Breaking: Bad News!

Delivering bad news is tough in any business. Whether it’s having to tell your vendors that you can no longer retain their services or informing an employee that he is being made redundant, or shutting down a project, often the “messenger” tasked with delivering the final blow would go to great lengths to delay or avoid the situation due to fear of confrontation, turning a bad situation into an even worse one.

Let’s face it – nobody wants to hear bad news. Disappointment, frustration and even anger come to mind. It’s certainly no mean feat when it comes to reconciling and managing orders from upper management with the interests of employees, vendors and clients.

So how can we avoid shooting the messenger? We share some tips on how you can deliver bad news (someone’s got to do it!) with grace and tact.

Be Prepared

Make sure that you’re familiar with every piece of information before speaking to your target recipient (employee, colleague, client). More specifically, you need to understand the reasons why, who are the parties involved, and any other considerations in the lead up to the final decision. Don’t hesitate to ask for more information before delivering the bad news.

Time and Place

When you deliver bad news, be sure to do it in a private setting and at a time when he can hear the bad news. If it’s not urgent, don’t approach the person at a stressful time in the middle of a project. Be mindful of the setting, and switch off your phone and email alerts – avoid interruptions at all cost to put the person at ease.

Create a Buffer

Before communicating any bad news, always start with a buffer to reduce the shock or pain. An effective buffer helps the recipient to keep reading or listening, and essentially provides a smooth transition to the bad news proper.

• State the best news first
• Compliment the recipient
• Thank the recipient for his past contributions
• Listen to what the recipient has to say (shared viewpoint)
• State key facts of the case
• Express empathy (show concern)

Be Direct

People are more receptive to listening and accepting bad news when it’s delivered thoughtfully, sincerely and confidently. Body language is key. Make sure your body language conveys the right message in the right way and is in line with what you’re saying. Some examples of non-verbal cues include avoiding eye contact and fidgeting. These are sure to send the wrong signals. Also, do not sugarcoat and beat around the bush. Be direct and tactful, and most of all be kind.

No Time for Jokes

When bad news is being delivered, be considerate of the recipient’s feelings. Do not joke around as this may come across as being rude and insincere. While you may want to lighten the mood and reduce the impact of the news, always be respectful and sensitive.

Explain the Why’s

Research shows that people are more willing to accept bad news if they believe the decision-making process was reasonable. Therefore, provide them with ample reasons as to why the bad news is necessary and give them details about the decision-making process.

Show you Care

After delivering the news and explaining all the necessary information, give the individual some space to absorb the information and be ready to listen to his concerns. Ask him how he’s feeling. Do your best to be understanding and answer any questions as best as possible.

Moving Forward

When closing, do it in a way that promotes goodwill and helps the individual or team move forward. You should provide your support and let them know you’re there for them. Instead of focusing on the “can’ts”, focus on the “cans”. Go a step further and suggest a compromise or alternative option based on what the individual wanted in the first place.

Posted by Chloe Tan, CorpMedia

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Ethical Advertising: Does It Pay to Do Good?

 

Advertising is an important facet of business. Businesses are in the game to earn profits and advertising helps with just that – bringing the products to a wider reach by capturing the interest of target audiences. Advertisements have a heavy responsibility – they affect the daily lives of people who watch or read them. However, businesses need to be ethical in their advertising. An ethical company is likely to be viewed more positively. That’s because they have to keep an ethical promise to their customers.

Missing The Mark?

Even though businesses know what it means to be ethical, there have been cases of renowned companies making blunders in their advertising efforts.

Deceptive Advertising and Misleading Claims

If any advertisement makes unsubstantiated claims, then the intention is to mislead the public, and it becomes unethical. Such an advertisement usually creates or takes advantage of, or substantially interferes with the ability of people to make rational consumer choices.

Of course there is a fine line between exaggeration and deception. When an advertisement claims that “You’ll be walking on heaven”, it obviously does not expect readers to take that literally because the rational individual is able to discern the truth.

However, if an advertisement pitches your pill as one with “No Cholesterol!” but the ingredients listed on the back leaf show high sodium content, then that is considered deceptive advertising.

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies

An example of deceptive advertising would be that of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. The brand came under fire in 2010 for misleading consumers about the product’s immunity-boosting properties. The Federal Trade Commission stepped in and ordered Kellogg’s to stop all advertisements carrying the immunity-boosting claims. As a result, Kellogg’s had to pay $2.5 million to affected consumers and donate another $2.5 million worth of Kellogg’s products to charities.

Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats

Kellogg’s got into trouble again in 2013 when it falsely claimed that its Mini-Wheats “improve(d) kids’ attentiveness by nearly…20%.” As a result, the company had to settle a $4 million claim for false advertising.

Irrational Persuasion

It is the manipulation of feelings or interests of a target audience.

Advertisements push our buttons with celebrities, sex and success. They disable our rational mind and appeal to our feelings and emotions. They exploit deep-seated emotions the target audience might have: the need for security, acceptance and self-esteem.

McDonald’s Advertisement UK

McDonald’s seemingly harmless Filet-O-Fish advertisement caused massive backlash and debate online when it was launched. In the advertisement, a mother tells her son about his late father and to his disappointment, they shared little in common. It was only after his mother took him to McDonald’s and he ate a Filet-O-Fish burger that he found out he shared the same taste as his father (it was his father’s favourite burger). McDonald’s was taken to task for creating an advertisement that exploited child bereavement. The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK received about a hundred complaints and only then was the advertisement withdrawn.

Fear As a Motivator

Advertising agencies frequently use fear tactics. It becomes unethical when it is without proper justification. If fear is used for the good of the consumer and society at large, then the use of fear is justifiable.

In the case of anti-smoking campaigns, a label carrying the words “Smoking Kills” on the box uses fear as a tactic to motivate smokers to stop smoking, for their own benefit and health.

Also in the case of anti-drinking and driving campaigns, the use of fear is meant to stop or condemn drink driving, while highlighting the possible risks.

Many companies, however, employ fear tactics for the wrong reasons.

Nationwide Insurance Advertisement

The Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company released an advertisement in 2015 which features a boy reciting all the things he would not be able to accomplish in life and goes on to say “I couldn’t grow up, because I died from an accident.” The advertisement shows horrific images of accidental child death scenes like poisonous chemicals and shattered TV screens. It goes on to say, “At Nationwide, we believe in protecting what matters most… your kids. Together, we can make safe happen. #makesafehappen”

This is an example of unjustifiable fear, wherein the advertisement induces people to buy the insurance by depicting how horrible the lives of their children would be if left uninsured.

Promoting Unethical Behaviour

Unethical advertisements are also those that promote unethical and immoral behavior. An advertisement by Reebok had a headline that read “Cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout.” People were unhappy that the advertisement was unethical as it encouraged infidelity.

Reebok Advertisement

So… What?

Ethical Advertising

Ethical advertising is critical. Consumers are more socially aware and increasingly demand for businesses and products to be more ethical in production and advertising. When any company is perceived to lack in ethics in any aspect of their business, they lose credibility from consumers, resulting in a tarnished brand reputation.

Be Honest

As obvious as it sounds, to be ethical in advertising, one needs to be honest and promote a given product or service without lies or deception. Ethical advertising tells the truth and never hides any of the product specifications or its defects. Ethical advertising is also free from any deceptive or misleading claims, irrational persuasion and using fear as a motivator.

Social Consciousness

To be ethical in advertising is to avoid appealing to deep-seated emotions and unavoidable needs of the target audience. It is objective and unbiased, and does its best to live up to its social responsibility mission.

Environmental Consciousness

Ethical advertising also comes in the form of protection of the environment and preventing harm to the environment. Unethical advertisements do not show consideration for the environment and also promote environmentally destructive behavior.

Posted by Chloe Tan, CorpMedia

 

Conquering the Value of Reputation

When facing challenges presented by the current economic context, the response of the companies with a certain degree of resilience was swift. They adapted their strategic positioning and searched for opportunities abroad.

Proof of this tendency to conduct business outside in order to balance deficiencies encountered in one’s own market can be found, for example, in the values for Portuguese exports of goods and services in 2013, which surpassed national and international forecasts.

The role of marketing in this evolution plays a key role when one considers the necessity for creating a reputation that acts as an element of contact between one organization and its key audience.

It is this vital character of the concept of reputation, more than simply talking about brands, which we should focus on, with the objective of maintaining an effective positioning when facing those we consider as our target audience and partners in the implementation of a successful strategy.

As a differentiating asset in a market with goods and services sharing identical characteristics, an organization’s reputation becomes the reason for being the preferred choice among consumers, for projects being approved and for renewed notoriety. For companies searching for new opportunities, reputation becomes an assurance factor enabling them to develop a profitable commercial strategy and implement projects in an agile and effective way.

It has become imperative to develop the image we present to those outside the organization. Despite the critical factor of the solutions we offer, transforming them into a link to an idealized communication guarantees that these acquire a double role.

This shift in attention from branding, the logo and the image means relegating support role elements that do not have a direct influence in creating an objective and clear reputation. With clearly defined positioning, the next step becomes one of consolidating a certainty in the mind of the consumer: a brand is a promise. Answering adequately to market expectations in what regards this promise is a fundamental condition necessary to create an idea of reputation within our audience.

More than ever we need to think in the long run, focusing on resilience and on our link with the market. Here, the value that reputation acquires is highlighted as a crucial element in a wider communication strategy, with the objective of transforming the organization into a recognized and readily accepted brand by its targeted audience.

Guest Blog by Marta Gonçalves, Managing Partner, Say U Consulting and member of the Evoke PR Network.

The Art of Winning Hearts (and Dollars)

In this age of faceless interactions and digital transactions, is it any wonder that we keep yearning for something real, something genuine? In the world of marketing, when it comes to choosing brands, it’s no longer just about a service or product – it’s all about that authentic, personal experience that we seek.

Yet, authenticity is a word that is bandied about, often too casually. What does it really mean? And how can companies be convincingly genuine and transparent?

Findings in the Journal of Business Research distil this fuzzy concept into three attributes that consumers value most: heritage, sincerity and dedication to quality. While the third component is straightforward enough, businesses tend to flounder when it comes to delivering sincere messages or incorporating roots into their core values or vision.

At a time when transparency scandals seem to dominate headlines, and clarity and commitment are at a premium, successful brands stay ahead by being open and honest, displaying empathy, and fostering meaningful relationships with consumers across varied platforms.

Under the Right Influence(r)s

The prevalence of social media makes it easy for consumers to quickly obtain information and form opinions on brands. More and more partnerships also occur on these channels, with brands investing in influential individuals to promote their offerings.

While this marketing strategy isn’t new, astute brands increasingly seek authentic collaborations that maximise their credibility. Micro-influencers, in particular, have become favoured brand ambassadors on social media. Businesses find value in their smaller follower count (ranging from 500 to 10,000), and their closer relationships to their tight, niche communities of committed followers. For companies, this means better engagement with hyper-targeted audiences through a trusted individual.

When businesses successfully align themselves with influencers that are genuine fans of their brand, they benefit from authentic recommendations, increase their presence online (sans the hard selling!), and build a consumer base by conversing with the people who really matter to them.

Your Magic Affinity

Today, more than ever, consumers are inclined to put their money where their heart is, supporting brands with which they share common values. In the polarised climate we live in, remaining silent on larger social, political or cultural issues is difficult (and perhaps, even inadvisable).

Social responsibility continues to gain momentum as companies look to connect with conscious consumers on an emotional level. Taking up a meaningful cause not only sets businesses apart, it also helps to establish credibility and trust through positive associations with the brand.

But wanting to do good can sometimes go wrong – when businesses appear less than informed about the causes they support, they can come across as tone-deaf or inauthentic. To ensure legitimacy and resonance, companies have to understand the issue and their relationship to it. Ideally, consumers should be able to draw connections (almost immediately) between the issue and the company’s core beliefs or vision.

Stand for issues that make most sense to your brand. When your social causes are communicated effectively and sincerely, you nurture brand affinity, build a community around your brand, and are likely to retain loyal customers for longer.

Transparency is the New Currency

Open and honest communications are key to building trust and ultimately, brand loyalty. Consumers appreciate being given insight into the processes that take place before their purchase, and continued efforts to keep them informed. By educating consumers and being visible in their operations, companies demonstrate their genuine commitment to the customer.

One great example is Mars’ announcement to distinguish food products into “everyday” and “occasional” items on their packs and website, as part of an initiative to promote healthier food choices. While the move was deemed unusual, it nevertheless communicated Mars’ sense of responsibility to its consumers.

In times of crisis, honesty and authenticity become even more crucial as consumers want to be assured that problems are being addressed ethically and transparently. Rapid, informative responses, regular updates across all platforms, and sincere acknowledgement of mistakes (and a clear willingness to learn from them) will help alleviate fears, restore confidence, and show a commitment to upholding the trust the company has built.

Once embedded into a brand’s culture, operations, and mission, authenticity can positively influence customer experience and perception – and this will pay huge dividends in the long run.

Posted by Rahimah Amin, CorpMedia

Redefining the Customer Experience with AI

Artificial Intelligence. It’s all around us.

Think Amazon suggestions, Spotify picking your next song, Google search answers, Netflix recommendations and the list goes on. From speech-powered personal assistants like Siri to voice compression algorithms and autonomous cars equipped with predictive abilities, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come a long way.

AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes executed by machines. Indeed, its prevalence in our daily routines has made a significant difference in the world we live in today. Communications has also been greatly disrupted by the breakthrough of AI, slowly but surely.

Is AI taking over the world? To a certain extent, this might be true. While not everyone’s been enthusiastic about its rise, advances in AI have led to fundamental changes in the workplace. Leaders are rethinking how their businesses can be run with the help of AI’s powerful tools that can be applied to everything, from compliance to data collection, and streamlining processes to increase the overall level of efficiency.

However, AI should not be perceived as a Machiavellian robot scheming to end mankind. In fact, it can be the positive force behind the innovative transformations in our lives. In the world of public relations (PR), for example, AI has enabled brands to better interact and build deeper relations with key audiences. It would be a prodigious blunder to think that PR is on the brink of disappearing!

With AI, brands are able to leverage data sets to predict the reactions of the public more accurately and follow up with more targeted actions.

So, let’s pause for a cause and focus on the powerful combination of AI and PR working in synergy to better engage with your customers and grow your brand(s).

Consumer insights lead to improved astuteness

Good news for businesses – more information on consumers than ever before! With the most relevant and specific information on hand, brands can stay current with customers and quickly create personalised content to suit their specific interests and/or needs.

Through data collection across various channels, AI can successfully gather engagement metrics and conversion statistics. With data gathering tools, marketers can segment consumer metrics based on various factors like demographics and purchasing power.

Prior to AI, chunks of information without any organisation, otherwise known as big data, were used in businesses. It was difficult and extremely time-consuming to sieve through the information. With the help of AI, the deluge of data can now be digested into bite-sized information, enabling PR professionals to gain a better understanding of their audience’s core attributes through patterns and trends drawn from the data. The resulting encompassing patterns help professionals to discern customer preferences across a more intricate marketing strategy.

Tailored content options

AI is also redefining the customer experience by locking in consumers’ needs and wants, and improving their overall shopping experience. Have you ever noticed the content you see on your Facebook feed and news recommendations are all aligned with your interests? E-commerce platforms like Alibaba and Zalora also offer shopping that is highly personalised. Algorithms process articles by heavily scrutinising the locations of readers, what they engage in on social media as well as any other publicly obtainable information. Since the objective of AI is to find out what consumers are looking for and how they want their information to be reflected, it’s no surprise that AI is the mastermind behind all your tailored content options.

Still, professionals ought to be aware of not overstepping boundaries in the course of leveraging data to offer customised options. Customer privacy should not be compromised at the expense of creating more personalised experiences as doing so may backfire and result in consumers feeling as if their privacy is being invaded!

Higher consumer engagement with data-driven communication

Before AI came into existence, humans carried out mundane tasks like distribution of press releases and the creation of automated media lists. AI is now assisting with these duties, making it easier for businesses to reach out to target consumers directly. This can also help brands engage with the relevant target groups more efficiently than their competitors.

Given the rapid speed at which AI processes data, the accuracy of messaging is also increasing proportionally. This, in turn, helps PR professionals to ensure the delivery of strong and direct brand messaging to clients.

Advancements in AI technologies also contribute to determining predictive decisions of consumers based on the patterns detected. To better cater to the needs of the consumers, AI provides suggestions within a brand for the consumers. Since every consumer reacts differently to brand content and advertising, AI can help to tweak platform performance based on interactions with consumers and their purchases to improve each consumer’s shopping experience, using the data provided by social media interactions.

Crisis management

With the daily addition of content to the Internet – from blog posts to social media updates and netizen comments – AI plays an important role in comprehending the potential consequences of any crisis and acting as a pundit by giving professional guidance.

Predicting a crisis is difficult. Given a quick examination of social posts, AI can overcome this challenge. With ample caution, social media posts that have been pre-scheduled can be prevented from being posted automatically, and PR professionals can quickly “go into crisis management mode” and craft more suitable posts.

In the PR sphere, crisis management is, without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges. That being said, accurate information and communication-intensive efforts aid in identifying paramount events and topics – all of which cannot be achieved without AI.

With AI dominating the world we live in, there is always the fear that machines would replace humans one day. But let’s focus on the positive aspects of AI. Improved efficiency. Greater creativity. Optimized target consumers.

Posted by Shermaine Sim, CorpMedia

Driving Sales: What’s Your End Game?

Lead generation has become a key focal point for B2B enterprises looking to make the most out of their marketing efforts with measurable results.

While lead generation is an exercise measured with relative ease from a quantitative perspective, its ability to drive business results is largely dependent on the quality of the audience created. As such, companies are being forced to look beyond metrics to support their initiatives. For most businesses, regardless of the industry or products and services being offered, lead generation is a critical component of a successful sales and marketing strategy. But not every business understands the difference between lead generation and lead nurturing, and the importance of implementing both tactics into their overall sales process.

You can generate leads in every which way you choose but it’s no guarantee to increasing sales. You need to stay close with those leads, and nurture them until they’re ready to buy. You have to constantly remind you’re better than the competition.

Public Relations (PR) is a fundamental, nurturing element in the quest for quality leads because it offers reputational leverage and credibility that differentiate businesses from their competitors.  From creating content for case studies and blogs, to testimonials and thought leadership pieces, these tactics not only serve as the key to differentiating factors in B2B decision-making but also help improve relationships – keeping you at top of mind with your clients and prospects.

By forming a strong relationship with each of your potential customers, and by nurturing that relationship through various forms of consistent communication through PR efforts, this allows you to deploy the tactics and techniques from your sales playbook to nudge them closer to a paying customer.

Build Reputation and Credibility

When it comes to generating qualified B2B leads, your company’s reputation is a huge deal for business prospects. After all, it is the face of the business. It takes time and effort to build a reputation, but if not managed properly, your company’s reputation can disintegrate quickly like a house of cards. So, take the time to analyze your current state of affairs – make it a point to read online reviews, search engine results, blogs and other websites related to your business. You also need to monitor your reputation closely. Have someone check out the different channels for information regarding your business; respond to negative reviews and complaints quickly; and always strive to improve the level of your customer service.

Be a Thought Leader

For a business to remain relevant in an ever-shifting business environment, it’s important to demonstrate expertise and foresight in the field. By regularly publishing content on platforms like blogs and through media outlets, businesses are able to critically differentiate themselves from the competition. Through social media platforms like LinkedIn, self-publishing blogs, articles and e-books, businesses can establish thought leadership within the industry, creating recognizable spokespersons with whom customers and partners can relate to. This way, you become the expert resource that everyone runs to. Yes, especially the media!

Create Compelling Content

In an over-saturated, highly competitive media market, it takes more than a press release to catch the eye of journalists. These days, some companies are doing away with press releases, opting instead to create their own content, such as informative articles on topics related to a company’s business, to engage their audiences, and hopefully create new business opportunities. These self-written pieces are uploaded to corporate websites and shared via social media channels, and can also be repurposed for sales brochures and other marketing collaterals. That is not to say press releases are obsolete – it’s just that they’ve evolved! The key to using press releases effectively is to focus them on newsworthy events that should be used where appropriate, and as part of a wider media strategy that includes extensive digital outreach.

Amplify and Glorify

Make sure that you get as much mileage from every mention as you can. Republish, link to and print news stories that include your company and post these on your website, marketing materials and on the various social media channels. Customer testimonials are a great way to fire up the grill! What can be more persuasive than customers talking about how your product or service helped their business? Talk to your best customers; ask them if they’re willing to say some nice things about your company or product. More than words, a video testimonial will make the message even more impactful!

Nurturing leads to a sale takes time. It is not done in a month or even half a year. It requires dedication, cooperation and lots of hard work. While many companies give up on customers by the second exposure, others have seen a great return on their investment through lead nurturing. It’s a simple but effective way to communicate with your customers and guide them through the purchasing cycle.

Posted by Irene Gomez, CIO, CorpMedia

Real-Time Marketing: Make or Break?

Imagine a world without marketing. Brands would cease to exist, and the economy would probably collapse in no time. The world would be completely different.

Businesses today all speak marketing.

It’s all about developing brand awareness and utilizing different marketing channels to disseminate information to the public. With the advent of the Internet, digital marketing has shaped the marketing world greatly.

But real-time marketing is the new game changer.

What truly sets it apart from the rest is that it is opportunistic – marketers seize the opportunity to generate content that ties the brand to the latest trending topic of relevance, ensuring that it is not only pertinent, but felicitous too.

The tastes and preferences of consumers constantly change as well. The marketing industry is obsessed with the now, and consumers these days seek instant gratification, placing pressure on brands to be more forthcoming and transparent than they have ever been.

As real-time marketing continues to grow, brands are also keeping up with the trends by engaging the public with shareable, bite-sized content.

Leveraging the love for cheese fries amongst consumers, McDonald’s stepped up their French fries game with the launch of its Cheesy Loaded Fries just last December. Featuring its all-time favourite golden and crisp fries, topped with chicken bacon bits and drenched with nacho cheese and sour cream sauce, this limited edition side had garnered much hype.

But, alas, dissatisfaction overwhelmed fry lovers who flocked to various chain outlets with great anticipation for the Cheesy Loaded Fries, and when the dish did not resemble anything as advertised, they vented their cheese-deprived anger on the fast food chain’s Facebook page.

While McDonald’s expressed sincerity and was swift in responding to the complaints regarding the disparity between the advertised Cheesy Loaded Fries and its actual presentation, their efforts were evidently not adequate to satisfy cheesed off customers!

Oops. Shots fired.

Instead of Cheesy Loaded Fries, all they got was Fully Loaded Disappointment… perhaps, with a miserable drizzle of cheese?

In light of this big hoo-ha, KFC Singapore cleverly turned the tables around as they identified this situation as a marketing opportunity and jumped on it to produce a timely and relevant piece of content, gaining both acknowledgement and commendation from the public.

KFC simultaneously introduced its new, improved cheese fries as “the real deal” using the hashtag #KFCRealCheeseFries. Indeed, what a timely post to remind Singaporeans why they love KFC’s cheese fries!

Now that’s what you call real-time marketing.

Social media real-time marketing can make or break a brand. For KFC, it evidently made the brand, but it was clearly the contrary for McDonald’s. Another case in point: Cheerios.

When music legend Prince passed away in April 2016, Cheerios responded by tweeting a purple “Rest in peace” sign, replacing the dot above the letter ‘i’ with a cheerio, and tagging the tweet with the hashtag #prince.

What started out purely as an innocent condolence message over the loss of an iconic musical legend in Minnesota on the part of Cheerios turned out to be a seemingly exploitative marketing gimmick in the eyes of the public, especially Twitter users.

Compared to McDonald’s and Cheerios’ fiasco, KFC proved how real-time marketing, when used brilliantly and appropriately, can make the brand.

Here’s why their strategy worked:

1. Timeliness

Consumers today care less for slow and disconnected experiences. Quick response time is a crucial factor they look out for in a brand. Brands should be able to respond to customers appropriately, by creating the right content that appeals to the right people, at the right time, and appropriately.

2. Relevance

Context is equally important as content. Lacking in either one will not make the strategy work. In real-time marketing, brands often fail when they force themselves into conversations or trends that they have unfortunately little or no relevance in. What’s vital is to ensure your brand can be tied to what’s happening, with sensitivity and transparency. Failing which brands risk the wrath of the social media army!

Posted by Shermaine Sim, CorpMedia. 

Hello 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We’ve just entered a brand new year! Helloooooooo 2018!

For some, the new year will be about honing and refining, building on current successes to perform even better. For others, it’s about developing new ways of working together, and stepping into new opportunities. This is all just so exciting!

In 2018, we dare you to:

• Dream Big. Step out of your comfort zone. Consider the breadth of your market and your potential, so you can see all the opportunities.
• Be Open to Change. Even the best laid plans have sell-by dates. Begin your planning early. Anticipate change. Conduct periodic reviews and decide how you’re going to handle it with your team.
• Stay Relevant. As technology and search engines change, so do strategies marketers use to engage with customers. If you aren’t staying on top of the newest trends in content marketing, your brand will be left behind, and your business will become irrelevant.

GONE are the days of the detailed, step-by-step, multi-year action plans. The pace of demographic, technological, and business model is changing too fast for any planner to predict that far into the future. It’s time to rethink and reframe your strategic planning. Literally, this means ‘out with the old, and in with the new.’

Effective strategy needs consistent discipline, not an annual intervention; it must be embedded in the day-to-day rhythm of organizational life.

Change is in the air. Breathe deep and take it all in. Let’s make 2018 a year to remember!

From all of us here at CorpMedia, here’s wishing you and yours a very happy and successful year ahead.

Posted by Irene Gomez, CIO, CorpMedia

Ready or Not, Here Comes 2018!

The end of the year marks a threshold and invites a pause for reflection. It’s a great time to take stock of the year behind and look ahead. For CorpMedia, it’s been quite a ride! New challenges, new opportunities, new clients, new friends – we feel very blessed to be able to help our clients with creative ways to communicate their brand(s) and grow their business – by simply doing what we love!

But enough about us! Now, it’s all about getting ready for a brand new year. For most of us in the business, it’s communications planning season! Before you hit the road, en route to the month-long festivities and merriment, here are some end-of-the-year tips to make sure your 2018 plan hits the mark – and we will keep this short!

Future-proof your strategies: The one thing to remember is that while your plan may not be broken, change is necessary to keep up with evolving trends. Revisit old competitors. Explore emerging channels. Consider new technologies. Evaluate your processes and performance. Even small shifts in your communications strategy can benefit your business in a big way.

Listen to social conversations: Social media offers easy access to people’s opinions and behaviour. By intently following what your ideal customers are talking about and who they are interacting with on social media, you can gather a plethora of knowledge, such as how they perceive your brand, what qualities they look for in products and services. Social listening allows you to go to the heart of the discussion to hear what people are saying and what they are thinking.

Target your audience: Knowing the audience that you intend to communicate with is important. You can communicate until you’re blue in the face, but if your message falls on deaf ears, you’re just wasting your time, energy and effort. Research your market regularly. Start with the question “Who is my company’s ideal customer?” Be realistic – your customer can’t be everyone.

The right messaging: Today’s customers are just not into “buying things.” They are buying into solutions, e.g. expert advice, knowledge, experience, guidance. Your messaging should reflect this mindset. Are you solving problems with what you’re selling? Are you satisfying your client’s needs? Focus on what differentiates your brand from the competition and you will increase engagement with prospects, strengthen relationships with existing customers, and improve market value.

Set realistic goals: Prioritise and hone in on the two to three goals that must be achieved in a year that will contribute to your business growth and success. Resist the pressure to list anything that is immaterial, cannot be realistically achieved or accomplished. Remember, reality trumps aspiration!

Once you’ve developed your “buyer personas” you can then build your communications plan with purpose and direction, knowing who your target audiences are and how to reach them. Not only will this make your plan an easy sell to your team, it will make the entirety of your year much simpler and successful. With your ideal buyer in mind, crafting content, monitoring social media, conducting media outreach and implementing other communications tactics is streamlined and results-oriented.

After all, that is the kind of value you need to deliver, right?

To sign off, the team at CorpMedia would like to thank you for your business and support. Go out and have fun and close the year with a big bang – you deserve to! And here’s wishing one and all a fantastic new year ahead!

Posted by Irene Gomez, CIO, CorpMedia

Dare to Bare (Your Body) in Public

(It’s not what you think!)

We’ve all been there. Presenting to an audience can be nerve-wrecking as it is, so the last thing you want to worry about is positioning your arms properly and gesticulating, right? We get nervous and focus too much on our delivery that we miss the point of getting our message across.

Body language can be very important to interpersonal communication. There are often critical ideas and emotions that remain unspoken but which are intimated through body language. Body language can also be instrumental to gauge the power dynamic between individuals engaged in dialogue.

But in performance, for example, when presenting to a group at a meeting or conference, we have less subconscious and sub-textual concerns. Because the presentation is just not about the speaker – it’s about the information that an audience needs to receive, to learn and make decisions. Our voice and body are the primary tools we use to communicate that information.

And as presenters, we’re not only judged by what we say but by our appearance too. It’s our natural instinct to judge what we see. As much as you want the audience to like you for your mind and not your appearance, their first impression is going to be based on how you look. They will mentally categorize you in just a few seconds, and then decide whether or not you’re a person they can connect with.

What you need to realize is that you have the power to shape and control the first impression that people use as a basis for judging you. By learning some of the principal ways that your own appearance, posture, gestures, facial expression and even tone of voice affect your mind, you will become more aware of the factors influencing your mood, and give yourself an edge in presentations and negotiations.

Here are some body language tips to keep your audience engaged throughout your stage time:

• Appearance: What you say is of course more important than what people see. However, your appearance is an important aspect of your presentation skills. You want your audience to listen to what you have to say. Dress the part. Your presentation begins the moment someone recognizes you as the speaker.
• Posture: Keep a good posture, stand straight with shoulders back, relaxed and feet shoulder width apart. Don’t cross your arms, put your hands in your pocket or slouch. Face the audience as much as possible and keep your body open.
• Eye contact: Eye contact is crucial when speaking. It genuinely connects you with your audience. And because you’re talking to people as if you’re in a one-on-one conversation, you’ll come across as conversational. That makes you easy to listen to and engaging.
• Gestures: Hand and arm movements are an important part of our visual picture when speaking in public. Not only are they a non-verbal representation of how we feel, they reinforce our message, and help us appear confident and relaxed.  When using visual aids, point and look at the relevant data. The audience will automatically follow your hands and eyes.
• Breathe right: Relaxed and deep breaths ensure that your voice holds power and can project. Use slow and measured breathing to pace your speech, and pause to emphasize key points.
• Connect: Don’t hide behind a podium, your laptop, the mike or the screen. Orientate yourself towards the audience. They need to see your face, to know that you are attentive to their interests and available to meet their needs.
• Move with purpose: When you move (and you should!) have a specific destination in mind. For example, you can re-position yourself to address a specific audience to the left. Step forward to respond to a question. Walk around and towards people. Ever notice people tend to participate more if they have close proximity to a presenter?
• Smile: To make your audience feel comfortable, all you have to do is just smile! Smiling helps you feel more comfortable and reduces your tension – and because it’s contagious, it attracts a positive atmosphere that allows for an engaging discussion.

The importance of good body language cannot be underestimated. It’s incredibly important not only to audience engagement, but to how your overall message is received. No matter how good your speech, if you are motionless, expressionless and dull, your audience will lose interest within minutes.

Bonus tip: Ask a friend to record a short video of you presenting using a smartphone, and then give you feedback on your gestures. Use the list of common gesturing mistakes in this post as a checklist to improve your use of effective gestures.

Posted by Irene Gomez, CIO, CorpMedia