Angela Crangle – Page 36 – Pinnacle HR Solutions

How Do You Define Your Marketing?

As you develop your marketing programs, are you looking at your competitors for inspiration, or are you focused on what your clients want?

If you’re letting current/standard industry practices determine how you need to market your business, you could be missing the boat.

If you want to create a compelling marketing program that attracts new customers, you need to focus your energies where those prospective clients are and what they want. For example, if you don’t think you need to blog or tweet because your none of your competitors are doing it, you’re not seeing the full picture.

Are your clients online?
Are they researching products and services before they make a purchase?
Are they scrolling through their Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram feeds?

If so, it makes sense for you to be there, too.

Don’t make people search far and wide to find you. Make it easy for them to see you, understand you, and get to know you now— before they even realize they need you.

Stand out in the crowd

Your target market wants to know what you have to offer and what makes you different. Even if you’re offering the same basic things as other businesses, there’s something special about you. Something that sets you apart. You talk about it in staff meetings, on the phone, and in business meetings. It’s part of your company training, your company culture, and your company DNA. And yet so many companies allow themselves to get stuck looking at the competition for marketing cues.

If you want to be appealing to your clients, you need to go directly to the source. Yes, you should have an idea of what the current industry standards are. But you should also realize that they may not get you where you want to go. To make the greatest impact, you’ll want to look to your clients and prospects themselves for inspiration. Specifically, your best clients and your ideal prospects.

Do your homework

Carefully review your target markets. Look at their preferences, their behaviors, and what they are doing on line. Ask your best customers what they love about your company, your service, or your products. Ask them why they chose you initially and why they keep coming back. Doing so will give you a much better idea of what they value in your company rather than simply evaluating the marketing efforts of your competition.

Once you’ve done your research, you’ll be able to build a marketing program that reflects right back at your clients and prospects exactly what they want and value.

Hit the right target

Think about it – you’re not trying to get your competition to do business with you. You’re trying to attract happy customers and clients.

If you look just like the other businesses in your space, you will have effectively erased any competitive advantage you may have. The more you watch and emulate your competition, the more you risk being just another ____________ company.

But if you focus obsessively on your clients, and consistently communicate how you can help them or make their lives better, you’re going to stand out as the superior choice.

How can you make your customers’ lives easier? More convenient? More efficient? More meaningful?
Can you help them save time, money, and resources? What about the environment? Or the world?
Are you offering ways to help their achieve their goals and reach their full potential?
Are you listening to their comments, kudos, and complaints?

Zero in on what your customers care about and then put together a marketing plan that blasts those messages out loud and clear. And if your competitors are inspired by what you’re up to, all the better.

Because that means now you’re the one worth noticing.

Photo by alphaspirit

Better Engagement Starts With Better Vision

Employers say they want their employees to be engaged. But engaged to what?

Does your team understand where you want to take them and what your ultimate goes are? Can they feel your excitement? Can they see your vision?

Engagement is a two way street. In order to create an environment full of actively engaged employees, you have to give them a reason to care. And that means tying the vision of the company to the employee experience.

Seeing is believing

Your leadership team may have the most amazing mission, vision, purpose, and values in the universe. But if nobody knows about these things, they may as well not exist. Because they aren’t inspiring anyone.

For your business to be at its best, everyone in it should be able to see and understand what drives the company and where it’s going, as well as how and where they fit into the big picture.

Unfortunately, organizations or leaders often have no real idea of what that vision is, much less how to communicate it. Or connect it back to employee roles and performance. To make this happen, you need to do some soul searching. And some homework.

Start by asking and answering the following questions:

What is important in our organization?
Where are we heading?
What are we trying to accomplish?
What results are needed to hit our goals?
What resources and actions are required to achieve our objectives?
How can we tie each of these things back to every person on the team?

Only after you’ve created a vivid picture of your company vision can you make it come to life for your employees.

Start by understanding the goals of the organization. This is what drives the subsequent objectives and tasks your employees perform. Goals tend to focus on profitability, employee satisfaction, client satisfaction, and/or growth. An example here could be for the company to create a minimum of 20 percent annual, organic growth.

Once you have your goals set, you can define your specific objectives. These are the results you want your employees to achieve. They are based on the goals of the company, and will involve specific tasks. Tasks are the daily activities for which an employee is responsible, and are usually included in the job description.

The key is to connect the dots with all of these things and tie them back to the organizational vision— and your employees.

Communicating your way to success

Now that you’ve done all of this work, it’s time to incorporate it into your employee communication and processes.

For leaders, managers, and supervisors, this means sharing the overall vision with everyone in the organization. And this isn’t a one-and-done event. Your vision needs to be constantly communicated and reinforced.

One key way to do this is by having a weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings with each of your reports. If you’re communicating regularly, these check-ins should last no more than 10 or 15 minutes. The purpose isn’t for an all-out performance review, but rather to review progress, challenges, and feedback for the last week or month.

As a supervisor and a steward of the company vision, it’s your responsibility to constantly communicate the vision and provide guidance on what employees can and should be doing to help make it a reality. You’ll also want to recognize individuals for what they have already accomplished, and problem solve to reduce any barriers that may be holding them back.

If you’re not currently doing this, having regular one-on-one meetings may sound daunting. But these sessions are key to connecting and engaging with your employees, and your time investment will reap rewards at year-end, when the annual evaluation becomes simply one more review session. Because you’ve been continuously monitoring, reviewing, and adjusting performance metrics and processes throughout the year, there should be no surprises for anyone here.

Have you shared your vision lately?

If you want your employees to be connected to you, you need to connect with them. You’ve got to give them some reasons to get excited, to care, and to want to do their best.

Yes, it takes time. But with a little planning and a lot of communication, you can make it happen. And you’ll all be happier for it.

Photo by crazymedia

Why You Should Provide Great Employee Benefits, and Work With a Great Employee Benefits Consultant

Guest blog content provided to Q4iNetwork Consultants by freshbenies

Any benefits broker can sell employee benefits plans. But a true benefits consultant is much more interested in giving clients the opportunity to buy benefits for their people.

This is an important distinction, and one that redirects the focus back to the real question: Why do companies make the decision to offer benefits to their employees?

Yes, there are laws that require companies of certain sizes to provide health insurance plans, and that there are tax incentives for other employers to offer coverage.

But here are two more critical reasons companies provide benefits packages.

1. Attracting and Retaining Talent

This is far and away the biggest reason companies offer benefits. The success of a company depends largely on hiring and retaining the best team, and a comprehensive benefits package goes a long way toward doing that – particularly in a more competitive market.

The employee benefits brokers who stand out are those who give companies an opportunity to stand out— by providing a unique set of benefits. When all other things about a job offer are equal, a benefit package with sizzle can be a serious game changer.

Does your broker talk about non insurance benefits?

There are many of these kinds of services available. Understanding what they are and what problem each one solves is key to designing a benefits program that is appealing to your current and future employees.

Does your broker ask questions to uncover your unique needs and pain points?

For example, many employers can’t afford the comprehensive plans offered in the past, which means current offerings can have some pretty big holes in them. If your broker isn’t interested in figuring out how to fill in the gaps, you may want to find one who is.

These non-essential services can improve the essential insurance plan while adding helpful and customizable options employees will like, appreciate, and use. The health plan will always matter, but pairing it with practical, effective tools can make employees appreciate their benefit package even more.

As you’re talking about non-insurance solutions, here are some key things to consider:

What is implementation like?
How much customer support does the provider offer?
Are there options in how the service is used (online, app, phone)?
Is the employee’s family included in the benefit?
How does the provider drive utilization?

2. Keeping Employees Healthy

Depending on the size of the company, this can play out a couple of different ways for employers.

In a large company, health maintenance and disease prevention are integral to productivity and the bottom line. Having a proper benefit plan in place raises the odds of keeping those employees healthy, working, and productive by reducing downtime due to illness.

For small businesses, prevention and quick treatment are critical because an illness suffered by a key employee is more difficult to overcome. This factor extends to family benefits which impact the employee missing work to care for them.

A consultant-minded broker will be excited to step in with new strategies to help you increase access to care for your employees.

Does your broker take the time to educate you about service options that can make it easier for employees to seek timely, appropriate care for themselves and their families?

Having solutions like these at your fingertips can help you maximize your workforce and help keep costs down.

Make the most of your benefits. And your broker.

If your broker isn’t talking to you about things like telemedicine, employee advocacy, HR admin tools, voluntary products, and other out-of-the-box solutions, they aren’t telling you the whole story. Or bringing you the most value.

Why not work with a true benefits consultant who can help you deliver on ALL the reasons you offer employee benefits to your team?

Your employees will be happier, and so will you.

Photo by garagestock

Need to Define Your Business Purpose? Here’s How.

There’s a lot of talk about how having a defined purpose is important for your business. And with good reason. To be successful, you need to understand WHY you are in business. And we’re not talking about profitability here. We’re talking about the purpose behind the profit. That thing that inspires you to do your best and deliver your true value. Every single day.

Sometimes, defining these things can get a little tricky. Even if you have a very strong sense of purpose, it might be hard to put it into words. But doing so can be a game changer for your business.

Wondering how to get started? Here’s a handy guide to help you articulate why you are in business.

It’s not about getting rich

Yes, everyone wants to make money. But this is about more than that. You’re looking for your bigger, more inspired purpose.

Start by asking yourself and your team, “What do we do as an organization?” Write it down. And then ask yourselves, “Why is this important?” Write down your answer.

Then, follow that answer with the same question: “Why is this important?” Write down your answer.

Repeat this line of questioning about 5 times. When you find you’re getting to the core idea of your Why, then write the final answer in the form of a sentence that starts with “We believe…”

Here’s an example

Let’s say you’re in the talent management business.

Why are we in this business? What gets us excited about what we do?
We love matching great people with great organizations. | Why is it important?
Because people need good, stable jobs and companies need reliable, talented employees. | Why is that important?
If people can’t find jobs, they can’t provide for themselves or their families. If companies can’t hire quality employees, they can’t stay in business. And if they can’t stay in business, they can’t provide stable jobs for people who need them. | Why is that important?
We believe communities thrive when they’re filled with happy employees working at great companies.

When you get to the answer or belief statement that starts explaining your inspired reason for what you’re ultimately trying to achieve with your business, then make a statement explaining it.

We strengthen communities by helping companies meet business objectives through employee attraction and retention.

Or for more flair and enthusiasm, you might say,

We help build thriving communities filled with extraordinary companies that are talent magnets.

Put your own personality to this description in a way that matches your company personality. In a further narrative (a paragraph or two), explain how you accomplish this. Talk about how you find, screen, and match candidates and how this influences the companies you work with. Don’t include this type of detail in your Purpose statement itself, otherwise you could limit the company to doing specific thing. But this will provide some good insight for company decision-making and for new employees to better understand who you are as an organization.

Keep your purpose statement broad and flexible so you can modify specific services and processes as you grow, but know that it keeps you on track with your identified purpose.

Your Why/Purpose drives everything

Once you determine what your statement is going to be, make it your primary filter for everything you say and do as an organization. Question your intentions before taking action by seeing how your decisions and goals align with your purpose.

When faced with a decision, do a gut check – maybe it’s a new service offering, a new partnership, a new marketing opportunity – and ask yourself, “Does this help us strengthen the community and the employers we work with?”

Connect with your team and your customers at a level that challenges and educates them and helps them create a better environment. This will make you clearly attractive to the types of clients who value what you value.

Start by defining your purpose. Once you’ve got it down, live by it. Share it with your employees, your customers, and the world. Then see where it takes you.

Photo by melpomen

Are You Showing Your Customers Who You Really Are?

Your company brand is a funny thing. Some people are convinced it’s all about the logo. Or the website. Or the marketing materials. But in reality, your brand is the reputation you have in the market. And that’s not always up to you.

What do people think and feel when they hear your name? What ideas come to mind when they see that logo?

You may think of your brand in one way – from your internal perspective of what you feel it is and what you want it to be. But people on the outside may see it and experience it differently.

But despite what you may want your audience to see in you, it’s their actual experience that will determine the brand they associate you with.

Fortunately, you have the ability influence and alter what they experience.

Benefits of branding

Your brand, and the communication of that brand, is your opportunity to prepare your customers in advance to start looking for the things that make you different and special— before you ever have a single interaction.

If you get this message across correctly, you will have laid the groundwork for the expectations and experiences that will follow.

When people are able to see, hear, and understand your message clearly before they meet with you, work with you, or purchase from you, you’ve already built a significant level of trust. This trust will allow you to bring them into the relationship expecting to be pleased with the outcome. And this is exactly what you want.

By effectively communicating the things you’d like your audience to know about you, you’ve given them an opportunity to recognize and focus on the things they like about you. Things like what makes you different, where you align with their values, and how you can help make their lives and/or businesses run better.

It may sound a bit intuitive, but the truth of the matter is this:

If you don’t let your customers get to know you ahead of time, they won’t know what to expect when they finally do choose to do business with you. This can easily add a level of unease or anxiety to their decision and increase the chances of them being disappointed or disillusioned by the experience. And this is exactly what you don’t want.

Be true to your brand. And your customers.

There are two things that are absolutely critical to creating and maintaining a successful brand. Get them right and you are well on your way to happy, satisfied clients. Get them wrong and it won’t matter what you do or say. Your brand will be out of your hands.

1. Be consistent

There’s one place your brand messages need to exist. And that’s everywhere.

Your website. Your blog. Your social media. Your advertising. Your Yelp reviews. Your press releases and news articles. Your charitable causes. Your hiring practices. Your storefronts. Your offices. Your customer service philosophy. And anything else you say, do, allow, or decide.

Your brand has to be true and consistent to the very core of your mission and your organization.

You can’t do one thing this week and another thing next month. You can’t claim to love your customers but maintain unfriendly business practices. You can’t say you care about your employees and then treat them like crap. You can’t proclaim your love for your community but never give back. These things will not go unnoticed. And they will work against you.

Define your brand and then let it shine in every single thing you do.

2. Follow through

Even if you manage to get your brand messaging picture perfect, it will all be for nothing if you don’t follow through with customer interactions that deliver on that promise.

Defining your brand internally is one thing, but it all hinges on the actual client experience. Those cumulative customer interactions, both large and small, are the experiences that will ultimately determine your brand in the eyes of your target audience. If you constantly reinforce the messages you communicate, your brand will continue to become more deeply ingrained in the minds (and hearts) of your customers.

If your actions are in conflict with your message, your brand will eventually become whatever your consumers perceive it to be, whether or not it’s actually true.

Make it stick

Great brands are built one customer at a time. Make sure your company culture runs deep and that your brand is a natural outcome of your shared values. If your employees love their organization and their work, your customers will feel it. And when your customers are feeling the love, they’ll give it right back to you. And shout if from the rooftops.

Which means you’ve done it right.

Photo by Deyan Georgiev