August Benefits News and Posts

What we learned in 2020, and how those insights could help us reframe the future for 2021 and beyond.

From Our Friends at Ernst & Young Global

In brief

Even with the arrival of vaccines, the road to pandemic recovery will be challenging.
Digital transformation will continue to underpin organizations’ strategic and business imperatives.
Consumers are worried about how businesses use data, so building trust is crucial to maintaining organizations’ integrity.

Despite the rollout of vaccines in the closing weeks of 2020, the road to recovery from the global pandemic remains challenging. Economies have been badly affected by COVID-19, and many of these effects will be felt for years. Addressing this will take all the resources of the public and private sector working together to promote a truly sustainable recovery.

The pandemic has also fundamentally reshaped our lives. Many aspects of modern work have changed –the rise of home-working is one of the most visible examples – bringing with it shifts in how companies manage employees, workplaces, and operations. Understanding which changes are here to stay will continue to be a priority for business in 2021.

Here, we’ve curated our most useful insights and revealing perspectives from the past year, to help leaders at organizations large and small rethink the challenges they will face as the working world rebuilds, from strategy through operations to delivering long-term value.

Developing the right strategy

Leaders must enter the new year with their eyes on the immediate risks while realizing a vision for accelerated transformation.

1. Brace for impact

The risks posed by COVID-19 persist. Although at the time of writing, vaccine trials are delivering promising results, 2021 will demand cautious navigation of the challenges and impact of the crisis. Our key advice for operating during a pandemic, what issues companies need to look at, and how to keep the lights on, will remain as valuable in the coming months as it was when the crisis first emerged.

2. Plan for continuity

Operating in the era of COVID-19 hasn’t just meant the quick deployment of survival mechanisms, like getting home-working capabilities in place. It’s required taking steps to ensure true, long-term business continuity. We identified nine key areas of concern for companies looking to establish business continuity – ranging from employee health and wellbeing to insurance and legal disputes – and developed a convenient tool to help you understand the resilience of your enterprise and prioritize your actions.

3. Identify your critical dependencies

The economic recovery from COVID-19 will likely be bumpy, with saw-tooth growth and profound changes to old ways of doing things. It can’t be business-as-usual. Leaders need to know which components essential for business continuity will face significant disruption – from your workforce to your logistics frameworks or customer base – and decide which of these capabilities needs to change permanently.

4. Accelerate digital transformation

Digital transformation isn’t going away, and companies need to be ready for it. Executives know this: 62% of respondents to our 2020 Digital Investment Index survey said it was critical to transform their organizations over the next two years. Yet just 2% believe they are fully utilizing the benefits of digitizing core processes. We break down the benefits, and look at six key actions leaders can take to push their organizations towards a successfully digitized future.

5. Put humans at the center of digital transformation

Of course, there’s no such thing as digital transformation for its own sake. Transformation needs to be driven by people, and needs to ultimately serve people – whether they’re employees, consumers, or the inhabitants of the wider communities in which businesses operate. It’s your people who will help you recover and grow in the coming months and years, and your human stakeholders who will impact your decisions and success. That’s why we call the smartest and most agile and innovative businesses Human Enterprises – organizations that put human needs and goals at the heart of their transformation and growth strategies.

6. Position yourself for growth

If 2021 is to be a year of rebuilding after the profound disruption of COVID-19, then it is important that organizations effectively position themselves for growth in the world beyond the pandemic. That’s where the Lens for Better framework comes in, helping executives consider aspects and effects of growth strategies across key areas, including public health, connectivity, and innovation and ingenuity – and deliver long-term value for all stakeholders.

7. Don’t aim to return to normal, reframe what normal should be

Yet, with all this said and done, the world is finally moving into the reconstructive phase of the pandemic. This could end up fundamentally redrawing some of the basic assumptions of our commercial and political (and private) lives. If business leaders want a hand in defining that new normal, they need to understand what’s at stake – and the strategic decisions they need to make now.

Refining your operations

Executing with both speed and flexibility has become more important than ever.

8. Reshape your C-suite

Redesigning growth strategies for a post-COVID-19 world means reconsidering the capabilities of your C-suite. What new skills are required? Will current sizes, composition and governance structures help or hinder C-suites in achieving the necessary agility to navigate the rebuilt business landscape of 2021? And how will they continue to pursue strategies that maximize benefit for all stakeholders?

9. Become a trusted organization

New ways of working in 2021 will be heavily reliant on data and digital technologies. The trust needed to hand our lives over to the care of sophisticated algorithms will be a critical currency in the new digital age. Trust will be central to effective use of these technologies – whether it’s a consumer using online banking, or an office using automated compliance software. Organizations that can put this trust at the heart of their operations can be the new disruptors.

10. Question your information

Today’s businesses float on an ocean of data. This can be extremely valuable for businesses who can establish trust in that data. However, 61% of respondents to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer indicated they felt the pace of change in technology was too fast. An alarming 66% of respondents worried technology will make it impossible for people to know if what they are seeing is real. Do you know if the data you’re using are the right ones?

11. Digitalize your supply chains

While the panic it provoked was short-lived, the rush on toilet paper across the world in the early days of the pandemic was a graphic illustration of the fragility of supply chains. Building supply chains providing the necessary resilience, flexibility and sustainability means widely embracing digital solutions. Here’s a deeper look at four imperatives we’ve identified for developing truly digital supply chains: intelligence, architecture, operational excellence and planning.

12. Deploy technology at speed

Agility was essential in 2020, and will be in the years to come. Here’s how businesses can embrace a technology-at-speed approach to digital innovation, using data and cybersecurity measures within an effective human-centered framework to supercharge transformational growth.

13. Transform your HR function

Next year will require agile new business strategies and new ways of using data and technology. But effective execution of any strategic imperative, at any scale that matters, means creating a workforce of similarly agile and adaptable employees. That requires a HR function that itself is transformed in a way appropriate for the demands of a thriving Human Enterprise. We identified the steps HR functions can take to achieve this, from embracing digital solutions, to practical ways of breaking down organizational silos.

14. Keep an eye on political exposures

Global geopolitical risk hit a post-World War II high in 2020. This was chiefly driven by the impact of COVID-19 – which the EY Geostrategic Business Group believes will remain the number one risk moving in 2021, as longer term regulatory, economic and logistical impacts make themselves felt. But that’s not all: climate change and sustainability, social justice, and governance issues are all likely to be major political risks for organizations going forward. Here’s a deeper dive.

Reframing your future

Combining people, technology, innovation and strategy will be key to delivering long-term value.

15. Know your customers

The customer is always right, right? It’s a business truism. But it’s also something that needs periodic revaluation. Increasingly today’s customers – sustainability minded and digitally fluent – may not know exactly what they want, but they expect brands to anticipate their needs and deliver against them with frictionless, personalized experiences. We’ve identified three core demands from consumers in 2021: make my life easier, make it feel better, and make it more fulfilling. Retailers need to tailor their value proposition to best serve their customers – and other sectors do too.

16. Become a human-focused leader

Organizations that will thrive in the years of reconstruction from 2021 and beyond will be those demonstrating leadership in technology and transformation. We broke down six vital habits of organizations leading the way in creating value through technology adoption, from learning to drive innovation through the strategic use of ecosystems and partnerships, to using the right incentives and strategies to nurture the talent you need to make your business grow.

17. Invest in your people

COVID-19 was a human-borne disease, not a business-borne one. Balance sheets don’t get ill, human beings do. But organizations loyal to their people see long-term benefits. And, ultimately, it’s human workforces that are at the heart of driving an effective recovery from the pandemic. Investing in your workforce helps create a business more capable of adapting and innovating to whatever comes next.

18. Remember your purpose

Despite COVID-19’s year-long domination of news cycles, other systemic problems have not gone away. Inequality, gender and racial disparity, poverty, hunger and climate change all remain pressing problems – and 67% of CEOs feel moderate to extreme pressure from stakeholders to address these issues. Here are four pillars to help your organization translate its ambition on corporate purpose into action, and drive positive change in 2021 and beyond.

19. Beware of bad behaviors

The global pandemic has exacerbated the problem of unethical behavior. When surveyed at the height of the pandemic, 90% of businesses reported they believed COVID-19 posed a risk to ethical conduct. Combining this risk with increased levels of scrutiny from wider society means companies must take action to ensure they navigate their way through the pandemic – and its aftermath – with integrity.

20. Refocus on sustainability

Governmental responses to the pandemic – from lockdowns to financial aid – have constituted a major political variable for companies over the past year. These factors will continue to have relevance as governments around the world work to rebuild in the wake of the crisis. We explored what is being done by governments to build a more equitable and more sustainable world in 2021, and how organizations can and should engage with these efforts.

21. Reframe your future

COVID-19 brought trends that seemed far away right into the present, transforming old ways of working and redefining patterns of business growth. The EY megatrends report provides information on these macro-scale transformations in technology, society, and the economy, advising how leaders can uncover previously unseen opportunities to define the future – rather than be made obsolete by it.

Ask the right questions, now

The transformative twenties began with an unforeseen event that catalyzed changes none of us could have imagined a year ago. Doubtless more unknown, unpredictable events will present themselves in 2021. And perfect responses to the known imperatives outlined above may yet elude us. But by asking the right questions now, and designing future-back transformation plans that bolster resilience while enabling the agility to deal with what’s next, we believe leaders can prepare with confidence today for the unknown opportunities of tomorrow and beyond.

So, in 2021, what new questions will you ask to reframe your organization’s future, and help us all build a better working world?

Todd BellistriJanuary 12, 2021August Benefits

Why not start off this selling season leading into the holidays on the right foot? One way to do that is to finally give some thinking to smart marketing. We don’t need to be the ones to tell you it’s very competitive out there (but we will), what with tons of start ups and side hustles all over the landscape. By developing a legit marketing program you are giving yourself a true foot up on the competition. So read on, you’ll see that its not as daunting as you think and the upside is well worth it.

FROM FORBES / BY DOMINIQUE HARROCH

In today's digital landscape the right approach to small business marketing combines advanced technology, data-driven insights, and effective digital platforms. Here’s a comprehensive guide to small business marketing to companies navigate the current marketing trends and tools that can drive business success.

Key marketing tools for small businesses

Following is a summary of 11 key marketing tools that small and growing businesses should consider when leveraging owned, earned and paid media:

1. An optimized small business website

A high-performing website is crucial for marketing today. An optimized site increases your page rank on Google and other search engines, and in today's world, fewer than 1% of searches go to the second page of a search. Key elements of an effective small business site include:

Memorable domain name: Choose a name that reflects your business and is easy to recall.
User-friendly design: Ensure your site is visually appealing and intuitive. Sites should have a clear structure, intuitive navigation and information that is easy to access.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Implement SEO best practices to rank higher in search engine results.
Mobile optimization: Since over 55% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices, you’ll want to ensure your site is mobile-friendly.
Valuable content: Regularly update your site with engaging content like blogs and articles that address your audience's interests and needs.
Fast loading times: Optimize page speeds to improve user experience and SEO rankings.
Secure hosting: Use reputable hosting services to protect your site’s data and performance.

Additionally, integrating tools like Google Analytics (now called GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) can provide valuable insights into your site's performance and user behavior.

2. Paid search engine marketing (SEM)

Paid search engine marketing, in which you pay if a keyword is clicked on that drives traffic to your website, remains a powerful tool for driving targeted traffic. Platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads allow you to:

Bid on keywords: Use tools like Google keyword planner to select high-value keywords relevant to your business.
Control costs: Set daily and monthly budgets, and adjust bids based on performance.
Analyze performance: Track key metrics to assess and refine your campaigns.

3. Paid listings and display ads

Paid listings on platforms like Yelp, Facebook, and Pinterest can boost visibility. Use Google’s Display Network to target ads based on user interests and behavior. This approach allows you to:

Choose ad formats: Use banners, text ads, or video ads to capture attention.
Track return on investment (ROI): Monitor clicks and conversions to measure effectiveness. Track your costs, record and monitor revenue, and record all expenses. Make sure to measure lead generation numbers, customer acquisition, and sales metrics as valuable insights into your marketing effectiveness.
Testing: By experimenting with different ad copy, targeting options, and formats, businesses can identify what resonates most with their audience, refine their strategies, and ultimately improve click-through rates and conversions. This can include A/B testing, target audience variations, ad copy variations, call-to-action (CTA) testing or visual elements where you test different images or videos to determine which visual elements attract more attention and engagement.

4. Content marketing

Content marketing remains a cornerstone of effective digital strategies. Key tactics include:

Blogging: Regularly post optimized content to drive organic traffic. Nine out of ten marketers use blogs as part of their content strategy.
Guest posting: Publish articles on popular platforms such as Medium and AllBusiness.com to enhance your reach and SEO. Strive to create “evergreen” articles, which are designed to remain relevant and valuable over a long period of time, regardless of current events or trends. Unlike timely articles that focus on current news or trends, evergreen content addresses topics that have enduring interest and utility.
Video content: In 2023, individuals spent an average of 17 hours a week watching videos online. Utilize platforms like YouTube and TikTok to engage your audience.
Content platforms: Leverage content recommendation platforms like Outbrain to expand your content’s reach.

5. Social media marketing

Social media is a powerful tool for engaging with your audience. Focus on platforms such as:

Facebook: Effective for broad audience reach and targeted ads.
Instagram: Ideal for visual content and influencer partnerships.
LinkedIn: Best for B2B marketing and professional networking.
TikTok: Useful for viral video content and younger demographics.

With over 5 billion global social media users and growing, effective social media marketing can significantly enhance your brand’s visibility and engagement. To be effective, you must regularly post interesting content to obtain and keep followers.

6. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing involves collaborating with individuals who have a significant and engaged following on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to promote products or services. These influencers, who can range from celebrities to niche content creators, leverage their credibility and relationship with their audience to drive brand awareness and influence purchasing decisions.

The impact of influencer marketing on broader marketing efforts can be profound, as it allows brands to tap into authentic, targeted communities that are often more receptive to recommendations from trusted (or at least known) voices.

This form of marketing can enhance brand credibility, expand reach, and generate higher engagement rates compared to traditional advertising. As consumers increasingly seek personalized and relatable content, influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for connecting with audiences in a meaningful way.

7. Online business directories

It’s important for business owners to list their companies in prominent and reputable business directories. Often these listings are free, but even if you must pay a small fee, it can be worth it.

The benefits include

Exposure to potential clients and customers.
Boosted SEO through backlinks.
Improved online presence and brand awareness.
Increased credibility for your business.
Low-cost or free marketing.

The following is a list of top business directories to consider listing your business:

AllBusiness.com
Better Business Bureau
Facebook Page
Google Business Profile
LinkedIn
Superpages
Bing Places for Business

8. Radio marketing

While less prominent today, radio can still be effective. Many people are in their cars during peak commute hours. To maximize radio advertising:

Targeted placement: Choose stations and time slots that align with your target audience.
Engaging content: Create memorable and concise ads.
Consider your market: Are you a B2C company (business to consumer) or B2B company (business to business)? Is your market local (like a neighborhood restaurant), national (such as selling payroll services), or international (such as selling unique clothing to multiple markets)?

The cost-effectiveness of radio compared to TV makes it a viable option for more localized campaigns.

9. Press releases

Press releases are valuable for announcing significant business updates. Ensure your release is:

Newsworthy: Focus on unique and timely information.
Well-structured: Include a strong headline, key details, and contact information.
Multimedia: Incorporate multimedia elements like images and videos to increase engagement.

10. Email marketing

Email marketing remains effective when executed correctly. Best practices include:

Segmenting: Personalize content based on customer preferences and behavior. Use data to segment your lists and target markets.
Offering engaging content: Provide valuable information, special offers, and updates.
Optimization: Use A/B testing to refine subject lines and content.
Using AI-driven tools: These can help automate and personalize email campaigns, improving engagement rates.

11. Direct mail marketing

Despite the digital age, direct mail still works for certain audiences. To optimize direct mail:

Use targeted lists: Use well-researched mailing lists to improve ROI.
Implement creative designs: Ensure your mail piece stands out and is easy to read.
Track mailings: Monitor responses and effectiveness.

More tips to enhance your marketing campaigns

Here are some additional tips to optimize your marketing campaigns:

Segment: Segment your target market to a specific audience. Segmentation can be done with respect to age, gender, income level, education, geography, purchase stage or brand loyalty, and more.
Business lists: Consider using high quality business lists such as Dun and Bradstreet, Experian Business, ZoomInfo or InfoUSA. These lists can be used in multiple channels as well, maximizing the value of the lists.
Track real time: Track your marketing campaigns in real-time to get immediate insights, make quick adjustments, and understand what is working or not.
Key metrics: Track the key metrics in your campaigns, such as click-through rate, engagement rate, conversion rate, sales, revenue, customer acquisition cost, market share, and churn rate.
Software and AI: Use software and artificial intelligence (AI) tools for social media management, content creation and testing of alternative ads.
Budget: Allocate your budget wisely. Assess the performance of different marketing channels and allocate your budget to the ones that deliver the highest ROI. Continuously review and adjust your spending to focus on the most effective strategies.
Keep current: Stay updated with trends. Keep up with the latest marketing trends and technologies. Experiment with new platforms, tools, or strategies to stay ahead of the competition and reach your audience in innovative ways. Keep up to date with experts by seeking articles from reputable business sources such as AllBusiness.com.
Promote across channels: Share earned media coverage on your website, social media platforms, and email newsletters. For instance, if a major publication writes about your product, feature this article prominently on your homepage or social media profiles.
Showcase social proof: Use earned media as a form of social proof by highlighting positive reviews, testimonials, or features from reputable sources. This can build credibility and trust with potential customers.
Strengthen relationships with media: Build and maintain good relationships with journalists and influencers. This can lead to more favorable coverage in the future and expand your media network.
Repurpose content: Convert mentions and reviews into additional content, such as blog posts, case studies, and infographics. For example, if your company was featured in a popular tech blog, you could create a detailed blog post about the experience and its impact.

Ready to enhance your small business marketing strategy?

Developing a comprehensive and modern small business marketing strategy requires leveraging a mix of traditional and digital techniques. By integrating artificial intelligence tools, optimizing SEO, utilizing effective SEM strategies, and harnessing the power of social media, you can create a dynamic and effective marketing approach. Start by experimenting with different strategies, tracking your results, and refining your approach based on performance data.

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