Values in focus
We see that the trend of value-driven companies has become increasingly hot, not least as a result of the pandemic.
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How do organizations navigate a reality where their business ideas and services may not be as relevant as before the outbreak?
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How do companies create an employment branding and culture that attracts and retains talent?
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How do you support your workforce without the daily physical interaction?
Many have chosen to manage the transition by repositioning themselves, adapting their offerings, and finding new creative ways to reach their target audience. There has also been a new wave that stands out in the crowd, organizations that have instead focused on finding their purpose and values.
Most organizations have established values. But only a fraction manage to implement them and create a culture where values truly permeate the business and influence decision-making.
"For companies that understand this trend, culture and values will become one of their key competitive advantages, regardless of what they sell today."
A strong culture helps to attract and retain talented and committed employees. These companies also forge a strong bond with their target audience and find it easier to create ambassadors among their customers.
Organizations that are good at managing and developing their culture and values have much to gain. Perhaps even more so in today's world.
Agile Sales & Marketing
According to the 2020 CollabNet VersionOne State of Agile report, 58% of organizations have seen improvements in customer experience using agile change.
The shift from physical to digital channels has been going on for some time. But it has received a major boost in the last year due to the current pandemic. This has put enormous strain on businesses that have had to adapt quickly to meet new consumer expectations.
Navigating a fast-changing market requires new ways of working and processes that enable you to quickly understand, act and adapt to new conditions. All this without losing momentum in the parts of the business that work as they should. Quite simply, an agile way of working.
An agile approach turns an entire organization into a fast and reactive entity. It creates an environment that embraces creativity and innovation, empowers employees and reduces unnecessary layers of management.
Agile processes mean work at a faster pace performed in shorter cycles. It allows for quick adjustments based on the signals coming from the market at large, but also through more specific feedback from customers. The digital customer experience can be quickly influenced and continuously improved. Which is a must in a world where digital technology is changing the fundamentals of how businesses interact with their customers.
Specifically linked to marketing and sales, we see that cross-functional teams are key. This is to find new ways of working with customer data, making the best use of your marketing stack, and ultimately creating better customer journeys.
Want to read more about this topic? Read more here!
Video for sales
A picture is worth a thousand words. But how much is 24 frames per second worth?
It's usually said that you have around 3 seconds to get your message across. The standard for video is 24 frames per second, so you can imagine how much information even a short video clip can convey!
Many people associate video with marketing communications, but although it originally started as a marketing trend, it is believed that it is now making its grand entrance into the world of sales.
It's a new reality where many people work from home and physical contact has been minimized, which in turn sets new requirements.
Video is an effective way to present yourself and create a personal dialog through digital channels.
Interest in information delivered in video format has also increased significantly over the past year. According to Vidyard, emails are 8 times more likely to be opened if the subject line contains the word "video". This shows that video engages more than long texts.
In the past, a major challenge with video has been tracking and measurability. With today's video tracking, we are able to gain insights into how much of the content a viewer watches and which parts they skip. This provides great opportunities to better understand the target audience and adapt further communication accordingly.
Moreover, if you are quick to adopt this trend, your communication can stand out from the crowd. It can lead to converting more leads and faster than the more traditional forms.
CDP Explosion
CDP, which stands for "Customer Data Platform", is an abbreviation that is increasingly mentioned in various discussions about marketing technologies. The CDP technology is still relatively new and it is predicted that it will be "the next big thing" in Martech or Marketing Technologies. But what exactly is it?
We cover the topic of CDP in more detail in this post "8 good reasons to use a CDP", but in short it is:
A CDP is a customer platform, a system with the purpose of creating a centralized place where all data about its customers is stored. This is to get a complete and unified customer picture.
Today, many people feel that they have a fragmented customer picture as they collect customer information that is stored in a variety of systems. This can be anything from web/CMS and CRM systems, to customer service and billing systems. Customer information ends up in so-called data silos.
By having the data gathered in one place, you can create a uniform customer picture. But also make that information available to all parts of the organization. The idea is that whether you work with, for example, marketing, sales, or product development, it should be easy to get a picture of the customer and understand their needs in the best way.
With a CDP, you can analyze and get to know your different customer groups in order to create relevant and coherent experiences, services, communications, offers and campaigns. Companies using this technology have the potential to become extremely relevant in terms of communication, channel, and timing!
Digitalize or die
It has not escaped anyone's notice that digitization has received a real boost recently.
The digital space has become an important part of our everyday lives. It places new demands on organizations, but also creates new opportunities.
For Swedish companies that have fallen behind, digitalization will be a top priority. Working digitally is no longer a choice, it's a hygiene factor. And those that have caught up need to make sure they use their digital resources effectively to keep up with the new normal.
According to a new Microsoft study conducted by KRC Research in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, the productivity of companies that have gone digital has increased on average during the pandemic. But what has suffered in return is innovation.
We need to find new ways of working and practices to foster innovation. But also to seek and implement new techniques and technologies internally. Remember, digitalization is a continuous process that never ends!
