Category: Digital Branding

8 Expert Tips to Produce an Account Based Marketing Content Strategy

Steven on November 4, 2021

If you run marketing campaigns for a B2B company, chances are you have heard of Account Based Marketing.

Also called ABM, it is a marketing strategy meant to reach potential prospects within a target company. Instead of reaching out to an individual, ABM allows you to connect to a group of stakeholders.

This also explains why ABM requires close coordination between marketing and sales to succeed. Add to that content marketing, and you can produce excellent results.

But to make that happen, you need to produce precise content. This can be based on industry, roles and functions of your target decision-makers, or the size of an organization.

That said, here are eight tips that you can use to develop an Account Based Marketing content strategy:

Know Your Target’s “Who” and “What”

Sure, Account Based Marketing means that you are reaching out to a target account. However, every account is made up of a group of decision-maskers.

Before you build a content marketing campaign for a prospect, you need to know who you should target. You also need to identify their roles in an organization.

That’s because a piece of information that matters for a Chief Finance Officer may not matter for a Chief Executive Officer.

However, you should not rely on LinkedIn alone when scouring the Internet to target accounts. You should also look into a company’s annual reports, earning calls, social media accounts, and blog. Doing so can give you an insight into the key issues that a prospect is facing and how your products and services can help solve those.

Use an Account-specific Subdomain

This one is pretty basic but often overlooked.

Whenever you are driving a lead to your website, it would help to use a specific subdomain. Doing so adds a personalized touch. It also makes your prospect feel that you went the extra mile to create an online experience that is unique to them.

As such, it will be inherent for them to engage and interact. That’s called the “power of reciprocity.”

Build a Content-rich Microsite

In relation to the previous point, your account-specific subdomain must have the right pieces of content. This is where having a microsite can come in handy.

Think of your microsite as a content hub. This is where you will organize and present relevant content, third-party data, and resources that will be meaningful to your prospect.

That said, we recommend that you use an ABM platform that can help you build and measure your microsite’s ROI. This includes the number of site visitors, the most accessed content, and how they interact with your data.

Incorporate the Company Name

There is a reason personalization is integral in content marketing. One of which is that it compels your prospect to act.

But do not take our word for it. Let the numbers speak for themselves:

74% of consumers are frustrated when web content is not personalized.
80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that provides a personalized experience.
Consumers view personalized content as essential.
85% of consumers are influenced to buy because of personalized homepage promotions.
Personalized calls to action convert two times better than a standard CTA.

A straightforward way to personalize your B2B offer is to incorporate your prospect’s company name. Instead of saying “Learn How to Improve Company Efficiency,” you can say “Improve Efficiency at Oracle.”

Provide the Right Tools to Your Sales Team

As mentioned earlier, Account Based Marketing requires coordination between marketing and sales. As such, you must be providing your sales team with the right tools.

That’s because they will be the ones who will make the connection with your prospects.

Arm your sales team with guided conversations, including value-driven offers like a product demo. That way, they can get the prospects to respond to them and move them further down the sales funnel.

From there, your sales team can gather critical data about your target account. For instance, they can ask whether a prospect uses a competitor’s products and services and what additional features they would like to have.

Pitch a Web-based Presentation

A personalized, content-rich microsite is fantastic, but they are not meant to drive sales. Sure, they allow a prospect to navigate through your content and learn about what you can do for their business. However, it does not demonstrate how your products and services work.

This is where a web-based presentation comes in.

It is like a “virtual salesperson” that pitches your products and services in a linear, storytelling way. Doing so enables you to control your marketing message and pacing. For instance, you can include how your products and services work and how your prospect can make the most out of it.

Offer a Useful Client Experience

Here’s the thing: Prospect-to-salesperson connections do not always happen. That’s because there are target accounts that would like to gather more information before you can urge them to talk to you.

As such, it would be helpful if you could provide your ideal clients with the right tools and content that can support their exploration. This includes interactive white papers, assessments, and quizzes. Doing so can also enable you to accelerate a target account’s consideration phase.

Track and Measure Your Content

Just like with any content marketing campaign, you should always track and measure your efforts.

For instance, you can measure the engagement levels of each persona. That way, you would know which content fosters prospect-to-salesperson connection and generates sales.

On the other hand, you can tweak or eliminate content that does not produce results.

Still, keep in mind that your analytics will only work if you have well-defined goals and KPIs. So ensure that you have them in place before you run an ABM content strategy.

ABM and Content can Work Hand-in-Hand

The content tips listed above are some of the things you can do when building a content marketing strategy for your ABM effort. Regardless, the key here is to produce highly-targeted content.

Build a microsite or a web-based product demonstration that will be relevant to your target account. That way, your prospects will be compelled to interact with you. It will also enable you to guide them further down the sales funnel.

As a result, you can generate excellent ROI.

Digital Branding

The Future of Workforce Management and Recruiting

Steven on September 19, 2021

A few years ago, the job market was tipped in the favor of the employer, so businesses would be the ones with the final say as to who got each position. The situation has changed over time and today, most industries are considered the employee’s playground. Yes, more businesses exist today, providing healthy competition to one another, but also offering a plethora of jobs to prospective candidates.

However, those same candidates are no longer limited by location to work for a specific industry. With remote work on the rise, companies can have their pick at workers from all over the world, but employees, too, can choose their bosses based on the job’s perks and benefits. Freelancers have also shifted the balance of power in favor of the worker, as they also have the freedom to work with multiple companies instead of a single employer.

All of these changes are reshaping the process of workforce management as well as recruiting. Your business can improve its standing in the eyes of potential workers by keeping an eye on these relevant trends and implementing the most important changes in how you manage your workers to retain the finest talent available.

Employer branding is now a necessity

Businesses normally use their digital presence to sell to customers or build partnerships in their professional realm. However, as modern-day workers also do their research online when they’re applying for a position, it’s up to you to step up your branding game and build a notable identity as an employer.

When you communicate your brand values properly, from that employer’s perspective, you can rest assured that potential workers will be more likely to engage with your business and get in touch for a position. This simplifies the scouting and recruiting processes to a great extent and enables you to build employee relationships well before someone becomes an employee at all.

Social media recruiting on the rise

Building a brand on social media is now important from another perspective: looking for candidates and doing your best to impress them enough to take an interview. Most fine candidates are already swamped with offers, so you need to make yours stand out, by working hard on building a powerful presence and ongoing interactions with candidates on social media.

Use your employer brand to communicate your core values on these networks and to present what it looks like to work within your organization. Employee-generated content such as stories, articles, and videos can all help your business earn candidate interest.

A global workforce requires global solutions

Now that remote work and flexible work models are taking over the world, brands are rapidly trying to simplify and streamline all their recruiting, hiring, and employee management procedures. For companies wanting to hire full-time staff remotely without having to set up a local presence, using global employer of record services helps them achieve all their goals.

That way, they can have a legal local representative that takes care of all the compliance and regulations regarding hiring and employee management. It’s cost-effective and it empowers businesses to hire employees no matter where they are.

Diversity and inclusivity in the spotlight

A competitive salary is no longer the deal-maker or deal-breaker for most workers. Most modern employees want an inclusive, diverse workplace where they know they are surrounded by people of different skill sets, abilities, and backgrounds. It says so much about modern businesses that are willing to change their set-in-stone models to embrace this kind of cultural shift.

In response, brands are adapting their job descriptions, contracts, and recruiting models to make themselves more widely available to differently-abled workers and people from all cultures and with various backgrounds. It’s not just about policies – it’s also about how companies are implementing new collaboration tools and models to actually make such relationships possible.

Contingent and freelance work

With the tech revolution still going strong and new tools coming out regularly, it’s no wonder that workers are no longer limited to one definition of collaborating. The pandemic alone has sped up this process even further, getting more companies to embrace flexible models of collaboration with the global workforce in mind.

Now, employers are more open-minded to working with curated freelancers, a contingent workforce for seasonal projects, and remote collaboration in general. In turn, flexible workers are more eager to work with such companies, and even more so, to work on multiple projects instead of settling for a single employer.

Ongoing training and education

Remote or not, workers need regular training and education to stay motivated and to be equipped to handle their own industry changes and fluctuations. So many innovative solutions, and new software systems, all the way to novel collaboration methodologies push professionals to keep adapting. If you, as their employer, help them adapt through regular training, you’ll be on the right track to retain them for the long haul.

Training is also becoming a key factor to attract already highly qualified experts since they are the ones always eager to learn, and they always look for a workplace that will nurture such a mindset.

AI-driven analytics

Digitalization isn’t limited to team collaboration, even though that’s the most prominent shift companies are taking notice of. Next, to project management tools and smart software tools, companies are now improving their recruiting processes and employee management with the help of AI analytics.

Employers now have the capability to recognize emerging trends in employee requirements and workload management. Spotting an uptake in projects or workload growth allows companies to prepare properly, to avoid employee burnout and dissatisfaction, while at the same time meeting their project requirements.

Workers are adapting to the new possibilities of collaboration and embracing the freedom to work with brands from all over the world more than ever. That kind of flexibility has pushed companies to adapt, digitalize their processes, and work harder on establishing their inclusivity policies.

For your business to hire the most qualified talent, you need to offer a competitive workplace worthy of that talent. Keep an eye on these trends to stay in the know and to learn what you can do better to anticipate your own employees’ needs.

4 On-Page Techniques forEffective Search EngineBranding

Digital Branding

Don’t Start Your Startup Without These Three Things

Steven on August 26, 2021

Getting your startup off the ground is one of the most exciting times in the life of an entrepreneur. All the dreaming and planning and false starts and failures have finally led to the moment when the proverbial open sign lights up for the first time. You have finally arrived. Or at least, you have arrived at the starting line. The hard parts are still in front of you. But you don’t need to worry about any of that when you first get started. You want to have a smooth opening day and enjoy this moment where all your hard work has brought you. Go ahead. You deserve it.

But before you pop the cork on that bottle of Champaign, make sure you are setting yourself up for success so that you can avoid the mistakes of other startups. Thanks to your business plan, you have clear goals. But you also have to have the fortitude to stick to the plan even when things are taking a long time to develop. You can’t be tossed about by the winds of fate. Your business maturity has to be your anchor in the storm. Don’t start a business without it. Here are a few more things you will need on opening day:

Insurance

Part of your business maturity is the realization that bad things happen at the least opportune times. That is because there are no opportune times for bad things to happen. You just have to be ready for whatever life throws at you. One of the best ways to be ready is to have excellent disability insurance. If you don’t have that insurance on day one, you are putting your new business in jeopardy.

Mishaps don’t wait until you have proper coverage. Opening day is a prime time for mishaps because you don’t quite have everything nailed down. It is more of a shake-down cruise to find where the weak spots are. Once found, you can begin the process of shoring them up. What happens if you find yourself disabled and unable to work at full capacity? What will that do for your income? What if you have to hire someone on an emergency basis to fill in for you? There is no reason for you to panic over every hypothetical situation. But you should be prepared for a few of them. The best, easiest, and most affordable way to be prepared is to have disability insurance before you allow a single customer to walk through the doors.

Backup Funding

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to spend every penny of your initial round of funding when you first open. This is a little like not having insurance. If you do not have backup funding for cash flow, you are one unexpected event from being out of business before you can properly start.

If something catastrophic happens to your office, you are going to have to get the necessary repairs done as quickly as possible. It does not matter that you have insurance that will cover it. You are going to have to wait a while before getting a settlement of your claim. In the meantime, you need money to deal with the problem. Your business will not be instantly profitable. You need cash flow upfront. If it takes longer to reach profitability than you planned, you are going to need a second round of financing. You need to have that source of backup funding on speed dial before you spend a penny of the initial funding round.

The Right Technology

After you open your business is the wrong time to discover that you needed a gigabit connection instead of the cheapest consumer line you could get. You are going to need to start making transactions on day one. You can dig a pretty deep hole if you have to stop doing business and retool your tech. Some changes can’t be made overnight. It takes a while. So get your networking figured out before you bring your startup online.

Not every startup is destined for success. But yours can be if you do the following in advance: Get properly insured, procure backup funding, and settle your technology needs before you open for business.

Digital Branding

How Managed Cloud Solutions Fuel Business Growth

Steven on August 17, 2021

Even without the current pandemic, the business world would be competitive enough, but the recent global problem has put additional strain on every company around the world. New ways of working and growing had to be discovered and businesses needed to adapt to the new situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Naturally, solutions that are both easy to implement and cost-effective were in the spotlight and all eyes turned to technology to provide ways in which companies could continue to work and hopefully prosper. Some examples of such solutions that have witnessed a great increase in use are definitely cloud computing, managed cloud services and open-source platforms. Actually, these are now technology megatrends that drive business growth. We’re going to focus on managed cloud solutions and open source in this text and try to help you understand how you can use them to allow your business to thrive.

Source of growth

All successful businesses utilize managed cloud services and open-source solutions, mainly because the concept allows them to create more agile and flexible environments, achieve more streamlined workflows without spending a lot and, consequently, yield more profit. Namely, open-source technologies feature high transparency levels and are open to inspection, thus enabling you to use and process your own data without being restricted to the capabilities of just one vendor or product. All businesses that want to improve their TTM (time to market), increase revenue and stay future-proof simply have to use such solutions.

Benefits

To begin with, there is transparency. The end-user gets full visibility into the code base and insight into all discussions about how the open-source community creates features and solves bugs. Next, there are global communities that unite around improving open-source solutions and achieve much better results than internal teams. In terms of reliability, we can conclude that the levels of overall reliability are higher, since there is more brainpower tackling open-source code development. Finally, when it comes to money, you need to know that open-source solutions don’t require licensing fees, which means the total cost of deploying a solution will be much lower.

Managed cloud open source

Using an open-source solution does come with some challenges, which is why using managed open-source resolves is the most efficient way to deal with those issues. What most managed open-source providers do is handle the implementations, maintenance and security processes, which means in-house developers can focus on more revenue-driving activities. This in turn allows companies to move forward and grow faster. Recent studies show that the key driver for the increases in both open-source adoption and cloud enablement is the same concept – boosted business agility and increased ability to innovate faster. Logically, the most successful companies are those that manage to combine managed cloud services with efficient use of open-source.

The model of future growth

We can see that an increasing number of businesses are moving the majority of their computer architecture into the cloud, as they have become more comfortable with hosting their infrastructure and processes in the public cloud. Cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWB) are dominating the market, which means experts in providing efficient AWS professional services are those who can really help your business grow at a faster rate than ever and you can join many renowned companies already using their services and relying on their expertise.

How does it work?

Typically, open-source companies offer hosting and managing their entire stacks in the cloud, while charging subscription fees to end-users, so they can use their services and access various functionality tiers. The open-source company normally offers the most basic service tiers that include the free open core only, while upsell options are offered for paid tiers with progressively higher functionality levels and additional features. Users can spin up and manage their own environment and mitigate the need for experienced employees who can run and maintain a complex structure.

On the other hand, there are certain challenges when it comes to using a cloud services model, one of which is that an open-source company can choose to contribute its code to a foundation that supports open-source projects, which can help the company in question reach wider distribution. However, this can also cause them to lose a certain amount of control over the way users go from open-source usage to commercial feature consumption.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that cloud-based technological advancements will continue to dominate in the years to come and we can expect that that level of usability will also continue to grow. Otherwise, the adoption would be slow and much more likely to wane instead of increase. This can happen if the platforms used are hard to utilize, manage and monitor. Consequently, we can say that those platforms that are most popular and widely used will continue to develop, since that is the logical result of having an increased number of users (and developers). It seems that managed cloud solutions are the way to go, since they can offer solutions to current challenges and allow businesses to enjoy all the whole range of features offered by an open-source product.

Digital Branding

Smart ways for start-ups to get rid of mistakes

Steven on August 10, 2021

One needs to identify what hinders him and his organization from succeeding and think of smart ways that can avoid such mistakes. In this post, we will study a few of the smart ways that can help startups from making mistakes.

The mistakes in business are inevitable but a few of the mistakes can lead to a downfall for the company. Sometimes it only takes one wrong move to destroy the hard work of years. Due to pandemics, many companies have filed for bankruptcy and hence it has become crucial to stay prepared. One cannot afford mistakes in the business. This time we will look into the smart ways that can avoid the mistakes.

The smart ways here stands for measurable, specific, relevant, and achievable and time-based ways that can be accepted by any organization. It is the outline to achieve the business goals and ways to reach them. Learning from the mistakes is one of the best terms and generating smart ways to avoid such mistakes is the best idea.

Stick to the plan

A lot of business people or startups tend to skip the major work of creating a plan for the business as they feel that they can go with the flow. The business plan indeed needs to have the flexibility to be changed with the growth and direction of the business unit but still, it is important to have a major plan ready from the beginning. The business plan includes the business goals and ways to achieve them. It works as the blueprint of the business for the employees and partners.

Even though the plan is flexible and keeps on changing with the circumstances and activities of a business, it is suggested to stick to the major aim and working plan to get successful. If the original plan keeps on changing again and again it becomes difficult for the employees and partners to understand it well. Lack of understanding plan can result in irrelevant work.

Setting better goals

While running a small startup or a basic structure, one needs to articulate the goals. One of the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs is not setting clear, specific and feasible goals. One can never settle with an idea of “making a profit” as a goal for the business unit. One needs to focus on the required activities and decide the goals accordingly to get successful. Failing to set goals and going without them can result in the downfall of the whole unit.

Asking for support

It becomes easy to reach the top and achieve the desired goals when you have people to support you. Many startup owners tend to believe that they are enough to succeed in the business, but it is not so. Every owner requires employees and a team effort to achieve success. Running a business unit is a complicated process and can result in getting overwhelmed. Hence, one must never hesitate to ask for support, assistance and mentorship. It is suggested to surround yourself with experts to learn business strategies.

Use of the latest technology

With the development in technology, the way of working in businesses have drastically changed. To adapt to the changes, you need to reach customers online. Traditional businesses fail as they cannot adapt to the digital era.

One needs to stay updated with the time and technology and take the advantage of the new tools out in the market. One must opt for creating a new website, modernizing the daily operations, building an online presence and much more as the benefits of technology.

Staying updated with market

Regardless of the products, it is more important for the businesses to have people knowing them and their products. To stay competitive in the industry, one need to edge over the other existing brands. The digital marketing help to broadcast the business assets to lure customers. Contrary to the belief, marketing is not at all expensive. One can simply use social media and its likes to promote the business. It is about being creative and putting efforts to make people talk about your business and its products only by using social media accounts.

Conclusion

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the success or failure of the business unit. The failure is majorly a result of combined wrong decisions and lack of planning. Whereas success can be a result of appropriate planning and measures to achieve the decided plan.

To prevent the business from getting failed, one must control how to react to the internal and external problems faced in future. Many startups fail as they are now aware of how to respond to such a crisis. We shared a few of the smart ways especially for the startups to get rid of the mistakes that lead them towards failure.

Author’s Bio

Jui Bhatia is a Software Analyst at Techimply, India. With the experience in technology-driven field, she has mastered her knowledge on How(s) and What(s) to be done for a business. Also, she’s keen to share her knowledge on a few technology-related topics with readers that can assist any kind of business.

Digital Branding

A Brief In-sight into Cyber Security Trends

Steven on August 10, 2021

Cyber-crime stories are making at the top of news headlines across various industries. Whether it is a start-up or an enterprise, all businesses at vulnerable to cyber-attacks at any point. These breaches are increasing at a fast-pace. From 2005-2021, there have been many data breaches that have affected millions of users. Cyber-attacks are the fastest growing crimes and they end up increasing costs for businesses. The only threat is that cyber-criminals are smarter and more sophisticated than before. A cyber-security testing company can help in overcoming vulnerabilities along with providing protection.

Businesses dedicate their investments for cyber-security

Cyber-criminals carry out attacks much more fiercely than ever before. According to different researchers, these numbers ought to increase with time. Even though companies are investing huge amounts in cyber-security compliance, there is no perfect strategy for businesses. Even huge businesses that have made huge investments in cyber-security are still vulnerable to cyber breaches. Similarly, the failure of businesses in dealing with cyber-security faces huge losses due to major breaches in their systems.

Companies keep cyber-security issues on top of their agenda

When businesses hire a cyber-security testing company, they expect protection from any cyber-attacks. Imagine if the top businesses are investing so much to improve their security, how it would be impacting the small businesses and startups. According to Wipro, an IT firm, 65% of organizations globally now track and report security regulatory compliance to ensure the data protection practices meet all the cyber-security guidelines. Additionally, 49% of C-level executives who participated in Deloitte’s Future of cyber survey 2019 bring up their cybersecurity issues on their agenda once a quarter. Whereas, 70% of CIOs report that these issues are discussed in their agenda on a quarterly basis.

Companies should avoid breaches to remain protected

All security researchers are vigilant to avoid such breaches. Companies that ensure they are prepared for an attack always stay ahead of time. It becomes important for companies to employ external experts to test both external and internal firewalls and assist internal compliance too. Businesses should also provide a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk indicators that enable them to quickly asses the security within their organization. The board plays a vital role in recording and defining a company’s cyber defenses. Companies are also coming up with what the level of involvement is for the board with respect to cybersecurity.

The technological changes with present opportunities and pose threats for organizations. Since 5G mobile technology is growing, it will transform internet communication and also allow billions of devices to come online. 5G is more likely to be a hit for consumers and businesses. With cybersecurity being the main concern, organizations will have to restructure their strategies according to the present situation. Moreover, software testing companies can contribute to improving security checks and protect sensitive information. It can also help in reducing the number of cyber-attacks in the future.

Infographic created by Donnelley Financial Solutions, an ESG data management company

Digital Branding

How To Avoid Cliches When Branding Your Business

Steven on August 9, 2021

It’s effortless and stress-free to do what the masses and others in your industry have done regarding branding.

Going down the ‘blend in with the crowd’ route means your potential customers will clearly understand the purpose of business, as they’ve seen similar elsewhere.

But not only is that route unoriginal and unmemorable, but you’ve also become part of the generic content that gets thrown onto the internet daily.

When branding your business, it’s vital to remember that being different and unique is more important than being better. That’s why so many new startups will outsource their branding needs to a web development agency to ensure that their brand is unique to their business and caters to their ideal customer base without falling into the all-too-common cliches of branding.

Here are some branding cliches we say to avoid when branding your business.

Jargon

There’s nothing more off-putting for a potential customer than being bombarded with a dictionary’s worth of jargon and industry terminology that they’ve never heard of and have no care for.

Those who aren’t as familiar with the jargon will feel irritated and even isolated, meaning they’ll be less likely to make a purchase or return to your business. The use of too much jargon can be detrimental to your business when used in a way that adds no qualifying value to the services or products you provide. There is, of course, a need for industry terminology when it is distinguishable as either a USP, benefit or specific issue or problem that your brand can solve. For example, if you specialise in medical products, then you need to use the correct terminology.

Jargon becomes jargon when it inflates a brand, product or service into something unnecessarily uncomplicated.

The truth is that many people who don’t understand the subject they’re speaking about often use complicated jargon to hide behind. Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

So a true expert can describe/explain a topic or idea without jargon, which comforts your customers and is something you can capitalise on.

Give a coworker a quick review when you’ve finished a bit of content, whether an email newsletter or a blog post. Or better yet, send out a test run to people who aren’t part of your industry to see how they feel about the information. Another set of eyes is great for spotting things you may have missed or overlooked.

Those who don’t have access to the second pair of eyes take a break from writing and come back to it with a fresh mindset, then give it a read over to see if you’ve fallen into the jargon trap.

Consider your content from your audience’s perspective – does it read in a way that’s clear, consistent with regards to your tone of voice? Does it explain how you can solve their pain points without assuming they have prior knowledge of your service or product?

Offering the solution vs the actual solution

Who isn’t intrigued by a business that offers you the solution to your problems? However, promising to be the solution can be one of the worst marketing cliches ever – primarily if you can’t deliver.

The issue comes when using the term ‘solution’. It’s an intelligent way to attract customers but comes with the risk of falling short of this claim. This leads to negative feedback and a lack of social proof.

Instead of being vague and using the umbrella term ‘solution’ or ‘problem solver’, you should instead highlight the tangible, solid benefits and advantages that your business and brand have to offer.

Discuss the specific problems your target customers are dealing with, then clearly state how your business and product/service can help rectify them. Be explicit, straightforward and transparent, and your customers will appreciate your brand so much for it. That appreciation is shown through their loyalty to your brand.

You should back up any claims and promises you make on behalf of your company with evidence, data and customer reviews. If anything, it saves your putting your business at risk with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) with any false advertising and claims.

One-Stop-Shop

One of the most criminal cliche to avoid when branding your business is ‘one-stop shop’. Even though your business might genuinely be a shop that does everything, the phrase has become overused and overlooked.

The term means that customers ignore the content and creatives. Realistically, only a few companies can honestly claim that they provide everything, one of them being Amazon, which literally does everything.

This cliche is slightly redundant as it doesn’t offer much value to your customer’s experience. In recent times people have moved away from general shops that claim to do everything. Customers prefer niche-specific products/services to meet their needs.

There’s a demand for quality (that niche-specific company should provide) over quantity (that one-stop shop’s offer).

A famous quote states, “If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing.” Your business and brand will benefit from having a niche to perfect and focus on.

Ways to avoid the ‘one-stop shop’ temptation is to use phrasing and slogans that show off and emphasise the uniqueness of your products/services.

Conclusion

Cliches can be very useful and sometimes funny, but using too many, can result in uninspiring, boring and unoriginal advertising.

Fortunately, by concentrating on your marketing objectives and business ethos, you can brand your business in a unique and captivating way that will entice and directly target your customer base.

Digital Branding

Common Connection Issues and Their Solutions

Steven on July 31, 2021

Internet connection is an essential commodity and people who use the internet for work or use it for something they love do not mind spending extra bucks on it. However, some ISPs charge hefty amounts and increase the prices too but the services usually face common connectivity-related issues, which makes the customers question their choice.

The price we pay for an internet connection is directly proportional to the kind of experience we would want to have, and some of us take a lot of time to carefully research internet availability by address in order to find the very best provider for our home possible. The uninterrupted and lag-free internet service makes the time spent online for work or killing time worth every penny.

Nevertheless, what if everybody else and other users of the same ISP has an uninterrupted experience, and you are the one facing issues? Let’s find out what could be done to improve your online experience better in the further read:

1. Check Your Connection

If you find any issue when using the internet, the first thing you need is to check is the connection. Sometimes we see that one of our devices is not working with the internet connection. In this situation, you need to check if the internet is working on other connected devices. If yes, then check your internet connection; test the speed online and change the location of the device or router to see what is causing the issue. If everything is connected properly, go for the diagnostic check on your PC to start troubleshooting. This solution is for Wi-Fi users.

If you were looking for ISP suggestions, we would recommend you check CenturyLink reviews if that is serviceable in your area. CenturyLink offers the fastest speed of internet because it has fiber or DSL services. If you use an Ethernet internet, make sure that your connection is properly getting the internet signals. Try removing and reconnecting the wire into your pc or other connected devices.

2. Check Your Power Supply

Whenever we face a connection problem, the power supply is the issue most of the time. Unfortunately, most of us do not even realize it at the beginning. We try everything, and in the end, we quit and call customer support for rescue. After doing some serious damage, we pay attention to check if the power supply is off from the internet router’s end. Thus, make sure to check your power supply before checking other devices and the connectivity of the internet.

3. Check Your Router

As mentioned in the previous point, make sure that your router is connected to the power supply. Unplug and plug the main wire if the router is not working with the power on as well. Every router has some indicator or lights on it that determines its connectivity. If you see those lights working, your router is connected properly. Every router has different LED lights. These lights vary from red, green, or orange. In case if you see a red light blinking, it means there is a problem with your Wi-Fi router.

4. Restart Your System

If you still face the issue, try restarting your system. Start with the router. Unplug and plug its main wire. Now, restart your computer system or the device that is causing the issue and check if the connection is now working.

5. Miscellaneous Common Issues

Most of us use an old router for using the internet. Old Wi-Fi routers are slow and will not give you the optimal internet-using experience. It is the age where everyone regardless of his or her age uses the internet. Thus, many users are usually sharing the same internet bandwidth simultaneously. Whether in the same house or neighborhood, the bandwidth of cable internet is shared fundamentally. Using the latest routers will enable it to catch more bandwidth, resulting in high internet speed and optimum performance.

Conclusive Notes

We have shared some commonly overlooked reasons why internet connections have issues with some tested solutions. However, if you are constantly facing lag issues, the issue might be with your system. Yes, most of us think that the issue is with our Internet Service Provider. In this scenario, you have to check your home’s system before contacting your ISP. Start the troubleshooting process on your system. If you still face the same issue, the problem could be from your ISP’s end.

Digital Branding

5 Ways to Strengthen Employee Engagement in the New Remote Work Environment

Steven on July 27, 2021

It seems that the pandemic has forced many companies to rethink how they handle their workforce, so it might be time to throw out the old rulebook of engagement – if it has actually ever worked. We already know that engagement rates among employees are staggeringly low across multiple industries. Add this health crisis into the mix, and people are hardly going to feel at ease and focused on their work with all the bad news popping up at every turn.

Since companies have had to switch to remote work and send their teams home, the challenge to retain, let alone increase engagement has doubled. To help you cope with these new setbacks, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most effective ways to boost engagement in your new remote teams. Use the listed ideas to empower your organization, to make the most of your work hours, and of course, to remind people why they love working under your wing to begin with.

Weekly virtual team building

We won’t be able to enjoy events in actual, physical spaces for a good, long while. Knowing that, you cannot allow your teams to grow apart simply because they don’t have that daily watercooler chat or an opportunity to share a lunch in the common room.

That is why you need to organize weekly meetings that will serve as your organization’s team-building opportunity. Choose themes and topics that your employees enjoy, such as happy hour at home, playing online games, or organizing a trivia night, or even watch a movie together on Netflix. Find activities you all enjoy, and you can expect your employees to feel more motivated and thus much more engaged.

Of course, they’ll need ADSL or even high-end fiber internet to ensure high-quality connection; and with possibly multiple household members working remotely, access to the right device may not be guaranteed at all times. So make sure to take into account access to a stable internet connection when scheduling these events.

Regular feedback exchanges

Every part of your business depends on the performance of all others. Your customer support teams can only do their jobs if the marketing team gives them the right data and the salespeople bring in quality leads. Then again, your own ability to lead an organization is far from perfect, and recognizing that you have room for improvement makes you a better leader.

Spotting opportunities and using them even remotely will bring your teams closer. Much like you organize those weekly meetings to assign work and ask if anyone needs help, you should set up regular feedback sessions that go both ways. Even team-wide brainstorming sessions on how to improve remote collaboration and your business can make your remote employees feel more valued and heard, so keep that as an option, too.

Smarter time management

Managing your time and schedule for multiple teams is a breeze when everyone is on site and available. Once you start working remotely, setting up schedules when you have shifts in your organization can become an issue, especially for your customer support teams and your sales department working with different time zones.

The simplest way to create your employee roster while working remotely is to use software that provides visibility for everyone in your organization. In turn, that means everyone can see when people are expected to log on, when they have meetings and shouldn’t be disturbed, and when someone is available to provide help and guidance. Enabling transparency for your remote teams will improve their communication for everyday tasks, but also for long-term planning.

Use PM tools to your advantage

Technology has been instrumental in helping remote teams connect and engage. Among many solutions at your disposal, it seems that classic project management tools are the most promising in terms of ensuring greater organizational effectiveness and overall engagement from teams.

Real-time collaboration makes creative exchanges much easier for all your teams.
Having clear milestones, KPIs, and goals outlined helps provide structure to their remote work.
Live chat provides a safe space for non-business interactions as well as project-related communication, both of which can help strengthen the bonds in your teams.
Time-tracking and reporting helps give your teams a perspective and potential solutions when they come across issues.
They can use PM tools on the go with their phones and tablets, making it easier to adjust their workload to their family schedule.

Invest in your team’s wellbeing

It’s not as if engagement is your issue only up to the moment the clock strikes five and your employees sign out of their project management accounts and go back to their families. If they have trouble sleeping due to all the stress, if they haven’t still adapted to remote work because they have toddlers, or if they forget to hydrate – engagement will suffer.

Take your time to encourage your teams to invest in their wellbeing and happiness outside the office. Check in every once in a while, see what they are up to and if they have a hobby or a workout system they enjoy. Their overall quality of life greatly impacts their ability to be focused and engaged at work, and it’s up to you to encourage work-life balance and help them set boundaries when they work remotely.

All qualities of your organization and your culture work together to deliver the results you need and achieve the goals you desire. In a sense, productivity cannot improve without engagement, much like engagement cannot improve without a culture based on the right values, and accountability cannot exist without some kind of supervision and feedback. As intricate as it is to be a leader in this day and age and with a remote workforce, you can create an engagement strategy to elevate your business effectiveness and to make your teams happy.

Infographic created by Insperity, an employee benefits outsourcing company

Digital Branding

Multi-vendor store: What it is and the reason to build it right away?

Steven on July 13, 2021

No single-vendor or eCommerce store can’t compete with a Multi-vendor store as it provides extensive benefits to both the sellers and owners. These multi-vendor marketplaces have been the thing that changes the whole way the eCommerce sector operates.

Multi-vendor stores gained popularity in a short span of time, with much visibility and sales growth. This becomes advantageous if business seekers or existing business owners develop a multi-vendor marketplace platform like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Etsy, etc., or can create a multi-vendor marketplace website to sell niche products or services under broad store categories such as electronics, groceries, furniture, home needs, etc.

As more and more online merchants or vendors want to scale their businesses, they look for marketplace platforms to sell their products and services. So one thing is proven here, the business opportunities and possibilities with multi-vendor marketplace software are nearly endless.

Hence, building an online multi-vendor store would definitely be a wise choice if you’re looking to scale and expand your eCommerce business.

Why create a multi-vendor store?

As we mentioned previously, the opportunities with the multi-vendor stores are endless, similar reasons to develop a multi-vendor marketplace store. These stores ease the way of onboarding vendors into the platform with a few step procedures. You might think having multiple vendors might stress you in vendor management, but the thing is entirely different here. Such multi-sellers in your multi-vendor platform actually improve the website traffic and importantly reduce vendor and store management time.

Being an admin of the multi-vendor store, you don’t need to keep a huge inventory that stresses you out and collapses your steady business process. Most importantly, it opens a new source of income by charging vendors a fee for every successful transaction made on a multi-vendor store platform without any overhead hassle.

Components of multi-vendor store platform

Like huge machinery, the multi-vendor store has a wide range of components and ways to handle it. If you compare a real machine with the multi-vendor platform, each component represents a part of the machine. In order to work well, each part has to work at the right pace, even if one part misses out in the place where it has to be, there isn’t a proper outcome.

For instance, if inventory is your top priority, and you’re giving much attention towards it but not on every other component like shipping, then your store won’t have the sales that expect to drive out from it.

Hence, it is important to know and manage all the components of a multi-vendor store to keep balance in managing the whole store.

Take a moment to overview the various components of the multi-vendor platform,

Managing Inventory
Charging Seller Fees
Managing Orders
Shipping Orders
Paying Vendors
Sales Reports
Branding the Marketplace

Top compelling reasons to go with Multi-vendor store

Pull and convert your first-time buyers into regular buyers

Every website, importantly the eCommerce, looks good if it is designed well, and that is what every customer seeks from a multi-vendor store. Such design aspects of the store will be more useful to attract the audience into the store and there would be a possibility to turn them into regular buyers. Because the storefront of the multi-vendor store is the brand face of the business that seeks engaging customers.

Multiple brands under a single roof

A multi-vendor store is primarily known as the house of multiple brands under a single storefront. Ultimately, it is very easy to manage those brand products efficiently with each sub-store. The multi-vendor store comes with the best setup functions that enable companies to operate with multiple brands, create an individual store for each brand and sell, earn revenue while carrying out every activity such as listing, selling, managing under one roof. Such companies with multiple brands can make a good profit by leveraging the multi-vendor store approach.

Huge gain with absolute customizations

Setting up a multi-vendor eCommerce means getting ahead with ultimate customization. So the prime motive to have a multi-store is to create a separate store for each user for better convenience and business management. Such an advantage comes to hand if the whole setup is fully customizable, which ensures maximum ROI. Multi-vendor marketplace solutions are flexible enough to suit and fit into your business needs and functionalities. Hence, such flexibility in the platform enables you to customize the store’s products, prices, information, themes, shipping, checkouts, and more.

Boost in sales with mobile commerce

Several studies conclude that above 81% of the eCommerce sales are coming from mobile devices. Mobile devices have become an integral part of online shopping, with over 85% of online orders overtaking the desktops, tablets, and other devices cumulatively. Some even consider targeting mobile phone users to boost eCommerce sales as part of their eCommerce marketing strategies. Along with the eCommerce mobile app, advanced features like push notifications, in-app purchase ads, personalized recommendations pushes mobile commerce to stand out from other forms of online purchase.

Much of the marketing and promotional options

Apart from generic marketing and promotional tools, the multi-vendor store comes with eCommerce marketing features for effective target marketing based on the likes, dislikes, browsing history, and other purchase activities. If you own multiple stores, so you need different marketing strategies for each store, it is where the multi-vendor store solution comes into play to match your eCommerce business strategies and options such as SMS, mobile push notification, email, chatbots to bring out maximum ROI.

Wrapping up

Managing a multi-vendor store is a lot easier than setting up, managing, and selling with a single vendor. This is why a multi-vendor marketplace is the best option to choose if you want to enter the eCommerce business to explore amazing business opportunities.

Tags: Multi-vendor, multi-vendor marketplace, ecommerce marketplace, multi-vendor platform