Category: Strategy

How to overcome the challenges of Managing Time: One Question, Many Approaches

December 27, 2017

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” —Albert Einstein While the struggle against time has existed since the beginning of time, tackling it requires a new approach today. We are all so well-connected now that we often disregard the notion and value of productive hours, which varies from person to person. This timeless conundrum has intrigued economists and sociologists alike. So we as an organization, which harps on productivity, tried to understand how people around the world manage their time. In a small social media poll conducted by us, an open call for suggestions from experts yielded a number of valuable insights and solutions. CEO Abhishek Rungta’s question—What’s your best time management and/or productivity tip?—was met with voluble replies across social media forums like Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #mytip. Here’s a compilation of what the savants have had to say about the matter. The importance of spacing your work out Serial entrepreneur Mr. Prashant Pansare’s take on the issue involves compartmentalizing chores and prioritizing while planning in order to achieve the immediate goals you’ve set for yourself. He suggests : Slice the workload into smaller tasks based on different focus/methods Keep two uninterrupted hours for the most important work that you can do by yourself Keep an hour aside for unplanned activities that can’t be rescheduled, like important phone calls In case of business meetings, define the outcome expected along with agenda. It is best to avoid email clutter, for eg. asking to be CC’ed Pansare (@PrashantPansare) addresses the unfortunate customer/client trend in India, where the outcome is generally demanded immediately; he adds that expediency must sometimes be sacrificed for priority and time management. Besides maintaining a weekly planner, he also advocates making a note of the amount of work done, work left, time spent, and time wasted over the last week to get a clear idea on the aspect of time management that needs to be worked upon. UNmultitask: Delegating is the key to perfection Nirupam Chaudhuri of NASSCOM and Srish Agrawal of A1 Future share the same opinion about multitasking and urge everyone to pick and focus on one thing at a time. Agrawal (@srishagrawal) says, “Multitasking sounds great but not a great idea for most serious jobs. Delegate, and delegate more as you grow.” He also advises against ad-hoc meetings, encouraging young professionals to have a fixed time and agenda for every meeting. Regional Director at NASSCOM, Chaudhuri rightly adjudges, “Smart working is the need of the time. Rather than finishing all jobs at hand perfectly and thus perhaps not doing justice to all which require parallel processing, it’s perhaps more important to optimise and stick to timelines for jobs at hand.” Give yourself credit for small targets Andy Vale sends pearls of wisdom and motivation all the way from Spain, asking beginners to face each day and each task at a time: “Just pick one thing every day that you will definitely get done. Doesn’t have to be massive, but it makes sure you’ve done something.” (@AndyVale)  Keep your work hours free of social media Kuntal Chandra, Senior Software Engineer at Stockopedia (@kuntalchandra) gives voice to the problems of distraction and lack of sustained focus that internet and technology have brought in its wake. Offering a valuable hack from his personal experience, he has found that turning the mobile internet off while coding has helped him prevent distractions and thus “become more productive”. Students who often face this problem especially before examinations have also fallen back on methods like keeping a particular time of day aside exclusively for social media networking and other internet-driven distractions like games and films. For professionals who need complete silence and isolation to get their creative juices flowing, don’t think twice before turning the WiFi off. It will cut the flow of excess information which at times can be a major deterrent. Conquering time as an economical construct comes with great patience and perseverance, as is evident from these pro-tips brought to you, straight from the horses’ mouths. It takes active willingness and effort on your part to make the ticking hands work in your favour. Each person has their own way of dealing with inertia at work and means to fuel one’s productivity. “We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more.” —Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO Today, the productivity industry is faced with overcoming new challenges and assisting students, young professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs in this brave, new world. Large organizations have pulled up their socks, geared to help achieve new heights and set new standards in terms of time manageability. App and office suite developers are harnessing this demand for structured and strategic means to use productive hours based on individual needs. In order to track, analyze and manage time more effectively, iPhone has recently launched a productivity tool called Time which claims to help you “stay focused and crush procrastination”. Most timers like this use the Pomodoro technique (which enables users to break their work hours into intervals of 25 minutes separated by short breaks). Apps like Slack, WeTransfer, and Germ make working from different parts of the world a piece of cake. Task management tools like Journmail are easily accessible for teaching yourself consistency by writing every day. There are also apps like Slite to help you take down notes on the go faster; Feather is a daily management goal tracker that helps maintain a to-do list. There are customised music apps with ambient playlists like Noisli and ASoftMurmur which cause a visible jump in the concentration level. An endless number of apps are available to designers and illustrators with pitch decks, icon templates, UI kits and layouts in place, thus saving a lot of time. Popular among these are Crello, Sans Francisco, SpeedFont, Emblem, Animista. There are plenty of similar applications and patches that could prove effective for young professionals. Can

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How to Turn Negative Online Reviews into Positive Customer Experiences

December 20, 2017

Businesses grapple with negative reviews every so often, that they are often left wondering how to effectively manage them. Those working in the digital marketing field will agree that negative reviews can actually help grow businesses, provide valuable insights into customer behavior, create new opportunities to build relationships, and improve brand reputation. Before you begin to clench your teeth at the very mention of “negative review”, try to put your worries to rest and learn how to turn negative online reviews into positive customer experiences. 1. Acknowledge the reviewer If there is anything that is more hurtful than feeling you’ve been wronged, it is not being acknowledged when you voice your concerns. When a customer leaves a negative review, it’s disrespectful and borderline-callous to simply ignore it. The first step one needs to take is to acknowledge the reviewer and their review. Merely knowing that you’ve been acknowledged feels like a balm to an aching muscle, and that can have deep implications to the positive customer experience you create. 2. Admit to the lapse, if any Once you acknowledge the reviewer respectfully, admit to the lapse, if there is any. Consider the customer’s perspective, and try to walk in the reviewer’s shoes. What may seem like a minor lapse to you may be a huge deal for them and not acknowledging to the lapse that has occurred could be a bigger mistake than the one that has already occurred. If you feel you have been unfairly targeted, deliberate on why the customer might have chosen to make an effort to go ahead and type a review, negative or not. Most likely, there probably was a lapse that missed your attention. 3. Offer your side of the story If there is a genuine reason for the lapse, explain your situation and narrate what actually went wrong. Owning up to one’s mistakes elevates one’s position in the eyes of the customer, rather than the contrary. However, make sure that your explanation does not come across as an excuse, as that diminishes your image. When you own up to the shortcoming, your customer will feel like they have been heard, and that has been given the importance they deserve to be. 4. Ask how you can make up for the oversight Ask the customer what you can do to make up for the lapse that took place, and provides the reviewer with a few options to make them feel better. Being given options to undo the damage that’s been done is a great way to create a positive customer experience. If you start doing this often, you will begin to see a pattern in the kind of fixes that customers want, and you can straight away offer these fixes to make your customers happy when they write negative reviews. For example, if you are an eCommerce business and have noticed that people repeatedly ask for shipping fee waivers when deliveries have been delayed, you can simply offer that as the default fix for shipping delays. 5. Explain the root cause, if any This is not always possible but if you think there is a root cause to the problem that occurred, thank the customer for providing an opportunity to recognize its existence. Explain the circumstances under which the root cause of the problem has festered, and what action you plan to take to address it. Doing this makes your customer feel more confident about your business in general, and future customers who read your response to the negative review will appreciate your genuine approach towards doing business. 6. State the action you plan to take Whether there was a root cause to the issue the customer stated, or it is a one-time lapse, make sure that you describe what action you will be taking to rectify the problem. Being as explicit as possible about your action plan imbibes a sense of honesty and dedication, and helps you gain respect from customers. Being vague or uttering cliches such as “we will do everything to fix the issue” can further infuriate an already irate customer. 7. Ask the reviewer how you can fix the issue If you are unable to decide how you are going to fix an issue, ask the customer themselves what you can do to fix the issue. Most of the times, customers may simply acknowledge that they have been heard, and that’s more than enough for them, as mistakes are committed by everyone. Sometimes, customers may ask for minor favors, and very rarely, they may try to take advantage of you. However, that will not look bad on you. 8. Display proactiveness and empathy Displaying empathy, or a genuine concern for the situation the customer finds themselves in, is more valuable than anything you will ever do to build positive customer experiences. Alongside empathy, you will also need to be proactive about fixing issues, making amends, and improve customer experiences. Most research studies point towards empathy and proactive behaviors enhancing customer experiences. Your priority should be to build positive customer experiences, regardless of reviews In short, regardless of the kind of online review you receive, your focus should be on building positive customer experiences. Begin to acknowledge the reviewer and their experiences, and work towards admitting to the lapses that might have occurred. Offer a genuine explanation, without it seeming like an excuse, and find out how you can fix the issue. Describe your situation, and explain how you will fix the problem, and ask the reviewer if there is anything else you can do to make up for their bad experiences. Underneath it all, ensure that you display empathy and proactiveness at all times.

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Omni-Channel Customer Engagement : Inspiring Loyalty by Driving Great Customer Experiences

November 8, 2017

If you own a business or head the marketing department of any organization, you will know the hard work and resources that go into building digital assets such as content, documents, PDFs, audio and video files, and images. Not only is it expensive to create rich media, it is also difficult to distribute them to the right customer at the right time. Considering how marketing strategy is changing altogether, one needs to remember that rich media content is getting richer, thanks to all the digital marketing and various forms of communication that we use to influence our customers. In addition, our customers and target audience themselves add to this sea of content, in terms of social conversations, reviews, queries, questions regarding products and services, etc. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that even calls made to the customer care can be included in our list of digital assets, as much of that is used for training, or to improve marketing communication. At the end of the day, all this rich content is used to enhance customer experience and is delivered and received through multiple channels. Why multi-channel customer experience is a problem Multi-channel customer experience may seem effective, but is inherently chaotic, and misses the context. Let us take a look at this example: While a customer might browse for information on your website on his mobile device, he may choose to visit your brick and mortar store to take an actual look at it before making the purchase. When he arrives at the store, he may realize that a third-party vendor such as Amazon is providing a better discount than your brick and mortar store, and may eventually order it off that platform. In between, your blog may not have updated information about the product he wants, but Amazon’s customer reviews may. If the product has a problem, or if he has any questions regarding his purchase or warranty, he will probably have to call up Amazon, and your customer care, and co-ordinate between the two entities, leading to a lot of confusion and chaos. In the end, he may leave an average or below average review just because he was annoyed with multiple channels being made available to him. Worse, he may rant on Twitter about the perceived lack of help he received. What gives? In the end, though you may be offering various forms of information and media on multiple channels for your customer’s benefit, he may end it on a sour note. While multi-channel customer experience is the reality today, it needs to be delivered via an omni-channel model. How is this even possible? Well, modern technology allows multiple channels to converge, and appear as if it were all tied together, resulting in a truly omni-channel customer experience. Understanding the omni-channel customer experience model Omni-channel customer experience brings voice, email, chat, media, and other forms of content together, and distributes this across channels by placing them in a context. By synchronizing these disparate channels, omni-channel experience brings a context-appropriate and customized experience to each customer across the buying cycle or customer journey. On an omni-channel model, when the man described above browses your website for a product, the CMS picks up his visit, shares this with the CRM, and communicates to the backend. Probably, when he arrives at the brick and mortar store, the sales guy already has this information on his tablet, allowing him to give a special discount. What’s more, your customer care executives get a detailed history of the customer’s buying journey, so that he doesn’t have to explain anything all over again. In this model, you avoid the confusion, save the customer’s time, make him happy by solving his problems quickly, provide a great buying experience, and avoid the pitfalls of online rants and bad reviews. Most importantly, you inspire loyalty by providing a seamless experience right from the time he made that web search to the time he called up the customer care after making the purchase. All along the journey, all the content and digital assets you have created are shared to him depending on the context, across devices and channels, ensuring that there is no information overload or out-of-context communication. In other words, an omni-channel customer experience model gives you control over how you manage your digital assets to your customers’ and your advantage. Instead of having disparate processes of document management system, CRM, ERP, offline situations, etc, omni-channel customer experience brings all this together through integration and cloud computing techniques. All customer engagement exercises are sourced from a central repository which influences the way your CRM, ERP, document management system, and other tools behave across channels. In short, today’s omni-channel customer experience is a tightly-knit and cohesive multi-channel model that actually works.  How does omni-channel customer engagement work? An omni-channel customer engagement model begins by creating appropriate awareness and uses your existing digital assets such as rich media and blogs, which are distributed across channels. Deeper-level content is then used to generate interest and desire both online and offline and once your automated systems recognize the desire to purchase, a convenient purchase process is presented to the customer. Customer’s needs are fulfilled by constantly engaging and communicating, and customized post-sales support is provided, leading to customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Here is how you can use omni-channel customer engagement to inspire customer loyalty: Adopting a customer-first policy Whether your customer prefers to walk into a store or chooses to browse on his mobile phone, you need to place his needs at the top of your priority list. Develop and reuse content, and distribute it across channels such as website, email, offline media, etc depending on who your customer is. Identify buyer personas and use analytics to place your existing digital assets within the context of your individual customer. Of course, a lot of this permutation and combination is done by software tools resulting from integration, so that omni-channel customer engagement is automated to an extent. Leveraging existing

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Why is Automation in Banking Millennials’ First Choice?

October 27, 2017

Automation is rapidly changing the way banks used to operate with almost all routine banking activities like fund transfer, balance check, viewing account statement etc digitized. Robotics is implemented to sell financial products, process loans, and build relationships with customers. Banks are going through strategic re-alignment with automation to process real-time data and gain deeper customer insights, offer better products, manage risk, save cost, and gain efficiency. There is no denying that the driving force behind automation in banks was to improve the productivity of staff, free them from repetitive tasks and offer them more productive roles. However, the need to serve their potentially biggest customer group, millennial, has driven them to take digitization to next level. For millennials, digital banking is much more than using mobile banking to make fund transfer or bill payment. Let us find out what this digital-savvy customer expects from banks. Who exactly classifies as millennial? Millennials refer to the generation born between the early 1980s and 1990s, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. This liberal and upbeat generation embraces technology from dawn to dusk and relies heavily on the use of smartphones and other mobile devices to access banking and other financial services. However, they still rely on traditional physical branch banking while making complex financial decisions. Millennials and digital banking Of all customer groups, millennials are more inclined to base their future investments through mobile banking platforms. A 2016 North America Digital Banking Survey by Accenture found out that millennials have an affinity for digital banking. However, according to a global survey by Jumio, 85.5% of millennials are dissatisfied with the mobile banking provision of traditional banks. This clearly shows there is a huge gap to fill in order to stay relevant to them. The key insight from 2016 North America Digital Banking Survey with 1242 millennials out of 4000 respondents is worth a note. 45% respondents said that discounts on purchases of interest would be the primary reason for them to stay loyal to the bank and 46% consumers are willing to use robo-advice for services like planning for retirement and investment. 87% consumers have shown an inclination to use bank branches in future and expect human interaction there. How to keep millennials happy? Personalization Millennials expect their primary financial institution to offer a personal finance tool. According to 2016 FIS Consumer Banking Pace Index, 91% millennial smartphone users point to at least one personal financial management benefit they would like their bank to offer via mobile app. However, currently, FinTech is the one who is trying to fill this space. But the problem is they lack the luxury of data as enjoyed by banks. Banks have significant amount of financial information about the user that makes them capable to design effective personal finance tools. Banks must employ Artificial Intelligence techniques like machine learning to create a personalized and seamless experience for users. The FIS Consumer Banking Pace Index also found out that 28% of millennials are receptive to robo-advisers and another 22% is willing to receive online financial coaching. According to results from four different studies, 46% millennials said their banks don’t send marketing material in line with their future financial requirements whereas 2 in 5 millennials complain that the offers they receive are not personalized. Millennials also state that they would be receptive to personalized communication provided it is done through their preferred channel like email, text message or mobile app. So, it is important for banks to segment their customers based on their financial needs and communication medium. Automation Banks need to invest in automation tools that integrate seamlessly with their website and mobile app. Automation tools can serve different purpose like determining safety net goals for a customer based on his/ her financial situation. For instance, if a customer has other goals like loan prepayment, real estate investment, car purchase or vacation, these tools can assist the user to reach those goals. By using different algorithms, automation tools can decide for the customer how much and when money can be transferred to meet such goals without disturbing user’s day-to-day spending. The balancing act Nonetheless, automation should not be misconstrued with the elimination of human factor. Human intervention will stay significant wherever required. And banks must strive to strike a balance between the two. While personal touch is important, a bank will be regarded for its digital capabilities. For instance, BB& T’s U platform allows customers to create and customize a personal financial dashboard on a device of their choice. They can view accounts and investments from BB& T and other financial institutions, make person to person payments and schedule appointment with a banker. Alternative payment options Millennials are inclined to get their banking needs fulfilled by their primary service providers due to trust and familiarity. However, they are also open to alternative payment options. According to a research by FICO, millennials are 10 times more likely to switch to peer-to-peer lenders compared to those in the 50+ age group. Moreover, over 50% millennials are already using or considering non-traditional payment providers like PayPal and Venmo. Banks can seize this opportunity to move beyond payment transaction to manage customer’s entire digital wallet. Banks have a lot of data which can be utilized for innovation in payments. Various value-added services that can be provided by banks may include digital identity management, payment advisory services, or cryptocurrency integration. Avidia Bank’s cardless cash ATM is a profound example where customers can transact at ATM with the comfort and security of their smartphones. Better customer experience Millennials look forward to a more refined customer experience. This can only happen through digital transformation where banks create new ecosystems to create smooth transaction experience, provide risk management and financial services. Millennials are accustomed to disruptive technology. The interactive user interface, visual appeal, and collaboration are some attributes loved by millennials. Many banks are tying up with FinTech companies to enhance customer experience by adding value to existing financial space be its mobile banking, faster payments, or

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20 Tools to Help You Manage Your Outsourcing Partners

December 21, 2016

Businesses reap diverse benefits through outsourcing. However, managing multiple outsourcing teams can become a challenge for many companies.  When working with outsourcing teams, businesses face challenges in communication, collaboration and information sharing. To engage outsourcing teams personally is another challenge that hinders business productivity.   Even if necessary technology and skills are in place, it is important to use the right set of tools to manage teams to keep a hold over project’s progress and track your teams’ tasks. Use the following popular tools to effectively manage your outsourcing teams and virtual workforce to get the best out of them. Basecamp Managing your business with email chains, file attachments and meetings becomes chaotic. Basecamp counters this issue by organizing your projects, teams and company-wide communication. For instance, if there is a marketing project going on, everybody who is involved with the project sees the same thing on screen. It uses a message board to post updates and feedbacks thereby making everything in order in the form of a story so that it’s easy to get back to it.  In to-do section, assign work and see what’s done and what’s not done without reminding team members about status update time and again. Schedule section shows date and time while docs & files is used to upload images, assets and files making it easy for everyone to find files easily. Campfire is an open chat room to post queries.  Similarly, you can use same set of tools for various other projects. 2. Redbooth Redbooth helps to keep a track of projects and day-to-day tasks of your teams. Connect your chat, email and storage apps in one place.  Streamline your team’s workflow by using checklists and templates. Create productivity reports and Gantt charts at a single click.It has a user-friendly design that keeps a tab on to-do lists and check things off when they are done.  Track task owners, status and deadlines. Use a multiple assignment feature when a task is shared by more than one person. Redbooth can be used by management teams, marketing & creative teams, project managers, IT and remote teams. 3. Process Street Process Street is a powerful tool to manage recurring tasks of your teams. Create process templates and run multiple instances of the template as checklists.  Track progress and collaborate with your team.  User activity can be tracked from your dashboard and you are notified when the task is done. Its simple interface allows you to create structured documents. Intuitive keyboard shortcuts make it a user-friendly tool. Process Street offers a Zapier integration that integrates with over 500 applications to automate tasks. Automatic scheduling, workflow assignment, employee on-boarding are just some of the tasks companies are using Process Street for. 4. Asana Asana empowers team mates to work in proper flow and collaboration. It enables you to track your team’s projects and tasks. Track the progress without scheduling a status meeting or sending reminder emails.  A smarter inbox gets only the needed team updates and no flurry of unwanted messages.Have conversations about your work and turn them into actionable tasks to get expected results. It all can be managed in one place. Asana makes work fun for team members and they are empowered to accomplish the most ambitious goals of the project. 5. Teamwork Projects Teamwork is a great tool to streamline your processes; connect with your customers and collaborate with your team simultaneously. Use Teamwork Projects to collaborate with your team and clients. Your team knows what, when and who needs to do it. Your clients and team know exactly where to look for and store their files. Information is easily accessible through the cloud. Teamwork Desk makes it easy for your team to handle any customer support queries that come their way.  Teamwork Chat ensures better communication by allowing users to be in constant contact through real-time messaging. 6. Liquid Planner Liquid Planner is a predictive project management software for modern business. It takes care of project organization and scheduling so that the teams stay focused and drive the business forward. Using one of its kind predictive planning technology, the scheduling engine estimates how long each task will take, arrange them in priority order. And Liquid Planner will predict when the project will be completed. With advanced workload intelligence and analytics, get a crystal clear view of your team’s work. Your stakeholders get accurate project reporting.  Accessible through the web/ mobile, team members have ready access to documents, comments and reports for seamless collaboration and project execution. 7. Azendoo Azendoo makes teamwork easier and frees from glitches of email collaboration. It is available through a web browser/ mobile app. Create subgroups to share and organize your teamwork. Share information and documents with specific group members.  It integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox and Box to make file sharing easy. See your team’s existing tasks, progress and create new tasks.  Azendoo offers a calendar view of tasks and projects. Use analytics to have a view of the team’s reporting on a particular subject. Track, schedule and even send direct messages to your collaborators. 8. Worksection The workstation offers a lot of features. Manage your business through a single interface. Get an overview of activities and task overdue, tasks due soon, event journals and project lists. Get project overviews in an active and informative format including project timelines, progress and expenses. Manage all tasks, subtasks and comments using a convenient tool. Add custom filter to view customized detail on screen. Worksection further allows you to reassign tasks, change priorities and deadlines. View images, create and share documents on the go. It lists key dates for active projects, birthdays and synchronizes with Google Calendar. 9. Proofhub Proofhub is project management software to plan, collaborate, and organize projects of all sizes. It offers a centralized workspace for task lists, workflows, discussions, gantt charts, documents and calendars.  You can approve files and documents. Every manager is enabled to get an eagle’s eye view of the project. Proofhub runs in the

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Why Digital Brand Engagement Scores Over Advertising

December 16, 2016

It has been discussed in recent years about the advent of digital engagement and branding. Indeed, social and digital media have helped even the smallest of companies to engage in sophisticated marketing campaigns without burning deep holes in their pockets. Yet, we continue to see smaller and medium sized businesses investing heavily on traditional advertising, without seeing the results they wish to see. Firstly, we need to understand that the market climate has changed completely. People often do not bother to look at ads, even online. Advertisements are seen as intrusive, annoying and extremely pushy, even when it is subtle and in the background. Part of the reason why customers feel so is because advertising has been over-utilized and people feel saturated to marketing messages. However, they are open to genuine marketing communication that seeks to inform about a product or service. This is probably why social and digital campaigns fare better than advertisements, at least for small and medium sized businesses. Larger corporations have the moolah and big budget to take risks with traditional advertisements but a small business might not want to do that. For this reason, it is important to understand that digital and social brand engagement can prove to be a valuable alternative to advertising, especially when one faces cash crunch. Now, let us take a look at some of the advantages that digital branding has over traditional advertising.   Helps in brand activation   Spurring engagement using digital media helps in brand activation. Brand activation can be described as the process of inspiring people to take action by weaving a brand narrative into creative media content. Traditional advertising simply does not have the freedom to do this, and comes with its set of limitations. However, digital brand engagement exercises allow you to spur interaction and inspire people to take desired action.   Positively reinforces desired consumer behavior   Digital media gives you a platform to reinforce individual consumer behaviors, when it is in your favor. For instance, those who write a great review can be suitably rewarded, and even a social post expressing happiness with your product or service can be suitably positively reinforced. Traditional advertising does not provide the flexibility, as visibility of individual consumer reaction is not possible.   Helps build brand loyalty   One of the most important things that a brand needs is lifelong loyalty. Loyalty is something that needs to be nurtured, just like relationships are nurtured. For this to happen, digital and social platforms provide the right situation. You can easily track consumer posts and nurture them individually, so that loyalty is enhanced. In traditional advertising, this is not possible. Everything is planned and individual behavior cannot be nurtured.   Reduces marketing expenditure   Digital marketing and brand engagement is infinitely cheaper than old school advertising. Even online advertising costs more than brand engagement exercises done over social or digital media. For this reason alone, a number of small and medium sized companies prefer to engage target audiences over social and digital media. This also helps them to measure the success of their investment and the ROI. Certainly, this is one of the better ways to reduce expenses.   Easy to measure and quantify   One of the best features of digital marketing exercises is that everything is measurable. There are tools that help to quantify various attributes. This data can be used to create better marketing campaigns that drive engagement. It is also easier to learn what kind of posts and campaigns drive more engagement, so that such communication is given more preference. Once you identify and quantify engagement, it serves as a more useful tool than traditional advertising which does not provide a lot of analytics.   Is future-ready and accessible   Digital brand engagement is usually done on social or digital media. Social media is not only the present but also the future of the way we will do business. This means, digital branding is future-proof and one does not need to worry about being stuck in the past or using outdated techniques. Most importantly, both the target audience and the companies can remain accessible to each other, enabling a two-way communication. This is not possible in traditional advertising as it is a one-way communication.   Makes it easy to receive feedback   One of the most important metrics of engagement is feedback. When people begin to provide feedback about your marketing communication, you will know what you are doing right and what you might be doing wrong. It provides ample opportunities for you to fix things, which is very important. On social and digital media, receiving feedback and responding to them is very easy, unlike in traditional advertising, where it is almost impossible. For SMEs, digital brand engagement is easily the more superior choice As we can see, digital branding makes use of social and digital platforms to connect with the target audience. Digital brand engagement ensures a more organic and impactful communication with the target audience, which in turn helps in building brand loyalty and reinforces desired consumer behavior. Advertising is out of reach for most small and medium sized businesses, whereas digital brand engagement can be a sustainable approach toward being heard and known. Digital brand engagement ensures interaction and reinforcement of a brand narrative, which results in brand activation. This is important to ensure that people feel inspired and not compelled to buy. Moreover, digital engagement helps in positively reinforcing desired behavior and helps in building brand loyalty. In addition, companies can also look forward toward reduced ad spend and focus on measurement and analytics. As digital branding is future-proof, we can rest easy that what we create now will not be irrelevant tomorrow, unlike in traditional advertisements. Last but not the least, digital brand engagement helps in receiving feedback immediately and assists companies to make improvements to their products and services, which is not always possible in advertisements. So, it is quite evident that traditional advertising is too expensive and

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Why Brand Activation that Fosters Engagement Is Important and How to Do It?

December 9, 2016

Every brand needs to have a compelling story behind it to support itself. Without a narrative, a brand is all but marketing noise to the target audience. If you want your target audience to take you seriously, you will need to support your brand with a story that touches the hearts and souls of your target audience. When you combine this narrative in a visual manner with personal interaction, the brand comes to life. This process is known as brand activation. What is brand activation? Brand activation integrates different media, communication platforms and creative tools to stimulate interest, trial and loyalty. So far, we have only focused on advertising, which communicates the existence of a product or a service to the audience. It may also persuade the buyer to purchase or to be informed. However, brand activation stimulates the act of buying. It encourages, pushes, cajoles and inspires the buying process. It is for this reason that brands need to have a compelling story that strikes the note with your target audience emotionally and cognitively. When a brand is thus activated using various forms of media and a solid creative basis, people will begin to find you relevant, convincing and important. Why is it important? Brand activation that fosters engagement helps in: Boosting brand loyalty Fulfilling buyer needs Appealing to senses Satisfying market needs and demands Enhances sales However, the goal of brand activation shouldn’t necessarily be focused on the buying process like most authorities and academics would tell you. Instead, it should focus on fostering engagement. In this article, let us take a look at how we can activate a brand to foster engagement. What a good brand activation routine looks like A good brand activation program follows a multi-channel approach. You will need to combine social, digital and real life engagement in order to activate emotions and behaviors that are desired. In other words, brand activation ensures that certain behaviors and emotions are activated each time a prospect encounters your brand. To ensure that this happens, you will probably need to create inspiring content, events, activities and other experiences which inspire the customers to act. All this requires you to study consumer behavior closely and personalize the entire experience. It is important to remember that brand activation does not follow a format, and you will probably have to create your own model to chart success in these kinds of programs. However, you can follow certain general rules that help in creating brand activation that foster engagement. The more you make these branding experiences interactive, the higher your chances of creating an engaging experience that translates to brand loyalty. Thus, you will have to focus on making experiences interactive and tie these experiences with your brand’s story. Support your brand with a compelling story The most important aspect of any brand activation exercise is to connect with the target audience. This can only happen when you create a compelling story with which your target audience can relate. In other words, make your products or services accessible. This helps the target audience to interact with your content, events and experiences. Tie all these together with your brand, and ensure that you reinforce desired behavior. The story should act as a glue to connect the target audience with your behavior, so that it activates longing, desire, inspiration and other positive emotions. Use social and digital tools to enhance Engagement One simply cannot look away from social media, if one were to enhance engagement. It is then no wonder that social media and digital platforms are an integral part of brand activation. Infuse the story or the narrative into your social posts and digital marketing campaigns, so that there is always a shadow of your brand in everything that you communicate. Whenever there is engagement, allude to your brand narrative directly or indirectly. Inspire, nurture and influence your audience Your brand activation exercises should be first and foremost inspiring. They should inspire your target audience to take interest, try and then keep coming back for more. Secondly, nurture those who show interest in your branding exercises. Continuous activation leads to hard-wiring of a particular behavior, and this is neuroscience. So, nurture those who engage so that they become hardwired to respond to your brand narrative positively. Thirdly, influence your audience with expertise and quality. Weave these qualities into your brand narrative and ensure that you reinforce engagement when it happens. Create experiences, not just branding exercises Brand activation is inherently tied to branding exercises, both online and offline. However, remember to create experiences that take the brand narrative into account. Always remember that the purpose of the brand activation is to promote or inspire a desired behavior while pairing your brand narrative with something positive. For this to happen, create experiences that are unique and that which are tied to your brand narrative. Use every creative media to weave the story with events, content and experiences, so that there is more engagement. Make brand activation a part of your overall marketing strategy Brand activation is not a onetime exercise. It needs to be an ongoing and year-round activity whose success is measured and analyzed. For this reason, you will need to start quantifying your brand activation exercises. Analyze the success, growth and goals that are met with the help of brand activation. Accordingly, make changes to the strategy so that there is more engagement. Focus on engagement Indeed, the focus of any brand activation strategy should involve engagement. Engagement is one of the most important ingredients of brand activation. Your target audience needs to engage with your brand narrative when they are exposed to visual, sensory, auditory or other forms of stimuli. Only when they feel inspired to act and engage, and then take action will your branding activation be successful. So, always bear in mind that along with creating a compelling story, you should also focus on boosting engagement.

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Top 5 Reasons Why Startups Should Choose WordPress

November 30, 2016

Though not as glamorous as some of the new technologies, WordPress as a CMS platform has been one of the most trusted in business circles. Why? It is not as complex or robust as some of its peers such as Joomla, Drupal and others. Yet, WordPress brings a special kind of simplicity to the table that is hard to ignore. This is precisely why WordPress-hosted websites continue to remain popular among not only startups but also major news websites and publishing companies. WordPress as a content management system has already proved itself, with more than a decade of empirical evidence of its efficacy. Today, WordPress continues to be one of the most popular CMS and it will remain so even in the future. In this article, let us discuss a few more reasons why startups should focus more on WordPress-built websites than anything else. Easy to Install Most people who start businesses do not have technical skills. This means, they will often have to rely upon expensive developers and coders to get their websites up and running. However, choosing WordPress has its own benefits. All one needs to do is buy a domain, host it under a plan, and then do an automatic install of WordPress from the CPanel. The next step is to install a theme that one may like. And the website is already hosted! All these things will not take more than an hour or two, and there is no technical skill required to install WordPress. Moreover, future updates are regularly sent to the website’s dashboard, and all that one needs to do is just click on the ‘update now’ button, and the website gets updated. There is nothing that is remotely difficult in installing a WordPress website. This is probably why it is important for startups to use WordPress. By using WordPress, startups will avoid unnecessary installation costs that they will otherwise have to pay, if they go ahead with full-scale web development. Very SEO-friendly One of the biggest problems that new businesses face is lack of visibility. In a world that is hugely dominated by content, search engine optimization has not lost its importance. Instead, it has taken on a new level of importance. SEO tactics are no more shady practices involving keywords. Instead, search engine optimization is built on using the best keywords that suit a business and building great content around it. WordPress helps startups to key in meta-data, keywords and other such information while also ensuring that blog posts and articles are search engine optimized. Moreover, the way WordPress is built is quite SEO friendly. This helps websites that run on WordPress to appear more frequently in Google search results. This is something that new businesses desperately need. If they receive even a small push to becoming visible in search results, they will gain quite a lot. Certainly, WordPress and its SEO-friendly build helps startups to gain new leads, drive more traffic and ultimately, increase profits and revenue. No need for technical or coding skills Usually, startups do not have a big budget for hiring developers or professional designers. They usually prefer to build a website on their own. This is great if the startup owner knows a little bit of coding or if he or she is a coder. However, a majority of startup owners are not coders and they simply do not have the resources to hire professional web developers. WordPress comes to the rescue of these people as you simply do not need to have any HTML or PHP knowledge to set up the website. All you need to do is simply install the website, and start publishing posts or filling up content. As there are tutorials available on YouTube and elsewhere, anyone can simply start setting up a WordPress website that looks as professional as any other. This is one of the reasons why WordPress is so popular among startup owners. Customer support is always available Though WordPress is open source, it has a network of hundreds of thousands of developers on its forums and groups, many of whom provide free advice and support. While it may take some time to get the help that is needed, free support is always available to those who are looking for it. For those who prefer custom solutions, there is always the option of custom WordPress development, which comes with customer support, maintenance and other features. Startups can go this route as even this will cost a lot less than building an entire website from the scratch. Used all over the world WordPress is used all over the world, and your freelance writer probably needs no introduction to it. If you are planning to set up a website and have someone fill up the content, WordPress is one of the best tools around. Almost every content writer knows how to use WordPress, and you simply have to give them your tasks and your blog or website will be updated with content regularly. WordPress is a universally used content management system (CMS), and if your website ever runs into trouble, you will always find a developer who will be able to fix it for you for a very low price. This is one of the reasons why WordPress continues to be popular among startup owners. WordPress is one of the best solutions for those on a budget If you have recently started a company and are looking for setting up a website, WordPress is a great option if you are on a budget. WordPress is not only cost-effective, it is quite robust too. Firstly, it is easy to install and you will not need to deploy expensive software programs. Second, it is SEO-friendly, which means, you will be discovered easily. Third, you do not need to learn HTML or coding in order to use WordPress. Fourth, it is always easy to find customer support for a small cost. Finally, WordPress is universally used even by large companies. If you need customization

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Why You Must Take Your Employees for a Dinner before Hiring Them?

November 4, 2016

If you are planning to hire a project manner, you should probably take him or her out, before they are hired. A growing body of literature suggests that certain personality quirks, mannerisms and behaviors can say a lot about the person’s inherent qualities. These qualities are central to a person being a good manager or not. Of course, these kinds of dinner dates would not be appropriate with junior level hires, unless their supervisor is made to dine with them. On second thoughts, even the most basic job profile can be filled by an excellent candidate if that candidate passes the dinner exam. In this article, let us take a look at how dinner dates help you to hire better employees, whether junior or senior. Let us also take a look at certain things you should bear in mind while assessing a candidate during the dinner. All this will help you to choose candidates who are well fit for their jobs, and basically, respectful, honest and decent individuals with integrity. Is the candidate late for the dinner? One of the defining qualities of an individual is his or her punctuality. If your candidate does not arrive well in time for the dinner date, he or she has a problem with time management. This is a very useful criteria to judge an individual. Make sure that your candidate is on time, or at least has a valid excuse to be late. What did the candidate order? This may sound funny but is a very important consideration. If you are at a nice restaurant and the individual orders the most expensive food available, he or she may have an overblown self-esteem or maybe greedy, looking for ways to make the most of a situation. On the other hand, ordering the cheapest food available may indicate they have an inferiority complex, or that he or she is too shy. Also, inappropriate foods like pizzas and burgers at a high-end sit-in dining place also may suggest the candidate is not situation-appropriate. Did the candidate follow table manners? Table manners differ depending on towns, cities, regions and countries. Based on where you are located, ensure that your candidate follows minimum table manners. This ensures that the person is well cultivated and knows how to behave in social situations. It also says a lot about the candidate’s interpersonal skills. How did he or she treat the waiting staff? This is often repeated in many articles that discuss hiring employees based on dinners. Yet, this is probably the most important. If the candidate is rude, or if he or she is not friendly to waiters, that shows that they do not have respect for work. They probably will behave the same way towards their juniors in the office. Moreover, do you want a nasty person as an employee? Four important qualities to evaluate during a dinner date: Punctuality Always look for punctuality as a quality to decide if an individual will be similarly early or late to office. Punctuality is not just about arriving in time for the dinner date. How quickly or how slowly one eats also says a lot about the individual. If a person takes too long to finish eating, that may show that they don’t value time much. Civility Civility is all about how we deal with each other. You need a candidate who is polite and civil. Make sure that they greet you politely or whoever is with you. Civility includes common sense and many other qualities, that makes an individual pleasant. Kindness and empathy This is often most forgotten during interviewing and assessment. This is one of the reasons why dinner dates are most important. When you let the candidate place an order, notice how they behave with the waiter. If they are rude or cold, that shows that they do not have respect for the dignity of labor, or even for fellow human beings. This isn’t even about respect, but about kindness. And we need kind people in the office so that they work well in a team. Neatness Make sure the candidate is neat in his or her clothing sense, behavior and also eating habits. If an individual is dressed sloppily, he or she is not showing respect to the situation. If he or she doesn’t have table manners, it shows that they won’t finish their work neatly. There are many other things that you can observe in an individual but these should be the bare minimum of qualities that you can observe during a dinner interview. Dinner dates are great places to assess candidates Certainly, it must now be clear that diner dates are not just about eating and going home on a full stomach These are serious tests in life that can bring out unconscious habits and qualities which the candidate can fake during an interview situation. If a person is late for the dinner, it shows that they may not be punctual. If the candidate orders foods that are too expensive or too cheap, it says a lot about how they feel about themselves. If they are rude to the waiting staff, they will be rude to your clients too. If they do not follow table manners, do not expect them to be perfect at their jobs. Four important qualities need to be assessed during a dinner interview. Look for punctuality, if the candidate is civil and polite, if he or she is kind to his subordinates and last but not the least, if the candidate is neat. All these factors are important for all levels of jobs in an organization. You do not have to take a low-paid clerk to a fancy restaurant to judge if he is good. A simple burger meal should be enough to assess his qualities. Keep the five-star hotel dinners to assess and judge your senior level managers.

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5 Ways to Strike a Balance between HR Automation and Human Interaction

October 24, 2016

There is a lot of discussion these days about automating anything that can be automated. Not surprisingly, human resource management systems (HRMS) are some of the most popular automation tools purchased by clients from cloud vendors. HRMS automates a number of tasks that are often repetitive and unnecessary for manual application. Some of these include hiring, payment of salaries, employee self-service, maintaining employee records, and a host of other HR-related tasks that can be easily automated. Even training programs are being automated, as employees can take courses on their own, while sitting by a computer. In fact, there is no job that cannot be done by an HRMS, except for face-to-face contact and superior analysis for which human judgment is required. Yet, human interaction is very important in an organization. If we get rid of all our HR managers and replace them with an HRMS, employees will not be happy, whether they realize it or not. HRMS can only automate repetitive tasks, but for the rest of other HR department tasks, a real living breathing human being is required. [php snippet=1] In this article, let us take a look at why this is so. Do not automate everything We should remember that an organization is firstly made of employees, who are human beings with a need to communicate. Secondly, automating every task may not lead to an increased productivity. IT may lead to disenchantment among employees, and cause boredom. It might be in your best interest to not automate everything and instead, automate only the repetitive tasks that are boring. You can also automate tasks that are prone to human error. Whatever is going to eliminate the need for using paper can also be automated. Most importantly, we need to keep certain tasks that are enjoyable available to employees, even if they can be automated. Encourage your HR managers to interact with employees HR managers often believe their tasks are clerical in nature, always filling up forms, typing reports and sending out appraisals. However, this is not what an HR manager should be limiting oneself to. An HR manager should ensure that employees are happy and content. This requires managers to interact with employees regularly and seek their well being. If we automate repetitive tasks, managers will actually have time to socialize and interact with employees. This is an important part of human resources. What matters at the end of the day is that you should save money with HRMS, but you should boost employee relationships and morale with the help of HR managers. Encourage employees to socialize with other teams Employees often spend hours together on the computer and do not talk to each other. This si increasingly becoming a trend in IT companies. The only breaks are during the lunch or for coffee, but there isn’t much socializing that is happening. While cubicles are often arranged in such a manner that people can talk to each other, it still doesn’t help that they are not socializing in an old-fashioned way. To bridge the gap, you can organize activities which will encourage employees to socialize with other teams and thus discover new friends and relationships. This helps to break the monotony of job, which often leads to stress and low productivity. Automating certain tasks may be a bad idea While it is a good thing that everything can be automated, certain things like counseling and addressing employee grievances can never be automated. A distressed employee always needs a senior manager who can help him or her. If an employee has a personal crisis, managers are one of the first individuals they can seek advice from. This helps in speedy solutions and happy employees, which translate to increased productivity. In other words, face-to-face interaction between managers and employees will always be a need or requirement. So, do not try to automate everything, including employee counseling, which though can be done by a computer or through instant messaging, will not replace face-to-face interaction. Do not turn your office into a robot HRMS is a great tool and is almost indispensable in an organization. It ensures that money is saved, records are kept, analyses are drawn and that employees are managed better. Yet, automating everything is not a good idea. This will lead to a robotic atmosphere which is scientifically known to cause stress and anxiety in employees. Thus, while you must install and implement HRMS, you should also ensure that you don’t turn your office into a robotic space. By doing so, you are going to alienate your employees and that is never a good thing for productivity. Encourage healthy human interaction and integrate HRMS in subtle manners. This ensures to strike a balance between automation and human interaction. Strike a balance between human interaction and automation As we can see, it is not such a good idea to automate everything. It will lead to alienation and isolation among employees, which may lead to reduced productivity. Automating everything is not an answer. If everything is automated, you will still need someone to take decisions and ideally, a computer should not be making those decisions. As automation can reduce human interaction, encourage your HR managers to regularly interact with employees. An important aspect of human resource management is to be able to dispense counseling when it is required. Employees when they are on their own may feel isolated and bored. Encourage team building activities and ask your employees to interact with people from other teams. While automation sounds like a great idea, it may not be in the best interest of your company to automate everything. When it comes to legal matters, it is best handled by a human employee who can be held responsible. An HRMS cannot be held legally responsible. Certain highly critical tasks should be left to human employees. Finally, no one wants to work i a robotic atmosphere. This leads to alienation and confusion. By encouraging human interaction and balancing HRMS with face-to-face contact, we can strike

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