For illustrative purposes a woman holds her mobile phone with a Covid-19 note in front of a computer ... [+]
Whether Covid-19 has your business pausing, reopening or taking a phased approach, a robust digital strategy is critical. Here are tips for how small and large businesses alike can leverage digital media to activate remote workforces, strengthen client relationships and ultimately, drive revenue.
Embrace WFH
Embracing working from home (WFH) is fundamental to creating a modern and agile workplace – and amid the Covid-19 crisis, WFH has never been more imperative to corporate resilience. All research indicates that crowded, indoor spaces can facilitate transmission so empowering a remote workforce is key to protecting employees, clients and the bottom line.
One of the biggest corporate lessons of the Covid-19 quarantine is that employees can be productive from home and do not need to rely on old-school “face time” for advancement. According to recent research by Airtasker, remote employees work 1.4 days more per month than their office peers. What’s more, the WFH employees actually had less unproductive time than those in the office (27 minutes versus 37 minutes). Another benefit? Remote workers sought a more balanced, healthy lifestyle and exercised 25 minutes more per week than their office-based colleagues.
It’s no surprise then that Facebook recently announced it will shift half of its staff to work remotely by 2030. Other large corporations could and should embrace a remote workforce both as a way to boost productivity, but also attract top talent.
Create Digital Employee Communities
Even in a remote workforce, people need a sense of office camaraderie. Chris Bailey, productivity consultant and author of Productivity Project and Hyperfocus explains, “People are what give us the motivation – more than any other factor, more than a cup of coffee.”
There are two types of digital communities employers should establish. The first, Bailey calls a “gathering place.” Think of this as the virtual water cooler. It should be an informal platform – slack, an intranet community forum or any chat feature encouraging casual, yet appropriate, conversation amongst employees. In addition to these group chats, Bailey suggests managers create digital gathering places for their teams by hosting Zoom coffee catch-ups to start the week and Zoom cocktails to end the week.
The second type of digital community is, of course, where the work happens. Bailey calls these communities “structured conversations.” Think of these as the calls, Zoom meetings and emails where employees remain task-oriented and accomplish the projects at-hand.
One added benefit of these digital communities? They can help strengthen global collaboration and eliminate regional biases – for example, employees in satellite or remote offices who may have previously felt secondary to those based in headquarters.
Humanize Executive Messaging
Executives are essential to creating a sense of digital community both for employees and clients.
In the absence of face-to-face meetings, executives should share personalized messages. These messages can be emails, audio grams, podcasts, video clips, live videos or social media posts and the best-in-class strategies will mix these formats.
This doesn’t mean a daily or even weekly email from CEOs to all clients. Any email communication more frequent than monthly should be custom to specific clients or constituents. While an occasional update from executives can provide reassurance, email overload will dilute the value-add. Besides, client inboxes should focus more on a return on investment or clear call-to-action (see Leverage Email Marketing).
For more frequent communication, social media is the most effective medium. That’s because, following an executive on social media demonstrates a user-intent to receive updates, rather than, say, just opting-in to a brand email. Plus, daily or even more frequent posting is native to user behavior on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.
A great example of effective executive social media is Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. He’s always a best-in-class social media example and his Covid-19 social media strategy reinforces this. He posts often. He diversifies the asset type. He humanizes the message. From IGTV videos, to near-daily photos, videos and even written messages (screenshot from his “notes” app), McMillon uses his presence to highlight not only his leadership but also, to honor and celebrate employees.
Strengthen Brand Social Media
Similar to executives’ digital dialogues, brands should lean into their social media accounts to demonstrate how they are expanding operations (when permitted) while also helping to ensure the safety of the community. For b-to-c brands with brick and mortar presences, customer testimonials are increasingly important in conveying the safety of the operations. This also means that engaging with brand loyalists on social through likes, comments and shares is more important than ever. Offering incentives such as coupon unlocks and referral promotions can also help.
More than anything, brands should leverage social media to maintain an honest and ongoing dialogue with clients. Customers don’t expect any company to have a definitive strategy right now. The best a brand can do is provide transparent communication on their evolving approach.
Leverage Email Marketing
It may seem obvious or old school, but email marketing works. The data is astounding: according to the Data & Marketing Association, for every $1 businesses spend on email marketing, they can expect to earn $42 – that’s a 4,200% return on investment. So, it comes as no surprise that 81% of small and medium-sized enterprises report email is their primary acquisition channel.
To make email marketing more effective, businesses should humanize their voices and ensure both the subject line and the email body are timely and personable. As with any digital strategy, measurement and beta testing are also critical to success. Open rates, click-through rates and time spent are all key metrics to help identify what’s working and optimize future performance.
Lean into Live Video
While many marketers think corporate live videos peaked with Facebook Live in 2016, given the current landscape of reduced face-to-face interactions, the value of a real-time stream is substantial both for communicating internally with employees and externally with public constituents.
Live video also offers a much richer, more authentic medium than email, audio or even video on demand. Another perk of live video? It lends itself to real-time feedback.
The metrics support this: According to ZoomInfo, live video receives 10X more comments than video on demand and viewers typically watch live video 8X longer than video on demand.
Be Agile
The Covid-19 crisis landscape, client expectations and digital media platforms will continue to evolve in future months. Know that whatever mediums and messaging work today probably won’t be enough in 2021. Given this rapid rate of transformation, brands must stay agile to stay successful.
