StrategyDriven Business Communications Article

The Importance of Effective Communication Within Your Business

Picture this scenario; you have an employee on their way to a business meeting in Dubai. He’s currently in the taxi on his way to the airport, but sadly his work phone is out of battery and you have no way to contact him about the cancelled deal. He boards the plane, heads off to Dubai, and it’s only once he lands that he gets your message about the deal being cancelled.

StrategyDriven Business Communications Article
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This example highlights just one of the many uses of an effective communications system. The ability to contact the people you need to in an urgent manner is incredibly important due to how time-consuming and money-wasting a delay in communications can be. Yet, unfortunately, there is only so much you can do with traditional systems such as emailing and messaging. If there are other business emergencies, such as a fire breaking out at the office or your business premises being burgled, then you need a quick and swift way to notify everyone within your company because every second counts.

Emergency Notifications System

Let’s pretend one of your employees has come into work early. He’s the first one at the office and he enters the premises to find that your entire office has been trashed, the computers have been stolen and the security system smashed into pieces. With no way to contact everyone in a short time span, the employee isn’t a hundred percent sure what he should do. This is just one of the many emergency notification use cases. Giving your employees the ability to make a company-wide emergency notification is a great way to alert all of the staff about a pressing issue that needs to be sorted out immediately. Instead of relying on a chain of command that they have to climb up for their message to reach someone, they can simply tell everyone in the business with a simple message.

StrategyDriven Business Communications Article
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Building Team Efficiency

If your team are able to easily contact each other with an effective communications system, then it helps to make the team more efficient. Whether there’s an important change that needs to be made or some hardware that broke which was critical to their project, everyone in the team needs to know so that they can adjust their working schedule to either fix the hardware, prepare a replacement or work around it. If your team is unable to communicate effectively, it will lead to delays, disputes and other problems that are going to slow down your business.

Employee Management

Managers are usually quite effective at communicating with their employees, but there are going to be times when having social skills isn’t enough and you need software or technology to improve the way a manager contacts an employee. For instance, if there’s an easy way for your senior members to keep a track of their team members and record their progress, then it makes your business more productive. By having your managers communicate effectively and inform staff of their daily tasks, goals and issues, it creates a workplace that runs smoothly.

StrategyDriven Business Communications Article
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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Make Your Marketing Personal (Without Looking Like A Creep)

As we go forward, the world of marketing online is going to change again. Companies are not only going to want to get their ads in front of their customers, but they also want them to be more personalized.

Why?

Essentially, it’s because personal ads help to develop brand loyalty and make the customer feel like the company cares. Behind this new wave of customization is a whole raft of digital technologies that are allowing it to happen. But some customers aren’t too keen about the trends that are in the pipeline. This is why companies need to be especially careful when using personalized ads: the last thing they want is to look creepy as if they are stalking their customers online.

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We all know how using customer information can sometimes backfire, so how should we go about making our ads more personal?

Collect Data

Tom Caulton, an expert in digital marketing, says that the first place companies need to look are their data. He says that it is important for businesses to create “buyer personas” or descriptions of certain demographics that are visiting their site. From here, he says, it’s possible to do things like create better content and make more targeted ads.

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To find out more about your customers, sometimes you’ll have to ask questions. But spamming customers with 25 questions all in one go is an excellent way to make them groan and close the questionnaire. Caulton recommends, therefore, that businesses ask questions periodically, one at a time, and spread the work for their customers over a longer period of time.

Create An Amazing Interface

Of course, collecting data is nothing without the right interface to back it up. This is why so many companies are now using custom software development to build things like mobile and web apps. Rather than interfacing with customers through generic browsers, companies are seeing the benefits of using their own targeted apps which offer more functionality and help keep customers inside the barriers of their business. Apps allow businesses to offer customers personalized content, as well as personalized offers, based on their behavior and preferences.

Map Out Your Content

Funneling customers is an incredibly important concept in the world of marketing. The idea is to slowly draw them in through multiple stages and get them to convert. The top of the funnel is simply about getting people to your website. You do this by producing things like webinar, ebooks, and whitepapers. You also do it by using PPC and SEO. The next step is the middle of the funnel where you nurture your leads, providing them with tailored content and buying guides. The bottom of the funnel is the offer stage: you might get your customers to try out a demo or give them a free trial.

At each stage of the funnel, companies are personalizing the experience. They’re creating personas of their customers and then delivering the right content, marketing or special offers that those particular personas will find attractive. Caulton says that this will boost conversions significantly.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

The Marketing Strategy: What You REALLY Need To Know

Your business thrives on how effective its marketing strategy is. Marketing is a concept that can almost consume a business that hasn’t got its strategy in order. Most businesses place a vast proportion of their budget towards marketing and its various sub-categories. A lot of small businesses don’t have this luxury. So, if you are a small business, are there any tricks that the bigger companies use that can be implemented without having to squirrel away a third of the year’s budget?

Think Of The Image And The Brand

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With any advertising campaign, the talk is generally geared towards two things, the image and the brand. The image is what you are presenting to the world via signs, symbols, and text. The brand is, in essence, the personality. There is a very subtle difference in the two words, but important enough for you to need to differentiate. Communication is how you get your business identity and image out there, which is why you need to be aware of semiotics.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Imagery is the image: text, signs, and symbols. This also includes language, gestures, clothing, and the list goes on. In terms of your marketing approach, you need to take into account how you are communicating your business brand via your imagery. This is something where a lot of small businesses fall into murky waters because they either don’t invest the time or finances into their imagery. You can smell a primitive company from a mile off because their images are not mature and, more importantly, do not sync well into their business brand. The two sides to semiotics are the signifier, which is the material presenting the image: an object, words, a picture, etc. The other side is the signified, and this the meaning interpreted by the target, which is your consumer or recipient of the image/ad/billboard/communication. Going for the right message in your ad campaign will communicate your business brand as it was intended. Now, all this may sound complex, but every marketing campaign thrives on the undercurrent of semiotics, it just isn’t communicated in these terms.

The next approach to your marketing strategy is to work on the brand. The image is part of the brand, and the brand is part of the company.  To work on what your company “is” you need to get to the crux of what your company stands for i.e. the ethos or mentality behind the brand. Much like the actor who needs to “get into character” to understand what the character wants, which drives the actions of the story; you need to understand your needs as a company. Ask yourself, why you are selling these products? What are these products communicating to people about your business? By aligning product with business image, this is how you start to get a clearer idea of your target market, which then links into your marketing plan. The image and the brand are two important facets of your marketing that you cannot afford to cut down on.

How Do You Control This Image?

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
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Understanding your identity is the first part of controlling the image you put out there. It’s the equivalent to the writer finding their voice. The creative similes are being used because it is the essence of being as creative as you possibly can that will get you ahead in the game. Controlling your image is something that you need to do. If you are a small business, taking the time to go over the image before you put it on your website, or place it on a billboard is not normally a luxury you can make time for. But it is integral to how you communicate yourself in the wider public sphere. You need to vet the image and understand it, using semiotics as a yardstick so you can make sure the image you need to communicate is the correct one, and is not open for misinterpretation.

There are ways to cultivate a holistic view of your business, and that is dependent on the products that you put out there. Not just the actual products you are peddling, but the supplementary products that every business uses now, which is done typically via the internet. These can include podcasts, smartphone apps, webisodes, YouTube clips, and promotional gifts, which is a cute little way to promote your company. The Dynamic Gift website home page has a range of promotional gifts and display items that can put your business logo on things like keyrings, marquees, and lanyards. These types of companies are especially useful in trade show environments when you need to stand out or give your company a bit more personality.

It is tempting to go for every avenue so you can hedge your bets, but it is the corporate equivalent of spreading yourself thin. Much like the ad campaigns where you are unsure of the target market to gear yourself towards, the key is to nominate two or three areas where you can maintain immense focus. By going for every area and giving 25% dedication to each one is obviously not as effective as giving 100% on two or three. Each advertising method has its own benefits. For example, a podcast is a format for slow burners and dedicated listeners, ideal for a business that has a very limited range of products. But it is a subtle game to play, and by controlling your image at every turn, not only is it more attainable by only doing it through a few channels, it makes your job as its leader much easier.

The brand, image, and method of communicating the business are all integral pieces to your marketing campaign. The moment you understand what your “voice” is as a business, the other aspects will start to fall into place, and the building blocks that you have been working towards as a small company will finally begin to materialize and make sense. This is a methodical and time-consuming process, but it is one that is completely essential to building up your customer base through marketing.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Taking Over The Internet: Building Your Company’s Online Rep

We live in an age of unprecedented technological expansion. The digital era has revolutionised business, but you don’t need me to tell you that. No matter your industry or the specific nature of your business, technology will affect your operations in some form of another. In particular, the internet has become a tool which offers connectivity, speed and simplicity which has made things easier than ever for businesses who want to excel at an accelerated rate.

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Of course, when every business is using the same technology, the playing field levels out, and the steps required to push past the competition become harder to see. Your business is trying to utilize the online world to its advantage in terms of increasing the goods and services it can sell successfully, but so is every other business in the industry. You might be feeling as if you’ve lost a step, but that’s okay. Here are some pieces of advice for businesses looking to regain their footing and their position in the industry by staying ahead of the game on the internet.

Conduct research.

It’s easy for ego to take the wheel and drive, especially when you’re running a small business and your team is full of innovative, intellectual individuals who want to constantly push the business further and further with great new ideas. Obviously, this is exactly what you want from your team, but sometimes a level business head is needed. You need to be appealing to the market, and not expecting the market to mould itself around the needs of your company. You should be researching the market you’re targeting within your specific industry. These are the people who will keep your business afloat.

Researching might entail looking into reviews you’ve already received from customers of your business, either through social media mentions, review sites or perhaps your business’ own website. You need to listen to what people are saying and work to change the things which aren’t working for your target audience. In addition, if you’re a brand new business with few clients, you need to be monitoring what customers have said about your competitors. If there are flaws with the services of competing businesses, there are gaps in the market for your company to exploit.

Improve your online marketing skills and, in turn, your sales.

You need to be better understanding the internet, so as to ensure you’re selling any online goods or services to the extent at which a business in your industry should be. Of course, if your company is still struggling, you might consider a Magento developer to help you reinvent your eCommerce platform. There are always online solutions to tricky problems your business might be facing, and, when it comes to marketing your business, you need to be properly utilizing the internet’s capabilities.

Your reputation depends on you offering a professional service, because, much like the way you present your business in the physical world, the way you present your business in the virtual world reflects on your company’s standards, experience, expertise and the level of effort they put into what they do.

Show your best goods first.

As a business trying to top your competitors, you really need to be making your mark quickly, efficiently and simply. Consumers have so much choice in the modern era that they can become rather passive about making their decision when it comes to a particular good or service. You should be making that easier by offering them your best products on the front page of your website.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Driving Sales: What it Takes to Make it Happen

Running a business means having to hit sales targets. If you keep falling short and making fewer sales than you would ideally like to, you should try to rethink your strategy. Sales don’t need to slump and decline for your business. You just need to learn more about what drives sales and what you can do to get your approach to those things right. Below, you will find information on the four most important things for your business to possess as it strives to drive up sales.

Products You Believe In

Before anything else, you need to have products that you truly believe in. If you don’t really believe in the things that you are trying to sell, it won’t be long before your sales figures fall. So, this is always the thing that you should try to get right first of all. People will only believe in what you’re trying to sell if you do as well. So, try to make sure that your products are as strong as they possibly can be. Test and prototype them until you’re happy that they are ready to go to market and be sold to the public.

A Talented Team

Next, you will need to think about the team that you have in place. If you have a team of talented individuals who know how to sell products to the public, you will have an advantage over the competition. When your team is weak and inexperienced, more mistakes will be made, and that will make it much more difficult for you to make sales and achieve more for your business. You can improve the selling skills of your team by using sales enablement techniques. These should make life easier for the people in your team when it comes to selling.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
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The Right Message

The message you get across to customers is also very important. You need to be willing to deliver your message with confidence and conviction. When you do this, you will show the world that you really mean business. A big part of your messaging should focus on telling the public how your products or services can help them and improve their day to day lives. The messages have to be relatable and easy to digest if you want people to get hooked by them. Keep this in mind when you are formulating your approach to things like advertising and marketing.

Good Targeting

Targeting refers to the people you target with your adverts and marketing material. You need to carry out some market research so that you can be sure exactly who you need to target and why. You then need to think about what the best methods are for reaching the kind of people who make up your target audience. So, if you want to target young people, you would have to place a focus on social media engagement and things like Facebook ads. If your target audience is older, then your approach will have to be entirely different.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
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