If You’re Not Engaging With Your Community, You’re Falling Behind

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |marketing|If You're Not Engaging With Your Community, You're Falling BehindMarketing is becoming more competitive and businesses seek more advanced ways to reach out to customers and get them to part with their hard-earned cash. As such, brands are having to come up with new tactics to grab the attention of their audiences and succeed in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, achieving that is easier said than done. Most niches have already been filled. And sometimes, when you work in a company marketing department, it feels like you’re fighting over the scraps.

Smart brands, therefore, are finding new ways to engage with the community. Instead of focusing on channels or outreach, they’re working on “impact” and “being pillars of the community.”

But what does this mean in practice? Let’s take a look.

Have A Social Purpose

Companies today aren’t the capitalist behemoths of old. Instead, they’re much more concerned about the impact that their actions have on the environment according to guild.co. And it’s not just customers driving it. Companies, like everyone else, are caught up in a wider movement that sees the role of firms in society as being about more than just turning a profit. It’s also critical that organisations preserve the natural world for the future.

Having a social purpose, therefore, is becoming a centerpiece of many firms. They’re looking to make tangible changes in their communities and tackle all kinds of issues, from social problems to climate change.

Look For Networking Opportunities

Businesses can also enhance their brands by looking for networking opportunities in local communities. It’s unlikely that a company works in complete isolation from everyone else in the community. Instead, they are part of a system of relationships. And with those relationships come opportunities.

It’s critical for businesses, for instance, to get expert advice from professionals in the local area. It’s also vital to go behind the scenes and find out what customers really think about your brand. Once you start collecting information on the ground, you put yourself in a much better position to compete with your rivals.

Involve Yourself In Community Projects

Businesses love to get involved in community projects for brand-related purposes. Firms that help a community build a solar form, as choosesolar.com, or create more green space become indispensable to everyone around them. If you can establish yourself as a rock for the community, people will return to you again and again.

Improve Customer Support

Customer support is essentially a kind of community outreach. The more staff you have available to take calls, the better the support will be.

Having an active support base is a great way to build communities online. What’s amazing about these groups is that they will also contribute information to other members, taking the burden off you. Sometimes, people will write articles explaining how to do certain things which are just as good as any guide that you might write.

In summary, therefore, engaging with the local community brings all kinds of benefits. And it helps to get you out of a marketing rut. When you relate to real people, you can make your firm grow more organically.

Investing in Yourself and Becoming That Leader Who Makes a Difference

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Leader|Investing in Yourself and Becoming That Leader Who Makes a DifferenceThere are leaders out there within the workplace that do not make an impact and that do not make a difference, and to ensure that you do not end up as one of these leaders, it is important that you invest in yourself. You are always investing your time and energy into others, and now it is time to focus on yourself. You need to make progress and changes, and to do this, you need to improve what you are offering.

Studying and Developing Your Skills and Knowledge Base

How much you know and how aware you are of the industry, marketplace, and role you are in can determine how successful you are. When you complete your bachelor’s online, you shift your focus and your efforts back onto yourself, and you once again focus on developing your skills and knowledge, which can then be directly implemented into your role. A bachelor’s will allow you to develop those areas or subjects which you may feel are not your strongest areas of expertise. Investing in yourself and in your education will ensure that you are a leader who can implement and bring about change.

What Changes Do You Want to Make?

To make a difference within your business or organization, changes must be made, but do you know what changes need to be brought about and why? Establishing root causes of problems and having the vision to make things better is what you need to be focusing on. A great advantage of studying for your bachelor’s is that it will allow you to see where opportunities for change and development lie. Through studying, you will be able to see how you can look at your business or organization differently, and most importantly, through the eyes of the leader that you are.

What Type of Leader Do You Want to Be?

Not all leaders are the same, and so what type of leader do you want to be? For example, do you want to be one that leads from the front and commands attention, or do you want to be one that leads from the middle or the center of operations? When you know what type of leader you want to be, and you know what style of leadership suits you, then you can implement your ideas with confidence and begin looking towards the future.

Focusing on the Future

Making change can be quick, but quite often, changes happen over time. Knowing where you want to go and where you want to be as a leader is important. Your vision will help shape and define your business or organization, so it is important that you are always focused on the future. Having targets and goals for change is important, as is being open to change and improvement. Nothing ever stays still, and neither should you. A good leader who truly cares about getting results and making an impact will keep pushing and applying gentle pressure to get where they want to.

How To Take Your Website To New Heights

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Design|How To Take Your Website To New HeightsIn the 21st century, it’s near impossible for a business to survive without a quality website. Such a large percentage of commerce is now being done exclusively online, and this is encouraging a greater focus on producing enticing, effective web pages that are sure to draw in as many customers as possible. Luckily, figuring out how your business can take its website to new heights needn’t be as difficult as you might expect, as there are several simple tips and tricks that you can make the most of to transform your platform in no time at all! So, if you would like to find out more, then simply read on to uncover some of the best steps that you can utilise today.

A Recognisable Name

Before you even start to think about selling your wares online, you need to come up with a unique and original domain name that you can register for your business. Every website has a domain name, as this is essentially a representation of a physical address that a brick and mortar store has. Choosing an unusual or unrecognisable name is going to drop you in the deep end surrounded by a sea of other websites, as you need to identify a suitable URL that relates to your products and services. If your business name is already taken then do not panic, as you can experiment with adding letters or words to make it work. Adding a simple ‘the’ may be enough to identify a totally unique domain name, or even including your head office or flagship location can ensure that you have little competition. Choosing and registering your URL can be a bit of a tricky process, but luckily there are experienced teams like DomainQuick that can pinpoint the perfect match and make sure it’s yours to utilise.

The Design & Aesthetics

One of the most important aspects of your website that can make or break its success is the overall design and aesthetic that you choose to channel. Having a jumbled mishmash of random colours, garish patterns and interrupted aesthetics is going to reflect badly on your business, as you need to accurately represent your brand and its values through the design of your website. A poor quality aesthetic will lead the customer to believe that you produce poor quality products or provide low quality services, so you must make an effort to keep on top of your website’s design to ensure it meets expectations. A minimalist design is likely the best option to explore, as you can remain classic, elegant and professional all rolled into one. Always use dark text colour on top of a light background to maintain accessibility, as those with visual impairments can read better this way. When adding pictures, videos or graphics, try not to go overboard – a couple of photos per page is more than enough, as too many attention grabbing elements can quickly become overwhelming, and even increase the load time of your webpage in the browser.

Make It Interactive

Another brilliant way to upgrade your website is by making the platform as interactive as possible. When visiting a normal brick and mortar store, you will likely encounter an employee as soon as you enter through the front doors. This customer will greet you, and ask whether you’ll be needing any help during your visit – however, this essential introduction is often lost when browsing the web, as few websites give you the chance to discuss your queries without phoning up a remote call centre. Adding in an interactive chat messenger feature is a brilliant option that is sure to increase the quality of your virtual customer service, as you’ll be able to send users in the right direction whilst clearing up any issues they may have before they grow into serious complaints. Having a chat feature can be beneficial in many ways, as you can cut your customer complaints considerably by actively attempting to resolve any problems through the use of the secure messaging platform. You can even choose to program your chat box to pop up after 5-10 seconds of browsing, as this will alert the user of its presence and remind them that if they want to talk, you’re here to help!

Seek expert advice

If sales have stalled, you’re losing visitors once they hit your homepage, your landing pages are not converting or your site looks basic, it’s wise to seek expert advice. If you don’t have expertise in web design and development or you lack these skills in-house, hiring experienced developers and designers could make a huge difference to your sales, traffic volume and lead conversion rates. If you’re looking for information or services for your business, you can visit site pages and contact representatives to discuss packages for your company and get ideas. Compare quotes, learn more about agencies and view examples of previous work and case studies before you make a decision. 

Taking your professional business website to a whole new level has never been so simple when you can take the time to make the most of some of the brilliant tried and tested tips and tricks that have been carefully detailed above.

What Should Business Strategy Look Like Post-COVID19?

StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article |Business Strategy|What Should Business Strategy Look Like Post-COVID19?The world isn’t getting back to normal. The world is establishing a new normal. That means businesses need to make sure that their strategy accounts for this change. With that in mind, here are some points all businesses should consider.

Strength comes from the roots

In business, your roots are your “why”. Your “why” is your value proposition. It’s what determines the level of relevance you have in a person’s life. Just as different plants have different types of roots, so different businesses can have different types of value propositions.

For example, some businesses have a high level of relevance to a small number of people. Other businesses have low relevance to a great number of people. Many businesses are somewhere in between. The key point is that long-term sustainability depends on your business having enough relevance with enough people.

Part of making this happen is developing the ability to move with the times without losing sight of your core identity. This is particularly important right now because many people are likely to make changes to their lives, possibly significant ones. For example, if remote-/hybrid-working goes mainstream over the long term, then it will have huge implications for many businesses.

Businesses should always be paying attention to what their customers (past, present, and future) are doing, saying, and thinking. Ideally, businesses should be interacting directly with their customers as much as possible. In-person interactions are great but social-media/online interactions run a close second and can be much easier to organize.

An engaged customer base is a company’s biggest asset

In the real world, very few customers need the best product or service. In fact, they don’t even need the best product or service for their situation. They may want it but then again they might not. What most customers need is a product or service that does the job they need it to do. Anything else is negotiable.

For most businesses, therefore, it’s actually far more important to invest in building a strong community than to invest in building the best product or service. You build a community by forging human connections with your customers. In short, you position yourself as a valued friend who has products and/or services to sell rather than just another business.

The more people want to buy from you, specifically, because they like you, the more protection you have from threats to your business. This doesn’t just have to mean competition from other businesses. It can mean disruptions of all sorts or even broader social changes.

Essentially, if people like your brand, there’s a good chance that they’ll continue to like it if you branch out in a new direction. This is particularly likely if you’re clearly responding to changes they’re feeling themselves. Post-COVID19, there’s likely to be a whole new emphasis on community especially in the real world but also online. Think carefully about what this means for your business.

You need to go where your customers are

This has a literal meaning and a figurative one. The figurative one can actually be easier for businesses to grasp. You need to find your customer base and let them know who you are and why they should care. In principle, it doesn’t really matter if you do this through old-school leaflet drops or ecommerce marketing. In practice, the latter tends to be easier to target.

It’s the literal meaning which tends to catch out businesses. You need to get your product to your customers. There are lots of ways of doing this. The three main ones are in-store, home delivery, and digital delivery.

After COVID19, you may be tempted to pull back from in-store sales, at least as much as possible. This could be a reasonable course for some businesses. Just be sure that you’ve made a mindful decision and not had a knee-jerk reaction. Be aware that the logistics of mass home deliveries have long been a problem for the ecommerce sector.

Firstly, there’s the challenge of choosing the right courier company to get your item where it needs to be in one piece. Secondly, there’s the challenge of managing customer returns. Effective business processes can go a long way to minimizing these but they will inevitably happen.

Despite the impression you might have been left with from the pandemic, digital delivery isn’t always the answer to everything either. It isn’t so much the fact that it depends on your customers having a decent internet connection. It’s the fact that it often depends on them having decent technical skills – or you guiding them through the steps they need to take.

Your supply chain plays a huge role in your success

Prior to COVID19, it seemed like nothing could stop the trend towards leaner, more agile businesses. Agility is still a highly desirable trait in many, if not all, businesses. The pandemic did, however, demonstrate that it was very definitely possible to have too much of a good thing.

The most obvious example of this was the news-making shortage of key items, particularly in major stores. This was, however, just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Many businesses had their operations disrupted through a lack of supplies.

This was partly due to many producers having to shut down. It was, however, also due to issues with transport, especially long-distance transport. Going forward, businesses are going to have to choose from one (or more) of three options. Firstly, you can stick with your current arrangement and take your chances.

Secondly, you can actively prioritize suppliers who either operate or warehouse close to where you are based. Thirdly, you can keep more inventory yourself as a buffer against disruptions. If you depend on perishable supplies then you may want to see if there are options for switching to less perishable alternatives.

A lot of success comes from showing up

This is one of the oldest business adages there is, particularly in the entertainment industry. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably grasped the fact that there’s usually a long, hard slog to success. You’ve probably also grasped the fact that the work doesn’t end when you complete your early growth phase. You have to maintain your gains.

Post-COVID19, however, many businesses are going to need to find a balance between stability and adaptability. On the one hand, it’s unlikely that many businesses are going to have to change their business model completely. On the other hand, it’s very likely that businesses are going to need to make significant adaptations to cope with changes in consumer behavior.

It’s vital that you have robust systems for measuring the effectiveness of the key areas of your business. You also need to have a fair way of comparing the “before and after” of any changes you make. This includes giving both a try for a suitable length of time rather than chopping and changing between them.

Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between a product or service and a business model. There may be little to nothing you need to do to your core offering. You may, however, need to make changes to how you deliver it. These may entail changes to how you price it.

Leveraging technology may be key to your post-COVID19 success

It’s probably fair to say that many businesses use technology but don’t really leverage it effectively. This is especially likely in the SMB sector. Unless technology is your business, you may struggle to understand what it could mean for you. The transition to the post-COVID19 “new normal” could be the ideal time to address this.

Every business has pain points. The key to success is to minimize both the number of them and the pain they cause. A lot of business pain points ultimately boil down to delays in key areas. In fact, possibly the single, biggest pain point of all is delayed payment. The only way to avoid this completely is to get cash upfront for all purchases.

In the real world, however, this is simply not possible for many businesses. What’s more, even if it is, there are massive security implications plus customers tend to be moving away from cash. Fortunately, this is such a major issue for so many businesses that it’s also a major area of innovation within IT.

The introduction of new means of payment has met with highly variable levels of success. Think Bitcoin versus Libra/Diem. The introduction of new means to collect payments, however, is becoming a very exciting area.

It could be well worth doing some thorough research on what options are currently available for our business. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the space in general as it develops. Similarly, if you invoice for payment keep an eye on invoice-tracking/credit-control solutions as these are improving all the time.

Try to build flexibility into your business

The businesses which did best in the pandemic tended to be the ones that showed the most flexibility. Appropriately enough, the fitness industry was a shining example of how to move quickly when circumstances demanded it.

In business, as in fitness, it’s easier to work on flexibility continually than to have to develop it suddenly. Post-COVID19, therefore, flexibility should generally be a core part of all business plans and strategies.

How to Boost eCommerce Sales for Your Business

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |eCommerce Sales|How to Boost eCommerce Sales for Your BusinessIt is no secret that online sales skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While bricks and mortar stores were forced to close, eCommerce businesses were able to take advantage of this and enjoy a surge in sales and plenty of new customers to boot. However, now that physical stores have started to re-open and consumers are spending less time at home, you may have noticed that your sales figures are beginning to drop a little. If you see a decrease in visitors to your website and a reduced number of sales, you are probably keen to get this sorted out and get your eCommerce store thriving once again. Here are some of the actionable changes you can make to increase eCommerce sales for your business:

Keep Engaging With Your Customers

One of the most effective methods of creating a consistent level of sales is to manage your relationship with consumers that are already interested in your products. Engaging with your social media followers and showcasing your products on your platforms can provide a valuable way to encourage extra sales from loyal customers. Social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, can offer a helpful way to capture your customers’ attention with highly visual content. Uploading videos and product images can create immediate interest in a new product or sale items, especially when you link from the post directly through to your eCommerce site.

Encourage Add-On Sales

Encouraging add-on sales is a valuable way to boost your profits and up the value of each order. Suggesting similar products or matching products that the customer may also like can lead to an increase in sales. Even suggesting lower value items that customers may like can make a big difference to your sales figures. Another helpful way to boost sales is to let customers know how much more they need to spend to qualify for free shipping. In most cases, consumers like the idea of gaining an extra product in their order and paying a little more than to pay for shipping costs.

Use Digital Promotion Methods

Everyone likes to pay less for their items wherever they can, and saving money on their shopping generates a buzz that most people love. If you hope to encourage your customers to purchase a specific item and engage with a call to action, or you want to clear stock without reducing the listed price, you could use a Digital Rebates Platform. Offering digital rebates as a money-saving incentive can tempt your customers into buying a product and enjoy all the benefits of getting something they want at a great price.

Make the Most of Your Email List

Your email list is a valuable source of information and has the potential to deliver many sales opportunities for your business. Treating your email subscribers as privileged customers is an excellent way to build your relationship and encourage further sales. Giving your subscribers exclusive discounts and early access to deals and offers will strengthen your relationship and lead to repeat purchases.