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Brand Activation Management

How BAM can support the 4-day working week for marketers

Papirfly
5 minutes read

The four-day working week is something that has been earmarked by organisations for several years. But now, numerous companies have taken the stride to adopt this new approach.

Earlier in 2022, tech giant Panasonic announced that they were looking to offer their employees an extra day off to relax. Despite Japan being a culture infamous for its steadfast devotion to work, the scales have begun to tip in favour of long weekends in one of the most career-focused countries in the world.

It’s not just corporations across the pond that have started to embrace shorter working weeks – European countries, such as Spain and Ireland, have already begun piloting similar schemes with great success. 

In the UK, dozens of companies, including several marketing agencies like Crystallised, FLOCC and Punch Creative, have taken the leap as part of the 4 Day Week Campaign, reaping the benefits that this model of work brings.

But, how did we get here? The world of work has been changing with the evolution of technology for some time. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it allowed employees and employers time to reflect on the future of work and their approach to it. Since then, the calls for the 4-day working week have only grown louder.

The benefits of a shorter working week

At first glance, it may seem counterproductive to condense our busy work schedules down to 4 days. However, adopting this new working model has several very real advantages for businesses and the marketing teams within.

Enhanced productivity

Although you may think that having less time to do the same amount of work would cause deadlines to pile up, in many cases, working fewer hours actually has the opposite effect. When time is at a premium, staff are more aware of how they spend their hours, often resulting in them working much more efficiently. 

While 4-day weeks mean reducing you and your team’s hours by 20%, embracing this new model of work has been seen to boost productivity by up to 40% – typically outweighing the time lost. 

The end result? Your marketing department can increase its output in a shorter space of time. This could mean campaign assets are completed quicker, leaving you or your team more time to plan ahead.

Improved employee engagement

Giving your staff more time away from work by condensing the week can serve to improve staff happiness and engagement, in turn reducing employee absenteeism by up to 41%.

Enhancing engagement also has a notable impact on how invested your marketeers are in the company. Simply put, if people are engaged, they are more likely to go above and beyond for the business.  

By limiting the number of working hours within your organisation, you not only help bolster staff attendance – the people working at your company are going to be more invested in the business and more willing to help your brand go further. 

Higher staff retention

Over time, it’s natural for employees to eventually move on to pastures new. However, to keep your top talent for as long as possible you ideally want to increase staff retention as much as you can.

By embracing a 3-day weekend throughout your organisation, you work to keep existing workers happy and satisfied, reducing the likelihood that people consider leaving.

As the time and costs associated with recruitment are considerable, keeping talent inside your offices means you can spend more time and money delivering outstanding content, and less on finding and training new recruits. 

Challenges of a 4-day working week

While preliminary trials suggest that a shorter working week does indeed have some very real benefits to businesses and their subsequent marketing departments, this new model isn’t without its challenges.

To combat these potential obstacles, tools such as BAM by Papirfly™ can help organisations overcome the challenges ahead, allowing them to leverage the benefits of this new way of working. With this all-in-one software, 4-day weeks can become a reality for your organisation.

Fewer hours to deliver

The most notable challenge enterprises face when switching to a shorter week is the fact that there are fewer hours for employees to carry out their workload. Without the right tools in place, you risk diminishing the volume of content your marketing team produces. 

If you’re unable to deliver at the pace your audience expects, leads could go cold and customer engagement may dip.
How BAM overcomes this challenge

To help you upscale your content production, even during smaller 4-day working weeks, BAM allows your department to:

  • Create bespoke assets that embrace your brand’s guidelines quickly and easily using smart templates – no design experience is needed
  • Approve individual elements of your campaign faster to deliver a greater volume of accurate content
  • Reduce the time spent looking for crucial files by filtering through existing assets in our robust digital asset manager
  • Simplify your webpage management, and easily publish or update content online using an integrated CMS

Maintaining consistency

Another challenge that workers will face when moving to a shorter working week is maintaining the same level of consistency across their output. Often, when there is less time to complete tasks, it can be easy for errors and inconsistencies to creep in. 


In such a highly competitive marketing environment, a brand without a clear message, tone or look may risk muddying its brand and alienating its existing customer base.

How BAM overcomes this challenege

To ensure your brand is fronting a strong image, BAM’s intelligent creative templates allow the streamlined creation of on-style visuals. 

Covering everything from social media assets and email templates to posters, brochures and billboards, ensures that brand identities are locked down across all assets. Even those with no prior design experience can utilise these templates to craft perfectly branded content.

This means consistency is effortlessly maintained across your output, relieving your team of pressure when producing assets at pace.

Overseeing all elements 

For managers who oversee the delivery of marketing campaigns, a shorter working week can seem a daunting prospect. 

Not only will you have less time to fit in your weekly duties – as a manager people rely on your input all of the time. If you can’t cast your eyes over everything you need to, it’s likely to cause delays in the pipeline, hampering efficiency.

How BAM overcomes this challenge

BAM’s powerful campaign planner gives you a bird’s-eye view of your campaigns across brand divisions, letting you create briefs, assign marketing materials and outline timeframes from one single place. 

This doesn’t just save you and your fellow marketing managers valuable time – the robust campaign planner aims to give you the information you need to make informed decisions that benefit your brand.  

Leverage the benefits of the 4-day working week with BAM

With the likes of Panasonic and Canon recently taking the leap to a 4-day working week, this new approach is here to stay. And rightly so – trials indicate that there are very real benefits to this new working model.  

Despite there being a number of challenges associated with adopting shorter weeks – BAM our revolutionary all-in-one solution – is perfectly positioned to help your organisation adopt this new model of working, overcoming challenges and harnessing the unmissable advantages. 

Over 500,000 users in some of the world’s most well-known organisations – such as Coca Cola and HSBC – recognise BAM as the future of marketing. This is because our all-in-one platform doesn’t just deliver quality, on-brand content at speed – our cutting-edge software can also:

  • Edit and brand videos for websites, social media channels and digital campaigns
  • Simplify the process of localising and adapting content to new regions
  • Centralise assets and important documents into an accessible online folder structure
  • Allow content to be updated and published across sites using one central CMS
  • Integrate seamlessly with existing PIM and ERP systems

If you want to learn more about BAM, and the ways in which it can help you ramp up content production in a condensed timeframe, get in touch today, or book your demo online.

Table of contents:

  1. The benefits of a shorter working week
  2. Challenges of a 4-day working week
  3. Leverage the benefits of the 4-day working week with BAM
Corporate communications

The transparency strategy: the power of honesty in your corporate marketing

Papirfly
7 minutes read

Strong relationships are built on trust.

This is as true for a brand and its customers as it is for couples, friendships and work colleagues.

More than ever before, consumers want assurances over the products they buy, the services they use, and the companies they engage with.

However, trust is fragile; it’s hard to gain, yet easy to lose. Brands must consistently work to earn the trust of their audience – if they do, they are rewarded with a loyal, devoted following who will regularly return and urge their friends, families and acquaintances to join them.

To reap the benefits of a trusting, committed fanbase, many companies are placing a firm focus on transparency. By maintaining open, honest communication with customers and the wider world, these brands are being rewarded with meaningful relationships with audiences across the globe.

What is transparency in corporate marketing?

While an increasing number of brands are familiar with the term ‘corporate marketing’, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they put it into action.

Brand transparency is more than a buzzword. It is an organisation opening itself up to all internal and external stakeholders. 

Especially since the outbreak of COVID-19, there has been a growing urgency among consumers for brands to enforce honesty above all else. At a time when “fake news” and misinformation is rife globally, customers understandably want to know as much as they can about the companies they engage with.

A transparent company discloses information on all aspects of its business, such as:

  • Company operations
  • Goals and KPIs
  • Core values
  • Product information and sourcing
  • Supply chain models
  • Working practices
  • Financial data
  • Pricing

The Consumer Good Forum outlines three elements of truly transparent brands:

  • Corporate practice: The brand communicates its policies and performance.
  • Product proof: The brand communicates the processes behind its products and services.
  • Brand purpose: The brand communicates its mission statements, values and beliefs.

Even information that could be considered highly sensitive, such as a company’s environmental impact and sales figures, are made accessible to anybody who wants to know more about their brand. What was once purely confidential is now showcased for the world to see.

And although this “age of authenticity” is still developing globally, several brands are already making strides to be completely clear with their audiences… 

5 brands with transparency at their core

Patagonia

True leaders in brand transparency, clothing brand Patagonia’s ‘Footprint Chronicles’ tell customers exactly how it sources the raw materials for their products, and the conditions of the warehouses they are stored in. By placing its supply chain in the public eye, it is showing their customers that they can trust their working practices.

Lush

Cosmetics company Lush translates transparency in a number of ways. From highlighting their policies and ethos throughout their company website, to sharing their products’ ingredient lists and results of their regular third-party audits, they communicate to their customers that they are a fair, ethical and cruelty-free manufacturer.

Buffer

Social media management platform Buffer believes transparency is crucial to the development of their brand. They achieve this in multiple ways, such as publishing each employee’s pay rate by name (from founders to content writers), and making all internal emails accessible to their entire team.

Warby Parker

Eyewear brand Warby Parker is incredibly open with their customers and shareholders when it comes to its financial information. It publishes data that reinforces its commitment to donate a pair of frames for every four pairs sold, as well as the standards that it holds its suppliers to.

Ben & Jerry’s

Rather than present a boilerplate response to global events, ice cream giants Ben & Jerry’s are always upfront about their efforts to combat climate change. They have actively supported climate protests held worldwide, and produced advertising campaigns built around the steps they take to ensure the sustainability of their practices.

The benefits of being a transparent brand

With consumers increasingly wanting to know more about brands, from how they source their products to what societal issues they stand for, this trend of transparency shows no signs of slowing. On the contrary – continuing to stick to standard confidentiality could lead to brands developing a negative reputation.

Here are some of the ways that practising brand transparency can make a meaningful difference to your relationships with customers:

Gain consumer trust

First and foremost, in a landscape littered with misinformation, and where data breaches and privacy concerns are hot topics, brands that are authentic and transparent will really resonate with audiences. In a world that feels increasingly unreliable, these brands can be the trusting voice that modern customers need.

Trust inspires loyalty, and customer loyalty means repeat business that your brand can rely upon through thick and thin. Remember – acquiring a new customer can be five times more costly than retaining an existing customer.

Spur business growth

Access to a loyal, dedicated customer base offers a brand competitive advantage. When consumers are fully trusting of a company, they will be more on board if:

  • The price of products or services rises
  • New products or services are introduced
  • Former products or services are removed or replaced

If the company is transparent about the reasons for these shifts, it is much easier for customers to digest and continue to support the company, which can lead to further growth.

Show evidence of CSR efforts

There is a rising expectation among consumers that the companies they engage with are committed to pursuing positive goals for their employees, customers and the world as a whole. 

If your brand is engaged in these efforts, being transparent about this helps demonstrate that you practice what you preach. There are few things more potentially damaging to a brand’s reputation than talking about the values you uphold, but failing to follow through.

This is particularly true when it comes to sustainability. In fact, the word “greenwashing” was devised to define brands that invest more time and money into marketing their sustainability than in actual corporate environmental efforts.

By focusing on transparency within your business, you can give your audiences complete reassurance that the values you promote are genuine. This will show them that your values are aligned, and make them more willing to engage with your brand.

Elevate customer experiences

A customer experience covers every touchpoint between a customer and a company. From visiting their website or social media channels, to actively purchasing products at checkout, everything contributes to how consumers feel about your brand.

Brand transparency can improve these perceptions significantly. For example, if you are transparent about the pricing and manufacturing of your products, rather than leaving this shrouded in mystery, this helps customers feel more informed about whether it is right for them based on their budgets, needs and personal values.

This means that, even if that particular customer does not do business with your brand, this positive experience may encourage them to recommend you to friends or family members.

Recover reputation

When bad publicity rears its ugly head around your brand, it may feel natural to perform damage control in private and wait for everything to blow over. However, with mistrust among consumers at an all-time high, this activity could have a massive detriment on the trust that they have towards your brand. Now more than ever, they want brands to be accountable for their actions – good or bad.

By taking a transparent approach following a hit to your reputation – apologising for what happened, not making excuses and explaining how you intend to remedy the situation – this can reassure customers that you are taking ownership for what happened. This could help maintain the loyalty of many customers that may have walked away in other circumstances.

Take Ovo Energy as an example to follow. After an ill-thought-out blog post suggesting that people “cuddle their pets” to stay warm during the winter, they owned up to their poor judgement and created a rejuvenated article with more meaningful information for their customers.

Build employee engagement

Transparency doesn’t simply appeal to customers – it can also foster employee engagement and happiness. In a survey conducted by TINYpulse across 40,000 workers, transparency was named as the number one factor contributing to their overall happiness.

Whether it is making company-wide details more accessible to all employees through a newsletter or monthly meetings, or it is ensuring that working practices are made readily available to potential candidates, a more transparent approach to your employer brand can make a major difference to your ability to recruit and retain top talent.

Remember, happy, fulfilled employees are significantly more productive and engaged than unhappy employees.

3 tips to inspire brand transparency
1. Be honest and real in all communications

From an internal memo to customer-facing product descriptions, it is vital to ensure that everything communicated to your audiences is authentic and straightforward. Very little, if anything, should feel fabricated or illusory.

For instance, on the company pages of your website, don’t revert to stock images of happy workers. Instead, use shots of your real employees. When providing product information on your packaging, especially price, ensure this is accurate and verifiable. Integrating your content production with your PIM and ERP systems through Papirfly’s all-in-one brand management platform can be a useful way to maintain this accuracy.

Consider Everlane’s “radical transparency”. The online retailer incorporates the name of the factory a product was produced on their descriptions, with a link sharing information and images of the factory itself. This removes any concerns customers may have about unethical manufacturing processes.

2. Develop transparency webpages

If you are keen to make customers aware of the quality of your practices and products, or how you are following through on the causes that you promote as a company, create dedicated pages within your website to showcase this information.

For example, clothing company H&M include a page on their website outlining the sustainability of their supply chain, with facts and figures illustrating their clear commitment to this. This openness surrounding their approach reassures customers that they are truly focused on making sure they are ethical and sustainable in everything they do.

3. Promote honest feedback

Both customers and employees will ask tough questions about brands, and it is crucial that you do not shy away from these. Instead, you should welcome them, sending surveys and questionnaires to your audiences to gauge their thoughts on your company.

Even negative feedback can be positive in the long-run. If a customer or employee identifies an area that can be improved, being transparent about taking this feedback on board and the steps you will take to address this can illustrate to everyone that you listen and respond.

This approach will naturally garner people’s trust, and indicate that you are a brand that learns from and grows following missteps – this will help ensure they remain loyal even through testing times.

Keep your brand consistent with a brand management platform

The power of transparency and honesty is something that brands cannot afford to overlook in today’s landscape. We hope that this has informed you of the positive difference that this outlook can have on all aspects of your business, so you are better prepared to adopt it in your organisation moving forward.

But, building true transparency is not a one-and-done. It needs to be applied continuously and consistently within your company. Especially if you are transitioning from a more confidential approach, it will take time and effort to make customers, employees and others aware that transparency is now your default – and you’ll be rewarded with a more loyal, more resilient fanbase than ever.

Consistency is at the core of Papirfly‘s brand management platform. Our software empowers your marketing teams to produce perfectly branded content at all times, ensuring that wherever you communicate with your customers, it will carry your unique identity. No deviation. No misinterpretation.

  • Fully bespoke templates lock down the core aspects of your branding, with set design, text and database parameters
  • All brand guidelines, training videos and assets are accessible company-wide through a single online location
  • Your employees gain the tools for total autonomy, where they can create materials in minutes without design expertise or experience

Discover the full benefits of brand management today – get in touch with our team for more details.

Table of contents:

  1. What is transparency in corporate marketing?
  2. 5 brands with transparency at their core
  3. The benefits of being a transparent brand
  4. 3 tips to inspire brand transparency
  5. Keep your brand consistent with a brand management platform
Employer brand

How to shape internal mobility strategies and optimise your company’s talent marketplace

Papirfly
3 minutes read

The global talent market has seen one of the most volatile few years in recent history. And while many are busy speculating that AI will mark the advent of job shortages, the reality is much more unexpected.

A recent study found that by 2030 there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people – which equates to around $8.5 trillion (€7.4 trillion) in unrealised revenue.

While it’s highly unlikely that education systems will adapt quickly or dramatically enough to fill this void, not all hope is lost.

The employees already at your company are brimming with potential. Many organisations are turning to the internal talent marketplace solution to develop existing employees and match them to roles and projects that can harness their skill sets.

While this AI-driven tech is becoming the go-to strategy for many big firms, it’s not something that can happen overnight, nor is it a magic pill to cure all your recruitment headaches.

In order for the internal talent marketplace to be a true contender in your quest for great talent, an internal mobility strategy is key.

Planning your internal mobility strategy

The phrase internal mobility has been around for a while now, but its usage has been wildly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world having changed so quickly and unexpectedly, it’s caused ripples in the supply and demand of talent globally.


This is partly why we’ve seen more organisations than ever move their existing employees to new internal opportunities, roles and projects inside of their company. It could be in the form of a promotion, and taking on a bigger responsibility, or moving to a different role at the same seniority level to develop new understandings of the business, while bringing transferable skills.


Benefits and salary are always going to be one of the key motivators for recruiting candidates in the first place, but retaining them involves upskilling and development throughout their careers. Internal mobility allows employees to take a new step in their role, or a new one, while helping to fill a critical gap for the company.

The challenges of internal mobility strategies 

A traditional company structure is built around hierarchy, and leadership typically trickles down from the top of the pyramid. Other companies work in a more flat structure, while retaining very exact roles and responsibilities.

In order for an employee to climb the career ladder, they typically spend years in the same role, trying as and when they can to get the recognition they need. When this goes unnoticed, they can become discontented and choose to move on.

Internal talent marketplaces and mobility strategies allow for employees to access opportunities more easily, with many firms using AI to match people to the right ones. So whether there’s a remote role in Vancouver perfect for a team member in Beijing, or a new role needed in Amsterdam that an existing team member at that office can fulfil, management can have eyes on the extent of their internal skills, talent and opportunities in one central place.

While not everyone will have this tech in place, it can help management to have more visibility of people or locations they wouldn’t ordinarily be involved in. It sounds like the ideal scenario – and it can be – but it can’t happen overnight. There’s a huge job of skills mapping an entire organisation, but there are tools that can help assist with and automate this through tests and other means. 

The foundations of success

Every organisation and its recruitment needs are different, so your way of working will be unique. What you can do though is think of the 4 Ps as your starting point – no matter how big your company is, the fundamentals always need to happen.

Are internal talent marketplaces the future?

If the last 12 months are anything to go by, the answer is yes. With companies such as Unilever having implemented the technology and infrastructure in 2019, some global brands are already far ahead of the curve. For those playing catch-up from the chaos of the pandemic, it’s going to take time and substantial time investment to get the internal mobility strategy off the ground.

One of the most important things to remember is to stay agile, knowing that the minimum viable product is going to change with the needs of the business. But the sooner you can start, the better.

BAM by Papirfly™ is supporting world-leading employer brand teams across the globe 

Want to know more?
Discover how we’re helping Unilever deliver on their own employer brand strategy

Learn more about employer brand industry topics from our expert team

See BAM in action – book your demo and get access to real-world brand portals

Table of contents:

  1. Planning your internal mobility strategy
  2. The challenges of internal mobility strategies
  3. The foundations of success
  4. Are internal talent marketplaces the future?

Retail Marketing

Is this the year in-store digital signage takes over?

Frode Nortvedt
4 minutes read

Times Square, New York.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

If vibrant flashes of advertising flooded your mind, you already understand just how impactful digital signage can be.

In-store retail media is the next generation of digital signage, and it’s being harnessed by brands worldwide, making the supplier/brand relationship more valuable to retailers than ever before. In-store media differs from traditional in-store digital signage in that it’s giving brands access to advertising channels right at the point of sale, in a new innovative way. This new revenue stream is estimated to be worth £1.7b annually for UK retailers and £11bn across EMEA.  

When consumers are browsing online, some of the most vital touchpoints for brands are at the bottom of the sales funnel. Whether it’s retargeting an individual after they engage with a website, or offering a discount to avoid them abandoning their purchase – the opportunities to convert are abundant.


As customers flock back to physical stores, brands are now partnering with retailers to create digital ‘bottom of funnel’ touchpoints through in-store retail media. And it may well be the future of in-store retail.

The challenges of in-store retail media

The initial investment is high

Without future-proofed execution, the physical retail store can be a difficult and costly channel for customer experience. But as suppliers and advertisers wake up to the engagement and personalisation opportunities available through digital signage, the long-term return on investment will soon outweigh any initial teething problems.

Creating a desirable offering

Many respected retail publications are predicting a sharp rise in this use of technology. But with so many options available to advertisers and brands, they are likely to be selective about which retailers they enter into partnerships with. Retailers need to have a strong offering, partner with the right technology vendors and be agile enough to react to brand needs.

This could mean offering promotional packages that extend outside of the physical store, onto websites or in joint, physical out-of-home marketing. Or it might be in relation to how stores capture and share data with their partners.

Adding value to the customer experience

While the additional revenue stream for retailers is desirable, there’s a risk that this new concept could interrupt or even irritate shoppers. That’s why it’s important the in-store retail media offers different ways to add to the shopping experience.

It might be ad-hoc promotions, touch screen shopping advice, or even technology that connects with the brand’s specific app to offer a more personalised service. Likewise, the placement of this digital signage at each point of the customer journey will be key.

What’s driving brands to take in-store retail media seriously?

Data can be a brand’s biggest commodity, but information collected based on in-store shoppers provides a rare insight into what influences their purchase at the point of purchase. This increased need for data and new ways to get in front of audiences who crave physical experiences makes in-store retail media a new and exciting opportunity.

While the challenges mentioned earlier will prove to be a barrier, at least initially, retailers that don’t start putting plans in place now could miss the boat. Playing catch-up to a competitor that started implementation even a month earlier could be detrimental to earnings.

The technology and the way retailers use it will also adapt fast, so every passing day will bring new learnings and new ways to engage more brands. Keeping ahead of the curve is paramount.

Innovations in digital signage happening right now

#1
The innovation…

Irish company Musgrave has implemented an ESL (Electronic Shelf Label) solution from Pricer so they can dynamically and quickly change prices in a synchronised way.

Why is it significant?

As the cost of living rises, employers are paying more to secure staff and automating time-intensive manual tasks where possible. The return on investment on ESLs will eventually be high, as prices can be updated centrally in real-time, ensuring complete accuracy and allowing employees to be reallocated to more high-value tasks.

Likewise, this technology will pave the way for on-shelf digital promotions that inform and engage buyers during their shopping experience.

#2
The innovation…

Walmart has introduced a new strategy called “Time Well Spent” in its incubator store. The aim is to keep customers engaged for longer and ultimately increase their cart spend. It uses big screens displays and other technology to provide customers with information in interesting ways.

Why is it significant?

While Walmart innovations are largely contained to North America, they usually set the precedent for large grocery stores and retailers around the world. Some of their digital signage is being used in ways previously unheard of, such as showing customers reviews of a product on screen when they pick it up from the shelf (lift-and-learn technology), right through to QR codes cross-selling Walmart’s own pet insurance in the pet section of the store.

#3
The innovation…

The introduction of 5G was overshadowed by the pandemic in 2021, and was somewhat quietly rolled out across certain parts of the world. With so much more additional network power, retailers finally have the chance to embrace it and use it in situ, introducing more interconnected technology without having to worry about network reliance or interruption as much.

Why is it significant?

With so much technology available to enhance the customer experience and convert them, 5G will allow for a much more reliable introduction of screens throughout stores – in the form of return kiosks, signage, promotions and more.

How retailers can effectively harness digital signage technology

Advertisers are going to want to procure in-store media with as simple implementation and minimal manual work as possible. The offering is also going to need to be unique and competitive. Essentially, the brands you’re working with, and for, will have the upper hand, but once you become operationally sharp and develop a solid offering, you will soon start to understand why all the hard work was worth it.


Brand Activation Management technology such as BAM by Papirfly™ can help make complex workflows simple, and limit the amount of tech knowledge that’s needed in-store to make updating digital signage quick and accurate. As well as being a digital, print, social, video and email creation platform, that requires zero design skills to use, it offers specific features so that retail teams can benefit from all of this and more:

Learn more about BAM by Papirfly™ for retailers now.

Table of contents:

  1. The challenges of in-store retail media
  2. What’s driving brands to take in-store retail media seriously?
  3. Innovations in digital signage happening right now
  4. How retailers can effectively harness digital signage technology
Brand management

What is strategic brand communication?

Papirfly
5 minutes read

In our hyper-connected world, standing out and making an impact amid a sea of competition is no easy feat. Whatsmore, according to data, a business has just 7 seconds to leave a positive first impression.

Luckily, there are many elements in a marketing department’s toolbox that can help them approach this challenge and plant that initial seed to inspire action later down the line.

However, there is one key element at the core of any effective marketing strategy that has the ability to shape hearts, minds and perceptions – strategic brand communication.

Without carefully considering who your audience is, their wants and needs, and how to connect with them, marketeers risk:

  • Limiting the effectiveness of their marketing efforts
  • Flushing away highly valuable resources
  • Damaging the overall brand image

How to conduct an audit of your current communications

A communication strategy shouldn’t just engage employees in the office – it must also keep customers up-to-speed with the latest company developments, and protect and propagate the corporate reputation of a brand on a global stage.

For a communication strategy to realise its full potential and fulfil all of these functions, the brand’s messages must have a lasting impact.

To determine the effectiveness of current communications, it is vital to conduct an internal audit. Understanding where the existing plan thrives and where it fails is a critical first step in improving the framework in place.

Ascertain the scope of existing communications

To begin, first list every single touchpoint where a brand communicates with its customers. Not only should this include the obvious examples, like social media platforms and marketing emails, but also the more discrete areas, such as YouTube descriptions and email footers.

Evaluate messaging from the past and present

Now that you know your competitors and your audience, Once the full scope has been laid out, it’s now important to assess how well campaigns have performed over time. This should unlock valuable insight into the problems, platforms and people to whom the brand appeals to.

Gather insight from audiences

By surveying team members and customers, qualitative insight can be garnered that can offer a window into how a brand is truly perceived by its target audiences. This can help steer new communications towards success in the future.

Building an effective brand communication strategy

To get staff truly invested in their work and encourage repeat business, a brand communication strategy must:

Prioritise business strategy

Before any progress is made in designing a communication strategy, it is absolutely essential that those involved are familiar with the overarching brand objectives. Aligning the goals of your company with your messaging strategy is vital.

Identify target audiences

With an initial audit complete, the insight gleaned should inform who your target audiences are. Whether that’s employers, new customers or shareholders, having one or multiple buyer personas in mind will inform where you communicate, and how you do it.

Craft core messaging

What kind of tone of voice is going to appeal to potential customers? What terminology will target audiences resonate with? What benefits or key points are going to feature centre stage? All of this and more must also be considered in any plan.

Consider visual representation

While core messaging is an important element in any communication, the visual element cannot be ignored. Within this plan, fonts, colour palettes and brand elements have to be considered to portray a consistent image.

Note the tools required

In order to drive results, everything set out in these plans has to be executed. To do this, tools will have to be used to support and carry out these activities. From social platforms to a dedicated brand activation solution, the raw skills of a marketing team can only go so far. 

Of course, while an effective brand communication strategy framework is a crucial part of every company’s image, it is just one of the many elements required to create a memorable brand. 

Measuring the success of your strategy

An excellent brand communication plan can never be static. Instead, it should grow and evolve over time as customer and employee attitudes change, and the organisation matures.

Ultimately, your analysis should aim to regularly answer the following questions:

  • How successful are existing campaigns at achieving their goals?
  • How much conversation is there about the business?
  • Who is talking about the organisation?
  • What is the sentiment surrounding the brand?

The benefits of a well-planned brand communication strategy

With an audit completed, a strategy outlined and an ongoing measuring and monitoring process established, brands will be well on their way to creating an appealing brand that:

Enhances brand authority

Leveraging the power of a well-planned brand communication strategy allows organisations to assert themselves as a thought leader in their market. According to 65% of buyers, this can help change peoples’ perception of a business for the better.

Stands out in a saturated space

An effective brand communication strategy that aligns with the values of its workers can aid recruitment. This is because 70% of employees who click with corporate values are more likely to recommend their place of work.

Boosts brand loyalty

By honing and refining the brand communication strategy, enterprises can build a rapport with key stakeholders. This can benefit a company’s bottom line, as 94% of shoppers remain loyal to enterprises that are transparent. 

Corporate communication is a vast topic, and we’re only scratching the surface in this article. To get a full overview and learn how else it can benefit organisations, read our article. 

Execute your communication strategy with ease through BAM

Crafting a message that can deliver results is no easy feat. It takes both the guidance of a winning communication strategy as well as a team of marketing professionals to produce, coordinate and publish content.

But what happens when the overarching communication plan fails to deliver the kind of returns expected? Do you put projects on hold to allow time to refocus the strategy? Hire new talent to free up capacity for strategic thinking? Or simply push ahead and make changes to collateral mid-campaign?


The answer? None of the above – instead, employ the use of a Brand Activation Management solution, like BAM by Papirfly™. As well as lowering the buy-in of content production, our all-in-one platform leverages the power of creative automation to allow teams to deliver more, faster, leaving you extra time to sharpen your brand strategy.

  • Create on-style social assets, videos, posters and more with absolute confidence using intelligent templates; no design expertise required.
  • Save and share visuals in a centralised hub and allows teams across the business the ability to find and access the resources they need in a heartbeat.
  • Easily organise and coordinate marketing collateral, project briefs and campaign timelines using our intuitive campaign planner.
  • Enter a new era of consistency and share your brand guidelines, EVP and other essential documents with marketing teams around the world in a few clicks.

If you want to learn more about BAM and how our highly capable brand portal can help give your team the freedom to refine your brand communication strategy, get in touch with our team today, or book a live demo.

Table of contents:

  1. How to conduct an audit of your current communications
  2. Building an effective brand communication strategy
  3. Measuring the success of your strategy
  4. The benefits of a well-planned brand communication strategy
  5. Execute your communication strategy with ease through BAM

The best way
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  • Boosting revenues
  • Doing more for less
  • Activating brands on a global scale
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3 key considerations when building a global DAM

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Keeping on top of marketing campaign assets can be a mighty task at the best of times, but managing them across global teams is an even greater challenge. As the capacity for organisations to reach consumers across the globe expands ever further, and the number of channels available to engage them continues to grow, the problem of effectively managing digital assets has become more prevalent than ever before.

Consider the following statistics:

  • It is believed around 90% of companies meet bottlenecks when handling digital content
  • 41% of companies have over 1,000 folders of sensitive assets accessible to anyone
  • Up to 19% of an employee’s time is spent searching for files
  • 15% of companies’ documents are misplaced, while a further 7.5% are kept despite being obsolete

These figures and more illustrate the overriding issues that many companies are having when trying to stay in control of their assets.

From the effort wasted on reproducing or duplicating content due to misplaced or lost files, to the time it takes to produce and supply tailored assets for specific markets, the inability to track and manage assets can be a significant drain on any organisation’s resources.

A DAM system can go a long way in helping organisations avoid and overcome these issues and become far more efficient and effective at managing their ever-growing collection of digital assets. Moreover, a DAM that’s integrated into a BAM portal becomes an even more powerful tool.

What is DAM?

DAM (Digital Asset Management) is software designed to centralise all of an organisation’s digital assets into one straightforward, spacious location. Be it documents, images, videos, photos, audio or any other digital medium, these assets are held in one place to remove the risks of content going missing or being unnecessarily duplicated.

Fundamentally, implementing a DAM solution is done with the goal of optimising the production, management and mobility of a company’s digital assets. Using one should help employees locate the media they need for upcoming campaigns without any hassle, eliminate doubts about lost content and preserve brand consistency across all locations.

In fact, it is estimated that the average DAM system can save a company over £150,000 in as little as five years, while well-managed, consistent brands are worth up to 20 times as much as those that do not invest in controlling their digital library.

This is why DAM makes up a key component of our BAM by Papirfly™. In order to help our clients harness the full potential of their brand, it is critical that they can maintain, access and share their assets in one place, ensuring there is little-to-no room for inconsistencies to creep in or wasted resources spent on unnecessary content.

Nevertheless, while a DAM solution is ideal in principle, it is vital that you select one that meets your specific needs. While these will vary from company to company, below we’ve identified three critical considerations that you should keep in mind when looking to introduce this powerful software into your organisation.

3 important considerations for your DAM solution

1. Make navigation and user experience a priority

First, it is vital that your DAM solution presents an excellent user experience for your employees and any other users. Because, as we’ve identified earlier, the primary goal of any DAM is to make it easier for your team to find and use the resources they need to support the creation of marketing collateral. If the UX makes this challenging, the DAM is not working as it should.

In addition, a poor user experience will make it more likely that your employees avoid using the DAM, instead relying on less effective but user-friendly means of storing assets, such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

A good user experience will start with how people navigate the system:

  • How intuitive is the structure, hierarchy and navigation of the software?
  • Does the system allow you to tag and categorise assets using terminology you and your team are familiar with?
  • Can you quickly filter resources by a particular tag or category to help you find the asset you’re looking for faster?
  • Is the display and user interface straightforward and intuitive to users?
  • Is it easy to share assets with your teams in a variety of locations?
  • Can the system be translated into multiple languages to support its use by your teams across the globe?
  • Does it offer any indication if an asset has already been uploaded to the system to remove the risk of duplication?
  • Is it easy to operate across multiple devices, including mobile and tablets?
  • Can you export digital assets into a variety of file formats?

These are just some of the questions you should ask about any prospective DAM solution to ensure it provides you and your team with an effective user experience. Without this, it will inevitably be ignored and underutilised, meaning you miss out on the ROI that other organisations gain from this kind of software.

Think of it as a library – if its filing system is too complicated or difficult to digest, it’s unlikely you’re going to visit it again.

However, the user experience also depends a great deal on how you as an organisation manage your assets when the system you’ve selected is implemented. While it can do a lot, it requires those responsible for the solution to manage it professionally and prudently. 

This includes ensuring that all labelling is applied consistently and in terminology that your global teams can recognise, that any resources specific to a particular location or outlet are clearly marked, and that assets that are grouped together are done so for a specific reason.

When the user interface offered by a high-quality DAM aligns with the effective organisation of the team operating it, then the management of your digital assets can reach a whole new level.

2. Work on a global and local level

Secondly, there is a need to differentiate between digital assets that are globally available, and resources that specifically cater to a particular market or location. A problem that our clients identify before working with Papirfly is that the time and resources required to produce dedicated campaigns for a particular location mean these often aren’t worthwhile.

Yet, as we’ve explored in other articles, localised marketing is essential to effectively engage your audience at a deeper, personalised level. Giving this attention can help you build stronger bonds with the various communities your brand interacts with and foster customer loyalty. Remember: 71% of consumers prefer advertising tailored to their situation.

How can a DAM solution help you achieve this? By establishing a central hub for all on-brand digital assets and making this accessible via the cloud to employees based around the world, you can provide them with the resources they need to create and share assets for localised campaigns, rather than conserving time and resources by sticking to a global, universal focus.

Through your DAM system, employees should be in a position to access content that is translatable to the required language and contains imagery that is culturally appropriate, which means you can create hyper-targeted local campaigns quickly to work alongside your global branding – all while ensuring your overarching brand messaging is never compromised.

Of course, BAM by Papirfly™ takes this a step further in providing teams, regardless of their design experience or expertise, with an intuitive creation suite and intelligent templates. This means that, once they have access to the assets available on the DAM, they can then immediately use these to edit or create new, tailored assets for an upcoming campaign, without the financial or time burden of bringing in a specialist.

3. Don’t give everyone access to everything

Thirdly, let’s discuss accessibility. While one of the key benefits that a DAM solution offers is sharing assets to employees worldwide, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll want every asset to be available to every person at all times.

This can lead to human error and inconsistencies creeping into your process. For instance, say someone mistakenly selects an asset designated for the incorrect country or campaign for a separate project; this would at a minimum be time wasted on developing an unusable asset, or at worst be shared to your audience and potentially hurting your brand’s reputation.

To prevent this from happening, it’s vital that any DAM software you implement has measures in place to assign administrators and lockdown certain assets for particular employees or locations. By adding this extra level of security, it gives you greater assurance that your assets are governed and nothing off-brand will be broadcast across any of your platforms.

In addition, setting these administration levels will make it possible that not everyone can upload or delete files, or can only do so when permission is granted. This helps add another layer of protection from duplicated or low-quality content reaching being stored within the library, which again goes further to protect your brand’s reputation.

Our BAM portal expands on this with an “add to basket” feature. This allows the user to select multiple files from different sources within the DAM and download these at one time, speeding up the process for people to access the resources they need.

Finally, check with your DAM provider if the system offers a way to monitor who is adding, sharing and editing assets. This ensures you have a record of any changes that have been made to your library of assets at any given time, so nothing ever has to slip under the radar. Plus, if it carries stats about how often particular assets are used, this can help marketing teams determine the ROI of these materials.

Take control of your digital library

We hope this will help you in your efforts to properly manage the vast array of digital assets that any organisation needs to have to hand nowadays. With the potential for assets to be mislaid or misused a high as ever due to the assortment of channels that organisations need to have a presence on, having a DAM solution that meets these considerations in particular is more crucial than ever before.

With that in mind, our BAM solution is geared with a dedicated, intelligent DAM, making it easy for you to store and locate an unlimited number of assets, categorise these appropriately and present them in the right format and optimal resolution.

However, BAM is much more than digital asset management, empowering users to also:

  • Create high-quality, on-brand assets through an intuitive, powerful creation suite
  • Educate your employees worldwide on the values and guidelines behind your brand
  • Manage campaigns with a birds-eye view of all materials used at a given time

If you’d like to know more about how you can activate your global brand, request a demo or speak to our team today.

Table of contents:

  1. What is DAM?
  2. 3 important considerations for your DAM solution
  3. Take control of your digital library
Employer brand

Employee engagement strategies: Everything you need to know

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Understanding how to promote employee engagement starts with a simple question…what does employee engagement really mean? 

At its most basic level, it is a set of strategies that creates a working environment and atmosphere where employees feel they are empowered to do their jobs effectively, work towards personal and common goals, and have a general sense of satisfaction and happiness. 

There is never a one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement, as each organisation and their employer branding stands for very different things. However, these strategies do tend to achieve many of the same objectives.

These objectives can be broadly categorised as follows:

  • Unification – Creating a ‘one team’ spirit, ensuring teams are aligned and making employees feel part of something bigger 
  • Embracing purpose – Instilling the same values, standards and expectations in employees across every level of seniority 
  • Driving the brand vision – Ensure that teams are motivated to work towards long-term goals, growing professionally and personally in the process 
  • Promoting a positive culture – A working environment that is enjoyable, inspiring and encourages development, trust and autonomy 
  • Creating strong leadership – Respectful, knowledgeable and supportive leadership encourages feedback and channels of open communication 
  • Building the ideal workforce – Engaged employees are happier and more productive, likely to form an emotional connection with your brand/their workplace and are less likely to leave 

The importance of employee engagement 

While employee engagement can be hard to measure, the short and long-term benefits are very tangible. If an individual feels nurtured and supported, while being surrounded by a like-minded team, they are likely to thrive in their working environment. 

When they feel trusted, they are more likely to bring ideas to the table, and this is where innovation within the business can stem from. 

It’s no longer enough for employees to just feel satisfied in their workplace – they want to excel. When people are proud of the work they do, they will shout about it. When they are proud of the brand they work for and the way they are treated, they will become advocates. This creates a positive cycle within the business, as this encourages and drives successful recruitment. 

While high employee retention is sometimes a result of high employee engagement, just because an employee has been retained a long time doesn’t always mean they are actively engaged. There are plenty of businesses and brands out there who have had employees with them since their inception, but they have become stagnant or comfortable in their positions. 

All of these benefits will have a direct impact on the day-to-day of your business. Here are the topline benefits of employee engagement, and how they can be loosely categorised when putting together your business case…

  • Increase the productivity of your employees
  • Higher quality of output
  • A positive workplace atmosphere
  • Greater client satisfaction
  • Increased profitability

The list goes on. No matter how intangible employee engagement may feel at the beginning, investing the time and effort will positively affect your bottom line.

4 employee engagement strategy examples 

In Daniel H. Pink’s book ‘Drive’, he combines research from MIT and other universities to lay out what really motivates us as humans and professionals. While we will explore 4 proven employee engagement strategies in more detail, we wanted to touch upon some of his core findings as they really help to give the strategies context. 

The conclusion that the book reaches is that employees need 3 things outside of pay progression and benefits to be fulfilled in their roles: purpose, mastery and autonomy. 

These 3 short words hold a lot of power in the workplace – if you can enable every employee to feel as though these have been achieved, you will be in a good position. 

Now you understand some of the underlying desires of the individual, let’s discuss how we can make these a reality…

#1 Open communication and feedback

While the benefits of open communication and feedback are far-reaching, one of the main benefits is that psychologically employees feel they can speak openly and feel comfortable enough to offer input without fear or dread of ridicule. 

There are a number of great ways to foster this level of communication:

  • Encourage questions, feedback and insight from employees at all levels of seniority
  • Provide feedback in a constructive way and avoid overly critical language
  • When negative feedback is given, ensure there is clear support to help the individual address the issue
  • Give employees a platform for anonymous commentary, such as through a suggestion box or employee engagement survey
  • When a decision about the company is made, or there is big news to announce, make sure an effective communication strategy is put in place to avoid hearsay, gossip and confusion 

#2 Professional development

Part of nurturing good employees means bringing them into your brand’s growth mindset. If you want an individual to invest their time and effort into making your brand more successful, you need to invest in them, and the skills they will need in order to make this possible.

Here are some of the different ways you can promote CPD within your organisation…

  • Create a training bursary so that employees can ‘apply’ for course funding that will help them in their job role
  • Create an in-office library space or set an annual personal book/kindle allowance 
  • Find industry-relevant webinars (paid for or free) and create an employee newsletter to inform them of upcoming courses and lectures 
  • Introduce a ‘lunch and learn’ or give employees a shot at a ‘Whiteboard Friday’ style CPD session. Encourage different individuals to come forward and share their skills and what they do with other team members or departments.
  • Bring in industry experts a couple of times a year to give tailored sessions on subjects employees are keen to learn about. You could put together a list of desired individuals and put it out to a vote on who comes in. 

#3 Set out clear expectations and progression

There’s not much worse than the first day at a job and not understanding what you’re supposed to be doing. Too often people are left to their own devices, so having proper training and support in place is crucial to getting off on the right foot. 

At the very minimum, each recruit should have:

  • A job description of their expected duties
  • A handbook or welcome pack that tells them everything they need to know about the company 
  • Who they should go to if they have a problem related to the work they are delivering
  • Goals they should work towards in the next quarter or within another specified timeframe
  • Regular one-to-ones and conversations about progression

#4 Social events

Many companies plan lots of wonderful days and nights out, without implementing the 3 prior strategies first. While social events and team bonding is very important, communication, development and clarity are the critical foundations for strong employee engagement.

Social events play their part too, but only work to support everything else. Here are some ideas to ensure your team gets to enjoy some fun outside of the office:

  • Introduce Friday drinks with a weekly debrief and chat 
  • Plan summer and Christmas socials well in advance 
  • See if any willing employees are up for creating their own initiatives, such as a book club or team lunches 
  • While not a social event, having social areas within an office for breaks can provide a welcome space to unwind and mingle with colleagues during lunch 

Barriers to employee engagement

While budget, time and lack of know-how will affect the level of commitment you can provide, there really is no just reason to avoid implementing some kind of employee engagement strategy. 

Lack of budget? 

Look for free courses online. Encourage a book sharing club internally. Get employees to skillshare on dedicated days. Instead of fancy nights out, have a takeaway and boardgames night in the office. Likewise, communication doesn’t need to cost the earth. A quick weekly standup on a Friday to share what’s going on is a great starting point. 

Lack of time? 

First you need to identify what you need to do and see if there are people already in the business who would have the skill-sets to drive initiative forward. This in itself could act as motivation. Alternatively, if what you need to do is an administrative nightmare, it could be worth exploring digital employee engagement tools that take care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, keep you updated and send out calendar reminders on your behalf. 

Lack of know-how?

If you haven’t gleaned enough from this article, there are lots of useful resources online. Or why not consider a brainstorming session with some of your team members? Conduct a survey and see how people are feeling, and hear their ideas first-hand. 

Is an employee engagement strategy worth it? 

While measuring employee engagement can be difficult, the results will speak from themselves in terms of employee satisfaction, happiness, retention and the new and improved way your business operates. 


If you have highly-skilled employees and you want them to stay put, your team will need to put in the effort to keep them engaged. It’s not about providing ‘fluffy’ benefits, it’s giving individuals and teams the tools and support they need to grow. As a result, your business and brand will benefit.

Discover more about our employer branding marketing solution and how it can support your employee engagement strategies. 

Employer brand

Mapping the employee experience is a crucial part of your employer brand strategy

Papirfly
9 minutes read

For today’s job seekers, there’s no such thing as ‘just a job’ anymore. The average person spends over a third of their life at work and people are now demanding more from their employers than ever – and many would argue rightly so. 

Employee retention is harder than it was even 5 or 10 years ago. What were once seen as ‘solid’ benefits – competitive salary and holiday allowance – are now seen as the bare minimum. And big brands are increasingly competitive when it comes to talent acquisition across the globe. 


This article will cover the key milestones in the employee journey, highlighting the importance of employer branding and delving into some of the lesser considered areas within each area. With this under your belt, you’ll be confident that you can push your employee experience to the next level.

The hiring stage

Role advertising 

An employee’s experience starts far before they get through the door – it begins as a candidate. And even if they are unsuitable for a role, or aren’t going to apply for your vacancy, to build a strong employer brand you need to cover all bases.

This is because potential employees might become suitable or interested in the future. If their initial perception of your employer brand is a positive one, they are more likely to consider you the next time they are thinking about career development. 


Here are some must-haves to ensure your advertising and career site attracts top talent:

  • Post clear information on what the role is and how to apply
  • Don’t be coy about the wage – people deserve to know what their prospective salary could be
  • Use honest and diverse imagery in your campaign
  • Be clear on your employee value proposition – what your company can offer them
70% of employees find a company more attractive when clear plans for diversity, inclusion and social responsibility are stated

Role consideration

When job seekers show interest in a role, a lack of time or resources in your office could leave them feeling a little unloved. While having too many tasks to complete may have an impact on candidate communication, it is important to ensure consistency is as smooth as possible. 

Here are some easy ways to make that happen:

  • If you don’t have time to respond to all applications, make this clear on the job role itself 
  • Ensure your career site includes additional details about the role put together in a nicely presented yet simple PDF – that way if a candidate calls to speak to someone about the role, but the team are all busy, the PDF will make them feel like their questions have been answered
  • When candidates enquire why their application was unsuccessful, it’s best to give as tailored feedback as possible – if you’re too short on time, compose a generic response as the bare minimum (this means the candidate will still consider you a strong employer brand, should they be more suitable for another role in the future)

Pre-interview and interview

When a candidate is invited for an interview, there are lots of ways it could go wrong if they are not properly prepared. While some bad employers might see this as the candidate’s fault, often it’s because people in charge of people management have not properly briefed them. 

We’ve put together our tips to keep everyone on the same page:

  • Determine whether an in-person or virtual interview would be better
  • Ensure the candidate is aware of all the stages in the interview process
  • Provide an agenda for the interview beforehand 
  • If the interview is being carried out via video conferencing, ask the candidate which tool they prefer to use 
  • During the interview, ensure the candidate is welcomed properly and full introductions are made 
  • Give them plenty of time to talk about their experience and their hopes for career progression, but also include some time to talk about themselves as a person – get to know them and put them at ease
  • Be open and honest when giving responses to candidate questions (for example, if they ask for a higher salary and you know this isn’t possible, don’t set false expectations)

Post-interview

The period after an interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking times for prospective job seekers. If your talent acquisition efforts don’t involve keeping in touch post-interview, candidates may lose interest, react negatively towards your company or take an offer elsewhere. 

These are our suggestions when trying to keep talent on the hook while you make your final decision:

  • Give an estimated timeline of when candidates can expect to hear from you – it will put them at ease and prevent them from chasing you
  • If the candidate is unsuccessful, detail why this was the case in an email
  • Offer a follow-up call to chat through the feedback 
  • If a job offer is made, give the candidate time to read through their contract and to ask questions to relevant people
  • If any benefits are subject to specific circumstances (such as years of service), make sure this is outlined before the candidate takes the job offer, or they could end up feeling misled
  • Once contracts are signed and a start date agreed, give your new employee a timetable or agenda of what their first few weeks will look like – they will feel much more confident on their first day when they know what they’re walking into

The onboarding stage

Your employer branding team needs to be ready to deliver what your company has promised. Onboarding can literally make or break a new employee’s perception of a company. It’s where they discover if your employee value proposition was sincere, or a lot of hot air. 

If they aren’t made to feel welcome, they feel abandoned or they are overwhelmed with tasks that haven’t been properly explained, they will be out of the door before they have had a chance to shut it on their way in. And that’s not to mention what they might say to people in their network or on social media about their experience.

Going the extra mile at this stage will give your new employee the welcome they crave and set them off on the right path. These are our tips for making it as smooth as possible:

  • Put together a welcome pack for the new employee – stationery, water bottles, notepad, sweets – anything that will make them feel appreciated
  • Give them information on their colleagues, such as names and job titles – you may want to include a welcome card with messages from their team and their photos (to help them get to know people better)
  • Buddy them up with a colleague for lunch so they don’t have to sit alone (ask them if they would like this before committing to it as some people may prefer to spend lunch on their own)
  • Set out their training schedule and what kind of tasks they will be expected to complete week-by-week – this will help them understand how long they have to get up-to-speed
  • Give them a company handbook that instils your core values, mission, etc.
  • If applicable, make sure they know about remote work arrangements and expectations
  • Ensure they know who they should go to if they have any concerns

The progression stage

There’s little worse than being in a role and feeling like you’re not going anywhere. Just because you put in a lot of effort to build a strong employer brand at the onboarding stage, that doesn’t mean a new employee should be left to just get on with it. 

The Employee Retention Report from the Work Institute found lack of career development was the number one reason for employees leaving a company – and this has been so for over 9 years. From the perspective of people management, this is crucial to understand and plan around. 


Employee retention can be improved by following some simple but vital steps:

  • Set out clear KPIs for your employee and if these KPIs are linked to pay rises or bonuses, ensure that these KPIs are achievable – you can do this by presenting the goals to your employee and giving them the opportunity to provide feedback
  • A dedicated learning and training allowance will show you care about your employee’s growth and career development – you could let them choose which course they want to take, ask them to select them based on a predefined list or link the courses with KPI improvements that are needed 
  • Even if an employee is working exceptionally well and hard, performance reviews are still just as important – positive employee engagement matters, and people need to know that they’re appreciated on a regular basis 
  • Consider introducing a dedicated career management conversation, this provides a chance for employees to reflect on your employer value proposition, feedback on THEIR goals and gives you a chance to shape their KPIs accordingly
Each year, approximately 20% of employees that leave their company do so due to a lack of career development

The ‘moving on’ stage

It can be devastating when an employee leaves a company – whether they’ve been there for 10 years or 10 months. The time and commitment invested will always leave a hole in their department until you can get someone else in and up-to-speed.


However difficult it is, it’s important to have processes in place to ensure the transition is smooth and that you learn from their experience. This will improve your ability to understand and attract top talent in future, and might also help with existing employee retention.

When someone quits…

  • Conduct an exit interview and give the employee time to vent their issues
  • Ensure you let them know how much you value them and their time at the company
  • Ask them if they would like to make an announcement along with management about them leaving, or if they would prefer just a member of management to communicate this
  • Give them a ‘phase out’ agenda of when they can hand things over to other colleagues
  • Throw them a leaving event or provide a card and gift

When someone retires…

  • Give everyone the opportunity to show their appreciation for the colleague – this could be at a social event or through a gift
  • Ensure they are involved in training the next generation to take on their role
  • Ask them if they would like to make a speech before they leave

Day-to-day extras to consider

Receiving a payslip

With a little effort, a simple gesture that happens once a month can become a great way to cement a strong employer brand. A generic or personalised message from the CEO or manager to show appreciation for all the hard work completed in the month will help employees associate their pay with being valued, beyond just financial remuneration.

Calling in sick 

People get sick, and it can’t always be helped. If an employee is nervous about calling in sick, reassure them about their performance, and advise them you hope they get better soon. If their sickness is particularly low, you could specifically mention this to help put them at ease.

Birthdays

Companies with hundreds of employees may struggle to keep on top of birthdays, so if you’re in the position to do so, an extra day off on your birthday can serve as a powerful reminder to your employees that their work is appreciated. If an extra day off isn’t on the cards, you could make sure they get a cake, card and small present to make their day at work feel special.

Company updates

When meetings take place behind closed doors, speculation can run rife in an office and even virtually. Where important company updates are available, ensure that employee engagement is prioritised – this could be in the form of a quarterly newsletter or quick announcement on Friday afternoons.

Show off their expertise 

Give employees the chance to share their knowledge with colleagues and the world. If there are events they can be guest speakers on, podcasts they can get involved in, or even internal CPD sessions they can hold, asking them to take part will give them a confidence boost in their abilities and help with their career development.

Working environment

Consider the physical environment your team operates in. Are the chairs comfortable enough? Are there enough breakout areas? Do they have a quiet space to go to when they need to concentrate? Is there enough fresh air? Do you give them options for remote work?

Not only will a properly considered environment make working a more pleasurable experience for employees, but it will also help them be more productive and deliver their best work.

Raising issues/improvements 

Introduce both an open-forum style meeting to do this and an anonymous route, as this will help cater for every type of employee. Many talented people have ideas about diversity and inclusion, sustainability and employee wellbeing, and it’s important to find ways to listen to and act on what they have to say.

Feedback surveys can also help you gauge answers to exact questions you may have.

Enhance the employee journey with brand management tools

We hope you’re feeling inspired and that we’ve opened your eyes to just how broad the employee journey can be. To assist your talent and acquisition team in all of these areas, see how Papirfly’s brand management platform supports employer branding teams.  


To build a brand that consistently attracts top talent, be reassured that Papirfly’s brand management platform already helps huge brands like Vodafone, Unilever and IBM. Discover the brand stories from these enterprises, including how Papirfly helps deliver infinite employer brand assets every month. Videos, social, emails, print and more – all made possible with on-brand templating tools as part of our platform.

Table of contents:

  1. The hiring stage
  2. The onboarding stage
  3. The progression stage
  4. The ‘moving on’ stage
  5. Day-to-day extras
  6. Enhance the employee journey with brand management tools
Brand Communication, Brand management

Mastering brand communication with a brand management platform

Papirfly
4 minutes read

Without a clear brand identity, it’s hard to establish your place on the market – perhaps even impossible. At the end of the day, your brand is your ID. It makes you original and separates you from your competitors, driving brand recognition and helping you craft unique customer experiences.

But originality requires more than plastering your logo over every piece of content and last-minute messaging. Behind every logo, there should be a well thought out and defined identity, brand strategy and a story.

Creating and defining your brand identity and identifying core strategic measurements is a major assignment and includes a range of different tasks. In this blog, we’ll take you through why effective brand communication will improve your brand marketing, and look at why a powerful brand management platform should underpin your efforts.

What is brand communication?

In everyday life, communication is more than words and text. Communication encompasses how you act, dress, move, face expressions and what you do. Great communication helps build a great reputation. The same applies to branding.

For your company, a well-built brand with a good reputation is an essential intangible asset. How your customers feel about your brand, how they talk about it, and the position it occupies in their day-to-day lives, matters.

Underpinning this are the ways you communicate your brand. The look and consistency of your brand assets, your tone-of-voice, your customer engagement, social responsibilities, your values, your pricing, store location and more, all fall under brand communication. Said differently, every part of your branding processes is about communication. It’s the different approaches and methods you choose to use your brand and build brand awareness.

Establish effective brand communication

You have established your brand identity and your branding strategy goals are defined. Now you’re ready to tell your audience that you are here. It’s time to get to work.

The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge that nothing should be set in stone. Your audience and the market are destined to change, and you and your team members have to be prepared to adapt. Next, you need a communication strategy to keep you focused and aligned with the brand strategy.

Define your communication channels


You know who, but what channels and sources do they engage with and trust for their decision-making? Don’t limit this in the beginning. Most likely, marketing teams need to test and experience how your audience reacts to your brand before you narrow down the most effective communication channels.

Remember, just because a channel exists does not mean that you need to use it. It’s not about the channel, it’s about your audience. There’s little point in focusing too much effort on a social media platform like TikTok if your target audience isn’t using it – or indeed any effort at all.

Identify what your audience is looking for and is triggered by


Unfortunately, what you want to be acknowledged for and what your audience looks for don’t always match. You need to know these details when creating marketing strategies. Otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and resources shooting blanks – it’s ineffective and pointless.

Be flexible and adaptable with your message

“One voice – one brand” is a key attitude when building a brand, but don’t mistake this for one message. You need to acknowledge that your audience is varied and consists of different personas.

The better you meet your personas needs, the more relevant you’ll be with your message and the more precisely you’ll hit home with the target audience(s). It’s all about adapting to what the audience wants, but remember to be honest, reliable, and relevant. If your audience catches you lying or feels you’re wasting their time, you’ll lose them.In other words, don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Effective brand communication occurs when you use your resources wisely and meet your target audience with what they want to hear. The smarter you are about it, the less money it will cost you and the more successful you’ll be at building your brand.

Unleash your brand with a brand management platform

With the above in place, it’s time to initiate your strategy and build your brand. Through your website, chosen social media channels, a blog, advertising or any other channel or platform you see fit, you’ll present your brand. 

Bear in mind that a hectic work life puts strains on your ability to deliver on demand, and if you have limited resources as well, you may get careless with your brand assets. We’re only human after all, and inconsistency is a fact of life. 

Unfortunately, inconsistency quickly undermines your brand equity – the perception customers have of your brand, and the trust they place in it. Any ground lost here is very difficult to recover.

A brand management solution is a life saver. Great brand management tools will provide all you need to create memorable brand experiences, while also establishing clear brand guidelines to ensure 100% consistency in everything you do. It’s no use going to all that effort to create great brand communication, only to drop the ball on the touchline due to human error. With brand management software, you can be sure that your work will be embedded in a powerful platform that everyone in your organisation can trust and rely on.

 

Table of contents:

  1. What is brand communication?
  2. Establish effective brand communication
  3. Unleash your brand with a brand management platform
Brand Activation Management

Maximising BAM by Papirfly™ in tough times

Papirfly
4 minutes read

In a short span of time, the Coronavirus crisis has completely altered the landscape for people, businesses and more the world over. Organisations, regardless of size, industry or legacy, are now being pushed to adapt to the circumstances to meet this unprecedented challenge, be it:

  • Employees working from home where they typically wouldn’t
  • Changing office layouts and policies to meet social distancing regulations
  • Adjusting the channels and messages broadcast to internal and external audiences

We are entering uncharted waters, which has sadly already caused the fall for many businesses. But now, arguably more than ever before, is the time for brands to get creative and maximise the tools at their disposal to help steady the ship in these troubled times.

That is where BAM by Papirfly™ can lend a hand. Our existing clients will already be aware of the scope that our all-in-one brand activation software covers, helping them create an unlimited amount of assets, share these with their teams across the globe and maintain total brand consistency. 

But, as the world adjusts to life with COVID-19, we would like to offer some timely advice for how you can truly unlock the potential of the BAM Portal to meet the unique challenges that these circumstances have produced. We hope this helps you thrive during this difficult period.

Expand your educate section 

First, now is the time to make full use of the ‘educate’ function of your BAM Portal. In typical times, this would be the home for key documents such as brand guidelines, EVPs and company policies, ensuring that your teams worldwide have a single source of truth for everything affecting your brand and are keeping things aligned.

But these aren’t typical times. Now, your educate section can and should act as a powerful repository of information for employees and other stakeholders about your brand’s approach to managing crisis situations.

At a time where confusion and contradiction are rampant among workers over how the Coronavirus affects them and their livelihoods, using this element of BAM by Papirfly™ to house vital information about company policy will help provide the clarity that people are crying out for, and minimise disruption to your day-to-day processes.

Examples of what additional documents and assets you’d incorporate into your educate area could include:

  • Governmental guidance related to COVID-19
  • Guidelines and procedures for working from home
  • Any updated company policies
  • Important notifications for employees and BAM users

Uploading these to your portal, with specific permissions available to ensure employees in a particular location or department only have access to the information relevant to them, will provide a great deal of reassurance and keep everyone on the same page on your company’s position. Remember – we’re all in this together.

Create crucial assets

While some brands and organisations have reacted to the Coronavirus outbreak by shutting off their messaging completely, others we feel are rightly recognising that it is more important than ever for companies to be actively producing materials for employees, customers and other audiences.

This is when your BAM Portal’s capacity to create on-brand assets efficiently and cost-effectively will pay dividends like never before. Team members, regardless of design experience, will able to produce tailored campaigns and assets for the situation at hand, whether it’s leaflets to be shared internally or marketing emails for your customers. 

With new information and guidance coming to light practically every day, having this portal gives you the power to quickly react to the news, adjust assets accordingly and engage with your audience, letting them know you’re on top of the situation. And, with users able to access the portal from anywhere, this can be achieved easily by your team members working from home.

Plus, with only 8% of consumers stating that advertising should stop in these circumstances, there’s a clear indication that people will continue to look to their preferred brands for information, reassurance, or simply to try and inject some normality into this increasingly solemn landscape. BAM will help you continue to meet their expectations.

Centralise your materials

As well as creating an abundance of bespoke materials for this new environment, it’s critical that these can be housed in one centralised location. Right now, your portal’s dedicated DAM facility will be essential to getting the tailored COVID-19 materials and campaigns out to your teams across the globe, as this remains a worldwide crisis.

Of course, different territories will have different government responses to Coronavirus and be impacted by it to varying degrees, so these assets will likely need to be adapted from your HQ in accordance with these as well as other cultural and language-based considerations.  

This would then be an opportunity to take advantage of the Store & Share’s ‘DAM’ ability to adjust who is able to access what materials. This will help ensure that there are no crossed wires between regions and that your team members only use on-brand content relevant to their location. With conflicting messages a central theme of this outbreak, staying consistent is paramount. 

Get ahead on campaign planning 

Finally, even if it’s hard to envisage right now, it’s crucial we don’t lose sight of the future. These current circumstances won’t last forever, and when everything is resolved, the brands that stand to benefit the most will be the ones ready to hit the ground running on the other side. 

So use BAM by Papirfly™ to get ahead on creative and strategic planning for campaigns, both now and following the present situation. With the ability to manage, plan and organise these across your international teams and assign newly created assets to these, you can put yourself in a position to immediately engage your audiences, be they customers, recruits or the wider public, when we return to some form of normality. 

In the meantime, this functionality could also potentially support a sustained social media or email marketing campaign geared around your brand’s perspective on COVID-19, ensuring you remain authentic to your values and characteristics.

Harness the power of BAM by Papirfly™

Has this has given you some food for thought over how BAM by Papirfly™ can play a key role in navigating these difficult circumstances? Whether you’re very familiar with our systems or don’t use them as much as you could, we hope that these suggestions can help your brand manage this challenge and come out the other side stronger than before.

If you’d like to discuss any of the suggestions we’ve put forward, contact your client success manager to explore these in more detail.