Five Ways To Build A More Trusting Team

Five Ways To Build A More Trusting Team

As leaders, we are always searching for new ways to build our teams to be more efficient, productive, and engaged in the work environment. After the ‘great resignation’ in 2021, it’s crucial that you create a culture that cultivates harmony and is in touch with the lived experiences of each team member. Most leaders will tell you that managing employees and contractors can be one of the most difficult aspects of our roles. But there are some tested reminders for leaders to consider that can make all the difference.

1. Show an interest in your employees' lives

It's more important than ever to humanize your workplace culture. Take a real interest in the lives of your employees and contractors. It will make a difference when they need something from you. You will already know the circumstances they are facing and will have a more complete picture of what you can and cannot do for them. 

 

Also, people like to connect with others who have something in common with them. Chances are, you have something in common with every member of your team. Find what it is, and nurture that relationship.

2. Communicate 

As a leader, you need to facilitate a culture focused on open communication. Most work environments will continue to involve some level of remote or hybrid work which makes your culture of communication even more important. Effective communication is fostered when you communicate with your team in a real, friendly manner. 

3. Lead by example

Make sure you don’t just sit in your office all day and bark orders at your staff. Get in there and do some of the work. Getting your hands dirty with the creation of client work will help you remember why you are in this business, and it will also show your team that you are part of the team, not just the boss.

4. Maintain transparency from the top down

This one can feel tougher, but it’s more important than ever. We’ve always been taught that the leader needs to be positive and only share certain information with the rest of the team. While this remains true to an extent, being more transparent actually brings your team members closer and allows them to trust you more. This trust is especially important to build in relationships that are remote or hybrid. It’s easier to feel distant (and less trusting) when you don’t work face-to-face. 

 

Keep your team updated on the status of the company, even when it’s difficult. Let them know some of the sacrifices you’ve made to make this work, and they will respect you and be willing to do more for you.

5. Hire the right fit.

This one may seem obvious, but consider looking for people not solely based on their credentials. Yes, your new hires will need to possess a certain skill set to do their jobs, but they also need the right mindset, attitude, and interest in working with you. We’re still feeling the ripple effects of the great resignation which means there are more candidates to select from. 

 

Hire people who show a genuine interest in being part of the team and who are positive about the company and your clients. Make sure you look for individuals who enjoy what they do, and who have expressed real enthusiasm for you as a leader, your company, and your clients. Taking time to hire the right fit makes a huge difference.

 

Following these basic ideas can create a company culture of trust and happiness, as well as a true desire to perform well for you and your clients, which not only directly impacts the level of productivity but also elevates the work product.

An earlier version of this article was previously published on Forbes in September 2018.


Social Media

Social Media Strategy That Works

Social Media Strategy That Works

When I started out as a Social Media/Marketing Manager I realized right away that you need to be organized to an extent I wasn’t prepared for. Winging it only makes things take longer and makes you stress out. As part of the marketing team at @revenue, I have learned some handy strategies for not only laying out campaigns but how to make them take flight. 

 

Let’s talk about Campaigns.

 

Campaigns are a whole different animal from regular social media posts, which are usually one-off posts not pertaining to an ongoing awareness campaign or event. Campaigns are preplanned, precalculated, and usually, a series of social media posts thought through to the maximum extent. A well-thought-through campaign includes the goals of the posts, specific target audience, and message. Campaigns make reviewing the metrics all that easier, too. Helping you track what’s working and what’s not. And you know how we love to try it, track it, and change it- especially when it comes to the ever-changing world of social media.

 

Here are some basic steps to creating an effective social media campaign. 

 

  1. The first part of laying out a social media campaign is to do some deep thinking on the goals and objectives. What is the purpose of the new campaign?  What does your client have going on right now that would make a good campaign? Are they offering a workshop or class in a couple of months? Then now’s the time to get started with planning. They say that you’re 40% closer to reaching your goals when you lay them out and get specific, so try to use SMART goals when creating a new campaign. 

 

  1. The 5 W’s - When creating a new campaign, you want to make sure you are answering the basic “Ws” of Who, What, When, Where & Why’s of the campaign. These fundamental 5 W’s cover all the bases. 

Why - why are you creating the content? What is your goal? How will this benefit the business?

Who - is your audience?  Being as specific here as possible is key.

What - do you want this content to achieve? 

When - when and how are you going to develop the content, and how long will the campaign run for? 

Where - are we going to publish, and on what platforms? Remember that each platform has slightly different strategies so make sure you customize your content for each.

 

  1. Next, you’re going to want to get very clear on who your audience is, what tone your messaging will take on, and the time frame - including the start and end date of the campaign. 

 

  1. Then you delve into the nitty-gritty, such as what hashtags you’ll use to get the campaign the most exposure, and what link and CTA you’ll be using. You might be thinking that this is all just a huge waste of time, just post it already, BUT trust me, you’re going to love working this way once you start and you’ll never go back. 

 

  1. Each campaign should have its own aesthetic/look. For example, I have a client who does many things, and one of those things is hosting a monthly writers group, where she helps aspiring writers become published authors. For her writer's group, we are using Gif’s instead of branded designs, to stand out and grab her audience's attention in a different way.  We aren’t using Gifs on any other campaign or other posts on her platforms. Another campaign could be solely focused on client testimonials and should include a branded image with a direct quote or review. Campaigns should vary from each other but always try to stay within brand colors, as you don’t want your profiles to be inconsistent in the brand. It’s best to have an overall cohesive look for your social posts, so following a clear brand guidelines document is always advisable.

 

6. Last, the best way to track the metrics of any campaign is to have the right software - this alone makes it worth it. At @revenue, we use Sprout Social for our social media publishing as well as their thorough analytics and metrics features. If you have an interest in using Sprout, please reach out to us for a special introduction. Using a platform that provides media tagging and allows you to create & label campaigns is the easiest way to review metrics, such as engagement metrics, to see what’s resonating with your audience, what’s not, and where to put your ad dollars. 

 

In conclusion, campaigns will make your ad money count. Who wants to throw money at something and see how much sticks? No one. 

 

If you need any help with your marketing, sales or branding strategy, give AtRevenue a call. 

We are happy to help you find a way to make your social media, marketing and sales work for your business. 


How Narrowing Your Target Audience Will Expand Your Market Share

How Narrowing Your Target Audience Will Expand Your Market Share

When you started your business, your first step was obviously to develop your product or service. Right behind that, you likely started to identify who your target customer is: their age, what they look like, where they live, what they do for a living, their income
. When you get to the bottom of this target buyer, they probably pretty closely resemble you and your friends, right?

This isn’t uncommon. Often, a buyer persona or a ground-level look at a desired target audience will be pretty flat and lack specificity. Certainly, recognizing basic demographics is helpful, but to enhance your processes and results, you have to get more specific. Your first shot at your target consumer is probably a superficial look at a generalized individual — a look at someone who’s everyone and no one at the same time — and you’ll have a really hard time getting anywhere with this person.

So once you’ve landed on “Male, 30-45, married, middle class, interests include DIY projects, lawn care, and pick-up hockey games,” where do you go from there? 

To properly understand your core demographic, you need to create a “Client Avatar”. In creating this avatar, you’ll define your audience as a series of single individual “characters,” who most closely resemble both your most active customers as well as those you wish to attract. The Client Avatar is made up of various pieces of demographic information, and you want to be sure you are as clear and precise as possible. Use these four identifiers to focus in on who you’re looking for.

1. Age

Thinking outside the box when it comes to your buyers’ age ranges can bring you more creative ideas. Consider the Pedialyte phenomenon: a drink that was made for dehydration in young children is often used by adults in the same way sports drinks are. In turn, Pedialyte updated their marketing to speak directly to hungover adults, and they developed new products (think: branded t-shirts and powder packets to mix in with water) to serve this new audience. Consider how you can skip the highly saturated 18-34 market and offer your product or service to a different demographic and the results it could yield. Research your competitors and look into the demographics of people who are seeking products and services similar to yours. This will help you narrow down the “why” of your target age range and the products they look for, and help you speak more intentionally to that audience.

2. Cultural Identifiers

Once you have a solid understanding of your age ranges and what their interests are, you need to take a step back and review additional cultural identifiers that narrow down the picture of an Avatar further. A product can appeal to a range of cultures for different reasons. Consider how your product or service meets the needs of a variety of communities — and how your communication speaks to people, too. Bringing cultural awareness and diversity into your messaging, product, and service will enhance both your efficacy as a brand and your customer experience.

3. Income and Willingness To Purchase

Income is a piece of your target audience puzzle, but you can leverage it even more strategically when you consider a buyer’s willingness to purchase.  While you certainly want to do some research on the income levels of the audience you have formed thus far, there are more factors associated with willingness to purchase than their level of income. Motivation is a big factor in making decisions for purchase. If your product truly answers a real need, there will be more reason for your audience to buy. A person with income outside your target may still look into your service if it’s a high-demand product for them. For example, a serious runner may purchase an expensive running shoe that may be outside their means if it affords them the comfort and support they need for their runs. This can be true in a variety of industries; willingness to purchase can outweigh disposable income.

4. What They Actually Like

What does your audience actually like? Are their consumer decisions a result of their actual interests, or are they just things they feel like they’re supposed to like or consume? Invest in actually identifying your target market’s interests and wants. These can make a huge difference in how you choose to communicate. Dive deeper into what other brands they purchase, what media outlets they use, and where they shop. Learning these behaviors will help you gain a more well-rounded picture of who your potential buyers are. 

When brands take risks and expand their perception of who their real audiences are, they can find new ways to engage with those consumers and make sure that none of their potential leads are falling through the cracks. This more detailed personal discovery can lead to more intentional messaging, wider outreach, and more successful results, because when you really look at who your audience is, you’ll probably find the missing piece your marketing needs.

 

An earlier version of this article was previously published on Forbes in August, 2018.


What will 2022 Look Like?

What will 2022 Look Like?

Business owners have spent the past two years navigating a pandemic, supply shortages, employee shortages and cash flow issues. Many have survived by pivoting their service offerings, or pivoting again to meet more current demands. When it comes to running a small business, this is just part of the game, but if we are being honest, 2020 and 2021 have caused some ulcers. 

 

As we round the corner of Q4, we start to look at what the new year will look like - and many are afraid of what it might bring. While we are all hoping for some sense of previously known normalcy, it may not be in the cards. 

 

Trends predicted to continue well into next year and beyond include:

 

  • Hybrid events and Zoom meetings are just part of the way we meet with each other and communicate now. 
  • Work From Home/Hybrid options- More companies are offering more WFH options and will need to find more ways to engage virtually with their workforce.
  • Advances in AI and virtual technology will help companies combat shortages in labor, and help us all find new ways to escape.
  • Distance learning is part of our Educational system now. Many parents are finding better solutions for their children than the typical school day, and this changes their work/life balance dramatically. 

 

Small businesses have felt these pivots and changes more than the big guys, and that’s not about to change. Studies show that small businesses need to adapt faster, and embrace more technology and have a solid plan to move forward into 2022. 

 

The number one thing all this change has impacted? Revenue. Since the pandemic began, revenues have been falling, and business owners are cutting budgets and salaries to make up the difference. As we enter 2022, there is a better way.  

 

Now, as things begin to stabilize, business owners can look at the coming year as an opportunity to make up what missed revenue. How?  By being intentional. 

 

Intentional about what?

  • Goal Setting - I know, it’s been hard to set goals for a while, but now is the time to sit down, dig in and look at where we are realistically. Chances are your revenues have dipped and your big goals feel far away- but that’s no reason to panic or give up. Now is the time to think about what you really want to accomplish in the next year and put together a plan for getting there. 
  • Budgets- Now that you have a plan, the reality is that you have to figure out how to budget for that plan. Take into account your overhead and capital expenses and start looking at what areas you can give more budget to- remember to keep this focused on the areas that increase your revenue and help you meet your goals. 
  • Fractional Teams-  After you’ve realized there just isn’t enough money in the budget to do all the things you want to do (it’s inevitable- sorry). Don’t panic. Do some research on how working with fractional teams can save you money while increasing your bottom line. Some of the best fractional teams are accounting, and marketing teams who cost 30- 50% less than an in-house team and get you the same, if not better results.  Our fractional CMO offering provides senior level strategy and implementation, so you get more direct impact and revenue for the budget. 
  • CRM and Automations - If you don’t have a functional CRM that houses all of your sales pipeline and contacts, now is the time to invest in one. Getting all this organized and having a place to clearly see your financial forecasting is going to be a lifesaver. Additionally, many CRM systems have built in automations for reminders, appointment setting and follow up emails- all of which saves you a ton of time. 

 

The coming year shouldn’t be scary, it should be an opportunity to take a look at the bigger picture, and congratulate ourselves on our adaptability and success during these past two tumultuous years. Now we are in a space where we can set some intentions, and carry them forward. Finding the right partners to meet your goals is paramount. If you have questions about how a fractional marketing team can work with you to create an intentional marketing strategy that actually impacts your revenue goals - give us a call. 


Creativity in Processes: Tools & Tactics

Creativity in Processes: Tools & Tactics

I am not an artist. I can’t draw, paint, or even write as well as I envision in my mind. But that hasn't left me out of the marketing world- because it turns out even in developing processes you can be creative. Some of us (me) use our creativity not in a typical artistic manner but in the development of efficient processes and operational SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).  

Hang in there. I promise it’s not as boring as it sounds. Having a standard process in all aspects of your business helps you run more efficiently and effectively and believe it or not, keeps your team happy and proactive.  Who couldn't use more of that?! 

So, what are some ways you can be creative in your process management? First and foremost, you need to work through what type of project management philosophy works for you and your team. 

Creative Project Management Styles:

There are several styles of project management - including Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, and Six Sigma to name a few. Many project managers have a style they prefer, and tend to stick to that as a primary means of managing a team. However, taking into account the different personalities, learning styles and array of job functions on a team- sometimes it works best to be a little more creative. For example, we use a combination of Waterfall and Agile in our systems. 

 

To simplify: Waterfall project management involves working in calculated waves, with each step being dependent on the one before it, and a centralized Project Manager (PM)  taking care of the steps behind the scenes. Sometimes this can slow a process down over time so, combining this system with another alleviates a lot of headaches.  In our case we have combined Agile as a PM ethos, meaning we are flexible in how the processes can change and then update our SOPs as needed. While there is still a centralized PM leading the overall project, there is a strong sense of collaboration and ownership within the project team. Combining these has changed the way we work. Our systems are proven and step and repeat but we have flexibility and collaboration along the way- which is how we are able to get so much done so quickly. 

The best tool we have discovered to manage our processes is Teamwork. This tool was specifically designed with the concept that project management can be creative and therefore is adaptable to any of the project management styles you prefer.. Teamwork allows us to create overall workflows and task templates that apply to our specific SOPs, but also allows processes to be augmented or adjusted based on the realities and needs of real life execution. Everyone in the system has the capability to see what tasks are dependent on other tasks and team members, and it allows us to work more efficiently and collaboratively. 

Once you have chosen a style or combination of styles that work for you and your team, you are ready to move forward into making sure all of this theory works in real life. The first step is to evaluate your overall time management and what tools will work best. 

Time Management

Whenever I think of creative time management I envision the white rabbit running around like crazy insisting that he is late for a very important date. And, let’s be honest, we all have moments (days, weeks- months- 2020?!) like that. The key is to be prepared and flexible in your time management and build in time for fire fighting. 

The key to effective and disciplined time management is that you have to get a little creative in how you prepare and you have to develop a routine to keep you engaged and focused, not to mention motivated. 

We use a routine based approach to preparing our days, weeks and months of work, including daily stand up meetings to discuss the day's key initiatives, and regular check in meetings for small groups and the company as a whole. Communication and collaboration is important when establishing a time management system. Keeping everyone on the same page helps dictate appropriate deadlines and helps every individual plan out their work life. 

As for planning out our work lives, we “practice what we teach” by following the time management techniques discussed in our workshops.  These include intention and goal setting, and the combination of digital and paper tools to help you declutter your brain and overcome the stress. 

Yes, I did just say digital AND paper tools. Because believe it or not, writing stuff down helps you remember more than typing. As it happens a big piece of the time management puzzle is actually being able to remember all the things you need to do. (extra hint: it also helps make those goals a reality.) 

Our team uses the Franklin Covey system and personally, I love it. It allows me to prioritize my big tasks based on my larger goals, and I get a clear vision of the day's work, the needs for the next week and beyond and it allows me to create blocked time for when the fire drills happen. 

Blocked time? Yes. These are often flexible periods of your day when you can tackle a specific task or set a general time aside to cover multiple smaller tasks.  Blocking time helps overcome the stress of feeling like you just don't have enough time to get everything done. It also allows for you to see where in your day you can move things around if and when a fire drill occurs. Extra hint: nothing is so important that it needs to be resolved in less than 30 mins. Breathe and take your time to resolve issues as they arise.

 

By being creative in your processes and sharing the successful processes with your entire team, you will notice everyone becomes less stressed and more willing to be proactive in their roles and beyond- which- let’s face it- isn’t that the ultimate goal? A proactive and happy team? 

 

 

 


Six Ways Reading Fiction Makes Us Better Marketers

Six Ways Reading Fiction Makes Us Better Marketers

Business owners and entrepreneurs are always doing research behind the scenes to get a leg up on the marketing tools and strategies that will help them reach more people. We comb the internet for insights on the next big social media platform and what kinds of content are performing best. We have our favorite trade publications and podcasts to keep up with industry trends. We also fill our bookshelves with the newest thought leadership in sales and marketing, productivity, business strategy, leadership and whatever else is abuzz in our networking circles. While all of these resources get at important information we can use to make better decisions for our own projects, they have their limitations.

 

Pure storytelling, also known as fiction, often gets pushed down to the lowest priority in the TBR list. We wait for a literal rainy day or an airplane trip to “read for pleasure.” But diving into those made-up worlds of fantasy, romance, mystery and suspense (or a character-driven classic) will make more of an impact on your marketing skills than you might expect. In fact, we have a few readers on our team of marketing nerds!

 

Successful marketing is all about telling an interesting and relatable story through the various mediums at your disposal; reading more fiction will help you sharpen the communication tools in your marketing toolkit.

1. Growth Through Creativity

First of all, there are a ton of work performance and life benefits to be gained by simply letting our minds wander. But with the help of a well-written story, you can learn more about human interaction, visit faraway places and pick up turns of phrase you’ve never heard before. By seeing the world (even a made-up one) through someone else’s eyes, your subconscious mind gains a deeper understanding of how others outside of yourself interact with the world and each other.

2. Improved Communication

As you plow through a work of creative writing, your brain absorbs new ways to communicate more clearly. You may expand your vocabulary, discover more precise ways of stating ideas or create more connections between related concepts. Each of these benefits creates neural pathways that will improve your own written and verbal communication. As you develop an appetite for good books, you may notice your speech patterns shift and your written communications coming more easily, in a more concise fashion. 

3. Developed Cultural Awareness

You’ve probably noticed that empathy is becoming just as much of a hot topic in marketing as authenticity was just a few years ago. Reading works by authors of different backgrounds featuring characters with different identities and personalities is an effective way to socialize yourself with points of view that are different from your own. You may even catch glimpses into historical and cultural perspectives that still play a role in society today. If you’re more of a fantasy buff, that’s valuable too! Reading about dragons and wizards may not directly emulate reality, but allowing yourself to understand a completely different culture will open your mind to other possible experiences. With each read, your muscle memory for empathy will grow stronger..

4. Better Concentration and Focus

One of the first things we develop as young readers is a greater attention span for concentration and focus. That benefit still applies for adults! As a business owner, you are constantly bombarded by notifications and distractions that can keep you from working on the important things—like client work and your marketing materials. Regular reading will strengthen your defenses against the day-to-day noise so you can stay focused and do higher quality work in less time. The best stories will pull you in and keep you spellbound until the very last page; when you can work with that kind of dedication, your clients will notice a difference!

5. A Stronger Connection with Others

Reading brings us closer together with others who share similar interests and read the same books! No matter what genres or authors you gravitate to, chances are you will find others sooner or later who share that appreciation. Imagine kicking off a conversation with “I was just reading this great detective novel...have you read any good mysteries lately?” instead of the same old “What brings you to this networking event?” You will find yourself having more interesting conversations and getting to know people on a deeper level to ultimately build stronger relationships. Last, your new connections might be more likely to remember you for your insightful comments!

6. Becoming a Better Storyteller 

The bottom line is that reading more stories will help you become a better storyteller. As you read, you will experience different ways to be engaged as a reader and you’ll be able to emulate those strategies with your own storytelling. Just like watching presentations and going to conferences can inspire your own public speaking skills, reading fiction can help you create content that tells a more compelling story.

 

Marketing is all about telling a story that makes your audience feel something strongly enough to take action. So to be a successful marketer, you need to be able to tell your story in an appealing way, connect with your audience, focus on your clients, understand their point of view, communicate clearly and be creative at the same time. Reading books by master storytellers will teach you those things in a fun and interesting way, with all the benefits of relaxation and daydreaming. So, what’s the last book you read for fun?

 

This article originally appeared on Forbes.

 

BONUS Fiction Reading List for Entrepreneurs

Compiled by the @ revenue team

 

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

The Circle - Dave Eggers

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

The Old Man and the Sea (or really any Hemmingway) 

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Hobbit or LOTR - JRR Tolkien

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card

Watership Down - Richard Adams

The Taming of the Shrew - Shakespeare

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

About A Boy - Nick Hornby

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

If On a Winter's Night A Traveler - Italo Calvino

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Word Virus - William S. Burroughs

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith


How to Get Investors' Attention

How to Get Investors' Attention

 

For over a decade I worked in business financial services with a focus on helping companies find funding. In that time, I worked with various small businesses from big manufacturers to solo entrepreneurs with great new products. What I was actually doing was a form of marketing: developing a strategy for “selling” the company to the right investor partner. While I continued to work with hundreds of companies and business owners, I kept hearing the same things. Over time, as these issues kept coming up, I was able to pinpoint 3 key must-haves that investors need to see from new products and startups that signal they are ready for funding.

The first became a hard rule for my strategies and recommendations, and that rule stands to this day. If you want someone to invest in you and your business, you had better be ready to put some skin in the game yourself and invest in a solid marketing strategy and brand. Without it, you may be a great company or product—but perception is real, and you have to “look the part.”

Skin in the Game. 

You mean other than my hard work day in and day out? YES. 

One of the first questions every single potential investor asks is, “How much have you invested in this idea?” And no matter how you slice it, what you believe your time is worth and the calculation you came up with for how much time you have spent thus far—is NOT the answer they want. They want to hear a dollar amount you have personally put into this and what happened to it and why you need more. You need to have concise, real (verifiable) answers here. 

Brand.  

It turns out that a hand-drawn logo on a napkin that your next-door neighbor made isn’t enough to convince anyone that you have a real brand. The perception of you, your company and your products or services is predicated on what emotions your brand evokes in your audience and what they think about you as a result. Here are some often heard examples:

  • Hand Drawn logo: This person doesn’t know what they are doing and they don’t have a real business
  • Rudimentary logo by a “friend:” There’s no money behind this project and it’s just a hobby
  • Outdated logo: This logo looks like it has been recycled from something else and feels like they aren’t in touch with current trends
  • Complicated logo design or explanation: Trying to be clever or having a full 3-page story about your logo turns off investors. They want to see a clean, easy-to-understand brand. Not something that is overly complicated or has a detailed backstory that only means something to you. 

Secondly, you need to get out of your own way. There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s life where they must realize that even though they built this company or product to solve a problem they themselves were experiencing, they are not their own target audience. 

Target Audience.  

As the owner of the company, your target audience may be patterned after you. They are probably very much like you in many ways. They likely have similar problems to yours, have a similar occupation and experience many of the same issues you are trying to solve. However, they are not you. Your personal taste in design or content or color does not necessarily appeal to everyone you are targeting. That is why it is important to remember who your audience is and appeal to them, not yourself. 

Does this typically mean that you will end up with a brand that is broader than you originally thought? Yes. Does it work better? Also yes. Working to find something that appeals to the larger audience will not only work in the long run for your brand, but it will also help you get the positive attention of the investors that you want—because you are demonstrating your solid understanding that your company/service/product is not for YOU. 

Go Get Funded.

Once you have some skin in the game, a real, thoughtfully developed brand and some insight on your target audience, your investors will start to look at your offering more seriously. If they are going to bet on you, they want to know that their chances at success (meaning yours) are good. Making sure these elements are integral to your pitch shows potential investors that you’re committed to your idea, you know there’s an audience out there that wants to buy your product and that you know how you’re going to sell it to them.

Need some help putting the pieces together? Let’s get in touch.


How To Better Manage Stress When You're Managing a Team

How To Better Manage Stress When You're Managing a Team

Everyone deals with a certain amount of stress in their personal life, and if you’re reading this, you likely have a double-dose of work-related stress to boot. In the world of small business, workplace stress can come with some very high stakes, especially for those in leadership positions. A 2018 study suggests that the way a leader handles stress could have a serious impact on employees and, ultimately, company culture and productivity.

I’ve held different leadership positions in small business, from project manager to managing partner, and I’ve seen the way stress can contaminate the whole team’s morale. I’ve been on both sides of the equation too: absorbing other people’s stress and passing my own to my team. It’s the worst feeling to know that you are negatively impacting your team and then duplicate that stress and hardship by toughing it out for the sake of your employees, the company and your dream. (Never forget the stressed-out slogan of 2020, “we’re all in this together!”)

I have had to make the tough choice to step away before everything came crashing down around me. I can only imagine what it was like for my team to deal with my intense and unpredictable emotions, but I knew I had to make a drastic change when some of them started looking for a way out. Luckily, I was able to take the time I needed to take care of myself, ask for help from others and make a full recovery from total burnout. I was sad to lose some really good employees, and I will never forget the valuable lessons I learned from this experience. It took a lot of humility, but I communicated my situation clearly and honestly with the remaining team and they understood where my unpredictable responses were coming from.

According to a Fast Company article that reported on the study, when dealing with a "hot-headed manager," employees are 62% more likely to quit compared to those with managers who communicate when stressed. It also shows that employees are 56% more likely to stop participating, and 47% are more likely to be frustrated. All this can add up to a nosedive in productivity, overall dissatisfaction with their jobs, resentment toward the individual leaders, and ultimately, a high turnover rate.

So what can you do to ensure you are providing a positive experience for your team versus a negative one in times of stress?

1. Learn how to manage your expectations.

Entrepreneurs can expect periods of elevated stress as part of the ebb and flow of business. However, it’s important to recognize that you have the power to manage your own expectations for yourself, your team and your company. Taking a more mindful and realistic approach can have a dramatic impact on mitigating much of your stress.

Setting unrealistic deadlines for ourselves and our teams is one of the easiest stress-building traps to fall into. Breaking big steps down into individual tasks to develop realistic plans and deadlines can ease much of the stress we feel as we strive to grow. Of course setting ambitious goals is part of the fun of entrepreneurship, but we all need some space to walk before we can run! A big part of my own stress was caused because I wanted everything to be perfect, and I wanted to move too fast to achieve the big dreams and goals I had set for the company and myself. Once I slowed down and let go of my perfectionism, my mindset shifted. We started making faster progress towards our goals, and I got more sleep at night.

By giving everyone enough time and space to do their work and do it well, you will lift some of the weight off your shoulders and your whole team can breathe a sigh of relief.

2. Don’t overlook your personal needs.

If nothing else, 2020 taught us that no matter where you are in your career or business path, you need to intentionally check in on your own health and recognize when something needs attention. We don’t always get to leave our worries at home, and our physical, mental and emotional health all have bearing on our performance at work. Putting your health first doesn’t mean taking time away from work; it means taking care of that priority before it has an effect on your work and your team. Based on my own experience, take the time to check in with yourself, establish that your basic needs are being met (no more skipping lunch to work!), and make some time to unwind each evening. Your stress will start to fade over time, if not immediately.

Once you recognize that your health is your greatest asset, and that taking care of yourself ensures you can show up and do your best every day, the pieces start to fall into place and self-care becomes an important part of your routine.

3. Find partners who understand.

Your other greatest asset is the people around you, so it’s critical that the clients and employees you choose to work with understand the importance of supporting each other’s wellbeing and personal boundaries. Taking an inventory of your values will show you exactly what kind of people you can count on to support you—and who will value your support in return.

Moral support is every bit as important as the referrals, insights and other kinds of support you get from your network. Your emotional power partners can be any internal partnerships with individuals who share your vision, or with other entrepreneurs who have similar goals. Be sure to take the time to figure out what your strengths are and what you need in a partner before making a commitment.

Overall, what we need to remember is that our stress isn’t just our own problem: it affects the people around us. It’s our responsibility to take care of ourselves first so that we may better care for our businesses, our team and our families.

 

This article originally appeared on Forbes.


The Importance of Diversifying Your Marketing Strategy

The Importance of Diversifying Your Marketing Strategy

 

As social media platforms race to optimize their features and algorithms for the best user experience—and new channels enter the limelight more frequently—many small business owners feel pressured to stay on top of the latest trends. According to Buffer, while 58.8% of marketers claim that social media is “very important” to their marketing strategies, almost 20% are unsure of how to measure that effectiveness. It’s easy to get distracted by “vanity metrics,” or those that make you sound good, but don’t indicate any significant outcomes. Some of these include impressions, “likes,” shares, comments and followers.

Many times when we meet with new clients, they are preoccupied with improving their social media strategy to the point of neglecting other pieces, such as email, content and SEO. They are right to care about prioritizing social media; in fact, 70% of agencies state social is integral to their packages (Sprout). However, as we have learned a few times over the past two years, relying too much on social media can be disastrous and costly.

Before the world became collectively overwhelmed with social media in 2020, three of the largest networks “went down” in history for the longest social media outage ever in March of 2019. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users experienced partial outages for over 14 hours, costing individual small advertisers thousands of dollars in lost business.

2020 brought more social media perils for marketers: after several big brands were called out for tone-deaf messaging, many scaled back or took time to completely re-strategize. After the death of George Floyd, the #BlackoutTuesday movement called for brands to refrain from promoting themselves on social platforms for a single day. But amidst social unrest that stretched on all summer, many brands again decided to tone down their promotions out of respect or to simply avoid backlash. There was even a hot minute where we wondered if the latest app TikTok might be banned in the US market.

Cultivating a diverse foundation has always been a marketing best practice, but these examples show how dangerous it can be to rely on any single tactic more than others. And when all else fails, the assets you have the most control over will be your lifeline.

Marketing Plan Foundations

Foundational assets are those things that you own and have control over, such as your website and email list. While they may not seem as flashy as social media, they are definitely not static, one-off projects either. A regularly updated website and an active email strategy will both grow your audience while keeping them engaged with a stream of valuable content. 

The slow burn of your content and email distribution activities may seem dull, but they will fuel growth for the long haul.

Email Marketing

In recent years, many have speculated that email is on its way out—or already dead. But every time social media goes into crisis mode, marketing experts start singing the praises of the mighty Inbox. In this article, the author examines the myth of dying email and suggests it is actually evolving, stating that 59% of B2B marketers reported that email was the most effective tactic.

Brand Message First

Whatever tactics you ultimately include in your marketing mix, developing a clear, audience-focused brand message and consistently integrating it across platforms is mission-critical. Most companies invest in a brand strategy in their first year and update it every few years as they grow and evolve.

Branding specialists will develop your brand strategy and guidelines, but all members of your marketing team must be involved to implement them: from visual graphics (i.e., logo, tagline, color palette and typography) to internal and external communication styles (i.e., your voice and the way you communicate "who you are" to your organization and to the outside world).

A solid brand identity is based on a combination of what you want your customers to think about you and what they actually do think. We conduct 360 interviews to get a sense of how our clients are perceived, and we encourage them to listen attentively to different kinds of feedback they receive from their audience: questions and comments during sales calls, social media engagement and reviews, to name a few.

We love shiny new marketing tools as much as the next guy, but without solid branding and foundational assets in place, social media is a risky game. This is the one instance where we advise our clients to “walk before you run.”

 

A previous version of this article was published on Forbes.


The Year of Reckoning: A Refresher on the Marketing Industry’s Diversity Paradox in 2020

The Year of Reckoning: A Refresher on the Marketing Industry’s Diversity Paradox in 2020

 

Before the novel coronavirus and a rash of police brutality brought structural racism back into stark focus, and before advertising giants were taken to task for this year’s slew of tone-deaf commercials, we knew the marketing industry had a diversity problem. In the wake of Hollywood’s movement for racial equity (remember #OscarsSoWhite?) marketers took a look around the office and really started to notice, well, how white it was. Being at the forefront of understanding what potential customers want, we began recommending that the brands we represent start appealing to a wider audience.

 

At first, we recommended that big brands look at new ways to engage with different audiences, including finding new and fresh voices, creative elements and various perspectives that directly appeal to a more nuanced target audience. Under the old guard of media and advertising, the norm was to create ads and campaigns targeted at a mass, primarily white population. It was still a relatively new idea to explore the things that African Americans, women and other cultures liked that deviated from the status quo and create specific campaigns for those audiences.

 

Major campaigns appealing to various age groups, women and minorities, and in some cases, even social movements, showed promising results. For example, following the #MeToo movement, Twitter, Google and Nike all jumped on board with various advertising campaigns designed to empower women. All of that sounds like a positive step in the right direction, and the ads were generally well-received, but something still wasn’t quite right. These big ad agencies were recommending their clients shift their communication to a more conclusive, diverse message, while they themselves remained (and still remain) almost entirely dominated by white males.

 

We’ve come to understand this problem as the “diversity paradox,” and though industry-wide numbers haven’t changed much in the past couple of years, we are starting to see individual companies and coalitions create plans that go beyond talking about our industry’s issues and take steps towards solving them. For example, Nike ousted several leadership-level employees to combat their reputation as a “boys’ club,” and it has made a huge impact on its business and its relationship with their ad agency. 

 

Even clients have noticed the diversity paradox, and they are demanding more. Back in 2016, The New York Times published an article claiming that big brands wanted ad agencies to diversify. In 2017, highlighted in an article published by AdWeek, an Adobe study aimed to understand the diversity issue and plunged into why agencies were having difficulty fulfilling this request. The reasons cited in the study are the standard boilerplate expressions of why women and minorities struggle to gain success in any industry, which, to our ears in 2020, sound like lip service from a group of happily successful and secluded white males.

 

At this point, marketing firms with a conscience recognize that it’s disingenuous to recommend our brands and clients be more diverse and inclusive while we continue to only offer that opinion from our singular perspective. And the problem goes all the way to the top: Diversity and Inclusion experts have made it clear that it’s very difficult to retain diverse hires in low-level positions without mirroring that inclusiveness in company leadership. No matter how hard you may try, or how much market research you do, it is impossible for an agency full of white males to create authentic work that appeals to the greater audience. Representation has to stretch all the way from our audience to the C-suite.

 

As I already mentioned, the numbers have still yet to improve. But as we marketers love to do, the industry has begun gathering data to set benchmarks and create realistic goals. Just this September, a benchmarking survey of 165 agencies representing more than 40,000 employees—found that Black and African American employees make up just 5.8% of the industry, while 8.68% identify as Hispanic or Latinx, 10.7% as Asian/Asian American, 4.23% as “other” and 70.51% as white or caucasian. Of the less than 6% who are Black or African American, 68% are admin or entry-level, 43.5% are non-management professionals, 27.6% are managers or directors and just 4% are vice presidents or higher, excluding C-suite roles. 

 

We found several examples of big agencies shaking up business-as-usual to make way for diversity and inclusion: According to Forbes, Ad agency Horizon Media created resources for different employee groups such as Black, African American, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Latinx and Asian employees, as well as working parents while also looking outside the ad industry for talent. GM has created a scorecard to measure progress in all outgoing creative from their agencies, and Havas is conducting extensive internal research. Ad Age and Facebook have formed a collective of advertising, marketing and media leaders focused on a different objective every year (2020’s theme has been amended to “confronting unconscious bias in the wake of the new normal). Legacy organization She Runs It has launched the #Inclusive100 movement, a drive for agencies to commit to specific initiatives and participate in an annual benchmarking report.

 

The male-ness of the marketing industry hit home for us at @revenue when we saw how skilled working mothers are being pushed out of our own industry. As marketing leaders in our community, we felt that it’s past time for us to follow suit with these industry giants and not just talk about our diversity problem, but take drastic action to fix it. This year, the data, the goals and the strategies are finally coming together in an actionable way. And we are ready to do something about it. It’s time to change the way we hire, promote, manage and appreciate our teams. We need to listen to stories and open our internal offices to inclusion. There is no other way to understand and be better than to start doing and try it, track it, change it. Let’s start a revolution.

An earlier version of this article was published on Forbes.