March 4, 2021
Business Journals Leadership Trust members, including our CEO Joey Johnsen, often share their thoughts on best practices and how leaders across industries can effectively achieve excellence in business, deliver exceptional value to customers, and cultivate a highly effective workplace culture.
Not keeping up with the times
Common mistakes in creating and deploying effective marketing strategies include failure to set and measure performance and return on investment targets and not keeping up with the times. Engagement, reactions and SEO-related analytics should be measured by channel and/or medium. Similarly, if your target audience is on TikTok or MeWe, you may need to add those channels.
Hold ‘innovation challenges’ among your teams
Bigger businesses can offer innovation challenges that result in monetary prizes for the winning ideas. By promoting innovation and soliciting employees’ ideas, companies can tap into the innovation that happens in smaller teams.
Adjust your ERM plan based on what you’ve learned from the pandemic
Risk-management strategies need to be adjusted at times. In many companies’ ERM frameworks, a solid ERM plan incorporates both risks and responses to those risks. A hypothetical “pandemic” was just an idea or entry on the risk register, but we now know that it’s possible. There is an opportunity to challenge and update our risk responses based on our real-life experience with Covid-19.
Let them get to know you
Be vulnerable, and let employees get to know you personally. In the same way, getting to know your employees by finding out such things as what makes them tick, what they do in their spare time or if they have families can help you gauge their interests and learn about their personal and professional motivations. You can apply that information to more effectively assign new projects.
Personalize, personalize, personalize
Even in business-to-business transactions, personalization is key — after all, it involves people who buy from other people. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, do your homework, and use first names. Make sure your emails are going out without “{Name}” or client/prospect record numbers from your CRM in the “To:” field.
Not keeping up with the times
Common mistakes in creating and deploying effective marketing strategies include failure to set and measure performance and return on investment targets and not keeping up with the times. Engagement, reactions and SEO-related analytics should be measured by channel and/or medium. Similarly, if your target audience is on TikTok or MeWe, you may need to add those channels.
Audit your current network
Take an inventory of your current network and see where there might be gaps. Do you need more contacts within a particular industry or company? If yes, find someone in your network and proactively reach out to share your goals and request introductions.
Launch social media and direct messaging campaigns
Use an online fundraising platform combined with social media and direct messaging campaigns. The major online fundraising platforms offer business loans and donation-based debt and equity crowdfunding portals.
Including interactive visuals
Engaging your e-commerce platform’s visitors with high-quality, interactive visuals, such as recorded instructor demonstrations or explainer videos, is an effective way to boost engagement and achieve higher conversion rates.
Customize coaching to boost performance
Business leaders agree that a post-pandemic environment requires a certain degree of flexibility from management to accommodate extended work-from-home workforces. Remote work requires enhanced communication, performance-focused learning and customized coaching, particularly for new hires or novice staff. Such integrated programs will need to be aligned with organizational needs and growth agendas.
Encourage brainstorming and dialogue
Restarting operations in a post-pandemic environment requires businesses to seize opportunities for survival. This new era of business transformation is met with varying levels of resistance and hesitation from employees. Brainstorming and dialogue can contribute to management buy-in and ensure the restructuring process results in improved decision-making, streamlined operations and efficient growth.
Your USP
The unique selling proposition (USP) or “remarkable benefit” the end customer will receive from a company’s product or service should be the focus of an investor deck. In addition, to pique investors’ interest in digging deeper into the company’s financials, the deck should reflect the management team’s enthusiasm and expertise for “rocking” that product or service. Another key aspect that often gets overlooked by investor-relations teams is the need for an easy-to-navigate layout and strong brand positioning that places the pitching company in the best possible light vis-à-vis “the competition.”
Share behind-the-scenes stories
Behind every successful business, there are stories and exciting case studies. By offering clients and new connections insight into behind-the-scenes happenings, companies show their authenticity and add a personal touch to integrated marketing solutions with a commitment to thinking “outside of the box.” This might also be reflected in the communications provided to clients and prospects.
Implement an enterprise resource planning system
To capitalize on emerging direct-to-consumer opportunities and effectively transition to an e-commerce platform, an ERP system should be selected and implemented to help staff deal with order volume, fulfillment requirements and warehousing complexities. Benefits realization planning should also allow employees to recognize this new software’s competitive advantages — with comprehensive training.
Dealing with downsizing; Allay fears regarding job stability
Downsizing is one of the most dreaded decisions by management. Laid-off staff must be treated with dignity and respect. EAPs can aid employees with effectively managing the stress stemming from the loss of staff and allay fears regarding remaining employees’ job stability. As downsizing has lasting effects on employee morale and productivity levels, continually check in to instill comfort and security.
Compare the resources required with the return on investment
Business intelligence is all about harnessing the data that a company generates to gain valuable insights for interpreting and forecasting performance as well as for scenario-planning and future-proofing the business. These tools empower organizations to have flexibility in managing their resources with the kind of agility that enables their teams to engage more effectively and successfully manage changes in service delivery.
Invest in business intelligence
Business intelligence is all about harnessing the data that a company generates to gain valuable insights for interpreting and forecasting performance as well as for scenario-planning and future-proofing the business. These tools empower organizations to have flexibility in managing their resources with the kind of agility that enables their teams to engage more effectively and successfully manage changes in service delivery.
Mirrored topics from your social media posts
An effective strategy to drive increased website traffic with great potential for lead generation is to use social media platforms to publish leading practices, whitepapers exploring hot industry topics and other lead magnets focused on critical issues facing clients. Visitors driven via social media to your website will learn more about the same topic they just read about in your LinkedIn post.
16 important steps to building a strong DEI initiative
As businesses and organizations strive for more diversity, they may be considering implementing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. As with any type of business initiative, your DEI program must come from a genuine desire to improve, and you need to have real strategies to achieve success.
“Invest in continued employee learning,” urges Johnsen, underscoring the critical role of professional development as the key to ensuring that “diversity, equity, and inclusion remain central to a company’s culture.”
Pointing to examples of learning and training programs facilitated by Zeevo Group on behalf of client organizations for members of their workforces, Johnsen explains that “providing employees and hiring managers with opportunities to educate themselves about biases, including unconscious ones, is essential to broadening the effectiveness of an organization’s leadership and support for an inclusive workplace.”
Delight customers with these 15 factors of excellent service
One of the most familiar adages in business states that “the customer is always right.” While that may not always be entirely true, every business should still aim to provide excellent service that delights its customers above all else.
Excellent service comes in many forms, but there are certain things you should always strive to get right if your business is to succeed.
“Frequent and transparent communication is key to the successful execution of Zeevo Group’s projects and ensuring that clients are always kept abreast of project progress. Our teams provide regular communications to clients with a detailed status by workstream, along with updates on notable project milestones, including decisions, risks, issues and escalations, and plans for upcoming weeks,” says Johnsen.
The Leadership Trust is a network of influential business leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience and is moderated nationally by the Business Journals.