editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

Four Ways to a Flourishing Business

December 18, 2020 No Comments

Starting a business can be daunting, and there’s a long list of things to do to get it off the ground. We asked an industry expert for the top tips on how to kick start your small business and make the most of your online presence.

Choose the Right Domain

For many people, registering their domain name is one of the last things on the list and it shouldn’t be, says Anne De Aragon, vice-president and country manager, GoDaddy Canada. “A domain name is an important annual investment as it is the hub of your business’ website,” she says. “Much like a physical sign, it marks the location of your business on the web. This makes registering a domain name one of the most critical business decisions you make.”

Some business owners prefer their full business name as the domain name while others prefer an abbreviation. Business owners also need to consider this important fact: According to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Canadians are 4x more likely to shop on a .ca website over .com as it taps into the patriotic desire people have to support local businesses. “Taking a minute to think about your business, your goals and how you want to present yourself will allow you to decide on the best domain name for your business,” De Aragon says.

Create a Website that Looks Amazing

A mobile-friendly website is essential for a business to ensure it is easy to access and use for today’s mobile-first environment. This means your website looks its best and performs stress-free for the user since the text is readable, images are optimized and fitted to screen sizes, and there is no need for horizontal scrolling.

For example, GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing tool allows business owners to create a modern, mobile-friendly website for free and with no technical knowledge required. The tool has hundreds of already-designed templates, which allow business owners to control the look and layout of their website.

Leverage Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can deliver strong results at a fraction of the price of traditional marketing. Think of your website as a hub from which consumers access your various channels. De Aragon recommends being selective, always keeping your business goals in mind. “You should incorporate a variety of channels, but you don’t need to be on every platform,” she says. “It has to make sense for your business and your target audience.”

No matter what channels you choose, make sure you have high-quality visuals. Entrepreneurs can engage a design professional or take advantage of content design applications, such as Over by GoDaddy. These applications allow entrepreneurs and small business owners to easily create impactful visuals which can be leveraged on social platforms, websites, and email marketing campaigns.

Make Your Email Shine

Since email is often the first consumer touchpoint, it is important for your email address to be professional. “A professional-looking email address gives your business more credibility when you’re corresponding with existing and potential customers,” De Aragon says. “To set up a professionally branded email address, you need to have registered a unique domain. From here, setting up a professional email account can be done quickly and easily.”

Learn more at GoDaddy.ca.

Connect at Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Sourced from Vancouver Magazine

In News

6 Critical Technical SEO Tips for eCommerce Stores

December 18, 2020 No Comments

By Kiran Patil

If you want to rank higher in Google searches, it’s crucial to focus on overall website performance.

Technical SEO aspects such as site speed and facets and filters play a critical role in the performance of your site.

In this article, I discuss how websites can drive more traffic from SEO by understanding and optimizing these elements.

Technical SEO 101

Along with content marketing and link building, it is imperative that websites consider the technical aspects of SEO for higher ranking and increased traffic.

Here are 6 critical category page technical SEO elements that can generate higher sales and improve conversions.

Category Page Structure: As category pages have the potential to become high authority pages, a best practice is to create a hierarchical structure with no more than three levels. What this means is that structure is defined by category pages, followed by subcategories, and finally product pages at the bottom.

Critical-Technical-SEO-Tips-for-eCommerce-Stores-Category-Page-Structure-Transcosmos

Image Source: Transcosmos

Category URLs: Your category URLs should describe exactly what the webpage is about without any extra information. A standard format could be described as www.example.com/category-name. For example, if you are selling organic products with breakfast being one of the categories, the URL could be www.example.com/breakfast.
Category Titles: Category titles are a great opportunity to let web crawlers such as Google know about the page and its content. Good titles are a result of strong keyword research. Utilizing the top keywords used in search queries by your target audience will help you come up with optimized titles. Always start your titles with these keywords and if required add the brand name towards the end.

Critical-Technical-SEO-Tips-for-eCommerce-Stores-Portfolio-Category

Image Source: Theme

Category Meta-Description, H1 Tags, and Content: A category description is added in the meta-description field. The content added here has the potential to appear in search engine results along with the title tag and can help boost click-through-rates (CTRs). Write high quality, brief, unique descriptions that can summarize your product and offerings while incorporating high relevance keywords. H1 tags are similar to title tags appearing on your category page. Along with keywords they should also be optimized for readability and be descriptive of the category. Another aspect is content, while category pages should primarily focus on products, adding a few lines of optimized content with relevant internal links can provide a major boost to your SEO.
Image Tags: File names and alt-text for images alert Google and other search engine crawlers about the content of your images. Changing the file name from the default to a more descriptive keyword-rich name helps search engines understand your image and add value to your SEO. The Alt-tags field is another opportunity to rank by associating keywords with images. You can populate the alt-tag field with a short keyword-rich description of the image. For websites catering to the US market, filling the alt-tag is a requirement under the ADA act to improve accessibility for users with disabilities.
Canonical URL: For categories that extend to more than one page or provide the option of multi-level filtering, the canonical URL becomes a necessity. By setting a canonical tag, backlinks get attributed to the main category page thus avoiding content duplication. This also helps crawlers such as Google establish the relationship between each main category page and its subsequent pages.

Website speed

A massive increase in traffic or transactions can be challenging for your overall website performance. A Google sanctioned study found that the bounce rate increases exponentially for every extra second your website takes to load and just improving your load time by one second increases your sales by up to 7%.

Some of the steps you can take to increase your website speed are:

Use a CDN: Content Delivery Networks are useful if you have visitors from different geographical locations. CDNs are a network of servers located in multiple geographies and store your content in each server. When a user visits your website, the data from the closest CDN server loads, allowing for faster load times.

Critical-Technical-SEO-Tips-for-eCommerce-Stores-Content-Delivery-Networks

Image Source: BluePi

Use a reliable and fast hosting service: From expensive dedicated servers to VPS and shared hosting, identify the service that best fits your business needs without compromising on performance.
Limit page size: Review all content on your pages and remove unused scripts or plugins. Use JPEG images instead of PNG. Use code minification and code merging to help trim the excess or buggy code pieces, reduce the number of server requests, thus speeding up the page load time.
Reduce redirects and broken links: For pages that are temporarily down or have been permanently shifted, the visitor is shown a 301 or 302 error. What this does is adds another layer to your user journey, effectively increasing load time as well. Use redirects in such a scenario where a user is led to another category page.
Use lazy loading: Also known as on-demand loading, this is a very popular script used to load only the required section and delays the remaining until it is needed by the user. This is especially useful when used with images.

Critical-Technical-SEO-Tips-for-eCommerce-Stores-Use-Lazy-Loading-Imperva

Image Source: Imperva

Optimize 3rd Party Scripts: While 3rd party plugins like social media sharing and animations add a wide range of useful features they tend to slow down page load times considerably. You can optimize these by using HTML’s async or defer attributes which would activate the script only when the user requests it or if the entire page has finished loading.

Filters and Facets

If you have a host of products on your category page, adding filters and facets will help users narrow down their selection and find desired products in the shortest possible time.

Filters use basic pre-set attributes which can eliminate products on one single criterion while facets help to narrow search results by using multiple attributes.

For example, on Amazon.com the option to display desired products by a certain customer rating or price range falls under filters as here you can choose only one range of product prices and/or defined rating criteria.

The option to choose multiple brands or specifications within a product category is what is called a search facets.

Facets are dynamic and change with search behavior. It becomes important to regularly analyze the keywords your web pages are ranking for, identify best selling products and utilize the log file to understand what customers are searching for on your website to help determine the right facets for every category page.

Conclusion

In many ways, category pages are the backbone of eCommerce websites. Retailers must focus on how these destinations are structured and optimized for gaining the best SEO outcomes and offering a seamless experience to customers.

By Kiran Patil

Guest author: Kiran Patil is the founder and CEO of Growisto, a rising e-commerce marketing and technology company. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, he has over 16 years of experience in e-commerce and digital marketing. His entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering attitude have helped online businesses grow to their full potential. When not absorbed in being a business transformation catalyst, he loves traveling, cycling and trekking in unexplored destinations.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

In News

Podcast Topics Listeners Love

December 17, 2020 No Comments

By Tim Stoddart

You’ve probably heard that the podcast industry is growing at an alarming rate.

In 2006, just 22% of people had listened to a podcast. That number more than tripled to 70% by the end of 2019, making podcasting one of the most exciting channels to date.

Source

In addition, Google now includes podcasts in their search results.

Whether you want to generate passive income or expand your brand’s marketing opportunities, starting a podcast is one of the best ways to do so.

However, while there are plenty of exciting opportunities on this platform, it’s still essential you create a show that is different from others in your category. Therefore, one of the most common questions we get is:

How do I choose a podcast topic?

To help you solve this problem, below you’ll find podcast topics listeners love. You can review these smart frameworks and choose one that is unique to your category, designed for rapid growth, and aligns with your brand or passions.

Podcast topics for those with no audience

If you currently have no audience, potential listeners will probably ask why they should listen to your advice over an established influencer in the field.

Fortunately, these podcast topics will enable you to leverage other authoritative sources and grow your own voice.

Teardowns

Everybody likes to get a behind-the-scenes view of how something works, and teardowns are a great way to do that.

An example of a teardown episode is this one by Ecommerce Marketing School. The host brings on an eCommerce marketing expert that works with Shopify brands making up to $20 million in revenue.

During the episode, she uncovers what sites could be doing to increase conversions and mentions things like:

The benefit of including shipping information on product pages
Why you shouldn’t add text directly on images
An effective method to generate more reviews

While this is a solo episode, it’s easy to see how this format could be used for an entire show. (The good news is that I couldn’t find an entire show that only does teardowns, so take advantage of that!)

Even if you don’t have an audience, you can perform the teardowns yourself without a guest.

You can also apply this to a B2C brand. For example, if you have a beauty podcast, you can do a teardown of a friend’s skincare regime and talk about how you would change it and why.

Record your stories

If you have a unique experience, you don’t have to have a large following to make it an engaging story.

For example, if you teach English in Japan, plenty of people would love to hear about your experiences with the culture, getting hired, finding a room, and much more.

The best way to differentiate yourself from anyone else with a similar podcast is by using your own individual experiences. People love getting advice from friends, and by using your own voice and stories, you can build the loyalty and trust of a friendship.

The stories you tell can be anything from an embarrassing story about how you figured out the trains to a time you accidentally confused two words that mean very different things.

Record your experiments

Some of the most popular podcast topics are just everyday people recounting exciting things they’ve done or tried.

For example, you may try a different kind of cuisine each week and report on it.

If you’re a B2B marketer, recording your experiments is a great way to engage a high-level audience.

If you’re a brand-new content marketer and want to create a content marketing podcast, you could take the advice of one influencer and report your results.

For example, you might try a content promotion tactic that a content marketing influencer, like Ann Handley, preaches. Then report on how it worked for you and what you would have done differently.

Since you’re talking about a content promotion that an influencer uses, you don’t have to prove that you are an expert because you’re essentially borrowing the influencer’s authority.

Invite other experts

Interviewing other experts is an excellent way to leverage their authority and audience to build your channel.

However, getting your first few high-level guests can be tricky if you don’t currently have an audience.

Nonetheless, it’s not impossible.

The best way to start is to leverage personal connections. For example, Eric Siu grew his Leveling Up podcast from zero to more than two million monthly downloads, and many of his early episodes were from relationships he already had.

Another great way to get experts is to interview people at conferences. You can connect with them in person and then ask to set up a time.

If you don’t have any personal connections and can’t attend conferences, you can always send personalized cold emails to mid-level influencers. Many of them are happy to tell their story, even if you don’t have a huge audience.

The key is to ensure that every guest you have on is just slightly more advanced than the other guests. This will enable you to get higher and higher level guests.

Study how to write excellent outreach emails with persuasive subject lines, and be sure to include genuine personalization. Here’s an example of a real cold email that won a quality podcast guest:

Curate great content

Another way to leverage the power of other influencers is to curate their ideas around a certain pain point.

For example, if you have a podcast about losing weight, you could have an episode on the best ways to weight train. However, rather than providing a few random tips of your own, gather the top tips from various celebrity trainers, athletes, and other influencers.

This also works for B2B businesses. For example, Noah Kagan of AppSumo has a YouTube channel (which is also repurposed to his podcast), and he does something similar.

As he doesn’t yet make millions of dollars on YouTube, he probably isn’t the most qualified person to teach someone else how to do so.

Instead, he showcases five businesses that make a lot of money on YouTube and breaks down why they are successful.

Another way you could do this for B2B is to source a variety of case studies and influencer quotes.

If you’re a content marketer struggling with content promotion, you could research tips from top experts. Then on your podcast, break down a unique tip from each expert and add color with some research.

For example, you could pull tips from a podcast hosted by influencers like Neil Patel and Eric Siu …

Source

… and add in a few tips from case studies you’ve seen.

Source

Partner with an established cohost

Finally, if you have industry relationships, you may be able to start your podcast with a cohost that already has some kind of following (Instagram, email list, etc.).

While you likely won’t be able to get anyone with a huge following, this can give you a great launchpad.

The key is to make it equally valuable to the person with the following, so you might offer to do the majority of the work.

For example, when the Marketing School podcast was born, one of the hosts had a much larger following than the other, so the host with the smaller following offered to do the majority of the work, like coming up with episode topics, publishing the episodes, and writing the show notes.

Podcast topics for those with an existing audience

If you currently have a following (an email list, website traffic, or a social following), starting a podcast should be relatively easy since you’ll be able to send your current audience traffic to the new channel.

Here are a few podcast topics that will generate tons of traffic if you already have an audience.

Invite high caliber guests

The majority of podcasts today are structured in an interview format.

This format works well because you receive free exposure to your guest’s audience, and they bring fascinating new insights to your listeners.

Podcasts like the Tim Ferriss Show and the Joe Rogan Experience are structured with this format, and it works really well.

While you may not be able to find their caliber of guests, you can likely connect with mainstream industry influencers in your niche.

The podcast topics you generate will usually be around your guest’s expertise, so just do your research ahead of time.

However, the structure is entirely up to you.

For example, you can choose to create a conversational podcast, as Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan do, or you can create something more structured.

The conversational style may be a little more challenging at first, so instead, you can opt for a structure like this one:

Intro
Tell us about yourself
How did you come up with your business idea?
When did you make your first entrepreneurial dollar?
What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of your startup?
How do you set goals for your startup?
What advice would you give to someone starting their own business today?
Closing

Provide actionable advice

Another great way to generate podcast topics is to provide advice on a current issue in your industry or one that you’re solving within your own life or company.

For example, Russell Brunson started Marketing in Your Car, which is essentially a platform where he discusses his own marketing-related learnings and challenges.

These episodes may be marketing lessons he’s learned through life or data-driven lessons.

Source

It’s important to have an existing audience if you plan to do a show like this because these topics are only interesting to people familiar with Russell.

For example, a random person that doesn’t know of Russell Brunson likely won’t care what he learned at an airport in Amsterdam.

Many of the On Purpose episodes are also structured in a similar format with the host, Jay Shetty, talking about advice on relationships, happiness, finding your purpose, and more.

Source

Jay Shetty is also well established and had a substantial following before he started his podcast.

If you’re starting a podcast with no following, recording an episode on something like “8 Ways to Deal With Negativity” and narrating it yourself might not be the best approach.

Unless you offer something no one else does, most people won’t have any incentive to listen to your podcast over any of the others that already have an episode on “X Ways to Deal With Negativity”:

But if you have a following of people who love you on other accounts (social, email, etc.), these episodes can be popular with people who already know you.

Question submission

Finally, one more way to structure a podcast if you already have an audience is to accept listener submissions.

This not only more actively engages your audience, you also know you’re discussing the pain points your target audience feels — and you’ll never have to come up with a podcast topic again!

A great example of a podcast that accepts listener submissions is the U Up? podcast. During an episode, the listener submits a story about a relationship they are in and the hosts discuss the problem and try to advise the listener on what steps they should take.

Source

Note that neither of the hosts are therapists, but rather they act as an objective third-party listener — similar to having drinks with a friend. So you can swipe this format regardless of your expertise!

Additional podcast topic questions

While these podcast topics should help you develop a solid strategy, you may still have some additional questions.

Here is an FAQ section to guide you in the right direction.

My podcast’s market is already saturated. Should I still do the podcast or pick a different subject?

Even if your industry has tough competition, you should still follow through if you’re passionate about the subject. The key is to differentiate — have a different viewpoint or method from other podcasts.

For example, if you want to host a marketing podcast, rather than just interviewing guests or giving your own advice, choose a different format like content curation.

Even though you’re entering a somewhat saturated market, you can still provide a refreshing perspective.

In fact, there are plenty of people who feel there aren’t many good podcasts on the subject:

Source

However, if you aren’t truly passionate about the topic, know that it will be apparent in your work, so go after whatever you’re really passionate about and/or an expert on.

How do I know if my podcast has a target audience?

On the other end of the spectrum, you may have such a niche topic that you’re wondering if anyone would listen to your podcast.

The answer is probably yes.

However, it’s always best to check. First, do a quick Google search. If you’re doing a podcast on the plot holes in Harry Potter, Google shows that while there are a few podcasts on the subject, few seem to be active:

Therefore, consider browsing forums like Reddit and Quora to see if there is any interest. If there is, you’ll have an audience for your podcast.

Once you launch the podcast, you can go back to these Quora questions about Harry Potter plot holes and direct people to a relevant episode.

Nonetheless, when you first start your podcast, if you’re unsure whether it will have a big enough audience, invest in very basic sound equipment.

Once you have some traction, you can upgrade to higher quality equipment.

How long should each episode be and how often should I publish?

This is a great question that depends on the type of podcast you choose and how much time you plan to dedicate to it.

There is no standard podcast episode length or publishing frequency. Even if you break it down by industry, there are plenty of entrepreneurial podcasts that range from a minute to more than two hours, and even three hours.

For example, angel investor Naval Ravikant has a podcast that dives into happiness and mental health.

His episodes are just one-minute long, but he has more than 1,500 reviews and an engaged audience. He publishes an episode every few days, and his unique angle (other than his personal brand) is that it’s short and to the point.

Of course, one minute might be too short if you don’t already have a strong audience.

Therefore, you might instead opt for a 5–8 minute daily episode similar to the Marketing School podcast. They credit much of their success to the daily format of the show.

These short daily formats usually work well if you choose something like giving a piece of actionable advice or answering a question submission.

However, if you select a different podcast format like an interview, recording a teardown, or experiment, you may opt for a longer show.

For example, episodes of the Tim Ferriss Show usually range from 1–3 hours, and he releases two per week (which is quite a high frequency considering each episode’s depth).

Source

How long should I try with my podcast topic before I give up?

If you’ve been working on your podcast for a while, you may be wondering if you should give up.

Ultimately, it’s important to understand why you’re setting out to create this podcast. If you’re just doing it to make money, there are other ways you can make money much faster.

Podcasting is a long game, and it will take time to build. However, if you find that you’re learning a lot by teaching people and interviewing experts, it’s still worthwhile even if you don’t have any followers.

The Leveling Up podcast by Eric Siu was only generating nine downloads per day a year after consistent work on it, though today (about six years in), it generates more than two million downloads.

First, be patient and give it some time. If, after about six months of consistent content, you still don’t have an audience, reevaluate these factors:

Are there any other podcasts in your umbrella category?
Is your content truly unique?
Do you have a few people reaching out saying that your content is helping them?

If you know that there are other podcasts in your umbrella category, you should keep going with the podcast topic but consider changing your positioning.

Additionally, if there are other podcasts in the category and you don’t see traction, reevaluate if your content is truly unique.

Do a Google search of your latest podcast episode’s topic.

If you see that what you discussed in your episode is already said in at least 50% of the articles on Google, it’s probably not unique enough. (Note that while some of the concepts will be the same, you should have your own stories, case studies, etc. to give it a fresh perspective.)

Finally, if you have a few people reaching out to you raving about your content and podcast, keep going with it. You can always increase your frequency or improve your promotion strategies.

Grow personal relationships, one episode at a time

Today, there are very few channels that can capture an audience’s attention for more than a few seconds.

Even less common is a channel that can hold attention and isn’t saturated. In fact, I’d be interested to see any other channel that can do what podcasts can do.

They give you the opportunity to create a personal relationship with your audience and it doesn’t cost thousands of dollars to get started.

Now you should be ready to choose one of the podcast topics above and try it out for a few months — let us know how it goes.

By Tim Stoddart

Tim Stoddart is a managing partner at Copyblogger. For the past 8 years, Tim has been CEO of Stodzy Internet Marketing. He currently lives in Nashville with his wife and their pitbull named Alice.

Sourced from copyblogger

In News

Creators Will Now Be Able To Better Protect Their Pictures, Videos On Facebook And Instagram

December 17, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from Mashable India

Facebook recently announced that it’s widening the access to Rights Manager to give more creators an ability to better control their content on Facebook and Instagram. As a part of the new expansion, page admins would now be able to submit images and videos for rights protection. Creators would also be able to issue takedown requests for videos and images that are owned by them but are reuploaded on these platforms.

In case you aren’t aware, ‘Rights Manager’ is a powerful, highly customizable tool, which is built for people who want to control when, how, and where their content is shared across Facebook and Instagram. As posted on its blog, the ‘Collect Ad Earnings tool’ and expanding availability has also been improved which means more creators will be able to collect ad earnings from matching videos that also include in-stream ads.

A new filter view for spotting monetizable matches has been added along with a guide on how creators can get more monetization opportunities and exportable revenue reports. Page admins can submit an application for the content created by them that they want to protect.

There’s also a new in-stream ads toggle in the Creator Studio app that will let users easily manage their content and ads directly from their mobile phones. “We’ve expanded In-stream ads to Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, and Turkey, adding to the 45 countries where the in-steam program is already available,” states the blog.

It was back in September 2020 when Facebook had announced an update to its ‘Rights Manager’ tool that allowed photographers to claim ownership over their most popular images and track when these images had been used without their permission. Rights Manager for Images used image matching technology to help creators and publishers protect and manage their image content at scale.

Sourced from Mashable India

In News

Twitter Launches Disappearing Tweets That Vanish In A Day

December 17, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from News18 India

Twitter is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called Fleets globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts.

The company says the ephemeral tweets, which it calls fleets because of their fleeting nature, are designed to allay the concerns of new users who might be turned off by the public and permanent nature of normal tweets.

Fleets cant be retweeted and they wont have likes. People can respond to them, but the replies show up as direct messages to the original tweeter, not as a public response, turning any back-and-forth into a private conversation instead of a public discussion.

Twitter tested the feature in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea, before rolling it out globally.

Fleets are a lower pressure way to communicate fleeting thoughts as opposed to permanent tweets, Twitter executives Joshua Harris, design director, and Sam Haveson, product manager, said in a blog post.

The news comes the same day Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions from a Senate Judiciary Committee about how they handled disinformation surrounding the presidential election. Both sites have stepped up action taken against disinformation. Zuckerberg and Dorsey promised lawmakers last month that they would aggressively guard their platforms from being manipulated by foreign governments or used to incite violence around the election results and they followed through with high-profile steps that angered Trump and his supporters.

The new Fleets feature is reminiscent of Instagram and Facebook stories and Snapchats snaps, which let users post short-lived photos and messages. Such features are increasingly popular with social media users looking for smaller groups and and more private chats.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Sourced from News18 India

In News

Leadership Basics For Frontline Managers

December 16, 2020 No Comments

By Angela Kambouris

As the managerial glue of the workplace, frontline managers need these skills to succeed on behalf of themselves and their organizations.

When it comes to transforming an organization’s strategy into results, frontline managers are the linchpin of business success. Few roles demand technical knowledge, expertise, and soft skills such as clear communication, team building and resolving conflicts.

In her book Becoming a Manager, Harvard Business professor Linda A. Hill describes how managers are the cornerstone to sustaining quality, service, innovation and financial performance. As the primary face of leadership for the workforce, frontline managers serve as a talent pipeline for senior leadership roles and are an untapped resource for innovation.

Organizations today require a new approach to the development of frontline managers by identifying specific priorities, real-world tools and solutions that are integrated into the manager’s daily and weekly routines, and executive and organizational support. When investment in the leadership basics for frontline managers occurs, the organizational rewards can be more confident leaders, healthier and productive teams, more satisfied customers, a more agile organization, and a boost in financial performance for the business.

Here is how frontline managers can have a seat at the table and set up their own and the organization’s success.

Know thyself

Your understanding of yourself, how you see your values, passions, aspirations and how they fit with your environment. Your reactions and impact on others is an ongoing process of self-reflection and improvement. Alongside internal self-awareness, understanding how other people view you helps you become more attuned to the needs of others. You’re in a better position to manage your responses to situations more effectively. Leaders should explore where their biases lie and how they can break through these to view the world more realistically. Mentorship can be invaluable in supporting your progress, expanding your self-awareness, and stepping into a leader people strive to emulate.

Be the first domino

How often do you hear, “When is management going to get it right? They never listen.” The frontline manager must model the behaviour you wish to see in others. Rather than buying into the drama, diatribes, and emotional waste, adopt the role of rebuilder and healer to serve as the role model for others to follow. Leaders can engage in asking quality questions to transform negative energy into self-reflection, leading to better self-awareness and positive change. For instance, asking, “What could you do right now to help or how could we make this work together?” is far more empowering and brings calmness to the workplace.

Coach, not command

The Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” Report reinforces that employees want their supervisors to function like coaches who can leverage their strengths and open reciprocal communication channels. The role of a frontline leader is to foster an environment where individuals and teams thrive. Through coaching, leaders infuse positivity into the working areas, know their employee’s strengths and build their teams from those assets. Leaders create a space for celebrating accomplishments, manage reactions to stressful situations, recognize progress and actively listen to build trust and understanding within the team and organization.

Ignite insight and unlock human potential

Harvard Business Review article “The Leader as Coach” encourages leaders to ask questions that ignite insights in the other person and unlock their potential to maximize their own performance. Employees are human beings, and compassion is much needed in workplaces today. Leaders can grow team optimism, cultivate common goals, celebrate commonalities and differences in implementing the vision of the business.

Better serve people and the organization

A Harvard Business Review report, “Frontline Managers: Are They Given the Leadership Tools to Succeed?” uncovered that only 12% of respondents believe their organization invests adequately in the development of frontline managers. Sixty per cent of frontline managers never receive training for their first leadership role.

Crucial investment in managers is an investment in the entire organization. Frontline leaders require a leadership-focused training program to enhance soft skills strategically, develop better leadership competencies and strengthen decision-making capabilities.

Even though the training is one part of development, organizations can focus on understanding what frontline leaders do and embed development into their everyday work and routines. Organizations and individuals can define the developmental priorities that have the biggest impact on performance, identify top performers where employees can shadow them as they work, and identify trends and points in the workday where new capability-building measures can be added.

Lead with genuine care and empathy

People will not bring their best effort and ideas forward unless they work for leaders who authentically care about them, support and encourage them and help them breakthrough through challenging times. Wegman’s has shared how 90% of leaders define Wegmans as a psychologically and emotionally healthy place to work and 90% report that their direct supervisors demonstrate “a sincere interest in me as a person, not just an employee.” Wegman’s Chairman Danny Wegman and CEO Collen Wegman routinely visit the company’s over 100 stores to express their gratitude for how committed their staff are to the work they do.

Inspire people to learn, connect and progress

Mentoring circles are an easy and cost-efficient way to harness internal knowledge banks exponentially. They can improve culture by connecting people, increase the satisfaction of your people by allowing them to keep growing and saving you millions in preventable turnover.

A circle of contribution can foster personal and professional growth and can be used to recruit participants and manage projects that may lack resources or expertise. For instance, a focus group can test new initiatives and brainstorm innovative ways to support employees. Mentoring efforts can focus on industry challenges, a common goal or on a subject such as leadership development, onboarding new hires, or diversity and inclusion.

Employees are the superheroes

Exceptional leaders inspire others to be their best every day, and to place other’s needs ahead of but not at the expense their own needs. They exercise selfless leadership in working with others. Appreciation, praise, and recognition for a job well done can build raving fans, strengthen reputation, and brand equity. You do not need fancy software to celebrate strengths, the achievement of milestones, or any successes. It can be as simple as a handwritten appreciation card hand-delivered, hosting a Facebook Live to recognize people who help others or a staff prize of having dinner with the CEO.

Hilton, a global hotel chain developed a calendar that features 365 no and low cost easy-to-implement ideas to thank employees. Texas Health Resources recognizes every 5 years of each employee’s service by customizing a celebratory yearbook with a message of appreciation from the CEO and gestures of gratitude from employees at work. Barry-Wehmiller shines a light on individuals who significantly contribute to how they touch the lives of others through a peer-nominated process and involves a celebratory unique car to drive for a week. There are all kinds of creative ways to make frontline managers feel appreciated. Whatever time and resources you invest in this will pay back dividends.

Feature Image Credit: Tom Werner | Getty Images

By Angela Kambouris

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

Why are businesses still taking a shot in the dark when launching a new website?

December 16, 2020 No Comments

By Rich Chapman

Since being in digital I have seen a standard timeline for businesses developing their websites. Make a new one every four or five years to experience an evolutionary leap forwards.

Is this still the right thing to do given the technology and options available to us today?

Basically no, it was never a great option anyway. Building websites, in general, is a difficult task and these days, websites are key revenue drivers for businesses, making it increasingly risky if it goes wrong. I still see cases where organic rankings plummet and conversion rates drop after so much hope has been pinned on a new site launch. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of stress, a sense of achievement on launch day and then panic.

Nowadays there is so much more available to us to mitigate the risk of launching a new website. Yet it is still untapped and companies are reticent to make the additional investment which is a small percentage of the overall cost. We all need to feel we are getting a good deal right so its an element regularly dropped from proposals.

So how do we improve this gambling situation? We need to be able to see into the future and find out how a new site will perform on launch. Good news! We can! Well, sort of…

No, we don’t have a time machine… but we can pre-test a website to see how it performs before exposing it to our entire user base and business to the new unknown. In my experience a lot of stakeholders want to have input on designs and battle for site real estate, this then defines how the new website is designed, from internal opinion alone and HIPPOs. To avoid this trap there are two ways which can give unbiased insight:

User testing

User testing outside of your own web environment can give you a level of feedback and information you simply can’t get from internal stakeholders and outside help. Even as an experienced CRO I can’t tell you for sure which new design is going to be better than your current one. We have to ask user testers what they think.

There are various techniques such as preference tests where user testers will vote for their preferred version, this type of feedback is great at the design stage of a website build.

Another is a click test, this involves finding out what a user would click on first upon landing on the new design. This ensures users are engaging and clicking the call to action most relevant for the business.

One of my favourites is the five second flash test. Users are shown the new version for five seconds and then asked some non-leading open questions: “What does the company do?”, “What would you click on first?”, “Which page element stood out the most?”. The answers from this type of test tell us how scan readers interpret the new design. Businesses can also run this test on the current version and see how the answers compare.

Any of the above can settle design debates and give real information on what users will respond best to. Designs can be updated and retested until 90% of user testers prefer a version. Not so much a shot in the dark now.

A/B testing

The other option is to start testing new designs and website experiences on the live website through A/B testing software. The software enables us to send a percentage of live traffic (usually 50/50) to a new version which is measured against the original. So let’s say designers have followed an internal brief, come up with a new homepage design and some stakeholders like it and some don’t, that’s normal. To find out if the new design really is better (and who is right) it can be tested against the original.

These rounds of testing can be done piece by piece on different layouts, images, fonts, branding, journeys and more. Gradually this gives valuable information on how users respond to the new design and importantly, to change.

Top tip

If you have a large user base and a high amount of returning visitors you can let them know that you will be launching a new website. Send them emails with a launch date combined with a promotion maybe.

One step further is to create a beta site and get feedback from users before the big switch is done. Companies like the BBC and Facebook regularly use this technique. It is a staple in the gaming industry, gamers are invited to use a beta version knowing it might break. Their reward for giving feedback is early access and feeling like a VIP, the game producers get free insight and debugging, win win.

Round up

Adding user testing and a/b testing does make a web build a more lengthy and expensive process. However, from experience, it is worth it. Web site changes can be vanity driven and a “need” to be done at a fast pace leading to errors. Going with a user led approach may be longer but it will help safeguard the business.

It’s also a mindset change, moving from completely changing a site every three to five years to constant tested small changes and evolution. An iterative tested approach removes stress, big lump sum costs and keeps websites up to date.

By Rich Chapman

CRO consultant at Impression.

Sourced from The Drum

In News

‘Be Prepared for Anything’: Paul Smith on the Best Advice of His 50-Year Career

December 16, 2020 No Comments

By Chris Cotonou

Smith’s new foundation shares the wisdom he’s gleaned over five decades of buccaneering menswear.

“People tell me this is the good one,” laughs Sir Paul Smith. The legendary designer is casually remarking on the Companion of Honour award that, on the same day as his brand’s fiftieth anniversary, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon him—a rare distinction limited to only 65 Britons at any time. “It includes David Hockney, Attenborough, and Dame Judi Dench…” he explains. “Good company, eh?”

This year marks five decades since a 21-year-old Sir Paul grew his business from a ten-by-ten-foot shop in his hometown of Nottingham into hundreds of stores across the world. Today, Smith is recognized globally for classic cuts with whimsical, vibrant motifs and many-colored stripes, and inspiring generations of menswear designers. Anyone else might want to rest on those shiny laurels (even for a moment) but Smith isn’t one for stasis. On the very day the Queen’s honours arrived, he revealed Paul Smith’s Foundation, a digital resource that gathers his decades-worth of advice to support people in the creative industries.

It is just the latest in Smith’s career of ever-inventive moves. Another example: if you’re cruising down Melrose Avenue and spot a large, bright pink box dazzlingly sat between the drab buildings, that’s Paul Smith’s LA flagship. “We had to decide how to stand out,” he laughs. “You know, it’s one of the most Instagrammed buildings in the whole city?” Smith attributes such ideas to his interest in “lateral thinking”, something he traces to a lecture he saw by British philosopher Edward de Bono: “This advice took me from a small, provincial town shop owner to my first Paris fashion show.” Now, he hopes visitors to his foundation will be able to apply his advice to their own careers.

We spoke with Smith about the new foundation, the greatest lessons he’s learned and what’s in store for the next fifty years.

At left, a young Paul Smith and his wife, Pauline. Right, two looks from Smith’s forthcoming spring 2021 collection. Paul Smith

How has the past year been for you? Quite a year to celebrate an anniversary…

Rubbish! Usually, our HQ is full of people, but I’ve been here alone. I miss the atmosphere. Thankfully we had a fashion show in January and we were able to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary in Paris. The party was lots of fun. Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin was there, Bill Nighy and many others…Then, of course, October 9th was the anniversary, and on the very day, Phaidon released a Paul Smith commemorative book and I got another honour from the Queen! There is lots to reflect on, but I haven’t changed much after all the success. I’m still the lad from Nottingham who would cycle home to eat my beans on toast.

You didn’t always set out to be a fashion designer. How did that happen?

Right. I wanted to be a professional cyclist. I’m still immersed in that world, actually. [Tour de France winner] Bradley Wiggins was here just the other day. The room I’m currently in has five bicycles, and there are more next door. But after an accident at an early age, life took a new direction. My entry into fashion all started when I was 21 years old, after meeting my current wife Pauline in 1967. She was training as a fashion designer and would teach me how to make clothes in the delicate manner of the Parisian couturiers—how to properly cut a garment, and the way it drapes on the body. These are things they don’t teach you today, and she gave me a masterclass on our kitchen table.

How did the idea for the foundation come about?

I’ve seen a lot of innovative designers crumble because the ideas were great, but the product or thinking wasn’t right. They didn’t push or do more on the business side because no one told them. Ten years ago, the thought came to me that I’d like to help young creatives in some way to learn these things. And to be honest, I’m excited to see what the foundation can become. It’s still new but there are lots of plans for travel scholarships and mentoring ahead, so it’s worth keeping an eye on. I just love building strong connections and supporting creativity; we already train or give work experience to students from the likes of Saint Martin’s and various other schools, so why not share the advice with more people?

PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 19: (L to R) Bill Nighy, Susan Sarandon wearing Paul Smith, Sir Ian McKellen wearing Paul Smith and Dame Anna Wintour attend an intimate dinner in celebration of 50 years of Paul Smith at Le Trianon on January 19, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Paul Smith)

Bill Nighy, Susan Sarandon, Sir Ian McKellen and Anna Wintour at Smith’s 50th-anniversary celebration. David M. Benett

How did you whittle fifty years of wisdom down to what we see on the website?

In my office, on my desk, I have a folder of ‘middle-of-the-night-notes’. I often get jet-lagged traveling for work and would struggle to sleep, and at hotels like the Chateau Marmont, they leave you these small notebooks by the bed. In the middle of the night, I would just jot down random, honest thoughts. You know, positive things. Over the years, I saved them in this folder, never expecting them to be read. And one day, a member of our team pointed over and took an interest in the folder. After flipping through all those notes from Tokyo to Los Angeles and beyond, we decided it was the right place to start.

If you had to choose the greatest lesson you’ve learned over the past 50 years, what would it be?

When I was designing fabrics at a mill in Bradford [northern England], I was advised: “When people offer you something, respond with enthusiasm, but wait until the next day to give your answer.” Whatever sounds amazing at the time comes into focus the morning after. Throughout my career, I’ve been offered incredible projects but I’ve had to think smart and consider what’s appropriate, irrespective of money.

It’s the planning side of creativity I mentioned: the ‘Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday’ of invoices and emails, that allows for ‘Friday, Saturday, Sunday’ to be filled with your glorious creative ambitions. Our motto at Paul Smith is “Never Assume”. Be prepared for anything. When I was made a knight, it was placed on my coat of arms. It’s a left-field idea, sure, but the motto below is there as a reminder, an outlook that has got us to where we are today.

A look from Smith’s first runway show and from his current fall-winter 2020 collection. Paul Smith

The fashion industry has changed so much in 50 years—do you still find it as interesting as when you started?

I still enjoy it, but that’s because I’ve remained independent. I’m lucky to be able to make my own decisions, decide what’s best for the brand without being leveraged by a financial institution of some sort. Fifty years later, customers still love us for us, for what we offer. We don’t just get one age group, but somehow draw in everyone. And I’ve tried to introduce a young, diverse team in the brand to help steer things along.

You should always have good manners in business, including fashion. I learned that from Dad. It was his way: to treat others the way you want to be treated. To be a gentleman, not a snob. We prefer to keep it fun here. It’s fashion, not heart surgery.

You’ve accomplished so much already. What’s something you’d like to achieve in the next 50 years?

Yes, I’m going for the ‘Full English’ of royal honours! I’m joking—seriously, I’m happy with the now. It’s the continuity that gets me most excited, what I love most. I’m always learning. I also want to make sure that I’m there for the people in my life. I’m sure [my wife] Pauline will continue to be an inspiration, she always has been. We love each other. There’s this thing she says to keep me grounded, and it always sticks in mind—it helps me carry on and improve. Fifty years on, she’ll say: “Nobody cares how good you used to be.” And you know what? She’s right.

Feature Image Credit: Paul Smith

By Chris Cotonou

Sourced from Robb Report

In News

In Business, Don’t Follow Your Passions — Discover Them

December 15, 2020 No Comments

By Danny Star

“Follow your passion” can have different meanings. It could mean “pursue a career in the arts,” or something else that may not be traditionally considered lucrative or sustainable. The phrase could also mean “do what you want, and don’t worry about consequences.”

In recent years, there’s been a strain of business advice that basically says don’t follow your passions. Instead, the idea is that you make a lot of money and then do what you want on the side.

In my experience, working hard revealed exactly what my passions were. Then, I could incorporate those into what I and my team do.

Like Attracts Like

You’ve probably heard some version of that, too. Essentially, the idea is that you’ll come across people in your life who are similar to you. Perhaps they believe similarly or act similarly, and so forth.

When I started Website Depot, we wanted clients. Through hard work and dedication, we were able to develop a client base. Sure, we had clients in all kinds of industries. But, after a while, we realized something: many of our clients were detox and rehab facilities. This isn’t something we planned on. While we were grateful for it, it’s not like we intentionally sought them out over clients in other industries.

In a way, it caught us by surprise. Why did we have so many clients in this industry? Then, after we did some reflecting, we realized that it wasn’t a surprise after all.

The Makings Of A Connection

The rehab industry isn’t very similar to the full-service digital marketing one. However, there are real similarities. For lack of a better phrase, it’s a “people” industry, too. In rehab, detox and rehab professionals have to be able to talk to and connect with their clients. They need to be able to evaluate them and help them to put together a plan. Through constant, thoughtful hard work, they put their clients in a position to be able to ultimately succeed.

When looked at through that prism, running a rehab facility and running an online marketing company have quite a few similarities indeed. Now, no one is comparing the work a detox and rehab facility does with that of an online marketing company. Their stakes are much higher; they’re helping people to deal with the underlying trauma that causes addiction. We’re helping folks to rank higher on Google. That said, once we thought about it, we realized exactly why we’ve drawn so many rehab facilities. Then, we decided to do even more.

In order to truly discover your passion, it’s important to be on the lookout and make deeper-level connections. Look deeper beyond what’s on the surface and use it to fuel your next move.

Where Passion Can Lead

Years ago, I started a site, an offshoot of my company called Reputation Rehab. The idea was that we would “rehab” a client’s reputation, should it have been sullied online, etc. It was always there but we never did much with it. But, after working with so many rehab facilities, I began to see how we could do more. So, I hired mental health professionals to my staff. If it was good for our clients, it should be good for us. Then, we rebooted. Now, we help more detox, rehab and mental health facilities than ever to reach more people.

Be open to where passion can lead. It could very well lead you to an old project or a new venture that drives your business forward.

How This Applies to Your Passion

Maybe, when you started your company, you knew exactly what you wanted it to be. More than just successful, you wanted to make a difference, one way or the other. Or, perhaps you knew what you wanted to do, but beyond “be successful,” you didn’t necessarily have an end goal in mind.

If you have a moment, look around to see who you’re attracting to your company. You could look at your clients, but also your staff, audience, investors, customers, and more. Do they have something in common? Are they who you want to bring into your life?

After all, we’ve all heard so much about the threat of “burnout,” of feeling “unfulfilled.” For many, that’s become even more prevalent during the pandemic. If you don’t feel fulfilled by what your business is doing, who it’s attracting or where it’s headed, of course you’re going to feel burned out and empty. That’s just human nature. If that’s the case, then you want to take steps to change that.

If you have clients whose work you believe in, think about what it is about them that appeals to you. Then, reflect on why they came to you in the first place. You might even want to talk to them about it. “You were the best in your field” might be why they initially reached out to you, but odds are that’s not why they’ve stayed with you.

From there, you can take real, tangible steps toward figuring out exactly where your passions lie. Then, you can go after them with all your heart and business aptitude.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Danny Star

Danny Star, CEO and Founder of Website Depot Digital Marketing Agency, has helped hundreds of small businesses grow and expand. Read Danny Star’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Ask the Future 50: what qualities will make the marketer of the future?

December 15, 2020 No Comments

By Sam Bradley

This week we reveal the Future 50 for 2020, our list of the best new brand-side talent from across the industry. But while celebrating the milestones our phenomenal 50 have already achieved in their careers, we also wanted to pick the brains of these marketing leaders of tomorrow.

And so, as the industry moves forward after a tumultuous year, the first question we put to our Future 50 is…

What qualities does the marketer of the future need to possess?

Harriet Lowe, portfolio marketing executive, ITV

They need to be inquisitive and never afraid to ask why. I think it’s really important that marketers of the future recognise they might have a different opinion or point of view to others in the room, and often by sharing this point of view great work can come from it. Although we can all learn a lot from people around us, we should never lose our own curiosity to challenge the status quo and be the most authentic versions of ourselves.

Mazen Mroueh, global digital manager, Friesland Campina

Marketers need to adapt and have an open-minded approach towards new market and technology updates. As a start, they need to be technically proficient, hybrid, agile, flexible to changes, creative, and disruptive. But also, they need to be socially responsible, honest, ethical, fair, transparent and direct with consumers.

Chad West, director, global marketing and communications, Revolut

Technical skills: you need to be able to source your own data, build your own dashboards and set up your own departmental processes. This involves learning to code basic languages and familiarising yourself with all the latest software in the market. Also, business acumen. Simply bringing customers into the funnel is not enough. You need profitable customers, which means you need to build a process to monitor and report on customer engagement and customer lifetime value.

Benson Mensah-Bonsu, sports partner manager, Twitter

Being agile is key in the long run. It’s hard to consider taking risks during the pandemic when many businesses have folded and people are furloughed/unemployed. Prior to Covid-19, I’ve seen marketers bet big on things that led to underwhelming results with minimal pivoting options to reach their target. Being agile with a minimal viable product allows you to continuously build and optimise your marketing strategy in response to the current fragile yet ever-changing state of the economy.

Elena del Boca, brand manager, GHD Italy

A modern, post-Covid marketer should have a strong ability to manage at 360° the engagement with consumers. The omnichannel model is a real challenge for brands and consumers today are used to navigating from online to offline and vice versa through new and different platforms. And their expectations keep increasing. We may call it the ’fusion marketing’ era, where the key is to follow the consumers, stay along with them in whatever space they are. The enormous availability of data is crucial today to execute this 360° strategy – it is mandatory for each marketers today.

Elizabeth Stone, marketing manager, for brand partnerships, John Lewis & Partners

Above all, marketers need curiosity. As customer champions, we should be constantly evaluating our environment and our customers’ evolving needs. We need to examine the wider world so we can identify trends, seek opportunities, spot risks and ask ’why?’ By doing this, we’ll generate better and more original ideas. Second to this is taking (calculated) risks to create bold marketing and obtain an advantage. You’re not going to make your brand famous by playing it safe. The qualities marketers need don’t change, only knowledge and skills. If you stay curious, you’ll pick those up along the way.

Shannon Ross, associate creative director, Spotify

The marketer of the future will need to possess compassion. We are now of an age where superficial ideas are so easily seen through, with the pandemic and social media holding a mirror to brands. The future marketers are people who will set the right tone for the world they wish to live in. The future marketers are those who identify the human truth in their target audience, zeroing in on people first and numbers second. That is how you move the needle on a brand. That is how you mould the future.

Brianna Foster, social editor, Pinterest

The main quality a future marketer possesses is the ability to authentically connect to culture. Marketing is all about connections – connections to a feeling, a friend, an aesthetic or even an avenue to the impossible. It’s not just one thing, but rather an evolving, fluid entity. When you think of marketing in a box, you don’t see the whole picture. A marketer of the future can take any preconceived notion of what marketing is and completely throw it out the window to create new concepts based on their own experiences, ideas and desired outcomes.

Sean Cook, senior social media manager, News UK

Innovation for me is particularly key when tackling marketing. At News UK, we pride ourselves on being first to new industry platforms, and being from a social media background, spotting new tools and trends in the market – and being first to test them within the company – is key for me to market our game in new ways. Over the last year, Dream Team was the first News UK brand to trial TikTok, quickly expanding to over 65,000 followers in a matter of months. This gave us a new, younger audience to push to our product.

Maeve Delahunt, business marketing lead, Snap

I truly believe adaptability will be the most important quality for a marketer, or indeed any professional. Living in such unknown territory, we need to stay flexible and nimble. We learnt so much in the first few weeks of lockdown alone when we were forced to completely reshift and strategize our marketing efforts almost overnight. By remaining adaptable and open to fresh perspectives, marketers can react to unforeseen challenges and capitalize on opportunities, future-proofing themselves and the organisations they work for.

Jack Mackie, social media manager, News UK

Adaptability. Markets and audiences are constantly developing, with new, innovative ways to communicate springing up almost every day. It’s essential to stay on top of trends and find out exactly what works for both you and your audience. While it’s always worth trying out new methods and strategies, don’t be afraid to move on when something isn’t working. Equally, never allow yourself to become too comfortable – just because something is working, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

Franny Goldberg, associate director, content growth strategy and analytics, SiriusXM

A willingness to fail. As the digital landscape continues to grow, with new platforms popping up daily and algorithms changing constantly, we have to be willing to sometimes fail first, before we find true success. I believe testing is more important than ever, whether it be creative, targeting, messaging etc, and in order to gain significant insight, we must be comfortable with the idea that we may not hit our goals on the first try. Often you learn more from why something didn’t work versus knowing why it did.

Chris Lu, regional head of communications and marketing, AnyMind Group

There is an increasingly blurred line between PR and marketing, and the future marketer will need to play on both sides of the equation by finding a balance. Effective PR can become effective marketing for a business, while effective marketing can also become effective PR for a business – for example, the content marketing push were doing for influencer marketing in Asia (since June 2020) has not just driven customer interest, but also greater product branding, clarity and audience perception.

Amanda Walker, senior campaign advisor, Sydney Water

Be brave. My biggest challenge is getting people to see value in challenging ideas and doing things differently. I don’t believe in doing things just because it’s the way they’ve always been done. I’m not saying throw everything out, but having a brave mindset and the courage to look at things in a different way. To test and learn, have an ear to the ground, try new things – this is what inspires me. It definitely requires passion and a strong gut-level instinct but sometimes we need to set aside just examining the data and take a leap.

Rachel Flynn, brand awareness executive, Worldwide Cancer Research

Emotional intelligence. We treat everyone like we would ourselves. Since March 2020, we’ve checked in with our friends, assured them that their money’s well looked after and that there’s a light at the end of this dark tunnel, helping them imagine a world free of the ’two Cs’. But to do this successfully, we had to put ourselves in their shoes and put our fears aside so we could serve our friends better. We cared, and it worked; empathy and sensitivity will cure our friends’ anxiety and uncertainty.

Laura Scott, brand customer strategy manager, Lloyds Banking Group

I started my journey with the group in customer-facing roles and every job I have gone into since I have been told the strength I bring to the team is my ability to truly put myself in the customer’s shoes and champion on the customer’s behalf. It is important now more than ever to truly understand and empathise with our customers, building on our experience and understanding to get as close to the customer as possible. The skill to truly understand and cater to customers’ changing needs is the core quality any marketer will need going forward.

You can see the full list of our fantastic Future 50 and read about just why we think they’re the future of the industry here.

By Sam Bradley

Sourced from The Drum