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The Ultimate Way To Increase Your Brand Awareness

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Brand Awareness is important for increasing your company’s revenue. Whether you’re a small business with only one product or a large corporation that offers a full line of high-quality goods and services, it’s essential to let people know what you have to offer.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | The Ultimate Way To Increase Your Brand Awareness

There are many ways to increase brand awareness, but none as effective as,

Social Media Marketing:

Use Social Media Platforms

Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote your brand and content. Not only will these networks allow you to spread the word about your products/services, but they’ll also allow visitors to rate and review your products allowing other visitors to better understand the value of what you’re offering. In addition, social media can be used not just to push out your message but also to receive feedback, which is important for building trust.

Use Youtube To Share Videos Of Your Products/Services

This will give viewers an up-close look at what you have to offer before deciding whether or not to buy, increasing the chance that they will follow through on their purchase. You can also use YouTube’s annotation feature to encourage people who are watching your video (and especially subscribers) to visit your website and explore more videos like it.

Post pictures of your company events or work environments on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. Make sure to hire a professional corporate event planner for your company events. These pictures will encourage viewers to learn more about who you are as a company, encouraging them to follow your brand.

Regularly Update Your Blog With New Content

Not only should you write about current events occurring in your company, but you should also write posts related to industry news and trends, as well as topics of interest for your target audience. By doing so, you’ll establish yourself as one of the go-to sources for industry information which will build trust among potential customers.

If You Do Not Have A Website Yet, Create One Now!

A website lets people know who you are and what services/products you have to offer without putting down their credit information first – they can take their time to learn about the benefits of your product. Then, if they like what they see, they can subscribe to your channel to receive updates when new posts are published.

Link All Social Media Platforms Together

i.e., post images on Pinterest that link back to Facebook, use hashtags that tie Twitter into the picture; this way, people who visit one site will be able to explore more content across other platforms. This is great for building traffic and increasing brand awareness by exposing potential customers of various demographics to various content related specifically to their interests.

Utilize Paid Ads On Social Media Sites

Media sites such as Facebook and Google Adwords to get your brand in front of a wider audience at a lower cost than conventional advertising methods. While social media marketing is highly effective in and of itself, it’s also a very cost-efficient method for getting your name out there, especially if you’re still working on establishing your brand.

Managing your time more effectively as CEO

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Managing your time more effectively as CEOThe responsibilities of a Chief Executive Officer are seemingly endless. From managing strategic direction, evaluating group and company operations to communicating with various stakeholders – the daily schedule of a CEO can be relentless. There are never enough hours in the day, and for business leaders this is certainly true. So, if you’re a relatively new CEO or you’ve been at the helm for a while – how can you manage your time more effectively?

Master Delegation

The most important thing any business leader can do to manage their time more effectively is improve their delegation skills. It can be tempting to control and oversee every aspect of a business, particularly if you’ve built it from nothing, but it’s impossible to do this as a company grows. In order to delegate effectively, you must have the right team around you and an appropriate structure beneath you to support this. This includes people that you trust to get the job done, and competent employees that you can rely on.

Travel Smart

CEOs can spend a significant amount of time traveling between meetings, offices and partners. Therefore, being smart with this time is an absolute must. For example, you could opt for private jet rental instead of commercial flights to save time by avoiding busy airports, and give you more flexibility when it comes to multi-destination trips. It’s also important to make best use of the time while traveling to free up space elsewhere in the day. You could use your travel time to power through some emails or catch up on some work that doesn’t require much collaboration.

Reserve Time

Much is demanded of CEOs from others in the organisation, and as such, a large proportion of their day can be filled with meetings and other scheduled commitments. It’s essential that you reserve some time each day or week for your own priorities, work or even just for a 10-minute breather. Pockets of time here and there can help to boost productivity and break up the day. Reserving time for yourself also relies on delegation – if someone else can take one of your meetings per day, you’ll automatically create more time for yourself to work on other projects.

Power Sessions

Being a CEO is all about imagining and developing the big picture, but you can still get caught up in the intricacies of operations. Use power sessions, or periods of intense focus, to blast through the more mundane or administrative tasks that you will undoubtedly have to do every once in a while. The same goes for emails – reserve a time slot to power through your inbox and you will almost certainly clear it quicker than if you have your mind on other things.

The Impact of Packaging on Your eCommerce Sales

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | The Impact of Packaging on Your eCommerce SalesPackaging is one of the most crucial elements of an eCommerce store and it can determine the level of success your business experiences. The way you package your product goes a long way to attracting potential customers, appealing to your target audience and differentiating your brand from the competition.

With an eCommerce business, you don’t have the benefit of customers being able to pick your products up or to talk to them face to face about your offerings, so you’re reliant on first impressions. That’s where packaging comes in to win new customers, retain existing ones and boost sales.

A rising demand for sustainable packaging

Sustainability has become an increasingly prominent issue for customers in recent years, and consumers want the products they buy to be packaged in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way. eCommerce businesses need to be sure they’re not overpacking their products which will contribute towards excess and unnecessary waste. They also need to ensure that the materials they use are recyclable or compostable to ease the burden placed on our planet.

Sustainable packaging comes in various forms and there are many packaging strategies for eCommerce businesses to try, from shipping in smaller packages to using biodegradable alternatives and plant-based solutions. These options improve your brand’s reputation, lower shipping costs for your business and increase sales.

Increased scrutiny from consumers

With the rise in online purchasing, businesses need to do all they can to connect with consumers on a personal level. In eCommerce, a customer’s perceptions of a brand are primarily based on their initial unboxing experience, so they’ll be checking for packaging damage, whether the item arrives in good condition and how the delivery experience was for them. Damage and faulty goods can negatively affect your reputation and lead to customers going to a different supplier, so the way in which you package your items makes all the difference.

This is even more important with food products. Customers have much higher standards when it comes to consumables, so you need to think about the item you’re selling and how best to package it to preserve the integrity of the product. For example, serving up one of the nation’s most popular drinks, tea bags are sensitive to light and moisture. As such, businesses in this niche need to choose packaging that provides a barrier to these elements to ensure the customer receives the product in the same condition as when you packaged it. Likewise, a company selling bath products needs to be sure the contents of a customer’s orders will remain intact and won’t absorb moisture.

The importance of visual appeal

While it’s true that packaging serves a practical function, there’s also a fantastic opportunity for eCommerce businesses to play with the design of their product and shipping packaging to elevate their brand presence and entice customers to buy. On average, customers form an opinion about a product in just 3 seconds, so you don’t have long to get their attention and keep it. Visuals are essential for representing your brand in the right way and could be the difference between a customer choosing to buy from your online business versus another.

You can use packaging design to convey your unique brand identity and messaging in a clear and concise way, so customers are immediately aware of what your business is about. Make sure your colours and fonts are cohesive with your brand and that you’re clearly displaying your business name, logo and trademarks so consumers instantly know that it’s your brand they’re purchasing from and will recognise your products from their aesthetically appealing designs.

Greater customer loyalty

Great packaging could spell the difference between a customer using your business again or switching to someone else, so it pays to take this into consideration. Consider if someone is purchasing a gift for a friend or relative. The packaging of your product could have a significant impact on whether they’re likely to consider your brand or someone else’s, and whether they’re likely to consider you again in the future.

Customer loyalty is an argument for considering custom packaging for your eCommerce goods, setting your products apart from the rest of the industry and making the design unique to your brand. Custom packaging is an underused marketing tactic that would put you a step ahead of your competition, but it also gives you the opportunity to really hone in on what your customers are looking for and provide it to them. Getting creative with the design, from the size, shape and functionality to colours and finishes, will delight your customers and encourage them to think of your business when they need to make a purchase.

Key takeaways

eCommerce businesses have to take packaging into account for a number of reasons, particularly if they want another effective method of boosting their online sales. Packaging plays an important role in protecting the interior items, providing a great service to customers and improving brand reputation and loyalty. There are so many opportunities to make packaging a focal point of a product, from playing with different designs to make your items stand out on the digital shelves to choosing sustainable materials that will give you eco points with consumers.

The main goal when it comes to increasing sales through packaging is to ensure that the style of packaging you choose is suitable for the products you’re sending out to customers and that the appearance matches up with the impression you want to give your customers.

Make Your Workplace More Hybrid Friendly For 2022

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Make Your Workplace More Hybrid Friendly For 2022Let’s set the scene.

After spending months on end working at home throughout the various lockdowns, your employees might finally be coming back into the office with a different mindset. The pandemic has ushered in a change to workplace expectations and, predominantly, a successful transition towards remote working.

Looking ahead to 2022, employees are keen to carry on their work in a more flexible manner, dividing their working week between spending time at home and in the office.

At first, you – as their employer – think this is a great idea, getting staff back inside and gradually reintroducing them into office life. But then, over time, you start to notice difficulties and issues starting to arise with this remote hybrid working setup.

You question what you can do to resolve it and start to grow increasingly concerned at how much it will cost – both financially and morally – to set up the hybrid working arrangement your office requires.

You turn to the web for answers and it is that which brings you here. Well, we have some good news – we are here to help.

Hello hybrid working

If the above situation sounds familiar, don’t worry.

From making a few technological upgrades here and there to simply learning to trust your hybrid staff, there are a number of ways you can create a workplace that is as hybrid-friendly as possible.

Listed below are just a few ideas to get you started:

1. Consider investing in training

Hybrid working is still a new concept to a lot of employers so there is no shame in consulting an expert for their help.

Rather than you going for a gung-ho, trial-and-error type approach, hybrid management training coursesare designed to provide you with all the skills you need to not only firmly understand what hybrid working is but, more importantly, how to prioritise your affiliated workers.

Plus, with the world of work looking like it’s heading towards remote working for the long term, investing early could be a great port of call, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition, attract better employees and establish a much sounder workplace environment.

2. Prioritise communication

When the coronavirus pandemic first struck, many business owners and managers scrambled to find new ways of effectively communicating important information both internally and externally.

Whether it be via Slack, email, Zoom calls or some other form of messaging service, it’s important to continue to share information in this way so that nobody – especially your hybrid workers – feel like they’re being excluded.

If anything, you should try to over-communicate at every opportunity and make every effort to maintain online meetings as you normally would have. That way, you will help ensure all of your workers receive the information at the same time, creating a much more spirited working atmosphere.

3. Re-consider your benefits package

For hybrid workers, many of the perks of working in the office are often missed out on. So, from cakes in the canteen to in-house gym memberships, whatever your current benefits package may be, it could be worth revising it to make it more appealing to hybrid workers.

Say, for example, you have employees on your books who work miles away from the office and would struggle to commute in and out on a regular basis. By subsidising a gym membership cost in their local area instead, or providing them with the opportunity to come to you with their ideas, this could make a big difference to both their happiness in the role and their level of productivity.

4. Consider the mental health ramifications

Working remotely can be a challenging experience, especially for the more extroverted of your employees. Therefore, it’s important to normalise discussions around how hybrid working feels, providing your employees with a platform to open up and, ultimately, manage their mental health.

Whether it be through setting up a virtual meditation room, a social hangout space or simply hosting regular one-to-one meetings with your staff, the more you can do to demonstrate to your hybrid workers that they’re in your mind as much as your in-office workers, the harder they are likely to work as a result.

5. Collaborate and keep everyone online

The foundation of any successful hybrid working team is having consistent collaboration between employees. Without it, staff can quickly start to feel undervalued and seek fresh opportunities where they will be more appreciated.

Therefore, to prevent this from happening in your workplace, make sure to always keep your hybrid workers in your way of thinking, always listening to their ideas even when they can’t attend the in-office meetings.

What’s more, to encourage this concept of sharing ideas even further, make sure everyone is always online and visible at the same time as one another.

Just because your in-office workers will have their colleagues to interact in person with, hybrid workers may feel a little left out in the cold without having the opportunity to freely communicate with their fellow colleagues online.

Future workplace trends

The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the world of work, not only leading to questions over whether the traditional five day working week is still viable but also steamrolling the transition towards remote and hybrid working.

While it still seems very much a new workplace trend, looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, hybrid working appears to be here to stay. Therefore, the more you can do to ensure your office is set up correctly and your staff’s needs are met, the more productive and hybrid-friendly your business will be in the future.

4 Ways Modern Technology Is Improving ID Verification

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | 4 Ways Modern Technology Is Improving ID Verification

The world has gone digital, and most interactions are done online. However, this has led to increased cybercrime and identity theft, which is why you need a fast and effective method to authenticate that you are dealing with the right person. Identity verification prevents money laundering and fraud, improves customers’ experience, and helps you avoid legal implications and paying hefty fines. Modern technology has improved ID verification from manual to automated processes, making authenticating identities more straightforward. Read on for four ways modern technology is enhancing ID verification.

Machine learning for ID proofing

Machine learning has improved how companies process information by automating the analytical model that backs decision-making and data analysis. The machine learning tool can be used during ID scanning to enhance accuracy when determining the authenticity of specific identity cards.

One of the major problems machine learning has helped companies resolve is the ease of authenticating worn-out identity cards. It also improves the accuracy of scanning documents under poor or low lighting conditions. Initially, a company could dismiss a real ID due to poor or low lighting or wear and tear since these documents did not pass an authentication test.

Machine learning authenticates worn-out IDs or documents checked under poor lighting by performing a visual inspection to assess the unique features of the paper in distinct locations.

Complete integration

Identity verification is crucial for most business organizations such as banks to prevent fraud. However, changing the organization’s existing central technologies to adapt to modern ID verification can be expensive. It could also result in unexpected ramifications, should the change not achieve the desired goals.

The modern identity verifications have been designed to integrate with existing company processors fully. Any compatibility issues are dealt with in the identity verification tool development phase to ensure it works immediately upon implementation.

Biometric authentication technologies

With the increase in identity theft and fraud, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, biometric authentication has become one of the most secure ways companies can verify IDs. Biometric technology relies on distinct human features such as fingerprints, voice, or iris to verify IDs, reducing identity theft significantly.

The risk of dealing with the wrong person is further eliminated as one has to pass through the system to verify their identity physically. Access to fingerprint technologies has become more straightforward as smartphones now come with facial recognition features and fingerprint scanners.

Smart identity cards

Verifying identity information when you have a vast customer or employee base that requires constant monitoring can be challenging. Modern technology has provided smart or electronic identity cards that can easily be consolidated in a digital system.

The smart identity cards are embedded with a chip that stores individual data, making ID verification easier. The electronic identity cards transmit Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) signals through the embedded chip allowing remote ID authentication.

Governments have also adopted electronic ID systems to enable citizens to access online government or social security services.

Endnote

Identity verification provides a convenient way to ascertain that you are dealing with the right individual. To protect social, personal, and commercial data and avoid identity theft and fraud, invest in the above identity verifications methods propelled by the latest technology.