Finding the right method of promoting any cause can be a trying task. In the past, it meant haranguing shoppers as they walked past, cold calls and the thankless task of knocking on doors. With the advent of the internet though, the whole marketing paradigm has changed. Social media is a vehicle for reaching out to all parts of society – especially those of a slightly younger generation. That isn’t to say that there aren’t traditional marketing techniques that are still effective today, because that simply isn’t the case. Trial and error is often an inescapable part of marketing and having an awareness of marketing techniques both old and new is the best way to forge a profitable path forward for your brand.

Social media

The social media landscape is a difficult one to traverse. You can attack it from any number of angles – aggressive promotion of your cause with paid posts, attempting to craft viral content using humour, leveraging the platforms’ users’ tendency to value visual content by posting videos and images. Enticing social media users to both interact and promote with your brand by hosting competitions is another popular promotional tactic. It is important to reiterate how integral it is to your success to understand your target audience. With a burgeoning brand, it is absolutely essential. Once you have a firm understanding of exactly who your target audience is – and their likes and dislikes – you can hone your approach to social media and leave your scattershot strategy firmly in the past.

Promotional materials

In this day and age, where you can reach millions of people with a few clicks of a mouse, or a few taps on a touchscreen, any tactic that relies on an organic, boots on the ground approach seems like a relic of the past. The reality is that seemingly outdated techniques like customising and printing branded merchandise still have a place in today’s hyperconnected climate. Emulating the ubiquity of the Livestrong wristbands in 2004 is a challenge, but by harnessing the reach of influencer marketing channels, charity wristbands remain a viable method of creating awareness.

Networking

Traditional networking is a great way to cultivate relationships that benefit your brand. It is another example of a tried-and-tested tactic that remains viable in the internet age. An invitation to a business event represents an opportunity to create buzz for your brand, and one that should be seized with both hands. Connecting with people with synergistic aims can have extremely productive results.

Marketing isn’t an exact science – in spite of increasing attempts to rationalise every single strategy with hard data. With a new brand, trial and error is an important part of the journey. Over time, you’ll garner an understanding of the tactics that work for your brand and those that don’t. At a certain point, you’ll be able to put in practice what you’ve learnt and utilise only the marketing and promotional techniques that produce results.

We’ve all had bad managers. You know the ones—they inspire the stories you tell at happy hour and are the ghosts that haunt your every career move. Although you swear you’ll never be like them, how sure are you that their toxic ways aren’t tarnishing your own management skills? Sometimes we fall back on bad habits. What’s important is to put a stop to them immediately.

If you are a manager and looking for what mistakes to avoid, or an employee wondering if their manager is being a bit too much or not acting in the right way, read on to find out the most common mistakes employers and managers make. If you can learn about these here, rather than through experience, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble!

Not fixing problems with the office

A lot of leaders should be able to see a problem, and delegate to be able to fix it. A lot of managers are able to do this in business terms, but when it comes to fixing the place that their employees actually work, it seems to become a bit of an effort. Toilets will break, sinks will overflow, light switches won’t work, the AC will start blowing out cold air in the winter.  These are all problems that every office goes through at one time or another, it is up to the managers and office managers to fix these problems so that their employees can work in a safe and comfortable environment, make sure you do not ignore these problems as a manager and take control, companies like National Business Communications are able to help you sort out all of your telecommunications and utilities to make sure it isn’t too hard.

You’re all business, 24/7

If, between the hours of 9 to 5, you are on the clock, meaning you’re always the boss, not a friend, or co-worker or a sympathetic ear, then you’re not doing it right. Managers need to be adaptable to their situations and weigh up what type of boss they need to be on a daily basis. If you judge a situation wrong and act like a boss instead of lending a helping hand, you can easily alienate your employees and be seen in a bad light. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to ask how someone’s day is going, what plans they have for the weekend or how their family is doing. But this small gesture can make a huge difference in the eyes of your employees.

Lacking boundaries

Some managers tend to forget all about the professional boundaries that are in place. The second a managers becomes way too friendly with employees, the chain of command begins to crumble and boundaries become distorted. Managers can compromise their own integrity by becoming too friendly with employees. A healthy, mutual respect should be the goal of both managers and employees. Approachability is key, but not at the expense of professionalism.

Misunderstanding motivation

Do you know what truly motivates your team? Chances are, it’s not just money. Many managers make the mistake of assuming that their team is solely doing their job so that they can get paid at the end of the month. However, it’s unlikely that this will be the only thing that motivates them. For example, people seeking a greater work/life balance might be motivated by telecommuting days or flexible working. Others will be motivated by factors such as achievement, extra responsibility, praise, or a sense of camaraderie.

Rebranding is a strategy used in marketing where a new name, a new term, a different symbol or design, or a combination of any of them, is used to develop a new identity for the company in the minds of consumers and investors.  It could be a decision taken because of a merger, a period of considerable growth, technical advances, a change in company strategy or maybe to make a brand stand out from its competitors.

In recent years some of the largest companies and organisations around have rebranded, including Audi, Auto Trader, the Premier League, AirBnB, Budweiser, Mastercard, and McDonald’s.

Updating Old Spice

Old Spice was always considered to be a brand for older generations, until 2010 when it was rebranded. There was no problem with the product – the Old Spice team just wanted to make it appeal to the younger generations too. They spent their marketing budget on bringing in athlete Isaiah Mustafa to make a funny video showing that the deodorant is sexy, fun and youthful. The rebranding effort was a success and it helped the company by producing sales from a new generation that watches online videos and especially likes humour.

Gala Leisure Becomes Buzz Bingo

One of the largest rebranding projects to have taken place recently is the rebranding of the famous Gala Leisure brand, which is now known as Buzz Bingo. There are several reasons why Gala Leisure has decided to spend £40 million pounds creating this rebrand. They want to attract a younger clientele and create a whole new identity. As part of the rebranding, the latest technology has been introduced, which will make the game simpler to play while at the same time creating an exciting atmosphere. This has already proved successful in the first bingo halls to receive the rebrand and there is no reason not to believe that the others will follow suit.

Changing The Face Of Burberry

In its many years of trading, Burberry has undergone several rebrands. The most successful of them was when Christopher Bailey took over as their creative director and introduced new products to their range. This included swimwear and trench coats that were nothing to do with the earlier image of the brand, which had become associated with ‘gang wear’. He also secured several celebrity endorsements for the new items, and Emma Watson and Kate Moss both contributed to the luxury image the brand has today. No one knows the full cost of this rebrand, but however much it was, the success achieved was more than worth it.

Saving A Business By Rebranding

Sometimes, a rebranding is needed to save an ailing business. As times change and fashions alter, the products of a business can become dated, and rebranding is needed to update them and introduce them to a new audience. This can cost large businesses many millions of pounds, but that is often just a portion of their overall marketing budget. For small businesses, it can be less costly, but just as important.

Over the past few years, the way that offices work and function has changed drastically. Remember when an open plan office was the best idea you had heard? Or when your employees were excited about using a new email interface? Well, the experience that employees are having at work is having a huge revamp.

Employers are now focusing on creating a social and digital environment for their employees and colleagues to use and enjoy during their working hours and, as we draw closer to the end of the year, we can look at the impact this is having on the future of the workplace as we know it.

Collaboration

Over the last 20 years, the employee experience has been hugely focused on collaboration. With fast-paced technology and open plan offices bringing teams and employees together, we are now seeing a slight shift away from employee collaboration and are moving towards more focus on personalisation and productivity. Employees now want to get rid of noise and distractions, they want to focus and work smarter.

With new apps focusing on bringing together documents and data together in real-time, employees no longer need to be sat in cold and dull cubicles just metres away from one another. They can spread out and enjoy their own working environment whilst still working together as a team. There is no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to productivity, so finding the best way that your office works is essential.

Personal Productivity

Again, the open office plan has had an impact on the way that modern offices function and work. Whilst there are huge benefits that come with an open-floor office, such as more communication and collaboration, there are also a few downsides. The environment offers a lot of distraction and is ill-suited for concentration and focus.

Leading employers are now introducing quiet spaces and booths for employees to escape and focus when needed. Many are also letting employees work from remote locations for when they just need to escape and focus.

As the employee experience is leaning towards productivity, many organisations are trying to provide flexible working environments to better benefit their employees whilst also keeping the morale and work speed up.

Creating A Compelling Environment

Another trend which many employers are investing in is creating a compelling environment for their employees. A lot of offices that have employees aged 20-30 are working towards creating more exciting workspaces. Whether they choose to have a work “Happy Hour” with prosecco on tap, welcoming dogs into the office or providing unlimited holiday days, the wellbeing and happiness of employees is becoming paramount for new and growing businesses.

Human Resources has had a huge overhaul, too. With roles such as “Head Of Employee Experience” and “Head Of Happiness” being rolled out in many offices, the wellbeing of employees is proving to be a huge focus for many companies who are looking to embed their working cultures and values into everything they do.

As the talent-pool for job roles is increasing and becoming more competitive, it is becoming more difficult for employers to attract and engage potential employees. By investing in providing a good working environment and company culture, making the workplace into an experience is vital for many employers. Improved workspaces, more training and frequent rewards is sure to attract more dedicated employees and many employment solicitors and services, such as Gorvins and Citizens Advice, are seeing cases and queries declining as employees are becoming happier overall.

A Better Future Is Coming

Whilst the employee experience is undoubtedly growing in working environments, an even better future is coming. As software is set to become mobile and more personalised, workspaces are more likely to focus on employee collaboration and concentration. Companies that will thrive in the future are those that are looking at investing in employee-focused initiatives.

Thinking of starting an ecommerce business? Once a complicated and expensive process, the rise of platforms like Shopify have made starting an ecommerce business simpler, cheaper and faster than it’s ever been before.

At least, that’s true for the website and marketing side. While there’s a lot of work to do on the supply chain side of running an online business, the rise of ecommerce software lets anyone, from a first-timer to an ecommerce expert, get their shop up and running.

As a would-be ecommerce entrepreneur, here’s what you need to know:

Ecommerce is growing, and there’s never been a better time to start

More and more customers are starting to shop online, including the elderly and young retail shoppers making their first online purchases.

According to data from Smart Insights, there will be more than two billion online shoppers by 2021 — an increase of more than 300 million from 2018. Whether you’re a retailer looking to branch out or a would-be entrepreneur, there’s never been a better time to get started.

Ecommerce software doesn’t just work online — it’s offline too

Thinking of expanding your offline business to sell online? The same software you can use to run your online business also works smoothly as point of sale software for your retail shop or other offline business.

Designed with small business owners in mind, options like Point of Sale from Shopify make it easy to accept payments via credit card, PayPal and other platforms, all while logging recent sales and managing inventory.

You don’t need to be a technology genius to succeed

Think you need to code to start an ecommerce business? Think again. Thanks to user-friendly ecommerce software like Shopify, you really don’t need advanced programming or design skills to get your ecommerce business up and running.

In fact, if you’re comfortable using basic PC applications, you probably have all of the tech skills you’ll need to start your ecommerce business and build it into a growing, profitable enterprise. Furthermore, with many modern business-to-business directories and online marketplaces, finding wholesale suppliers, manufacturers and dropshippers is easier than ever. Therefore, with the help of a simple online store builder such as Shopify and an online supplier directory, you could have your new ecommerce business up and running within hours.

Want to learn more? Master the step-by-step process you can use to create your ecommerce business using the infographic below:

In spite of the fact that customer support is one of the most important things for any company to focus on, there are actually a lot of different companies out there that offer some truly terrible service in this department.

#1 Comcast

Comcast is one of the most popular cable providers out there but in spite of this fact they have terrible customer service. The problem here is that they just don’t care. They regularly miss appointments and drag on the customer support experience for most of their customers. They are able to do this because they have a monopoly but it has resulted in a very poor opinion of them overall in the market, and is going to certainly lead to some serious problems for them in the long run. Avoid being like Comcast at all costs!

#2 AT&T

The problem with this company is that their service is utterly terrible. The call quality is terrible, the data plans are terrible, and the 3G speeds are often throttled in order to make sure that customers do not end up using too much data. One of the most important aspects of customer support that you could possibly look into is making a product that is good in the first place, ensuring that the people that are using your services don’t have a reason to complain. AT&T does the exact opposite of that, creating a product that is very poor indeed and not caring what customers have to say about the experience they are going through.

#3 PayPal

This is a company that deals with people’s money, but the terrible thing is that they are often very laissez faire about the money that they hold. You could find your money suddenly disappearing because of the fact that the people you received it from filed a complaint, and in most cases PayPal is going to make it very difficult indeed for you to get that money back. What you can learn here is that you need to treat your customers like they are your responsibility, and you need to be open and transparent about how their complaints are being processed.

If you want to avoid ending up like one of these companies it is highly recommended that you get Kayako’s ticketing software. This can help you handle a lot more volume and drastically improve the quality of your customer support. At the end of the day, human CSRs are going to be quite limited in what they are able to accomplish. If you want them to succeed and if you want your customer support to become something that people will look at in a positive light, automation is the way to go, especially if you are automating in such a manner that the regular people that work for you and depend on you for their regular income don’t end up getting dealt a bad hand and have to go through financial hardships.