Be Different or be dead

December 31, 2020

What your career plan should look like to succeed during COVID-19

Source: Pexels

What your career plan should look like to succeed during COVID-19?

I’ve written many articles on how to have a successful career; but they have most of their relevance ‘in normal times’ when organizations went about their business without physical separation rules, without the need to redefine their business model on the run and without the ability to have employees working in an office environment.

It’s different now, and we don’t know when normal times will greet us once again.

Nevertheless, as individuals we must look to our long term future and not get punished by the (hopefully) short term challenges the pandemic imposes on us; we must journey on and take actions that will position us favourably for a successful future.

What does a COVID career plan look like?

It shrinks the planning horizon

The frame of reference for your plan is now down to a month from whatever you’ve been using up to now.
The 5-year plan is no longer a viable way to plot your career journey because in a pandemic, opportunities appear and disappear in a heartbeat. And if you’re not poised and ready to capitalize from an event that just shows up, you’re going to be on the sidelines away from the action.

A pandemic doesn’t have a smooth flow to it; it’s chaotic and unpredictable moment by moment. So your career plan has to ride it’s wave if you stand any chance of responding and adapting to it in a way that makes sense for you in the long haul.

Getting from ‘A’ to ‘B’ is not going to be a straight line these days; you’re going to have to weave your way to try and achieve your end goal. An inch forward; a lunge to the right; a step back; a leap forward is the process that you need to be prepared to participate in if you want your career to continue advancing.

Have a long term vision for yourself, but if you’re not prepared with a 30-day tactical plan, the long term will never show up — Roy, think long term; act short term.

It is online centric

Businesses are being forced to morph much of their operations to online; bricks and mortar selling and distribution is waning. This is creating a surge in demand for people who have skills relevant to an online play.

Benchmark Amazon to see the jobs available in the online world; choose one that fits your long term goal and get in the hunt now. And look at ways your existing skill set can be extended to include online requirements.
Online marketing is a great opportunity these days in the small business sector. Look there.

It is dominated by learning

In an environment like this that is changing unpredictably and fast, it’s critical to ‘keep your feet moving’, and learning is the core of successful adaptation and responsiveness.

The career options you have in this pandemic are proportional to what you know about the opportunities that are revealed. What successful organizations decided to do is the source of your learning.
Choose learning as your core competency during this pandemic and follow what you discover.

It has experimentation and ‘tries’ as themes

A pandemic is a stochastic environment that changes regularly and unpredictability, which means you can’t pick a path and stick religiously to it.
You have to be prepared to shift and pivot based on new circumstances and try different things to move forward toward your goal. What this means is that you must try new opportunities as they arise to see if they are right for you.

Don’t dismiss an interesting prospect because you don’t believe it’s consistent with your long term career aspirations; in a pandemic you don’t have the luxury of foregoing anything that can contribute to your learning portfolio.
Take a chance. Try it out. Find out if it’s the right thing for you by doing it not by thinking about it.

It has ‘COVID mentors’

Even though the pandemic is fast paced with little or no rhythm, it does have people who are leading their organizations to success; individuals who have been able to meander their way through the challenges posed by the new forces and survive.
Find a few of these people and get close to what they’ve done. Forget about academic pedigrees; select people who are actually doing great things in chaotic times.

You don’t have to personally get to know them, all you need to do is be a student of their work.
Study the strategy and actions they’ve taken and the results they’ve achieved.
Follow them. Listen to them. Copy them.

It’s tactical in design

A planning period measured in days as opposed to years requires a commitment to being tactical in your approach.
This means being extremely nimble in the way you approach your challenge. You have to be ‘on your tiptoes every moment and have your spider senses on to provide the input you need to shape your tactics.

In addition, tactics require that you have a laser focus on job availability. It’s a sequential paradigm that seeks to put together a string of job successes that you hope leads you — but doesn’t promise you — to where you want to go.
This is a highly pragmatic way to move forward because career success is generally measured through a retrospective lens; you conclude success by looking back on what you did.

Despite the pandemic, you can pursue your career goals. The journey just looks different.
No big deal because winning and success are all about adapting to what’s in front of your face, right?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 12.31.20 at 04:14 pm by Roy Osing
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December 26, 2020

How to manage social media without it taking up all your time

Social media has marked a new dawn in customer relations. With this ‘fourth wall’ breaking to enable two-way conversations, instantaneous feedback and round-the-clock access, we’ve seen a complete revolution around how businesses and organizations can build relationships with their customers.

Whether they’re established stakeholders or new visitors, the 21st century and its swathe of social media platforms have made it more important than ever to really connect with the non-negotiable of delivering true value.
In fact, value in the era of social media is defined with metrics of engagement making it a time where the qualitative is quantitative and every business and organization truly has the opportunity to build relationships that are reinforced with their guiding values.

With half the world using social media, there’s over 3.5 billion chances to tell stories, share good news, connect meaningfully, and meet customers where they are on their preferred platforms.

Despite this, as a time of unparalleled engagement and activity, an effective and authentic strategy doesn’t just happen. Just think of these hallmarks of exceptional social media and the approaches that underpin them:

● Considered content of a calibre that gets the story right needs a holistic approach based on customer and market analysis
● Timely and accurate responses that hit the mark because they’re backed with purpose rather than obligation
● Informative and helpful messages accompanied with rich media developed with higher order thinking

These three prongs of activity combined with monitoring and abstract conceptualisation are only as good as the time that’s devoted to them. Yet, even though it’s the place where most businesses and organizations know their customers are, it can also be the last place where attention is turned or where team resources are allocated.

The reality is that social media requires an investment of time — something many businesses and organizations don’t have a lot of. This spells disaster, so what can be done to overcome this and where to from here?

Well, M2 On Hold produced this infographic ‘How To Manage Social Media Without It Taking Up All Your Time’ as a helpful resource for everyone from professional marketers to start-up businesses.

Read on for the full guide and to renew your strategy for how you manage social media channels, content development, and customer engagement while working smarter not harder.

— Justin Green is the General Manager at M2 On Hold. As part of his role he enjoys creating useful content on social media marketing.

• Posted 12.26.20 at 06:29 am by Roy Osing
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December 24, 2020

Why ‘ME’ marketing is now the best way to grow sales

Source: Unsplash

Why ‘ME’ marketing is now the best way to grow sales.

‘ME’ marketing will destroy traditional marketing; it’s all about the individual not the crowd.

Brilliant marketers get that ‘ME’ segments generate higher returns than market segments produced by traditional marketing.

The four bases of commonly prescribed market segmentation are demographics, psychographics, behavior and location (‘geographics’) and the marketing process is to develop programs targeted at potential customers with similar traits within a particular segment.

Segmentation studies are based on observations of population behavior;  the characteristics of the masses (represented by the ‘average’ person in the population) determine the conclusions of the study.

Why are these four segments used as the prescription for marketing segmentation? Because this type of data on people is readily available to the marketer.

Census data provides demographic and location information, billing and web visitor tracking systems produce product usage information and standard market research studies ask for lifestyle preferences which people are generally ok with providing.

For a marketing program, individuals are ‘mapped’ into each of these segments and are assumed to be like everyone else in their segment in terms of their likelihood to be attracted to a particular marketing program targeted to the segment.

The marketer’s assumption is that each person in the segment ‘looks the same’ in terms of the segmentation variable chosen and because of this similarity will all exhibit the same buying propensity.

Source: Unsplash

I’ve always found this assumption to be a non-starter. Just because I’m a skier does not in any way suggest that other skiers would be interested in buying the same products as I do.
And just because I’m in the boomer demographic with a specific income in no way is a good predictor of what others with similar characteristics will be interested in buying. 

In this approach, an ‘average’ target for a service might be ‘a male boomer with an annual income of between $60 - $100K who lives in Vancouver and who has an annual ski pass at Whistler’.

And the flaw is that there may actually be some people who do have the targets attributes and who would be interested in what is being offered, but there will also be many with these attributes who won’t be interested and who will not be interested in the offer.

Traditional segmentation produces hits and misses and the marketer hopes there are more of the former. But you can’t count on it. 

There are two serious issues with traditional segmentation methodology; its underlying assumptions are flawed.

First, having segmentation variables prescribed with the simplifying assumption that people tend to make purchase decisions on the basis of their demographics and so on, is fallacious; people express their differences with their own buying triggers which can’t be prescribed up front.

And second, assuming that people who exhibit the same segment characteristics will make similar buying decisions is simply not true; there are many sub-clusters within any given segment that have their own buying motivations quite apart from those in the overall segment.

‘ME segmentation’ is different from the commonly-used methodology, and should be adopted by a marketing organization that wants to stand out and perform above their peers.
ME segmentation poses the research question to an individual person not the population.

ME segmentation is strategic

It is considered as a strategic exercise which asks the question “How should the market be segmented to expose as many opportunities as I can?” not how do I assign my customer base into the prescribed segments.

The prescribed segmentation variables such as demographics, location, usage and lifestyle are not automatically used; they are given mild attention only: the focus is on determining the appropriate variable that will unlock the growth key for the organization.

The objective is not to place people in the prescribed segments, but to discover the appropriate segmentation elements that will produce the best sales result.

For example, if a specific web application best appeals to a Gen-Z individual with an IOS device, lives in Tsawwassen BC, is a member of a family of 4, and has a household provider who is female, then this is the appropriate segmentation to use.

Source: Unsplash

It’s focus is on differences

Traditional segmentation seeks to define small numbers of customer groups that share similar characteristics, and these characteristics are broad and general in nature.
People who are over 65 years old who have right-of-centre political beliefs, women who live on the west coast who are pro abortion are examples of the segments that are produced by the traditional approach.

ME segmentation, on the other hand, is a process driven by the intent to find differences in customer clusters in order to expose as many customer clusters as possible.

Opportunities come from the differences between people NOT similarities among them.

And greater the number of segments that are defined, the more intelligence you have on each person in the cluster AND the better the ability to match a product, service or experience to their specific individual need.

It’s end game is on ‘the many’

As stated above, ME segmentation tries to define as many different customer clusters as possible in order to get closer to the individual with the belief that if you have a tight fit with an individual person, you have a better chance of selling them something than if the person’s desires are watered down by a larger group.

The probability of making a sale increases due to the fact that you are better able to match your offering with the more precise needs. wants and desires of the individuals in each cluster.

Person-research will yield many conclusions; one for each person you talk to.

And each conclusion will be valid unlike conclusions from population research which will be valid for some individuals (who just happen to be exactly identical to the population profile) and invalid for others (whose special unique characteristics don’t match the population profile.)

Better to have 100 different conclusions from 100 individual people rather than 1 conclusion based on the “average” person in a population of 100.

It’s never-ending

ME segmentation is a continuous process of going deeper and deeper into a cluster of customers. Obtaining more and more information on the individuals in the cluster.

The marketer needs to keep looking for differences until they are nose-to-nose with an individual because that’s when total understanding of people’s desires is achieved.

If there were one million customers, the result of the ME process would be one million segments of 1.

What are the implications of a million clusters of 1?

▪️you would be different as few undertake the journey.

▪️you would have more rich and deep knowledge on your customers than your competitors have.

▪️your sales potential would increase exponentially.

▪️you would build both share of market and customer share.

▪️customer loyalty would increase because you are better able to match your solutions to their needs and wants.

▪️you would be better able to survive unpredictable ’body blows’ you might suffer in an ever changing world because you are so tight with your customers.

All because you choose to put in place a marketing philosophy to treat segmentation as a continuous strategic learning down to the individual.

Keep segmenting your market until you are nose-to-nose with a person.

Source: Unsplash

The role of the ME marketer

Within the ‘ME’ context of segmenting markets down to ‘the nose’ of an individual and examining their needs and wants rather than treating markets as homogeneous groups, the ME marketer’s role is different than what marketers have done in the past.

The ME marketer:

— Is driven by individual people have to say, not by what is implied by large markets or populations, and puts the individual before the average needs of the crowd.

— Is ok with the possibility of creating a unique marketing plan and product or service solution for an individual.

— Drives IT to ‘mass-personalized’ serving systems capable of uniqueness delivered to thousands of customers.

— Reserves Customer Appreciation Day events for specific customers who have demonstrated their loyalty to the company for many years.

— Looks to the power of new technology to define the needs of individuals and to use the secrets discovered to create personalized solutions and not to flog their current product portfolio.

— Uses every tactic available to build long term relationships with people rather than flog products at them with a focus on making short term sales. They see AI as a way to create new experiences for people and not a productivity tool.

— Is a strong advocate for the customer inside their organization, ‘doing battle’ for them to protect their interests in their own bureaucracy.

— Does whatever it takes to try and eliminate any dumb rules in their organization that infuriate customers and threaten their loyalty.

Mass marketers are the dying breed of the profession, and it starts with the practice of segmentation.

Segmenting down to ‘the nose of a person’ enables a deep understanding of what people want and desire, and exposes opportunities to not only enhance marketing productivity but also to create sustaining long term value for the organization.

ME markets are superior to crowds.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.24.20 at 06:26 am by Roy Osing
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December 23, 2020

How to make virtual events work for your business

Source: Pexels

As humans, we’re wired to spend the first part of our lives trying to fit in, only to figure out that the magic of what we have to offer is in the things that make us stand out.

Sameness is safe. The brain is wired to notice anomalies because they may be dangerous. But they also make life more interesting.

If a continuous tone drones on for a while, you’ll just tune it out. But, change the pitch or volume, and the brain snaps alert. In psychology, that’s called the orienting reflex, and it helps us stay alive.

As in biology, so in life… and business.

This is particularly true of the event-planning business.
In this unprecedented time, we’ve all been violently shaken out of our normal: face-to-face has flipped into screen-to-screen.
The time is ripe to start using virtual events to get your message out.
So, how do you make a virtual event work for you?

Why choose virtual events?

Before we go into how you can leverage them, let’s look at why virtual events present an opportunity for your business.

Virtual events may be the new kids on the block when it comes to marketing, but they have been gaining in popularity since long before the pandemic outbreak. Why?

Virtual events are more budget-friendly and accessible to wider audiences, with no geographical limitations. They are not dependent on the venue, the weather, refreshments, or other factors that require serious consideration in regular event planning.

All this doesn’t mean you should just wing it. You’re responsible for providing your attendees with the most value possible, while reaping the biggest benefits for your business.

Online networking and forming a community

Having a community has never been more important than it is now, and communities that form around virtual events will become a lifeline for many businesses that choose to adapt.
What learns and adapts lives on. What doesn’t, withers and dies.
In your community, you and your partners can find solutions together, bound by a common goal, interest, or need.

The benefit of a community is support. You don’t have to know everything, as long as you have a relationship of mutual respect with someone who has the skills that help you achieve your goals.

Combined effort built civilizations, and it can do the same for business. Use the virtual event as a networking platform and an opportunity to widen your scope, influence, and visibility, and therefore value.

The rule of community is that when one grows, the collective grows as well.

Picking the right virtual event format for your business

In business, it’s important to know your goal, and then find the best way to get there.

Explore your niche and get to know your customers.

Depending on the product or service you offer, some types of virtual events will have a higher chance of success than others.

Do you need an up close and personal webinar for your core audience, or a workshop to disseminate hands-on knowledge to a large user base?
Perhaps a highly structured conference for industry professionals is the way to go?

Maybe a behind-the-scenes tour of the business or an informal fireside chat to touch base with your home-bound, pyjama-clad team? Pick the format that works for you and follow through.

KPI, ROI and intelligent strategies

Once you’re clear on the goal you want to achieve, determine what key performance indicators (KPI) you’re going to use to measure your success.

There’s a variety of indicators for you to focus on, such as new leads, revenue, exposure via social media, or attendance.
Keep in mind that data is invaluable. It is a source of precious insights, and it will help you improve each time and get the kinks out.

Start by making a meta-strategy and plan the execution timeline. Break things down into smaller segments and dive in.
Be ready for surprises and minimize wild cards. There is always more to do than you think, always!

To minimize the chance of being blindsided by an unforeseen circumstance, make sure you have a detailed strategy in place.
This will help you prioritize and make sure all the hard work you and your team have put in pays off.

Delivering the right content to the right audience

There is a tribe of like-minded individuals out there searching for what you have. Find them.
If you go all wide and vague trying to target everyone just to run up the numbers, you’ll waste resources for barely a blip on the radar.

You don’t need everyone. You need to laser in on your ideal customers to make the biggest possible impact with the resources at your disposal.

Cross-reference with your current customer base demographics, look at who your closest competitors are targeting, or imagine your perfect attendee/customer/guest and build from there.

Make sure to keep your target audience in mind through all aspects of planning.
From determining the channels you use to promote and hold the event to the content, its format, and even the accompanying materials such as landing pages or e-booklets, your marketing choices and communication style should align with your target audience.

Knowing your audience will allow you to be less generic, to stand out, and truly deliver at a higher level than the bland beige monotone of ‘trying to speak to everyone’.

Follow up, thank-yous and feedback

Organizing an event means creating a memorable experience. Harness the reverberations of this experience in the days following the event and follow up while the emotions are still fresh.

In marketing, that’s known as the maximum impact zone. Send out thank-yous to make sure the people feel that you appreciate the time, attention, money, and effort they’ve invested in your event.

Thank everyone who contributed and participated, and use the recorded materials and insights to gain more traction, sending out ripples long after the wrap-up.

Wrap up

When you do things your way, they patronizingly label you crazy or strange. After you succeed in doing it, they lovingly call you eccentric.

Don’t be afraid to do things differently and venture into modes of communication you’ve never tried before. Keep what is tried and true, but add your own flavor.
When you plan your virtual event, remember what attracts audiences to you in the first place.

The bottom line is, if you don’t stand out in business, you’re (virtually) dead.

So make sure you stand out.

— Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter.

• Posted 12.23.20 at 05:09 am by Roy Osing
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