Practical steps and tactics to set leaders and employees up for success
The concept of employee motivation is something that organizational development professionals have been thinking about and researching for decades. Where once money and other tangible rewards were considered to be the primary ways to motivate staff, there’s since been a move towards more intrinsic rewards, such as flexible working and professional development.
In 2010’s ‘Drive’, Dan Pink eloquently outlined three key factors that influence motivation:
[caption id="attachment_145701" align="aligncenter" width="916"] [Image Source][/caption]Over the last few years, I’ve seen and experienced a tangible increase in the word ‘autonomy’ and other related terms and synonyms. It feels as though organizations have developed a renewed sense of duty to remind employees that they can and should be autonomous within their roles and it’s something I’d like to…
Five ways to frame our thoughts and actions as leaders
As marketers, there will inevitably come a point in many of our careers when we’ll be asked to step up from operating as individuals focused on specific tasks (e.g. SEO specialists, digital analysts, web developers) to managers responsible for a group of specialists (e.g. digital marketing manager).
Whether you make the move into management depends entirely on you and your personal drivers (and whether it’s right to promote people based on their technical skills is a debate for another day). But if you do decide to take the route into management, it's important to consider the implications.
[si_guide_block id="117459" title="Download our Free Resource – Marketing careers and skills development workbook" description="Our guide shows you how to map out your personal short-term and long-term goals, become more productive in your day-to-day work, identify your key motivators, analyze your digital marketing…
Tap into your brand heritage to revive your brand's position and values.
“An organization’s history and background is a valuable asset in how they are perceived to a wider audience and which can be used to its advantage”
Corcoran (Source: The Art of Digital Branding, 2011)
This article takes a look at the growing need for a clearly defined digital transformation strategy for organizations to follow and what practical steps organizations can take in skilling up their employees with digital skills, referencing the DARC model
More and more traditional brands find themselves operating in ever competitive sectors being disrupted by emerging brands built on new business models. This Disruptive innovation has continued to gather pace, looking to re-map and re-invent any market sector.
[si_guide_block id="109627" title="Download our Business Resource – Brand vision and identity playbook" description="This playbook will enable you to define your approach, branding expert Debbie Inglis explains a structured…
Upskilling has become a vital part of keeping your team productive
With the elimination of some jobs and the rapid changes happening in others, upskilling has become a vital part of keeping your team productive. It helps to keep your team members engaged, improve their skills and serve customers better.
Having said that, it’s easy to go wrong while planning to upskill your team. There’s so much information out there that it can get confusing really fast.
[si_guide_block id="95176" title="Download our Business Resource – How to keep your team up to date with digital marketing" description="The guide is also useful for agencies since teams need to be ahead of what's happening, so their clients can always get the latest thinking and trends."/]
So, how do you upskill your team to ensure you get the huge benefits and positive returns on your investments?
In this blog post, I’m going to share 6 important tips you need…
Chart of the Week: Almost a third of marketers would spend extra budget on data, analytics and marketing tech to meet the growing requirement for personalization
With the world of digital marketing moving at a faster pace than ever, it is growing increasingly important to assign budget to those areas that could provide the biggest benefits.
Arguably, this means investment in areas such as personalization and automation, especially as personalization is being seen as key to improving the quality of leads being generated.
[si_guide_block id="87688" title="Download our Business Resource –Marketing technology selection guide" description="This guide will help you harness the power of the available digital tools."/]
According to Merkle’s latest Customer Engagement Report, data, technology and analytics are deemed to be the most important areas at the moment, coming ahead of areas like digital (16%), paid media (10%) and search (10%).
…
79% of CEOs said lack of key skills was one of their top three concerns and 46% see upskilling as their favourite solution.
With the improvements in technology, jobs are changing. Some jobs are being eliminated or revolutionized to bring them up-to-date.
Likewise, some jobs are being created to meet up with the demands created by technology. New technologies like the internet, artificial intelligence, software development, have made upskilling necessary in the new economy.
[si_guide_block id="117459" title="Download our Free Resource – Marketing careers and skills development workbook" description="Our guide shows you how to map out your personal short-term and long-term goals, become more productive in your day-to-day work, identify your key motivators and analyze your digital marketing skills."/]
In a PwC survey, 79% of CEOs said lack of key skills was one of their top three concerns and 46% see upskilling as their favourite solution.
[caption id="attachment_144608" align="alignnone" width="640"]…
A five-step plan to marketing productivity
One of the recurring observations I’ve found in all the different roles and organizations in which I’ve worked is the inconsistency of marketing planning. In some companies, planning was conducted on an ad hoc basis, whilst in others, there was no discernable plan at all! As an idealistic marketing graduate coming into the workforce this came as a surprise: how can marketers operate effectively in the absence of a joined-up, integrated plan?
[si_guide_block id="5697" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Digital marketing planning spreadsheet" description="This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet has been created to help you create a clearer acquisition plan to improve leads and sales."/]
Many years on and I’ve come to understand that the reality is that marketing planning is difficult and not everyone knows how to do it properly. They may also lack the time and space to put something together. In larger organizations, the complexity…
Three ways to drive better collaboration within the workplace
As the modern workplace has become increasingly dynamic, digital and cross-functional, effective collaboration across individuals, teams, and companies has become increasingly important.
A Stanford research study from 2017 found that collaboration can improve workplace performance. Participants in the research who were primed to act collaboratively persevered at their task 64% longer than those working alone, whilst also reporting higher levels of engagement, lower fatigue levels, and a higher success rate.
[si_guide_block id="17140" title="Download our Business Resource – Digital marketing team structure" description="The aim of this template is for you can compare these structures to your current situation to help plan future changes."/]
However, collaboration can also present challenges. A 2016 research paper from Harvard Business Review indicated that the amount of time managers and employees spend on collaborative work has ballooned. At many companies, people now spend…
The importance of creating a team and culture that thinks differently
Consider the marketing campaigns, advertisements, PR stunts and billboards that have caught the public’s imagination over the years. Whether it’s the Conservative party’s ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster, Benson & Hedges’ ‘Iguana’ ad or the Cadbury gorilla, they all have something in common: they offer something completely different from what had come before.
In today’s noisy and crowded media landscape, it’s arguably never been more important to think differently. Yet despite the vast number of ads we’re confronted with every day, people dislike advertising.
This study from Kantar asked a representative sample of consumers how they felt about advertising.…
As consumers are offered more, they also demand more from brands. Using AI strategically is the key to rise to that challenge.
Even successful brands know how hard it can be to reach their target audience at exactly the right moment with exactly the right message. Consumers just have too many ways to interact with your brand, ranging from their phones to their tablets to their laptops. They’re bombarded with messages on email, social media, and search engines.
It’s not surprising, then, that a study from Kantar found that more than half of consumers are totally apathetic toward advertising content and 70% see the same ads over and over again. A paltry 11% actually enjoy advertising. Your brand has to rise above all the noise in the marketplace to catch consumers' attention.
[si_guide_block id="87369" title="Download our Business Resource – AI and Machine Learning for marketing" description="The guide aims to help…
