracked the business awarded because of these hires. In doing so, they ran afoul of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and this resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and other penalties imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Another example involves executives purchasing lavish gifts or paying fees to outside consultancies to secure business meetings. In some instances, to develop guanxi or curry favor with the political elite, companies have provided expensive gifts, business travel or other services amounting to tens of thousands of dollars or more. Alternatively, companies have been asked to pay fees to a consultancy with ties to foreign government leaders to secure work. In one investigative report (subscription required) by The New York Times, this practice was found to be pervasive in one country, considered part of doing work there, and continued for years. Beyond the risks of winning new work, chief marketing officers (CMOs) need to have oversight on branding and promotional activities. Companies tend to rely heavily on social media as part of their digital marketing strategy. Social media alone presents a set of legal risks, listed by Thomson Reuters as “privacy laws; content ownership; intellectual property infringement; workplace harassment and discrimination; defamation; insider trading; and marketing and advertising regulations.” CMOs must work closely with executive teams, including legal, risk and compliance leaders to ensure that they have a robust program in place to manage and mitigate potential sales and marketing risks. When it comes to corporate reputation, every functional leader should be in regular communication with legal and compliance teams to avoid potential issues that could materially impact the bottom line. Based on my experience with organizations across various industry sectors, there are a couple of additional risks that companies should be circumspect in addressing: Data Privacy Marketers need to remain closely tied to customer experience, including ensuring the privacy of retail customers. For one business-to-consumer (B2C) company, a customer claimed that their data privacy had been violated because app information had been sent to the company’s server in another region without their permission. This escalated into legal action, and marketing had to work closely with compliance and legal to provide documentation for discovery and then to manage the impact on the brand. In another instance, the marketing division at a different company had to fully cleanse its database, comprising thousands of contacts, to ensure compliance with both the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO). Pricing In launching a retail product in a new market, a B2C company had to review the discounts offered on its website as well as its giveaway and sweepstakes campaigns to ensure compliance with the country’s specific consumer protection and anti-bribery regulations. Pricing risk also relates back to how companies secure new business. Depending on the context, if governments or courts think your prices are too low, it could be construed as predatory pricing. If your prices are too high, it could be construed as price gouging. If your prices are the same as your competitors, you could be charged with price-fixing or collusion. Steps Toward Marketing Compliance What can companies do to protect their reputation? With the above in mind, there are specific steps companies can take to optimize how they handle marketing compliance risks: 1. Conduct a self-audit. Review your current risks against your compliance and internal controls policies. Have you recently updated your compliance programs to adjust to the “new normal”? 2. Retain a compliance specialist. Look internally across your organization, or seek assistance from a specialist firm to establish or review your existing program. Perhaps it may uncover areas for improvement you may not have identified. 3. Review and update policies and procedures. This should be part of a regular review process. Are your compliance protocols up to the relevant International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards? 4. Maintain transparent communication. Is everyone on your team aware of the latest policies? Have you implemented and updated compliance training? 5. Monitor marketing and sales communications. This is particularly important where remote work remains in effect. If you are maintaining the status quo, you may have less accountability than in your usual office environment. 6. Update your whistleblower policy. Keep an ear out for complaints about marketing and sales practices. Are employees able to access your whistleblower policy and hotline? Marketing compliance should remain top of mind, but it need not be overly complex. By ensuring that you have the right programs in place with clearly defined risk and controls processes, you will enhance your ability to better manage unforeseen issues that may arise and safeguard your company’s reputation. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
9dcc1aadfd5b9c71de1140e27a701feb	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/09/creating-a-conference-in-the-digital-era/	Creating A Conference In The Digital Era	Creating A Conference In The Digital Era CMO, The 20. There are two consistent elements of work which bring me great joy: building relationships and making things grow. getty If you're in marketing, the sun has probably set on the magic of attending a conference. A skydiving instructor doesn't get the same rush a new student does. Conferences get even less fun when you have to do all the work leading up to them. Planning a conference is like planning a party. You're putting in the work so people can come together and have fun (in a controlled environment). A conference is just a party for vendors and prospective clients in the vendor space if you want to dehumanize it enough. That humanity is what makes or breaks a conference, though. Planning a conference is always difficult, but it's harder with the current ongoing pandemic. Events have gone digital and a lot of the magic is lost in the process. Recreating the magic is about recreating more than just the event in the digital space; it's understanding what makes the event work. There's a play between what vendors want and what clients want, especially digitally. As an organizer, it's up to you to reconcile everything. What Vendors Want Most vendors want privileged access to clients, but the more personal the access, the more valuable it is. I find that many digital events fail to consider this since it's much harder in cyberspace. Zoom is great at letting a bunch of people listen to a small group talk, but how do you get a dialogue going? MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss Many of the people representing a vendor at an event are going to be marketing types or salespeople. Your vendors are paying so they can talk to John Smith privately, not so they can throw out ads that hopefully get his attention. They're paying for access. Booth banter and private discussions can make a sale as easily as they break one with the next client. It's all about knowing the audience and getting access to them. Most digital conferences are run like public forums, but your vendors are paying for restricted access. Vendors want to have their ads seen, but then want to be able to privately communicate with their prospects. Anyone can pay for an ad, but getting a one-on-one sales opportunity with interested clients takes a lot more. How you enable your event to do this affects whether vendors will be interested. What Attendees Want When you go to a conference as an attendee, you're likely going either for the atmosphere or the opportunity (professional or personal). There can be a crossover, but one factor is almost always more predominant than the other. It’s common knowledge that conference attendees want to experience the atmosphere, want a chance to personally network and want the ability to gain insight into opportunities. Networking is a more passive opportunity a conference can provide for personal development. No matter the individual reason, it boils down that most attendees want a conference that provides an opportunity to learn more and "bump" into others. The move to digital conventions has made this a lot harder, but it's still possible. Your attendees likely don't want avatar advertisements; they want a real person they have the chance to follow up with or talk to. They want the reverse access vendors want, but often access to both vendors and other attendees. There's a reason meet and greets, vendor booths, etc., do so well at any kind of conference — they provide a crossroads between the attendees and the participants. How you recreate this dynamic virtually will determine how well your conference does. How can you make both the attendees and vendors feel they got their money's worth when they show up for a digital event? You need some level of access that most solutions don't provide. Making The Conference Experience Work Digitally All of this reduces down to the fact that vendors and attendees want roughly the same thing, just with a different focus. Your vendors usually want to reach out on an individual level, while your attendees connect on a personal level. These aren't exclusive either, especially at more technical conventions. There's something about being able to ask a human what the differences are between their product and a competitor's. Or asking what a client is actually looking for, which cuts out all the email chain misery and phone tag. You can spend days going back and forth and scheduling meetings, or talk to someone for 10 minutes when they're ready. This ability to reduce the complexity of connections at the expense of dedicating a person to the task on each side is what makes conferences work. We made our Vision conference digital due to the pandemic, but we recreated the experience as best as possible with a virtual reality (VR) solution. This won't be the right answer all the time (or even ideal for many situations), but it was the right answer with what we had to work with, what our vendors and attendees wanted and with the time we had to move to it. Most importantly, it was largely a success because it fit expectations. When you run a conference, you should treat both the vendors and attendees as clients. Both have different wants that don't always connect and subtle differences that make or break the experience. What do your clients want and how can you reconcile their needs in a digital space? The solutions may change, but the process to determine what to use won't. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
eb0e5f1f6ffa9836c47099cd18893b4c	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/10/five-truths-b2b-tech-startups-must-know/	Five Truths B2B Tech Startups Must Know	Five Truths B2B Tech Startups Must Know CMO at Illusive Networks, a software company that reduces cyber risk by shrinking the attack surface and stopping attacker movement. getty Before Covid-19 transformed the way in which the world interacted globally, I attended an event where some of the world’s most influential chief information security officers (CISOs) and chief security officers (CSOs) discussed their top priorities and challenges. I have attended hundreds of these events over the years, but this one in particular stuck with me. During a panel discussion, a CISO from a Fortune 100 company commented that they really just wanted to buy from Microsoft and Cisco. Later, a CISO from a major financial institution asserted that he doesn’t want anyone to try to sell him solutions like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain or quantum-safe encryption. I was already aware that companies want to buy from vendors they trust, need a frictionless sales cycle and mostly apply current budgets to existing problems — not potential future ones. I was already addressing these perspectives in my marketing strategies at a tech startup. But the unfiltered way CISOs expressed these attitudes triggered an epiphany. It dawned on me that there are certain truths that tech startups must know if they want to sell to these enterprises. Truth 1: Other projects are the competition. It is amazing how often tech people say, “We don’t compete with Company X; they do something different.” But that is the wrong way for new companies to view the marketplace. A tech start-up’s primary competition is not a competing vendor offering a similar solution. Instead, the much more likely culprit for a lost sale is a totally unrelated project that was competing for the same budget dollars. While many IT procurement teams are taking a more strategic approach than they did before, this change is incremental rather than revolutionary at most large companies. The key for startups is to deliver a value proposition that convinces buyers that their project is the most critical business priority. Truth 2: Startups must market to existing problems. The most successful tech innovators are able to see five, 10 or 15 years into the future and visualize what customer needs will be at that time. Yet successful startups do not lead with tomorrow’s problems when they market to enterprises today. This truth might seem like common sense, but I find that it often isn’t followed. CISOs face seemingly insurmountable challenges in the here and now — the cybersecurity skills shortage, a growing attack surface, more sophisticated attacks, a complex security architecture, increasing demands for business-managed IT. Many teams can barely manage day-to-day operations; they rarely have the energy to discuss potential threats like quantum computing. As a result, tech startups must articulate a value proposition and use case for a pain point that organizations are feeling today, even as they execute on their vision of solving tomorrow’s problems. Truth 3: Startups must counter a preference for trusted vendors. Large organizations are risk-averse by nature, and their preference is often to minimize the number of vendors they work with. Yet the nature of the tech industry is that the best innovation often happens outside the Global 1000. Fortunately, startups have a unique opportunity in today’s marketplace as trust in the big players erodes. A 2018 study from TrustRadius found that among vendors buyers found to be influential (only 23% of vendors overall), “56% said the vendor was upfront about product limitations.” That’s compared to 31% of buyers who worked with less influential vendors. How does a startup move into the category of a trusted vendor? The simplicity of messaging and user experience, a strong analyst relations program, a frictionless sales cycle and partnerships with trusted names all come into play. Just as importantly, a startup must bend over backward to ensure that its value proposition lives up to — or, ideally, exceeds — the hype it is creating. Truth 4: Startups must convert early adopters into advocates. The widely used Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based on a simple question, “How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague?” When Frederick Reichheld introduced the concept in 2003, he called it “The Number One Number You Need to Grow” (subscription required). As a startup starts to sign its first customers, every effort needs to be made to turn those early adopters into advocates. Startups need to build state-of-the-art customer success and customer advocacy teams from day one. Why is this important? Forrester recently found that 68% of business-to-business (B2B) buyers prefer to research solutions online on their own rather than interacting with a sales rep — up from 53% in 2015 — and three-quarters now use social networks to learn about different vendors. Prospects have often already interacted with other customers before they speak with a sales rep. Creating advocates of early adopters is a critical truth. Truth 5: Run a consistent play over and over. Even before a tech startup’s product is launched, product managers and marketing teams often come up with a million different potential use cases for the technology. Once the technology is available to the public, there is intense pressure to bring in revenue — any revenue. At times, this can result in a tendency to be all things to all people, spreading marketing resources thinly across a wide set of targets. But successful startups choose a focused play and run it over and over. Once the decision is made, the play with which the company goes to market should determine which companies are targeted as early adopters, what features should be prioritized for the initial launch and what the product roadmap looks like on an ongoing basis. A company that learns these truths the hard way can find itself burning through cash quickly — or worse. The good news for B2B tech startups: Innovation still has to happen, and attributes like speed, the time to market and agility are on a startup’s side. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
2d5c1029443b131ff0168a335cfff0fd	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/10/five-ways-the-pandemic-has-already-changed-meetings/	Five Ways The Pandemic Has Already Changed Meetings	Five Ways The Pandemic Has Already Changed Meetings Mark Roberts is CMO at PGi and responsible for marketing operations worldwide, driving growth opportunities and building brand recognition. getty There has been much discussion about how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the work experience, and we would be remiss if we didn't look at how it has changed the day-to-day. Meetings, a cornerstone of the workday, look different during the pandemic, and it's not just because they're virtual. While we can debate whether the changes have been positive or negative, they are undeniable, and they are likely to remain with us long after the pandemic subsides. In all likelihood, we will see more changes as we approach a new year with the pandemic. But, the changes thus far have already been substantive. 1. Teams value their time more than ever. It might seem like we should have more time now that many of us are not commuting and are working from the comfort of our home offices. Yet, with the mix of work and personal obligations, our time is more valuable than ever as we are pulled in more directions. Some organizations are blurring the lines between personal time and office hours. These companies look at "working from home" as "always online" because there is no natural break in the day. Obviously, that isn't a sustainable model for managing a team. MORE FOR YOUJack Ma, Chinese Multibillionaire And Founder Of Tech Giant Alibaba, Went Missing After Criticizing China’s GovernmentWhat The New Coronavirus Relief Bill Does For Unemployment InsuranceThe Ridiculousness Of Learning Loss I see successful organizations respecting work and personal obligations and understanding that working from home does not equate to always working. These organizations understand that time is even more valuable now, whether at work or in our personal lives. Nowhere is this more apparent than in meetings. The fact is, there is more urgency during the day. We used to have more time to connect and chat before or after meetings or around the water cooler with our colleagues. Those types of connections are not as spontaneous now. Take brainstorms, for example. It used to be that a team would schedule a time to meet and ponder the possibilities. Leading up to such a session, the meeting lead might distribute a brief outlining the objectives and other vital details. Today, there's often a call to discuss the goals and then the brainstorm itself a bit later. Or, teams are conducting these brainstorms via email with participants exchanging recommendations and feedback in writing. Either way you look at it, the brainstorm — along with other meetings — has fundamentally changed. 2. It is clear what is substantive and what is not. In general, meetings represent a unique workplace dynamic. During "normal" times, some participants tend to be more vocal than others, and some hide in plain sight, offering little in the way of opinions. Sure, these less vocal team members attend and are generally visible, but their contributions are seemingly limited. However, when everyone is virtual and everyone's contributions are more visible, it is harder to hide in the corner. It's also harder for someone to dominate the conversation with bloviations that add little to the discussion. We no longer have time for this. Being remote levels the playing field, ensuring all voices are "heard" and contributions are more additive. This allows teams to focus on the valuable insights and contributions within virtual meetings, rather than needing to tune out unnecessary contributions. 3. Some meetings are a waste of time. When the entire team works from the same location, it is tempting to herd everyone into the conference room and meet. There's a joke about pre-meetings to discuss the actual meeting, and we've likely all been in one of those sessions. I'm not going to say everyone has wised up to this, but many leaders have. From my own experience and what my counterparts tell me, there is a renewed focus on making the most of a meeting, so it has a clear objective and decisive action items. In the work-from-home environment, much of what was previously accomplished via meeting is now an email or a conference call. Many organizations have eliminated unnecessary meetings, allowing teams to focus on the critical tasks at hand. The result is often a sharper and more focused work product. 4. The timing of the work day has changed. In quarantine, I've found that people are more willing to schedule both earlier and later meetings. While teams previously might have been reluctant to schedule an appointment for first thing in the morning, they are now more open to the idea. Again, without a need to commute anywhere, people are generally available to meet as soon as they have their first cup of coffee. It's also enabled organizations to make their work day as a whole, and meetings in particular, more adaptable to their teams' needs. If a team member needs to run an errand in the middle of the day — perhaps for a curbside grocery pickup — colleagues can work around that as long as they're given a heads up. 5. All-day work sessions are a thing of the past. Not long ago, it wasn't uncommon for teams to schedule both internal and external retreats or multiday planning sessions. Such gatherings might mix business and pleasure and include team-building exercises alongside strategy discussions. For now, few people are traveling for business — and are unlikely to do so for some time. The idea of holding an all-day planning session seems like a thing of the past, but that's not to say planning meetings have been entirely eliminated. Just as companies have turned their trade shows and customer events into virtual affairs, internal gatherings have gone virtual, from sales meetings to planning sessions, and have allowed companies to reprioritize their budgets. Hopefully, they are rewarding and reinvesting in their most valuable employees. They will guide the company into the "next normal," which has started to emerge and will continue to form as we move into the new year. It is hard to say with certainty where the road will lead in the weeks and months ahead. But the changes I'm seeing now are opportunities to position ourselves for success in the future. Let's be ready to seize them. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
fe2e4b87c587cb828758046524c7c836	https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/11/how-to-tap-into-the-curbside-craze/	How To Tap Into The Curbside Craze	How To Tap Into The Curbside Craze Vice President of Marketing & Communications at QSR Automations. getty Covid-19 has (to put it optimistically) created the ideal environment for off-premise ordering since early 2020. As restaurants have fought to survive, off-premises options have been the only saving grace for most. With safety top of mind and dining room capacity limited, curbside pickup has been the shining star of the off-premise boom, between it and delivery. According to a recent Bluedot report, 31% of Americans say they have used curbside more since the pandemic began. A whopping 67% of millennials have used or want to utilize curbside pickup. Consumers feel safer by taking their food to go, and many don't even want to go inside to pick it up; they want minimal interactions. As the VP of marketing for a global restaurant software company, I'm seeing our customers focus on improving the curbside experience, as their diners increasingly demand it. So, as an operator or marketer in the space, how can you help your restaurant or food and beverage brand generate revenue from curbside pickup? Here are a few tips for ensuring your curbside process is automated and efficient and, most importantly, that your customers know it exists. 1. Use social media. Use your social media platforms to promote new safety protocols such as a contactless, curbside pickup option. People want contactless everything now (as much as they want pumpkin spice everything in the autumn months). Facebook and Instagram offer excellent platforms for using images and videos to accomplish this and will soothe customer anxiety more effectively than any written copy on a page. Remember, too, that social media is a platform that offers you more direct, immediate interactions with your guests. By providing posts and content and sharing with your followers on these platforms, you stand to drum up a resource that marketing dollars cannot buy: social proof. When diners see their friends interacting and liking your posts, it sends this message: "If it's good enough for the people I trust, then it's good enough for me!" 2. Provide real-time updates. With so much emphasis on distance and separation, keeping everyone in the loop is essential for any off-premise strategy, curbside included. Ideally, you want technology that can automatically push real-time updates about the ordering and cooking process. A kitchen display system can track every minute of where the order is in the cooking process and allow you to text the customer with accurate quote times and order status updates. Some KDS even offer guest-initiated pickup features so that guests can text back once they've arrived curbside. This type of interaction keeps the guest safe, minimizes unnecessary human interactions, keeps them informed about their order and ultimately keeps them coming back for more curbside take-out. 3. Use your branded app (if you have one). If you have a branded app, use in-app pop-ups to highlight your new safety protocols and curbside pickup processes. Once a customer knows the precautions you're taking, they'll be more likely to order. Keep in mind that they're already on the platform, so why not nudge them a bit? 4. Invest in software that integrates with a kitchen display system. With the bulk of online orders heading out the door rather than in your dining room, now is the best time to provide your front-of-house staff with a tech solution that offers an overview of every order. Software features, such as the ability to sort orders by delivery, curbside or pickup, streamline the process. If you give your FOH employees access to info such as vehicle make and model, they won't have to leave the curbside station to check on order status. With data in front of them, they can provide excellent customer service without stepping foot in the kitchen. Integration is something that helps you protect your technology investment to. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that demands and circumstances can shift. Restaurant technology that can integrate with a variety of other solutions means you can keep it around for longer. 5. Lean on your loyalty members. Now is the time to appeal to these customers. Based on the guest data you've collected, whether emails or phone numbers, initiate a personalized marketing campaign with promo offers for to-go and curbside meals. This group of diners is specialized, as they've already taken action to join your loyalty program. Within your promotional emails or texts, briefly explain the safe and straightforward process for picking up meals. The recipients are likely to appreciate the gesture, and because they have that preexisting relationship, they are more likely to remember your personalized note. You can also be transparent: It's no secret that the future is a little uncertain, especially in the hospitality industry. Your loyal guests want you to succeed, so it's OK to ask for their support (as long as you're offering something valuable). As customers expectations have changed due to the pandemic, customer service and the guest experience have to change as well. Restaurants have adapted in the face of the pandemic, and tapping into curbside pickup is one way to continue to generate revenue in the face of uncertainty. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?