Tag: marketingstrategy

2020, The Year Interrupted by the Unexpected. What Lessons Did We Learn Which Can Prepare our Business for Future Disruptions?

Posted on by Feedni Admin
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What an unexacted year, full of uncertainty and a real wake-up call for us all.


Starting like any other, easing into the highly anticipated year of Expo 2020, Euro 2020, and the Tokyo Olympics. Then it happened… the Coronavirus outbreak. Who could have known it was going to become the largest global pandemic since the Spanish Flu Pandemic 100 years before? 

There was continuing uncertainty unfolding about our health, business, and future.

As the days turned to weeks, the realisation was clear, we are all in this for the long run, we need to re-evaluate the way we work in this unfamiliar territory forced upon. Then before we knew it, we were in 2021! So let us look at ways to potentially future proof ourselves for future turmoil.

Actions to incorporate

The hybrid business model has shown great promise for businesses returning to regular routines, working flexibly between home and office, emerging back into office life with adjustments for improved health and safety procedures such as lower capacity offices. 

Hybrid business models have also given rise to dynamic roles as opposed to traditional single-focused positions. The new working life demands adaptable and fluid positions to pick up the slack caused by disruptions, whether it is somebody away sick, reduced staff due to financial cutbacks, or simply expanding responsibilities of existing employees, to step up when required. 

Embrace digital technology because there is no avoiding it in today’s market, the expanding functionality of digital devices and resources, requires businesses to conform to these advances if they plan to remain competitive. Appoint digital marketing as your primary communication tool, it is your safest option to remain active regardless of external influences. 

Migrating to cloud-based servers or offering online services through video calling software both bypass the need for a physical presence, so take advantage of such tools to support the flexibility of conducting your business.

Create a systematic structure to maintain operational workflow, buffering against any external influences which would ordinarily create an unbalance to productivity. This comes down to self-management from each employee, but it must be initiated as a collective workforce, so individuals are aligned to the expected structure. 

Management plays a pivotal part in the preparation, both line management and personal management. If you are efficiently trained by motivated by supervisory management, you gain the knowledge and skillset required to execute your role. Personal management is just as important, being accountable for your workload and remaining composed during unstable times. 

Become innovative, thinking outside the box and identifying alternative solutions. When most were put on the spot during the pandemic, it took a long time to find solutions because they were not prepared. It is best to put innovative thinking into practice in everyday situations, training this skill just as any other.

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Conclusion

The world is unpredictable, so take action to prepare for further unexpected disruptions. Make sure you establish a secure footing, geared towards the forward progressions discussed. A structured workflow, coupled with an opportune outlook will provide the mental and physical grounding required to overcome potential unrest. 

An article by Gautam Gajjar.

The Service Industry Challenges when Transitioning to Digital

Posted on by Feedni Admin

Although there are a plethora of digital possibilities now available at our fingertips, it is not always an easy passage to transition from your existing process, especially when faced with technical language, unfamiliar practices, and potentially costly expenditure. 

Going digital in simple terms is the journey of recreating your business model, using digital technology to aid your everyday tasks, streamlining, and improving various aspects of your business, including: 

  • Productivity
  • Sustainability
  • Profitability
  • Future adaptability
  • Customer satisfaction/retention

Let us examine some of the major challenges involved in the transformation process and how to overcome these obstacles…

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Basic I.T. capabilities

We are currently living in the computer age, the fortunate ones who were schooled in Information Technology are now fairly tech-savvy, those who were educated pre-I.T class are more likely to possess only basic computer skills, making the transition of your business from paper-based to digital much more complicated. 

Outsourcing becomes the go-to option in most cases, however, to become holistically digital requires a full digital vision and plan, it would be a grave mistake to assign the task to an external or even internal I.T. department alone and expect the business to just work. 

The ideal solution to overcome this obstacle is to implement software catered to your computer skill range, additionally, something which is primarily autonomous and reduces human interaction to prevent becoming overwhelmed. If budget allows, you can consider hiring digital specialists or outsource to consultants to support your in-house team. 

Lacking a digital vision/plan

As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail, and planning is a major challenge when trying to transition into an unknown capacity such as a digital business when your limited knowledge continuously creates hesitation. It is not uncommon for businesses to generate an idea, settle on a rough timeframe, and then poorly execute the partially-formed plan without a clear vision of their destination such as using their existing organisational structure which is aligned to the present workflow, eventually realising that it does not function the same way.

Your organisational structure and workflows will all require an overhaul to account for the differences digital advances will provide. It is recommended to consult a specialist in the field who has experience handling your business niche. 

Neglecting risk assessment

The process of change produces countless barriers throughout the process, many of which are overlooked or worse, disregarded. Throughout the planning stage of a business reorganisation, it is common to only account for the typical risks known for the existing process, not the proposed digital model. 

Your digital plan should include a risk assessment to a digital organisation, which account for relevant dangers when transitioning to a digital formation you are not mindful of. The expertise of external risk consultants are worth investing in, it can potentially save you vast amounts of time and resources.

Narrow mindset

A big drawback during times of change is maintaining a fixed mindset, shutting down fresh ideas and suggestions. Tenacious leadership and a problematic stance will cause a hindrance to progression, especially when dealing with a field you have little experience in. 

For the sake of succeeding in your endeavor, you must be open and flexible, with a clear vision of the goal to create the least resistance possible throughout the shift.

Change of management

The sudden arrival of the recent pandemic made it evidently apparent, and unfortunate, that the existing management was far too rigid in times of necessary change. It is never an easy change to replace staff, especially in smaller businesses considering the service and dedication given over the years, however, a conversion from analogue to digital requires a drastic shakeup, so you need to eliminate barriers who may stubbornly be set in their ways and are not supportive in the transition for long-term success. 

A similar notion applies to employees who present the human factor of reluctance, possible due to the threat of redundancy. 

The ideal solution, for both small and large organisations, would be to show your loyalty by providing training and support for those who are keen and committed to the prosperity of the business, to secure their employment within the company. 

Volumes of physical documents to process 

Capturing customer data on paper was standard procedure for a very long time, but with the industry progressing around you with electronic data capture and cloud-based storage, you are now disadvantaged in your stagnant position. Now facing the monumental task of trying to convert your paper records into digital information. 

For businesses with large volumes of hand-written data, unique organisations such as Ant.Works can digitise your documents, using cognitive machine reading to support your shift to a digital future, opening the possibility of cloud-based storage with zero physical space required and remote accessibility. 

Budgetary constraints

Especially a concern for smaller businesses, financial limitations cause a hindrance when trying to go digital, escalating into greater concerns when poor planning causes miscalculation and misallocation of funds. 

The best approach to allocating funds is extensive research and alignment to your digitisation plan. Understanding exactly what tools and technology you intend to have, based on your individual tactics to fulfil your customer’s requirements. This action plan will identify long-term objectives to structure your transition, allowing a clear alignment of your financials.

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Conclusion

Putting aside the daunting prospect of change, the benefits of discarding your existing legacy systems, to unlock potential advantages through an updated model relevant for today’s market warrants the journey to a digital transition. The possibilities and capabilities will expand exponentially, even if you transition at a steady pace at your comfort level. So, take some time to develop a digital plan, address the hurdles discuss, and transform your business into a competitive force for the market.   

An article by Gautam Gajjar.

Credits: 

https://www.ant.works/brochure/cognitive-machine-reading-plus

How to Distinguish Yourself from Other Service Providers

Posted on by Feedni Admin

Most than likely, your business is overlapping multiple providers within your sector, this is nothing new or disconcerting, it is a part of every business and must be tackled head-on, with the correct measures in place, you can give yourself a competitive edge.

Since you and your rivals compete over a common target audience, your marketing challenge is to set yourself apart, to win over the customers attention by playing on your strengths and unique advantages over your competitors. With countless approaches to distinguish yourself, below are some stand-out options which you can incorporate into your business today!

Branding Tone & Voice

Start internally and align your branding tone and voice to speak directly to your target audience. With appropriate alignment, upholding a consistent tone and voice across your marketing and media channels, allows your brand to embody a character so your communication will reside with your target audience effortlessly. Offering value by creating a persona, your customers can form a bonding relationship, improving the likelihood of capturing their attention. Trying to connect with incorrect tone & voice is like speaking another language, they might decode the message with difficulty, but they are more likely to lose interest.

Appeal to your customer needs

Aimlessly pitching your service will not draw in customers, you must fulfil their needs, so try to understand from their point of view, to offer a solution. This involves extensive research and development, to tweak your service over time, in line with changing demands. When you thoroughly understand your customer, you will be able to offer solutions before they even realise, enabling you to react before competitors, giving you the advantage. 

Focus on your uniqueness

Avoid futile battles promoting your service the same way as competitors, you are more likely to lose customers, instead, skip the obvious points and focus on what sets you apart, for example, all cleaning companies clean, but highlighting child/pet-friendly chemical-free solutions will stand out. Don’t be being lured into the false promise of level competition, every company has a unique approach they can apply, so find your one focus point and push this service feature.

Give added value, not just the service

Your customers can receive the same service from many providers, so entice them by adding something to sweeten the deal. It could be aftercare, or an upsell if you have expertise in a related field. Offering additional value will create gratification, receiving something more than they were expecting.

Loyalty and Perks

A loyalty reward arrangement will help you stand out, with the customer openly aware that there is an incentive after a predetermined duration, attracting customers and importantly encourages long-term relationships. Perks work similarly, but with more immediate rewards, such as a one-day-only promotion.

Customer Service

The nature of a service provider is to sell a service as their product, this places great importance on customer service, making it essential to distinguish themselves. Listen to your customer’s feedback, understand what they identify as your strengths and weaknesses, then use this information to help your customers choose you, by highlighting your strengths and improving your weaknesses to dominate through quality, this will result in organic referrals, emphasising your dedication over competitors.  

Conclusion

To sum it up, distinguishing yourself from competitors comes down to your unique attributes, effectively highlighting them is the key to entice customers. The smart way is to approach differentiating yourself is to develop your brand’s persona to promote your unique features, to resonate with your target audience. 

An article by Gautam Gajjar.

Are you capturing your entire target audience, or are you selling yourself short?

Posted on by Feedni Admin

Websites, social media, smartphone applications, and word-of-mouth are just a few channels to reach your target audience, but are you implementing them all? If so, are you utilising them to their maximum ability?

New interaction channels appearing every month, if not every week, offering the ability to connect with individuals both near and far, but which are the most effective and how can you best incorporate them into your marketing strategy? Let us look at some of the most common options and understand how to implement them. 

Your digital grounding is your company website, it is generally the first point of call to any potential customer, seeking information on who and what you are. Make the first impression count, be sure your website is optimised for today’s devices, with minimal loading time, and contains updated content.

Another website tool at your disposal is a blog, granted, visual graphics are more effective than text at reaching your audience, however, the inclusion of blog posts and articles reinforces your digital presence, through various algorithms directing data traffic in your favour. Blogs also allow you to connect with your audience in a more personal format, providing valuable insights based on topics relevant to your target market. 

Most businesses credit social media as the largest contributor to capturing their audience, however, it is not advised to focus solely on any single channel, but to include a variety of mediums in your marketing strategy, to ensure the greatest exposure and to maximise your reach.

Social media enables you to connect remotely and without time constraints, through a combination of images, videos, audio, and text, to fully engage with your target audience and communicate effectively.

Taking video marketing one step further, if you can deliver high-quality video’s, capturing your audience’s attention within the first seconds, then this fantastically captivating media enables you to deliver targeted information, securing a bond with your audience in a fraction of the time as other channels.

Influencer marketing has been on the rise in recent years, offering businesses the opportunity to effectively reach millions with a single social media post, if the influencer aligns with your target audience. Influencer marketing has become one of the leading ways to target niche markets, who are already interested in your product or service but have not yet been exposed to your brand. 

With paid social media adverts, you can improve your delivery efficiency using ‘targeting features’ on social platforms. Targeted advertising ensures your media reaches specifically targeted groups, based on factors including demographic, geographic, interests, and the search topics of your audience. 

With such a convenient device, readily available at your fingertips at any moment, it is no surprise that the majority of online browsing and social media interaction is performed via smartphones. So, as mentioned earlier, mobile-friendly website optimisation is important, but the introduction of smartphone applications can be another route to improving customer acquisition, in addition to customer retention as discussed in a previous article.

Organic referrals have, and will, continue to be a valuable method of reaching your target audience. This ‘primarily’ hand-off approach simply requires a consistent and high-quality service to customers, to share and promote your company, but you can push this strategy using referral codes and promotional incentives such as credit for the referee. 

Referrals are amongst the most powerful and accurate methods of capturing your target audience, originating from genuine first-hand customer recommendations, communicated to known and trusted, like-minded individuals aligned to your business. 

In short, capturing people’s attention is great, but capturing your actual target audience is even better. If you can incorporate the techniques discussed, to ensure your marketing is aligned for each channel, then you will be able to prime your marketing strategy, capture your entire market more effectively, and importantly, grow your business. 

If you would like any further information on any of the points discussed, or have any questions, feel free to comment below or contact me directly.

An article by Gautam Gajjar.

Attracting & Retaining Clients for Service Providers

Posted on by Feedni Admin

“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realise it themselves.”

Steve Jobs (Wisdom Quotes)

Without customers, a business would cease to exist, so how do we go about attracting this heart and soul of our business? Then once we have piqued their interest, how do we retain them long-term? In theory, it’s a simple equation, entice them to use your service, then make them use your service again, but in reality, it’s far from that easy.

The key lays in 2 principal aspects, both of which contain fixed fundamentals, but differ in implementation for each business: 

1) Targeting the ‘correct’ audience

2) Consistently delivering ‘value’

Attracting

It comes as part and parcel that if you attract the right target audience, your product will fulfil their needs and create a bond naturally. One of the most effective ways to attract the correct audience is to apply the Top-Down Funnel Approach: A large opening at the top to draw in ‘potential’ customers through marketing and social media, then as you travel down the narrowing funnel, you align your communication at each subsequent stage to weed out irrelevant prospects, eventually concentrating the ‘hard sell’ at the narrowest point of the bottom, here you will find your true target audience, ready to be converted into customers. 

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Through incisive market research, you can develop a deep understanding of your target audience, in a bid to anticipate and satisfy their needs by becoming the solution they are seeking, this is a valuable component of an effective funnel approach, preventing miscommunication through the stages. 

Retaining

Having established a connection to your ‘target audience’, the next step is customer retention, this also indicates customer satisfaction. Customer retention can sometimes form naturally out of convenience, but most often it is earned through exceeding service expectations, some examples include superior quality over competitors, competitive prices, and loyalty rewards. But one of the easiest and most effective customer retention methods remains a courtesy follow-up, a simple value-adding phone call or email to understand the service, then either receive positive feedback or rectify unsatisfied customers.

A useful tool to measure and manage customer retention is the faithful CRM (see our article on Improving Efficiency), this also identifies the churn rate of one-time customers, indicating a problem to address. Through efficient management and successful retention of your customers, you can expand profitability through upselling other services provided, or organically through customer referrals, all supporting steady business growth. 

Conclusion

The primary objective for service providers is customer satisfaction, this creates great importance on identifying and fulfilling their needs. Attracting customers comes in many forms, with countless new customers on the horizon, but the lifeline for survive long-term is through customer retention, understanding, nurturing, and consistently delivering to your customers. 

Credits: 

201 Steve Jobs Quotes (The Ultimate List)